_forumlogo.png.a607ef20a6e0c299ab2aa6443aa1f32e.png)
jasonguthartz
-
Posts
116 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Donations
0.00 USD
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Posts posted by jasonguthartz
-
-
I know you're all eagerly counting down the days & hours until the April 3
release of the Anthony Braxton 12+1tet's "9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006" box
set.
Here's a video preview:
Stay tuned for news of when orders will start being accepted at the
Firehouse 12 Records website.
-
The idea that Cecil's music is not jazz because it is corrupted by classical music ignores his music and what he's said about it, yet more importantly it ignores the tradition of jazz. ...
Well said.
And of course there's the tautology in Crouch's claim that Cecil hasn't "influenced any real jazz today, either": If Cecil isn't "real jazz", then anyone building on his aesthetic (e.g., Fred Anderson) couldn't be "real jazz" either.
-
I was told (by a very reliable source) that he doesn't know how to access his email account.
Was your source Ahmad Chalabi?
(i.e., that claim is false)
-
I'd just think that either some things have changed or some music biz cat has some ju-ju. It's a surprise pairing, no doubt.
Yeah - can't figure out how it'll sound. I'm sure that two guys with such vast musical personalities and integrity, however, will produce something at the very least completely fascinating. In some ways, musical success would be a happy by-product of seeing/hearing the two of them work something.
True. Cecil's pairing with Derek Bailey produced one of the most fascinatingly unusual items in either musician's catalog.
But maybe Taylor & Braxton will just do Brubeck tunes
-
Actually, the group this March at Iridium will be a septet (or Sextet+1) - the lineup:
Anthony Braxton (reeds)(brass)(viola)Jay Rozen (tuba)(bass)(percussion)(guitar)And here's the press release for the box set 9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006 (for which I've contributed the DVD).
-
Are they saying a going out of business sale starts TOMORROW?
The liquidation sale started this weekend, apparently at 10% off all stock - but expect that discount to increase over the coming weeks:
"Great American Group is deploying representatives to Tower's 89 stores to facilitate the liquidation, which is expected to last about six weeks, said [GAP president Andy] Gumaer, who used to shop at Tower."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/la-...1,6919218.story
-
In addition to the above, check these calendars:
and for any late-breaking announcements:
-
Velvet's grand reopening is scheduled for Aug 10-14 (groups tba); a couple of shows later in the month have been announced:
Aug-17: Fred Lonberg-Holm/Lasse Marhaug/Paal Nilssen-Love/Anton Hatwich
Aug-24: Territory Band Open Session: ad hoc groups built from members of the large ensemble perform later that night at the Velvet Lounge.
Territory Band-6 with special guest Fred Anderson (I've heard about that guy somewhere...) is playing a free concert in Millennium Park earlier on the 24th - sharing the bill with the Anderson/Bankhead/Drake trio!
Territory Band-6 will consist of:
Axel Dörner - trumpet
Fredrik Ljungkvist - reeds
Dave Rempis - reeds
Ken Vandermark - reeds
Lasse Marhaug - electronics
Jim Baker - piano
David Stackenäs - guitar
Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello
Kent Kessler - bass
Paul Lytton - percussion
Paul Nilssen-Love - percussion
and though Jeb Bishop (trombone) was originally listed, I suspect Per-Åke Holmlander (tuba) may be filling that brass chair (based on the fact that Bishop isn't listed among the various small-ensemble concerts that week, while Holmlander is)
-
Today is the 42nd anniversary of the recording of "Spiritual Unity"!
Reminder:
Albert Ayler 70th Birthday Marathon
Thursday, July 13
5am-9pm Central
89.3 WNUR-FM Evanston/Chicago
streaming live at www.wnur.org
-
AYLER, OR AYLER TRIBUTES?
Both/all.
Dust off your green leather suit...
-
I can confirm - I'm helping prepare for it and will likely be DJing for part of it.
Ayler would have been 70 on July 13.
Listen online at wnur.org
-
In this case, I don't really understand what musical advantage can be exploited by having musicians play simultaneously on different continents or planets (as opposed to bringing musicians from different places together to play in the same place). I guess that with different countries, you might argue that physical locatation in completely different cultural environments might change the mindset of the musicians, and thereby affect the nature of the musical interaction. But different planets? Why not just have people perform in space suits on earth? Is Braxton seriously contemplating the effects of different gravitational fields on the music? Well, I guess that is why they call him a genius.
Is Braxton contemplating the effect of different gravitational fields and atmospheres on those vibrations we perceive as "music"? Perhaps. But I think it's better to think about his restructuralist ambitions in terms of the positive forces associated with creative activities, in a holistic context which treats music as a part of (rather than apart from) everyday life experience. For Braxton, music is never just about sound-for-sound's sake.
Excuse the long excerpt below, but I think it can provide some insights.
After mentioning Stockhausen, Xenakis, Sun Ra, Sousa, Joplin, Brant, and Monteverdi in a discussion with Graham Lock about his multi-orchestral musics, Braxton says:
After the piece for ten orchestras, moving to the larger orchestra pieces, I envisioned TV systems, telecommunications, becoming part of the process of the music, to help transfer information from regions of the planet and create an alternative event context.Lock: Where would the audience be? In a room watching TV screens, with each orchestra on a different screen?
Braxton: No, no - people would just be walking down the street, living their normal lives. By the time we get to planet level musics I'm not talking about going to the auditorium to hear music, I'm talking about sound being generated as part of the whole life experience.
Lock: So you'd just walk down the street and there it would be!
Braxton: Yeah, kinda like how it is right now (laughs).
Lock: Suppose you don't want to hear it? What do you do?
Braxton: Then you'd have to get out of the concert.
Lock: But how? (Laughs.) Where's the exit?
Braxton: Well, go to a planet where this is not happening (laughs). I mean, we're talking about projects which won't be realized tomorrow. By the time the information is developed to deal with that level, I'm sure there'll be, you know (sings) 'A planet for you, a planet for me'. I imagine, when we start talking about star systems linking to perform a piece... I'm sure the people who are the inhabitants will have to be in agreement or there'll be no concert.
Let me put this into perspective. What we're really talking about is the reality of forces and how given forces in space can create a context for existence. When we get to the galactic formings, etc., we're really talking about the concept of existence.
Lock: How can you even begin to plan these compositions? Surely the technology needed to perform them is almost unimaginable?
Braxton: In this period, yes. But, for instance, look at what human beings are doing on the planet right now: obviously we're not helping the state of the planet, in terms of the more adverse effects of present-day technological dynamics. What's wrong with the idea of establishing a universal composite information base that can help us better to sustain and appreciate physicality? With this information it might be possible to heal the planet - a music to heal deserts, say - because the planet is alive too. What about having a music that can help to prevent earthquakes, a music that can help establish physicality, a -
Lock: Help what?
Braxton: You know, music as a practical tool to help create planets and states of being, so, since we've made this planet unhealthy, we can go to another planet. Or, if we can heal this planet, we might still want to go to another planet just because it exists.
Lock: Are you researching these areas? Checking out what particular sounds can do?
Braxton: Right now, I'm just trying to get through this tour! *** I need information about physics, about science; I need to meet people who have specialized in those areas and work with them in larger projects, because some of what we're talking about - some being, like, ninety-nine percent - might be too much for one human being to think about doing by him- or herself. There is a need for groups who are concerned about the planet and the planet experience, what it could really be for human beings, and what a higher state of existence or evolution means in a practical sense.
These ideas might sound far-fetched, but they shouldn't. The inter-relationship of music to science has long been an understood fact in world culture; it's only in the West, where we've become so existential, so specialist, that we've forgotten about the whole.
[braxton talks about falling behind his schedule for these works]
Lock: It might be thought a little impractical to talk about plans for compositions that link star systems.
Braxton: No, I don't think it's impractical. It's impractical maybe to give the actual year (laughs). That's what I've learned.
Lock: So you still think it could happen?
Braxton: Oh, it's not a question of it could happen.
Lock: You're going to write those pieces?
Braxton: Of course I'm going to write the pieces. There are much bigger ideas than that!
Lock: Huh!?
Braxton: Are you kidding?
Lock: Such as?
Braxton: Oh no! (Laughs.)
Lock: Come on, let's hear one.
Braxton: I've said enough (laughs).
[Forces in Motion, pp. 207-211, with my emphasis in bold]
Braxton's 1978 liner notes to For Four Orchestras (Arista) provides this outline for his multi-orchestral pieces:
"Series A":[1. For four Orchestras (Comp. 82)]
2. (For four* Orchestras and tape) to be completed next year [*revised to five orchestras per the above conversation with Lock];
3. (For six Orchestras) to be completed by the end of 1979;
4. (For ten Orchestras - at different spacial locations but connected by television) to be completed by 1982.
5. (For one hundred Orchestras - in four different cities, connected by satellites and television systems) to be completed by 1985.
"Series B":
1. (For three planets) to be completed by 1988.
2. (For five planets) to be completed by 1990.
3. (Between star systems) to be completed by 1995.
4. (Between Galaxies) to be completed by 2000.
5. (Between ---) to be completed after 2000.
(Plus there are twenty other series of additional "creative routes" in this group of works as well.)
In Blutopia, Lock quotes Braxton's description of the impact of hearing parade music as a child: "It is as if the whole of the universe were swallowed up - leaving us in a sea of music and color." Lock states that Braxton "hopes to effect this phenomenon literally," an ambition consistent with the notion that, "to paraphrase Sun Ra, the impossible is in the music, and the music is real."
With regard to the interplanetary musics, one can therefore imagine a situation where inhabitants of Earth would be able to look up to the night sky and hear "the music of the heavens" as played by 1000 orchestras on Mars, 10,000 string quartets on Venus, and a guy riding an asteroid playing a kazoo.
PS - During the "Braxton at 60" events at Wesleyan last year, Braxton was again asked about the status of these works; his response was that he was even further behind.
-
I remember when Braxton told the media that he was writing music to be played by several orchestras simultaneously on different planets. The scary thing is that he didn't seem to be joking. Does he do that as a deliberate attempt to stir controversy about the seriousness of his music?
You answered your own question elsewhere:
Rachmaninoff is proof that you don't have to make music "of your time" to make great music for all time.Years ago people spoke about the possibility for musicians on different continents to collaborate in performance - a possibility which has become reality due to technological advances. So if Braxton has written music for orchestras on different planets, why should this be taken as a joke? (It should be kept in mind that space exploration has taken a different course since the last moon landing 30 years ago.) To the extent Braxton's tricentric system is focused on extending the traditions of human creativity, why would the notion of an interplanetary music (post-Ra) be "scary"? (Which is not to say there aren't elements of "fun" within Braxton's work.)
In other words, not all music has to be written on commission.
-
The wonders of Braxton's
(Comp. 58, 1976) for creative marching orchestra (on the Arista and hatART Creative Orchestra recordings) hints at what the experience of 
(Comp. 19, 1971) might be like: Sousa-through-the-looking-glass!?Marching onward, marching onward,Marching to that lovely tune.Marching onward, marching onward,Happy as a bird in June.--from Act III of Scott Joplin's -
That sounds like the soundtrack to hell. ...
Does it help if one is completely mentally unbalanced to enjoy that "music"?
No - but it probably helps to be corporeally balanced, i.e., open to experiencing the non-mental aspects of sound (e.g., tactile listening) - which are typically not captured (well) on recordings - and certainly lost when listening via headphones. Air vibrations (sounds) affect bodily organs other than our ears; music has a value to senses other than the rational/logocentric mind.
This article on "avant-metal" group Sunn0))) provides some insight in this regard:
-
... and Alexander really shines on his solo spots. I can't say that I know of anything he's done outside of this one album. Was he on any other Prestige sessions?
Alexander made one album as a leader:
Blue Jubilee - Jazzland JLP-23
During WKCR's celebration of Sun Ra's arrival day, Ra mentioned Joe Alexander in an interview with Phil Schaap. Robert Campbell lists Alexander as a member of the unrecorded Sonny Blount Orchestra, perhaps during the late '30s or early '40s.
-
The thing I am mostly objecting to in this overall thread is the idea that any one station should be held up to unceasing scrutiny (especially by people who have their own shows on other radio stations) for not presenting every single aspect of jazz history, especially when its being done within a program with limited hours....
Really? 40+ hours a week are "limited hours"?
It's especially unfair when those doing the criticizing (for instance, Guthartz from WNUR) can rationalize their own radio station's exemption from the same criteria they apply to WBEZ.Once again: Different criteria apply based on the realities of the situation. Responsibility is proportional to power. If WNUR and WBEZ had similar resources (money, equipment, space, transmitting range, etc.), then we could begin to talk about a universal standard. But they don't, so we can't.
You keep skirting my main point - that the scope of what WBEZ played under Heim was incredibly narrow by the standards of mainstream consensus (e.g., Down Beat, Chicago Tribune, Penguin Guide, et al). It's not about jazz likers vs. jazz lovers, or "inside" vs. "outside" - it's about a reasonably proportional representation of the histories and realities of this artform, on a radio station that has unique responsibilities given the unique circumstances of its position in Chicago broadcasting. WBEZ under Heim failed miserably.
Just because you happen to dislike the traditions of post-Ornette, post-Ayler, post-Taylor, post-AACM musics doesn't mean they should be completely excluded. No room for a couple of hours a week out of 40?
(When I said I didn't listen to BEZ often, I meant I've only been capable of enduring a half-hour here and there in recent years, due to its aesthetic myopia. When I came to Chicago about 10 years ago, I used to listen for a couple of hours each night before bed - then I decided to ween myself off of sleeping aids.)
As a side note, WNUR does not systematically ban any particular tradition from its jazz programming - I defy you to find one (though I'll admit it would be hard to find examples from the post-Kenny G tradition). NUR may de-emphasize certain styles and traditions which anyone within its broadcasting range can hear on BEZ. But - and this goes to your "equal criteria" argument - it doesn't work the other way around: most listeners within BEZ range can't pick up NUR.
...even commercial stations like WGN, WLS, whatever, use the public's airwaves and are supposed to operate in the publc interest.We agree! But who's dreaming now?
Yet she is still a target after she is no longer employed there.We were having a discussion among jazz likers and jazz lovers about WBEZ's decision to cancel its jazz programming. The question was raised by GregN about why Heim was disliked. I provided my perspective, which I believe fairly represents the perspective of more than a "dozen other stridently vocal self-appointed spokepeople for the 'jazz community'," as you put it.
Jazz Institute of Chicago executive director Lauren Deutsch said the following on the chi-improv group (which has over 900 members - rather substantial for a Yahoo discussion group with such a narrow focus):
WBEZ _NEVER _promoted anything the Jazz Institute has done in the past nine years--so we won't miss support we never had. They rarely played music by Chicago musicians (except for Richard Steele, who actually played Nicole Mitchell every once in awhile among others), so the music community won't be missing too many opportunities either.You would think that supporting marginalized music (as they marginally did over the last decade) would fit into the mission of a public radio station, but this this station sold its soul long ago.....
I guess you consider Deutsch and the Jazz Institute to be among the "self-appointed spokespeople" as well. But who would you expect to care about BEZ's programming flaws? Casual BEZ listeners unfamiliar with the musics they weren't allowed to hear under the Heim Mandate?
Anyway, speaking of realities, I just don't have time to remain engaged in this thread. Malatia has spoken, despite your wishes or mine. We can all enjoy whatever Wal-Mart-sponsored talk shows they'll be putting on instead of music.
Happy listening,
Jason
-
doesn't (or rather didn't) one always have the feeling that virtually every track [Dick Buckley] played is one that he had, at one time, personally savored?
Absolutely. Dick Buckley is a Chicago treasure. Nice of BEZ to let the newspapers notify him about the station's changes, wasn't it?
-
I don't know how often either disc was played on WNUR, if at all, but certainly far less Chicagoans actaully would have heard them on WNUR, as their audience during their morning jazz programming is, statistically speaking at least, almost non-existent. Almost always literally a 0.0 share according to the Arbitrons.
Deep Blue & Vonsky have most definitely been played on WNUR - I can't say how often (too much Vonsky? impossible!) but the DJs would honor a listener request to play them.
re: Arbitrons -- So what? What's the point of referring to statistics used for commercial marketing purposes when talking about a noncommercial station?
The great thing about stations run by large universities like Northwestern that charge astronomical tuitions, there's no responsibility on the part of the students or community volunteers running the station to actually draw any kind of sizable audience. Which is why their djs have the freedom they do. If they want to do a great, creative show, they can. If they want to throw random sets together with train wreck segues and no connective threads between the music, they can do that too.
WNUR is run by students, not the university. Most of the station's operating budget comes from its listeners, not the university; this budget is sufficient to carry out its mission.
In any case, I don't know what this has to do with the discussion about WBEZ.
No one was asking for BEZ to transform into NUR. Those of us critical of BEZ's programming policies had asked for what amounted to fairly modest changes - basically to use their 40+ hours per week to present a range of music similar to that covered by mainstream jazz journalism outlets such as the Chicago Tribune or Down Beat (not known for privileging outside/avant-garde/radical/progressive/hot/bebop/fusion/new-thing/experimental/anti-jazz/fire music).
Honestly, your ideas are very noble. And I agree with them. But, just to play devil's advocate, I don't know how plausable they are. I guess we'll never know because WBEZ dumped jazz altogether. That leaves WNUR and WDCB to pick up the pieces.
Throwing the baby out with the bathwater was certainly unfortunate.
But I guess the news from the last few days put me in a more hopeful mood about the possibilities for positive change. Silly, I know.
-
But frankly, if WBEZ is indeed "Chicago's Public Radio", then they are probably doing exactly what they are supposed to do. That is, follow the public will. Considering the general public doesn't give a rat's ass about jazz, why should WBEZ play it? If the public wants talk radio, that's what they should get, right?
I don't know whether the smiley-face indicates facetiousness, but just in case anyone takes you seriously:
Serving the public is not the same as responding to what is most popular. Otherwise, what difference would there be between commercial and (nominally) non-commercial radio? Non-commercial public media - in this time period as in no other - has the responsibility of providing information systematically ignored by the commercial media. (This can lead to a much larger discussion about culture, political economy and citizenship, about art and entertainment, etc. etc., but suffice it to say that we need *some* forum where commercial and entertainment values are not the exclusive criteria by which decisions are made regarding what information and experiences may be useful to us as individuals-in-communities.)
Yes, almost everything WBEZ *does* play is not played anywhere else. My point is that (due to their unique position in Chicago-area broadcasting) BEZ could and should have used its substantial resources (incl. 40+ hours of weekly "jazz" airtime) to present a broader spectrum of what is excluded from commercial outlets (i.e., jazz). (Indeed, it could be argued that BEZ should have cut back "jazz" programming to better represent other neglected auditory arts, but we're talking about what BEZ has (not) done within the context of its jazz programming.)
Again, nothing wrong with this, but I don't believe [WNUR is] representing the jazz idiom as a whole, either (which again, is fine. I don't think one station has to do that to be viable.)Again, my argument is that BEZ has a unique responsibility to be more expansive in the context of its "jazz" programming given the resources at its disposal and its uniquely powerful position in the Chicago broadcasting arena.
This isn't an abstract, philosophical argument - I'm talking about Chicago broadcasting as it exists. Of course in an ideal world, 1000 radio stations would bloom with every type of music made available to everyone everywhere (a day perhaps not too far off as technology progresses). But the unfortunate reality at the moment in Chicago is that there are *no* commercial FM stations that play jazz (other than WNUA's laxative-jazz) and there is *one* public radio station. This reality places a burden on Chicago Public Radio to be as comprehensive as possible in order to give the listening public an opportunity to be aware of the broad spectrum of musics neglected by commercial media. An incredibly difficult burden to be sure (impossible, really).
But instead of doing as much as reasonably possible given its resources, WBEZ Jazz under Heim never began to try, never gave any indication it cared. Heim's legacy to Chicago culture has been the notion of "jazz" as a music unrelated to contemporary society except in its capacity to provide easily-digestible entertainment; she did little to reflect the tradition of "jazz" as a living artform.
(No aspersions on Organissimo intended.)
-
For what it's worth, NUR (nicely) refused to play our disc due to it being too "traditional", so there's two sides to every story.
No - it means that NUR is doing exactly what it is supposed to do, "to provide a forum for underrepresented music and ideas" and to promote music "often overlooked by major media outlets." Unfortunately, in present-day Chicago, what BEZ plays defines what is "represented" in terms of jazz on major media outlets.
The fact that BEZ played/plays your stuff is therefore a significant factor that goes into the decision on what discs to add to a library that has limited physical space.
That said, any DJ at WNUR can play virtually anything they want (within FCC limits) -- they are not restricted to what is in the NUR library.
Are they alone adequately representing the "wide range of aesthetic traditions which fall under the "jazz" umbrella"? No. They focus on the outside stuff.Untrue. Take a look at the playlists and you'll find lots and lots of "non-outside" stuff. In fact, the range of aesthetic traditions within jazz - which can't be reduced to specious "inside"/"outside" labels - is much better represented on NUR (though the composite blend changes somewhat as the DJs vary from one academic quarter to the next).
Despite its much more comprehensive scope, WNUR's mission is to be supplemental, not definitive. This is appropriate, given the disparity in broadcasting signals between BEZ and NUR, along with the fact that BEZ is "Chicago Public Radio" with a large budget and paid staff, whereas NUR is a much smaller, all-volunteer, student-run station. Therefore, whether BEZ likes it or not, their definition of "jazz" effectively becomes the public's definition of the music in the current time period. For them to ignore entire traditions that have developed within the music of the last 50 years has been a severe disservice to its listeners.
That's fine with me, but shouldn't one be lambasting them as well for not upholding "it's mission as a *public* radio station, meaning to present what is actually going on in the community and in the world" since their focus is every bit as "narrow" as WBEZ's was?see above
And if you want to further understand the problem with BEZ's jazz programming, try this: Take a look at a few weeks' worth of the Chicago Reader's music section (or a few months' worth of coverage in the Chicago Tribune or Down Beat). Note the names mentioned in the jazz performance listings (or in the critical reviews). Compare these names and their aesthetic traditions to those played on WBEZ, and see whether BEZ is fulfilling its mission to be reflective of "the distinctive and diverse Chicago area."
-
From WBEZ's website:
Top Twenty Jazz Music Albums of 2005
Are these the top 20 picks of the DJs, or the top 20 in terms of playtime on the air?
In any case, those lists make my point - an extremely narrow sampling of the wide range of aesthetic traditions which fall under the "jazz" umbrella.
Here's another list of theirs - presumably the current "top ten jazz albums heard on Chicago Public Radio":
1 Jessica Williams Live at Yoshis Vol. 2 MaxJazz2 Mark Sherman One Step Closer CAP
3 Jeremy Kahn Most of a Nickel Kahnman
4 Carmen Lundy Jazz and the New Songbook Afrasia
5 Shahida Nurullah Cityscape HighNote
6 Tony Monaco East to West Chicken Coup
7 David Fathead Newman Rudy and the Pearl Alembic Arts
8 Cyrus Chestnut Genuine Chestnut Telarc
9 Carlos Barbosa-Lima Carioca Zoho
10 Ernie Andrews How About Me High Note
Beyond lists, I know what I've heard whenever I've tuned in - which admittedly has not been frequent: a frustratingly bland listening experience. With due respect to the above-named artists, there is a definite imbalance in favor of a conservative aesthetic. (Giving artist names and album titles does not mean much if they choose to play only those cuts with certain tempos, structures, timbral qualities, instrumentation, etc.)
No one was asking BEZ to play five hours of Last Exit or Takayanagi Masayuki & Abe Kaoru or The Thing every night. The criticism focused on their unwillingness to present a more accurate picture of the broad range of the jazz world's aesthetic traditions, within and beyond Chicago jazz, within and beyond American jazz (i.e., AACM records of the '60s shouldn't be considered "avant-garde" to anyone who's been paying attention for the past 40 years).
By contrast, check out some playlists of what's heard on WNUR, a much smaller college station with comparable quantity of weekly "jazz" programming:
http://www.wnur.org/jazzshow/reports/playl...ists_Index.html
No one has asked BEZ to mimic NUR, but the comparison clearly shows the types of artists and aesthetic traditions that have been systematically excluded from play over BEZ's airwaves. We asked BEZ to uphold it's mission as a *public* radio station, meaning to present what is actually going on in the community and in the world - to program with cultural enrichment and exploration in mind rather than commercial marketing. (I know, I know, considering public radio "non-commercial" is pretty much a joke at this point.)
-
Anyone know where Chris Heim is going? She was a HUGE supporter of organissimo.
I wouldn't say that out loud. She might be the most disliked person in the Chicago jazz community.
This is an interesting statement. Why is she disliked?
She is disliked because of the severe restrictions she placed on what DJs were allowed to play, insisting on a very narrow and skewed representation of "jazz" past and present; she caused several of their best DJs to leave the station (e.g., Neil Tesser).
She restricted the types of "jazz" heard on WBEZ to a mind-numbing stream of cocktail jazz - mid-tempo stuff with lots of vocals, guitar & piano.
One listener's account is representative:
"I got home late last night, around 3 am, and decided to call Larry Smith to request some Fred Anderson. He said he didn't think that would fit their format. He sounded really happy I asked though, said he'd known Fred for forty years, and asked if I'd ever been to his club. I told him I had, and asked why he couldn't play Fred's music. At that point he said he'd look, but doubted he'd be able to find anything "conservative enough to keep my program director off my back."Impossible for a Chicago jazz program to ignore Fred Anderson and other AACM-associated musicians? Impossible for any jazz program ignore Charlie Parker? Chris Heim was there to prove the impossible.
read more in the messages posted in this discussion thread:
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/chi-improv/message/4726
here's a message I sent to the station at the time:
-
Matana is great.
I have both of her Sticks & Stones CDs.
That's a terrific group.
Hear samples on Matana's MySpace page:
http://www.myspace.com/matanaroberts
more info:
Braxton 12+1tet box set preview
in New Releases
Posted · Edited by jasonguthartz
Firehouse 12 Records is a new label, co-run by Nick Lloyd (of the Firehouse 12 performance space & recording studio in New Haven, CT) and Taylor Ho Bynum (composer, cornetist, and frequent Braxton collaborator).
The DVD I put together for this box set includes a documentary (or an audio-visual essay/supplement) which juxtaposes clips of the Iridium performances with clips of a Braxton lecture/talk at Columbia University. Also included on the DVD is my video footage of the entire last set (aka Comp. 358).
As far as Ghost Trance Music goes... let me just say that if you think you've heard everything you need to hear, listen again, listen anew. This is "state of the state" tricentric "Accelerator/Whip" GTM: post-Ives, post-Ra, ultra-Braxton.
(btw, it's "Anthony", not "Tony" - we must give respect, yes, Elder Don?)
-Jason