Chicago Expat

I have a basic monthly subscription: $5.99, which buys me $6.49 of music. Upon monthly renewal, I buy a $35 booster pack, which buys me $45 of music. So I've spent $40.99 and can download $51.49 of music. The advantage of this approach, as opposed to buying a larger subscription, is that I'm not locked in to spend a large monthly amount. I've found the sound quality to be comparable to Amazon or Apple downloads. And I have no problem with selection: even after all I've downloaded, I have close to 400 "saved items." That is a great point, mjzee. They often have some pretty decent offers on bonus dollars for booster packs. I've never been one to jump on those myself (mostly a financial decision), but I have friends over on another site (emusers) who really apply the strategy to those boosters and have done very well for themselves. I'm glad you brought boosters up, because it's an important element for someone new coming into emusic. Cheers.

That's what I use it to do. You just have to remember that sometimes it's a better deal (price, sound, convenience) at other sites. In the old days, you didn't have to shop around. Now, it's worth checking out prices at Amazon, itunes, bandcamp, 7digital, etc. But if you're willing to put in the commitment to search through the jazz new releases every month (and like I said, searching through new release listings at emusic is their best feature), you can find some very good deals on some very good new jazz. Cheers.

Things have changed quite a bit over the last year. Basically, you choose an account which will cost you the same each month. If you choose one of the pricier plans, you get "bonus dollars", which means if you pay in twenty bucks a month, you actually get 22 bucks to spend (or something like that). From there, you just buy music. They no longer do credits or purchase-by-the-download. It's really no different than Amazon or iTunes anymore, except that you have a subscription amount (which you need to use within the month or you lose your money) and some albums are cheaper than if you buy them at Amazon or iTunes. Quite frankly, it's not the bargain it used to be, though there are some deals to be had. Keep in mind, the sound quality of emusic tracks doesn't always stack up to Amazon or iTunes, and the emusic downloader is for crap. However, emusic's new releases listings is far superior to that of amazon or itunes; it's more complete and you can sample the music straight from the list. Oh, hey, I don't know if they're still doing this, but they may give you some bonus dollars for joining, like 20 bucks or something. And I'm pretty sure that you're not locked into an annual subscription (unless you choose to be). Most subscription plans are month-to-month with no fee for quitting. Over time, I've come to dislike emusic and have found that the bargains to be found there aren't always worth the inconvenience of poor-sounding tracks and failed downloads and a perpetually misfunctioning site. Oh, and don't bother using the search engine. It's pretty worthless. It used to be a great place for music exploration at a cheap price. Now, not so much. But, hey, try it. You might find it worth your while. Just be sure to use your monthly allotment each month and if you don't like the service, either before or after the trial period, be sure to cancel or they'll keep charging your credit card. Cheers.

Yeah, thanks for that. The thing of it is, I know if I search around I can find some 30 second samples. Mostly, though, it's a general frustration with, IMO, a backwards philosophy by many in the music community about streaming albums as a preview before buying. I think it's bad for business. I look at all the cds on my shelf and albums in my itunes library that I took a chance on based on thirty second samples and, now, never listen to anymore, it's frustrating to consider how much money I've wasted on those albums. And now with the internet and the convenience of sites like bandcamp and myspace with which to interact with listeners and allow them to preview more than 30 seconds of a song, I'm just at a point where I don't care how many places I can listen to 30 seconds of Brederode's album, I refuse to buy the damn thing based on the hope that it turns out to be something I like. And that sucks, because it may actually be an album that I love, which I think is the part of it that really bugs me. But, whatevs, there are a lot of jazz musicians embracing the full album preview, so my purchase list is never a short one. I just get frustrated that the rest of the world doesn't recognize how right I am and start doing things like I think they should. It would make life so much easier.

That Brederord album looked interesting. I went to his site. He has no music on it. You can't stream music from the album, not even some stingy 30 second samples. This, unfortunately, is typical of ECM artists. What a stupid way of doing business, creating a site and not using the best tool an artist has of promoting themselves... their music. Well, guess I'll move on to the next new release and the next label. If ECM and its artists can't be bothered to let me hear their music, there's plenty of great jazz out there today made by artists who will. How aggravating. (GA, thanks for posting that, though. I don't want my frustration with ECM to get misinterpreted as frustration with the messenger, so to speak. Cheers.)

I noticed Breviarie as well. Ceccarilli is on my to-explore-further list.

Kyle Orton, for all his faults as a QB, being a locker room cancer ain't one of them. There aren't many better team guys than him. Consider now... Denver clearly is looking for any reason to bench him/ship him out and start Tebow, but Orton still shows up for camp to lead the team, we don't hear any reports of grumbling in the locker room or on the sideline, no "anonymous source" "news reports" of Kyle making behind the scenes demands, none of it. And this was no different than his time in Chicago. As a rookie, he was the QB for a team that made it to the playoffs for the first time in years. Now, granted, it was the defense that carried him (and the rest of the offense), but still, he was the QB and he got plenty of attention as the potential rookie of the year. Not soon after, he gets benched. Grossman is all the rage. Orton rides the bench, he keeps working out with second team, helps Grossman out however he can. And, again, no reports of grumbling or locker room problems, even though he'd have been justified, even if it would've been in his own mind, because here's a guy who get rookie of the year attention and helped bring the Bears into the playoffs. But not a peep. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad that guy isn't under-throwing wide open receivers by ten yards for my team anymore. But for every criticism I can level at the guy for his play on the field, I've got nothing but good things to say about his character on and off the field. I hope he continues to find some success in the NFL, whether it be with the Broncos or some other team.* *As long as that success doesn't come at the Bears' expense, etc etc etc.

Looks like a good place to be at the end of August, however. Also, Jane Monheit is making eyes at me again.

Wow, thanks for posting. I picked up Rush & Hustle a couple years ago and immediately bought about four or five other albums right after it. I know the subject of underappreciated/underrecognized jazz artists is a common one, but you can add Wendel to the list of jazz warriors who deserves a lot of praise for the music he's recorded and his contributions to jazz as an art form. Cheers.

August 20th - Rafal Sarnecki & Adam Baldych Fireplace-Cheminee Bistro 216 Norman Ave. 11222 Brooklyn, NY. Off the G Train (which apparently doesn't run to Manhattan) No cover. I only became familiar with both of these musicians in the last couple of weeks. Both musicians have put out spectacular albums out this year. Rafal Sarnecki (guitar) released "The Madman Rambles Again" on the Fresh Sound New Talent label and Adam Baldych (violin) released "Magical Theatre" on Eleet Records. Both albums absolutely blew me away. Sarnecki's album (which I own) I've listened to repeatedly over the last two weeks and the Baldych album (which I don't yet own) but was able to listen to almost the whole thing the other day and individual songs on his reverbnation and artist site and they're just amazing. I highly recommend taking advantage of the opportunity to see them both live together. Here's Adam's site and reverbnation pages where you can listen to music from the album... http://www.adambaldych.com/ http://www.reverbnation.com/adambaldych The song "Room of Fear" slays me every time. It's about the closest thing to hit me the same way Todd Sickafoose's "Tiny Resistors" did. And here's a site for Rafal to listen to music... http://rafalsarnecki.com/en/mp3.html I thought I already was as jealous as I could be at all the jazz going on in Brooklyn far far away from me. I was wrong. Cheers.

That really sums up how I was feeling about the Eick yesterday as I had a pleasant time listening to it. It's definitely grown on me, and there are a few tracks that I think stand out a bit from the crowd, but it really is more forest than trees, and it isn't nearly as striking as his first album or contributions on the albums of others. But "pleasant, not-too-diverting 45 minutes" really is how I would describe it, too. I'm glad I own it and I'll listen to it from time to time, but I'll never have more than polite warmth for it.

There are times when I'm not on the site, yet I think about that photo.

Not just her death, but any death in the entertainment community. Part of what makes someone a fan is the anticipation of what's to come. It doesn't matter if it was Bird, Billie, Hendrix, Janis or Amy Winehouse. To be deprived of what might have been and to mourn a death at least in part because of it is, IMO, neither wrong nor inappropriate. No sense in me posting on this subject when you've said it so well already. I know it is selfish in a way, but I can't help but mourn all the great albums that Esbjorn Svensson will never create now. He died right when I had discovered his music and was obsessing over Tuesday Wonderland and Strange Place For Snow, as well as the time when I had just made the commitment to begin listening only to current jazz, so my emotional attachment to EST's music was multifaceted. Does my sense of loss for his "future" music dwarf in comparison to the sense of loss suffered by his family and friends? Absolutely. But I promise you that my regret for his passing is both genuine and profound when I dwell upon it while his music plays. In a more general sense, I don't see how mourning a single person (musician or otherwise) in any way diminishes the importance of or somehow disrespects the memory of those whose passing goes unmentioned at any one particular time. This is not a zero-sum equation. By mourning one person, it doesn't mean I have any less sorrow in my heart for other tragedies. However, criticisms of the media do seem relevant. With media, there is a scarcity issue as far as hours of day and staffing that can get spent in any one news day. The more that they spend on one news item means less that they can spend on another. However, if we're going to critique on that point, covering Amy's death ain't the right target. Doubtlessly I could go over to yahoo news or cnn.com or any number of other "news"/media outlets and find far less worthy "news" items taking up valuable space. Anyways, just my two cents. Cheers.

While ultimately I'd like to keep this thread focused on albums being made in the current year, quite honestly, with the jazz community's tendency to perpetually look back to the previous century for its music*, I'm happy when an album even from the last decade gets some of the spotlight, y'know? I made a decision a couple years ago to only focus on jazz being made in the present, and it's been a tremendously rewarding course of action. I can't believe how much excellent jazz is being released these days. *Not that there's anything wrong with that or we shouldn't do it, I mean, I enjoy the mosaic discussions on this forum, big time, I'm just saying, there's some great jazz being made right now, that's all, etc etc etc.

I was able to hear it on NPR's First Listen and it was pretty good. NPR, actually, did a decent job of presenting it, 'cause I also heard a track from it on NPR radio a few weeks back. Really went well with driving now that I think about it. I love finding "driving" albums. Don't know about the driving part as I only drive a motorcycle and don't listen to music while driving, but this is a great new release in my opinion. Very well recorded also. I read a recommendation here and gave this one a shot. Pretty decent. The Aaron Parks CD was one of my yourmusic closing sale purchases, and I was pleasantly surprised by it. It's a solid album. I bought it back in my BMG days. However, not only is it not new, it's not even his latest album. The mention of Invisible Cinema reminds me to mention Aaron's latest collaboration... Aaron Parks/Joshua Redman/Eric Harland/Matt Penman - "James Farm" Myspace page It's an amazing album. I listened to it a few times on NPR's First Listen. I'm hoping to get a copy of it soon. So good.

Colin Stetson - "New History Warfare Volume 2: Judges" Avant-guard bliss, though that may even be too simple of a descriptor for this complex album. Here's some songs posted on youtube... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKcilfL2aFc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0tKKyEXYTI&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KgMrS1CRhU&feature=related EDIT: And here's some tracks on his soundcloud page... http://soundcloud.com/constellation-records/sets/colin-stetson-judges-preview

Jan Kopinski - "Dream Road" It's from a soundtrack he did back in, hm, I want to say 2003. I only discovered Kopinski recently when emusic began offering several of his albums (as "new releases"). Dream Road is so heartbreakingly beautiful, I get a little teary-eyed just listening to it when I'm in a sad mood. You can stream the song on his site... Kopinski site

Chris Dingman - Waking Dreams Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet), Fabian Almazan (piano), Joe Sanders (bass), Justin Brown (drums), Chris Dingman (vibes). Album of the year contender, IMO. The songs on the album are deceptive in the way they present themselves as being jazz song archetypes, but then reveal themselves to be something else. For instance, on the song "Clear the Rain", what starts deceptively as a spooky ballad ignites with growing intensity before concluding with a return to a pacified state, but not as serene as the notes which the song first began. Excellent song from an excellent album. Jazz from the Brooklyn scene. Entire album can be streamed (and purchased in most file formats) at his bandcamp page... http://www.chrisdingman.bandcamp.com

I love this album. And while I enjoyed the movie, the soundtrack was the standout result of the entire effort. "Fadela's Coven" is one of the most haunting tunes I've ever heard.

Benjamin Koppel. He plays more jazz than classical, but he does have classical work. I think his father is composer Herman Koppel. Koppel is a member of the ensemble that recorded "Adventures of a Polar Expedition", which may have been my favorite album of 2010. Koppel's Myspace

It seemed like from all directions. I was wandering around the bandcamp site looking for jazz, found her page and then listened just a bit to be sure it was something I should bookmark to listen to later. Then I noticed she was on the TOAP label, which I recognized as a different bookmark I meant to revisit at a later date. And then she popped up on another jazz site I participate on. So, I guess the short answer is... a combination of too much time on my hands and dumb luck.

A lot of Shiner Ruby Redbird. It's a summer ale, has a hint of grapefruit, and it very refreshing. I'm not much of a summer ale guy, but this one totally floats my boat. Though it still comes in second place behind Buffalo Bill Brewing Company's Orange Blossom beer, maybe the most refreshing summer beer I've ever had.

Paul Lieberman - "Ibeji" Lieberman on flute & sax, Rufus Reid & Nilson Matta on bass, Duduka da Fonseca, Tim Horner, Jaimoe on drums, Joel A. Martin on piano, and Eugene Friesen on cello. This hits me in much the same way as Don Pullen's African-Brazilian Connection albums on Blue Note. Interpretations of Brazilian and American music. There's somebody on this site I really wanted to suggest this album to, maybe A Lark Ascending, but based on what I've seen of that person's What Are You Listening To thread entries, this might be right up their alley. It's still early, but it wouldn't surprise me if this album got slotted in the upper half of my year-end top ten.

Very nice. Those Mutual Admiration Society albums are pretty nifty. The track that's been hitting the right notes with me lately is from Paul Lieberman's new album Ibeji. The song is "Azul No Verde e Amarelo". Reminds me of Don Pullen's African-Brazilian Connection work on Blue Note.

My condolences for your loss. Congratulations on the addition to the family.