Guy Berger

Have listened to two more from my acquisition spree: Chris Lightcap, Epicenter 5/5 (excellent songwriting and playing; stronger than the Fresh Sound albums) Ken Filiano, Dreams from a Clown Car 5/5 (I really enjoy this one - a nice contribution to the 2-sax + bass + drums genre)

I’m curious based on that interview (and knowing I am touching a live wire) - how have Anthony Braxton’s political views changed over time (if at all)?

One other observation is that Joni Mitchell’s best and most popular music is closer timewise to the classic standards era than to our present day. Not really “new”!

IMHO the relationship between jazz and popular music that created the body of work we called “standards” doesn’t really exist anymore, for better or worse. Pop music is more fragmented; jazz is more fragmented and less “culturally relevant”. I do think the fact that certain post-1970 popular music has gained some traction among jazz musicians is interesting and worth talking about, but not the same thing. IMHO contemporary pop music rhythms and recording techniques entering the jazz world are maybe more significant than the songwriting.

Sad. But musicians are like any other group of humans, who tend to be pretty susceptible to kooky ideas. Cassandra Wilson is a Q fan, right?

Isn’t this just a fundamental problem with any mature art form? For better or worse people prefer “the old stuff”.

I agree they’re an exception, but it’s also conceivable that their steady state fanbase, while large, will be much smaller than their current one.

Can’t answer that question properly without thinking of the “legit” boxes that WOULD have been issued in the absence of PD boxes. To some degree the latter drive out the former. That said, there does seem to be some money in “legit”/ethical, smaller-run premium reissues. Maybe what we’ve observed, as in other aspects of our society, is just the disappearance / hollowing-out of middle-of-the-road mass market and it’s displacement by budget options and premium options. Agreed. At the very least I wish we had compulsory licensing. What percentage of the Beatles’ fanbase is just aging baby boomers? The value of that intellectual property could drop dramatically in the next few decades.

Agreed, I wrote something silly and that’s why I deleted my post, fortunately you’ve preserved my doofus moment for eternity 🤣🤣🤣

+1

The UCLA concert is really good. “Meditations on Inner Peace” in particular. IMHO stronger than the 1965 recordings on the Mosaic box set (though Mingus completists should listen to both.)

This was a fun one to listen to

Smart.

More broadly - hopefully we (the people in the jazz field, both fans and “producers”) will have a broader conversation about “bad behavior” by influential jazz individuals toward both younger and women industry participants. I am sure there is much more egregious behavior than what Coleman did that’s basically swept under the rug.

Less nasty misogyny on here is a good thing.

That too was gross and bad. But Seinfeld was never, to my knowledge, her teacher or employer

This is gross but also a useful reminder that misogyny is still pretty common in jazz. I was referring to the first thing. Part of what can make jazz less unwelcoming to women is us collectively establishing strong norms against behavior that is harmful to women. That includes saying “it is bad for people in positions of power to be in sexual relationships with new entrants to the profession” (which might also benefit young men facing a similar situation, fwiw)

I know it’s probably just Google screwing up but I chuckled at Charlene and Quince

Lloyd talks a lot about his Memphis roots - it’s a shame that period of his career was never documented, though this is a great find

Dan, there seems to be a widespread feeling that jazz is traditionally not welcoming to women (especially instrumentalists). In other fields with this problem, it’s generally recognized that behavior like Coleman’s contributes to it. Do you not think it should be frowned upon?

This is it in a nutshell, and is true regardless of the other specifics of the case. I’d add that, aside from his ethical responsibilities as a mentor and educator, Coleman also had professional responsibilities as her employer. Finally, I think it’s worth stepping back. Woman are underrepresented in jazz. This kind of stuff (which unfortunately is probably not limited to this one incident) reinforces that problem.

Ok! So I am curious what led him to document stylistically different music in the final ~20 years of his life! Maybe he thought that was under documented up until that point?

Hmmmm. What was represented on recordings DID change... was this at MRA’s instigation, or the record labels’ decision?

A few years back I went and listened to a bunch of Muhal Richard Abrams - the Delmarks, the solo piano album Afrisong, the Black Saints and then 6-7 thereafter. Those 80s and 90s Muhal albums are mostly tightly linked to the jazz tradition, with the exception of the duets album with Roscoe Mitchell. But I can’t really say that about the final few albums - the 3 Pi albums plus the 2 chamber music recordings. Even the duets disc with Fred Anderson on Pi is really abstract. What prompted this change?

This kind of relationship from an employer and educator is wildly inappropriate no matter what.