Giddins on Mahanthappa in the New Yorker

[ghost of miles]

A Passage to India

[Larry Kart]

The last sentence of Giddins' lead should earn him a seat on the ducking stool:

"Jazz musicians have two fundamental goals: creating music that keeps listeners wondering what’s next, and finding a novel context within which to explore old truths. (There are no new truths.)"

Gray-bearded philisophers could argue forever over that, between hits on Michael Phelps' bong, but the only reason to be that sententious in a piece like this is to be sententious. It's the same disease that Adam Gopnik has -- Dancing In Front of a Mirror-itis.

[AllenLowe]

it's kind of like the old saw "nothing new under the sun," stupid and too convenient a way to hide the fact that one is getting old and jaded and has stopped listening - as Giddins has, quite some time ago.

it ignores about 50 years of modernist thought, as well -

Edited February 27, 2009 by AllenLowe

[Christiern]

I am under the impression that Gary hasn't been listening to the music for quite some time.

[Stefan Wood]

However, the Mahanthappa discs being reviewed are indeed fantastic.

[JSngry]

"Jazz musicians have two fundamental goals: creating music that keeps listeners wondering what’s next, and finding a novel context within which to explore old truths. (There are no new truths.)"

He left out getting laid and avoiding homelessness and starvation.

What a maroon!

[relyles]

However, the Mahanthappa discs being reviewed are indeed fantastic.

Reading the article yesterday was actually the final prompt for me to order Kinsmen. I had seen it on several year end best of 2008 lists, but had not paid it much attention until reading the article.

[jlhoots]

I read & enjoyed the article.

I've liked Mahanthappa both live & on CD.

I seriously doubt that any of us know what Giddins does or doesn't listen to.

[7/4]

I've had Saxophone Indian Style by Kadri Gopalnath for 18 years or so - maybe I should get Kinsmen.

dB

[7/4]

I read & enjoyed the article.

I've liked Mahanthappa both live & on CD.

I seriously doubt that any of us know what Giddins does or doesn't listen to.

I'll bet he isn't listening to Larry Kart or Christierns shit.

[AllenLowe]

jlhoots:

1) I know pretty much what he listens to but cannot, for personal reasons, disclose my source, and

2) we actually have a pretty good idea of what he was NOT listening too; it was something of a local scandal, when he was jazz critic for the Voice, that he had stopped going out and was completely out of touch with new music after the early 1980s - and did countless articles, instead, on Rosemary Clooney (a worthy subject, but one he went back to again and again), and Sarah Vaughan (ditto). He slept through the whole downtown thing in NYC of the 1980s and 1990s and the scene was all the worse for being so poorly represented in one of the major media outlets in the city - it was pretty pathetic and embarassing -

Edited February 27, 2009 by AllenLowe

[JSngry]

I've had Saxophone Indian Style by Kadri Gopalnath for 18 years or so - maybe I should get Kinsmen.

dB

I only recently got the former (quite the revelation too!) & yes, you should get the latter.

[7/4]

I've had Saxophone Indian Style by Kadri Gopalnath for 18 years or so - maybe I should get Kinsmen.

dB

I only recently got the former (quite the revelation too!) & yes, you should get the latter.

I'll get Kinsmen when DMG reopens next Friday. They moved to Chinatown.

Saxophone Indian Style is cool, although I'm more of a fan of North Indian raga. It's pretty wild to hear a saxophone playing that Carnatic raga.

[Christiern]

jlhoots:

1) I know pretty much what he listens to but cannot, for personal reasons, disclose my source, and

2) we actually have a pretty good idea of what he was NOT listening too; it was something of a local scandal, when he was jazz critic for the Voice, that he had stopped going out and was completely out of touch with new music after the early 1980s - and did countless articles, instead, on Rosemary Clooney (a worthy subject, but one he went back to again and again), and Sarah Vaughan (ditto). He slept through the whole downtown thing in NYC of the 1980s and 1990s and the scene was all the worse for being so poorly represented in one of the major media outlets in the city - it was pretty pathetic and embarassing -

Thank you, Allen, that's what I was thinking of. Also, of course, how persuasive Clint Eastwood's wining and dining was when it came to reviewing "Bird". Then, too, there is the reverse of that, his bad review of a Blue Note anniversary concert, complete with dig at Lundvall (they have since made up, sort of). I was at that Carnegie Hall event and, upon reading Gary's review, wondered if he was.

Shades of Leonard Feather, regardless of what 7/4 surmises.

[BruceH]

I read & enjoyed the article.

I've liked Mahanthappa both live & on CD.

I seriously doubt that any of us know what Giddins does or doesn't listen to.

I sent him a copy of Fountains of Wayne's third album but he never said anything.

[AllenLowe]

Giddins is a funny guy, and I was told that once you are on his shit list it is forever - when he reviewed American Pop in the Voice, he made a couple of annoying errors, and I immediately realized that he had read the liner notes and not the actual book (the liners were about 60 percent of the text). One of the mistakes he made was claiming I had not attributed something, which I HAD attributed in a footnote (but which was only in the book, which he had not read). I was annoyed and wrote a letter to the Voice correcting this, and some other things. His response?

(I paraphrase but I'm pretty damn close): "this is typical of Lowe's writing, in which he appropriates the work of others and claims it as his own."

to this day I regret not having sued the Voice, because he clearly libeled me as a plagiarist - when I have always bent over backwards to cite anybody and everybody to whom I've ever listened to or read. As a matter of fact, HE was in about 5 footnotes. Grrrrr. Still gets to me -

Edited February 27, 2009 by AllenLowe

[jlhoots]

jlhoots:

1) I know pretty much what he listens to but cannot, for personal reasons, disclose my source, and

2) we actually have a pretty good idea of what he was NOT listening too; it was something of a local scandal, when he was jazz critic for the Voice, that he had stopped going out and was completely out of touch with new music after the early 1980s - and did countless articles, instead, on Rosemary Clooney (a worthy subject, but one he went back to again and again), and Sarah Vaughan (ditto). He slept through the whole downtown thing in NYC of the 1980s and 1990s and the scene was all the worse for being so poorly represented in one of the major media outlets in the city - it was pretty pathetic and embarassing -

I wouldn't know Giddins if I tripped over him in the street - but, how does what you are saying coincide with his writing (for example) the liner notes for an Intakt CD by Trio 3 recorded in 2005. I suspect he listened to it & to them.

I'm not an "insider" like some of you, just a music fan.

Edited February 28, 2009 by jlhoots

[Joe G]

"Jazz musicians have two fundamental goals: creating music that keeps listeners wondering what’s next, and finding a novel context within which to explore old truths. (There are no new truths.)"

He left out getting laid and avoiding homelessness and starvation.

What a maroon!

[AllenLowe]

"I wouldn't know Giddins if I tripped over him in the street"

well, wander down to 23rd street and 7th Avenue right after Happy Hour, and you probably will -

[johnlitweiler]

Thank you, Allen, that's what I was thinking of. Also, of course, how persuasive Clint Eastwood's wining and dining was when it came to reviewing "Bird".

Looks like Giddins and I were among the few jazz hacks who actually liked Eastwood's "Bird" even in spite of what they did to Parker's music. It must take a right-winger like Eastwood to understand a junkie. And a Forrest Whitaker to understand a great artist.

[AllenLowe]

it was very frustrating to be a jazz musician in NYC during Gary's reign - I remember when I played the Knitting Factory with Hemphill, and, wonder of wonders, Giddins gave us as a "Voice Pick of the week" - it was nice, and we sold out the place - we even drew the late Irving Stone, and, as John Szwed told me, "if he's there, it's a HIP event."

(not the Agony and the Ecstacy writer, btw; this Stone was a guy who was known as a major fan of various downtown jazz venues,and for whom Zorn's club The Stone is named)

[7/4]

I remember seeing Irving Stone and his wife at shows.

.

[Chuck Nessa]

Somewhere I still have a letter from Mr Stone (1967 or '68) I still cherish. What a nice man.

He was hip for a long time.