Stop following an artist: how/why/when?

[mikeweil]

I lost interest in Wayne Shorter after Native Dancer, in Weather Report and Zawinul after Jaco joined.

I lost interest in Miles when he left Columbia.

I even lost interest in Herbie for a while, but now I'm back with the cube in hand...

[Clunky]

This question is of most relevance with living artists as they produce new work. You either stay with them on their journey or give up to some degree.

Like Jeff it's David Murray. Around 1990 I got into him heavily getting around a dozen CDs or LP, most were DIW which I got as they came out but some were back catalogue Black Saints. My infatuation turned to complete boredom as soon as I'd seen him live in 1993/4. Not sure what turned me off but I've not been moved to return. I keep meaning to re-evaluate what I have but there always seem to be higher priorities.

[porcy62]

I find that when I stop following an artist, it's because I've changed, or their music has changed, or a combination of both.

We just ended up in different places over time.

Agree, thou I am not "The Pink Floyd died after Sid Barrett left" guy. I stil listen to The Dark Side Of The Moon.

I lost interest in Jarrett, way too much records IMHO, sometimes I can't recognize the track, it could be everything from 1990 up to yesterday.

Edited January 7, 2014 by porcy62

[BillF]

Doesn't eveyone have a cut-off date for Horace Silver's recordings?

Not the same date for everone, mind you -- but I think his output is a little like Jimmy Smith's -- after some point, it's all been said.

I even like The Hardbop Grandpop.

Not to mention Jazz Has a Sense of Humor.

[Steve Reynolds]

I'm in the same boat regarding David Murray

I haven't bought a CD of his in 10 years

I still enjoy an occasional listen.

I've lost and gained interest in many different musicians and I am thankful that I simply try to have and hear the best recordings that artists release.

I don't need to hear marginal Art Blakey recordings from the late 60's through the end when there is so much vibrant music being released today by a myriad of wonderful musicians known and unknown

[Bill Nelson]

I've been umming and ahhing about cancelling my pre-order for the new Pat Metheny Unity Group album, Kin, due out in early February. Historically i've been a fan but there is no denying that i enjoy some of his stuff more than others. There's a ton of stuff to potentially dislike about Metheny's music, but more and more i've developed a fatal dislike for his tone on certain albums (it seems to vary from album to album) and i definitely feel that he is over-represented in my collection. The problem is that the stuff of his that i love i love and continuing to buy his albums is a bit like chasing that elusive high.

So here's the crux: I don't want to buy his new album, but i feel like i can't not. I just can't bring myself to say "that's it, case closed, my Metheny journey will go no further." Part of me feels trapped, like i'm in an abusive relationship that i can't get out of (joking). Another part of me feels like it would be like walking away from an old friend. From a collection prespective it just feels weird that my Metheny collection will go no further.

So anyway, i don't intend for this thread to be about Metheny, just using my current conundrum as an example (although feel free to talk about Metheny, if you want).

This is not "i've gone off this artist and i am going to sell off my collection of their music ASAP," or "i have enough Charlie Parker in my collection for now," this is "Historically i've followed this artist fairly avidly and i will treasure the memories but despite the fact that they are still fairly prolific i will follow them no further." Has anyone else got any experience of having followed an artist and at some point decided enough is enough? Was it a particular album that did it? Were you tempted to buy their next album? How did you get through it? Cheers.

Seriously following any recording artist is comparable to subscribing to a magazine -- you gotta get every issue when it comes out (and back issues, too).

Pat Metheny provides a perfect example of my own realization of the consumption law of the diminishing marginal utility of each additional item acquired.

And his product release schedule is way too prolific for me to keep up.

The moment hit me in 2006, when I got 'Metheny-Mehldau' -- bringing my total to 22 Metheny CDs sitting in a row. I looked at the shelf and said, "Basta".

Enough already. I've since thinned the herd by removing 'Rejoicing' and 'Beyond the Missouri Sky'. (Metheny and Haden are too polite and the playing is precious.)

Until there's something brilliant and sensational, I'll stay with what I got.

[BillF]

We measure things on this board in terms of recorded output and product purchase. That makes us a tiny minority. Streaming and/or internet-is-your-friending mean you just don't have to go about home-listening in the same way. How many recordings do you love so much you keep coming back to them? not many, and for that reason you certainly don't need to 'own' them. And I don't know about anyone else but for me to hear someone in concert can last me ten years or a lifetime - I had the experience, that's what I want.

Agreed. It's time we had a section for threads relating to jazz via streaming/downloading. How about it Moderators?

[A Lark Ascending]

We measure things on this board in terms of recorded output and product purchase. That makes us a tiny minority. Streaming and/or internet-is-your-friending mean you just don't have to go about home-listening in the same way. How many recordings do you love so much you keep coming back to them? not many, and for that reason you certainly don't need to 'own' them. And I don't know about anyone else but for me to hear someone in concert can last me ten years or a lifetime - I had the experience, that's what I want.

Agreed. It's time we had a section for threads relating to jazz via streaming/downloading. How about it Moderators?

I still tend to think in album terms - 'Kind of Blue', 'Giant Steps etc'. I already find the idea of a separate thread for vinyl a bit odd. Having another for downloads seems even odder. Seems to promote the medium above the message.

Those for whom it matters can always indicate the preferred medium in the main 'What are you listening to?' thread. .

**********************

I could never guarantee I've stopped buying a performer/composer etc - they often return to haunt.

But I'd like to think I've stopped buying reissues purely on the promise of a sonic upgrade.

Edited January 8, 2014 by A Lark Ascending

[xybert]

We measure things on this board in terms of recorded output and product purchase. That makes us a tiny minority. Streaming and/or internet-is-your-friending mean you just don't have to go about home-listening in the same way. How many recordings do you love so much you keep coming back to them? not many, and for that reason you certainly don't need to 'own' them. And I don't know about anyone else but for me to hear someone in concert can last me ten years or a lifetime - I had the experience, that's what I want.

Agreed. It's time we had a section for threads relating to jazz via streaming/downloading. How about it Moderators?

I still tend to think in album terms - 'Kind of Blue', 'Giant Steps etc'. I already find the idea of a separate thread for vinyl a bit odd. Having another for downloads seems even odder. Seems to promote the medium above the message.

Those for whom it matters can always indicate the preferred medium in the main 'What are you listening to?' thread. .

**********************

Despite my personal preference for CD i agree... if someone says "hey i'm listening to Kind of Blue" i don't really need to know whether it's on CD, vinyl or MP3 etc... not judging those that like to know or like to express themselves in that way in the slightest, it's just me.

[A Lark Ascending]

Oh, much the same. I know many people are attached to particular formats, vinyl in particular. I like paperback books even though it would make every sense to move to a Kindle. Not sure I'd want a 'What paperback books' are you now reading thread separate from the now reading thread.

Edited January 8, 2014 by A Lark Ascending

[xybert]

It's seems like it's pretty clear cut for most people: "They stopped putting out records that i liked, so i stopped buying them." Does anyone get emotional or feel torn about it? Not sure why i'm beating myself up about it. I think, using Metheny as an example again, i don't feel like there's been a significant decline in the quality of his albums. I actually thought that Unity Band was one of his best ever albums, but at the time of my original post i still felt like i wanted to get out.

[Rooster_Ties]

I do really miss getting new Osby/Moran albums, FWIW.

Not really "torn" about not getting Osby's more recent output. More disappointed about not getting new material that would be more to my liking.

[Larry Kart]

It's seems like it's pretty clear cut for most people: "They stopped putting out records that i liked, so i stopped buying them." Does anyone get emotional or feel torn about it? Not sure why i'm beating myself up about it. I think, using Metheny as an example again, i don't feel like there's been a significant decline in the quality of his albums. I actually thought that Unity Band was one of his best ever albums, but at the time of my original post i still felt like i wanted to get out.

The decline, or whatever one wants to call it, of Sonny Rollins (as I saw it at the time) was far more than a matter of "[He] stopped putting out records that I liked, so i stopped buying them." It was, or seemed like, a major shift in the ongoing sensibility of the music. One's belief that an undeniably major and (if you will) inherently questing figure would almost inevitably continue along that path or paths came (or seemed to come) to an end. You can say that we were naive to have put that much arguably romantic weight on the idea of Rollins the heroic artist, but the impact of the music he'd made was of that sort and dimension. It was as though T.S. Eliot had followed up "The Waste Land" with "Ol' Possum's Book of Practical Cats" (I'm exaggerating here) and then said, "Do you have a problem with that?" Further, running alongside all of this, there was the fact and the example of Coltrane's musical evolution, which of course had some effect (maybe a considerable effect) on what Rollins did and didn't do. A few of us had thought that Rollins' possible solutions to some of the daunting conceptual problems/barriers/what have you that Coltrane faced and would go on to face might have been of great importance to the music as a whole, but instead it was as though Sonny stepped back and away from what one might call "the front lines." And while in human terms I now can see why he did, it felt different for some of us at the time. We were, as Rodney Dangerfield, said, "a tough crowd," but then Rollins' music more or less had taught us to be one.

[7/4]

Van Morrison - thought it would never happen, but I just got bored 5-6 years ago.

Think there are lots of pop/rock folks where I just get to the stage where either I think that they've said all they are going to say to me or like Van, they've maybe said all they are going to say. Lots of bands/artists REM, U2 have gone this way for me.

Explains why I lost interest in most rock, a long time ago.

[jeffcrom]

The decline, or whatever one wants to call it, of Sonny Rollins (as I saw it at the time) was far more than a matter of "[He] stopped putting out records that I liked, so i stopped buying them." It was, or seemed like, a major shift in the ongoing sensibility of the music. One's belief that an undeniably major and (if you will) inherently questing figure would almost inevitably continue along that path or paths came (or seemed to come) to an end. You can say that we were naive to have put that much arguably romantic weight on the idea of Rollins the heroic artist, but the impact of the music he'd made was of that sort and dimension. It was as though T.S. Eliot had followed up "The Waste Land" with "Ol' Possum's Book of Practical Cats" (I'm exaggerating here) and then said, "Do you have a problem with that?" Further, running alongside all of this, there was the fact and the example of Coltrane's musical evolution, which of course had some effect (maybe a considerable effect) on what Rollins did and didn't do. A few of us had thought that Rollins' possible solutions to some of the daunting conceptual problems/barriers/what have you that Coltrane faced and would go on to face might have been of great importance to the music as a whole, but instead it was as though Sonny stepped back and away from what one might call "the front lines." And while in human terms I now can see why he did, it felt different for some of us at the time. We were, as Rodney Dangerfield, said, "a tough crowd," but then Rollins' music more or less had taught us to be one.

Okay, I get that. Maybe I even agree, partly. Mr. Rollins' musical world became much more limited in later years. But there was/is always the possibility for Rollins to improvisationally knock you on your ass. Realistically, it hasn't happened as much as some of us would like. But it has happened enough to keep me interested.

(Split an infinitive there, didn't I? Oh, well, it was a pretty poorly worded sentence, anyway.)

[JSngry]

... Rollins' possible solutions to some of the daunting conceptual problems/barriers/what have you that Coltrane faced and would go on to face might have been of great importance to the music as a whole...

I think Sonny, even before Coltrane's death, realized that he had his own problems/barriers/what have you, that they were not nor would be Coltrane's problems/barriers/what have you, and that the best way for him to deal with his problems/barriers/what have you were to just keep playing and to keep living long enough to do so. I'm sure it seemed simple at the time, and it still does in theory, but I think we all know that that is in no way a simple proposition.

Apart from that, the music found a way to move on past its own problems/barriers/what have you, at first by actually doing so, and then by carpet-bombing the world with do-overs, so we'd never have to be bothered by all that again.

And yet, still (nothing lasts forever), Sonny Rollins. When he is dead...there will be no do-over for any of that. I'll shed some whole lots of tears, but not because Sonny Rollins ever stopped being Sonny Rollins. He might have stopped making earth-shattering records, but that's just a marketing concern.

[uli]

Rollins forever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juPhNKKSnhA

gotta go to sleep now but started to listen to this/ It's gonna be on tomorrow morning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX0OiKBNhk8

[mjzee]

I have a fondness for Sonny's Milestone output. I think he was really trying to reach the people. He's spoken in interviews about how he can sense that the appeal for "the great American songbook" is waning in his audiences, that most listeners don't even recognize the songs. There's nothing wrong with getting a sense of what people are listening to, and trying to make music using that language. I know that when "Don't Ask," for example, came out, people were ragging on Sonny and making fun of the music ("Hey, Sonny, why did you make that record?" "Don't Ask!" yuk yuk yuk), but that album sounds better and better to me as time goes on. I think Larry Coryell was an inspired choice as an accompanist. The tunes are good, and even his attempt at disco ("Disco Monk" no less!) is very listenable. If I would fault anything about those Milestones, it would be the studio they were recorded in (Fantasy studios), which made everything, especially Sonny's tenor, sound flat.

If anyone is interested in checking out Sonny's output from the '70's to the mid-'90's, I highly recommend this two-disc anthology, which cherry picks the best tracks from those albums.

[Larry Kart]

... Rollins' possible solutions to some of the daunting conceptual problems/barriers/what have you that Coltrane faced and would go on to face might have been of great importance to the music as a whole...

I think Sonny, even before Coltrane's death, realized that he had his own problems/barriers/what have you, that they were not nor would be Coltrane's problems/barriers/what have you, and that the best way for him to deal with his problems/barriers/what have you were to just keep playing and to keep living long enough to do so. I'm sure it seemed simple at the time, and it still does in theory, but I think we all know that that is in no way a simple proposition.

Apart from that, the music found a way to move on past its own problems/barriers/what have you, at first by actually doing so, and then by carpet-bombing the world with do-overs, so we'd never have to be bothered by all that again.

And yet, still (nothing lasts forever), Sonny Rollins. When he is dead...there will be no do-over for any of that. I'll shed some whole lots of tears, but not because Sonny Rollins ever stopped being Sonny Rollins. He might have stopped making earth-shattering records, but that's just a marketing concern.

All (or most of) what I was saying/trying to explain is that you might have felt somewhat differently (as some of us did) if you had been there at the time. Not that we were necessarily right in feeling that way back then but that our puzzlement/disappointment -- again, at the time -- was not I think a matter of mere arrogance or ignorance or lack of human feeling on our part. We'd been stunned and enlightened by Sonny and wanted and needed more, especially given a musical landscape that clearly was in the midst of considerable upheaval. BTW, "just a marketing concern"? Whew.

P.S. A possible oblique link to the emotional stance outlined above was the impact in 1956 of the death of Clifford Brown, a break in would-be continuity that seemed near unimaginable at the time. And then the death of Booker Little in 1961 at age 23.

[xybert]

Some fascinating thoughts and insights on Rollins in this thread. I think i'm still trying to get my head around him; i enjoy his albums and recognise him as being one of the greats, but i've never perceived him as being... what others clearly perceive him as being, others that were there at the time. I'm perfectly happy to be getting schooled, but it's going to take some listening for my ears to catch up.

[JSngry]

... Rollins' possible solutions to some of the daunting conceptual problems/barriers/what have you that Coltrane faced and would go on to face might have been of great importance to the music as a whole...

I think Sonny, even before Coltrane's death, realized that he had his own problems/barriers/what have you, that they were not nor would be Coltrane's problems/barriers/what have you, and that the best way for him to deal with his problems/barriers/what have you were to just keep playing and to keep living long enough to do so. I'm sure it seemed simple at the time, and it still does in theory, but I think we all know that that is in no way a simple proposition.

Apart from that, the music found a way to move on past its own problems/barriers/what have you, at first by actually doing so, and then by carpet-bombing the world with do-overs, so we'd never have to be bothered by all that again.

And yet, still (nothing lasts forever), Sonny Rollins. When he is dead...there will be no do-over for any of that. I'll shed some whole lots of tears, but not because Sonny Rollins ever stopped being Sonny Rollins. He might have stopped making earth-shattering records, but that's just a marketing concern.

All (or most of) what I was saying/trying to explain is that you might have felt somewhat differently (as some of us did) if you had been there at the time. Not that we were necessarily right in feeling that way back then but that our puzzlement/disappointment -- again, at the time -- was not I think a matter of mere arrogance or ignorance or lack of human feeling on our part. We'd been stunned and enlightened by Sonny and wanted and needed more, especially given a musical landscape that clearly was in the midst of considerable upheaval. BTW, "just a marketing concern"? Whew.

P.S. A possible oblique link to the emotional stance outlined above was the impact in 1956 of the death of Clifford Brown, a break in would-be continuity that seemed near unimaginable at the time. And then the death of Booker Little in 1961 at age 23.

I understand that it was different if you were there at the time, I really do. But I wasn't...and the best I can do is imagine what it was like. But I can, and do, know what it was like for me where I was, and when when I was. And I do understand that it's also different.

No real "right" or wrong" necessarily, because it's still Sonny Rollins, and no matter where we were/are, he's done what he's done, all of it, and somebody who is born after he's died (and god, I hope that's a way off still) will hear/deal with it even differently than us. At least I sure hope so.

(btw - the "marketing concern" thing...that just was an "inside joke" relating to a mini-ongoing back and forth between Chuck & me in a few other threads over the last few other days...I'm not above trying to be in more than one place at the same time, and that I can credit very specifically to Sonny Rollins, because I've seen him actually do it, for that, I was there...and there...and when we came back together, there too!).