Notes and Tones: Organissimo Readers' Edition

[Rabshakeh]

How many of the posters here keep listening notes on the records they follow?

I'm guessing a fair few, and not just those of us who do so for professional reasons. 

If so, why do you keep them? And what sort of thing do you capture? 

[jazzbo]

I don't. I did for a spell in the 'eighties, when I first started collecting jazz more seriously--I found they helped me to see trends in my listening and highlight gaps in my knowledge and exploration. But haven't since.

[mjazzg]

Nope, never have

[mikeweil]

6 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

Nope, never have

Same here.

[JSngry]

And again.

[felser]

LIkewise.  Sounds too much like work!

[Brad]

Never did. 

[Rabshakeh]

Gosh. This is going well. 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I have on the few occasions but it was many years ago. One time was when I was part of a round robin of reviewers of a Joe Manieri CD, "Coming Down The Mountain", which I hated doing because it was not a good review and I knew a lot of others really liked it.

FWIW, Joe Christmas re-posted it here back in 2003.

 

[Niko]

I did it for like half a year in 2009 or so, in order to get better at talking about music, and also to listen more consciously with streaming becoming a thing, i.e. in order to create some record of my listening as a placeholder for a music collection... It worked fairly well, no idea why I stopped, probably because it was quite a hassle and a very self-conscious thing to do...

[JSngry]

On 5/26/2024 at 10:04 AM, Rabshakeh said:

Gosh. This is going well. 

Well, maybe, maybe not. But...I'm just curious why you would do something like this. I'm sure some people do, and I'm sure they have good reason for it.

My "notes" have always been mental, but maybe there's a better way?

Well, not ALWAYS. When I dubbed a lot of cassettes from friends, I kept several volumes of spiral-bound index cards on which I wrote every imaginable detail about the record. Still refer back to those once in a blue moon for catalog number, recording date, etc.

And those of use who shared burns back in the day remember the "common courtesy" of providing cover art of some sort with the disc itself.

But these days...files, and if you need info to go with it past what's on the file, it's out there. And if it's not, you can ask and you'll usually receive.

But that's not what you have in mind, right?

[HutchFan]

I've only written listening notes when I knew that I'd subsequently be writing about the record for a website or blog post.

In an ideal world, I'd begin by listening to the record several times.  It might be background music, or I might listen consciously & intentionally.  The primary goal is to have the music in my ear repeatedly. 

After a period of time of getting to know a record (that varies in duration depending on all sorts of factors), I just scribble my impressions in a spiral bound notebook while listening intently to the music. 

Then, I draft the write-up in MS Word while referring to my hand-written listening notes as well as other contextual info that I'd compiled re: the album at hand.

 

Edited May 28 by HutchFan

[Dub Modal]

Only when listening to the BFTs here. 

[Milestones]

I write about jazz in my semi-regular journal, though often in a rather general manner.  Lately I have mostly been writing about the playlists I have been creating.  So I don't think this is at all what you mean by "listening notes."

 

[clifford_thornton]

Never for recordings — even when writing about them — but certainly for live concerts.

[Rabshakeh]

6 hours ago, HutchFan said:

I've only written listening notes when I knew that I'd subsequently be writing about the record for a website or blog post.

In an ideal world, I'd begin by listening to the record several times.  It might be background music, or I might listen consciously & intentionally.  The primary goal is to have the music in my ear repeatedly. 

After a period of time of getting to know a record (that varies in duration depending on all sorts of factors), I just scribble my impressions in a spiral bound notebook while listening intently to the music. 

Then, I draft the write-up in MS Word while referring to my hand-written listening notes as well as other contextual info that I'd compiled re: the album at hand.

 

That's interesting. I had noticed that you sometimes appeared to have answers ready to hand in list format, and I wondered whether what lurked behind that was some sort of detailed database.

4 hours ago, clifford_thornton said:

Never for recordings — even when writing about them — but certainly for live concerts.

Why live concerts? Is that to review?

[clifford_thornton]

yeah, when I was reviewing them.

[HutchFan]

5 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

That's interesting. I had noticed that you sometimes appeared to have answers ready to hand in list format, and I wondered whether what lurked behind that was some sort of detailed database.

Nope.  I don't have any sort of notes or prepared lists.  Just using recollection.   

I do have my jazz collection documented in an Excel spreadsheet.  But it's just a listing of artists, titles, labels, and formats. 

 

[BFrank]

On 5/27/2024 at 8:31 PM, clifford_thornton said:

Never for recordings — even when writing about them — but certainly for live concerts.

I have a list of every concert I've been to since 1968. Not sure why I started it in the first place, but very happy to have it. It's a great reference, especially for the shows that I  don't even remember going to 😜

[mjazzg]

2 hours ago, BFrank said:

I have a list of every concert I've been to since 1968. Not sure why I started it in the first place, but very happy to have it. It's a great reference, especially for the shows that I  don't even remember going to 😜

I wish I'd done that. I do have a large box of paper tickets which I routinely saved but sadly these days that's not an option.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

6 hours ago, BFrank said:

I have a list of every concert I've been to since 1968. Not sure why I started it in the first place, but very happy to have it. It's a great reference, especially for the shows that I  don't even remember going to 😜

I really wish I had done this. I've seen so many jazz greats over the years that I've forgotten more than I remember.

[Teasing the Korean]

I used to - and occasionally, still may - place a black dot with Sharpie next to the titles of an album's money cuts on the record labels.  That has proven helpful in short-notice DJ situations.  That's about it.

[ejp626]

4 hours ago, mjazzg said:

I wish I'd done that. I do have a large box of paper tickets which I routinely saved but sadly these days that's not an option.

I wish I had been more organized about this.  One thing that I did was start making a list of how many of the "great" jazz artists I had seen at least once, but my memory isn't good enough for the side artists.  Like I'm almost (but not 100%) certain I saw Stanley Cowell one time with the Cookers, but there's always that nagging feeling I'm getting something wrong.

[kh1958]

7 hours ago, BFrank said:

I have a list of every concert I've been to since 1968. Not sure why I started it in the first place, but very happy to have it. It's a great reference, especially for the shows that I  don't even remember going to 😜

Me too, except it's since 1974.

[clifford_thornton]

Wish I kept that list, although it would have started in 1987 and really picked up in earnest around 1994 when I had a drivers license and access to a car.