General
Only in America
06/08/09 18:12
I don’t often run videos, and ever rarer do I touch on non-jazz subjects but this extract from an American talk show had my jaw dropping in total disbelief at how these things can happen in ‘the land of the free’. This is the sort of thing that Iran and other countries on the ‘unfriendly states’ list are, rightly, criticised for. Yet it happened and has affected the world ever since. Money well spent some might say, and these dirty tricks continue.
Incidentally, did you know that Obama’s ‘Kenyan birth certificate’ which is being brandished around is from a time when Kenya wasn’t even Kenya …
Incidentally, did you know that Obama’s ‘Kenyan birth certificate’ which is being brandished around is from a time when Kenya wasn’t even Kenya …
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Bolaño and Bonati
31/03/09 09:49
Roberto Bolaño and Roberto Bonati are two artists whose work impresses me more on every occasion. Bolaño is a Chilean author whose Savage Detectives and 2666 deserve the high praise they have received everywhere. My recent discovery of him has equalled my reaction to reading William Faulkner or Malcolm Lowry for the first time, and for me there is no higher praise.
Roberto Bonati is an Italian bass player and composer and artistic director of the Festival ParmaJazz-Frontiere. The inclusion of two of his records in a new-and-in-progress listing of those records and books I wouldn’t want to be without, is a sign of my high regard for him. (So far only Bartok has been given similar recognition but I’m sure that Miles, Duke, Mingus and a few others will join them in due course.)
The first part of the list will be published in April.
Roberto Bonati is an Italian bass player and composer and artistic director of the Festival ParmaJazz-Frontiere. The inclusion of two of his records in a new-and-in-progress listing of those records and books I wouldn’t want to be without, is a sign of my high regard for him. (So far only Bartok has been given similar recognition but I’m sure that Miles, Duke, Mingus and a few others will join them in due course.)
The first part of the list will be published in April.
Free Potatoes Today!
18/03/09 11:27
Another argument with our local bar owner about his downloading music free to play in his bar. His stance, ‘If I like it I’ll try to get the record, but there are no record shops on this small island’ echoes what I’ve heard from many of those who put my own music up for free download. My stance, ‘You expect me to pay for the vodka I’m drinking, but you won’t pay for the music we’re listening to’ fell, as always, on deaf ears.
I realise that some musicians want to give their music away for free but some of us don’t. I feel that I deserve some respect as a musician and that my art needs to be paid for, not least to pay the bills incurred in making it, or as seed money towards my next project. I agree that free full-track downloads can be useful as a marketing tool – and there will be a free download of a full track from my forthcoming new CD on my site soon. But that’s my choice. There shouldn’t be a middle man who has decided he can make decisions as to how my music is presented.
Which brings us to the free potatoes.
Imagine a case where, when driving by a field of potatoes, you’re greeted by a sign saying ‘these potatoes are free today’. When questioned about this, the man sitting by the sign says ‘Well, I didn’t grow them but I decided that anyone who wants can come in and take them for free. The farmer’s away growing something else in another field, but if he comes by I’ll tell him that I’m helping people to like potatoes, and that this will encourage them to buy their next bag legally.’
You can’t download the tracks at npr.org, but the National Public Radio site has a lot of fascinating material that can act as a taster to an artists’ work. They also have a jazz newsletter telling you what’s new. But it’s in the back catalogue where gems are sometimes found, like the analysis of ‘Over the Rainbow’ I came across recently. I’ve heard the tune hundreds of times but Rob Kapilow shone new light on its construction – and how it was treated in the original Judy Garland version.
Not that her’s is my favourite – not by a long way. That accolade goes to Austrian composer Christian Mühlbacher, whose treatment of the tune I made one of my classic advanced arrangements in the jazz composer book (in all good bookshops soon!).
Mühlbacher, an Austrian percussionist and drummer, manages, uniquely as far as I know, to record one album a year, always on 5th April. His version of ‘Over the Rainbow’ on 5-04-98 is a masterpiece of postmodernism, from the very distorted harmonies of the opening through the seemingly never-ending repetitions of the already repetitive melody in the bridge. They finally resolve into a multilayered patterned background, inside which random versions of the tune’s motifs appear and disappear. It’s recognisably ‘Over the Rainbow’, in the same way that Picasso’s paintings of guitars are recognisably guitars, but something new has been created.
I can’t – and won’t - offer a free download, but track it down. You won’t be disappointed.
PS: While I was looking for the URL to paste here I decided to order two more records by Christian Mühlbacher from the Extraplatte website…
I realise that some musicians want to give their music away for free but some of us don’t. I feel that I deserve some respect as a musician and that my art needs to be paid for, not least to pay the bills incurred in making it, or as seed money towards my next project. I agree that free full-track downloads can be useful as a marketing tool – and there will be a free download of a full track from my forthcoming new CD on my site soon. But that’s my choice. There shouldn’t be a middle man who has decided he can make decisions as to how my music is presented.
Which brings us to the free potatoes.
Imagine a case where, when driving by a field of potatoes, you’re greeted by a sign saying ‘these potatoes are free today’. When questioned about this, the man sitting by the sign says ‘Well, I didn’t grow them but I decided that anyone who wants can come in and take them for free. The farmer’s away growing something else in another field, but if he comes by I’ll tell him that I’m helping people to like potatoes, and that this will encourage them to buy their next bag legally.’
You can’t download the tracks at npr.org, but the National Public Radio site has a lot of fascinating material that can act as a taster to an artists’ work. They also have a jazz newsletter telling you what’s new. But it’s in the back catalogue where gems are sometimes found, like the analysis of ‘Over the Rainbow’ I came across recently. I’ve heard the tune hundreds of times but Rob Kapilow shone new light on its construction – and how it was treated in the original Judy Garland version.
Not that her’s is my favourite – not by a long way. That accolade goes to Austrian composer Christian Mühlbacher, whose treatment of the tune I made one of my classic advanced arrangements in the jazz composer book (in all good bookshops soon!).
Mühlbacher, an Austrian percussionist and drummer, manages, uniquely as far as I know, to record one album a year, always on 5th April. His version of ‘Over the Rainbow’ on 5-04-98 is a masterpiece of postmodernism, from the very distorted harmonies of the opening through the seemingly never-ending repetitions of the already repetitive melody in the bridge. They finally resolve into a multilayered patterned background, inside which random versions of the tune’s motifs appear and disappear. It’s recognisably ‘Over the Rainbow’, in the same way that Picasso’s paintings of guitars are recognisably guitars, but something new has been created.
I can’t – and won’t - offer a free download, but track it down. You won’t be disappointed.
PS: While I was looking for the URL to paste here I decided to order two more records by Christian Mühlbacher from the Extraplatte website…
Mr. P.C. and the capitalised imperative
06/02/09 09:54
In the last post I spoofed a Television conference by President Obama on jazz, but it’s the spoof email, not written by me, included in a previous blog which seems to have got me into trouble, and has led me to use John Coltrane’s tune title as part of the heading to this post.
In explanation, here is a comment I received regarding my blog on the half million pound grant for a study of Black British Jazz:
As an academic working on jazz history, I was interested to read your post on the Black British Jazz research grant. I have to say that I have a great deal of sympathy with your case (my first thought when I first heard about this award was that it would be needlessly divisive). But the reason I'm emailing is to say that you've GOT to take that Nigerian scam parody down! We are already in the much-contested and dangerous waters of race - to read in the same post talk of monkeys, cannibals, jungle tribes and so on is a tremendous misjudgment, and leaves you open to accusations of racism that I'm sure you don't deserve.
For the record, the spoof email stays. Not just because the capitalised GOT pissed me off, but because it stands as a funny take on the scourge of the real email scams, most of which we are told come from Nigeria anyway. That fact could be said to add to the western world’s racism far more than a veteran jazz musician’s attempt to spread the word about the existence of a spoof email which points out, in a very funny way, some of the problems that ALL jazz musicians, whatever their colour, face in trying to make a living. To miss this, points to an excess of political correctness, and a deficiency in the humour department.
And again for the record, all the words my correspondent complains about come in the list of song titles, which include Just Tribesmen (Lovers No More) and Blue Monkey. To me, and most jazz musicians these are funny and in the tradition of spoof song titles which are very much part of a jazz musician’s life.
However, spoof emails and song titles apart, what irritates me most about his comments is his misreading of my argument against the grant, which is, as he says, ‘needlessly divisive’. But surely the main point is that live jazz musicians need that money, not academics discussing a sub-group of the British jazz scene.
Perhaps to satisfy my correspondent’s political correctness I need to say that I intend no offense when I speak of a ‘sub-group’ of the British jazz scene. I also meant no offense to black British jazz musicians when I criticized the grant, but I seem to have become an unwitting part of my correspondent’s ‘we’ who ‘are already in the much-contested and dangerous waters of race’. Not me guv. I was just trying to point out how that large sum of money could be better used by being given direct to the musicians themselves, whatever their colour.
And as to being ‘open to’, and surely not deserving, ‘accusations of racism’, my record stands as someone who has fought all his life for jazz to exist as an art form, no matter where the musicians come from.
In explanation, here is a comment I received regarding my blog on the half million pound grant for a study of Black British Jazz:
As an academic working on jazz history, I was interested to read your post on the Black British Jazz research grant. I have to say that I have a great deal of sympathy with your case (my first thought when I first heard about this award was that it would be needlessly divisive). But the reason I'm emailing is to say that you've GOT to take that Nigerian scam parody down! We are already in the much-contested and dangerous waters of race - to read in the same post talk of monkeys, cannibals, jungle tribes and so on is a tremendous misjudgment, and leaves you open to accusations of racism that I'm sure you don't deserve.
For the record, the spoof email stays. Not just because the capitalised GOT pissed me off, but because it stands as a funny take on the scourge of the real email scams, most of which we are told come from Nigeria anyway. That fact could be said to add to the western world’s racism far more than a veteran jazz musician’s attempt to spread the word about the existence of a spoof email which points out, in a very funny way, some of the problems that ALL jazz musicians, whatever their colour, face in trying to make a living. To miss this, points to an excess of political correctness, and a deficiency in the humour department.
And again for the record, all the words my correspondent complains about come in the list of song titles, which include Just Tribesmen (Lovers No More) and Blue Monkey. To me, and most jazz musicians these are funny and in the tradition of spoof song titles which are very much part of a jazz musician’s life.
However, spoof emails and song titles apart, what irritates me most about his comments is his misreading of my argument against the grant, which is, as he says, ‘needlessly divisive’. But surely the main point is that live jazz musicians need that money, not academics discussing a sub-group of the British jazz scene.
Perhaps to satisfy my correspondent’s political correctness I need to say that I intend no offense when I speak of a ‘sub-group’ of the British jazz scene. I also meant no offense to black British jazz musicians when I criticized the grant, but I seem to have become an unwitting part of my correspondent’s ‘we’ who ‘are already in the much-contested and dangerous waters of race’. Not me guv. I was just trying to point out how that large sum of money could be better used by being given direct to the musicians themselves, whatever their colour.
And as to being ‘open to’, and surely not deserving, ‘accusations of racism’, my record stands as someone who has fought all his life for jazz to exist as an art form, no matter where the musicians come from.
Don't mourn, organise.
22/10/08 12:09
Don’t mourn, organise
Those words, spoken by American labour activist Joe Hill, the subject of Wayne Horvitz’s fascinating new CD (of which more later), had a particular relevance after seeing Sarah Palin on television earlier this week saying what Barak Obama wants is socialism, a comment which drew a barrage of booing from her audience. (Booing at the dreaded word, not at her of course - they are all Republicans who see her as some kind of saviour, and who, some sources say, is considering making her own run for President in four years time…)
This is not meant to be an anti-American tirade, rather a comment on what I’ve said before. We keep hearing of how ‘America is the greatest country in the world’ yet millions are without health care, millions live in poverty and educational standards are generally incredibly low. Perhaps if they installed some measure of the dreaded socialism and paid more taxes – and started fewer actions ‘to protect our interests’ - then there might be some money available to solve these problems.
I guess writing this means that I may end up on some CIA watch list, but it’s worth commenting that almost all of those actions ‘to protect our interests’ have been failures and led to misfortune and countless deaths and many of them have, as Stephen Kinzer says in his Overthrow, America’s century of regime change from Hawaii to Iraq (Times Books, 2006), ‘actually undermined American security’.
I’m somewhat pessimistic about the end result of what is a fascinating time with the American presidential election being fought amidst a collapsing financial system. I would dearly love Obama to win, but the Republicans – known, un-ironically one assumes, as the ‘Grand Old Party’ – have, we must admit, a dubious history in recent elections of snatching victory not once but twice out of the jaws of the rightful winners.
If Obama doesn’t win my chances of getting back into America – a country I love, and many of its citizens I regard as my friends – may well be very slight. But if he doesn’t win, then I would suggest that Joe Hill’s cry ‘Don’t mourn, organise’ becomes paramount in our thinking.
The Wayne Horvitz CD I mentioned is called Joe Hill: 16 Actions for Orchestra, Voices and Soloist (New World Records). It’s a strange mixture of folk music, jazz, broadway shows and uses narration and songs to tell Hill’s story. It almost always works well and stands comparison with musicals such as Marc Blitzstein The Cradle will Rock, and, though far less jazzy, with Carla Bley and Paul Haine’s Escalator over the Hill. All a welcome surprise for me when, inspired by a review in Jazzwise but still, after several bad experiences over the years, somewhat sceptical of whether such a piece could work, I downloaded the album from eMusic. For more on Wayne Horvitz and the work in question go to Recommendations.
(My own adventures with words and music can be heard on my composition The Day of the Dead, which uses words by Malcolm Lowry, from his great novel Under the Volcano and other sources. An article on that work and Lowry’s interest in jazz can be seen in Writings.)
Those words, spoken by American labour activist Joe Hill, the subject of Wayne Horvitz’s fascinating new CD (of which more later), had a particular relevance after seeing Sarah Palin on television earlier this week saying what Barak Obama wants is socialism, a comment which drew a barrage of booing from her audience. (Booing at the dreaded word, not at her of course - they are all Republicans who see her as some kind of saviour, and who, some sources say, is considering making her own run for President in four years time…)
This is not meant to be an anti-American tirade, rather a comment on what I’ve said before. We keep hearing of how ‘America is the greatest country in the world’ yet millions are without health care, millions live in poverty and educational standards are generally incredibly low. Perhaps if they installed some measure of the dreaded socialism and paid more taxes – and started fewer actions ‘to protect our interests’ - then there might be some money available to solve these problems.
I guess writing this means that I may end up on some CIA watch list, but it’s worth commenting that almost all of those actions ‘to protect our interests’ have been failures and led to misfortune and countless deaths and many of them have, as Stephen Kinzer says in his Overthrow, America’s century of regime change from Hawaii to Iraq (Times Books, 2006), ‘actually undermined American security’.
I’m somewhat pessimistic about the end result of what is a fascinating time with the American presidential election being fought amidst a collapsing financial system. I would dearly love Obama to win, but the Republicans – known, un-ironically one assumes, as the ‘Grand Old Party’ – have, we must admit, a dubious history in recent elections of snatching victory not once but twice out of the jaws of the rightful winners.
If Obama doesn’t win my chances of getting back into America – a country I love, and many of its citizens I regard as my friends – may well be very slight. But if he doesn’t win, then I would suggest that Joe Hill’s cry ‘Don’t mourn, organise’ becomes paramount in our thinking.
The Wayne Horvitz CD I mentioned is called Joe Hill: 16 Actions for Orchestra, Voices and Soloist (New World Records). It’s a strange mixture of folk music, jazz, broadway shows and uses narration and songs to tell Hill’s story. It almost always works well and stands comparison with musicals such as Marc Blitzstein The Cradle will Rock, and, though far less jazzy, with Carla Bley and Paul Haine’s Escalator over the Hill. All a welcome surprise for me when, inspired by a review in Jazzwise but still, after several bad experiences over the years, somewhat sceptical of whether such a piece could work, I downloaded the album from eMusic. For more on Wayne Horvitz and the work in question go to Recommendations.
(My own adventures with words and music can be heard on my composition The Day of the Dead, which uses words by Malcolm Lowry, from his great novel Under the Volcano and other sources. An article on that work and Lowry’s interest in jazz can be seen in Writings.)
Praise!
15/10/08 09:26
After sending a newsletter regarding my new websites far and wide I was delighted to see this about the main web site, grahamcolliermusic.com, from Rifftides:
The British composer, arranger and leader Graham Collier has a new web site that should win awards for design, thoroughness and easy navigation. The home page contains a link to a thirteen-minute montage of music from nine of Collier's eighteen albums over forty years. The montage is designed to be played while the visitor roams the site. It is a clever teaser, making the roamer want to hear more of Collier's daring writing played by superb musicians, among them trumpeters Kenny Wheeler, Ted Curson, Tomasz Stanko and Harry Beckett; pianist John Taylor; saxophonist John Surman; drummer John Marshall; and Collier himself on bass.
To read the whole thing, go here, and click on Home to see what he’s talking about.
Doug, biographer of Paul Desmond among his many other credits, has written about my music twice before when he reviewed Deep Dark Blue Centre and Hoarded Dreams. As I’ve mentioned before in my Recommendations, his Rifftides site is well worth looking at regularly. Strangely all the items seem to be posted at around 1.05 am, pointing perhaps to insomnia or perhaps a last chore with the cocoa?
The British composer, arranger and leader Graham Collier has a new web site that should win awards for design, thoroughness and easy navigation. The home page contains a link to a thirteen-minute montage of music from nine of Collier's eighteen albums over forty years. The montage is designed to be played while the visitor roams the site. It is a clever teaser, making the roamer want to hear more of Collier's daring writing played by superb musicians, among them trumpeters Kenny Wheeler, Ted Curson, Tomasz Stanko and Harry Beckett; pianist John Taylor; saxophonist John Surman; drummer John Marshall; and Collier himself on bass.
To read the whole thing, go here, and click on Home to see what he’s talking about.
Doug, biographer of Paul Desmond among his many other credits, has written about my music twice before when he reviewed Deep Dark Blue Centre and Hoarded Dreams. As I’ve mentioned before in my Recommendations, his Rifftides site is well worth looking at regularly. Strangely all the items seem to be posted at around 1.05 am, pointing perhaps to insomnia or perhaps a last chore with the cocoa?
Venice and Pollock
01/10/08 09:26
We live, as the Chinese said, in interesting times, and I feel that even at 71 I am still living in interesting times in terms of my career. I have today launched three new websites: grahamcolliermusic.com which is devoted to my past work, with news of what I’m up to now; thejazzcomposer.com which is currently acting as a teaser for my new book due next year; and the site you are currently reading, which will be devoted to an occasional blog, backed up by links to some of my earlier writings, and to some recommendations of what I think worthwhile to listen to, read, or just look at.
What I recently found to look at was Venice, a long held dream, which my partner and I realised in mid-September, travelling by ferry from Patras in Greece. Not the best way to travel – the presence of televisions in almost every public space is a curse of recent times – but the best way to arrive. The boat steams along the south side of Venice and the views from that height are as beautiful as I had ever imagined. As is most of the city – once you dodge the rain, and the incredible number of tourists (and this was supposed to be the quieter part of the year). The second best thing we did was visit Torcello, a quiet island about an hour away from the city, where, forewarned, we had booked for lunch at Locanda Cipriani. Great lunch, great setting, and hang the expense. They call themselves an inn and apparently Paul Newman, Elton John and ‘the entire Royal Family of England’ have stayed there. It’s also where Ernest Hemingway wrote Across the River and Into the Trees, said by my journalist friend next door to be known as his worst book. But when we go and stay, I’ll take a copy with me!
But the best thing we did was to see two amazing paintings by Jackson Pollock in the Peggy Guggenheim museum. She collected a staggering amount of good art, supporting many painters like Pollock along the way, but for us the pride of the collection was Jackson Pollock’s Alchemy. And, nearby in a travelling exhibition, was Phosphorescence, a partner painting to Alchemy.
I’ve been a great fan of Pollock for many many years and have read much about him. I saw the wonderful 1999 exhibition at the Tate in London, marvelled at Blue Poles in Melbourne, and still have in my mind’s eye a great late painting I saw on a visit to the stunningly set Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. My last composition was memories arrested in space, six pieces for saxophone quartet inspired by Pollock paintings from 1947 – among them Alchemy and Phosphorescence! And my next record will be called directing 14 Jackson Pollocks after a comment from an artist friend of a friend who had attended the concert.
I’d like to go into ecstatic prose about Alchemy and Phosphorescence but it wasn’t that sort of experience. It was a sense of awe that this mass of what could be called chaos – but not by me - was so controlled, so deep, so spacious.
To end on a more serious note – I’ve often wondered at the propensity of Americans to keep saying they are ‘the greatest country on earth’. They’re entitled to think it, but why keep telling us?, especially at a time when they are mired in a credit crunch, and when John McCain chooses Sarah Palin as his running mate. If you haven’t seen her recent interview with Katie Couric on CBS, watch it and weep to see how ill-prepared – and ignorant – she is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WkCZV83Cp8&feature=iv&annotation_id=event_319249
Two pieces of my earlier writing have been added to the Writings page: The Churchill Report on Jazz Education in America, and The Shape of Jazz to Come?, a panel discussion about the teaching of contemporary jazz. Both will be referred to in forthcoming blogs.
See Recommendations for what I have been listening and reading lately.
Comments on any of this are welcome, although those from Republicans may get short shrift.
What I recently found to look at was Venice, a long held dream, which my partner and I realised in mid-September, travelling by ferry from Patras in Greece. Not the best way to travel – the presence of televisions in almost every public space is a curse of recent times – but the best way to arrive. The boat steams along the south side of Venice and the views from that height are as beautiful as I had ever imagined. As is most of the city – once you dodge the rain, and the incredible number of tourists (and this was supposed to be the quieter part of the year). The second best thing we did was visit Torcello, a quiet island about an hour away from the city, where, forewarned, we had booked for lunch at Locanda Cipriani. Great lunch, great setting, and hang the expense. They call themselves an inn and apparently Paul Newman, Elton John and ‘the entire Royal Family of England’ have stayed there. It’s also where Ernest Hemingway wrote Across the River and Into the Trees, said by my journalist friend next door to be known as his worst book. But when we go and stay, I’ll take a copy with me!
But the best thing we did was to see two amazing paintings by Jackson Pollock in the Peggy Guggenheim museum. She collected a staggering amount of good art, supporting many painters like Pollock along the way, but for us the pride of the collection was Jackson Pollock’s Alchemy. And, nearby in a travelling exhibition, was Phosphorescence, a partner painting to Alchemy.
I’ve been a great fan of Pollock for many many years and have read much about him. I saw the wonderful 1999 exhibition at the Tate in London, marvelled at Blue Poles in Melbourne, and still have in my mind’s eye a great late painting I saw on a visit to the stunningly set Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. My last composition was memories arrested in space, six pieces for saxophone quartet inspired by Pollock paintings from 1947 – among them Alchemy and Phosphorescence! And my next record will be called directing 14 Jackson Pollocks after a comment from an artist friend of a friend who had attended the concert.
I’d like to go into ecstatic prose about Alchemy and Phosphorescence but it wasn’t that sort of experience. It was a sense of awe that this mass of what could be called chaos – but not by me - was so controlled, so deep, so spacious.
To end on a more serious note – I’ve often wondered at the propensity of Americans to keep saying they are ‘the greatest country on earth’. They’re entitled to think it, but why keep telling us?, especially at a time when they are mired in a credit crunch, and when John McCain chooses Sarah Palin as his running mate. If you haven’t seen her recent interview with Katie Couric on CBS, watch it and weep to see how ill-prepared – and ignorant – she is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WkCZV83Cp8&feature=iv&annotation_id=event_319249
Two pieces of my earlier writing have been added to the Writings page: The Churchill Report on Jazz Education in America, and The Shape of Jazz to Come?, a panel discussion about the teaching of contemporary jazz. Both will be referred to in forthcoming blogs.
See Recommendations for what I have been listening and reading lately.
Comments on any of this are welcome, although those from Republicans may get short shrift.