[LAU] ASCAP Assails Free-Culture, Digital-Rights Groups

david gnome at hawaii.rr.com
Sat Jul 3 11:49:22 UTC 2010


Paul Davis wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 3, 2010 at 2:10 AM, david <gnome at hawaii.rr.com> wrote:
>> Or (to me) the endless soundalike lookalike stuff that passes for way too
>> much jazz these days? Sorry, to my ears, the days of jazz performers that
>> actually sound like themselves seems to have passed. Too many players now
>> seem to be trying only to sound like someone else.
> 
> how are you "listening" to jazz in the first place?

Historically? Mostly recordings or live performances. Maybe what NPR 
calls jazz.

> if you do so
> mostly via traditional broadcast radio then its not surprising that
> you have this impression.

I don't even listen to much non-jazz via broadcast radio!

> precisely what one calls "jazz" is pretty
> hard to pin down (it is certainly not limited "that swing"), 

I've heard that jazz is very "hard to pin down". Even amongst jazz players!

> but i
> listen to soma fm's "sonic universe" streaming music service, which
> bills itself as being on edge of jazz, and you will find (as i have)
> dozen's of artists there who all consider themselves  as being very
> much a part of the jazz tradition yet definitely do not sound like
> someone else.
> 
> over the last six months, these are some of the people i've either
> discovered or gotten very much deeper into thanks to sonic universe:
> 
> marc beacco (acapella + 1 instrument)
> jon hassell (knew of him, but not since the 70's)
> avisahai cohen (extraordinary bass player & trio, playing unbelievably
> syncopated stuff)
> marcin wasilewski trio (polish p/d/b trio with an incredibly delicate sound)
> tomasz stanko (trumpeter, his trio is the trio just named)
> portico quartet (UK quartet centered on the hang drum)
> cinematic orchestra (UK ensemble that exists in the space between jazz
> & trip-hop)

OK, I've heard of hip-hop. Is trip-hop the music that results when they 
trip over baggy, drooping pants? ;-)

> bugge wesseltoft (keyboard player blending modern electronica with
> scandanavian jazz)
> tord gustavsen (piano player who echoes bill evans but through a very
> scandanavian lens)
> andy sheppard (UK sax player mixing in non-jazz rhythms and sounds
> from everywhere)
> nik baertsch's ronin (extraordinary ensemble that blends minimalism,
> jazz with a funkier sense)
> dhafer youssef (incredible oud player creating stuff with influences
> from around the world)

Cool - I'll have to check them out. Thanks!

> there are many more that i've discovered by cruising around on
> emusic.com. my experience is that jazz on the radio in the US is
> basically dead, but that it also hardly represents what is happening
> in jazz either.

I think radio music in the US is very limited! There's NPR's classical 
side. There's the usual assortment of popular genres, and (here in 
Hawaii) traditional Hawaiian music, modern Hawaiian music, and the 
Hawaiian-Reggae fusion called Jawaiian. Jazz is played in some of the 
clubs and art galleries, but there's no radio station here that plays 
jazz. (Unless some older jazz shows up on an oldies station. Any oldies 
stations still playing music from the 30s, 40s or 50s? Most of them seem 
to think "old" music began in the 60s or 70s, and play only music that 
was Top 40 stuff of that time.)

My best friend considers Baroque music to be just on the edge of new. He 
really prefers older music than that - Gregorian chant, for instance!

-- 
David
gnome at hawaii.rr.com
authenticity, honesty, community


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