Wozz: Music From Wozz

Jacob Fred in Denver

Thu, 12 Jun 2003 00:13:23 GMT

Jacob Fred will be at Dulcinea's in Denver on July 2nd at 9pm (a Wednesday unfortunately). The only other Colorado appearance that has been announced is August 27th (another Wednesday) in Steamboat Springs.

Rumor has floated around that the Fred is avoiding Colorado because of the small crowds they get at the show, so if you can possibly make it (even if you have to leave early) you should - in the hope that they will be inspired to add a few more dates to their busy schedule. Tell your friends!

Skerik Loves Me, This I Know...

Wed, 28 May 2003 00:10:04 GMT

SKERIK'S SYNCOPATED TAINT SEPTET: DATE SET: JUNE 24TH SKERIK (n.insane seattle sax hero. see, ie, garage-a-trois, critters buggin, mad season, les claypool). SYNCOPATED (vt. to place the accents on beats that are normally unaccented). TAINT (n. a trace of something bad, offensive or harmful. SEPTET (n. any group of seven persons or things. skerik's syncopated taint septet - coming june 24th from the outrageous side of Ropeadope.

...because he's releasing his first 'solo' album on my Birthday on Ropeadope.

Henry Grimes' Return

Tue, 27 May 2003 04:57:29 GMT

In avant-garde jazz circles in the mid-1960's, Henry Grimes was one of the most respected bassists working. Trained at Juilliard, he had already played with Anita O'Day, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins when he was in his 20's.

He went on to play on some of the seminal albums of the free-jazz era, by such musicians as Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, Don Cherry and Pharoah Sanders. He was known for his ability to alternate from long Eastern-sounding bowing to hard pizzicato plucking, all of which generated tremendous calluses on his hands.

But in the early 70's, after moving to California, Mr. Grimes disappeared. For three decades nobody in music circles heard from him. Several reference works listed him as dead.

And that is how the story of Mr. Grimes might have ended if it were not for a determined fan from Athens, Ga., named Marshall Marrotte

Henry Grimes played at the Vision Festival in NYC earlier today. The New York Times covers a bit of the story, but I read the whole thing a few months back when Mr Marrotte told it in Signal to Noise Magazine. If you don't already subscribe, you should.

iPod, iTunes Music Store, etc

Sun, 25 May 2003 07:39:45 GMT

I have been neglecting my music category for a while now. This must change. As an extremely nerdish audiophile, I have, for many years, eschewed mp3 players as a waste of money. I was wrong, or at least I'm now wrong. The new iPod's are the bomb. A few weeks back, I bought one. I have not regretted it. The AAC encoding provides an audibly superior advantage over MP3 rivals. I have a very hard time distinguishing it from CD in most cases. In addition, over the last few weeks, I've discovered that the convenience of being able to carry a good portion of my CD collection - in an extremely listenable format - in my shirt pocket just frickin rocks!

More importantly, as I've posted previously and continue to believe, the iTunes Music Store might just save the music industry. Along these lines, here is a list of albums, or partial albums, that I've purchased from the iTunes Music Store:

The Donnas - Spend the Night
Praxis - Transmutation
The Bad Plus - These Are the Vistas
The Streets - Original Pirate Material
Tony Williams - Turn It Over
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Live From The Middle East
Sonic Youth - Sister
Cibo Matto - Stereo Type A
Afroman - Because I Got High (just the one song because that shit is funny)

All of these items are things that I was on the fence about purchasing or were for backfilling my current CD collection with things I used to have on cassette. I probably never would have considered them if they were more than $9.90.

If anyone is on the fence about purchasing an iPod, just do it. Apple has a huge winner on it's hands, and combined with the iTunes Music Store, could very well own the online-music biz for quite a while unless something changes quickly.

CD Storage Ideas

Fri, 23 May 2003 21:28:57 GMT

Let's face it, CDs are a pain. They are a great way to store your data, but when you have hundreds, or even thousands of CDRs and not much physical space, storage becomes a problem. With the advent of DVD+/-Rs DVD-RAM and Blu-ray this problem will not go away, since we all will collect thousends of those in the coming years. Jewel cases take up too much space; CD folders are better, but still wasteful (and expensive); and spindles are great, but you can't find anything. I've toyed with the idea of buying paper CD envelopes, and fill up a couple of old-fashioned 5 1/4" floppy cases with CDs (those were efficient: 200+ floppies in a plastic shoebox!), but there may be a better solution out there. So, Slashdot: how do you store your CDs?

Holy crap! Something useful on Slashdot! A good thread on various and sundry ways to store your cd's.

RecordStoreReview.com : The worldwide record store dire......

Sat, 10 May 2003 17:48:43 GMT

RecordStoreReview.com features record store listings and reviews from around the world including the US, Canada, England, Japan and more. We're building the guide together with a community of collectors (like you) who share reviews of stores they've visited. We hope the directory leads you to those elusive records and CDs missing from your collection.

Cool!

Business 2.0 - Magazine Article - Is TiVo NeXT?

Sat, 10 May 2003 16:59:37 GMT

Everyone who has TiVo (TIVO) loves TiVo; it is to television what Macintosh was to computing -- a revelation. Which is exactly why Apple (AAPL) should buy TiVo and once again redefine the intersection of culture and technology.

This is a very interesting idea. TiVo has already announced they will be using Rendezvous, allowing TiVo's to access media files stored on a Mac. And Steve Jobs has demonstrated he has at least some influence with media companies through Pixar and the recent Apple Music Store. Can Steve Jobs resolve Big Media's concerns with TiVo?

Steve Jobs saves the Music Industry

Thu, 01 May 2003 01:51:44 GMT

The music service Jobs unveiled is a delight. Called the iTunes Music Store, the service -- it's available only on Apple machines for now but will be ready for Windows "by the end of the year" -- is fully integrated into the company's jukebox software. Users can search for songs to purchase in the same way they'd look for songs they already have on their machines. The system is foolproof: You type in a name, a song comes up, and you press a button to buy it. That's it. You're in the hole for 99 cents for each song you download ($10 for each album), but you see none of the transaction details; all the purchases are "one-click." And here's the stunning thing: Once you've bought a song, you own it. You can do (pretty much) whatever you want to do with the songs you download, including burning them to CDs, transferring them to iPods, or sending them to other Macs.

$0.99 a song, and you can do pretty much whatever you want with it when you're done - legally! The system uses AAC rather than the popular MP3 format - and at the same event, Jobs announced new ipods (and upgrades for existing ones) to handle the new format. AAC allegedly provides higher quality in less space than MP3. Itunes 4 (with Quicktime 6.2) can encode to it for those wanting to take advantage. I've put off the purchase of an MP3 player, since I haven't been happy with the sound quality, but the combination of better quality, and cheap music may push me over the edge. The new ipod's come out Friday.

Independents' Day

Sat, 12 Apr 2003 16:40:01 GMT

While executives at those labels wail about the industry's imminent collapse, indie labels and artists are singing a much happier tune. Profits are up - in some cases by 50 to 100 percent. That's in contrast to overall album sales, which dropped about 11 percent in 2002.

A good article in the Christian Science Monitor on the flourishing of indie labels while the mainstream recording industry blames their troubles on their customers. Maybe the problem isn't the customers, eh?

Just returned...

Wed, 02 Apr 2003 04:18:19 GMT

... from Navajo Hogan's Roadhouse down in the Springs to watch my friend John perform in their weekly jazz jam. John was fantastic and a good time was had by all. If you're ever in the Springs on a Tuesday night and want some entertainment, definately check it out. Watch out for the burritos though, they're enormous.

The Beastie Boys weigh in...

Wed, 12 Mar 2003 02:10:28 GMT

In a world gone mad it’s hard to think right
So much violence hate and spite
Murder going on all day and night
Due time we fight the non-violent fight

Mirrors, smokescreens and lies
It’s not the politicians but their actions I despise
You and Saddam should kick it like back in the day
With the cocaine and Courvoisier
But you build more bombs as you get more bold
As your mid-life crisis war unfolds
All you want to do is take control
Now put that axis of evil bullshit on hold
Citizen rule number 2080
Politicians are shady
So people watch your back 'cause I think they smoke crack
I don’t doubt it look at how they act

In a world gone mad it’s hard to think right
So much violence hate and spite
Murder going on all day and night
Due time we fight the non-violent fight

First the ‘War On Terror’ now war on Iraq
We’re reaching a point where we can’t turn back
Let’s lose the guns and let’s lose the bombs
And stop the corporate contributions that their built upon
Well I’ll be sleeping on your speeches ‘til I start to snore
‘Cause I won’t carry guns for an oil war
As-Salamu alaikum, wa alaikum assalam
Peace to the Middle East peace to Islam
Now don’t get us wrong ‘cause we love America
But that’s no reason to get hysterica
They’re layin’ on the syrup thick
We ain’t waffles we ain’t havin’ it

In a world gone mad it’s hard to think right
So much violence hate and spite
Murder going on all day and night
Due time we fight the non-violent fight

Now how many people must get killed?
For oil families pockets to get filled?
How many oil families get killed?
Not a damn one so what’s the deal?

It’s time to lead the way and de-escalate
Lose the weapons of mass destruction and the hate
Say ooh ah what’s the White House doin’?
Oh no! Say, what in tarnation have they got brewing??!!!!???!!
Well I’m not pro Bush and I’m not pro Saddam
We need these fools to remain calm
George Bush you’re looking like Zoolander
Trying to play tough for the camera
What am I on crazy pills? We’ve got to stop it
Get your hand out my grandma’s pocket
We need health care more than going to war
You think it’s democracy they’re fighting for?

In a world gone mad it’s hard to think right
So much violence hate and spite
Murder going on all day and night
Due time we fight the non-violent fight

This is their first recording in 5 years.

Some new CD's

Sat, 08 Mar 2003 05:24:07 GMT

Thanks to a recent bonus, I decided to treat myself to some CD's, something I haven't done in a few months.

Larry Young - Unity
Sun Ra - The Solar-Myth Approach Vol 1 & 2
Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert
John Coltrane - Ascension
Albert Ayler - Live in Greenwich Village
Masada - Live in Sevilla
Larry Young - Lawrence of Newark
Ben Perowsky - Camp Songs
Steven Bernstein - Diaspora Blues

Reviews of some of these I'm sure will follow shortly. Watch the recent listening (which I freely admit isn't getting as much play as I had planned).

Senate to probe payola in radio

Mon, 24 Feb 2003 15:17:16 GMT

"The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee plans to launch an investigation into alleged payolalike practices by some of the big radio groups that also own concert venues.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told the Recording Academy on Friday at its annual Entertainment Law Luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York before Sunday's Grammy Awards that he plans to conduct hearings on the issue within a month.

"While I am a strong believer in free markets, I am also a strong believer in the antitrust laws and vigorous competition policy," he said, according to a copy of his speech. "These allegations raise serious competition issues, which my committee will investigate and deal with appropriately. I would expect to hold a hearing on these issues in the coming month to examine the allegations and see how they affect artists and their ability to distribute and promote their music." "

Wow. Real musicians winning Grammys and the Senate investigating payola. I'll be keeping an eye on this.

[via DrudgeReport]

The Grammys

Mon, 24 Feb 2003 04:58:16 GMT

Two names: Norah Jones, and Steven Van Zandt.

Norah Jones, a Blue Note recording artist and amazing musician who I first witnessed live at The Fillmore in Denver opening for MMW 10 months ago has swept the Grammys, winning Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Pop Vocal Performance . I have no idea what was behind her incredibly fast rise to the top of the entire music industry, but who cares. She is an amazing artist, and I can only hope that this is indicative of NARAS's future direction. When was the last time Bill Frisell, Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollenson got shout-out's on prime-time network TV from a Grammy sweeper (let alone winner)? Her performance of "Que Sera Sera" with MMW at the 4/12/2002 show I mention above had me up off my seat screaming like a little girl and I'm sure those readers who attended with me can attest to my girlish fandom ;) Congratulations Norah, every accolade you receive is well deserved.

Secondly, Steven Van Zandt - Is there a more interesting human being on earth than this guy - otherwise known as Sil from The Soprano's and the E Street Band's bandana-clad guitarist. He featured prominently in both Springstein's performance of "The Rising" and also as the only soloist in the tribute to Joe Strummer with Springstein, Elvis Costello, Dave Grohl and Tony Kanal. He is the proverbial bizomb. Bow down!

Great White's performance rider

Sat, 22 Feb 2003 18:09:52 GMT

"The band Great White's performance rider contains no mention whatsoever of pyrotechnics being used during the rock group's current tour of clubs and small theaters, The Smoking Gun has learned. TSG today (2/21) obtained copies of the band's rider from two separate promoters who booked shows by the group during the past month. A copy of the Great White performance specs can be found below. A third promoter, Domenic Santana, told TSG that the band set off a pyrotechnic display without his permission during a show in Asbury Park, New Jersey last Friday (2/14), putting the "lives of a lot of people in danger." Santana, owner of the Stone Pony, said that he "had no idea" that pyrotechnics were part of the rock band's show and pointed to Great White's standard performance rider, which makes no reference to pyrotechnic displays. Last night, at least 95 concertgoers were killed and 170 people were hurt at a West Warwick, Rhode Island show when the club erupted in flames following a pyrotechnic display during the group's opening song. Owners of The Station, the Rhode Island club where scores perished, this afternoon released a statement claiming that they, too, were never told about Great White's pyrotechnic plans."

Die filthy hair band, die.

The Atlantic Monthly | Wynton's Blues

Sat, 22 Feb 2003 08:07:59 GMT

"Every icon needs an origin myth. Born in the same city as jazz, Wynton Marsalis was blessed with a signifying provenance. "I'm from New Orleans," he has told an interviewer, as shorthand for his musical background. "We don't need a concert hall for jazz." In many ways Marsalis's story is so neatly connected to jazz history that it defies credulity. Had a screenwriter created Wynton Marsalis, a cynical producer would have sent back the opening scenes for rewrite: too perfect. Not only did he come from the cradle of jazz but he plays the trumpet, the instrument that originally defined the music. "The first jazz musician was a trumpeter, Buddy Bolden," Marsalis once said, "and the last will be a trumpeter, the archangel Gabriel." Moreover, Marsalis rose to prominence in the mid-1980s, just as jazz was approaching its centennial. "There's a tremendous symbolic resonance that has always been a part of what Wynton's about," says Jeff Levenson, a veteran jazz writer who also worked as an executive at both Columbia and Warner Bros. Records. "This kid emerges who's a hotshot ... and the whole thing has a kind of symmetry to it. Louis Armstrong starts things off—trumpet player, New Orleans, turn of the century. Wynton closes it out—a trumpet player from New Orleans." "

The Atlantic Monthly article on Wynton Marsalis I mentioned here a few weeks ago is now available online for those that are interested.

Once Bitten Twice Shy...

Sat, 22 Feb 2003 05:56:07 GMT

"Ninety-six people died Thursday in a fast-moving fire at a Rhode Island nightclub, Gov. Don Carcieri said Friday afternoon, adding that only a handful of the bodies have been identified."

As a Connecticut Yankee with relatives in Providence I had to post something about this. Rhode Island and Connecticut have a lot in common, comprising the entirety of Southern New England (otherwise known as "those tiny-ass states south of Massachusetts"). Watching the videos which CNN keeps replaying OVER AND OVER it looks like the same crowd I hang out with whenever I'm back in Hartford at The Spigot.

I hope they lock up Great White if for no other reason than they shouldn't still be touring with their crap-ass 80's hair metal - and definitely not with pyrotechnics. Does anyone honestly think the club would have allowed it given the apparently-flammable soundproofing foam everywhere?

R.I.P.

Ministers of sound

Fri, 14 Feb 2003 19:23:34 GMT

"Music, like love, is best experienced in the flesh. Sometimes, alas, it's not so convenient - while driving, for instance - so we must search out the next best thing. For many, MP3s are the musical equivalent of a hairy kiss from a maiden aunt: it's music, yes, but it lacks a bit. So many fans have turned to swapping music in another file format: music recorded from concerts, with the permission of bands."

A short article in The Guardian on Etree, Shorten, and the live-show trading community.

[via BoingBoing]

Instant live CDs of a concert? Testing to begin in Boston

Sat, 08 Feb 2003 17:47:00 GMT

"Experiments are rife in the music business these days -- and Boston will be a test market for one of the most novel of them. Clear Channel Concerts, the nation's largest concert promoter, has ambitious plans to record live CDs of its shows and sell them to patrons within five minutes after those shows end. Clear Channel is targeting Boston as the first site for the new plan, according to sources within the organization. "

I experienced this a few weeks ago when I attended a Robert Walter's show where the opening band was selling live CD's of their set. We were sitting right next to the sound board and watching them make the cd's and commenting on whether this was some corporate attempt to co-opt a non-commercial medium for their own good. We eventually determined it was, since it turns out the band (a talented but fairly generic hippy-noodler band) was sponsered by an energy drink company (the heavily logo'd SUV/trailer combo the band was touring in tipped us off to start.)

Now it appears the biggest musical co-opter of all - Clearchannel - has caught the vibe. I'm not sure how to feel about this. I think the idea is brilliant, but I'm curious why its the corporate powers that are doing it and not individual bands - at least none that I've experienced.

Phish is the one band I can think of that gets full value out of their live recordings, by selling their live shows through the LivePhish site, but even they - as far as I'm aware - don't sell the recordings of the shows AT the shows.

Why? I can't tell you how many times I've been to a show and immediately started plotting how to track down the recording which inevitably take a few weeks to make their way into the wider trading community. If I could just walk out the door with the CD of the show I just enjoyed, and in the process support the band in a more direct way, then isn't everyone happy?

Why aren't more bands doing this?

[via Slashdot]

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Composed with Newz Crawler 1.3 http://www.newzcrawler.com/

Embrace file-sharing, or die

Fri, 07 Feb 2003 21:56:36 GMT

"Record companies are not logical, righteous entities. They are ramshackle, profit-driven enterprises. They act in their perceived best interests, and they act ruthlessly and, in many cases, irrationally. The people who run them still have their e-mail printed out by their secretaries. We have to wait for the next generation to take over, the "software" generation, the generation of people who don't remember growing up without a computer around. I would argue that the future of music is multimedia, the future of multimedia is DVD, and the future of music companies is software. In five years, record labels will be software companies and I don't think they know that yet. The music business will be saved by someone from the software business who can impose a new business model on music assets.

In the future there will be no record stores as we know them, no tangible product as we know it. The CD is going the way of the 8-track and the cassette. Soon there will be no need for the tangible thing. Consumers have made their choice. They want to listen to music while they're working at their computers, on a portable device like an iPod or MiniDisc player, or on a home theater jukebox (similar to a feature of Microsoft's Xbox). Digitally available music has given the consumer choices, and they like those choices. They don't want music just from commercial radio. They also want it from their hard drives and from the Internet. Yet record companies still want to force tangible, overpriced media on consumers who want to obtain data files and temporarily store them on their hard drives or on cheap, disposable discs (CD-Rs). If record labels don't start trying to be part of the future they will be bought up and converted to it by someone who is. "

A call to reason - and arms - from within the music industry. President of a record label, the author discusses the changing nature of intellectual property, the death of the CD, the rise of downloadable music, why people hate the music industry and not other content industries, and how the music industry (specifically NARAS, aka the Grammy people) must reconcile all of this to avoid death and possibly even thrive.

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Composed with Newz Crawler 1.3 http://www.newzcrawler.com/

The Atlantic Monthly | Wynton's Blues

Fri, 07 Feb 2003 05:02:22 GMT

"For two decades Wynton Marsalis ruled the jazz universe, enjoying virtually unqualified admiration as a musician and unsurpassed influence as the music's leading promoter and definer. But Marsalis is now having to improvise as he confronts an uncertain future - a condition, David Hajdu writes, that is much like that of jazz itself. "

There's an interesting article in the current Atlantic Monthly (not online yet) on Wynton's past, present and future as he struggles to break out of the pedagogical box he's created for himself. If Wynton's views on jazz frustrate you, you'll want to read this article to see where these views have taken him.

Also in this issue, a good feature (with PJ O'Rourke companion piece) on our youngest Post-President, William Jefferson Clinton, and what we have to look forward to from him.

A short history of The Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey

Wed, 05 Feb 2003 04:06:54 GMT

"When Fred started playing show the jumped all over the musical spetrum like kids on ridalin in a toy store. "Wow! Look at this." "See, see, see I can do this." "That's cool, can you do it again?" They reminded me of moutian bikers racing down a hill in a playfull race. They weren't sure where the trail went but they were pretty sure they could handle the percent grade. They all had the same understanding of music and worked to provide a platform for each member to process and expiriment with the sounds that drifted in. Every one liked a bunch of different types of music and each had his favorites. Like kids on different colored skateboards going in the same direction. And like epicurians seeking the next delicascy they took a bite from from everything."

An excerpt from a message was posted on the FredHeads mailing list the other day that I thought worthy of sharing here. Jon Haring is an old aquaintence of the Fred and he let his mind run for a while on a variety of topics surrounding the early days of the Jazz Odyssey. He touches on the band's early days, the early 90's Tulsa music scene, and even the source of the band's name. The whole message is fairly long, but well worth the read if you have any interest in Jacob Fred.

Folk Music Back in Parlors, with High-Tech Twist

Tue, 04 Feb 2003 04:49:52 GMT

"Folk music was born on front porches and parlors and now it has returned in a big way -- with a little help from the Internet.

On a recent Saturday night in this Washington suburb, about three dozen people pack the home of Sherri and Richard Weil.

Concert-goers bring the chips, dip and beer. A basket is set out for the suggested $10 to $12 donation for the musicians, and the living room, dining room and family room are filled with people wanting to hear folk music.

With few venues willing to hire folk acts and few middle-class suburbanites willing to make the schlep downtown, search out parking and elbow other patrons to get the bartender's attention, folk house concerts are quietly spreading like wildfire with the help of e-mail and Internet advertising."

ABC covers the middle-aged folkie house-concert scene as mentioned here before. Most of the coverage I've seen of this phenomena has been focused on folk music but presumably it could be put to use anywhere talented musicians could use some work.

[via BoingBoing]

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Composed with Newz Crawler 1.3 http://www.newzcrawler.com/

DMCRA re-introduced. Ask your representatives to support it

Mon, 03 Feb 2003 17:27:03 GMT

"The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA) tilted the balance in our copyright laws too heavily in favor of the interests of copyright owners and undermined the longstanding fair use rights of information consumers, including research scientists, library patrons, and students at all education levels. With the DMCRA, we intend to restore the historical balance in our copyright law that has served our nation well in past years. "

As mentioned here before, the DMCRA is an important piece of legislation that will be considered this year. It aims to knock the DMCA down a peg and restore our fair use rights. The EFF is starting a campaign to get the word out to your representatives. Drop them a letter and let them know you want your rights back.

[via Slashdot]

Sun, 26 Jan 2003 06:31:33 GMT

I've reworked my "Recent Listening/Watching" section because it was kind of boring. The entries on the sidebar now lead to some thoughts about albums and such. Sometimes they'll be blank, but they'll always at least include a link to somewhere for more information, and will usually include at the very least some useless blathering.