RIAA, Angst, Audacity, and Jim Snidero

Okay, that was quick. In about a half hour's time I managed to produce an MP3 clip from Alto man Jim Snidero's version of 'Round Midnight', on the marvelous album Standards + Plus. I am pretty sure I can post this under fair use law, as this is a scholarly website. Trust me, I am a scholar. It strikes me that there are advantages in this procedure. I can talk more or less intelligently about portions of a jazz number. Maybe the RIAA has done us a favor.

I have been listening to Standards + Plus today, and it is, as the Penguin Guide puts it, "a strong, vibrant set." Everything on the album is good. Here is some of the information at the Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians:

Snidero is on the faculty at the New School University, is an active jazz clinician for the Selmer Company, and author of the best selling Jazz Conception and Easy Jazz Conception series, published by Advance Music. As a side man, he has worked with some of the biggest names in both jazz and rock. He was in Frank Sinatra's orchestra for 4 years. He has been a member of the Downbeat poll winning Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra for 20 years, and toured extensively with The Mingus Big Band.

This is a jazz academic who walks the walk. Anyway, here is the clip:

Jim Snidero/Round Midnight/Standards + Plus/solo

Was that not enough? Well here is Mike LeDonne's piano solo.

Jim Snidero/Round Midnight/Standards + Plus/piano solo (Mike LeDonne)

Backing Snidero and LeDonne were Dennis Irwin on bass, and Kenny Washington on drums.

Okay, readers, I really need your input on this. Is this kind of thing worth coming to the site for? It will be interesting to see if this affects my traffic. Like I said, it may make the site better, as I can focus on some bits of music that seem most interesting to me. Anyway let me know.

It may be time to close this thing down

I love jazz very much, and this blog has been part of that affair. I have provided songs hosted on drop.io to give my readers a taste of the music I am talking about, and to encourage them to buy the music for themselves. I never post entire albums. I get between 25 and 50 visitors a day. I do not participate in any of the infamous file sharing sites. I do not have a single piece of music that was illegally downloaded. All of the music I have posted here has come from CDs I have purchased, or music I downloaded from iTunes or eMusic. Most of the music I talk about and provide samples of has come from classic jazz albums, many of them decades old. My sole interest has been to serve the music and the muscians.

But now I have to worry about this:

A federal jury on Thursday found Jammie Thomas-Rasset liable in the nation’s only Recording Industry Association of America file-sharing case to go to trial, dinging her $1.92 million for infringing 24 songs.

I am very dubious about RIAA's strategy, but I certainly have to be concerned about it. I am going to consider alternatives to my procedure here. One might be to post portions of songs rather than the entire song. Another would be to invest in the equipment and software to launch a podcast.

I certainly understand the concerns of the recording industry. But I think this ridiculous award will do little to stem the tide of file sharing. That is a consequence of current technology, and it is clear from such events as Apple's decision to drop copy protection that resisting that tide has no future.

As I say, I haven't quite decided what to do. I had hoped that this blog would be a forum for discussions about jazz, but apart from a few gracious and intelligent contributors, that hope has not been realized. I really want to continue doing what I do here in some form, but I am not sure what that will be. But don't be surprised if much of this disappears, or goes away entirely. That will only be a small loss for jazz, perhaps, but jazz can ill afford small losses. At any rate, thanks to my readers and contributors. Meanwhile, watch this space.

Dan Berglund (E.S.T.)

Dan Berglund is the drummer on the Esbjörn Svensson Trio albums. I posted recently on this trio, and the untimely death of its leader. I just chanced upon Berglund's MySpace Music page. He has a solo piece there, Impro 1, that is simply superb. I don't think it's downloadable, but it is a pleasure to listen to with the imbeded player.

The Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet

JazzTimes has an interview with saxophonist, arranger, composer, John Zorn, who comes off as less a jazz man than some minor god or at least an angel of music pretending to be a jazz man. According to the article, Zorn records five to ten discs a year. He doesn't own a TV. At that rate, a listener would have to give up anything but Zorn just to get a handle on Zorn.

Most of Zorn's music, from my brief sampling, is way too far over the rainbow for my ear. I certainly like the themes: film noir to Jewish culture and history. But unfortunately, I own a TV. One of the "Zorn essentials" featured in a sidebar did catch my ear.

In 1986 he recorded Voodoo, a tribute to Sonny Clark. Wayne Horvitz plays piano, Ray Drummond is on bass, and Bobby Previte on drums. There is a little boundary stretching on the title cut, but it's mostly solid hard bop translated into contemporary jazz textures, with a lot of avante garde side streets. This is a great recording to slide into your stacks next to Sonny Clark's Cool Struttin' (see my review of this disc).

Here is the first cut. I especially like the way Zorn rolls over the piano.

Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet/Cool Struttin'/Voodoo

Berkman's Workmen

My copy of the Penguin Guide to Jazz is not the most recent edition. I was somewhat shocked to discover, when I thumbed through the Ninth Edition, that piano David Berkman's entry had disappeared. In my copy the piano man is described as "a composer of substance." This certainly seems right to me, after listening to a couple of Berkman recordings.

Communication Theory, and Leaving Home, both prominently feature the three main saxophones, alto, tenor, and soprano. But Berkman's piano is exquisite and luminous behind them. His compositions are impressionistic: page three and four jazz in structure, but with a lot of feeling suggested by even the most abstract episodes. This is jazz worth savoring.

The first recording is the better one, I think. Sam Newsome (ss), Steve Wilson (as, ss), Chris Cheek (ts, ss), Ugonna Okegwo (b), and Brian Blade (d). Here is a sample:

David Berkman/Blutocracy (Blues for Bluto)/Communication Theory

On the second disc, Dick Oats (as) replaces Wilson. I think this one reminds me a bit of a Wayne Shorter composition, but less creepy than advertised:

David Berkman/Creepy/Leaving Home

Both discs are available at eMusic.

Let the Sunshine In

Sun Ra, that is. You don't have to be insane to do jazz, but it might help. Herman Poole Blount, who I gather legally changed his name to Le Sony'r Ra, was pretty far out there. Sun Ra, as he styled himself in the musical world, claimed to be from Saturn. He really did. Whether he really believed that or not, he stuck to his story.

Sun Ra was clearly a composer and band leader of some genius. He recorded a lot of music, and experimented with a wide range of jazz subgenres. Most jazz fans know only his record The Helicentric Worlds of Sun Ra. This is unfortunate, because his best work (so far as I have sampled it) is Jazz in Silhouette. There is really some interesting stuff going on here. I am not a big band fan, but this gets me listening. Here is a sample:

Sun Ra and his Arkestra/Enlightenment/Jazz in Silhouette

Jim Snidero & Joe Henderson

The "Sixties" was, in most ways, the most disastrous period in the history of Western Culture. Bad art and horrid architecture. Horrific fashion design (bell bottom jeans!). Incredibly stupid popular movies (Love Story). There was so great Rock and Roll, but most other bled and warped. Classical music never recovered. Jazz almost died, but not quite.

Joe Henderson's Power to the People is a period piece. With tunes like 'Afro-Centric,' and 'Black Narcissus,' Joe was mau-mauing the flack catchers. But there is a jeweler's eye in the jazz composer that sees through the temporal mist. Power was recorded in two sessions in May of 1969, about as by-God sixties a year as ever happened. The second session, on May 29th, included Herbie Hancock on electric piano (another Sixties touch), Ron Carter on bass, and Jack DeJohnette on drums.

'Black Narcissus' is a very sweet and subtle composition. Hancock's electric piano gives it a mystic landscape sort of feel. Acid, maybe. Carter's bass is genuine architecture. Henderson has a soft quality here that comes as something of a surprise if you just listened to State of the Tenor, as I did this afternoon. It is almost as if he were trying to sing you into a dream.

I chanced upon Jim Snidero in the Penguin Guide. Snidero (a year younger than me, damn it) has been all over the place in the music business. His tribute album of Henderson's music is very strong. Joe Magnarelli plays trumpet, Conrad Herwing (tb); David Hazeltine (p), Dennis Irwin (b), and Kenny Washington (d). It's all lively and good, with a very bright sound. Jazz did indeed survive the sixties.

Joe Henderson/Black Narcissus/Power to the People

Jim Henderson/Black Narcissus/The Music of Joe Henderson