In brief: documentary on current Chilean jazz

Note (June 29, 2012): links have been updated for the actual programmes, when available on line.

From today, Monday 11, at the times stated below, Tempo, a documentary series devoted to the current and very rich jazz scene in Chile. Readers of this blog are aware of the quality of current jazz to the West of the Andes. Tempo is a series up to the standard of the music it presents, combining a very simple formula, a mix of music performances and interviews, with a very sober and cared for production. It's worth watching for the music itself and because it's proof of the possibilities that video offers to expose jazz musicians in an approachable and yet non-compromised way.

Tempo can be watched live online here:

http://envivo.13.cl/

What to read...

The arrival of blogs and the actual possibility of anyone publishing anything to be read anywhere in the world has changed the game of publishing in general, and, in its small turf, jazz criticism. If we step aside the Northern hemisphere axis that goes from the US to Japan through Western Europe, the internet must have meant quite something for the unlikely but very real fans in places like Iran, China, or the southernmost tip of South America, who had very poor access to quality information are now much more likely to read about and even listen - legally or ilegally - to their heroes.

I emphasized the anywhere and its positive effect, but there's a significant problem with the anything being published. Good editors and their quality control and content-filtering are missed in the deluge of blogs and websites passing for serious publications, and it's more difficult to know what's worth our precious time. Anything does mean that anything is published, and the number of visits and other statistics will never reflect the quality of the publication.

Luckily there some very good stuff around (what's in my blogroll, on the right of this window, for instance), but if you're really interested in this music and are ready to put some effort and time, I'd strongly recommend the following three sites:

• JOURNAL OF JAZZ STUDIES: Formerly known as the Annual Review of Jazz Studies, and even before that, as Journal of Jazz Studies, which was first published in 1973 by the Institute of Jazz Studies. As a (irregular) collector of ARJS, I can tell you that each issue looks more like a small book than a journal, and they are as consistently serious and engaging as they are expensive, even second hand. The good news for the readers, is that from now on the JJS will be published twice a year, on line, and it'll be free to read for everyone. It's a peer-reviewed publication, so expect no nonsense. The managing editor is Evan Spring, and the first issue can be found here.



• CURRENT RESEARCH IN JAZZ: This on-line, also peer-reviewed, journal has been around for over a couple of years. The brains behind it are those of master discographer, and co-author of Gigi Gryce's biography, Mike Fitzgerald. He's an extremely active promoter of serious jazz research and the use of the internet to improve its quality. He explains the philosophy and goals of CRJ here. The first issue can be read here, the second and most recent is here.



• JAZZ STUDIES ONLINE: This is a different website from the other two. Edited by saxophonist and politics scholar Tad Shull, and sponsored by Columbia University's Center of Jazz Studies, it compiles different resources for the serious student of jazz. There are audio interviews, performance and a selection of articles, like Scott DeVeaux's seminal "Constructing the Jazz Tradition".
  
  The crown jewel here, however, especially for all of us interested in vintage magazines and 1950s jazz, it's the whole run of the legendary Jazz Review. This short-lived publication (23 issues, between 1958 and 1961), edited by Martin Williams and Nat Hentoff, marked a turning point for jazz criticism and commentary, and it carried some historical articles. It opened its first issue with Gunther Schuller's study of Sonny Rollins's "Blue 7", "Sonny Rollins and the Challenge of Thematic Improvisation", the article that apparently shocked Rollins so much that he said he wouldn't read anything else about him any more. And there's much more, like interviews with James P. Johnson and Walter Page, criticism done by musicians (Bob Brookmeyer, Art Farmer, George Russell, Bill Crow...), the first jazz writings of Harvey Pekar, and much, much more. All that in .pdf format (text-searchable in some issues).

Enjoy the reading.

Thursday's pill: Darcy James Argue

Darcy James Argue and the Secret Society play "Transit" (score) at Kennedy Center, on January 5th, 2011.

• CONDUCTOR: Darcy James Argue
• WINDS: David DeJesus, Rob Wilkerson, Sam Sadigursky, Mark Small, and Josh Sinton.
• TRUMPETS: Seneca Black, Tom Goehring, Matt Holman, Nadje Noordhuis, and David Smith (solo).
• TROMBONES: Noah Bless, Tim Sessions, Kevin Moehringer, and Jennifer Wharton.
• RHYTHM: Sebastian Noelle (guitar), Red Wierenga (piano and keyboards), Matt Clohesy (double bass), and Jon Wikan (drums).

More videos: here.

The Kennedy Center gig, complete: here.

The strange case of Freddie Green

Freddie Green (© Burt Goldblatt/CTS Images)

Freddie Green would have been 100 years old on March 31st. As familiar as his name is for Swing fans, his was a strange career, his contribution being easier to spot by its absence rather than its presence. From 1937 onwards he was what kept Basie's rhythm sections together, his metronomic touch and extremely light harmonic contribution probably being the factor that allowed them to relax and swing harder. At a time when the electric guitar was introduced and became the main way to do jazz on a guitar, he kept playing an archtop acoustic. He and electric pioneer Charlie Christian were friends—they recorded together in small groups, live and in the studio—but when Christian gave Green an amplifier as a present, fellow Basie-ites sabotaged any prospective solo work by Green enough times for him to give up the idea.

Meet Francisco Sánchez

One of the greatest musicians alive today, beyond genres, styles, or categories is Paco de Lucía, born Francisco Sánchez in 1947. Paco is short for Francisco, as people familiar with Spain will know, and Lucía, or, rather, Luzia -she was Portuguese-, was Paco's mother.

De Lucía is a rather retiring person, not really keen on interviews or other promotional activities. For the best part of his career his professional routine has followed this pattern: he takes a few years to prepare a new album, and new means exactly that, new, as in unheard music, tours it, and then he retires to compose for the next one.

Back in 2003, Universal published Francisco Sánchez, a documentary about the guitarist. That, in itself, was good enough news. But this is more than just that. This is an extraordinary film, it tells De Lucía's story and manages to provide a very intimate portrait of the artist, through interviews with him and others, in a subtle way, never intruding or pushing for anything. About his colleagues, who, without exception, hasten to explain that they're students of De Lucía's, the admiration they show is genuine and moving. Like when his colleague and contemporary, Manolo Sanlúcar says:

Paco is the best instance of what a star is. Listening to Paco, the novice listener will be enchanted, and the expert will go crazy... He's got everything.

However, the real merit of the film is that De Lucía seems to really open up. Besides the brilliant final statement -which I won't reveal here- he says things like:

I don't want to play. I play because I have to. I started playing when i was 12, and I haven't stopped ever since. I've played thousands of concerts and... so many sleepless nights, so much travelling...

De Lucía also explains what he has done with Flamenco music and what his approach is, and is honest enough to admit that he's never had a problem with playing fast (the supernatural coordination between his two hands is possibly the most astonishing feature of his technique). Between him and also Sanlúcar a very clear picture emerges of what being a creative musician entails, and the almost sickening perfectionism that plagues him.

There's plenty of footage of him playing from different eras, including the trio with Al di Meola and John McLaughlin (he explains how he managed to play with them), and also of his daily life, like when he's working on his music with his laptop, or when he's playing with his granddaughter. There are many highlights, like the close-up of cantaor Camarón de la Isla gobsmacked by De Lucía's playing (see the picture on the left, or the beginning of this video).

The film was broadcasted recently on Spanish national TV, and now you can watch it online here.

The DVD edition comes with English and French subtitles, plus a second disc with him playing Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez and some of his own music.

KBO: João Gilberto

A few weeks ago I told you about this little campaign I've started on Facebook to ask for EMI and Mr. João Gilberto to reach an agreement and give the world a proper reissue of the truly wonderful music Mr. Gilberto recorded in his first three albums.

Since then, a few well-intentioned friends have warned me of the unlikelihood of such enterprise. "You won't achieve your goal", they say.

It may well be so. I'm well aware of the crisis in the music industry, and of EMI¡s problems in particular. But nobody will able to say that I didn't try. I think it's a disgrace that so many people have never heard this music, a little spark of genius that happened to be recorded in Brazil around fifty years ago. It had Vinicius's poetry, Jobim's musicality, but first and foremost, Mr. Gilberto's total commitment to the music. They say he's a perfectionist, a difficult man. I say he's just completely devoted to music: if you watch any videos of him, and there are plenty, you'll notice how his whole face shapes around each exact note he sings.

I, or rather, we may not get EMI to publish an official reissue. But it won't be because we didn't speak up.

Like the song says if someone doesn't like this music, it's because "they're not good people, either they have a bad head, or bad feet".

George Shearing (1919-2011)

"I adapted Milt Buckner and Glenn Miller"




RIP, George Shearing (1919 - 2011)

Obituaries: Peter Keepnews, Doug Ramsey