Sunday, May 27, 2012

Jazzin Recession _ Music for Unemployed



Σας κτύπησε η κρίση?
Recession adversely affect you negatively?
मंदी पर प्रतिकूल आप नकारात्मक प्रभावित?
המיתון להשפיע לרעה אותך לרעה?
Είστε άνεργος?
Are you unemployed?
क्या आप बेरोजगार हो?
האם אתה מובטל?
Ο Sun Ra έχει τη λύση!
Sun Ra has the solution!
रवि रा समाधान है!
השמש רע יש את הפתרון!





















  Jazz musicians in America experience “the grind” daily. Allow me to elaborate. Our clubs have closed, are closing, or can’t afford to pay. If they can pay, a musician is lucky to make $30 on a weeknight, with the “added bonus” of food and drinks. Many musicians “play for fun,” accepting gigs for free. This makes it increasingly difficult for those of us making our living as musicians to ask a fair wage of a venue. Our clubs that once billed themselves as “jazz clubs” now host mostly other genres, or only national jazz acts. Singers, horn players… all a dime a dozen. So, why do we do what we do? Why don’t we just give up?

Because we love it.

We have a responsibility to keep jazz alive. We are passionate about America’s only true original art form, and the interaction it facilitates between musicians, and performers and audience. Music-goers agree that the spontaneity and creativity of a live jazz performance is exciting, fresh, and ever changing.
Many of us hold Music degrees, in Performance, Jazz, Classical, and so forth.  I cannot tell you how many times musician friends and I have been asked to “donate our time” or “play a free gig.” Honestly, it’s a smack in the face. How often are lawyers and doctors asked for a free appointment? Never. We have student loans to pay off for the degrees we hold as well, we just make substantially less money in the process.  This all seems completely backward. There is a common misconception that musicians do what we do “for fun.” Don’t get me wrong, we love what we do, but we do it for a living! Most of us are asked quite often what our day jobs are. What if our day jobs are being professional performing artists? Rehearsing, composing, performing. This is what we do. I know it is increasingly difficult to believe that this is possible, especially in America, but there are those of us who are unwilling to give up on the music.

My advice?  Musicians, channel your hardships into your music. The musician’s struggle is what has made jazz great throughout its history. In the midst of this long economic recession, times for performing artists are more difficult than ever. So, we compose. It’s much better than the alternative, to DEcompose. Ha. No, but seriously, some amazing music will result.  And Twin Cities jazz musicians, go out and hear one another play! I am speaking to myself just as much as everyone else. It is surprising how few jazz musicians actually go out and hear each other’s music. I am sure one major reason for this is we are all fighting tooth and nail for the same low paying gigs, and there is an underlying resentment when someone lands one. No one can blame us. But getting back to what it’s all about, the MUSIC, and attending shows is a step in the right direction. Musical friendships are possible! It doesn’t have to be only competitive. Support is partly what’s lacking right now,  from multiple directions, and attending one another’s shows is a step in the right direction. The added bonus is that live performances are exciting and inspiring! It’s how everyone in NYC used to learn back in the day, attending live shows, and jamming afterward. It is a part of the jazz culture that must be preserved, and this power is in the musicians’ hands.

“Jazz Central” is a great place to check out if you haven’t yet.  Jazz Central was created by musicians, FOR musicians. Monday nights they host a guest artist followed by a jam session, and occasionally Tuesday nights there is a featured modern jazz group.  This concept, presented by owners, Mac Santiago, and Tanner Taylor, has been quite successful. It is fueled by donations to compensate the performers, and keep Jazz Central afloat. There is a suggested donation hovers around $5 for attendees, but it’s never required.  The ambiance is like a 70s low light lounge, with a speakeasy feel, as there’s no signage and it’s a bit of a maze getting down there. It would be sacrilege for me to reveal to you where this venue is, so you’ll just have to ask around. A community fridge facilitates the giving and taking of beverages. I’ve enjoyed all of my experiences at Jazz Central, have been inspired by the performances, and have loved partaking in a legitimate jam session, something I think the cities has been lacking for a long time.

Coincidentally, after having mulled this over writing this blog today, I had the honor of attending a forum at the Landmark in St. Paul, hosted by Chamber Music America’s Chief Executive Officer, Margaret M. Lioi, accompanied by Richard Kessler, a dean at The New School. Their purpose in holding forums specifically for jazz musicians/composers is to open up honest conversation surrounding issues jazz artists are experiencing, and what changes can be made to help.  So far, Lioi and Kessler have been to Seattle, Chicago, New York, Detroit, and now, St. Paul. Great conversations ensued with the overarching theme of what has changed specifically since 2008. We covered topics such as venues and venue closures, wages, insurance or lack thereof, unions, supplementary incomes, accrediting official jazz venues, what universities and conservatories should be including in their curriculum to yield more prepared professional artists, and so on. Incredible ideas percolated to the surface, and an hour and a half flew by. I hope this is just the starting point for jazz musicians to feel comfortable opening up this conversation nationally and globally, to acknowledge there is a problem, and come together to improve the jazz world. With so many venues folding, gigs paying nothing, or next to it, and spirits low, we will benefit from partaking in this conversation. I left this forum feeling revitalized, and I realized why. Someone is asking what can be done to improve the professional jazz musician’s experience, which means someone is listening, and someone cares. I thank you, Margaret and Richard, for shedding light on these important issues. Your work is important, and incredibly meaningful. Perhaps now is the time to ride this momentum to a more hopeful jazz future. Count me in!








JazzMoArt




Jazzamoart a visual artist with a rhythmic expressionist language and a very intimate bond to music, mankind's passions and life explosions. His visual improvisations have been dramatically realized in a series of works that capture the spirit of jazz music and people who make it. Jazzamoart is representative of the Mexican painters of the 50s generation and he has built a following with admirers and collectors on a national and international level. Critics have recognized Jazzamoart as a prolific and multidisciplinary artist in constant evolution. Jazzamoart has shown his art work in more than 320 exhibitions in Mexico, USA, Canada, Latin America, Europe and Japan. His artwork is prominently featured in important public and private collections. Jazzmoart has collaborated with diverse publications, curators, and record labels, and has participated in a number of workshops and conferences. He was member of the Art Creators of the National System (CONACULTA) from 1993 until 2000.




























Thursday, May 17, 2012

Robert Glasper


“Real music is crash protected,” state the liner notes of Black Radio, a future landmark album by the Robert Glasper Experiment that boldly stakes out new musical territory and transcends any notion of genre, drawing from jazz, hip-hop, R&B and rock, but refusing to be pinned down by any one tag. Like an aircraft’s black box for which the album is titled, Black Radio holds the truth and is indestructible. Rapper yasiin bey (Mos Def) illuminates the metaphor on the title track:

Big bird falling down on a mountain pass
Only thing to survive the crash 
Black Radio

You wanna fly free go far and fast
Built to last
We made this craft
From Black Radio

Robert Glasper has long kept one foot planted firmly in jazz and the other in hip-hop and R&B. He’s worked extensively with Q-Tip, playing keyboards on the rapper’s 2008 album The Renaissance and co-writing the album single “Life Is Better” which featured his label mate Norah Jones. Glasper also serves as the music director in yasiin bey’s touring band, and has toured with the multi-platinum R&B singer Maxwell.

The Los Angeles Times once wrote that “it’s a short list of jazz pianists who have the wherewithal to drop a J Dilla reference into a Thelonious Monk cover, but not many jazz pianists are Robert Glasper,” adding that “he’s equally comfortable in the worlds of hip-hop and jazz,” and praising the organic way in which he “builds a bridge between his two musical touchstones.”

Glasper drove that point home with his last album, 2009’s Double-Booked, which was split neatly in half. The first part featured his acoustic Trio, which had gathered a great deal of acclaim in the jazz world and beyond over the course of two previous Blue Note albums (2005’s Canvas and 2007’s In My Element). The second part featured his electric Experiment band and hinted at things to come, even earning the keyboardist his first GRAMMY nomination for “All Matter,” a collaboration with the singer Bilal that was among the contenders in the Best Urban/Alternative Performance category in 2010.

With Black Radio, the Experiment band has fully arrived. Featuring Glasper on piano and Fender Rhodes, Casey Benjamin on vocoder and saxophone, Derrick Hodge on electric bass, and Chris Dave on drums, the band is plugged in and open source. Each of the band members is prodigiously talented and lives naturally in multiple musical worlds, distilling countless influences into a singular voice. “That’s what makes this band unique,” says Glasper. “We can go anywhere, literally anywhere, we want to go. We all have musical ADD and we love it.”

Black Radio also features many of Glasper’s famous friends from across the spectrum of urban music, seamlessly incorporating appearances from a jaw-dropping roll call of special guests including Erykah Badu, Bilal, Lupe Fiasco, Lalah Hathaway, Shafiq Husayn (Sa-Ra), KING, Ledisi, Chrisette Michele, Musiq Soulchild, Meshell Ndegeocello, Stokley Williams (Mint Condition), and yasiin bey.


“I wanted to do a record that showcased the fact that we play with artists in other genres,” explains Glasper, adding that the album has “more of an urban, hip-hop, soul kind of vibe, but the spine of it all is still a jazz spine.”

What may be most remarkable about Black Radio is how Glasper (who also produced the record) was able to weave all these different voices into a cohesive album, avoiding the random patchwork feel that many “special guest” projects suffer from. “The record doesn’t seem like it’s a special guest record because of the relationships we all have,” he says. “These are all friends. All the guests on the album have musical similarities.”

That common ground and comfort level is what created the spontaneous spirit of adventure and experimentation that permeated the recording sessions, which all the band members describe as being more fun than work. Friends would drop by the studio in Los Angeles to hang out, listen to the band, get inspired, and jump into the vocal booth to lay down a track. “These are all people who are known for being in another genre,” says Glasper, “but at heart they’re jazz musicians, so they’re like ‘Let’s hit it. We don’t really know what’s going to happen but let’s go for it and see what happens.’ We all have that in common, which is why I chose the people I chose.”

“You can’t pigeonhole what we’re going to do or how we’re going to do it,” Glasper declares. The Experiment wears its eclecticism on its sleeve throughout Black Radio, presenting new collaborative originals and surprising cover songs. They transform the Afro-Cuban standard “Afro Blue” with Badu, Sade’s “Cherish the Day” with Hathaway, David Bowie’s “Letter to Hermione” with Bilal, and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” with Benjamin’s vocoder vocal.

Glasper and Lupe Fiasco (whose recent gig together at the Blue Note Club in New York became a freestyle jam session when Kanye West and yasiin bey crashed the stage) co-wrote “Always Shine” which features Fiasco’s lyrical flow as well as a searing chorus sung by Bilal. On “Gonna Be Alright,” the R&B singer Ledisi highlights Glasper’s bright melodicism by writing new lyrics for his instrumental “F.T.B.” from the In My Element album.

The track “Ah Yeah” (a co-production with Glasper’s high school friend, the GRAMMY-winning producer Bryan-Michael Cox) is illustrative of the good fate that hung over the sessions. Glasper went to Atlanta to record with Musiq Soulchild at Cox’s studio. At a show the night before the session Glasper ran into singer Chrisette Michele and asked her to come by the studio as well the next day. The resulting duet is one of the album’s highlights.

Reflecting back, Glasper is rightly proud of Black Radio, but also humbled and grateful for the outpouring of support and talent that it took to bring the album into being. “Everyone just said yes, period, we’ll do it. It was smoother than I ever thought it would be to get all these great, amazing artists to come together and do this project.”






















































Wednesday, May 9, 2012

10/5/2012 Conference Stockhausen/ Λαδόπουλος/ Ρακόπουλος/ Αμίρης/ Andersen/ Héral >> Στέγη Γραμμάτων και Τεχνών

10 Μαΐου 2012
20:30 Κεντρική Σκηνή

Την ευκαιρία να παρακολουθήσουν τη μοναδική συναυλία Conference των Stockhausen, Λαδόπουλου, Ρακόπουλου, Αμίρη, Andersen και Héral θα έχουν 40 μέλη του Jazzin Athens!
Με την υποστήριξη της Στέγης Γραμμάτων και τεχνών του Ιδρύματος Ωνάση εξασφαλίσαμε τη διάθεση 40 εκπτωτικών εισιτηρίων στην ειδική τιμή των 12 ευρώ!
Για να κάνετε κράτηση αρκεί:

Α> Να έχετε κάνει ή να κάνετε like στη σελίδα  του Jazzin Athens
Β> Να έχετε κάνει ή να κάνετε like στη σελίδα  της Στέγης Γραμμάτων και Τεχνών
Γ> Να αποστείλετε ένα email στη διεύθυνση jazzinathens@gmail.com με θέμα  "Συναυλία Conference". Θα σας παρακαλέσουμε να μη παραβλέψετε να μας αποστείλετε το ονοματεπώνυμο σας καθώς και ένα τηλέφωνο επικοινωνίας.
Δ> Να προλάβετε!! Θα τηρηθεί αυστηρά σειρά προτεραιότητας καθώς οι θέσεις είναι περιορισμένες!



 Το 2010, ο Markus Stockhausen μαζί με μια εξαιρετική ομάδα Ελλήνων μουσικών (Αντώνης Λαδόπουλος, Βασίλης Ρακόπουλος, Σάμι Αμίρης), άνοιξαν την αυλαία των μουσικών δρώμενων της Στέγης Γραμμάτων & Τεχνών, «εκτός των τειχών» στο Ινστιτούτο Γκαίτε, πριν ακόμη γίνουν τα εγκαίνια του κτιρίου της Λεωφόρου Συγγρού. To σχήμα παρουσίασε ένα πολυδιάστατο καλειδοσκοπικό πρόγραμμα που ξεκινούσε από το στάσιμο του Ευριπίδη «Κατολοφύρομαι…» και κατέληγε σε αταξινόμητες αυτοσχεδιαζόμενες αλληλουχίες φράσεων, ρυθμών, αρμονιών. Ήταν ένα περίτεχνο ηχητικό τοπίο, ακραίου πλην όμως ομογενοποιημένου εύρους, από τα αρχαϊκά χρωματικά τετράχορδα έως τις δοκιμές μιας σύγχρονης τεχνοτροπίας, μελωδικής, ανθρώπινης, απαλλαγμένης από όσα δεν άντεξαν στο χρόνο.
Φέτος, το σχήμα επιστρέφει ενισχυμένο με την παρουσία δύο πρωταγωνιστών της σύγχρονης μουσικής σκηνής, τον πολύπειρο μπασίστα Άριλντ Άντερσεν, έναν από αυτούς που έδωσαν νόημα στον όρο ευρωπαϊκή τζαζ, και τον θεαματικά ανερχόμενο Πατρίς Εράλ, έναν ντράμερ και περκασιονίστα με εκτεταμένο εύρος ενδιαφερόντων, γι’ αυτό και περιζήτητο.
Ο Μάρκους Στόκχαουζεν είναι ένας από τους πιο χαρισματικούς και εύστροφους δημιουργούς της εποχής μας. Τρομπετίστας και συνθέτης, από νωρίς ενδιαφέρθηκε για την κλασική μουσική, την τζαζ και την αβάν-γκαρντ. Ο πατέρας του, Κάρλχαϊντς (μείζων φυσιογνωμία της μεταπολεμικής πρωτοπορίας), στάθηκε μέντοράς του για 25 χρόνια, γράφοντας ειδικά γι’ αυτόν αρκετά έργα. Σχέσεις συνεργασίας διατηρεί επίσης με τον αδελφό του Σιμόν, έναν ιδιαίτερα αξιόλογο μουσικό. Έχει δημιουργήσει παρτιτούρες φωνητικών και συμφωνικών έργων κατόπιν παραγγελιών από διάφορα αναγνωρισμένα σύνολα (London Sinfonietta, Orchestra d’Archi Italiana, RIAS Chamber Choir, Swiss Jazz Orchestra κ.ά.). Σήμερα συνθέτει για τον κινηματογράφο, συμμετέχει σε πολλά σχήματα καταξιωμένων τζαζ μουσικών, διδάσκει, δραστηριοποιείται ως σολίστ τρομπετίστας, ενώ η δισκογραφία του περιλαμβάνει περισσότερα από 60 CD.
Η παρουσία του στη χώρα μας είναι τακτική (Κυκλάδες, Ιούλιος 2011: Σύρος, Τήνος, Πάρος, Νάξος), ενώ το ίδιο ισχύει και για τις συνεργασίες του με Έλληνες μουσικούς (Κατσούλης, Κοκιούσης, Φαραζής, Καλούδης, Ρακόπουλος, Αμίρης, Λαδόπουλος). Στους τρεις τελευταίους, που συγκαταλέγονται σε ό,τι πιο ταλαντούχο και εφευρετικό έχει να προτείνει η ελληνική σκηνή, οφείλουμε την εξαιρετική πρωτοβουλία του “Conference”.
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Markus Stockhausen: τρομπέτα
Αντώνης Λαδόπουλος: σαξόφωνο
Βασίλης Ρακόπουλος: κιθάρα
Σάμι Αμίρης: πιάνο
Arild Andersen: μπάσο
Patrice Héral: κρουστά