check it out...
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....the new website has been launched, showcasing the greatest supplement to the music industry since album cover artwork; lots of tasty links with everything from veganism to your favorite jazz/funk/DJ/soul music blogs; the photo of the day is still there to greet you every morning right after you start your computer up; and a very convenient Tour Dates page, which should definitely contain more Michigan shows.
Its the little record label that could, and will hopefully keep growing while keeping it real and connected.
In further music news, has helped us out with the results from this year's Downbeat reader's poll:
Hall of Fame: Sam RiversOf this listing, I'm familiar with Wayne Shorter, Bill Frisell, Dave Holland, David Murray and Mingus Big Band, the rest are in the 'to do' basket.
Jazz Musician of the Year: William Parker
Jazz Album of the Year: Wayne Shorter - Beyond the Sound Barrier
Jazz Reissue of the Year: Albert Ayler - Holy Ghost
Jazz Record Label of the Year: Palmetto
Jazz Combo: Dave Holland Quintet
Jazz Big Band: Mingus Big Band
Blues Musician of the Year: Joe Louis Walker
Blues Album of the Year: Pinetop Perkins - Ladies Man
Composer: Reid Anderson
Trumpet: Ron Horton
Trombone: Grachan Moncour III
Soprano Sax: Wayne Shorter
Alto Sax: Kenny Garrett
Tenor Sax: Chris Potter
Baritone Sax: James Carter
Flute: Sam Rivers
Clarinet: Chris Speed
Electric Keyboard: Craig Taborn
Acoustic Piano: Ethan Iverson
Organ: Alice Coltrane
Guitar: Bill Frisell
Bass: Dave Holland
Drums: Susie Ibarra
Percussion: Ray Burretto
Vibes: Stefon Harris
Misc. Instrument: David Murray (Bass Clarinet)
Male Singer: Mose Allison
Female Singer Bebel Gilberto
No Dave Douglas on trumpet this year, but I'm sure he'll find his way back into the listing at some point.
If every morning could be like this....
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One of the simpler pleasures that I find in life is when things slow up at work and rather than being at my desk first thing in the morning, I can find myself at the coffee shop at a quarter to nine drinking a double extra dark and into a good read. Today was one such morning. But to add to the enjoyment was the downtown area laying quiet in that perfect summer haze. Buildings stretching up silent, and with Grand Rapids just small enough to keep the streets and sidewalks empty until later in the day, the scene held in its own unawakened possibility.
Having not started into a new novel yet after Saul and Patsy, I knew that I would have to rely upon the magazines laying around the shop.
Usually there's at least the current New Yorker, but after some brief panic of not finding anything but Rolling Stone and fashion magazines, I luckily was able to find a Harpers at the bottom of the stack. Its a hit or miss publication with me, but 'oh well' I thought, even in the best of mornings you can't have it all your way.
But when looking at the contents, I was thrilled at finding the issue containing a new work from one of my favorite authors, Haruki Murakami.
What are the chances? It began to look like this would in fact be the perfect morning. But as I proceeded with the reading, things got even better.
Even preternatural. My other favorite writer is Paul Auster, who's work usually revolves around the throw of the dice 'chance' that influences our lives, as well as the intermixing of stories within stories. As I got into the reading, I was amazed to find the very same ideas as the basis for the Murakami story!
The writing, titled 'Chance Traveler', began by telling of two unusually coincidental events that ended up as life turning moments in Murakami's life, and the narration then taking a turn to include yet another coincidental life turning story, originally told to Murakami by his piano tuner, and then, relayed to me as the reader.
As I took a break from the reading and looked out the shop's window, at the amphitheater designed by Maya Lin, I couldn't help but wonder, where do these coincidences and stories end? How does my own life work itself into and intersect with this patterning of events, this overlaying of concepts, thoughts and ideas?
There I was, enjoying the coincidence of a beautiful summer morning coinciding with a slump time in work, with the coincidence of an unread piece of Murakami's writing at the bottom of a stack of worthless magazines, which had a coincidence of being uncanny in its similarity to my other favorite author, and the stories themselves asking us to think about the role of coincidence. Was this supposed to be a wake up time?
Murakami's story ends with the rumination of whether or not there is a higher power up above looking down at our lives.
But I might add, maybe this is also the possibility of a cosmic order that works not only with the material world, but within our thoughts and emotions as well, intermixing the material with the subtler reality of our minds and personal actions. Perhaps this is what was being meant by Murakami when referring to a God? The difference only as a result of the translation?
We'll always be a lost at for proving any of this with any certainty, but when the experience hits us, we're fool for not flying with it. Its guaranteed to be short lived, momentary. By the time I finally made it into work the summer sun was a full blaze and the town manic in its own obviousness.
Night and Fog; Alain Resnais, 1955 is a half hour film that intermixes footage of Auschwitz from 1944 with footage then taken 9 years later. Over the film, a sole narrator provides matter of fact descriptions of the atrocities the viewer is observing, along with some mild poetics at the beginning and end. The footage is most likely the most graphic and disturbing in existence.
When deciding to expose myself to a creative effort that relies upon real life horrific events for its subject matter, I ask myself, 'why do I want to experience or witness this work?'.
I have a very good understanding of the incomprehensible horror that took place at Auschwitz, so what can be gained from additional exposure? Answer is that if a work somehow incorporates larger issues or persepectives around the event, it can in turn broaden and develop my own understanding. This film does little beyond showing us the appalling and unspeakable events committed by Nazi Germany, and therefore fails as an artistic effort.
When an artist takes on a serious subject matter, an added responsibility is placed upon the effort to provide the justice and time the subject deserves, to match the weight and seriousness of the historical event. Night and Fog required no work beyond compiling the footage and is no more artistic than the evening news. Granted the narrator does pose questions as to who is responsible for what had taken place, but this questioning is so undeveloped it comes off more as an emotional 'trick' than something to actually be pondered within the context of the film.
If this is to be considered a work of art, where's the art? How has the role of art been accomplished? A work such as places the actions of the concentration camps within a historical context, as well as providing a testament of someone who risked their own life to battle the actions of the Nazi party.
The graphic novel allows you to witness the death camps while also showing its effect upon surviving generations within America. As artists, Spielberg and Spiegelman provide the viewers with multiple layers of understanding and witnessing, while still allowing the necessary exposure of the inhuman behaviors inflicted upon the Jewish people. I have no doubt that both efforts required tremendous amounts of time, stress and thought, and it would be an offense to place Resnais' work at the same level.
Some would argue that the images and film clips are to stand "on their own as mute testament". This is a pretext only. Sure, the events are incomprehensible and shockingly evil, beyond description, beyond words.
But its for that exact reason the artist must place the event into a context that allows for the possibility of growth and added insight. If Resnais was not willing to dedicate himself to the time and effort to accomplish this task, then the footage should have been left in storage to wait for the historian who's job it is to expose themselves to all available materials, or for the artist with enough guts, vision and wisdom to shoulder the responsibility that is placed upon them when working with one of histories most heinous and darkest moments.
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