Jun 25 2012
New BitW Series: Reviews & Tiny Reviews- NYOP Editions
I’m going to begin putting the spotlight on some artists who have their albums set to NYOP (Name Your Own Price), which is exactly as it implies… you can purchase the album at any price you desire, including free. Pay whatever you like. And even if you choose Free, if down the road you decide that the album was more enjoyable than you first assumed, there is an option to go back and pay after the fact, again, at any price you choose.
It’s an interesting model, especially for artists who are unknown and just starting out, but also for artists who own the copyright to their music and want to rekindle interest in their older albums.
Most of the albums will be on the artists’ Bandcamp pages. If you’re unfamiliar with Bandcamp, it’s a music retail site like Amazon or iTunes. However, on Bandcamp, artists have control over their own “page” and, reportedly, Bandcamp takes less of a middleman cut than Amazon and iTunes, thus the artist makes more money from each sale. Also, the Bandcamp site offers a variety of downloadable file formats; so you can download in the normal MP3 format like you would anywhere else, but you can also download in lossless formats, which means larger file sizes but better sound quality. The price is the same no matter which file type you choose. And if you prefer CDs or Vinyl, many artists sell those mediums on their Bandcamp page, too. There will be occasions when the album will, instead, be streamable on the artist Soundcloud or Artist Site, but most will likely be a Bandcamp thing.
Anyways, I’m gonna do an occasional series of these NYOP Editions of Reviews & Tiny Reviews. Some I’ll post here, and some I’ll post over on the Music Is Good site. Worth noting that MiG also has posts of a similar nature for non-jazz albums.
Some reviews will be more comprehensive than others. There will be times that I give the album one listen and perform a brief write-up from that. The goal of this series is to get the spotlight on interesting music, rather than an analysis of what’s there.
If you are an artist and have an NYOP album that you want me to give a listen to, go ahead and drop a request in this post’s Comments section. That’s where I’ll respond yes or no.
Requirements to participate:
1. The album has to be set to Name Your Own Price (or Free, but with an option for fans to donate/pay as thanks for the music).
2. I must be able to stream the entire album online. It doesn’t have to be on a Bandcamp page; Soundcloud and Artist Sites are good. I only mentioned Bandcamp initially because that’s where I initially became familiar with the NYOP model. I don’t want to download the album, nor do I want physical copies sent to me. My computer is stuffed to the gills with music files, and I want you to be able to sell the physical albums at shows or to people who want to buy it that way online.
3. One request per artist. If I run out of material, I’ll send out some notices on Twitter saying that I’m open for multiple submissions. If you don’t follow me on Twitter, you really should. Not only do I disseminate important information, but I’m also fucking hilarious (or so I’ve told myself on numerous occasions). My Twitter handle is @BirdIsTheWorm.
4. Please be genuinely committed to the NYOP strategy. It doesn’t have to be for all of an artist’s albums. For instance, I’ll be doing a Tiny Review of an album for an artist who has one class of recordings as NYOP, but his “major” recordings at a normal retail price. I’m totally cool with that. I’m just asking that an artist not temporarily put their album at NYOP in order to get some print here, then switch it back to normal retail model after I publish the review. The NYOP model might not work for everyone, and it might not be an enduring good idea, but I want to add a little momentum to artists who are experimenting with new music retail strategies, because god knows, the music industry needs some.
I think that’s all I’ve got. We’ll see how this goes. I think this upcoming week will be dominated by the NYOP series, then I’ll start spreading them out a bit.
I’ll be posting the first article in the NYOP series momentarily, a review of Jason Parker Quartet‘s Five Leaves Left: A Tribute to Nick Drake.
In other BitW news, I’ve got two nice batches of Tiny Reviews just about ready to publish. It’ll either happen this week or next, depending on how the NYOP series goes. Also, I’ve got some reviews to pub for the ESP label by Frank Lowe, Marzette Watts, and Frank Wright; a couple are re-issues and one was never issued before. All three are very much in the free jazz school, recorded between ’66 & ’74. I don’t typically do older recordings, especially reissues, but I have a soft spot in my heart for ESP and have really been in the mood for some free jazz, so I made an exception.
Cheers, and thanks for visiting the site.
-Dave Sumner
Jun 25 2012
Review (NYOP Edition): Jason Parker Quartet – “Five Leaves Left: A Tribute to Nick Drake”
NYOP Edition: Review of Jason Parker Quartet‘s Five Leaves Left: A Tribute to Nick Drake.
The NYOP Review Series highlights albums set to Name Your Own Price by the artists with the goal of making price no obstacle to discovering their music.
Jason Parker Quartet – Five Leaves Left: A Tribute to Nick Drake
The late Nick Drake had a short but profound career, recording three folk-rock albums of sublime beauty and massive sadness. None of that music was particularly complex, but the melodies were vivid, the rhythms uncomplicated, and the emotional depth in which Drake gave voice to them made for some spectacular moments. However, that simplicity had to have been something of an obstacle for trumpet man Jason Parker, an admitted fan of Nick Drake, as he attempted to reconstruct the tunes into something a jazz quartet could sink their teeth into.
Your album personnel: Jason Parker (trumpet & flugelhorn), Josh Rawlings (piano), Evan Flory-Barnes (bass), D’Vonne Lewis (drums), and guests: Michele Khazak (vocals) and Cynthia Mullis (tenor sax & flute).
On this album, Parker performs the songs of Drake’s original album Five Leaves Left in their entirety and in the same album order as the original. The challenges Jason Parker faced in tackling the Nick Drake songbook and arranging it for a jazz outfit were two-fold.
Because much of Drake’s simplicity allowed his music to focus its emotional impact, it would be safe to assume that Parker would encounter the balancing act of honoring the emotion-simplicity ratio of Drake’s music and honoring his own music vision as well as that of his bandmates. He accomplishes this by not getting chained to Drake’s sadness, instead drawing out from each song the emotion that spoke to him musically.
The best example of this can be found in two songs: “Cello Song” and “Man In a Shed.” Parker flips “Cello Song” on its head, taking Drake’s sonic brooding and transforming it into an upbeat tune. After Flory-Barnes opens things up with some arco on the bass, Parker and Mullis kick back and blow, trumpet and sax taking turns shouting up to the sky. Lewis establishes a snappy bounce, while Rawlings adds shading where it needs it. Parker’s treatment of the melody is pretty damn identical to the original, but the emotional shift he incorporates into the song makes this the best example of Parker taking ownership of the Drake songbook, rather than just parroting the notes. On “Man In a Shed,” Parker doubles down on Drake’s stab at buoyancy by turning the song into a celebratory jig, an invitation to laughter, and not settling for Drake’s mere allusion to contentment.
The other substantial challenge Parker faced on this album falls more squarely into the lap of vocalist Michele Khazak. Drake had a signature velvety voice that sounded genuinely hopeful, but preeminently melancholy. For listeners who strongly embrace the Drake songbook, it can be tough to accept any voice other than Drake’s singing those words. On songs like “Time Has Told Me,” where Khazak keeps the Drake original on a tight leash, it’s not a particularly successful outcome. However, when Khazak breaks from the original, like on “Way To Blue,” she absolutely shines. Khazak turns away from the latent torpor in Drake’s voice and instead ignites her own burgeoning strength. The quartet uses her spark as a springboard into a performance with more fight and fire than the original even realized, perhaps, it possessed. It’s arguably the strongest moment on the album, with Khazak leading the charge.
The album is split about in half between vocal and instrumental tracks, with the latter consistently stronger, but with the former providing the more memorable moments.
Album ends with a duo performance of “Saturday Sun” with Parker on flugel and Rawlings on piano. They lend it all the subtlety and barely repressed weariness of the Drake original. It’s probably the best way to have ended a Nick Drake tribute album… subdued, simple, and evocative.
Personal Admission of Substantial Bias: I am a huge Nick Drake fan. His music made a serious connection with me back in the day, and its strength hasn’t waned. I don’t want to hear anyone fucking with his music or, more revelevant to me personally, my memory of his music. So this was a prickly obstacle to overcome. Also, when I first heard Parker’s tribute album nearly a year ago, unfortunately, it coincided with a Nick Drake listening binge that I was going through at the time, so there’s no doubt that colored my initial impression of the album. I keep revisiting Parker’s Five Leaves Left every couple months. I find myself liking it more, accepting it more on its own terms. That includes Khazak’s vocals in her “role” as the Nick Drake fill-in. It’s why I hesitate to fully articulate some of the strong feelings I have about this recording… because I’m able to measure the change in my opinion of the album in comparison to the change in my biases. I suppose the fact that I keep revisiting this album is evidence enough that there’s something happening here that should inspire everyone to take the time to listen. Worth noting, also, that I just “revisited” this album four times in a row today. Give it a chance. I’d be interested to hear an opinion of this album from someone(s) who isn’t a Nick Drake fan.
Released in March 2011. The album is Self-Produced. Jazz from the Seattle, WA scene.
Available on Parker’s bandcamp page, priced at Name Your Own Price (NYOP).
You can read more about the Bird is the Worm NYOP Review Series HERE.
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By davesumner • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2011 Releases, Jazz Recommendations: the NYOP editions • 0