Essays & Columns & Lists

Jan 1 2017

So… about 2016 (Chapter 1): Me and the NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll

 

This was my fourth year to be invited to participate in the Jazz Critics Poll at NPR Music.  Begun originally by respected jazz critic Francis Davis back when the Village Voice was his home turf, this nifty compilation of Jazz’s best of 2016 is now housed over at the NPR site.  This was the poll’s 11th edition.  I’m no less flattered today than I was the first time around I was asked to submit a ballot.

Here is a LINK to the amalgamated results, showing the top ten and also the top sixty, as well as some sub-categories.  It includes comments from Davis on each of the top ten results.  They also have sample tracks from each of the albums that fell in the top ten, and links to various other articles about the artists.

Davis talks about this year’s results in a column on the NPR site HERE, with an expanded take on this year’s winner Henry Threadgill.

Also, the individual ballots are compiled and maintained by Tom Hull over on his site, Hullworks.  Here’s a LINK to view the entire list of albums that received votes.  In addition, there’s now a list of all of the jazz critics (LINK), with each leading to their specific ballot.  My ballot (Dave Sumner) can be found HERE.

Every year that I compile and create my own site’s year-end Best Of list reinforces my genuine respect for the work Davis, Hull and the NPR staff put into making this thing happen.  It’s a mammoth undertaking to be sure.

Here was my ballot:

Album of the Year

  1. Taylor Ho Bynum – “Enter the PlusTet” – (Firehouse 12 Records)
  2. Jon Armstrong – “Burnt Hibiscus” – (Orenda Records)
  3. Eric Hofbauer Quintet – “Prehistoric Jazz Volume 3 (Three Places in New England)” – (Creative Nation Music)
  4. Michael Blake – “Fulfillment” – (Songlines)
  5. Jonathan Finlayson & Sicilian Defense – “Moving Still” – (Pi Recordings)
  6. Laurent Rochelle Okidoki Quartet – “Si tu regardes” – (Linoleum Records)
  7. Moonbow – “When The Sleeping Fish Turn Red And The Skies Start To Sing In C Major I Will Follow You Till The End” – (ILK Music)
  8. Psychic Temple – “Plays Music for Airports” – (Joyful Noise Recordings)
  9. Ian Carey – “Interview Music (A Suite for Quintet+1)” – (Kabocha Records)
  10. Stijn Demuynck – “Pouancé” – (Self-Produced)

Best Debut:  Stijn Demuynck – “Pouancé” – (Self-Produced)

Best Latin Jazz:  Edward Simon – “Latin American Songbook” – (Sunnyside Records)

Best Vocals Jazz:  Jon Armstrong – “Burnt Hibiscus” – (Orenda Records)

Reissue/Historical:  No submission

There’s no sense talking about any of my Album of the Year selections, since I covered that territory on my Best of 2016 list.  My vote for the Latin Jazz category went to Edward Simon’s excellent 2016 session; It, too, made the Best of 2016 list.  This is the second year in a row that I didn’t vote for anything in the Reissue/Historical category.  I just don’t have time to dig into that stuff.  I’m focused on music being made today, not on music from the last century.  Besides, there’s certainly no shortage of writers who are focused on Jazz’s past.  That said, I remember when Resonance Records began issuing older recordings a few years back.  I would touch upon them now and again for my eMusic and Wondering Sound columns.  Based on this year’s poll, it would appear that their impressive streak is continuing on.

Of the ten albums I selected for album of the year, six of those recordings didn’t receive a vote other than my own.  Two of the albums (Eric Hofbauer and Michael Blake) received a vote from one other critic than myself.  And two albums (Bynum and Finlayson) received multiple votes in addition to my own.  This disparity between my own ballot and those of the other critics is consistent with that of prior years.

Some thoughts about the amalgamated Critics top ten recordings of 2016

Here’s the Critics amalgamated list (with total points and total voters following each):

  • Henry Threadgill Double Up Ensemble, Old Locks and Irregular Verbs (Pi) 257.5 (41)
  • Wadada Leo Smith, America’s National Parks (Cuneiform) 233 (35)
  • Jack DeJohnette-Matt Garrison-Ravi Coltrane, In Movement (ECM) 194.5 (28)
  • Mary Halvorson, Away With You (Firehouse 12) 183 (29)
  • Michael Formanek Ensemble Kolossus, The Distance (ECM) 172.5 (27)
  • Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke (ECM) 170 (27)
  • Nels Cline, Lovers (Blue Note) 165 (23)
  • Matt Wilson’s Big Happy Family, Beginning of a Memory (Palmetto) 131.5 (22)
  • Charlie Haden/Liberation Music Orchestra, Time/Life: Song for the Whales and Other Beings (Impulse!) 128 (20) *
  • Steve Lehman, Sélébéyone (Pi) 127 (20)

Henry Threadgill is a brilliant artist.  I’ve raved about some recent recordings, though it’s his older stuff that still holds the greatest appeal to me.  His newest never really connected with me, and it didn’t strike me as particularly notable or special.  But Threadgill can be difficult to warm to, even for fans of his music (ie, me), so it’s possible one day I’ll give it another listen and think, wait, why didn’t that make my top ten?

Wadada Leo Smith placed two albums in the amalgamated top ten list.  Smith is something like the Ken Burns of jazz.  He picks a huge subject and then builds an epic recorded piece around it.  National Parks was the latest subject.  The album has its moments, but just gets listless at times, and comes off as empty and distant.  I’ve had this issue with other Smith recordings.  Sometimes his music is like gazing into someone’s eyes and you can just tell from their vacant stare that they’re off somewhere else.  His collaboration with Vijay Iyer is nice enough, but nothing that ever received any consideration when I put together this site’s Best Of list.

I really enjoyed the Coltrane-DeJohnette-Garrison recording.  It has one of my favorite tracks from 2016.  I included this album is one of my recent ECM Records rundowns.  The album got a little bit of consideration for this site’s Best Of list.  I’m not surprised to learn that other people also were excited by this fun live recording.

As I’ve expressed previously on this site, I have some strong feelings about the music of Mary Halvorson.  I’m not gonna rehash them here.  But I did enjoy her 2016 release very much.  I wrote some words about it (LINK).

If there’s one album that haunts me for not making this site’s Best Of list, it’s that Michael Formanek.  It was the very last cut before finalizing the top thirty.  I’ll be writing something about that album in the upcoming weeks.  I’m still taking it in.  Just when I think I’ve fully absorbed it, something new makes me take a different perspective on what I’m hearing.

The Matt Wilson, LMO and Nels Cline recordings are all nice albums.  Each has qualities that will make them enjoyable listens.  None received any consideration for this site’s Best Of list.  On the other hand, that Steve Lehman recording did receive some consideration.  Quite a bit, actually.  If a musician makes a statement with their recording, that can go a long way to earning them a slot on the list.  Lehman definitely makes a statement with Sélébéyone.  I wrote about it for Bandcamp (LINK).

Of the amalgamated list, the three major labels owned and/or distributed by Universal Music Group (Blue Note, Impulse and ECM) claimed half of the top ten slots.  Blue Note Records has found an intriguing way of reinventing itself.  ECM Records had, in my opinion, a very strong year in comparison to the last handful.  In every way that Blue Note is succeeding, Impulse Records is flailing.  Someone needs to put that once-great label out of its misery.  I’m tired of seeing it flopping around like a fish stranded on the shore.  Either that, or someone needs to figure out how to get it swimming again.  But the point I was going to make here is not to get the wrong impression that the best jazz being made today is on UMG labels.  The landscape for labels is too diverse for any one label to dominate a list like that.  Of my top thirty, no one label has more than two inclusions on the list.  That’s not by design; it’s the reality of the talent pool.  And that’s not even taking into account all the solid self-produced recordings.  It’s the smaller labels like Cuneiform, Hubro, PI Recordings, For-tune, Auand, Underpool, El Negocito, Edition Records, PJCE, Whirlwind, Firehouse 12 Records and Traumton putting out the cutting music of today.  And not one of them has a leg up on any other.  The days of the major labels dominating the landscape are gone… no matter the distorted view given by the NPR list.  But you don’t have to go searching all of those labels (and more, believe me, there are many more)… that’s what we do for you at Bird is the Worm.  We Search.  You listen.

And that about wraps it up for today.  Remember, as I stressed previously, go to town on that NPR Music Jazz Critics list… and not just the top ten list, but all the albums that received votes.  Many of them have been written about on this site, but this is a great opportunity for you to revisit some albums that maybe you didn’t give enough attention before.

I may be writing a couple more Year In Review columns over the next couple days.  I always have plans to do some year-end extravaganza, but just compiling the year-end Best Of list wipes me out, and then suddenly I’m faced with all of the new albums about to be released in the new year.  So, we’ll just see how it goes.

Thanks again for stopping by.  I hope 2017 is the best year ever.

Cheers.

By • Announcement - Music, Essays & Columns & Lists, Other Writing • 4

Jan 1 2016

So… about 2015 (Chapter 1): Me and the NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll

 

BitW square avatarThis was my third year to be invited to participate in the Jazz Critics Poll at NPR Music.  Begun originally by respected jazz critic Francis Davis back when the Village Voice was his home turf, this nifty compilation of Jazz’s best of 2015 is now housed over at the NPR site.  This was the poll’s 10th edition.  I’m no less flattered today than I was the first time around I was asked to submit a ballot.

Here is a LINK to the amalgamated results, showing the top ten and also the top sixty, as well as some sub-categories.  It includes comments from Davis on each of the top ten results.  They also have sample tracks from each of the albums that fell in the top ten, and links to various other articles about the artists.

Davis talks about this year’s results in a column on the NPR site HERE, with an expanded take on this year’s winner (a tie) between Rudresh Mahanthappa for Bird Calls and Maria Schneider for The Thompson Fields.

Also, the individual ballots are compiled and maintained by Tom Hull over on his site, Hullworks.  Here’s a LINK to view the entire list of albums that received votes.  In addition, there’s now a list of all of the jazz critics (LINK), with each leading to their specific ballot.  My ballot (Dave Sumner) can be found HERE.

Every year that I compile and create my own site’s year-end Best Of list reinforces my genuine respect for the work Davis, Hull and the NPR staff put into making this thing happen.  It’s a mammoth undertaking to be sure.

So, about those results… As you may have guessed, I have an opinion or two, oh yes.  Also, I’m gonna embed some music from my favorite albums of 2015 for you to listen to as you read.

 

Here’s my ballot:

1.    Chris Lightcap, Epicenter (Clean Feed)
2.    Rudresh Mahanthappa, Bird Calls (ACT)
3.    Kamasi Washington, The Epic (Brainfeeder)
4.    PRISM Quartet, Heritage/Evolution Volume 1 (Innova)
5.    Giovanni Francesca, Rame (Auand)
6.    Tomoko Omura, Roots (Inner Circle)
7.    Greg Foat Group, The Dancers at the Edge of Time (Jazzman)
8.    Eric Hofbauer, Prehistoric Jazz, Vol. 1: The Rite of Spring (Creative Nation Music)
9.    Reijseger Fraanje Sylla, Count Till Zen (Winter & Winter)
10.  Ghost Rhythms, Madeleine (self-released)

Vocal:   Charenee Wade, Offering: The Music of Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson (Motéma)
Debut:   Kamasi Washington, The Epic (Brainfeeder)
Latin:   Carlos Henriquez, Bronx Pyramid (Blue Engine)
Reissue/Archival:   No submission

In what some might refer to as a surprising turn of events, a few of my selections actually correspond to the amalgamated list.  In previous years, that wasn’t the case.  In fact, this may be the first year when any of my top ten selections appeared in the amalgamated top ten.  My #1, #2 & #3 selections (Chris Lightcap, Rudresh Mahanthappa and Kamasi Washington) were #10, #1 and #4 in the amalgamated list.  In addition, my #23 album of the year (Charles Lloyd) received the #9 slot on the amalgamated list, and my #21 selection (Mike Reed’s PP&T) got the #23 slot on the NPR poll.

For the sub-genre categories, my choice of Kamasi Washington as having the Debut of the year was in line with the amalgamated list.  I was joined by two other critics in choosing Carlos Henriquez for the Latin Jazz category.  Worth noting that several of the albums that received more votes in Latin Jazz were receiving serious consideration from myself, too, as I put together my ballot.  And I was joined by three other critics on my choice of Charenee Wade in the Vocal category.  Her album Offering: The Music of Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson also received the #29 slot on my Best of 2015 list.

I didn’t make a selection in the Archival/Reissues category.  I had in previous years, despite my focus on only new music, but that was primarily due to my weekly recommendations column for eMusic and Wondering Sound, which, obviously, didn’t have any qualms with focusing on archival material.  So, as a result, I kept on top of older music being reissued (or issued for the first time).  But that column ended this year, and so I just didn’t feel as compelled to to keep abreast with what was being released by way of old stuff, and, consequently, I didn’t feel like I should cast a vote.  I mean, I feel like if I’m gonna cast a vote, it’s gotta be because I have listened to a wide swath of that particular music category and can offer an experienced opinion on what’s what.  Otherwise, it’s just a list (or selection) of what I’ve listened to and not any kind of qualitative assessment.  But that’s just what I think.

But even though some of my choices corresponded to the amalgamated list, overall, however, many of my selections received a vote only on my ballot.  Recordings by Giovanni Francesca, Ghost Rhythms and Reijseger/Fraanje/Sylla had only me vouching for them.  I was joined by an additional critic, however, in casting a vote for albums by Tomoko Omura, Prism Quartet and Greg Foat Group.  Eric Hofbauer only received my vote on this year’s poll, but someone gave his The Rite of Spring a vote on the 2014 poll.  It’s album album that came out right on the cusp of my “voting year” cutoff (Nov. 1 – Oct. 31).  It’s very likely that whoever voted for it last year may have received a copy of it sooner than I and had enough time to absorb the music and judge it.  So, really, the Hofbauer counts as having received two votes.

I don’t mind that the albums I’ve chosen aren’t getting the recognition they deserve (yet).  As I’ve stated previously, it’s my sincere belief that the Jazz Critics Poll provides the opportunity for those albums to receive a second look by other critics.  The albums definitely deserve it.  And I’m thrilled to be given the additional platform of the NPR poll to provide that opportunity.

Let’s go over some of the albums that made the Critics top ten list.  As with previous years, what I write below may be kind of harsh… about the only time you’ll see me taking that tone about music on this site.  These year-in-review posts are the only time I really indulge that kind of negativity.  That said, it’s so very important to remember that each of you should decide on your own what you think about these recordings.  The NPR site article includes embedded audio for you to give a listen yourself.  It’s also worth noting that each of them were included in my weekly recommendations column, so it’s not like there’s an album on the Critics top ten list that is so offensive as to incur a beating.  But, yes, I have an opinion or two.

1.  (Tie) Rudresh Mahanthappa Bird Calls and Maria Schneider The Thompson Fields

Mahanthappa received the #2 slot on my Best of 2015 list, so there’s no reason for me to go into this selection.  Just read what I wrote for his album on my own list (LINK).  I really like the Schneider recording, and though it didn’t make my top thirty Best Of list, it did receive some consideration, and I can see how it would captivate the ears of other critics.  As I wrote back when it first came out, it has “an expansive sound possessing a sightline that just seems to go on forever.”  Plus, a new Maria Schneider recording has become something of an event in jazz circles (deservedly), so that’s gotta play a factor in it, too.  Am I surprised to see this album receive a share of the top slot?  No, not really, not really at all.

3.  Jack DeJohnette Made in Chicago

Okay, whatever.  I just don’t see it.  It’s a live performance of some serious jazz giants that came holding some AACM action.  But it’s often muddled, and too many times I found the music’s dramatics a little bit dull.  If you told me you were at the show and it was one of the best things you’ve ever heard, okay, I believe that, but if it’s gonna get put on a recorded medium, that electricity sure as hell better come through when I’m sitting at home and hitting the play button.  Honestly, the only reason I included it in my recommendations column was because I sort of felt like I should in consideration of the talent pool contributing to the recording, and figured, hey, it might float the boat of one or three readers.  But here it is on a critics top ten list.  Let’s move on.

4.  Kamasi Washington The Epic

9.  Charles Lloyd Wild Man Dance

10.  Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth Epicenter

I’m not gonna talk any about the above three since they all appeared on my site’s Best of 2015 list top thirty, so there’s no real disagreement between me and the Critics.  But I will add that my statement about a live performance recording and electricity… that’s something that Charles Lloyd and crew definitely understood when they put together their Wild Man Dance recording.  That album delivers all kinds of heavy voltage to the listener at home, oh yes.

5.  Vijay Iyer Trio, Break Stuff

Iyer is about as talented as they come on piano.  I probably enjoyed Break Stuff more than any of his other recordings.  It’s a good album, but that’s about as strong a reaction as the recording elicits from me.  That’s how it is for me now and it’s how it was for me when I wrote something about it when it first came out.

6.  Henry Threadgill Zooid In For a Penny, In For a Pound

This album may be one that I regret not giving a slot on my site’s Best of 2015 top thirty list.  It was my Album of the Week when it first came out (LINK), and I still like the recording very much today.  But me and Threadgill’s music go way back, as far back as to when I first started getting into modern jazz, and there’s always been a slow acclimation process for me warming to any one of his particular albums.  In a year, maybe more maybe less, as I continue to listen to this nifty album, the connections between me and the music may continue to strengthen, and I get to where I think, yeah, probably should’ve given this album one of the thirty slots on my Best of 2015 list.  But that’s par for the course with these lists… time always nudges things around.

7.  Mary Halvorson Meltframe

I’ve got some strong feelings about this album and about the musician.  I don’t see how this album gets anywhere close to a top ten list.  I don’t even think this album is Jazz.  Unless I’m wrong.  And I could be.  I really really really might be wrong.  But I don’t think so… at least, not now.  Halvorson and her crazy guitar action might require, say, thirty to fifty years (conservatively) before I or anyone else who isn’t insane can figure her music out.  Y’know what, go and read what I wrote about this album, because I think it adequately captures what I’m trying to say here (LINK).  But the point I want to get across is that if you are reading this and you are a critic and you are one of the critics who voted for Meltframe, then I think you are insane, because no reasonable person would listen to this album and think, “Oh, hey, sure, I get what this album is trying to say and now I’m going to make a logical, level-headed assessment of it and measure how it stacks up to other albums in the context of the modern jazz environment and then give it a numerical value, voila!”  No freakin’ way.  Come talk to me in thirty years and maybe we can figure this album out together.

8.  Steve Coleman and the Council of Balance Synovial Joints

A real nice album that possesses equal amounts of sharp intelligence and raw emotional power.  It was one of the final cuts for my top thirty Best of 2015 list, and it was one that pained me considerably when I finalized the list and saw that it was standing on the outside looking in.  The way my sliding ratios work when constructing the list gave it a possible value as high as #15, which just proves how slight the difference is between a #15 and #35 album.  No issues with this receiving a top ten slot on the Critics list.  Here’s a LINK to when I first wrote about the album around its release date.

*****

And that about wraps it up for today.  Remember, as I stressed previously, go to town on that NPR Music Jazz Critics list… and not just the top ten list, but all the albums that received votes.  Many of them have been written about on this site, but this is a great opportunity for you to revisit some albums that maybe you didn’t give enough attention before.

I’ll be writing a couple more Year In Review columns over the next couple days.  Check back in tomorrow for another.

Cheers.

By • Essays & Columns & Lists, Other Writing • 4

Jan 2 2015

Old year bleeds into the New. New year gets a heartbeat.

 

BitW square avatarSo, about 2014…

I always forget what a massive effort it is to compile these Best Of lists.  I go into them thinking, hey, this’ll be fun, talking about the best of the best music, and since I’m just writing up opinion-y synopses for each, it’ll be simple.  I can just coast through December.  And then by the end of December, I’m lucky to have the will to string together more than a couple sentences.  I love doing the whole Best Of thing, but I’m also glad when it’s over.

I forget stuff.  Like last year, I forgot to schedule my Label of the Year, Best of Reissues/Archival, my Favorite Non-Jazz by Jazz Artists column, and my Best of Previous Years Revisited.  I meant all of those to precede my Best of 2014 reveals, but, yet again, forgot.  I’ll be posting them sometime in January.  The drafts are pretty well done, but I’m going to take some time to finish putting them together.  Don’t be surprised if you see a bunch of These Are Videos That I Like posts over the next week or two.

I was caught off guard by how many albums appearing on my Best of 2014 list hadn’t been written up on my site by the end of November.  It’s not unusual for there to be a couple.  I believe I had about three each in 2012 and 2013, maybe four each.  This year, I was lucky to have enough open slots to finish writing everything up before the Best of 2014 reveals began.  And even then, I still have two that had to fall into January 2015 (Diego Barber and The Westerlies).  On some of the boards I frequent, there’s been talk of 2014 being a down-year in Jazz.  I no longer think that’s the case.  What I think typifies 2014 in Jazz is that the best music of the year is some of the more complicated albums… and not just in terms of their technical complexity, but also by their way of challenging what we consider Jazz.

One of the challenges I have as a writer about this music is providing some sort of context.  It doesn’t have to be much, but I think it helps to provide a sort of positioning reference, like a genre-GPS, of how a particular album fits in the overall landscape.  That’s difficult to do when there’s a massive sea between that landscape and the album I’m writing about.  That means I need to spend more time listening to the album and that writing about it will be that much more difficult.  I believe it’s why I had to race to get as many write-ups completed in December, and I believe it’s the quality that most signifies the best jazz in 2014… The Year in Challenging Music.

So, some of 2014 will bleed into 2015…

Coming up in January are lengthy write-ups of albums by The Westerlies and Diego Barber.  The Barber one is almost finished, though I need to email him some interview questions.  I’ve received answers to my Westerlies questions, but I still (still) haven’t yet figured out how to present everything I’ve written.  But they will be going up in January.  That’s for sure.

I’ll also be putting up columns of Label of the Year, Best Reissues/Archival, my Favorite Non-Jazz albums by Jazz Artists, and a Best of 2013 (revisited) column.  The rest of the January slots will be taken up by albums that I never got around to writing about from earlier in 2014 (like Jason Moran’s Fats Waller project), and also some albums that popped up at the end of 2014.

I’m not sure when I’ll begin the weekly recommendations column again.  In previous years, it would start showing up on eMusic/Wondering Sound around mid-January.  I’m tentatively planning on starting back up on January 14th, but I’m giving myself the out of doing an abbreviated one that week and starting back in for real on the 21st.  No news yet on a permanent home for the weekly recommendations column or whether I’ll go to a subscription service.  The next couple of weeks will see me formulating plans and approaches for that.  But for the time being, it’ll be hosted here on this site.

What’s ahead for 2015…

Diverging dramatically from past year predictions, I don’t have any real big plans for 2015.  I plan to write short-and-sweet recommendations of albums.  In some instances, I intend to take advantage of my brevity to include past albums from the same artist who has a new release out.  I have a few long form pieces that I’m working on, but there’s no ETA on those.  Other than that, mostly what you saw in October & November of 2014 is what you’ll see going forward.

I think “steady as she goes” will be my watchword(s) for the first half of 2015.  After that, well, we’ll pretty much just have to see how everything shakes out.

I’d like to end by expressing, again, how much I appreciate each of you for stopping by and checking out the site.  I really hope you’re all finding cool new music and having fun doing it.

Let’s end with a video for the Bird is the Worm 2014 Album of the Year, Fire! Orchestra.  It begins with an interview of Mats Gustafsson and then leads into a live performance of Part I of the album, Enter.

 

Here’s hoping for a very happy 2015 for all of us.

Cheers.

By • Announcement - Site & General, Essays & Columns & Lists, Other Writing, These are videos that I like • 0 • Tags:

Nov 2 2014

So, about those recent “I hate Jazz” articles…

 

BitW square avatarSo, I went on a pretty long Twitter rant.  I finally had to stop blowing up everybody’s timelines and just finish my stream of thoughts here in a post.

It began after reading this recent Ted Gioia column for the Daily Beast (LINK).  It talks about the recent surge of jazz backlash in the media.

I’m cool with his column, but whatevs.  I’ve pretty well restrained myself from commenting on any of these “jazz sucks” columns that have been popping up lately.  I guess that’s over.

Here’s some quick hit thoughts on items brought up by Gioia or just stuff hanging around my head waiting for an opportunity to pounce.

Let’s begin…

Yes, the Rollins piece wasn’t funny. Obvious.

But has anyone pointed out that the bitterness & disillusionment attributed to Rollins might be real for a lot of jazz musicians?

That jazz musicians avoid thinking things like “I wasted my life” like struggling married couple avoid bringing up the D-word?

Jazz takes enormous time & passion to excel. Creativity as a business is even harder. Fear & bitterness & doubt can creep in.  The New York Times piece (unintentionally, I believe) mocks that. Or, at the very least, is casually dismissive of it.

I mean, think of the hardships Rollins went thru in life, both creatively, but also socially & financially via racism & rock’s ascendency?

Are you telling me that he didn’t occasionally struggle with the fear of “I wasted my life” during vulnerable moments?

I don’t think Django Gold was trying to be cruel. I think his poorly crafted article may have been unintentionally insightful in this one instance.

I don’t know Mr. Rollins & I don’t know if my assumptions have any validity. But it’s understandable why other musicians might take offense.

Anyways, that’s the part I of the Django Gold piece I was offended by.

That WaPo column, otoh, was just plain stupid & lazy. I don’t mind if people don’t like Jazz, but don’t dismiss what you won’t explore.

Especially modern jazz, which isn’t explored by the mainstream as much as it should since it incorporates many of the mainstream qualities.

A lot of it sounds more “indie” than jazz. Jazz evolves. It changes. It’s always absorbed other influences, a melting pot of sound.

Each new generation of jazz musicians are different from the previous. They are influenced by new music & new societal forces.
It shouldn’t be surprising that a lot of modern jazz sounds like stuff that doesn’t get categorized as jazz in the first place.

The identity of mod jazz is more diffuse than at any time in its history. Its sound is less recognizable. Mod jazz is hard to sum up.

And that is its strength, even though it is often pointed to as a weakness. However, its diversity makes it more substantial. Bigger.

But I think some misconstrue it as representative as something insubstantial, something easily knocked over by some jabroni who wants some cheap page views.

But they are wrong.

Don’t fear the confidence of modern jazz artists. If they didn’t posses confidence, the music wouldn’t sound as good as it does.

It would be tepid & mimic the jazz of the past & wouldn’t take risks, even in the face of almost certain commercial inviability. It wouldn’t be art. It would be homage.

I just read that Atlantic review of the new Bill Frisell album. It mirrors a lot of my own review (LINK).  Also, it’s not a jazz album, and I think Frisell has gotten to where it’s probably not even accurate to refer to him as a jazz musician.  He does his own thing and he sort of transcends genre classification.  Yes, he got his start in Jazz, and we can claim him as “one of our own,” but not sure it’s applicable to a why is everyone hating jazz theory (too lazy to hyphenate that thing).

But Frisell, after a career of inventive, massively creative music, has really hit a lull with his last few albums.  Me, personally, I have strong feelings about his music, good or bad.  That’s how it is.

Jazz is the Worst is not very funny on Twitter, though I definitely enjoyed both of his blog posts.  I believe that kind of development has more to with a natural blowback against the JazzBro phenomenon.  Unsurprising.

The problem with the defensiveness some of us feel from the “inaccuracies” in columns like the Deadspin one are that, one, it doesn’t represent how we feel or behave, but, two, it does reflect a backlash against some jazz fans who do fit the stereotype of snob/condescending asshole.  Like any general group of people, Jazz Fans is comprised of a wide array of people, and some of them are total pricks.  We do what we can to ignore them or change them or shout them down.

But I sure as hell don’t deserve to have their bad behavior attributed to me.  And I get pissed off when my hard work to change peoples’ opinions on the approachability of jazz are shot down by some knucklehead working for a large media outlet spewing off his witless generalizations about something he or she hasn’t bothered to research and develop a familiarity with.

I believe that I make a welcoming environment for people to explore modern jazz.  Unfortunately there are some people who use their knowledge of jazz as a weapon to hammer into other people the idea that they’re stupid for not knowing something.

Of course people are going to prematurely dismiss something when they expect to be called stupid.  They are going to hate the haters first.

What I don’t like is that these columns calling out “jazz fans” for behavior is attributing the behavior of the worst of us to the group overall.  Fuck that.  I don’t want people to feel stupid for not knowing things about jazz.  I want them to experience the excitement of getting familiar with it, discovering new music, discovering music that brings them happiness.

It’s the whole reason I have this site.  I absolutely love discovering cool new music.  I want to be able to help others do the same.  I want to help guide people to music they may like.  They won’t like all of it and that’s okay.  If I find one album a month that makes me wonder how I got through life without it, that’s a pretty big deal.

Okay, I think I’m out of steam on this one.  I’ll add more if it comes to me, but I think I got that out of my system.

Here’s where you can follow me on Twitter-> LINK.

And here’s a song I like from a 2014 release.  It’s by Angles 9, and you shouldn’t be surprised if it ends up in my Best of 2014 list…

 

You can read my recommendation of their 2014 release, Injuries, here, at Bird is the Worm.

Have a great Sunday!

Cheers.

By • Essays & Columns & Lists, Other Writing • 0 • Tags:

Oct 26 2014

So, you want to start a music blog… (Part II)

 

So, you want to start a music blog… (Part II)

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(You can read Part I by following this LINK)

I’ve only been at this three years, which in terms of internet music blogs, that’s a pretty long time.  As far as figuring out how to best run an internet music blog… well, I’m not sure exactly how much time that takes, but I can tell you from experience that three years doesn’t get you far.

Here’s some things I regret not thinking of when I first began my site.  It will cover subjects of set-up, content structure and formatting, content organization, content frequency, social media, website traffic, advertising, promotional materials, artist/label/PR rep relationships, networking, time management and You.

I’m probably forgetting a couple of important topics.  Perhaps I’ll cover those in my “Year Four” article.  I’ll covered about half of these items in Part I (last week’s column) and now here’s Part II.

Worth noting:  As opposed to last week’s column, which focused on site creation and organization, today’s will focus more on navigating the field and getting yourself noticed and sourced by people in the music industry.  Now, if you’re only looking to have a music blog that highlights the albums on your shelves and couldn’t care less about what’s new today, then today’s column is going to be less relevant than last week.  But if you are into what’s being released every week (in any genre) and want to be a source of what’s new, then today’s column will also be helpful.

As always, I’ve embedded some of my favorite music from 2014 into the body of the column.

Let’s begin…

 

(“Up,” from Spacelab by Hess/AC/Hess)

 

Where do you start?

I got lucky with this one.  I mean, you have your brand new site.  You’ve picked out the theme and the format and all the little ornamental extras that enhance the aesthetic.  Now what?  What the hell do you write?  No matter how much you tinker with the site’s design, you’re still going to be faced with that first blank page.  Where do you start?

Me, I had two avenues to take, both similar in nature and, I believe, not a bad direction to take yourself.  My original plan, when the idea to start up a music blog first formed in my head, was to simply write about albums on my CD shelf and iTunes library that floated my boat.  Most of them would be modern jazz, but I’d hit on some under-the-radar “classics” too.  But two things happened in the span of time when I first got the inkling to start a blog and when I actually flipped on the Open sign.  One, I got the eMusic gig.  Part of the deal with that thing is that I have the ability to reprint my eMusic (now Wondering Sound) synopses thirty days after they’ve been initially published.  Well, that’s what I did.  Literally.  I added some links and personnel names and embedded audio when I could find it… but that’s all I changed.  These were true reprints and those early posts, well, as they might say in my new hometown down here in the South… “bless his heart, he really tried, didn’t he?”  But even though those early posts were sort of lame in a way, they provided a very nice source of help on what to write about.

So did Number 2 of my two-part what-changed premise… I began my site at the end of the year.  As you’ll come to discover, and which I’ll address briefly later, end of the year means the Season of Lists.  This is when you encapsulate everything that’s happened in the year and highlight the best of the best.  Well, end of the year is when I opened my door, so I had a whole lot of summarizing to do.  Much in the style of my eMusic Jazz Picks synopses, I wrote a series of columns that highlighted the best of 2012.  I wrote little paragraphs for each album, about five albums per column, just briefly talking about the music and why I liked it.  Nothing fancy and definitely nothing that was going to get nominated for any writing awards.  But that’s kind of how many of the wrap-up columns go.  You’ve probably already written plenty about the music during the year when initially covering the music when it was first released.

What both of these two types of columns (eMusic Jazz Picks synopses and Best of 2012 synopses) did for me was put out a huge volume of mini-content on my site in a short period of time.  Between my use of social media and networking (addressed later in this column) and artists/labels/PR reps scouring the internet for relevant material, my site got noticed.  It wasn’t long before I was getting lots of promo material from artists and labels and reps asking me to review albums, conduct interviews, etc.  The question of what to write was answered for me.

I highly recommend writing a little about a lot of albums, a scatter-shot approach that is likely to get you noticed in short order.

(And some of those original column ideas?  I’ve never gotten to them.  I have some drafts of huge columns for Bill Frisell and Wayne Horvitz and Guillermo Klein just sitting there in draft form.  I get to them from time to time, but until I can do this thing full time and can ditch the day job, they’ll continue to evolve slowly.)

 

Getting Noticed, an addendum

As I mentioned in the previous section, part of getting noticed is putting your stuff in a position of being seen.  There’s some basic things you can do to get your site on the radar.

1.  Go knock on Google’s door and introduce yourself.

This was one I learned a little late.  You can submit your site’s URL, as well as the URL of specific content on your site and a site map, and this will trigger Google’s search engine to begin including you in search results that hit certain keywords and tags on your site.  Here’s a LINK to check those options out.  The option I chose was the second, “Link to a specific page…”  If I remember correctly, I asked Google to just check out my site’s main page (via the vanilla birdistheworm[dot]com URL) and to stop by and visit occasionally, because that’s where I’d be posting new material.  The other options are either very simplified or very complex.  They make it pretty straight-forward, so don’t worry if you don’t understand it all entirely.  It’ll become clear as you go through the steps.

But I couldn’t understand why my site was never showing up in most google search results.  This made it happen.

2.  Twitter, Facebook and probably a bunch of other social media sites.

My site has a dedicated Facebook page.  Every time there’s a new post on my site, I post a link to it on the Facebook page.  I probably don’t use the Facebook page as effectively as I could to get the word out about my content, but I at least get something up on that Page daily.  Other people (fans, musicians, labels, etc) who do use Facebook more effectively than I do, in fact, notice my posts, because my site traffic manager shows me how many people are coming to my site from Facebook posts.  Even if the idea of Facebook repulses you, go create one.  It’s painless.

Also, get on Twitter.  Now, I use Twitter a lot.  I like to hang there.  You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but you do need to create an account, and every time you make a post on your site, you need to send out a tweet about it and you need to include the Twitter handles of the artists and labels and PR reps in your tweet.  It’ll get them to notice you and they’ll retweet your link and the people following them on twitter will start heading to your site.  If you don’t want to shoot the breeze on Twitter, fine, no problem, but create a Twitter feed for your site and use it.

There are probably other social media sites you could be using.  I only use the two just mentioned.  None of it could hurt, so avail yourself of as much of it as you can handle.  But at least do the Facebook and Twitter thing.

Also, since you’re just starting out, you might want to email the artist and/or label directly and say, hey, here’s a link to something nice I just wrote about your album.  Maybe include a 1-3 sentence introduction, but I’m not even sure you need to do that… not so long as you’ve got a decent About Me page on your site.  If people want to send you promo materials, they’ll jump all over finding out who you are.  Most of the time.  Actually, let’s take a brief detour…

(“Battle Mountain,” from Battle Mountain by Ben Flocks)

 

Don’t feel bad that I’ve never heard of you… I’ve never heard of myself, either.

This next bit of advice (I feel like I should put that word in quotes) is based on a trend I noticed over time in my site stats.  Every now and then I see a huge spike in site traffic, and it’s gotten to where I can almost guess which review of the past handful of weeks instigated it.  Usually it’s from an unknown (or relatively unknown) artist who either self-produced their album or put it out on an unknown (or relatively unknown) label.  They almost certainly live in middle of nowhere Norway or middle of nowhere Poland or middle of nowhere Italy or they live in Seattle.  They will typically be a younger musician (though not always) and they will be all up on all kinds of social media sites just to hang while also promoting their music.  And if they see some nice words about their album on your site, they will link to it and they will get the word out like mad on all of their social media pages, letting their fans and friends and family know that, hey, look at the nice thing this person (you) said about me.

You’ll also start getting promo materials from anyone who contributed to the album.  If a small label is involved, invariably you will begin receiving promo materials for everything they release.  You’ll start getting followers and subscribers and your site traffic will go up and Google will notice you more because people are linking to your site on social media sites.

I bring this up only by way of anecdotal evidence that, if you’re faced with ten different albums that you feel equally strong about and can’t decide which one to write about, you might want to invest a few minutes of your time checking out the artists’ social media presence.  If it’s an active one, then you might want to consider choosing an album that will get that traffic boost.  It’ll help you get noticed, but even long after that stops being a consideration, it’s still pretty cool to see that spike in traffic.  I don’t get too wrapped up in the stats (more on that later), but I always enjoy seeing people are getting to my site and checking out all the great music I spotlight.  It makes me feel like I’m accomplishing my mission statement of spreading the word about great music… much of it obscure.

And speaking of obscure, if you start out writing about ECM Records or Blue Note releases, you’re not likely to get noticed right away.  Everybody writes about those albums and they can cherry-pick the stuff that holds the most prestige.  That’s probably not you.  Think about writing about a few albums by artists who aren’t seriously well-known.  They’re more likely to appreciate getting some print and put in the leg-work to spread the word about it.

Just something to think about.

 

Just say no (thanks).

Let’s jump ahead.  People are learning about your site.  You are getting review requests from artists and label and reps.  You haven’t yet reached the level of requests to where there’s no possible way for you to get to it all.  For now, it’s just dribbling in a little at a time.  Resist the temptation to write about things that you don’t much care for out of fear that the music faucet will get shut off if you say ‘no thanks.’  There are more than a couple of us who have succumbed early to that fear and written up an album or two that didn’t exactly float our boat.  It may not have been an effusive recommendation, but it still got a slot that, otherwise, never should’ve received the time of day.  I can think of two columns on my site that fit that category (though there may be a third, now that I think upon it).  But after a couple, I learned to just say ‘no thanks.’  I mean, if I’m not writing about the music that I think is truly important, then what the hell am I doing here?

But there’s no doubt that those early stages of getting noticed and receiving promo materials, etc, can be almost dizzying… a kind of intoxication in the changes of status, and it can be easy to lose sight of what’s what.  Don’t let that happen to you.  Write about the stuff you want to write about and write it the way that you want it to read.

Conversely, if you’re an artist or label or a rep who is having trouble getting print on a particular album, go find someone new to the scene.  You can probably jostle them into writing something up before they wise up to the just say ‘no thanks’ advice.

(“A Journey Through Hope,” from Sad & Beautiful by Emler/Tchamitchian/Echampard)

 

Where are all of you people coming from?

So, site traffic and stats.  Depending on your theme and platform, there are going to be a number of different tracking methods and tools available to you.  Depending on how much you want to focus on this aspect will guide you to which tools to use.  I haven’t delved much into this, so I don’t have a lot of advice for you here.  I have one site that uses the Jetpack stat tool (a basic free WordPress plugin; way simple to install and use).  I have another site that uses Google Analytics.  It’s way better and more detailed and because I just never really got into my site stats, I almost never take the trouble to analyze it.

What I do enjoy seeing (and Jetpack takes care of this) are the sections that tell me where my visitors are coming from and where they’re going when they leave the site.  I like seeing how many people are finding my site via Facebook and Twitter and which artist and label sites are linking to my site and sending people over.  I especially like seeing when people leave my site and go to retail links to buy the album or when they go to artist sites I’ve linked to, to learn more about that artist and maybe see if they’re touring anywhere nearby.

The thing about site traffic… don’t get too emotionally invested in it.  In the beginning, you’ll probably be checking your stats daily.  It’s understandable.  You want to see if anybody out there knows you’re there.  But once you’ve been around for a little while and have established yourself, that’s where the danger of stats becomes more evident.  You’ll have gone through a period (or three) of burnout.  You’ll come to see how much of your time the site takes and how much like a real job that it is, and it’s easy to become bitter when you look at your stats and think, WHY DON’T THEY APPRECIATE ME MORE?!  This is when it’s good to have a well-honed sense of humor.  I laughed that moment off, had a stiff drink, and moved on with things.  You should consider a similar approach.  Substitute where necessary, but definitely get laughter in there somewhere.

The thing of it is, I do want to get high traffic numbers, because that means people are checking out the music that I think they should be hearing.  I love discovering great new music and I am extremely gratified when I’m able to help do the same for others.  And I want these artists to succeed, and if people are reading about them on my site, then that increases their chances.  But you just have to stay patient and keep plodding on.  I can’t remember where, but music writer Marc Myers talks about a tipping point, where the slow accumulation of followers/readers/Likers/etc that comprise the concept of site traffic suddenly reaches a peak and one new reader a day becomes a hundred a day and the traffic numbers reach a level where the actual number becomes irrelevant.  It kind of reminds me of how professional poker players talk about how once the chip stacks become so high, the concept of $750,000 in chips versus $2 million in chips is irrelevant.. they’re just chips.

I guess where I’m going with that is don’t get too wrapped up in site traffic.  It’s one thing if you get off on analyzing the numbers because that’s kind of your thing, but don’t let emotions creep into it.  That’s a toxic situation.

 

About that site traffic…

If you think, eventually, you’d like to get some custom advertising on your site, start thinking about it early.  I touched upon this briefly in last week’s column in the section about site design.  If you like the idea of a musician or label buying some ad space, like a banner image for a new album or a sidebar box offering a free download, consider early on how you want to make that happen.  Think about the types of advertising you want to offer, how you’d package it and how much to charge.  The last part is the touchiest of the topics, but you can get guidance based on what current sites are doing.  Many of them post what they’re charging and have nice PDFs about the different options.

The other stuff, just get out in front of that early.  I regret that I didn’t.  I’ve had several offers to advertise on my site, but because I didn’t plan it out early: can my theme fit advertising in and, if so, where?  What kind of packages do I want to offer?  What do I need to do to make those packages a reality?  Do I need to have my own Bandcamp or SoundCloud Pro account?

Because now, my site is pretty much how my site is going to be, and my time is pretty much dominated by just getting up new content… figuring out how to take on advertising requests just doesn’t get made a priority.  It’s something that I should have addressed back in the day, when I was first starting the site up and had more options and time available to me.

Oh, and if you do plan on having advertising on your site, you’ll want to find a statistics tool that gives you the most perspectives on your site traffic.  Advertisers are going to want to know that stuff.

Something to consider.  It’s not something of great importance to my site specifically, but I do regret not investing some brainstorming time on it back on Day One.

 

Okay, I think that about covers it.

I hope you find some of this helpful.  Doubtlessly, I’ll pick up a few new things along the way and return with another column.

Cheers.

 

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