In this issue of Music You Should Be Listening To:

We’ll take a wondrous musical journey with New York based band, Alberta Cross. I’ll discuss their September release Broken Side of Time, as well as their recent set in the Daytrotter studios.  In one word… Amazing!

We’ve also got some big news this week including not one but two upcoming releases from New Jerseys own, Real Estate. In the next 30 days the band will release their highly anticipated debut album as well as a brand new EP.  Jack White is also making headlines as he gears up for a new project featuring one very unlikely pairing. He’ll put his producing skills to the test as he once again teams up with a rock and roll icon.

Finally, I’ll let you in on the upcoming schedule for MySBLT. On the docket we have the first in a series of interviews with up-and-coming bands as well as a few concert reviews. Big things, they are a-coming! Read the rest of this entry »

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Direct from Valenica’s email newsletter!

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So I here I am in the New Jersey dust bowl sitting through Street Sweeper Social Club featuring Tom Morello.  While he is an innovative guitarist, I got nothing for him, I got nothing for Rage Against The Machine.  I am here for Nine Inch Nails.  If this is truly going to be one of those farewell tours that precede another farewell tour later on, I will be pissed.  Street Sweeper Social Club is a mutation of “Kid Rock meets Poser Metal”.  The PNC dust bowl is filling up and the crowd is respectably mixed in demographic.  Morello, the guitar player for SSSC, tells the crowd to stand up for their last song (thankfully) but I adhere to no such demands from any front person.

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The Bill Bruford Autobiography, definitive reading for progressive music fans, jazz fans, music practitioners from the novice to the professional, this book is the 21st century musician's survival guide. (Photo permission courtesy of Bill Bruford)

A few posts ago, I wrote about Bill Bruford, announcing his retirement from public performance as of the first of this year.  I was angry, I was hurt, I felt abandoned, and most of all I was disappointed that one of the primary warriors of mundane music had laid down his small wooden swords for the last time.  I could not understand why the world’s greatest drummer would hang it up while he was still undeniably a force in the industry, the industry he labels as “the industry of human happiness”.

Sometimes you need a good autobiography to make things clear, to garner the inside perspective.  But be warned, and I was taken aback by what I encountered, the ending of this book is not what you would expect from a player of Bruford’s qualifications.

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Direct from Valenica’s email newsletter, here’s the latest update about the Japan Tour and all of the Presale Information you need.

-leigh Silbernagel

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My order from Clean Feed came in yesterday.  In case you’ve been misled by those pop-jazz magazine polls into thinking the usual suspects (Blue Note, Verve, ECM) are actually issuing jazz recordings of real artistic interest, let me fill you in:  Clean Feed, a label based, perhaps rather improbably, out of Portugal,  is among the new leaders in creative improvised music.  The label, started in 2001, has performed brilliantly, and features some superb artists:  Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker, Tony Malaby, Steve Lehman, Charles Gayle, Paul Dunmall, and many other artists who are continuing to advance the art of creative improvised music.  Where the industry “giants” look for the next Norah Jones clone, or pop star in need of a jazz “makeover,” Clean Feed is still about the “sound of surprise.”   Blue Note used to be like this, but it has lost its way, depending upon a stream of reissues and pop crossovers to fill its roster and beholden to a corporate titan to adhere to the bottom line.  Blue Note is now part of the “industrial-musical complex.”    Anyway, the first two Clean Feeds out of the shipping box and into the CD player were Tony Malaby’s TAMARINDO, and Evan Parker’s A GLANCING BLOW. Read the rest of this entry »

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With each day, more and more disparaging news comes across our collective desk.  This could have been titled The Death Of Progressive Part Two.  The world’s premiere drummer, Bill Bruford, announced on his website his retirement from public performance effective the first of this year.  Before you all get bent out of shape about who the best drummer in the world is, remember, at the top of this post it SHOULD say “opinion” or “editorial”.  Remember, you don’t have to agree with my opinion.  But let’s examine what, in my opinion, makes Bruford the best.

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It’s that time of the year, when professional basketball teams, under the aegis of the NCAA, play out the ritual basketball frenzy known as March Madness.  Oh sure, they represent various colleges (64 to be exact), but this is Big Business; perhaps, one of the few big businesses still making a go of it in our recession-racked economy.  There will be the usual cheers, jeers and slam dunks to enliven one’s viewing.  We have a few of our own. Read the rest of this entry »

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Regular readers of this blog know that I have had some tussles with public radio in the past, most notably my ongoing critique with the disappointingly bland programming of WBGO (Newark, NJ).  Most recently, and closer to home, that is, my local jazz-public affairs station, WPFW, Washington, DC,, I have encountered some rather more serious reasons why I –and you– might want to look a little deeper into our public radio stations before we give them any more of our money–especially in this era when everyone else-from bankrupt banks to greedy CEOs– seem to want it also.  The question I wanted to answer was whether or not these stations handle the money they receive with the care and prudence which we expect them to handle it.  The answers I found were alarming.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Strange Interlude:  no live jazz this weekend. Looking forward to some good shows the next couple of weeks and will report on them of course.  In the meantime, some stray thoughts for your edification.

The recession has hit our friends at Downbeat.  The February 2009 issue has so little content it ought to come with a rebate coupon.  The cover story, “75 Great Guitarists” offers thumbnail (pinky nail?) sketches of, well, 75 guitarists.  This exercise in cloying nostalgia serves no valid purpose except to, once again, exploit the legends of Wes Montgomery and others to cover the lack of serious thinking and reporting that so  depressingly characterizes our mainstream jazz magazines.  Let’s have a good wallow in nostalgia, shall we?  Read the rest of this entry »

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Time to get back to work.  The holidays are mercifully over.  I was able to use a lot of my unused leave at my real job (and just to repeat, I do not work in a record store, nor do I work for Princeton Record Exchange alas).  I took last week off from blogging and just kicked back to listen to music and read, so far as I could in between all the usual holiday hoopla.   During that time,  I managed to listen to 54 CDs and LPs (rather uncharacteristically, I decided to keep track) and read several interesting jazz books.  I’ve been wondering:  is this too much, or not enough?  A vague feeling of guilt hovers about me (probably due to my parochial school upbringing):  was this time well-spent? 

Let me review briefly what I listened to and read, and you can form your own response to the question I’ve asked myself. 

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This is the time of year when we look back, take stock of what was, both the highs and lows, and look forward to what the new year brings. Let’s start with the Top 5 Worst Jazz magazine Cover Stories of the Year, shall we? Read the rest of this entry »

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I thought it might be fun, and perhaps even instructive, to make some head to head and round by round comparisons between our two heavyweight jazz mags, Dowbeat (DB) and Jazz Times (JT), as they compete for the hearts, souls, and dollars of jazz fans. JT clearly wants to lead the pack, as last week I received their January 2009 issue, while my copy of DB that came in the mail a few days later was only the Decemer 2008 issue. Apparently the DB group are either laggards or have undue respect for the calendar. I noticed that DB’s individual copy price is $4.99, while JT come sin at a bargain price of $4.95 an issue. I wonder what DB does with its extra 4 cents? Read the rest of this entry »

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Sated with good food, good company, and plenty of music listening, it was not easy to put on my blogger’s mantle, but then I saw the cover of the just-issued Jazz Times and, well, I was roused to blog a bit. Our pals at JT seem pretty much determined to prove my point that much of what passes for feature writing in their magazine is simple puffery, fed by the blast furnaces of PR hot air. What else can explain yet another cover story on Tony Bennet? The ostensible reason this time is Mr. Bennett’s new Christmas album with the “Basie Band.” How’s that for advancing the art of jazz? Read the rest of this entry »

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Valencia’s brand new video for “Where Did You Go?” is available now on their MySpace:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.showvids&friendID=1736005&n=1736005&MyToken=a8bb9674-06c6-4067-b527-4c8ac2fb4b45&utm_medium=columbia-email&utm_source=valencia&utm_campaign=columbia-email|valencia|20081121

-leigh silbernagel

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Well, it seems as if I have created a bit of a kerfuffle as a result of my post, “Why Our Jazz Magazines are Bad… and Bad for Jazz.” Who knew? It’s nice to know our little blogspot is getting some attention. In fact, Lee Mergner, editor of Jazz Times, on another website that I happened to come across by chance, huffed and puffed and, showing way more energy than in anything I have read by him or his staff of high-powered writers lately, tried to blow our post down. He didn’t even come close. The fact is, such an apoplectic response tells me that I have struck a nerve, and that the nerve was worth striking. One line from Lee’s blog post really caught my attention:

“For the record, I believe firmly that JazzTimes and Downbeat are much better magazines than most people in the jazz community realize.”

Lee, if “most people in the jazz community” don’t see the value in what Jazz Times and your colleagues at Downbeat put out each month, don’t you think it’s time for you to start trying to understand why they feel this way, start trying to listen to their concerns and criticisms, and start trying to make the sort of changes your magazine needs to make to again become a relevant and worthwhile voice in the jazz community? Read the rest of this entry »

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anthony hamitlon/The Point of It All/ So So Def/ Zombra Label Group

The six-time Grammy-nominated R&B-soul balladeer croons a melodic picture of life using straightforward lyrics as his mellifluous paintbrush on his junior effort The Point of It All: “Talking about relationships again… everything from making love to building love; having arguments, just life!”

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“FUSION LIVES!” trumpets the cover of August 2008 Jazz Times.  “They’re Back!” screams the August 2008 cover of Downbeat.  Two cover stories in the same month in the main jazz monthlies.  What’s going on here?  Well, for one thing, the hype machine is in Full Hot Air Mode.  For another, the PR-driven, editorially compromised character of the primary jazz mags stands nakedly revealed.  The Big Sell is on.  Are you buying? Read the rest of this entry »

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In my blog last week I commented upon the bland, pasteurized and altogether uninteresting jazz music programming I encountered on WBGO (Newark) while visiting the New York area for the Vision Festival.   I noted how I had always enjoyed listening to WBGO on previous trips to New York (I was born and grew up in New York City and still visit from time to time for special events and to visit family, so am up there a fair amount).  I thought, possibly, that the yawn inducing music on the radio might have just been the result of a contrast with the white-hot intensity of the Vision Festival, which made WBGO’s programming seem so banal.  Then I received a very polite response to my post from Cephas Bowles, WBGO’s General Manager, which shocked me! Read the rest of this entry »

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With no elitist apologies, I’m a huge fan of public radio.  

Sure, I’m happy to see that indie rock has a new home on commercial radio in many markets, replacing those ungodly “classic rock” stations, and very little makes my “Triple AAA” music heart beat harder and faster than hearing there’s a new station with that format. Read the rest of this entry »

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