Category: Musing on Music

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MOBO ditches Jazz

Just got this message from the lovely people at Dune records – apparently the organisers of the MOBO awards claim they can’t find four names to nominate for a Jazz category!!! are they mental?? Jazz in the UK is currently stronger creatively than it’s ever been – we’ve had UK independent jazz artists like Zoe Rahman and Polar Bear getting national recognition via the Mercury Music Prize, and some outstanding music coming from the Dune/Tomorrow’s Warriors stable. Musicians like Jason Yarde, Denis Baptiste, Dennis Rollins, Cleveland Watkiss, Soweto Kinch, Byron Wallen, Gary Crosby, Jazz Jamaica… there are LOADS of great black british jazz artists. Loads and Loads. And given that the MOBOs are about music of black origin, not even just black artists, there are even more to choose from.

I have no idea what the MOBOs are about these days – maybe it’s just about getting corporate sponsorship, and no-one was willing to sponsor the Jazz award.

Anyway, here’s the message from the people at Dune Records – have a read, and send an email…
_____________________________________________
The people behind the MOBO (Music Of Black Origin) Awards have scrapped the award for Best Jazz Act.

Their excuse? They cannot find 4 names to put up for nomination! This is an outrage and serves to support the widespread view in the jazz community that the MOBO organisation – an organisation purporting to promote black music – is actively marginalising jazz and jazz artists. We have a hard enough job as it is reminding people that jazz IS black music so MOBO’s action is incredibly unhelpful to the jazz sector, and to the industry as a whole.

There are few enough opportunities for jazz artists to attract the limelight so we can well do without MOBO dropping this award.

Also, in light of new education initiatives to bring jazz into the national curriculum, their action is particularly counterproductive. Not sure why MOBO feel that our young people shouldn’t be exposed/have access to jazz – it is black music after all and an incredibly creative form of black music. They tried the same thing with the Gospel prize (last year?), leading many of us to believe that MOBO is seeking to disenfranchise the very people who created black music.

According to the MOBO Organisation Mission Statement, MOBO:

– identifies, showcases and celebrates music derived from black heritage
– is RnB, Reggae, Hip-Hop, Jazz….
– seeks to promote the history of music of black origin

MOBO’s action would suggest that it’s high time their Board of Directors were reminded of their remit and take remedial action to avoid a great deal of negative publicity surrounding this decision.

Everyone interested in getting jazz and jazz artists due recognition should complain bitterly to MOBO about this utterly nonsensical move.

Tel: +44 (0)20 7419 1800 or info@mobo.com

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Friday random 10 on saturday again…

here goes –

  • Bill Frisell – Prelude (from Quartet – a really lovely album)
  • The Kinks – Mr Pleasant (from the best of – never before has one band ran the gamut of songs from ‘perfect’ to ‘dreadful’ quite so spectacularly.)
  • Kings X – Mudd (from Ogre Tones – major return to form)
  • Ry Cooder – Paris, Texas (mmmmmmmmmmm)
  • Hinda Hicks – When You Touch Me There (revealing my hidden love of 80s and 90s R ‘n’ B)
  • Steve Lawson/Jeff Kaiser – Track 4 (soon-to-be released duet project I recorded in California in January with trumpeter jeff Kaiser. probably the most ‘out’ thing I’ve ever done)
  • Mark Isham – Part iii (from Tibet)
  • Paul Simon – How The Heart Approaches What It Yearns (from One Trick Pony – another amazing PS lyric and vocal)
  • Finn Peters – Ballad Boy (from the album Su-Ling, just about to be released on Babel Label. Lovely stuff from a load of F-IRE collective players)
  • Paul Simon – Have A Good Time (always room for more Paul Simon, this one’s from Still Crazy After All These Years)
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Too hot to do much…

No, obviously global warming is just a load of made up nonsense. Yup, this being the hottest summer on record is clearly just a fluke. Anyway. it’s far too hot to do anything for long. I’ve been practicing my solo stuff today (next rehearsal with Julie is tomorrow), and working out how to play Blue Planet off the new album, and refreshing my memory on ‘Nobody Wins Unless Everybody Wins’. Sounding good thus far.

The bad part of practicing is that my office/studio/skip is where the ginger fairly aged feline likes to lie as it’s the coolest room in the house, but he’s really not into me practicing, so he leaves, looking a bit pissed off.

He’s doing remarkably well, considering – I mean, he’s not skipping around like a kitten, but he’s looking better than he was when we came back from the vets not expecting him to last more than a couple of days. if he lasts for more than two weeks, TSP won’t be able to come to Edinburgh with me, and while I’ll miss TSP hugely (not only cos she’s great company, but she’s a wizard with flyering and selling t-shirts and CDs!) I am hoping that the little fella is still around and enjoying life. We’re not going to drag things on when he gets to the point where he’s not enjoying life at all, and aren’t going to put him through any more invasive vet stuff like drips and chemo, but he’s looking pretty good at the moment, so who knows how long he’ll last.

Anyway, I’ve been practicing, sending out CDs, emailing and texting people about Wednesday’s gig, and fielding lots of requests to book Julie and I for cabaret type things at the festival – we’ve really managed to create quite a buzz already! Could end up being the surprise hit of the fringe…

Right, back to learning the songs…

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Friday Random 10 again

Here’s today’s random playlist…

Talking Heads – CrossEyed And Painless (Remain In The Light version, not the ‘Stop Making Sense’ version)
Steve Lawson – Behind Every Word (yay for me!)
Talking Heads – Once In a Lifetime (this time it is from Stop Making Sense)
Duran Duran – Wild Boys
King’s X – Honesty
Kate Bush – Somewhere In Between
Galactic Cowboys – Speak To Me
Window On The Deep – BJ Cole
Stevie Wonder – Knocks Me Off My Feet
Kings X – Alone

two appearances each for Talking Heads and King’s X? Is iTunes making taste-based suggestions for what I should listen to – ‘stop listening to crap 80s pop songs, and get back to listening to lots more Talking Heads and King’s X’ – as advice goes, it’s up there as some of the best I’ve received in a long time!

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Next weeks unmissable Recycle gig

We’re only one week away from the next Recycle Collective gig, and it’s going to be a blinder.

It’s a three part gig – part one is my album launch! Yes, I know that lots of you have already bought Behind Every Word (if you have please head over to the shop and post a review of it there, please!), but here’s your chance to hear lots of the tunes from the album live, and it’ll be a longer solo set than my usual 25 minute opening to the Recycle gigs.

then part two is Julie’s and my Edinburgh preview gig. Yup, it’s the only chance you’ll have to see the entire New Standard show from this years Edinburgh fringe, in London. We’ve been rehearsing lots, have come up with a pretty much perfect set list, and you need to come and see it! No really, it’s a must. Julie’s great, I’m not bad, and what’s more, there’s a part three to the gig, where Julie and I will be joined by Cleveland Watkiss, UK jazz legend, and one of the most amazing musicians ever to play at the Recycle Collective. He’s great.

So there you go, next Wednesday, at Darbucka, it’s only £7 to get in (£5 if you’re a student or an OAP or in the MU or whatever – bring proof, please) and the venue’s fab. bring friends, come early and eat, make a night of it.

Yay!

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Rock is Dead?

A fabulous post this morning by Jyoti on Why Rock Is Dead.

I emailed him about it, and it seems the tipping point for him was the same band that I was despairing at on the T in the Park coverage last night – WolfMother. How much more could they want to sound like Led Zep? How much more heinously anachronistic could it be to write ‘new’ songs like that in 2006? Is one of them about to buy Alistair Crowley’s old underpants, just to be like Jimmy Page? A really tragic show, and why on earth are they given such a huge platform?

Jyoti’s right – mainstream rock has become hopelessly derivative, retrogressive and stultifying, the record companies having latched onto a certain lazy section of the music buying public’s desire for perceived novelty and nostlagia at the same time. And it’s balls.

What’s worse – a thousand times worse – is that they’re rubbish. They aren’t even 5% the band that Zep were. None of these bands improve on the blue-print, none of them ever take a 70s formula and end up sounding like the greatest band the 70s never had. They just sound like a half-arsed tribute band with copyright issues. It’s balls.

I’ve always said that it’s more important to be good than to be original. But I’m not talking about slavish cloning. The desire for completely new music can be just as asphyxiating as mindless hero-worship, but to do either without coming up with anything worth listening to is the worse crime of all.

Mediocrity is the single most offensive quality in music. Bands that take risks and end up being appalling get my sneaking admiration. Bands that aren’t great, but are stretching towards something don’t sound mediocre, they sound interesting. To be truly dull requires a level of mis-placed self-satisfaction that stops you from ever looking for more, from moving forward, from building on the innovations of your heroes and finding your own space.

My music isn’t completely new – I wear a few of my influences pretty brightly on my sleeve, and am delighted when someone spots that John Martyn or Joni Mitchell or Michael Manring are in there somewhere. But I don’t actually sound like any of them.

The reason for this is pretty simple – I love Joni’s music. Think she’s pretty much perfect. But I don’t want to write music that sounds like Joni – that would be derivative in exactly the same way she never was – no, instead I want to WRITE MUSIC THAT MAKES ME FEEL THE WAY JONI’S MUSIC MAKES ME FEEL. That has that same sense of being spoken to, being taken on a journey, where the narrative and the music are married perfectly without ever feeling like either is being tugged in a wrong direction by some other unnecessary influence. Joni had her influences, from Dylan to Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. She started out as a folk singer. But she always had her own story to tell, and always sounded like no-one but herself.

That’s the plan. Is Rock Dead? I don’t see why the behaviour of ‘the mainstream’ should be allowed to be seen as killing of an entire genre, but the challenge is certainly there to avoid sounding like the new wave of ‘Stars In Their Eyes’ shit photocopies of 70s and 80s icons, and instead to take the language of rock into somewhere new and interesting, to tell a post-millennial tale, and sound track the current world paradigm, not the three day week, rolling blackouts and the rise of Thatcherism.

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Friday Random 10

Stick iTunes on random, and write down what gets played…

Stevie Ray Vaughan – Pride And Joy
KT Tunstall – Through The Dark
From Branch To Branch – Gary Peacock and Ralph Towner
Like A Star – Corinne Bailey Rae
What A World – Bill Frisell
(Used To Be A) Cha Cha Cha – Jaco Pastorius
Whatsername – Green Day
Time After Time – Cyndi Lauper
Things Can Only Get Better – Howard Jones
She’s Leaving The Bank – Ry Cooder

That’s a pretty accurate version of where my head’s at, musicially, I think!

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Favourite cover versions

Inspired by all the practicing for my edinburgh show with Julie, I thought I’d compile a top 5 cover versions list for y’all, in no particular order –

Boys Of Summer – The Ataris (originally Don Henley)
This Must Be the Place – Shawn Colvin (originally Talking Heads)
Like A Virgin – Teenage Fanclub (originally Madonna)
Smooth Criminal – Alien Ant Farm (originally Michael Jackson)
Little Red Corvette – Seth Horan (originally Prince – I don’t think Seth has released this, but I’ve heard him do it live a number of times, and it’s magic)

As you can maybe guess from the Ataris/Teenage Fanclub/Alien Ant Farm inclusions, I have a penchant for rocked up noisy versions of 80s classics – have always wanted to form a band doing that. Maybe I will one day, but right now, the duo with Julie is just as much fun, and a lot quieter which is preferable for a man of my advanced years and tender constitution.

And as those of you that ever look at my last.fm page will know, I can’t stop listening to our version of ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’. It’s another rehearsal demo, with the occasional duff note, unintended squeak and whatnot, but I’m loving it. :o)

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Deeper Still

just had a beautiful email from a friend in California about the new album. I didn’t know that this guy knew Eric Roche, but it turns out he was a big fan, and was deeply saddened by Eric’s death. Likewise he had no idea that I knew Eric or would have been inspired to write a tune for him.

His email spells out his own loss, and the feeling of something missing at NAMM this year with Eric (formerly an ever-present figure on the Avalon guitars stand) no longer being there. ‘Deeper Still’, it seems, says something that he was feeling as well as what I was feeling, and I’m once again reminded that this music lark is deeper than all the day to day stuff of marketing CDs and getting gigs and hoping people like it enough to buy it.

It’s emails like this that are the REAL reason for music. They aren’t, to be honest, what I have in mind in the day to day business of being a musician (it’d be easy to pretend that my motives are that lofty, but obviously they aren’t), but they are the reason why music is there. They are about what music gives us, a wordless language to tell stories that we’d never get round to telling with words, or where a particular form of words would alienate some who would otherwise get the message, just not the syntax.

I don’t write music to move people. i write music to tell my own story, and to try and get as deep inside that story as I can. There are certain things within that story – in my case, they are very often deaths, but also environmental, political, social and personal concerns – that can indwell a particular piece of music, and when that comes across, it’s a very special moment. Not everyone who hears that new album is going to get that much from ‘Deeper Still’ – clearly, that doesn’t happen with anything – but to make that kind of connection with someone is a very special thing, and one not to be taken lightly.

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Marcus Miller at The Bass Centre

Got an email last week from the lovely Nick at the Bass Centre telling me about the Marcus Miller clinic they were hosting last night.

The Bass Centre normally hold their clinics in the shop, but the take-up for the clinic was far to high, and they moved it to a local pub. I’ve chatted about this with a few people, and other than Victor Wooten, can’t think of any other band-leader/bassists that would draw that kind of crowd for a clinic. Even big names like Doug Wimbish, who did the last Bass Centre clinic, can’t compete with that…

The pub was packed, and Marcus played a handful of tunes (starting out with Run For Cover, a tune from David Sanborn’s album Voyeur that I haven’t heard since I was at college!) and answered questions. His natural sense of humour and passion for music comes across really well in this kind of setting, and the audience lapped up every demonstration.

These kind of events are always a great chance to catch up with friends, meet other bassists, and generally hang out with bass-people. this was no exception – the guys from the Bass Centre, Alex from The Gallery, Steve Davis, Mike Brookes, John East…

The gig was organised by Fender with the Bass Centre, and Fender UK’s AR head is an old friend from Ashdown days, Hoda – I so rarely get to see Hoda, he’s a v. busy man, so getting a chance to catch up was fab. The other lovely surprise was bumping into Pris from Holland – she helped organise the UK Bass Day last year, and is on tour with Marcus’ band doing merch.

Come the end of the night, Hoda, Pris, Marcus, BeBe (sp?) and I hadn’t eaten, and where else is there to go from the Bass Centre but over to Brick Lane for a curry – Chutney’s did the business, and much lovely food and chat was to be had. Then, like Bruce Cockburn in the song ‘Coldest Night Of The Year’ I ‘drove all the people home, I was the one with the car’.

A fun evening all round.

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