Comments for Lubricity

Comment on 4 Years Majoring in Jazz Writing at WordPress U by Andrew J. Sammut

Andrew J. Sammut — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:42:36 +0000

Congratulations on four years, and here’s to many more.

Comment on Tigran Hamasyan @ Blue Whale: An Improvised Concert Review by 4 Years Majoring in Jazz Writing at WordPress U | Lubricity

4 Years Majoring in Jazz Writing at WordPress U | Lubricity — Tue, 14 May 2013 23:54:50 +0000

[…] the Mold Podcast, produced by Alex Sadnik. I also experimented with a more verbal style in the improvised concert review of Tigran Hamasyan’s solo piano show in February at blue […]

Comment on My Linguocentric Predicament by 4 Years Majoring in Jazz Writing at WordPress U | Lubricity

4 Years Majoring in Jazz Writing at WordPress U | Lubricity — Tue, 14 May 2013 23:54:46 +0000

[…] has been about six months since I wrote the last update on my scholastic activities; the intervening months have been fruitful but exhausting. I feel like […]

Comment on Big Joe, Big Tea, Me by 4 Years Majoring in Jazz Writing at WordPress U | Lubricity

4 Years Majoring in Jazz Writing at WordPress U | Lubricity — Tue, 14 May 2013 23:54:43 +0000

[…] this blog has roughly coincided with my return to academia as a graduate student — in fact, my first post was also a paper that I wrote for my first class at Rutgers (and later became the introduction to […]

Comment on Badbadnotgood: Leave Jazz Alone by INS

INS — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:20:06 +0000

Hi there – I apologize for misrepresenting your argument. Now that I have the chance, please allow me to address some of the points made in your article more accurately.
In your article you say that “BBNG seem intent on making a bitch out of the [jazz] tradition … dragging her back into the gutter along with their misogynistic hip-hop champions Odd Future.” I have a few problems with this statement. First, when you call Odd Future misogynistic, are you implying that jazz music itself has no ties to misogyny? You might recall that Miles Davis was a well-known misogynist, and a musical genius, and yet you don’t seem to call him a misogynistic jazz champion in your description of him later in your article? The reason for this seems not to be that you would dismiss his misogyny as “ok,” understandably, but that you recognize that Davis is a much more complex character than one defined by his misogyny. Just because you may not respect the music of Odd Future as much you do Miles Davis does not mean that the musicians in the group are less complex human beings than the late great jazz giant. Here is a recently released song by one of the members of the group, Earl Sweatshirt, which may begin to show you what I mean (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCbWLSZrZfw). Second, you say that BBNG is dragging jazz “back into the gutter.” Regardless of whether or not that is true, is that necessarily a bad thing? Historically it has often been the music that was created “from the gutter” that has been some of the most innovative, impressive, and exciting music. When you listen to Fats Waller’s “Dinah,” for example, do you recognize his genius and virtuosity as a pianist, vocalist, and performer, or do you dismiss his music because it existed in the “gutters” of the 1920s and 1930s? I would assume the former, considering your apparent respect for and love of jazz music. However, that is drastically different from what contemporaries of Fats, who existed outside of the “gutter,” said about his music and the music of other musicians like him. In fact, people criticized his style of music and the lifestyle it represented in a manner strikingly similar to the way in which you just criticized the music of BBNG and Odd Future. One of the reasons why jazz moved “out of the gutter” is because people caught on to its beauty and complexity. They were able to slowly overcome the social, economic, and racial barriers that confined the music to recognize its true genius. It is a shame that similar barriers exist around the Hip-Hop music of today, and that many people who recognize the struggle that jazz went through to become recognized on the level that it is now can’t use this knowledge to view Hip-Hop with an open mind.
Also, in your article you mention your old group, The Shark Spaceship, and seem to compare your “white” take on “African American music” with that of BBNG. However, there is one extremely important point that this comparison leaves out, and that is the style, and relevance of the music itself, regardless of whatever race the original musician had been. It is convenient to think that if your group had existed on Youtube, perhaps it would have been lifted from obscurity as BBNG was (whose “fleeting fame” you attribute to, as quoted from Peter Hum, “a video camera and a few famous people in their corner”). However, I believe that The Shark Spaceship’s funk-jazz cover of Thriller would most likely not have been lifted from obscurity, even with youtube and a celebrity involved, because the people who would have listened to that style of music in 2005 were most likely people who listened to, well, obscure music. This is not to say that the music is bad quality, for that is not what I believe, I am only saying that the style was not “popular” in 2005. BBNG on the other hand received their lift from obscurity with the Odd Future Sessions videos, amongst many others, in which they covered music by a popular group in a new and interesting way. They built upon, in the words of Farah J. Griffin, a cultural style that many people, including the musicians themselves, are currently listening to.
In other words, by stating that a 2005 funk-jazz cover of a song produced in 1982 is comparable to a 2011 hip-hop-jazz cover of a complication of contemporary songs solely because both works were originally written by African Americans, your argument ignores the style of music, the contemporary popularity of the music, and… pretty much everything about the music itself except for the race of the musicians. Here is a quote from your article that I think relates to this issue. “Sometimes, I see or hear something in my online jazz meanderings that hits me like a punch in the gut, pissing me off for no apparent reason. When that happens, the first thing that I have trained myself to ask is, “does this have something to do with race?” Almost always, the answer is “yes.”” Maybe one reason why you always respond “yes” is because you tend to ignore multiple sides to issues that provide many more complexities than just the issue of race. For instance, style popular culture.
This idea I mentioned above about BBNG existing in a context of music that is currently popular brings me to my next point, which has to do with your criticism of BBNG’s “disparaging rhetoric towards jazz.” Here I am assuming that you are referring to their remarks about their jazz education, such as the one about them learning Parker solos from the Omnibook quoted in Peter Hum’s article. I think that in this instance, you are in fact misrepresenting BBNG’s argument about the jazz tradition. Let’s look at what the group said. Drummer Alex Sowinski expressed his discontent with the way in which all institutionalized musicians are made to study the same things, such as the Charlie Parker Omnibook. He reasonably followed this statement by saying, “It’s important to learn the language, but whether you use it is your own call.” Keyboardist Matt Tavares describes his experience in a jazz institution by saying that “[It’s] a different world. No one knows what Pitchfork Music is … People know Downbeat Magazine.” Combining these two quotes, we see that the group is expressing a frustration with the close-mindedness that not only exists in the jazz world, but also in your article and that of Peter Hum. The group here does not deny that the jazz world is complex and filled with rich diversity, rather they are saying that there are additional worlds that exist outside of jazz that are just as complex and rich that the jazz world seems to dismiss. There is nothing wrong with studying Charlie Parker in 2013, but maybe there is something wrong with studying Charlie Parker and ignoring J Dilla (http://vimeo.com/37237691) in 2013 (I would highly recommend watching this video in full to truly understand my point). Thus, when you say that Avishai Cohen’s mix is better than BBNG’s because his is “both creative and respectful to the lineages of musicians in the styles from which he is borrowing,” your comment betrays a lack of understanding of BBNG’s true nature and creativity. They respect the jazz music that has influenced their sound; what they do not respect is the lack of respect that other jazz musicians give to more contemporary art forms such as Hip-Hop. BBNG, on the other hand, are well versed in the rhetoric of Hip-Hop in a way that many jazz musicians would never bother to be, and their music is all the more rich, vibrant, creative and exciting because of it.

Comment on Badbadnotgood: Leave Jazz Alone by Avishai Cohen Trio - "Pinzin Kinzin" | Jazz & Grooves

Avishai Cohen Trio - "Pinzin Kinzin" | Jazz & Grooves — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:22:11 +0000

[...] compare the two groups, as many people in the “jazz world” have done, and declare that one is jazz and one is not. I’m posting it to say that there exists a spectrum of Jazz-and-Hip-Hop infused music, and [...]

Comment on Winter JazzFest and the White Jazz Narrative: REBOOT by Black And White/New And Old | In Pursuit Of The Twenty-Seventh Man

Black And White/New And Old | In Pursuit Of The Twenty-Seventh Man — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 01:24:42 +0000

[...] Alex Rodriguez over at Lubricity is up in arms. He’s concerned about a quote from Ben Ratliff, critic for the New York Times, who said about this year’s Winter Jazz Fest, “Jazz is always in search of a new audience, and I think — in New York anyway — there’s this glimmer of hope now that younger jazz musicians are actually finding one. And it has nothing to do with Lincoln Center, and it has nothing to do with education per se; it’s like, people who want to go hear music that’s fresh and new and unmediated.” Just like Mr. Rodriguez, I have my problems with the Marsalis family and JALC. But I had a very different interpretation of Ratliff’s words.”For Ben Ratliff — who has steadfastly been writing to the same audience (New York Times readers) for decades — to tangentially dis the life’s work of people like Taylor by saying that Winter JazzFest ‘has nothing to do with education per se’ is patently absurd,” writes Rodriguez. Whoa, there. [...]

Comment on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Has a Dream for Jazz by Martin Luther King’s Jazz Dream « Lubricity

Martin Luther King’s Jazz Dream « Lubricity — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 18:53:59 +0000

[...] MLK Days past, I have shared a famous quote that outlines Martin Luther King, Jr.’s love of jazz, a passage that has been something of a [...]

Comment on Is Jazz Finally Over Ken Burns? by Christopher A Turner

Christopher A Turner — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 14:14:01 +0000

Just a comment as much as people have inserted ther opinions pertaining to the Ken Burns documentary, why is is it that some 12 years later after the airing of the program hasn’t anyone offered something more effective or more to the point eloquent about a genre.
The fact is no one was even remotely talking about this before or really since. My thought is just this use it as a motivation for the exposure it did receive and build on it. Short comings aside it was a great reference and we can strive to use it as a platform rather then destroy it because its believed by others not to involve every aspect one desires or craved because what in life actually does.

Comment on Badbadnotgood: Leave Jazz Alone by dark bloom

dark bloom — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 21:06:22 +0000

your comment is unfair on so many levels…why disparage the success of three white kids? it’s up to all individuals to make a path for their art and reach an audience. maybe the problem is the music that the other (real jazz musicians) are playing. perhaps it doesn’t appeal emotionally to younger audiences.