How information is assembled gives it meaning. Way back when information theory sprang up in the burgeoning age of the computer, if a vacuum tube was on or off, it was conveying one bit of information. The same on-off technology is true now; the conveyor is simply about a zillion times smaller and faster, more efficient. It takes 40 ICs to equal the power that could be supplied by a vacuum tube. Every time ICs diminish in size or change in configuration … well, imagine that.
The way in which information is disbursed signals the onset of a process. Put into a larger context, with the downturn of the economy and layoffs at technology industries as a backdrop, hardware is moving out and the development of software is rising. How that little ol’ Blackberry or iPhone is used and the number of apps it carries could be one key to the transition to a new economic world. Using information. Applying information.
Nat Hentoff was quoted in a NYTimes article documenting his being “let go” from the Village Voice. He said, in effect, that writers are inundated with information to the point of being so overwhelmed that proper research is avoided and what turns up being printed is downright wrong. Information in this case can be understood in terms of its application: how relevant and valuable it is to the context being developed for it. This leads to a possible conclusion: how information integrates into context that lives outside of the home of the information is a creative act.
At first glance St. Louis’ most recent gift to America’s art form pales in stature to what audiences are accustomed to seeing on the bandstand. But open your mind, eyes and ears (not necessarily in that order). At twelve years of age, the diminutive frame of Tito Pascoal will, indeed, surprise you. While he may not have a list of musical accomplishments yet, Tito is equally deserving of the audience’s attention.
Mingle with your peers,
inject a tingle in their ears.
We’re talkin’ about jazz for the soul,
that’s our holiday goal.
Exchange tears for cheer,
with friends far and near.
And for an extra holiday pizzazz?
Put a little jingle in your jazz!
Dave McKenna, a New England jazz legend, died on Saturday, October 18, 2008, at the age of 78. His sister Jean McKenna O’Donnell noted that he’d enjoyed the Red Sox spectacular Game 5 victory over Tampa Bay on Thursday night. Dave, who grew up in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, had two great passions: jazz piano and the Boston Red Sox. Indeed, during his playing years, he was notorious for his habit of listening to Sox games on a concealed transistor radio while he played piano at the Copley Plaza and other Southern New England saloons. Among the handful of tunes he composed, two were dedicated to Ted Williams, “Theodore the Thumper” and “Splendid Splinter.”
Pervasive in the literature whose subject is music that originates from the black experience is a stream of thought that is anti-critic, anti-criticism, anti-putting into words any interpretation of the music.
Just as one cannot begin the universe with one molecule of hydrogen, so can one not analyze, philosophize, criticize and proselytize on the music when viewing from any one position. Because the music loses something. It loses the impact with which and for which it was and is created from the beginning. The music itself is the result of assimilated experience for the musicians. Why does it need to be explained? And why does it need to be compared to anything else?
What with the JJA insisting on giving me a few dollars in 2008 — the first ever, beyond some fees to my hosting provider a decade ago before I became one myself — I’ve spruced and tweaked the site a bit. What it most needs just now is a flow of new, fresh content. There are several ways JJA members are invited to help:
If you have your own site or blog, we’ll now feature your RSS feed on request in the Diary section, and also a link from the Jazz Sites drop-down menu on the front page
Any member who’d like posting permission in the Jazzhouse Diaries blog for pertinent posts of any nature except commercial promotion should contact me directly (whit @ this domain) — I’ll set you right up
longer shorter (toward eternity)
by Larry Blumenfeld
Wayne Shorter turned 75 in August and decided to celebrate with a Carnegie Hall concert last night. I’d help you blow out the candles, Wayne, but you left me breathless.
On the program were the Imani Winds, a classical quintet of four women (flutist Valerie Coleman, oboe player Toyin Spellman-Diaz, clarinetist Mariam Adam, and bassoonist Monica Ellis) and one man (French horn player Jeff Scott), who performed a brief piece by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. The quintet followed with “Terra Incognita,” a chamber piece composed by Shorter, originally commissioned by the La Jolla Music Society in 2006. Lively and flecked with phrases and harmonies distinct to Shorter’s oeuvre (was that a snatch of “Water Babies”?), it offered merely hints of things to come.
Since no day in my life passes without the consideration of music, the range of my exposure is wide. The direction I could go in, from the most conservative to the most edgy that is available, denotes a steady non-exclusionary absorption.
June 20, 2008 — The Jazz Awards, the 12th annual such celebration of excellence in music and music journalism produced in New York City by the Jazz Journalists Association, went off last Wednesday afternoon with plenty of highlights and nary a hitch. Hank Jones — voted Pianist of the Year — engaged in three bebop-referencing improvisations with big-toned tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano, there was cool quartet music to start by The Miller Quartet (graduates of the New School and CUNY’s jazz program), an upbeat version of “I Love You Madly” sung by Roseanna Vitro, accompanied by pianist Mark Soskin, and a tear-up end set by trumpeter Igmar Thomas & the Cipher. But beyond the music itself, the event was star-studded — with appearances by Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts Dana Gioia, 83-year-hip drummer Roy Haynes, NEA Jazz Masters including Candido Camero (awarded as Percussionist of the Year), Frank Wess, George Wein, Dan Morgenstern — and especially Maria Schneider, who won Awards as composer, arranger, leader of the large band and principal of Sky Blue, the Record of the Year.
