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At a time when many festivals are drying up or becoming watered down, FourthStream.net is producing a new, regionally-focused jazz festival in Southwestern Wisconsin! We’re excited to announce the Driftless Jazz Festival 2007 – taking place on Monday (Memorial Day), May 28th from 1pm until 8pm.

See complete details at Driftless Jazz Festival 2007 web site.

Here’s the poster for the event:

I was very sad to read that Northwestern is considering dropping the jazz program.

I had thought David N. Baker, Jerry Coker and Jamey Aebersold had already won that battle so long ago. The idea that a major university music program wouldn’t have a jazz program? Why, it’s almost barbaric. Especially in the country which gave birth to the art form.

What’s intriguing is that just a few miles south of Northwestern, little Columbia College and UIC are growing their programs at a tremendous pace. It’s seem rather obvious where they’re putting their priorities. What an easy choice as a student wanting to study in Chicago: go north, pay a LOT of money and fight administrivia most of the time or go south and get with a program that is working hard to build the program. It’s a pity – especially since I enjoyed my time at Northwestern when I got the Masters in Jazz Pedagogy degree.

There’s probably some true “business” pressures. We’re seeing consolidation everywhere else – I guess it will hit our universities too. However, I would hope our universities might remain insulated from such corporate nonsense. More evidence that our culture doesn’t value “culture” enough to properly fund it. How sad.

Last weekend (Fri and Sat) was great! I played with Ernie Adams’ new group, the Worldtet. It was absolutely fantastic. Ernie is such a an amazing drummer/percussionist: not only does he have unbelievable technique but he transcends that into complete musicianship. It was thrilling to watch him work – always playing the perfect thing at the perfect time with flawless execution. Very inspiring. I wish you could have been there!

Ernie Adams in action:

James Sanders played violin:

Most of the group – unfortunately, Zvonminir Tot (guitar) was too far to the right:

I recently posted an excerpt from one of our Project FourthStream concerts. What? You haven’t heard Project FourthStream?! Well, here is a sample and you can always check up on us at our website: www.fourthstream.net.

Last Saturday, I played with the Larry Price Quartet in La Crosse. Larry’s a fine pianist, Rich MacDonal is a powerhouse drummer with a really wonderful musical sensibility and Eric Graham is a chop monster of a bass player.

In fact, here we are:

We’ll be playing at the La Crosse Jazz Festival later in the summer – in August. Stay tuned and I’ll post details about that project as we get closer to the date!

Huh? Well, this is a bit of a stretch but please bear with me – it might be interesting.

I’m reading “An Omnivore’s Dilemma” and saw a reference to an article by Allan Nation which draws on theories of Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter.

Basically it discusses how “artisanal” production methods (which consist of selling something special rather that as a least-cost commodity) must not adapt to “industrial” production models.

If I apply this thinking to creative music, that means creative musicians:

• should do everything they can to appear cutting-edge or at least unique
• should never try to achieve financial growth for the sake of growth (e.g., simply because that’s what you’re supposed to be doing). This is contrary to conventional wisdom that you should always be expanding your market. I take this to mean we should only strive to expand our market if it is truly meant to somehow better support our artistic endeavors.
• don’t strive for uniformity. I suppose you could interpret this a few ways. But why not perform on the edge? Some nights might be rough, others might be stellar. If you’re not challenging yourself, why bother? People pay for artisanal products because they expect outstanding results sometimes and can live with less desirable results occasionally. Consider fine wine. Sometimes bottles are undrinkable but we’ve come to understand this as part of the artisanal production process. If you choose perfection over art, you get something like supermarket wine as a result.
• Focus on local markets. Follows on from the above point: artisans can’t scale to satisfy global markets. Consider how to optimize your impact within your local market.
• Rely on reputation, word-of-mouth instead of advertising

I’m finding thinking about this concept very interesting. Obviously, I don’t have a strong backlog of evidence to prove this is the right path for creative musicians. But I like the ideas now. Do you have thoughts about this? Reactions to this advice (which seems opposite what most musicians are doing)?

Thanks,
Tom

I’ve been struggling with the growing trend in the US where people just tend to stay home. 🙁

We’ve grown into a society where we just don’t hang out anymore. Fast food, fast coffee (think Starbucks) and increasingly, fast entertainment. iTunes and the ubiquitous iPod have been increasing the rate with which we can go grab whatever media we want, when we want it.

On the one hand, this is fantastic! When I hear of a new recording, I can go preview it, buy it and listen to it almost immediately. Now with the introduction of TV and movies, we’re moving closer to that. And, of course, there’s YouTube which gives us a whole new genre of video entertainment: fanstastic “bootleg” videos of our favorite musicians (just search for “Eric Dolphy” or “Art Tatum” or “Woody Shaw” or “John Coltrane” or whoever – it’s truly amazing what’s lurking within that site).

But where is all this headed? The BBC recently posted an article asking that question. They’re already seeing an impact to “normal” TV watching.

The graphic shown here shows 43% of people are already choosing online or mobile video instead of normal TV. I like it! It means people are empowered to take a more active role in their entertainment – instead of passively just turning on the TV and watching whatever is on.

Maybe, if I dare to dream a bit, that will lead to more people seeking out live music, interacting with real people and getting a far more enriching experience!

It’s quite a dream, I know. But it’s one of my hopes for the future: where people grow weary of home entertainment and seek out something better: art museums, theatre, live music, performance art, etc.

Saturday, Bill Neil and I performed a great concert with Hanah Jon Taylor. Hanah’s a truly gifted improviser and flautist/saxophonist.

There were many, many great moments – even if I do say so myself. Pianist Bill Neil is really making amazing music right now – there’s an urgency and richness to what he plays that is definitely worth checking out! Add to the that, Hanah’s great spontaneous improvisations and I hope you start to understand what I’m so excited about. It was truly enjoyable to perform with like-minded players who are open and able to play in the moment, to uncover the music that needs to be heard.

A perfect example of that was a new piece Bill composed for Hanah. It’s called Soul Drifting and was essentially a duet for flute and what Bill calls an audio soundscape. Hanah had never heard the piece before the performance. Bill just gave him a print out of the audio wave – which, as it turns out, is a pretty good way to visualize the emotional curve of the piece. Hanah cranked out a masterpiece! It was breathtaking to behold. His flute playing is among the best I’ve ever heard.

Fortunately, we recorded it – hopefully we’ll post it to the web soon and you can share in the joy of the moment!

The music was certainly deep, spiritual and meaningful. But I’ve also been completely blown away by the response from the audience! They really got into and have been lavishing praise upon us. This was a really adventurous concert (which I had wrongly assumed would be difficult for the audience to fully enjoy) but they really got into the spirit of the moment. Which, of course, is what this music is all about: drop our prejudices and just enjoy the moment. Hmm…could even be a maxim for living our lives as well…

I just got back from a week in Prague. Beatiful city! And I had the good fortune to sit-in with Prague saxophonist, František Kop ( http://www.kopjazz.cz/ ) at a really good jazz club, U Maleho Glena ( http://www.malyglen.cz ). I highly recommend checking both out the next time you’re in Prague!

Anyway, after leaving the gig I was talking with a friend and he said “Now I get it. You have to listen to jazz live.” Yes! That’s it!

Of course, many of us already know this but it struck as one of those profound little gems that help you discover new meaning in music. Jazz is all about the live experience. It is at its best in the jazz club. Recordings are never fully able to recreate the experience.

I think that popular music is quite the opposite. Live performances are mainly in support of the recording. The main intention is to recreate the studio recording – often even including playing solos exactly as recorded!

To me, it’s all about playing live and that’s where I intend to put my energy. Real people listening to real musicians – all together “listening for music.” That’s what it’s all about.

Sometimes you need to change things up a bit. I have been playing the same Selmer Mk VI since I was in high school! We have been through a LOT of gigs together.

But recently I bought an old Conn Chu Berry and have been having a blast (literally) playing it. It’s nice to play since it feels so different from my Mk VI.

I highly recommend changing on occasion just to re-discover and re-appreciate what you already have!