Category Archives: Rational and Irrational Thoughts
Is it Worth Borrowing from China to Fund the Arts?
Hello Folks, Welcome to our new international guests and my apologies for boring you with yet more on the U.S. election. I can’t resist updating my earlier post on the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), our modest source of government sponsored arts funding now that our election is decided. The NEA has been a loved … Continue reading
Welcome #Jazz Fans from #Burkina Faso
Partly to welcome our new friends from Burkina Faso, and partly to satisfy my own need for new sounds, I availed myself of the bounty of the internet and found this excellent cut by Volta Jazz of Burkina Faso. The song entitled Fintalabo and composed by Kone Idrissa was posted to the VOM website by … Continue reading
Why is Kenny G More Well-known than Steve Marcus Part II
Hey folks, Speaking of “Rich” it looks like the lawyers pulled the repost I did of the Steve Marcus/Buddy Rich Youtube video on my earlier post. Here’s a replacement video of Steve on tenor blowing a great solo on a tune based on the chord changes from “Cherokee”. Fantastic player. I would see Steve on … Continue reading
I’m Rich I’m Rich I’m Rich I’m Rich I’m Rich I’m Rich
Have any musicians bothered to whine about Spotify royalties (or lack thereof)? That’s right… $0.0047 dollars for a download. I know, I know. I’m making it worse by letting people know where they can go and barely pay for music. SALES DATE PARTNER ARTIST ALBUM SONG PAYABLE Apr 15, 2012 Spotify Chris Fagan Lost Bohemia … Continue reading
Funding the Arts: Still Less Expensive than Buying an Elected Official
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced the recipients of the 2012 Jazz Masters Award, “the nation’s highest honor in jazz.” This lofty honor bestows the grand sum of $25,000 on each of the five recipients, embarrassingly low for the likes of Charlie Haden and Jack DeJohnette, two of this year’s five recipients. Incidently, … Continue reading
Why is Kenny G More Well-known than Steve Marcus?
Maybe I’ll stop asking this type of pointless question someday but probably not because I’m nuts. Click here for Steve’s obituary Continue reading
Are Record Contracts Worth the Rolling Paper They Are Written On?
Hello Folks. The Economist gives us a wonderful article this week telling us of poverty-stricken record labels that can’t sign anything but a sure thing (with healthy, growing followings and robust merchandise sales) and laid-off A&R folks that have not been rehired back into the profession since the meteor hit the music business in 1999*. … Continue reading
Avoiding Extinction vol. III: The New Tools of the Trade (stone tools now obsolete)
The new tools of the trade are both bewildering and useful. Bewildering in terms of the amount of time and bandwidth a person could spend creating profiles, initializing widgets, uploading media, analyzing stats and so on. Useful in terms of creating impressions (although who knows how deep or lasting) among the multitude of thrifty jazz … Continue reading
Avoiding Extinction vol. II: The Breed Most Likely to Succeed
When I arrived in New York as a young dinosaur in 1986, avoiding extinction consisted of mainly a/ not starving, and b/ not getting shot by a crack-head that wanted to trade your Mark VI for some rock. The latter meant avoiding places like the last car of the ‘A’ Train after late-night gigs, simple … Continue reading
