Hey, ragtime's not geriatric, at least no more than jazz is. I keep meaning to check this guy out (the Cook/Morton guide gives him an interesting thumbs up).

I wish they would change the names of the awards though: how crass can you get? I haven't even HEARD this guy & know that the "genius" tag is a crock.

I love ragtime meself, but I’ll have to stand behind my adjective. The art form has nearly a century in the can, which makes it O-L-D in my book. Delmark’s got a great catalog of the stuff & there’s some nice comps on Yazoo of related styles.

Over a century actually--the earliest printed examples come from the 1890s. Jazz is about a century old.

Derek tries to stick to geriatric art forms whenever possible. :)

Since the average age of the erstwhile roster is somewhere between 44 and 45 years, that makes John Abbey's taste tend towards the post-midlife crisis/pre-senior citizens demographic? And if you factor in Keith Rowe appearing on almost every other label product, you'll get old-age asylum.:))

Don't know about the music. But Derek's my man, when it comes to candy. Hands down.

plenty of young people work within "geriatric" art forms, and vice versa.

"The art form has nearly a century in the can, which makes it O-L-D in my book."

So's the saxophone. Sounds like you're ready for the Antifrost catalog.

"Sort of a more conventional version of what Don Pullen’s been doing for over three decades, without the freer improv leanings (and so the inevitable question- why wasn’t Pullen picked for the prize?)."

Uh, maybe that's becuase Don Pullen has been dead since 1995... Better to ask why some of THESE musicians STILL were not selected: William Parker, Roscoe Mitchell, Muhal Richard Abrams, Tony Conrad, LaMonte Young, Kahil El'Zabar, Bill Dixon, Henry Flynt, Michael Zerang (my pick - he's been doing some major work in Chicago for a long time), etc. I'm sure many of you can come up with even more significant/overlooked names than I. Still I was very glad they chose George Lewis last time.

Leapin' lizards, Rob! The price I pay for egregious slapdashery in a Blog entry. I meant Dave Burrell, not Don Pullen [error fixed]. Please enter me in the "Heel of the Year" sweepstakes- I think I've got a strong shot at winning the Booby Prize.

Jacob, any leads on candy-critiquing gigs would be much appreciated. Promo candy- now there’s a perk I’d like to tap into :b

Kahil El'Zabar? He deserves a prize.... but of a different kind.

I think jackpot prizes of any kind are loathsome. The money would be better spent more equably among a wider variety of figures.

How very socialist of you :) Gotta ask: what kind of prize does Kahil deserve?

derek,
yeah, i thought later that it sounded like you were describing Burrell (he the more ragtime/Jelly Roll scholar than Pullen - more gospel-influenced). In any case, i didn't intend to be sniping at you and you seemed to take it well...all in good fun.
But what the later posts address critiquing such awards themselves makes for interesting discussion. In some ways the MacArthur shows the sad state of affairs for creative artists in America: this is the best prize/financial jackpot you can hope for and it's still WAY less than a C-grade Hollywood actor makes for an average piece of box office crapola... Keanu (or pick whatever hack you care to name) probably makes the equivalent of 10 MacArthur's for a costarring role! and don't get me started on attorneys.... But if it helps get George Lewis' AACM book out faster, then cool.

from ND:I wish they would change the names of the awards though: how crass can you get? I haven't even HEARD this guy & know that the "genius" tag is a crock.

As a matter of fact, the MacArthur Foundation doesn't call them "genius" grants, they are called MacArthur Fellowship grants. They make no claims as to the geniusosity of the recipients, that is some unfortunate media shorthand that I think taints the recipients unfairly (particularly in the arts).

So, how do you know the "genius" tag is a crock anyway if you've never even heard the guy? Are you saying it's impossible to be a genius in the field of ragtime? You've probably never even heard OF a lot of the other recipients, care to comment on their level of genius?

Everyone can check the list of recipients at:
http://www.macfound.org/programs/fel/winners_overview.htm

I do like that they've changed the distribution method and everyone gets $500k now and it is not a sliding scale based on age anymore.

On a totally different note, I did enjoy your "flying blind" review of the John Hagan cd in the new Cadence. I've never even heard of him and my best friends dad apparently drums on the disc. So, I'll have to check that out. "Flying Blind" - now that's a genius idea. I'd love to see a lot more reviews like that. I think the reviewer has to really focus on the music then and can't coast on the liner notes or have their ears turned one way or another by someone's name on the record. (Not that I think your regular reviews do that or anything, just eliminates the possibility.)
How do yo feel about writing a blind review as opposed to a regular review?

Rob

Derek--for Kahil? Something rude, I think. A noisy egomaniac, in my (deliberately limited) experience. I was acutely embarrassed the one time I saw him live how he treated Fred Anderson, his duet partner. He's also had a long history in the Toronto scene of promising to bring his trio, only showing up with a duo, & then pocketing the full fee anyway. (I gather that his most recent gig FINALLY had all three musicians, after years of this routine.)

I have no problems with ragtime & stride as genres--I revere folks like William Bolcom & the late Ralph Sutton. But I just find it impossible to take the word "genius" seriously in a context where the decisions seem so arbitrary & where the word is largely empty of content.

Thanks for the kind words on the Hagen review--it was hard to write, & there's of course one major gaffe in it--the disc had a mix of tracks by different lineups but close enough in sound that I assumed it was all the same group. Oh well. It's very hard writing those blindfold reviews. I don't mind doing it as long as the disc is worth the trouble (you end up really combing the disc for details...). I've had one Flying Blind which was awful & annoying, but the rest have been OK. -- The Hagen disc is really good; doesn't seem to have got much press yet for some reason, & it ought to, really.

Rob, no worries. As you wrote, all in good fun. Hope the discussion continues.

Wow, my dealings with Kahil have been of a different stripe, though I’ve mostly seen him on his home turf. Definitely sense an ego, but the few times I’ve spoken with him have been pleasant enough. His style on a regular trap kit doesn’t do much for me, but his mbira playing sends me to a different place. There are cuts on BIG CLIFF (Delmark) and ONE WORLD FAMILY (CIMP) that almost make me weep. Plus he’s quite the dapper dan, dressed to the proverbial nines everytime I’ve encountered him.

And in Nate’s defense, I’ve actually heard Robinson (on disc) & wouldn’t attach the genius signifier either. “Virtuoso” or “phenom”, maybe, but not genius. ;)

I’ve written a couple Flying Blinds too & pretty much echo what Nate said. The hardest part for me is trying to turn off the switch in my cerebrum that insists on trying to figure out who the artists are. It’s especially vexing when they sound familiar, but I can’t quite place them. The last one I did was a piano trio. Took me five or so complete spins before I drew a bead on the drummer (Jim Black), from there I clicked on the bassist (Mark Dresser) and piano (Satoko Fujii) in short order. I’d scribbled down a subjective description of the music in anonymity well before that.

It’s been interesting to see how various writers approach the task. One, I think it was Alan Bargebuhr, wrote an entire hallucinogenic short story placing himself in a plane flying into a roiling storm cloud as the disc blared from the cockpit stereo (for some reason it made me think of Hüsker Dü’s “Dead Set on Destruction.”).

"Over a century actually--the earliest printed examples come from the 1890s. Jazz is about a century old."

Most everybody knows that. What's the point? European music is certainly older than that.

Could be mistaken, but I don’t get the impression that anyone’s suggesting “old” is a bad thing. As Jon noted, most of my favorite musical forms (jazz, blues, old timey, calypso, etc.) are long-in-the-tooth. And a lot of “new” music feels like the “old” reconstituted anyhow.

Uli, this isn’t really related, but could you give a report on the progress of the new Velvet Lounge location? I was in the Windy City about two months ago & couldn’t make it down to Indiana Ave, much to my chagrin.

Derek, nobody can exactly say when the Velvet will move to the new location. Can be anywhere from end of this year to spring/summer next. The building of the new location is not up yet.

In the meantime the old location has problems with getting water and in in the 2nd week of being close. Hope that it's gonna be open next week.

I did not mean to infer that anybody sed that old is a bad thing. I just really don't see the point in telling us what most of us alredy know unless of course one believes that there is something else out there that is "completely new" which i don't.

Maybe this is the right time & place to point y'all in the direction of the new October PT's interview with Dave Burrell! I would love to do one with Don Pullen - one of my two all time fave pianists - but sadly the ouija board is broken. I was also recently contacted by someone who wanted to get in touch with Frank Lowe.. people obviously think I have some kind of direct line to the hereafter. Anyway, nice to be back on Bags after a week of hectic debugging (that'll teach me to refuse Antivirus software updates in future). I used to think Trojan was a fuckin record label..
So this geezer's got half a million dollaz eh? Well, he certainly LOOKS happy in the photo. Honestly, you chaps across the pond never cease to amaze me. Next thing I know you'll reelect Bush..
And before you ask, I still haven't got the bleeding Ayler Box..

hey, this is boring. Has anybody told Reynolds yet?

"after a week of hectic debugging (that'll teach me to refuse Antivirus software updates in future). I used to think Trojan"

Dan, now i got the bug...what was the utility you found? thanks in advance,
Jeff

Reynolds? No compute..

Reynolds, I'm guessing, as in Steve Reynolds, jazzcorner, "the round man," "mad Swede" and others.

Hey, he stole "round man" from me, Gokhan!

Oh yeah? Sorry, then, my lurking does not extend that far back, it seems. The problems of being a newbie with a taste for closure, silly me.

Jesus fucking christ.

Give me, like, 1000 dollars and watch what I do with that. I don't think I've made an album in my 100+ discography that cost more than that to produce. A lot of them sound like it, but imagine, if you will, what would have happened with an actual budget . . .

This society is totally retarded and anyone looking for reason or (cough) "justice" to emerge from it is going to be waiting a long time. I know I gave up years ago. I produce artwork in DEFIANCE of this paradigm.

death to poseurs.

ww

ww

One more droplet of reality: it seems that this macarthur grant also reinforces the growing class distinction of american society in the sense that its prize is ALL OR NOTHING. X amount of recipients get a ludicrously large stipend while everyone else gets nothing. See what I mean?

As far as being a musician, one is either a wealthy "genius" or piddling around in the gutter (I belong in the latter camp). It would be, uh, very pleasant from my point of view to receive, I dunno . . . a fucking FIFTY DOLLAR grant so I could buy some pants that don't have holes in the crotch while I continue to work on music 24-7.

American society doesn't seem to prioritize the importance of merit these days.

hail to the ayler box,

ww

You ain't getting an argument from me...! I hate the all-of-nothing phenomenon.

Hail to you too Weasel
any new albums due out soon?