“Life sucks … and then you die.” There was actually a graduating class at the school I work at that had my “motto” printed on the back of their graduation T-shirts once, well-knowing that I love to play the eternal cynic with a bunch of virtual winking smileys added for good measure. So, before I disappear into 14 days of “hell week(s)” of day-job last-minute panic, I thought I’d leave you with a brief post here to outline what’s been going on. Continue Reading →
Epitomizing.
You know it when you see it (to quote the infamous Justice Potter) and you get a lot of it around here. If I like something, I tell you so, and I don’t hold back on the verbiage to get my point across. So, should we give it another go?
Oscar Peterson, who in his lifetime had all too often been shunned by jazz critics and fans alike because of his supposed technical showmanship and supposed repetitive use of “set pieces” or clichés (take your pick), has an impressive oeuvre to his name. I have been known to strongly disagree with his detractors time and again and I’ve written the Internet thin, under various monikers, up in arms against this groundswell that has so far proven to be insurmountable in certain circles, and I don’t really care if I was successful. I just think it is important to raise my voice here and there to at least make my point of view known. Continue Reading →
How’s that for a change of pace around here? A post about the “Motor City Madman” by the only German that doesn’t even have a driver’s license?
As is always the case around here, the memory tag is securely attached to this double-LP, which I invested a whole summer’s earnings into.
But.
If you have at all been reading along here on a regular basis, you know that the story is never as simple as that. It’s not one of shelling out hard-earned shillings for a double-LP.
It’s a lot more than that.
Try to bear with me. Continue Reading →
For the first time in 2009, I had a look at the statistics for this (rather lifeless) site and, alas, I have more readers than ever before. My Google page rank even increased (go figure). I guess it’s the “curse” of any site that was once updated more or less regularly to get all comfy and cushy on Google and to reel in more and more unsuspecting readers, meaning readers who never hit the front page or more recent posts to find out that the site is basically left to drift in the high and low tides that are the ever-changing world of the Internet.
Well, time to add something here, just because I feel like it again.
Maybe, if the feeling stays, I will add this type of “Observations” post in a more timely fashion. Continue Reading →
A Profile of Sorts
I pride myself on hardly ever having misjudged people. Naturally, I have been completely wrong at times (and when I am/was wrong, I am/was completely off), but as far as I recall, the number of blunders were rather limited. It is my profession to evaluate people and although that is often quite difficult, I usually get it right at some point, especially if I am able to spend longer periods of time with the people in question.
That’s why I would state that Ed Thigpen was not only a cool guy, but also a true gentleman. Now, I have absolutely no idea if he walked around at home throwing terrible tantrums or if he had a tendency to easily go off the rails in more private settings, but whenever I had the chance to experience his personality up close, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he would be a great friend to have. Continue Reading →
It’s been quite a while since I started a series entitled Trials and Tribulations. In that series, I wrote about things that can drive us collectors up the wall …and down again. At the time I only hinted at it, but right now I’m planning on expanding on one of the issues I mostly left out at the time: The Trials and Tribulations of label policy. It’s a can of worms I didn’t really want to touch then and it’s a can – when opened – that infuriates me time and again, economic sensibility or not. I come at it from a stance uninhibited by economic concerns; one that focuses on keeping music alive as opposed to keeping profits up. Call me delusional, but it’s the way I tick.
To cut to the chase right away, whenever you mention the Concord Music Group on any jazz board, chances are that people will start cussing relatively fast, despite some of the exemplary work they have produced.. The problem was and is that Concord purchased Fantasy Inc. (the owners, for example, of the prestigious Original Jazz Classics reprint series series, Galaxy, Debut Records, Riverside, Milestone, Prestige, Pablo, and just about everything else under the sun that many collectors were/are salivating for) … and proceeded to shut down that company’s Berkley California warehouse where lots of that Fantasy OJC stock was shelved, fired the Fantasy vault workers, shut down their mastering studio and shipped the tapes off to the infamous Iron Mountain storage facility. Continue Reading →
I know quite a few collectors who actually plan their shopping sprees. I used to do that too, at times, but today I neither look at my usual online haunts all that regularly nor do I head into town as often as I would like. The shopping patterns I adhere to are not based on emotional stability (or instability) but on 20 and more years of experience when it comes around to – bit by bit – putting together a solid collection of both printed and recorded material. What seems to be a simple activity at first, quickly turns into a convoluted process of scheming and planning, much of which has been thoroughly affected by both local politics and European protectionism.
Over here in Germany, being a music collector isn’t as much fun as it could be. Like the rest of you, we can of course enjoy those items that we finally managed to get our hands on, but getting there is usually the problem, especially if you are on a tighter budget. Prices are sometimes outrageous here, customs officials handling imports from the US, for example, could perhaps be likened to 500-pound gorillas from whose IQ you automatically need to deduct another 10 points, and when confronted with wrapping and packaging by some international mail order dealers, you are never really surprised when your shipment gets hit by a Chinese water demon in transit. Continue Reading →
I had never heard of Pim Jacobs when, unsuspecting, I accidentally hit one of those sites that discuss more obscure music releases or reissues and, although I can’t quite recall, the album was even offered for download. I quickly read through the veritable epitomizing of this reissue and started investigating in more detail. It’s become a habit to do that when I come across someone praising an album in no uncertain tone, especially if that someone – as a quick glance at the archives page of said site showed – had very similar listening habits.
It was a frustrating experience. As is often the case, the Internet turned up quite a bit of information, but all of it seemed, in one way or another, to have been copied from the same two sources, and those weren’t very elaborate.
It was also frustrating because from a quick glance at the hard facts – being European myself – I should have heard of Pim Jacobs before. I have spent half of my life listening to European musicians who toured through Scandinavia and Germany and I was even fortunate to meet and talk to many of them. Never once did that name come up. I don’t know how many musicians passed through Copenhagen’s famed jazz club “Montmartre”, a place I had almost familial ties to, and many of the countless musicians who did pass through must surely have played with Pim. I know they did because I later unearthed that information. Still, I have no memory of ever having heard anything about him. Continue Reading →
