Marc Ribot: The Care and Feeding of a Musical Margin

I went to a protest that Ribot organized in front of Arlene's Grocery once - in protest of their policy of not paying musicians who play there. That was with his group "Noise Action Coalition". I'm glad someone is speaking up about these issues. I thought the article was quite interesting - shedding some light on the economics of the downtown music scene which are usually underreported.

The United States does seem to have this strange (even unique?) position in history as an empire with little interest in proclaiming its own cultural/artistic greatness. Our pop culture may happen to proclaim its own supremacy, but it does so independently of our government.

(and as such it shows little interest in funding the arts)

At the same time I agree with Ribot that that's not entirely a bad thing - institutions aren't always the best places for experimental music to flourish.

The United States does seem to have this strange (even unique?) position in history as an empire with little interest in proclaiming its own cultural/artistic greatness

That's cool. Having other governments sponsor festivals to pay our jazz musicians' mortgages is way cooler than doing it yourself.

Part of the upside of Wynton Marsalis's whole "national cultural treasure" argument about jazz, although I find it a bit constricting, is that it implies that more money should be provided.

I just want to say that I saw Ceramic Dog tonight and they were off the chain.

Spiritual Unity was good too.

This does actually kind of tie into the thread, because I was thinking about how acts Ceramic Dog (the more accessible of the two bands with elements of jam band, math rock, punk, etc.) can help their members support more *difficult* projects like Spiritual Unity (free-improv based on Ayler tunes).

holy shit this new Ceramic Dog record...goddamn

A pal saw the band here a few months back and was pretty bummed at how "rock" it was.

(Of course, I don't know why he was expecting it to be otherwise)

Loving Marc Ribot's funk band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x653ob3PeuM

Saw them last week, the drummer and organ player are killer. Of my agnostic crew who had no idea who he was, one loved it, one thought it was pretty good, and one couldn't stand it.

Drummer is from New Orleans, I saw him few times when he must have been all of 14, he's sick.

I didn't know Ribot had a book out. Came across it browsing in a bookstore this weekend. Skimmed a bit, he writes well.

saw the jazz bins live last year, it was just a boring as that video would suggest

haha

I like Cubanos Postizos. Enjoyed Muy Divertido! on a recent listen.