"Boy, maybe, but that whole entry reads like the definition of 'backhanded compliment.'"
that's the thing though. for him to say ANYTHING good about you was pretty huge. but it could come with a lot of slander too. though i do see his point about al hirt.
― scott seward, Thursday, 30 March 2017 18:14 (seven years ago) link
DAMN. is a grab-you-by-the-throat declaration that’s as blunt, complex, and unflinching as the name suggests.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/damn/id1223592280
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, 14 April 2017 07:49 (seven years ago) link
Kendrick. Shy Kendrick. Mouthy Kendrick. Bars and cars and you-get-yars. Like a doctor come to take the pulse of a nation, Kendrick has declared you fit to be funky. New music for new times. Kendrick.
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, 14 April 2017 07:53 (seven years ago) link
I bet the booklet in this Modern Jazz Quartet 40th anniversary box set is great. (I'm listening to it on Spotify to decide whether I want to bring a physical copy into my home. There are copies for $20 plus shipping on Discogs.)
https://open.spotify.com/album/2nc1PR7xnJVKNQP0fceDRn
― Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Violent J (誤訳侮辱), Saturday, 15 April 2017 22:31 (seven years ago) link
Just picked up the Jazz West Coast compilation from 1955, and it's a doozy:
While it is interesting to speculate as to whether most of these musicians can be grouped into a musical school of thought, that is not one of the limitations that was placed on selection....But the task of definitive summation is left to later years or less biased observers. It is hoped that by disclaiming any restrictions of School we may bypass much of the clamor about presumptuous inclusion of musicians commonly associated with other areas....This wide range was possible because a significant portion of the important musicians are part of the Pacific Jazz fold, and because contractual barriers to the inclusion of other jazzmen were bridge by an understanding on the part of companion companies as to the importance of a validly representative collection of the local output.
I do love reading these, and find most of them pretty informative, but pretty often they're also unintentionally hilarious. There's a desperate plea in there that this is serious, dammit, which just doesn't age as well as the music. I mean, the passive voice is fine for scientific journal articles, but these guys are writing about musical improvisation.
― enochroot, Tuesday, 12 June 2018 12:25 (five years ago) link
It's really bad writing, at least by the standards of "On Writing Well" or (name your favorite style guide). High-school students write that way, before they've learned how to communicate more clearly and effectively.
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Tuesday, 12 June 2018 16:36 (five years ago) link
I mean, my god -- that final sentence is like an endless string of prepositional phrases.
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Tuesday, 12 June 2018 16:42 (five years ago) link
There's a jazz critic I've known for many years who writes exactly like that, and as a bonus, whenever he's got the choice between two adjectives, he'll opt for the more obscure, Cormac McCarthy-esque of the two. It's really, really fucking annoying - he might be the single most affected prose stylist I've ever come across, and it's not like chopping your way through his sentences will ultimately yield some great insight into the music.
― grawlix (unperson), Tuesday, 12 June 2018 17:01 (five years ago) link
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, April 14, 2017 7:53 AM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Haha, just seeing this now.
― ... (Eazy), Tuesday, 12 June 2018 19:53 (five years ago) link
Did we have a thread for those 1970s copy-heavy music magazine ads where it would start like "Tangerine Dream doesn't want you to get high before listening to their music. The music alone will get you high enough"? I feel like there's some overlap here.
― Fedora Dostoyevsky (man alive), Wednesday, 13 June 2018 01:33 (five years ago) link
― i’m still stanning (morrisp)
sometimes obfuscatory bureaucratese is what's called for
seldom in jazz liner notes, mind
― Arch Bacon (rushomancy), Wednesday, 13 June 2018 01:43 (five years ago) link
Vintage seventies (or sixties and eighties) magazine ads for albums
― Making Plans For Sturgill (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 13 June 2018 03:49 (five years ago) link
pulled out “quiet nights” and found this classic opening paragraph to the liner notes:
The nineteenth century French painter Eugène Delacroix once observed: "Talent does whatever it wants to do. . . . Genius does only what it can." So it is with Miles Davis—Miles the man and Miles the dedicated and instinctive musician. An aura of moody mysteriousness has been planted around Miles by writers and critics who desperately try to put the paradoxical pieces into place. But to the fiercest and only critic that matters to him—Miles himself—all is clear: "I am one thing, a musician; I only can do one thing, play my horn."
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 21:42 (four years ago) link
Yes, good riddance to all that and thank god we are living in the golden age of music criticism in which we are always kept abreast of who threw shade at who on twitter
― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 22:06 (four years ago) link
i wouldn't want to do without 60s jazz liner notes for the typography alone
― the public eating of beans (Sparkle Motion), Wednesday, 19 June 2019 22:12 (four years ago) link
If someone on Pitchfork could shout out Eugène Delacroix while discussing musician Twitter shade that’d really be the dream, though
― You can't see it but I had an epiphany (Champiness), Wednesday, 19 June 2019 22:15 (four years ago) link
geez lighten up, paul
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 22:18 (four years ago) link
sorry. Over the years I've enjoyed and learned a lot from the kind of music writing being ridiculed in this thread. Sure, there's a lot of purple prose, but there's also genuine passion for the subject(s), good information and deep analysis. 50s / 60s liner notes were definitely instrumental in my learning to love jazz.
― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 22:25 (four years ago) link
totally agree- one thing I have always loved is the feeling of reportage coming from them when you consider how short the turnaround time between recording and release could be
― the public eating of beans (Sparkle Motion), Wednesday, 19 June 2019 22:39 (four years ago) link
Yes! And those writers were in many cases well acquainted with the artists, many of whom likely approved of those (frequently hagiographic) essays.
― Paul Ponzi, Thursday, 20 June 2019 00:44 (four years ago) link
I've enjoyed my share of these things. But it's weird saying Miles isn't talented.
― maffew12, Thursday, 20 June 2019 01:33 (four years ago) link
the critic paradoxically continues
In this album, as in all his performances, Miles is an artist whose main concern is for the artistic. He has a fine ear, is a musician's musician, and knows what he is doing each minute. And yet, with his high sophistication of style and well-disciplined direction of talent, Miles still speaks with a simplicity to which a child can respond. A nine-year-old girl, after listening to one of his records for a moment, quipped, "That's Miles Davis!" How did she know? "Because it sounds like a little boy who's been locked out and wants to get in."
― maffew12, Thursday, 20 June 2019 01:36 (four years ago) link
> the feeling of reportage
were some of these guys actually "reporters" and not "critics" because they sure refer to "critics" as some outside group... in basically every one of these things
― maffew12, Thursday, 20 June 2019 01:37 (four years ago) link
I think they just mean other critics
― Paul Ponzi, Thursday, 20 June 2019 12:11 (four years ago) link
That nine-year old girl was Ken Tynan's daughter, iirc. At least, it was in his profile of Miles that I first read the line.
― fetter, Thursday, 20 June 2019 12:23 (four years ago) link
Unrelated, but this got a laugh out of me yesterday, from an LP by vibraphonist Gary Burton
...a collection of nine of the loveliest tunes ever written as interpreted by one of the foremost singers of our time. Singer? Where's the singer? Listen, he's right there, front and center...
WHAT, you say??
Gary Burton is a singer. It just happens that his voice is the vibraphone
Touché, 60s jazz album liner notes. Touché.
― One Eye Open, Thursday, 20 June 2019 12:45 (four years ago) link