Billy Hart book on the way
+ Politics and links
July 8! From Cymbal Press! Oceans of Time: The Musical Autobiography of Billy Hart.
Billy’s quartet with Walter Smith III, Ben Street, and myself will be at the Village Vanguard that week. Books will be for sale at the club and Billy will be happy to sign one for you.
When I voted for Zohran Mamdani yesterday I actually felt something, like: Could this happen? It was unlike most times in the voting booth. A historic upset.
The race for NYC mayor seemed to reflect the general, where the Dems have been foisting the “party elders” on us since Hillary Clinton. It’s all been really low energy, and probably the biggest reason we have Trump v.2 in there: They can’t run anyone who people like! People like Zohran. It’s undeniable.
Dems need to learn to win, mainly through learning to take pleasure in helping the right charismatic person on their side to win. Mamdani and his team are showing the way. (Recommended reading, posted just before the election: “Up with Zohran” by Hamilton Nolan.)
Other political comment: Many lefty publications on Substack are using A.I. art to decorate their posts. At some point I predict this to be an inflection point, where it will become rather shameful to act this way. Get out ahead of the curve. Take a photo, or reprint commercial art like a book or album cover, or pay an illustrator. (Illustrators are cheap, by the way, and getting cheaper.)
Relevant post: “Erotic Decisions” by Tamara. We all want to live an erotic life, correct? Don’t use A.I. art.
Read all about it:
Astonishing comment on Brian Wilson by Matthew Guerrieri.
Jacob Garchik transcribes Miles Davis on multiple version of “Oleo.” This is more like it.
Vinnie Sperrazza listens to Al Foster: Part one, part two.
I felt for Vin when he mentioned agreeing with Stanley Crouch about something (part one) and was immediately attacked in the comments. (“Welcome to my life,” l joked to Vin, before participating in the argument on his page.)
The most relevant Crouch essay on the topic of 70’s fusion—including Miles Davis—remains a truly awesome Village Voice piece from 1979, “Black Music: Bringing Atlantis Up to the Top.”
As I could have predicted, the comment section has become a mini-forum on Stanley Crouch. Crouch was a rare bird, a black critic who hung with the great black musicians and used their perspective to shape his writing. While hardly a perfect critic, that social aspect gives him a lot of room in my book, for he is quite literally almost the only voice from that quadrant of the galaxy. I wrote the NPR obit for Stanley Crouch, which explains more of my take. https://www.npr.org/2020/09/16/913619163/stanley-crouch-towering-jazz-critic-dead-at-74
On AI illustration: Absolutely. I wouldn't hire a professional artist to produce surrealist bullshit if I had an infinite budget, so I don't get an AI to produce it for free. I pay a stock-photo service, I run my own photos, and a few times a year, I pay professional photographers competitive industry rates to produce fantastic photos. As I'm about to do at the Montreal Jazz Festival. It's an indulgence, most of my readers don't care, but it makes me feel like I'm not pushing out the easiest crap I can push out.