Good Libations

My jazz-nerd and microbrew-nerd tendencies are synergizing today, as Delaware brewer Dogfish Head recently unveiled their newest creation, Bitches Brew Ale.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the original release of Bitches Brew, Miles Davis' 1970 paradigm-shifting landmark fusion breakthrough, we've created our own Bitches Brew - a bold, dark beer that's a fusion of three threads imperial stout and one thread honey beer with gesho root, a gustatory analog to Miles' masterpiece.

Needless to say, I will buy up a bunch of this while it's around. Hopefully you live somewhere within Dogfish Head's reach. The Bitches Brew bottle will look nice on my shelf next to an empty bottle of Brother Thelonious.

Friday Album Cover: Night of the Cookers

Via @nextbop:

RT @atane Freddie Hubbard & Lee Morgan - The Night of Cookers - Man this joint is sizzling!! #jazz #vinyl http://twitpic.com/1tedk3

Political Economy

At A Blog Supreme, Patrick Jarenwattananon writes today about the pros and cons of state sponsorship of jazz and the free market:

In a way, it's a classic case of "you reap what you sow." As jazz and related musics became unable to fully support themselves in the open marketplace, the community turned in part to state funding. So jazz became an art music.

PJ (can I call you PJ?) was responding to this post from Peter Hum, on the loss of funding for JazzBaltica. I have some minor quibbles with the piece (jazz became an art music long before public funding came into the picture, but that doesn't actually run counter to PJ's argument), but agree with much of his argument. Public funding can be as capricious as the free market, and jazz is in fact marketable, even as it is allegedly dying. I also love the idea of Canada supporting jazz festivals as tourism initiatives and only secondarily as arts initiatives. Putting a market price on jazz (e.g. "A jazz festival will bring in $X of tourism money to this community.") allows musicians (and their supporters) to translate audience support into financial backing. It's a two-way street, though, so that means the audience (you and me) needs to keep showing up to hear live jazz, lest anyone think it be dead.

UPDATE: Vijay Iyer had this to say about a jazz world with no public funding:

leave it up to the marketplace and you favor: (1) kenny g etc (2) jam bands etc (3) good-looking singers etc

I'm not sure I totally agree. Certainly those three groups are favored by the market, but I'm not sure that would be much of a change with less public funding (especially since it is so scarce in America).

Back in the Swing of Things

I've returned from Portland. I had a great week, including an interesting Wednesday evening at Jimmy Mak's. I showed up a little early for the Mel Brown Quartet's set, and walked in on the final tune of the Beaumont Middle School jazz band, which was playing a fundraiser at the club during the early set. Though my expectations were low, I must say, those kids can play. They were well above the level of my middle school band, for sure. Some of the soloists have even started developing individual personalities. Once the kids cleared out at 9:30 (by law), Mel Brown took the stage and laid down some delightful hard bop. Brown won my everlasting favor when he played an entire solo on his high hat and cymbals late in the set. Here's a sample of the Quartet in action, playing pianist Tony Pacini's Blues for El Cid:

That was the extent of my jazz activities during the trip, but I also wanted to share a few murals I saw at the Kennedy School, a former Northeast Portland middle school that closed in the 1970s and was later bought by the McMenamins company, which converted the facilities into a brewery, bar, restuarant, and hotel (the beer is wonderful, I recommend the Hammerhead Pale Ale and Sunflower IPA). The grounds were decorated by local artists, and the main entryway to the school featured a pair of murals facing each other on opposite walls, one of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong (above), the other of Lester Young and Billie Holiday (below).

I have one more thing to share with you from my trip, coming later in the week. Until then, I'll be cleaning my house, which somehow did not clean itself while I was gone...

Orchestrion Follow-Up: Part I

You may remember this post, in which I expressed my skepticism about Pat Metheny's Orchestrion project. My main concern was whether Metheny could replicate human rhythm with his array of machines and solenoids. Metheny has since released the album to wonderful acclaim (Including a Jazz Times cover and profile with David Adler that quotes yours truly) and taken his act on the road. Ben Ratliff reviewed Metheny's performance at New York's Town Hall, writing, "It's still lunacy, but it breathes. The orchestrion has humor and elegance."

Below is a clip of Metheny's Orchestrion show at the Olympia in Paris: