< Back to Intervals Index NEW INTERVALS#1 Jan 8 2006 Greetings: This is the first entry into my new format of Intervals. Instead of a massive newsletter several times a year which I have been doing since 1993, I will make entries as time allows and there is something of interest happening; a sort of ongoing journal/diary. To be honest, putting together the text of the newsletter every few months was quite a job, which though I enjoyed doing presented the challenge of recalling the particular energy I had felt for something occurring in the past, several months in some cases. This more present time approach should have a bit more energy and relevance. As well, changes in my itinerary will be noted. I expect the tone to be more informal and conversational. Several of the bylines will be the same: recommended books, records, etc; release of new materials and itinerary. Please let me know what you think as it develops (e mail me through the site). As always I must thank the master of these things, Bret Primack who takes care of the web sites of Joe Lovano, Sonny Rollins, Billy Taylor, Danny Zeitlin among others and is an invaluable mentor into all things computer wise. I ask him a lot of dumb questions since I am a bit na�ve about these matters and I appreciate his patience. Also, appreciation to young Evan Gregor who has been handling my site for the past years and is quite an up and coming bassist, studying for his masters at William Paterson College. Evan is so fast and good with my site, it is mind boggling. Thanks guys. IAJE CONVENTION:NEW YORK HILTON/SHERATON  As usual I will be in attendance for big education convention from Jan 11-14 with my wife, Caris who is a distributor of European jazz books, among them the Advance Music catalogue. Our booth is #260 (Rhinelander Gallery near Jamey Aebersold and other publishers); if I am not involved with the events listed below I will be at the booth. Those of you who have attended one of these conventions know it is a madhouse and particularly difficult it is to get from one place to another because of all the meet and greets you encounter from just walking around. But for seeing a lot of people in our business in one place and of course hearing concerts and attending clinics, some of which are really interesting, there is no place better. Here�s the events I am taking part in and hope to see you there. THURSDAY-11AM: PERFORMANCE OF MILES DAVIS-GIL EVANS �MILES AHEAD� with Manhattan School of Music Orchestra-Trianon Ballroom-Hilton Hotel. As I wrote about in my latest newsletter, playing this music is a thrill. If you are around at such an inconvenient time, I think you will enjoy it. THURSDAY- 3PM: JAZZ MASTERS ON LINE-Videoconferencing with Manhattan School of Music student-Sheraton Central Park. This is a demonstration of what we are doing at the Manhattan School in long distance teaching by video; the wave of the future to be sure!! THURSDAY EVENING: CLUB PERFORMANCE AT 55 BAR-located at 55 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village with Ronan Guilfoyle (bass) and Jim Black (drums)-two sets beginning at 9:30. This is a setting which I have been doing with my good friend, the talented bassist, composer and author (of one of the only and best books on modern rhythm (Creative Rhythmic Concepts for Jazz Improvisation available through Caris Music's Website. We have played in this format several times in the past few years, touring in Europe with Dutch drummer Chander Sardjoe, and one time at 55 Bar with Nasheet Waites; this time we are playing with the wonderful Jim Black. The music is completely improvised. FRIDAY 1PM: CLINIC-A DIATONIC AND MULTI APPROACH TO IMPROVISATION with Mike Rossi-Hilton Gramercy Suite. Mike has written a new book published by Advance Music with a different way of looking at ii-V lines among other common patterns. SATURDAY-9AM-IASJ MEETING-Hilton Concourse Level-Room G. My organization will meet to discuss our next meeting in June at the University of Louisville, Kentucky and then in 2007, in Siena, Italy. These meetings are a way to introduce ourselves to interested people and of course meet with any members who might be attending the convention. SATURDAY-5PM: JAZZ EDUCATION IN SCANDINAVIA-Hilton Concourse Level-Room G. Scandinavia has probably the best musical education as far as jazz goes as evidenced by the high level of their musicians. This should be interesting as these kind of panels go. Bret Primack will be previewing my debut video podcasts at the jazzvideopodcasts.com booth (#309), next to Billy Taylor's booth. Starting next week, you'll be able to download and subscribe to these podcasts directly from site, as well from Podcast Website. This new portal will also have free video by Sonny Rollins, Joe Lovano, Billy Taylor and Denny Zeitlin available for computers and the Video Ipod. RECOMMENDED WEB SITE My very close friend who lives in Israel, Leon Segal, has a very interesting web site. We met in 1984 when I was with Quest in Dallas and Leon was working for Bell Helicopter as an adviser, fresh out of the Israeli Air Force. He is a Doctor of Human Factors, a relatively new field that studies how humans interact with objects and things around us in everyday life. His web site is extremely interesting to anyone, especially the glossary. Leon, is not only one of the most brilliant and soulful people I know (with a beautiful family by the way), but he also plays Coltrane solos by heart!! Leon Segal�s Website. RECOMMENDED ARTICLE:POPIFICATION!! Walter Turkenburg is the Chairman of the IASJ and has been my associate and friend since its inception in 1987. He is in charge of the Jazz Department at the Royal Conservatory in Den Haag, Netherlands, which is quite an impressive music school. The IASJ membership receives a newsletter several times a year and both Walter and I write something for each issue. I think the following is one of the best descriptions of what we are living through culturally in our times. (I think he coined a new word!!) From the editor of the IASJ Newsletter: Jazz education and the popified world The world is "popified: Popification is the current world-wide process of transformation of all cultures. The process started at the end of the 20th century and is now, at the beginning of the 21st century, coming into full power. Age old traditions and institutions have disappeared to make place for an all-encompassing popificated, one-dimensional way of life. Traditional life in harmony with nature in rural areas has disappeared. The present clashing of cultures in cities has led to extremism and terrorism. Popification has not managed to unify the clashing cultures in the big cities of the world. It has only led to enlarge the extremes between cultures by underlining the differences between them. The soft blanket of popification has put a superficial thin layer of varnish on cultural diversity but has not strengthened it. Popification has no respect for the various cultures and no real answers to the problems of our racially diversified and multicultural life. Through popification we are drawn in the popified world. The characteristics of the popified world are easy to describe. In the popified world life is informal, superficial, fashionable, �life-stylish� but there is not a real style of life. Sporting events and music festivals are not about sports or music anymore but have become popified events that are overwhelming, individuality killing. Then have become gatherings that are referring to a popified group-feeling. In the popified world, silence and noise are taken over by a blanket of popified music: pop music, but also popified classical music, jazz and world music. In popified music it is stardom and glamour that count, not the music itself. Advertisements on radio, television, internet and in public areas bombard our perception system wanting us to believe that the ideal world is not the real world but a dream world, the bigger-than-life world: the popified world. As a result human relations are re-codified in popified behavior. Communication is done informally by the use of sms-messages, by sending e-mails using a new popified language not bringing us closer to each other. Of course, I am not against e-mail or mobile phones. I just do not like the popified use on new communication technology. Pop music is often confused with popification but it is just a symptom of the popified world. Pop music helps popification a lot because it fits the profile of popification but it is not causing it. Blaming popular music for having caused the popified world is turning things upside down: one element is taken for the whole. In a way I feel pity for pop music because it has become one of the biggest victims of popification. Pop music has become popified sound that we cannot escape, that surrounds us all the time, and that holds us in its claws. Most of the pop music we hear all day long is no longer music but tranquilizing sounds that have become the slave of popification. It is meant to drug us, and keep us firmly in the popified world. Can the popification be stopped? No! The generation that grew up on popified music is now coming into power and will be fully in power in the next decade. In the music business there are only five companies that control every step from the production-distribution-consumption chain. They own the copyrights, the record companies, the festivals, the manufacturing of audio and audiovisual equipment and with that power they control the artist. The power game is the same in the music business as it is in any other business. We cannot escape the popified world but we can step out of it temporarily. If you play jazz or even if you listen really well to jazz, you are in another world. Interaction, creativity, personal skills and identity are all at work in jazz, both as a listener and a player. All these aspects do not match with the popified world in which interaction, creativity and individuality are gone. The possibility of escape from the popified world that jazz offers, surely is one of the explanations of the ongoing popularity of jazz education. Jazz musicians know very well what is going on in the world. However, they are a-typical to the popified world. They are not fashionable, they are individuals with their own sound and they do not like the masses. Most jazz musicians can play pop music, even very well, if they have to in order to earn money. Quite a few jazz musicians are active in genuine pop music, not popified pop music, and trying to merge or fuse it into their jazz playing. Is the IASJ a safe haven in the popified world? I think so. Of course, IASJ members cannot completely escape the popified world let alone avoid the popified music industry. They participate in that industry because of necessity, not out of free will. In one way or the other the IASJ has managed to exist for a decade and a half without being popified. This is a major achievement in itself. The IASJ is not fighting popification but it is presenting an alternative to it. Some years ago I came up with the slogan: the future of jazz is connected with the future of jazz education and the IASJ is the chain. I now present a second one: jazzification is the antidote to popificaton and the IASJ is the distribution center. Walter Turkenburg Editor IN PASSING MIKE SMITH(drums): Every city has its local jazz heroes, guys who are as good as anyone anywhere, but for whatever reason remained for the most part locally in their city. In the Washington-Baltimore area was such a guy; drummer Mike Smith with whom I recorded with last year on a record led by pianist Dave Kane (Magellan Label-Grey Matters). He passed away after a bout with cancer and definitely will be missed for his spirit and wonderful sophisticated musicianship. For a wonderful dedication to him from his long time associate go to: David Kane's Website. Till next time Peace Lieb