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Post by nicknick on Dec 7, 2017 9:21:23 GMT
An interesting observation in Sam Stephenson’s recent book Gene Smith’s Sink: A Wide-Angle View (2017): Today, Sonny Clark’s recordings are more popular in Japan than in the United States, even though he never visited that country. According to SoundScan, which began tracking CD sales in 1991, Clark’s 1958 album on the Blue Note label, Cool Struttin’, has, in Japan outsold several Blue Note albums with similar instrumentation from the same period that dwarf Cool Struttin’ in terms on iconography and sales in the States. For example, from 1991 to 2009, Cool Struttin’ sold 38,000 copies in the States and 179,000 in Japan, while over the same period, Coltrane classic 1957 release, Blue Train, sold 545,000 copies in the States and 147,000 in Japan. Then Sam Stephenson asked a writer Haruki Murakami, who once owned a jazz club, why Cool Struttin’ is so popular in Japan. He attributed it to the rise of the “jazz kissa” (jazz coffeehouses) in the 1960s: “The popularity of Cool Struttin’ was not driven by professional critics or by sales but instead by youths who didn’t have enough money to buy vinyl records, so they went to coffee shops to hear jazz on the house record player. This was a phenomenon particular in Japan, or at least very different from America.”
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Post by alunsevern on Dec 7, 2017 11:47:20 GMT
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Post by nicknick on Dec 7, 2017 11:56:52 GMT
Yes, Alun, I know it. And you probably know that he is also an author of two books of essays on jazz musicians: Portrait in Jazz (1998) and Portrait in Jazz 2 (2001).
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Post by alunsevern on Dec 7, 2017 17:41:34 GMT
In fact, I didn't know he had written about jazz. I only know that a friend tried to convince me to read his fiction -- and I tried and I hated it. But his record collection is another matter...
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Post by nicknick on Dec 8, 2017 7:07:01 GMT
I had similar unfortunate experience: I tried to read a couple of his fiction books but stopped in a few pages. As for these two non-fiction opuses, they are quite interesting because Murakami describes his impressions of listening to his favorite jazz musicians and albums. Considering his background and the volume of his record collection, one can expect certain competence in the matter. However, I've found out that at present time there are only Japanese original editions and three (!) Russian editions (2005, 2006, and 2009). So unless you read either Japanese or Russian, you cannot dig them. Both the title and the text are based on the series of jazz musician portraits painted by Makoto Wada for his personal exhibition (you can see two of the portraits on the covers above). Murakami liked them and decided to write essays about each musician depicted and his favorite album by the musicians.
Volume One includes Chet Baker, Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Waller, Art Blakey, Stan Getz, Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, Charles Mingus, Jack Tigarden, Bill Evans, Bix Beiderbecke, Cannonball Adderley, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Charlie Christian, Eric Dolphy, Count Basie, Gerry Mulligan, Nat 'King' Cole, Dexter Gordon, Thelonious Monk, and Lester Young.
Volume Two includes: Horace Silver, Anita O'Day, Modern Jazz Quartet, Teddy Wilson, Glenn Miller, Wes Montgomery, Clifford Brown, Ray Brown, Mel Tormé, Shelly Manne, June Christy, Django Reinhardt, Oscar Peterson, Lee Morgan, Ornette Coleman, Jimmy Rushing, Bobby Timmons, Gene Krupa, Herbie Hancock, Lionel Hampton, Herbie Mann, Hoagy Carmichael, Tony Bennett, Eddie Condon, Jackie and Roy, Art Pepper, Frank Sinatra, and Gil Evans.
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Post by alunsevern on Dec 8, 2017 11:04:43 GMT
No, my Japanese and my Russian are both unaccountably rusty...
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Post by gst on Dec 8, 2017 17:27:51 GMT
Love these pics. I'm currently looking for inspiration for my first dedicated music room. This room looks to be about the same size 12'x14'? Hard to tell.
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Post by alunsevern on Dec 9, 2017 11:28:02 GMT
Appearances can be deceptive. I've seen other pictures in which the space looks quite a lot larger. Although, who knows -- maybe there's been more than one Murakami music room over the years? He could afford to have multiple rooms, after all.
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Post by jonwms on Jan 10, 2018 16:24:44 GMT
I've never cared for academic books on jazz as I just do not process the music that way. Honestly I rarely read liner notes on Lp's. I would highly recommend "Straight Life", "Bird Lives", and "Beneath The Underdog". It's been twenty plus years since I've read them but I think they would still hold up for me.
I'm hoping somebody will write a book on Rudy Van Gelder and his studio's that's of the quality the subject deserves. I'd like know more about the man whose name is on a majority of my possessions.
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Post by gregorythefish on Jan 11, 2018 14:52:35 GMT
interesting idea, jonwms. i always like to read liner notes. i like to learn about what's going on. i wouldn't say most of the books we've discussed are academic. the ones you mentioned are in the general category.
and i'd be interested in an RVG book for sure.
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Post by Martin on Jan 12, 2018 10:12:43 GMT
Yeah - plus one from me for a really high quality RVG book. There is a mischieveous little imp whispering in my ear that the members of this forum probably have the collective knowledge to write such a book ourselves if we pooled our resources. Am I quite mad?
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Post by gregorythefish on Jan 12, 2018 14:23:47 GMT
i only know what the rest of us know about RVG. i know nothing of his early life, for example. we'd need that for a book.
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Post by gst on Jan 16, 2018 16:18:30 GMT
The book was purchased yesterday after The Thing gig and inscribed by the author.
I find it interesting that collectors can be "celebrities" in their own right (probably more famous than some of the artists they love). I'm reading "Do Not Sell at Any Price" and it's fascinating how legendary collectors can shape our listening world. How do you folks view Thurston Moore and what's his place in the jazz world? On a related note I'll admit I'm a Sonic Youth fan and recently picked up an original copy of "Daydream Nation."
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Post by nicknick on Jan 27, 2018 7:16:39 GMT
Bill Moody (1941-2017), jazz drummer and author of books, passed away this January at his home in Vallejo California. He wrote a series of seven crime novels with Evan Horne (jazz pianist/detective) as the lead character: (1) Solo Hand, this first book introduces Evan Horne and addresses music royalties and blackmail (1994), (2) Death of a Tenor Man, about Wardell Gray (1995) (3) The Sound of the Trumpet, about lost recordinfsgs of Clifford Brown (1997), (4) Bird Lives! (1998) , (5) Looking for Chet Baker (2002), (6) Shades of Blue, where Evan Horne investigates what might be original compositions of two famous Miles Davis recordings (2008), and (7) Fade to Blue (2011). As a musician, Bill toured with Maynard Ferguson, Earl Hines, Lou Rawls, Junior Mance and many others. Bill Moody also wrote a nonfiction book The Jazz Exiles (1993) about his experiences of living and working in Europe.
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heavyp
Junior Member
Posts: 69
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Post by heavyp on Jan 27, 2018 14:54:51 GMT
An interesting observation in Sam Stephenson’s recent book Gene Smith’s Sink: A Wide-Angle View (2017): Today, Sonny Clark’s recordings are more popular in Japan than in the United States, even though he never visited that country. According to SoundScan, which began tracking CD sales in 1991, Clark’s 1958 album on the Blue Note label, Cool Struttin’, has, in Japan outsold several Blue Note albums with similar instrumentation from the same period that dwarf Cool Struttin’ in terms on iconography and sales in the States. For example, from 1991 to 2009, Cool Struttin’ sold 38,000 copies in the States and 179,000 in Japan, while over the same period, Coltrane classic 1957 release, Blue Train, sold 545,000 copies in the States and 147,000 in Japan. Then Sam Stephenson asked a writer Haruki Murakami, who once owned a jazz club, why Cool Struttin’ is so popular in Japan. He attributed it to the rise of the “jazz kissa” (jazz coffeehouses) in the 1960s: “The popularity of Cool Struttin’ was not driven by professional critics or by sales but instead by youths who didn’t have enough money to buy vinyl records, so they went to coffee shops to hear jazz on the house record player. This was a phenomenon particular in Japan, or at least very different from America.”
interesting lines about HM jazz side harpers.org/blog/2014/02/nothing-is-strange/
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