Britain Goes D.I.Y.

“The future will be more artist-run labels like mine,” said Simon Raymonde, a Bella Union co-founder and former Cocteau Twins bass player. “Our role is to be friend and ally, to nurse and to listen, and to do what we say we’ll do. Ten years ago, we had the same desires. Maybe now, we’re just a little better at it.”

The full blog post, on London’s 2009 independent music festival, is at the NEW YORK TIMES.

Q&A with DJ Beto

The CD came with extensive liner notes that read like an enthusiastic travelogue. Someone hadn’t merely thrown these songs together. They had done their homework to find out why this music sounded the way it did: a collage of funky island rhythms from all over: North and South America, Colombia, the Caribbean and Africa. Yet the music, which evolved during a time of political upheaval and regime change in the country, is precisely Panamanian.

The full interview with DJ Beto is at INTELLIGENT LIFE.

A Week With Ornette Coleman

A series of recent live music performances at London’s Southbank Centre by–or inspired by–Ornette Coleman, a free jazz legend, was equal parts amazing, exhausting and surprising. Never dull.

Having never seen Coleman perform live before, two things became clear to me by the end of the week: his playing oozes with the blues, and he doesn’t want to alienate his audience, no matter much his avant-garde approach to music might suggest otherwise. His music may seem challenging or inaccessible, but the invitation to participate is always there.

The full blog post is at INTELLIGENT LIFE.

Seeing, Not Just Hearing, Jazz

It’s one thing to listen to scratchy old recordings of your favorite jazz artist, but seeing filmed live footage of greats like Ella Fitzgerald or Clifford Brown ripping it is a completely different kind of treat for the real fan.

For the devotee, it’s all in the details: Until I saw late ’50s television footage of Dizzy Gillespie playing, I had no idea that the cheeks he was so famous for puffing out while playing could sometimes push his black, horn-rimmed glasses slightly out of position on his face. Until watching footage of Miles Davis playing “So What” with the Gil Evans orchestra, I didn’t know that Davis would often lick the inside of his mouthpiece before putting the horn to his mouth for a solo.

The full blog post, on London’s Jazz in June festival, is at the NEW YORK TIMES.

Mothballs, Voodoo Dolls, and Saxophones

Racks of used and vintage clothing share space with tattered boxes full of dusty vinyl records, comic books, wigs, jewelry, hats and cheap (and usually bad) paintings. Beer and pastries are served, and rockabilly music and Brazilian jazz wafts through the room. The space can get loud with chatter, and often feels like a gathering of young friends. It’s been described as the perfect way to spend a recession-era Sunday.

Much of what you’ll find can best be described as junk, but really it’s all about taking the time to dig through 30 tables worth of piles to find a hidden gem: voodoo dolls, 1960s gold belts, ’80s leather jackets, Devo records, Barbie dolls, and “G.I. Joe” comics.

The full blog post is at the NEW YORK TIMES.

Morocco’s Got Waves

But while local businesses enjoy the benefits of tourism, Morocco’s surfers want their breaks back. The surf companies here are foreign-owned, and although they employ Moroccans as instructors, drivers, guides, cooks and cleaning crews, they are still outsiders. Graffiti scrawled on the crumbling wall of a former anchor factory at Taghazout’s most amazing break, Anchor Point, declares “Surf camps go home” in English.

As tourists surfing Morocco’s waves, we’re contributing to the country’s third-largest source of income.

The full story is at INTELLIGENT LIFE.

Big Top Britney

Hours before a recent “The Circus: Starring Britney Spears” performance at London’s enormous O2 Arena, a friend called to say he had an extra ticket to the show; mine if I wanted it. “Yes” bounded from my mouth before he had finished his sentence. Two hours later, we found ourselves 20 feet away from Miss Spears and her circus-themed entourage of mohawked clowns, buff acrobats, sexy dancers and midgets.

It’s not the kind of show I frequent–too expensive, too “Britney” for my taste. But to have declined the offer would have been a grave mistake.

The full blog post is at INTELLIGENT LIFE.

Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown

So why Coleman? Lots of reasons. Coleman is one of the founders of the “free jazz” genre (he prefers the term “Harmolodics”). He is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for music. Jazz at Lincoln Center has given Coleman his due props, and he’s got a Lifetime Achievement Grammy.

Compared to more mainstream, conservative ideas of what jazz is or should be, Coleman’s raw, abstract approach to jazz was always controversial — one fellow musician reportedly assaulted him after a show -– but his stamp on jazz is unmistakable and undeniable.

“Throughout his entire career, Ornette has always maintained that music is music,” Glenn Max, the producer of contemporary culture for Southbank, explained. “It’s not jazz, or rock, or classical. It’s just music. In an era too often typified by the slavish aping of trends, these are qualities that are increasingly rare.”

The full blog post is at the NEW YORK TIMES.

Music Review: Vieux Farka Toure

Vieux Farka Touré seems to be doing his own thing musically, despite his father’s expectation that he would enter the military. He was in London promoting his new album, Fondo (“the road”), which mixes traditional Malian music with rock and roll, reggae, pop and salsa–something Farka Touré has described as Koroboro rock or black African rock. But other influences have crept in as well, reflecting Farka Touré’s admission that his iPod includes everything from hip hop to American country to Bollywood soundtracks. He even has a soft spot for pop ballads from the likes of Phil Collins and Bryan Adams.

The full blog post is at INTELLIGENT LIFE

Good vs. Evil: The Debate Continues

It’s been several years since the ICA tackled religion; its last series dealt with new-age religions. “This has very little to do with god, really,” explained James Harkin, the institute’s director of talks and the author of “Cyburbia.”

“It’s about why people have started to drag back the values of absolute good or absolute evil, the same people who were Post-Modernists 10 years ago, who were interested in throwing stones at meta-narratives. But having done that, they were left wondering, what’s next?”

The full blog post is at the NEW YORK TIMES.