As modern technology has increased the cost of equipment and duplication
in the recording process has decreased. It used to be that a band needed
to be signed to a label before they could put out a quality recording, this
is no longer the case. Now for a few thousand dollars you can get a thousand
CD's, provided you already have a digital master. For a number of years
rock bands have been taking advantage of the available technology and lower
prices to get CD's on the market. Most shows at local venues bands have
CD's to sell and you can find them in several local stores.
It is good to have a record contract with a major label, they will help
defray costs of recording and production, but the biggest thing the label
will do is help in the wider distribution of the recording. That said, if
you can't get a label deal you can still self produce a CD of your music,
and do the distribution to local stores, (usually on consignment) and at
club dates. Getting this done and selling your product gets the labels aware
of your existence which may eventually get you to the big time and a lucrative
contract with a major label.
In case you weren't aware some of our local jazz artists, both past and
present, have been in the studio and CD's are or will be available soon.
Right now the Jeff Stitely Quartet has two CD's (one live/one studio), Mark
Dziuba,(with Stitely and Mike Kocour), were just in the studio and will
have their second release out soon. Kevin Engel, now living in Cincinnati
is in a band called Standard Time Quintet, which has their debut "Be
Truthful",(remember Guido), out as well. If you are having trouble
picking any of these up contact Jeff Machota at 344-8209 he can help you
out.
Word is that Lawrence Hobgood and his trio have a deal in the works with
Blue Note and will probably have something out soon. Mitch Paliga can be
heard on the Steve Ramsdell CD which can be found at most local stores.
There are also CD's available from Medicare 7,8 or 9, and the Illinois Jazz
Orchestra (aka the John Garvey Band). Rumor also has it that Brian Wilkie
has finished a new recording as has the Kevin Hart Latin Jazz Quintet, so
keep you ears out for these releases as well.
It's good to hear that some of our local jazz people are getting material
in the stores. Hopefully this will get some of the other jazz artists in
the community inspired. I know I'd love to add CD's by Sorgum, Jeff Helgesen
or Tom Paynter to my collection. How 'bout you?
In January 1995 I was invited to attend the annual Swing Journal Awards
Ceremony at the luxurious Tokyo Prince Hotel. My host, the eminent jazz
writer Yui Shôichi, chairs the committee of critics who selected the
best albums of 1994 and the latest winner of the Nanri Fumio Prize, an award
named in honor of Japan's first jazz star and given annually to a Japanese
artist who has made significant contributions to the art. The awards gala
was swanky to say the least; waitresses wore kimono and waiters formal uniforms,
and the members of John Scofield's quartet, plus Eddie Harris (in town for
a week-long engagement at the Blue Note), were among the jazz luminaries
in attendance.
Finally it was time to give the awards. I craned my neck to catch a glimpse
of the artists who would be receiving prizes, but soon realized that the
Japanese businessman going toward the stage to accept an award for Chick
Corea's album was not Chick Corea. Neither was the man who accepted an award
for Onishi Junko's Village Vanguard LP. In fact, the only artist to actually
accept an award was pianist Kikuchi Masabumi, who had flown from New York
to accept the Nanri Prize. The record company executives were getting everything
else!
I asked Mr. Yui about this practice and he replied that SJ bestows the awards
on the recording companies in order to "get advertising." He is
not in favor of this blatant "commercialism" personally, but that
is how things are done at Japan's most popular jazz magazine.
Things started making sense now. For months I had been struck by the fact
that SJ, which reviews over a hundred new albums and reissues in every issue,
practically never gives a bad review. Jake Mori, a member of SJ's editorial
staff, concedes that the magazine's editorial policy rarely allows for worse
than a three-and-a-half (out of five) star rating. Obviously troubled by
this, he added that the magazine's readers do not feel that they can rely
on SJ's reviews. But it is not a problem that is necessarily unique to Swing
Journal. Uchida Kôichi, a vibraphonist and jazz historian who publishes
the small newsletter Jazz World, explains that positive reviews of a particular
record company's releases result in substantial advertising revenue from
said company. Moreover, critics who write positive reviews of albums are
then offered jobs writing liner notes for the recording companies; in other
words, writing favorable reviews pays off for the critics. Isono Teruo ("Terry"),
a DJ, jazz writer, and drummer who worked for SJ for over thirty years,
admits partial responsibility. He used to be a harsh critic, he says (a
trumpeter whose work he had criticized once punched Isono in the face and
broke his glasses); but as a member of SJ's editorial staff he remembers
collecting money from musicians who had scored well in SJ polls, thus starting
the practice of exchanging favorable attention for advertising revenue.
He now disparages SJ as an "advertising magazine" that exists
not for musicians but for recording and audio companies.
Another factor that makes jazz criticism in Japan "uncritical"
is the extremely close relationship between musicians and critics, which
is in stark contrast to the well-established tradition of hostility between
artists and critics in America. The close musician-critic relationship in
Japan can be traced back to the man whom many consider to be the first serious
jazz critic and researcher in Japan, Nogawa Kôbun (1900-1957). Nogawa
not only produced concerts and reviewed records, but translated lyrics from
English to Japanese for recording sessions, wrote arrangements, and otherwise
contributed to the music that he was theoretically supposed to be judging.
Today, what we would probably call "conflicts of interest" are
rife. Japanese musicians are amazingly respectful to jazz critics, referring
to them with the honorific term sensei ("teacher," "master");
in return critics rarely fail to praise their work. Veteran saxophonist
Oda Satoru calls this practice "kissing up" (gomasuri).
In America we have grown accustomed to jazz critics who build their entire
careers by either championing a new jazz movement (i.e., Leonard Feather
and bebop, Martin Williams and the avant-garde, Stanley Crouch and the "Young
Lions") or by ruthlessly cutting new movements or individual musicians
to ribbons with their tongues and pens (i.e., Gene Lees vs. Wynton Marsalis,
Crouch vs. Bill Evans, everybody vs. Wallace Roney). Our critical establishment
certainly suffers its excesses, and it never has (and probably never will)
enjoy the sanction of artists, who believe that writing about non-verbal
artistic expression is an inherently self-defeating enterprise. Still, we
have an ideal for our critics: the honest evaluation of artistic products,
with the purpose of educating consumers inundated with choices, independent
of the marketing concerns of record companies. Jazz critics in Japan repeatedly
expressed to me a desire for the same standard. But they seem to think that
they are powerless to change the situation. The bottom line is still the
bottom line.