Mark Corotto takes a look down the road less travelled.
Art Strike!
"Would you support an art strike?" That's the question I've been asking musicians for the past few months. “Will you agree to stop writing and performing music for one year?" In 1990 the London artists Stewart Home and Mark Pawson proposed that all artists cease to “make, exhibit, distribute, sell, or discuss their work" for three ...
Jazz: A Blessed Obsession
Jazz listeners travel some strange and beautiful paths. It might have all begun with collectors trying to find a legendary Edison cylinder that New Orleans trumpeter Buddy Bolden--some believe to be the very first jazz musician--may (or may not) have recorded in 1904. Fast forward to modern times, a quick scan of eBay and the exorbitant ...
Before We Say Goodbye To 2012
In consumer culture, where we are all guilty of looking for the next new thing, the emphasis is always on new releases, and what the next, best, super-improved product will be. It seems that even before this week's movie opens, we are being told about next week's blockbuster. Before we turn our attention fully to 2013, ...
You say you're beat? You don't know Jack
..."the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..." Jack ...
Merzbow Brings The Noise
Merzbow Merzbient Soleilmoon Recordings 2012
Are you of the mind, that in the big scheme of things, the really big scheme of things, there are no accidents? That everything happens for a purpose? Call it synchronicity or a Shirley MacLaine cake recipe, and I'm sure Kevin Bacon would agree, that fate or ...
The Grand Canyon
Flying over the Grand Canyon on your way to Las Vegas is one way to see that huge gash in the earth, and standing on the banks of the Colorado River is another. From one perspective depth cannot be appreciated, from the other the enormity of it all. Such is the case with modern improvised music. ...
Yes. But Is It Jazz?
Jazz comes at you from so many directions these days, that to rely on just one definition, is not enough. Sure, it can be a blues-based rhythmic music but it is also minimalist free improvisation. Pigeonholing something, such as jazz, always separates and eventually segregates supporters, creating conflicts and in the end lessening the whole. Maybe ...
The Rocket Ship Takes Off
I have good news and bad news. The bad news is the big record companies are dead. The good news is the big record companies are dead. Gone are the days of Columbia Records signing trumpeter Wynton Marsalis to a million dollar contract and then promoting the hell out of his vision of jazz, selling his ...
