We Travel the Spaceways
Mark Corotto takes a look down the road less travelled.
Ivo Perelman: What A Year In Music
by Mark Corroto
There is an adage in the music world that one is damned to be a completist. Ever since performances have been captured on cylinders, records, and now digitally, music devotees have endeavored to collect entire catalogs of their favorite musicians or ensembles. Think about the obsessive hunters of 78 rpm blues records from backwoods artists of the 1920s and '30s, Dean Benedetti's obsessive capture of Charlie Parker solos and Phil Schaap's dedication to every bit of Bird's minutia. There are ...
Continue ReadingThe Volcanic World Of Pyroclastic Records
by Mark Corroto
As listeners we so often typecast musicians and music labels. Artists are pigeonholed into silos: classical, jazz, rock, blues, pop, etc.. Go into any record store (if you can find a brick & mortar one) and this segregation, a forced separation, is also evident. Even streaming services are divided in this manner. Maybe it is just human nature to create species designation for artists. It's a way for listeners, similar to the work of biologists grouping living organisms that are ...
Continue ReadingHeavy Rotation For A Pandemic Summer
by Mark Corroto
In the summer of 2020 one result of the COVID-19 isolation, and artists inability to tour and perform is that they have time to deal with projects halted by this pandemic. Musicians, producers, and engineers have mixed, mastered and released an abundance of music. Many of the titles have been, and will be covered by our staff, but within this prolific time, we want to give readers a taste of what has been recently released and what is upcoming.
Continue ReadingIvo Perelman, Matthew Shipp, and the Buddha walk in to a bar...
by Mark Corroto
Ivo Perelman / Matthew Shipp The Art Of Perelman-Shipp Leo Records 2017 If you are looking for reviews of the seven new discs Ivo Perelman and Matthew Shipp released on Leo Records, you won't find them here. You probably won't find a proper review of the music elsewhere either, but we'll get back to that later. The São Paulo-born, now Brooklyn-based saxophonist has, like pianist Shipp, moved into the rarefied air of the master ...
Continue ReadingPete Mills: The Anatomy Of A Jazz Release
by Mark Corroto
I'm here to tell you that everything you thought about the making of a modern jazz records is wrong. The notion that there are talent agents selling concepts to record companies—wrong. That bands work on tunes, perfecting them for months before entering the studio—wrong. That jazz musicians make money from records—again, wrong. I had the first-hand experience of observing how saxophonist Pete Mills put together his latest recording Sweet Shadow (Cellar Live, 2014) from conception to release. If ...
Continue ReadingThe Dude Abides
by Mark Corroto
To paraphrase Jeffrey Lebowski, aka The Dude (or El Dudarino, if you are not into the brevity thing), “I've had a rough night, and I hate the fucking Grateful Dead, man." Actually, The Dude said the “Eagles" (and I guess I'm obliged to agree with him), but for me the Dead seem to always get under my skin. Someone is always saying to me, “you dig jazz, check out this Dead concert from..." and then they name some ...
Continue ReadingTaking stock, a year half over
by Mark Corroto
This month, at the halfway point in the year of music, we are taking stock, and there have been so many great discs released. Here is my list (in no particular order) of the best albums so far. I predict many of these will make final top ten 2013 lists. Sorry, I couldn't keep my list to ten.The Ex & Brass Unbound--Enormous Door (Ex Records) Federico Ughi--Federico Ughi Quartet (FMR) Rachel Musson/Mark Sanders/Steve Noble--Tatterdemalion (Babel) Matt Parker--Worlds Put ...
Continue ReadingArt Strike!
by Mark Corroto
"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 years. They also called upon galleries, museums, alternative spaces, clubs, and concert halls to cease operations for that period. Their goal was ...
Continue ReadingJazz: A Blessed Obsession
by Mark Corroto
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 prices bid for long out-of-print Free Music Production (FMP) LPs or alternative releases. $150 for Peter Brötzmann's first solo recording and $175, for the ...
Continue ReadingBefore We Say Goodbye To 2012
by Mark Corroto
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, here are some 2012 releases that deserve a listen. Sam Newsome The Art of the Soprano, Vol. 1
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