The C-J’s Andrew Adler, a serious fan of piano trios, scooted up to Bloomington for the final Bloomingtom performance by the Beaux Arts Trio, which is disbanding after thirty-plus years. It’s his subject for his Sunday column Critic’s Commentary.
If you think that your taste in music is the coolest, hippest possible, go read this at Idolator.com and be sure to follow the link to the article at Gibson, after which you may play an record you want to, without shame.
J. L. Puckett has been a busy fellow this week: he has a lengthy writeup about Buddy Guy, who is playing tonight at the Kentucky Center. He also previews the Dave Brubeck concert tomorrow at Memorial Auditorium, plus announces Harry Bickel’s new band, The River City Rounders. Finally, the Scene’s music editor reviews the new CD from Neil Young.
Ken Neuhauser previews the New Albany High/Floyd Central production of “Aida.”
Andrew Adler panned the Louisville Orchestra combination of César Franck’s Symphony in D Minor and Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade and Divertimento for Orchestra, saying it made a good case for Bernstein and not-so-good case for Franck. It’s definitely an insider’s review…
Capitalist philosophers like to prate on about the glories of “creative destruction,” the process by which one sort of business is replaced by another, more efficient sort of business. Working capitalists also champion the process, right up to the moment when their particular business appears to be in danger of being “creatively destroyed,” at which point said capitalists convert to “central planning” and go looking for government assistance to save their butts – and their profits. So it is with the major record labels, which are being “creatively destroyed” at the moment by the new models of digital distribution of music, rendering the CD model obsolete. The labels, which for many years relied upon and, indeed, bribed radio stations to play their music for free are now demanding that the government change the arrangement and make radio pay performance royalties as well as the traditional songwriter royalties. The labels now claim that radio has been getting a free ride and that radio airplay does not generate CD sales. They pull a thin blanket over their hypocrisy by claiming that they are doing this to ‘benefit the musicians.’
It is to laugh – they screwed musicians for years, tried suing their customers, which proved to be a very poor idea, and now seek government help, which, if provided, might have the unintended effect of damaging the radio industry and resulting in less airplay. If you are a musician, try to stay out of the way of the falling elephants.
C-J columnist Andrew Adler continues his commentary on the coming together of the Lousville Orchestra, The Kentucky Opera and The Louisville Ballet to do a joint show on the Belvedere on September 2. He’s all for it and says that there should be more cooperation. Read his column here.
Blues, jazz and indie rock fans in Louisville know that Chicago is a great music town, but apparently the city government doesn’t. This also rings true with Louisville’s Metro Government, which seems to have no inclination that there is anything remotely like a ‘music business’ in Derby City. Hizzoner The Mayor still seems to think that music here began and ended with The Monarchs. After allowing the International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass Trade Show to leave for Nashville with nary a mention, one might be suppose that somebody in City Hall might have understood that there’s money in ‘them thar hicks,’ but, no, the City still touts 4th Street Live!, which is as almost completely devoid of Louisville talent, as the major entertainment venue. It’s enough to make a Louisville music booster like yours truly scream (and it has.)
For any folks interested in economic development, here is the link to the Chicago Tribune’s story on the U. of Chicago study.
Hello, my name is Paul and I’m an addict - a StumbleUpon addict. I confess that nearly everyday, I click the green and white SU button just to see what appears on my browser. If I’m bored, I click it. If I’m stuck for an idea, I filter for related sites and click it. If I don’t feel like working, I click it. I have occasionally (okay, pretty often) sat down at my computer with no other purpose in mind than to click it. If I’m talking on the phone, I click it. Frequently.
If you have no idea what StumbleUpon is, allow me to introduce you to it, just like all addicts do. Go here http://www.stumbleupon.com/, sign up, install the toolbar. Pick some things you think you might be interested in (don’t be sparing - add anything that you fancy - you can change it at any time.) Click the green button and enjoy.
Oh, there are other features that you can explore, including friends lists and the like, but the real pleasure is the surfing. If you are not pleasantly surprised by the end of your first session, you’re either insufficiently curious or overly websavvy. I’ll bet you’re surprised very early on. The next thing you know, you’ll be dragging in your friends and family to show them something you’ve ‘found.’ Of course, that’s a problem if you have to share a computer - they’ll be sitting at your desk, staring at a constantly changing screen, interrupting your stumbling. Buy them their own computer, then.
Just remember this - I told you I was an addict. My profile is here.
Caveat: StumbleUpon was recently bought by Fox News Network. So far, I haven’t seen any evidence that Rupert Murdock has forced a political tone on the Stumbling but take that into account in the future. I will.
I had a chat with several musicians at Stevie Ray’s last night, following a canceled MERF meeting, about the problem of low attendance at music events. Billy Stoops (Junkyard Jane, Billy Roy Danger & The Rectifiers) was talking about spending his summer season on the West Coast, playing gigs with Junkyard Jane: “I could stay here and play for $150 a show or go out West and play for $2,000 a show. Which one do you think I should do?”
That comment then transitioned into the perennial “Why don’t Louisvillians come out and ’support’ live music?” question. The usual notions came up: late show times, smoky bars, too-loud music, all of which were summarily dispatched: starting a show at 7:30 or 8 p.m. still means the crowd doesn’t arrive until 10 p.m. or so; the bars aren’t nearly as smoky as they used to be and many live music events are in rooms where no smoking is allowed. The ‘loud music’ whine really just applies to rock bands, which are, after all, supposed to be loud. I noted that the average age in Louisville is 36, old for a ‘music town.’ Leigh Ann Yost immediately said, “What’s wrong with 36?” Nothing, I said, except that serious going-out for music is more commonly found among younger folk.
Stoops then noted that out West, folks were much more likely to go hear music and spend money in the process, which lead to a discussion about how Louisvillians have money but are very slow to part with it. About that time, the discussion wound down. Stoops left to pack for his trip, Yost begged off playing the Open Stage to go home and take care of her kids and Wayne Young said he had to work the next day.
After thinking about this conversation and the many other, very similar ones I have had over the years in Louisville, I think that it was the last part of the conversation that got to the heart of the matter: Louisville isn’t a wealthy city in the manner of Seattle or Atlanta or Dallas: there’s money here but it stays in the bank and the pocketbooks of those folks who have it. The vast majority of Louisvillians, like many Americans, are just getting by, if that: there is little ‘discretionary income’ in the hands of most folks. The stock market is soaring but Joe Six Pack’s salary hasn’t kept up with inflation over the past couple of decades, so entertainment happens at home, on a TV screen or computer paid for with borrowed money. (The use of plastic hasn’t really crept into the local music business; door charges are uniformly cash-only, as are most purchases of CDs and ‘merch,’ so musicians can’t take real advantage of that sort of impulse buying.) Add in all the other Internet-driven reasons why people aren’t buying as many CDs and season heavily with a surge of opportunities to hear live music and it becomes clear that the ‘no-audience’ situation here is likely to only get worse.
I’m sure there are other reasons in play but I’m not sure exactly what they are. More importantly, nothing in these conversations I’ve had suggests any real, workable solution(s). I would be very interested in what folks reading this have to say about this matter. Just click on the headline to go to the comment page and leave me your thoughts. Thanks.
Time to see what the other Louisville media are writing about music in town. With Derby looming on the horizon, most of the Louisville media will be about glitz, glitter and going ga-ga over ’stars’, so it’ll be thin on the music front for a while.
TOver at Velocity, Joseph Lord has a long piece on The Commonwealth (Not the Scott Miller band, though). Of course, the Velocity folks still insist on the “Local music” label for all Louisville music.
LEO’s website is always a day or two behind their print date, so that’ll have to wait. The C-J has one little piece about the cancellation of the last three Kentucky State Parks’ “Cradle of Bluegrass” series shows, due to lack of audience, plus a Tom Dorsey commentary on “American Karaoke.”
As I said, thin. ——PMM
Allan Cowan has a commentary in the C-J about the importance of Arts to the community; Andrew Adler reviews the latest Bach Society offering. Marty Rosen reveals some classical knowledge with his review of the Cavani Quartet’s Sunday performance at Comstock Hall.