I begged and pleaded and insisted that I would post to our blog regularly and here we are a year later and I am now just beginning my seventh post. The Sopranos aired with more frequency.
The idea that I could detail my thoughts, share my insights and give an otherwise under recognized voice new heights was, in retrospect, a little more daunting than I had imagined. Either that or when faced with the responsibility to fill these pages with insights only I was capable of capturing and chronicling I was confronted with the awkward truth that perhaps the issue was not one of needing to record them lest they slip away, but rather they were not there in the abundance that I imagined.
Oh well, I guess that leaves me to just ramble off my year end top 10 list, or as much of it as I can remember. Actually, instead I think I will turn it into my list of things I am enjoying or into right now.
1) Continuum Books
Publishers of an anthology of Wire Magazine articles and more recently Andy Hamilton’s Aesthetics and Music.
2) Henry Threadgill
Other than the obvious fact that I don’t need a year end list to publicize my interest in Henry’s music, at this moment I am listening to a live recording from a concert this year.
3) Roger Federer
Pretty rare to see someone come along and just dominate like this. Just watching him has improved my game.
4) Tyshawn Sorey
We didn’t release Tyshawn’s new recording, but we are happy that someone did. If your only exposure to bands led by drummers is the Foo Fighters I think you need to check this out.
More soon…. I think…
Where Are We?
August 1, 2007
Just sitting here watching the Stax story on PBS. I think my proximity to music has changed over the years. Not I think, I know it has. I’m curious now not just in things that I enjoy listening to, but things that have or have had a place. I think that that first began in ernest with the AACM. Not just music or releases of a genre, but a change and a movement that had a social effect outside of the realm of music. The intention of the music is almost as important to me now, if not at times more important, than the music itself. Now that can become a slippery slope as I have spent time I could have done more with in retrospect listening to people’s attempts and intentions and I’ve come away from that knowing that I have to enjoy the music as much as I appreciate its intentions and those two directives don’t always marry, but again this Stax show… wow….
I can’t help but wonder what influence if any we have. I can’t sit here and honestly say that we have anywhere near as a large an audience as they did and therefore it is difficult to look at their influence and be able to measure ourselves by it or try to stand next to it, but I can look and see how they approached their audience. How they tried to broaden their place. Fascinating and of course inspiring. As I’ve said before I’ve been inspired by many labels, ECM, Tzadik, Blue Note etc. But learning a label’s story when I never knew it always brings up that feeling. The possibility of music and the influence it can have.
You know it doesn’t exist anywhere except in our own perception. Film is pictures loaded with associations. Books are words filled with meaning, but music is just this series of open ended thoughts waiting to be interpreted by a listener. Offering the possibility to interpret and apply one’s own meaning. A meaning that can often be very divorced from the artists intentions I think. Other art forms offer this possibility as well, but none in my opinion in as open ended a manner as music.
Back to Stax…. what can we do. I can sit here and very easily see people listening to the new Steve Lehman recording and discovering a direction and feeling, an impulse that they can carry over to other parts of their lives but identify as originating with Steve. I know we have a place in history with what we’ve done thus far, but what is that place? I emailed Chuck Nessa a few weeks ago. Chuck has a place. I don’t know him well enough to ask if it is the place he thought it would be. Maybe it should never be as somehow that would suggest goals that were not lofty enough, goals that never evolved or maybe that is just me being pessimistic.
In the six years now that the label has been around my relationship to it has changed. My relationship with the artists has changed and my motivating force has changed. I knew that all of these things would happen the longer we did this as that is natural I think. The picture seems to be getting bigger as it should. I just wonder if we live in a time where something like a Stax could come along and have the impact now that it had then.
The Future
June 23, 2007
So this week is jazz festival week in NYC. Fun time to be in the city. JVC and Vision Jazz both happening at the same time.
We have been at Vision every night this week in the balcony selling CDs. Opportunities like this are good if for no other reason than to see who our audience is on a global scale. We have a pretty good sense of our audience locally but festivals always bring an international audience. It’s also a nice opportunity to sell CDs. Anyway….
The Vision festival has been going on now for 12 years. It’s been 12 years since I graduated college. All the changes that I have gone through since then, have the performers, organizers, supporters and audience of the Vision Festival gone through a commiserate amount? I don’t know, but being at the festival has afforded me the opportunity to see some of these people up close. Not for me to say really, but 4 days in and I do come away with the feeling that some kind of growth or evolution is needed. Not in the music and not by the musicians, but by the audience. They should want more. I don’t know what that would translate to, but it just feels like that is what is out there. I sold a Steve Lehman CD to someone and he wrote me the next day to say how much he was enjoying it.
Before he bought it he asked me about our CDs with a particular interest in something untraditional. We met a woman in her 30s who goes out to hear music on a regular basis (a rarity believe me) who was more than familiar with our catalog and artists. None of this is new. The people or my opinion, but it what I am left with right now.
The Knitting Factory used to have a summer festival. Now being the Knit it was diverse, big and brawny, not to sound corny. Shows all over the city, very diverse schedule and ambitious. It drew a very different crowd than what you may typically see. Now maybe I am seeing it with rose colored glasses a decade or so later, I don’t know. Regardless of what it was it was another NYC festival.
I remember when a group of NYC artists took a very strong stance against the Knit and, from my perspective, Mihcael Dorf in particular regarding the festival. Long story, but I think it effected the NYC scene significantly, even to this day.
Re-Connecting Flight
May 15, 2007
Long time since I wrote anything. Not sure what to write about now, except for an update as to what has been going on since the last post. (These posts where someone says “It’s been a while since I’ve done this blah blah blah…” they sort of upset me. Do I really need to read about how you have been remiss in your blogging duties? Doesn’t the time between posts tell me that already?)
Lots has happened since the last post actually. One half of Pi Recordings has now officially moved to Brooklyn. The other half remains far north in Manhattan. We have been talking about expanding for a while anyway. We have recorded our first new release of 2007, Amir ElSaffar. Looking forward to releasing that in the fall. We are getting ready to send out promos of Vijay Iyer and Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Raw Materials and Vijay’s Reimaginning. We will be releasing them overseas. Scheduled to go into the studio with Steve Lehman in June. That is coming up soon. And working on our last two releases for the year. Not finalized yet so I can’t say anything now, but I think people will be excited when they hear what they are. If it all works out.
Pi has a new intern. Welcome Andrew….
I got some ECM CDs delivered to me this week. They continue to be an inspiration.
I was looking forward to posting a new track from one of the submissions that we have received recently, but… the post office has not been forwarding our mail from the PO box. Hope to have that resolved soon enough. Oh I also read to day that Anthony Braxton and Cecil Taylor will be playing in a quartet together in London in July. Another thing I would have liked to hear which moving to Brooklyn has prevented me from. If I were still in Manhattan I would have been able to make it there no problem.
Actually, Brooklyn has been great and has, I think, given me a different focus on the label. All of these smaller independently run businesses around us can’t help but cause one to reflect positively on your own independently run business. (Note to financial institutions out there, if you feel you have money to spend to help broaden your audience or just reinforce your image as a business that cares about the smaller players of the world we have heard that it worked well for HatHut for years and would be willing to give it a go with you.)
Vision festival is coming up and in the first night Marc Ribot and Spiritual Unity are performing as are Fieldwork. Heard Muhal in duo and quartet last week. Looking forward to hearing more of him soon. Alright that’s all of the dirty laundry I have to AIR today.
S-
And One…
March 6, 2007
Not sure what this title means except that Stephon Marbury just missed his second free throw with .9 left in the game and the result is that the Knicks lost by 1.
On the flip side they are in the playoff race and are starting to play like they can make some noise. The fun now is not just watching the games and watching them play well, but what might be coming down the road. The anticipation of greatness and of how one seizes an opportunity presented to them.
Today we closed on our new home. A co-op in Brooklyn. For the past 19 years I have lived in Manhattan. Now a new beginning, in a new borough and the opportunity/beginning of a new stage in our lives. It felt good to stand in the empty apartment and visualize ourselves there with our furniture. It has a loft and I sat up there looking out over the living room. I like what we can do there.
On an almost weekly basis Pi receives demos from musicians around the world. While preparing for our move I have been trying to slim down what we are going to take with us and one of the areas of the apartment that has been impacted the most has been the boxes of demos. Since we can’t release all of the music sent to us let alone listen to it all, I thought that this blog would be a good place to post MP3s of music sent to us that we enjoy. So our inaugural MP3, in honor of our new home, is by Tanya Kalmanovitch and Myra Melford. Tanya is a member of the Brooklyn Jazz Underground. Enjoy… Into a Gunnysack and into the Kootenay River The Kid on the Mountain.
Happy Holidays
December 20, 2006
Lots going on this December.
Normally I spend December doing the year end accounting for the artists and the label. It is a nice time to account for what the label has done that year and to reflect etc. Sort of a natural phenomenon given the holiday season and all of the summing up of the year that it brings with it. more 
Last Call
December 17, 2006
One of the advantages of living in New York is that no matter what your state of mind it is a fairly safe bet that you can blend in if you like. It’s a big city with a lot going on and not much makes the average New Yorker stop and notice. more
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