Mar 26, 2013 |
When I was thirty, I ran a jazz record label from home. There’s an awful lot of wonderful memories from that time in my life, especially if you overlook the whole financially catastrophic business side of things. Great music, incredible experiences – and I learned a lot.
Of course, the apartment not only became overrun with boxes of CDs and packing slips, musical instruments, tapes and paperwork – but also musicians. There were rehearsals in the living room most evenings and a parade of visiting jazz musicians from Australia and further afield.
And some of these itinerant musicians – most of them, in fact – became long term friends rather than simply couch surfers.
One of the more memorable characters to stay during that period was a bass player from the US called Pat O’Leary. That’s him there.
He was warm, funny and interested in the people around him. I believe it was his first time in New Zealand. I can’t recall what brought him there. I know we didn’t have the budget to make that sort of thing happen, but here he was in the apartment – and it was interesting, because now I think back on it, I feel like he created more space than he took up. Some people can do that. Maybe it’s a bass thing. At any rate, it’s my lasting impression of the guy.
For a short period of time, he became part of the family. We hung out like I did with other musicians, but more integrated, somehow. Little stuff that continues to echo. He’s pretty much single-handedly responsible for my son Jake’s lifelong love affair with spoonerisms, for example.
And then he went away. Everybody goes away.
Naturally, the leaving is part of the deal with the whole ‘itinerant’ thing. Some people you stay in touch with, albeit infrequently, others you think about occasionally. Some you struggle to remember their names – or at least, I do. It doesn’t really change whether you think of them as friends – or maybe that’s just me. I feel like you could always just pick up where you left off, right?
I mean, they haven’t stopped being those people and nor have you. And at the same time, there hasn’t really been a gap in your life, because there are so many other wonderful people in the world, and the ones that are right in front of you are the ones you tend to focus on at any given time.
But every now and then you think of the people who aren’t around any more. Not dead, you understand – just somewhere else.
I haven’t heard from or seen Pat for a long time – and he hasn’t heard from me either. Not even during the time I was on Facebook, which is where people usually seem to reconnect with the long and the lost. I dunno – maybe one of us sent an email once, but essentially no contact for fifteen years.
But over the course of a life – especially when you travel, or you do something like music where every work day can be different – you tend to collect a lot of people. The simple fact is that there’s no shortage of excellent human beings in the world. And they come and go.
But sometimes, you think of those people who came and went, and that’s kind of enough.
They’re still there. That impact they had, the subtle little shifts in your thinking or the things that you do – that’s all still part of you and you carry it around. You’re not just the sum total of the people you’ve met, of course – but everyone had a little gravitational pull or made a little dent somewhere along the way. Some more than others.
Spend some time with different people, and you become a little different too. Usually in really good ways.
I looked Pat up on Google. There’s some video of a Serbian Jazz Suite he arranged, orchestrated and played bass on a couple of years back – and it’s really nice to see him and hear what he’s been doing. Skip ahead to 3 minutes if you just want to hear the jazzy bits, but the whole thing’s a nice listen.
He’s dropped the moustache and aged a little – though maybe not as much as I have in the same amount of time – and he looks really happy. Which kinda brightened up my afternoon.
It’s nice to still have him around like that.
Apr 25, 2012 |
My friend Brian – you know, Brian out of UB40 (namedrop, namedrop) – just popped over to give me an original piece of his artwork that I’d admired at an exhibition of his but could not possibly have afforded. It’s based on Concierto de Aranjuez from Miles Davis’s Sketches of Spain album.
Unbelievably generous of him. Absolutely love this piece and had actually just been showing people photos of it. Unexpected and gratefully received.
It did not for a moment cross my mind to say “Oh, no – I couldn’t possibly take it.” I definitely could. It’s awesome.
Aug 7, 2010 |
https://vimeo.com/13962198
In May this year, I was in Medellín, Colombia for Un-convention. As part of that we travelled around the city seeing some of the great work that young community leaders were doing through hip hop culture.
These guys are amazing. They run after-school programmes and community projects teaching kids how to rap, break-dance and do graffiti art, and this helps keep them off the street and away from the drugs, the gangs and the violence. They also bring attention to the problems in the barrios and spread a positive message through their lyrics.
I heard today that on Thursday last week, one of those community leaders was shot dead. The newspapers say that it was in retaliation from the gangs for involvement in these sorts of projects.
I know several of the people we met there have been threatened with this kind of violence, and three young cultural leaders have been killed in the past year like this in Medellín.
I filmed the video above in Comuna 13, just after we had played a game of football with these guys. It’s the home of the Elite Red de hip hop, of which the ESK Lones crew is a part. Marcelo Sánchez Pimienta, aka MC Chelo is the rapper with the toddler in his arm.
My deepest sympathies and my utmost respect go to his friends and colleagues, family and community, many of whom have vowed to keep up the great work Chelo helped start in what was once known as the most dangerous neighbourhood in the world, and what is slowly being turned around with the help of projects like these that use music and culture to improve people’s lives – despite the threats, and in the face of sickening tragedies such as this. These guys are all inspirational and this is a great loss.
RIP MC Chelo.
Apr 24, 2010 |
I was looking for a Hungarian band to feature as Bandcamp du jour since I’m in Budapest, but there weren’t that many to choose from. Hardly any Hungarian bands use the service.
Fortunately, the Evil Men Have No Songs EP was up there, and I really liked it.
At first, it seems a bit too simple to take seriously. No You No Me kicks in with a distorted, but entirely rudimentary, almost naïve strum, featuring a chord progression you’ve heard a million times – but by the time they get to the first chorus, it all makes sense. This is, as they claim, both ‘Shoe-Wop’ and ‘Twee-Gaze’. Shoegaze meets 50s pop.
I really like it.
It’s a four-track EP, it’s free and you should get it. And I’ll make a point of telling the musicians that come to the Zipkomm conference tomorrow that they should get on Bandcamp too.
Apr 10, 2010 |
Born to be Wide seminar in Edinburgh, as seen from the panel
[audio:widepanel.mp3]
This is a recording I made of the panel I was on with Steve from Music Ally, Ruth from Fat Northerner and Un-Convention, Scott from The Orchard and the BPI, and Will from PRS (who was sitting furthest away from me, and so is the quietest).
Olaf Furniss was the moderator. If you’re in the independent music sector, you should find this interesting and useful.
I have to admit, I was a bit shouty. I was already cross when we started, thanks to the Digital Economy Bill being passed by parliament the evening before. But the Musicians Union were a sponsor of the event, and I didn’t feel like letting them get away with supporting the bill, so I called them out on it.
Other than that, it was a good session – with lots of helpful advice for musicians and independent music businesses.
Apr 2, 2010 |
Photo by Sea Dream Studio
Yesterday, I bought some great music on Bandcamp by Civil Civic, and then I made it today’s ‘Bandcamp du jour’. The music’s available on some very cool collectible cassettes, but I just wanted the digital version.
Anyway, I’ve had quite a few comments from people saying how much they like it too, which is cool. Actually, I’ve had good feedback from people on all of the music I’ve posted so far – but the enthusiasm for Civil Civic has been especially high.
But this morning I received a really great email from the band which absolutely made my day – and I thought I’d share it with you.
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