Bill Swann: Ideas

MUSIC I AM FOND OF RIGHT NOW

Beck—Guero: I think Beck maybe the most unique and sophisticated musician making pop records today.
Paul Simon—Surprise: Master songwriter returns with Eno to shake things up. Nice production; interesting mix of edge, ambience, and sensitivity.
Herbie Hancock—The Piano: Intimate impressionism from 1978. The most touching solo piano I’ve heard in a long time.
Herbie Hancock—Possibilities: Demonstrates the artistic potential of popular styles.
Etienne DeRocher—Etienne DeRocher: Emerging songwriter; good style; developing a songwriting voice.
Donald Fagen—Morph the Cat: Rougher and cooler than smooth jazz, smoother than rock; his own genre. The same sterile-but-somehow-cool production that has characterized all of his records.
Chick Corea—The Ultimate Adventure: In-your-face production on a jazz record (I mean this regarding the amount of compression on the instruments individually and the mix overall as well); composition-oriented CD similar to My Spanish Heart.
Lyle Lovett—Live in Texas: Another unique voice. This maybe my favorite live album of all time. The combination of Lovett’s delivery and the ironic combination of players and stylistic elements makes this record fresh seven years after I bought it.
Ben Folds—Songs for Silverman: There’s something about the seriousness with which he doesn’t take himself seriously (no, there’s not a typo in this sentence) that I think makes him so cool. He throws the stuff out there like it doesn’t matter or he doesn’t care and yet the music is full of careful, deliberate musicianship.

Here endeth the list.

HIGH ART AND POP ART

One of the more interesting byproducts of my job at Maryville College (at least it is interesting to me) is that I am forced to be aware of many different kinds of music. I teach or have taught music theory, a jazz ensemble, music history, an interdisciplinary jazz studies course, a philosophy of music course, an ethics course, and songwriting/composition. I am, therefore, reminded daily that all of the myriad styles of music that have existed are meaningful and deserve respect. I am not suggesting that all music is good, but I will go on record as saying that all genres of music deserve respect and study. In a world of compartmentalization, plurality, diversity, etc., all of the various living (and dead) musics provide something important to their audiences.

The reason I am writing this is that I still frequently encounter academics (and a few jazz musicians) who have a lingering case of musical myopia. This most often manifests itself as a belief that the importance of their music is self-evident, but that other (the use of the word ‘other’ here is intentional) music must argue its case for inclusion. I write songs, I write jazz tunes, I write jazz band charts, I work as a jazz improvisor, and I write piano pieces. I do so much of these five things that there is little time to work in other genres. But, because most of these are considered ‘popular’ styles (even though jazz represents less than 2% of current CD sales) they are not listened to with the same intellectual/aural rigor that other kinds of music might be. So, I’m not complaining about respect, I’m complaining about laziness on the part of educated musicians who should know better. To dismiss something as ‘just a song’ defies logic considering the efforts of masters from the past who made songs that were both entertaining to audiences AND artistic and meaningful in the long term. I am, believe it or not, trying to live up to the songwriting legacies left by folks like Paul Simon, Ellington, Gershwin, Zappa, Dylan, Lennon and McCartney, Foster, and even Mozart (yes, arias are songs) and Schumann. One of the things I am coming to appreciate most about the composers of the Classic period was their openness to their audience. Music should be about connecting with an audience. The best jazz is. The best rock/pop is. The best theatre is. Why should it be any different with ‘art’ music?

One of the things I admire most about pop/rock music of the last 50 years is its ability to experiment with artistic issues without losing its focus on the audience. 20th Century music lost its way a few times because academic composers forgot the audience. I’m not rejecting the experiments, I’m rejecting the implication that all music has to eat itself the way some ‘art’ music did. But, I think we as listeners also have a responsibility to the music. The state of the music industry has created a listening public that, for the most part, consumes music instead of forming a relationship with music. The songwriters I listed above are people with whom I have formed musical relationships. That is our responsibility—to form meaningful relationships. Like all relationships, it takes work, it won’t just maintain itself.

One of the artistic questions posed in the 20th Century was “what is the difference between high art and pop art?” The question was mostly rhetorical. There is a lot of music being made in ‘popular’ genres that never aspires to sell a bunch of records, is very sophisticated in its usage of the stylistic elements that are afforded it, and is worthy of serious artistic consideration and study. Likewise, there is a lot of ‘junk music’ (like junk food) that merely exists to be sold. It takes discernment to hear the difference. Artistic judgments can only be made in consideration of the stylistic expectations and constraints of the work’s genre. In the world of art music there is a great deal of music that is made with the same old academic tiredness we have heard for nearly 100 years. It, like the ‘junk music’ I mentioned earlier, will go away. However, the meaningful, relevant music will not be forgotten. I am not suggesting that I am the one that decides what is worth studying. I am suggesting that the old “us vs. everyone else” posturing of 20th Century theorists and historians is tired and no longer works within a diverse, inclusive society. We should approach each work, regardless of its genre, with openness and appreciation before we make our individual judgments regarding its merit.

I will now shut up.

MY GEAR
I have received multiple emails from folks wondering what kind of gear I used on my three CDs. As most of you musicians can imagine, my gear is in a constant state of flux as I buy new things and get rid of old stuff. So, I will list here my current collection of equipment.

Yamaha AW4416
MacBook 1.8 GHz running Amadeus, T-Racks24, Traktion, and GarageBand3
Presonus VXP preamp
ART TubeMP Studio V3
Neumann TLM103
AT3035
Earthworks TC30 matched pair
Behringer B-5 (pair)
SM57
545SD
Beta58
RadioShackPZM (cheapo!)
Yamaha Motif8
Hammond A-100
Rhodes Mark I Stage 73 (1979)
Yamaha CP-60 (with MIDI)
YamahaTX81z
Mason and Hamlin Model A (not mine, but it is in my office and I record on it frequently)
Honer alto melodica
A cheap electric guitar (I'm not sure of the brand)
Part of a leftover Ludwig drumset and a few Zildjian cymbals

Wish list: Yamaha CS-01 synth