Sundeen and Suelo in SLC this Saturday

I have lots to blog about, but it'll have to wait.

Ok, I haven't done so well at letting folks know of events I'd be at, so I'm now telling you I'm hitch-hiking out of Moab tomorrow to Salt Lake City for an event:

Mark Sundeen and I are scheduled to be at 
the Main Library in downtown Salt Lake City,
Saturday, October 27, 3p.m., for 
a discussion with Jennifer Napier-Pierce through KUER (Utah's public radio).

It's part of the
Utah Humanities Council Book Festival. 

Find it on Facebook, too. 

If you can't be there,
 KUER is also rebroadcasting our RadioWest interview (from last March) with Doug Fabrizio this Friday, Oct 26.
It's on podcast, too, if you miss it.

and I'm assuming Saturday's event will be aired, but I'm uncertain about that. 

See some of you there?

Judgement! Competitions, Critics and the Jazz Meritocracy

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There’s been a lot of judging or discussions of judging in the online jazz world recently.

Ethan Iverson started one of the balls rolling with his questioning of the value and artistic merit of jazz competitions. This was prompted by the announcement of the impending Thelonious Monk competition, which this year focused on drums. The competition was subsequently won by Jamison Ross . People weighed in with varied opinions which ranged from outright support to outright opposition.

Then in another dust-up, the very strange jazz critic Brent Black launched an attack on George Colligan, ludicrously dismissing him as ‘second rate’. Needless to say this triggered an outpouring of scorn for Black’s opinion, and Black did himself no favours with a bitter, mean-spirited and puzzling tirade directed at Colligan’s gracious response.

And finally the Canadian pianist  Andrew Boniwell responded to Peter Hum’s review of his new recording with what might be best described as icy fury.

All of which made me think about this whole issue of our being judged by others, and indeed judging others ourselves. To what extent does the judgment of critics have an effect on musicians? What effect does winning a competition have? Or what effect does losing a competition have?

Seventeen years ago I was a  competition winner myself - the 1996 Julius Hemphill Composition Competition for this piece:

I must say I didn’t benefit immediately from winning, though it has to be said that competition was very small compared to the Monk Competition. Nor was it a stressful event for me, since there was no performance element involved, and no jury to look at out of the corner of my eye as I played. What winning did do for me was to give me a lot of confidence as a composer, and there’s no doubt that this kind of public approval of your work can have a very positive effect on you. On the other hand, If I hadn’t won it I don’t think I’d have been discouraged – I didn’t expect to win, and no-one was more surprised than me when I did.

But Ethan’s main point was whether such a competition would encourage individuality, or whether it would have the opposite effect, rewarding whoever was closest to the mainstream. The question is sometimes asked whether Monk could have even got into the final of the competition named after him? There's no doubt that if you have a panel of six judges, the winner will have to not only impress as many of them as possible, but also do whatever he or she can to alienate as few of them as possible. The more personal and idiosyncratic a performer is, the more likely they are to polarize the jury. There have been many famous cases of this in the classical world, the most celebrated of these being the Chopin competition of 1980 where Ivo Pogorelich, (a performer for whom the word idiosyncratic could have been coined), was eliminated in the third round, despite Martha Argerich calling him a genius. I have a feeling that a performer like Monk - a guy whose playing very much flew in the face of the prevailing pianistic orthodoxy of the day - would have had an equally polarizing effect on a jazz piano jury......

There's no doubt that in these difficult days for jazz musicians, anything that can help you to raise your profile is welcome, and winning something like the Monk competition is about as high-profile as it gets for jazz competitions. No doubt winning this competition will help Jamison Ross, but looking at his profile and bio, it's clear that he was already on his way - as were the 2nd and 3rd prizewinners, which confirms for me what I've believed for a long time - jazz is a meritocracy and always has been.

It's also a marathon rather than a sprint, and though something like winning a competition or getting a gig with a famous bandleader will definitely help, in the end it's the work you produce over a long period of time that will ultimately decide whether you succeed or fail. There are many examples of players who got a lot of press and attention at one time, maybe even a major record deal, and yet are hardly remembered these days. And I believe that this is because they ultimately didn't have something that could be sustained over a long period of time. They undoubtedly had some aspect of their music that was attractive for a while, (at least to the jazz media), but in the final shake-up it wasn't sustainable and didn't develop, and their star waned as a consequence of that. Jazz is quite Darwinistic in this sense and I think this is a good thing.

Jazz musicians have to deal with a lot of unfairness - the dice is loaded against them in so many ways - but within the jazz community I think, over a period of time, musicians achieve the status they deserve. I believe that if  you are a really great player, and you have something original and personal to offer, then sooner or later you will get recognition for that. 

Often you hear a story about this or that guy being a great player but never getting recognition, but as a general rule I don't buy it. If there's a truly great player who's not working, there's usually a reason for it - they're alcoholics, or junkies, or socially impossible, or difficult to deal with, or completely flaky, or recluses, or cripplingly shy, or something along those lines. I've yet to meet a truly great player who takes care of business but who's sitting at home forlornly waiting for the phone to ring........ 

Maybe New York is an exception to that rule, in that there are just too many musicians there, so someone can indeed be a great player but struggle to get recognition among the jostling crowds of other great players. But NY is different - a once a year gig at Small's under your own name and a 'tour' of Europe consisting of 6 gigs counts as being a success for a lot of people there.

But even in NY you can make a career for yourself if you're talented enough and have something to offer over the long term. In this way jazz hasn't changed - ultimately what's going to decide your status is your own playing. If you're a great player, you're immune from the slings and arrows of outrageous critics like Brent Black. His attack on George Colligan is toothless because Colligan's career demonstrates more than words ever can, the stupidity of Black's opinions. Someone who has played with a who's-who of contemporary jazz, including being a current band member of Jack DeJohnette's band has the ultimate imprimatur of the jazz world. His work and success is the the proof of his quality - this is the final arbiter of his quality and nothing that Brent Black can say can alter that. 

And jazz has always been like that and even though the jam sessions, that for many years were the proving grounds of aspirant jazz musicians, have ceded their Gladiatorial position as arbiters of musical ability, it's still true to say that the opinion of your peers is the one that is most important. Play well and you will eventually get the attention of established players, play with them and you will get the attention of the public and the media. I've lost count of how many times I first heard hitherto unknown (at least to me), great players when I went to see a band led by someone of real status - Mulgrew Miller with Woody Shaw, Terence Blanchard with Art Blakey, Gabriele Mirabassi with Rabih-Abou Khalil etc.

Yes it's nice to get a good review, yes it would be useful to be on the cover of Downbeat, yes it would be very helpful to win a major jazz competition. But ultimately what a jazz musician needs in order to succeed over the long term is the approval and admiration of his or her peers. Jazz has always been a meritocracy and it still is one. Competitions and critics may come and go, and you (or media admirers of yours) may talk a good game, but eventually you're going to have to shut up and show everyone the music. And thank heavens for that.

Ode to The Holy Invisible Hand of the Free Market

Ode to The Holy Invisible Hand 
of the Free Market

Oh Holy Invisible Hand of the Free Market, we adore Thee above all,

and we sacrifice all our values and all that is life to Thee!

We are the Righteous Right of Evangelicals, LDS, Catholics, Jews, and Atheist Libertarians and rabble-rousing Tea Partiers!
How is it that we have put aside all our historical differences and come to perfect agreement?
We exceedingly rejoice, for we have found the reason! 
Yes, we have found the one god  we all have in common, through His Holy Profit, Ayn Rand (Blessed Be Her Name).
Thou art the god who trumps all our core values, who trumps all our differences:
Thou art the Invisible Hand of the Free Market, and anything that stands in Thy way we call evil!

Thy wisdom in calling Thyself the Invisible Hand of the Free Market is awesome.  For thy holy sake we hide the fact that "Free Market" is an oxymoron.  For Thy sake we hide the fact that only that which is not owned and cannot be purchased is free.  But Oxymorons fool the simple-minded and glorify Thee, and for that we praise Thee, Oh Invisible Hand of the Free Market!

Yes, we sacrifice the very foundations of our religious traditions and the foundations of our American democracy and thousands of years of moral evolution to Thee with thy holy oxymoronic lingo!  

Even as we Righteously Right Evangelicals, LDS, and Catholics mouth praises to Jesus, we sacrifice him and all that he taught on Thy Altar of Profit, Oh Invisible Hand! 

We have found, like our Holy Prophet Ayn Rand (Blessed Be Her Name), that Jesus and laissez faire Capitalism are utterly incompatible. 

But, because of our unwavering devotion to Thee, Oh Invisible Hand, we deny this blatant contradiction, we pretend to serve and praise Jesus.  What better tactic to feign devotion to the most popular guy in history in order to promote Thy Cause, oh Thou beloved Mammon, our god above all gods!

Tar Sands Mining in Canada

We sacrifice all that is life to thee: our water, our air, our earth and all the living creatures depending on these things.
We will gladly sacrifice all life, including our own, to extinction for Thee, Oh Invisible Hand of the Free Market.  We even sacrifice our dignity and rational thinking and all Reality to Thee!  We love Thee that much, and we are all yours! 

Yes, it's because of Thee and Thy Profit Ayn Rand  (Blessed Be Her Name) that we Righteously Right Evangelicals, LDS, Catholics, Jews, and Atheist Libertarians and Tea Partiers miraculously see beyond our seemingly irreconcilable differences, joining in Perfect Harmony as One Mind!

For decades, we condemned atheistic regimes.  We hated the USSR, claiming it was because of its atheism.  But now we find that we adore Red China, because Red China, though its government still claims strict atheism, and still commits unspeakable acts against human rights, has bowed in devotion to Thee, Oh Invisible Hand of the Free Market, and serves us with its sweatshop slavery! 

Thou, Oh laissez faire Capitalism, art our Righteously Right New World Order, even as we belittle, call naive, and witch-hunt any real love, compassion, and authentic cooperation and ecumenical-ism as the evil "New World Order."  How beautiful are thy Orwellian and oxymoronic ways, Oh Invisible Hand!

We especially adore how Thou denounceth Big Government even as Thou art the source of all Big Government and Tyranny!  How sexy is Thy tyranny!

We praise Thy Holy Name, laissez faire Capitalism, and we denounce as Anti-American and Anti-Christian anything that stands in Thy way, even as we sacrifice our very US Constitution and our most basic Christian values to Thee!  We adore Thee that much! 

All that stands in Thy way is collectivist and altruistic.  And we know thy Holy Profit, Ayn Rand (Blessed Be Her Name) said that anything collectivist or altruistic is evil.
Yes,  anything collectivist is contrary to Thee, Oh Invisible Hand of the Free Market.  Collectivism is moochism.  How dare we fall into the barbarity of Northern European and Canadian socialistic ways, when we could uphold the real man values of Somalia, a beacon of no government regulation!  African Americans and Children had secure jobs, privileged to work sun-up to sun-down, in the old days before government regulated greed!

Yes, Thy Profit Ayn Rand (Blessed Be Her Name), imparted to us amazingly profound principles and tweaked them to Serve Thee, and Thee Only, Oh Invisible Hand.  She claimed that to serve the self is in the best interest of society, but to act altruistically is evil.  How we nostalgically return to our black-and-white, wonderfully adolescent, humorless reasoning as we follow Ayn Rand (Blessed Be Her Name). 

What a genius she was to reject the "collectivist" part of the Soviet system she escaped from, yet how she kept the Soviet black-and-white, humorless adolescent thinking that made the USSR the great empire that it was, throwing out the thousands of years of moral evolution with the bathwater.  It was this black-and-white throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater thinking that was Ayn Rand's (BBHN) genius in appealing to generations of adolescent thinkers of whatever theistic or atheistic dogma.  For these are Thy Disciples and Thy Power, Oh Invisible Hand of the Free Market!  

How oxymoronically beautiful that she denounced mysticism, just as fundamentalists of all religions denounce mysticism, even as her mystic devotion to Thee went beautifully beyond all rational thought and reality!

Ah, yes, Collectivism is Evil, saith the Holy Profit (Blessed Be Her Name).  This is why we, Thy Disciples, denounce all that is life, all that is real, because all of life, all of reality, is Collectivist.  And Ayn Rand (Blessed Be Her Name) knew, like us, that reality stinks and fantasy rocks!

We must privatize, because privatization, ownership, is an illusion of fantasy, is Thy Holy Character, oh Invisible Hand of the Free Market, Oh Grand  Illusion!

Yes, collectivism, sharing, is evil.  Every single bit of sunlight, all air, all water, and all earth are collectivist, shared by all, shared by just and unjust alike.  This is why we must not stop until all nature is destroyed!  How can anything without a money value, not under ownership, be worthy to exist?  We know that Thou art a god of fairness, which is why Thou hatest nature and all that is natural, because we all know nature is unfair.  Sun shines and clouds rain and the earth sprouts food freely for the undeserving.  How dare mooches get sunlight and rain!  Yes, collective air fills the lungs of lazy moochers.  This is why we must choke out the sun and poison the air with toxic emissions, why we must destroy our wild rivers and our land and forests and bring all under ownership.  We must privatize everything, even selling water in bottles (whooodeverthunkit?), so that only we, the deserving, who work for money, can afford it.  We are the only creatures that have to pay rent to lay our heads down on the earth, because we are the superior ones, Thy servants.  We must destroy all who break Thy Holy Law, Oh Invisible Hand!

Common sense is no fun, which is why we must destroy common sense.  Common sense and our dictionaries tell us anything under ownership, possession, is not free.  This is why we have oxymoronically given glory to Thee and declared that what is not free is free in our Holy Crusade to bring every single atom in the universe under private ownership!  How beautiful and glorifying to Thy Name to call purchased slaves free!


Quotes from Thy Prophet Ayn Rand (Blessed Be Her Name) and her devoted disciples:

"It is precisely the 'greed' of the businessman or, more appropriately, his profit-seeking, which is the un-excelled protector of the consumer."  (Alan Greenspan)

"It is the self-interest of every businessman to have a reputation for honest dealings and a quality product."  (Alan Greenspan)

Ayn Rand and her Disciple,
Alan Greenspan,
in Gerald Ford's Oval Office

Alan Greenspan so graciously spread the gospel of Rand's ideology, even as he deregulated the banking industry and sacrificed the American Economy to Thee, Oh Dearest Invisible Hand of the Free Market.  Today, many Randians claim Alan Greenspan went against Randian philosophy, willfully ignorant that, at Rand's bidding and blessing, Greenspan entered the Federal Reserve and continues as her unwavering disciple to this day.

Yes, we worship and serve Thee above all, Oh Mammon, Oh laissez faire Capitalism!

I grew up reading Ayn Rand, and it taught me quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are and what my beliefs are. It’s inspired me so much that it’s required reading in my office for all my interns and my staff.  
(Paul Ryan, quoted in Daily Kos 2012-09-04 01:30:00)

The invisible hand of the market always moves faster and better than the heavy hand of government.  
 (Mitt Romney)

I made a lot of money. I’ve been very successful. I’m not going to apologize for that. 
(Mitt Romney)

What I have, I earned. I worked hard, the American way. (Mitt Romney)

Laissez-faire in the beginning

"Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."  
(Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead)

...the person who loves everybody and feels at home everywhere is the true hater of mankind. He expects nothing of men, so no form of depravity can outrage him. 
(Ayn Rand, Fountainhead) 

The creators were not selfless. It is the whole secret of their power-that it was self-sufficient, self-motivated, self-generated. A first cause, a fount of energy, a life force, a Prime Mover. The creator served nothing and no one. He lived for himself.  
(Ayn Rand, Fountainhead) 

Laissez-faire yesterday

America's abundance was created not by public sacrifices to the common good, but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. They did not starve the people to pay for America's industrialization. They gave the people better jobs, higher wages, and cheaper goods with every new machine they invented, with every scientific discovery or technological advance- and thus the whole country was moving forward and profiting, not suffering, every step of the way.  
(Ayn Rand, Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal) 

Laissez-faire today:
Direct product and backbone
of US capitalism

When I say “capitalism,” I mean a full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism—with a separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church.  
(Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness)

I swear by my life, and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine. 
(Ayn Rand)

--------------------------- 

Quotes from the Mormon Enemy of the Invisible Hand of the Free Market

Right wing Evangelicals, who have always loathed Mormons, now, all the sudden, adore Mitt Romney.  Why?  Because just as right wing Evangelicals have sacrificed the core values of their very own Jesus to the Invisible Hand of the Free Market, so Mitt Romney has sacrificed his own core LDS values to Thee, Oh Invisible Hand of the Free Market!

It's pretty damned obvious what the Bible says about accumulation of riches and oppression of the poor and basic sharing 101 (see The Way of Christianity and The Way of Judaism).  But, even so, the Holy Christian Right, in their unwavering love for Thee, Oh Invisible Hand of the Free Market, can still deny the very Bible they love to thump and their very own human dignity for Thy sake!

But what about the Book of Mormon and other LDS scriptures and scholars?  They must be totally capitalistic and pro-greed, right?  Think again.

Because of prominent Mormons like Mitt Romney, Orrin Hatch and droves of LDS leaders who wallow in wealth and serve Thee, Oh Invisible Hand of the Free Market and Thy Prophet Ayn Rand (Blessed Be Her Name), most people don't have a clue what the LDS scriptures really say.  To know our evil anti-capitalistic enemy, lets take a look at their own LDS scriptures and Mormon scholars that are completely opposed to Thee, Oh Invisible Hand of the Free Market, and against Thy Holy Profit (Blessed Be Her Name):

But wo unto the rich,
who are rich as to the things of the world.  
For because they are rich
they despise the poor,
and they persecute the meek,
and their hearts

are upon their treasures:  wherefore,

their treasure is their God. 
And behold, their treasure shall perish with them also.
(Book of Mormon, 2Nephi 9:29)

But it is not given that one man 
should possess that which is above another, 
wherefore the world lieth in sin. 

(Doctrine and Covenants 49:20)

But the laborer in Zion shall labor for Zion;

For if they labor for money they shall perish.

(Book of Mormon, 2Nephi 26:31)
 

 
Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just --
But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.
For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?  . . . .
And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another. 
And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done.
I say unto you, wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him; and now, I say these things unto those who are rich as pertaining to the things of this world. (Book of Mormon, Mosiah 4:17-23)


...and some were lifted up unto pride and boastings 
because of their exceedingly great riches, 
yea, even unto great persecutions;
For there were many merchants in the land, 
and also many lawyers, and many officers.
And the people began to be distinguished by ranks. . . .   
And thus there became a great inequality in all the land 
 (Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 6)


Yes, the Book of Mormon is a Socialist conspiracy against Thee, Oh Invisible Hand:

And they had all things common among them; 

therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free,

but they were all made free,

and partakers of the heavenly gift. . . .

There were no robbers, nor murderers,

neither were there Lamanites,

nor any manner of ‘ites;

but they were in one,

the children of Christ,

and heirs to the kingdom of God.

(Book of Mormon, 4Nephi 1:3,17)

Now let's expose Thy Enemy, the late Hugh Nibley, 
one of the foremost scholars of the LDS church:

Hugh Nibley

The idler shall not eat the bread of the laborer has always meant that the idle rich shall not eat the bread of the laboring poor, as they always have.
– Hugh Nibley

All my life I have shied away from these disturbing and highly unpopular—even offensive—themes. But I cannot do so any longer, because in my old age I have taken to reading the scriptures and there have had it forced upon my reluctant attention that, from the time of Adam to the present day, Zion has been pitted against Babylon, and the name of the game has always been money—"power and gain." . . . .  Babylon and Zion cannot mix in any degree. A Zion that makes concessions is no longer Zion.

--Hugh Nibley ("What is Zion?" CWHN 9:58)

Closing Invocation For Guitar
(to the Tune of "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms", words re-written by me)

v.1
{G} WHAT A COMPETITION,

{C} WHAT SWEATSHOP TOYS ARE MINE!
{G} LEANING ON THE MARKET'S 
{D} INVISIBLE HAND!
{G} WHAT A LIP-SERVICE,
{C} CALLING JESUS MINE,
{G} LEANING ON THE MARKET'S 
{D} INVISIBLE {G} HAND!

chorus
{G} LEANING, {C} LEANING,
{G} SAFE AND SECURE TRUSTING 
{D} AYN RAND!
{G} LEANING, {C} LEANING,
{G} LEANING ON THE MARKET'S 
{D} INVISIBLE {G} HAND!

v.2
{G} WHAT A FEAT TO HOCK
{C} ALL THAT'S FREE AWAY!
{G} LEANING ON THE MARKET'S 
{D} INVISIBLE HAND!
{G} WE KNOW WE'RE ON THE RIGHT RIGHT PATH
{C} SELLING SOULS DAY TO DAY,
{G} LEANING ON THE MARKET'S 
{D} INVISIBLE {G} HAND!

v.3
{G} WHAT HAVE I TO DREAD?
{C} WHAT HAVE I TO FEAR?
{G} LEANING ON THE MARKET'S 
{D} INVISIBLE HAND!
{G} UNREGULATED GREED,
{C} MY LORD MAMMON NEAR,
{G} LEANING ON THE MARKET'S 
{D} INVISIBLE {G} HAND!

My New CD - Renaissance Man

The photo on the cover of my new CD 'Renaissance Man' is of my father Brendan, taken in about 1950, it shows him in a very relaxed moment, complete with cigarette and cup of tea, and is one of my favourite photographs of him

Renaissance Man is written in memory of my father and its genesis goes back a long way in that if it hadn’t been for my father it’s doubtful if I, or my brother Conor, who plays drums on this recording, would be involved with music in the way that we are today.

My father passed away at the age of forty eight, when I was seventeen, and he was an extraordinary character. He wasn’t a musician but he was an absolute devotee of music, with very specific tastes – classical music from 1880 onwards, and jazz from 1945 onwards. So we were raised with the music of Bartok, Stravinsky, Ravel, Shostakovitch and Prokofiev, and the music of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Errol Garner. As children, (there were eight of us!), he would play games with us where we would have to identify the instruments of the orchestra, or identify a particular soloist in a jazz piece. We didn’t realize it, but he was giving us a fantastic aural musical education, and for some of us he was setting the course of our future careers in music.

This was 1960s Ireland, a conservative, culturally isolated place, so our experience of all this great modern music was pretty unique for a child of those times. And when you’re a child, the music you hear is the music you hear – nobody told us that ‘The Rite of Spring’ was ‘difficult’ music, or the music of Bartok or Miles – to us it was just our everyday music.  And it wasn’t just in music that my father played the role of cultural evangelist, he was also interested in literature, film and the theatre and introduced us to everything from the Marx Brothers to Lewis Carroll, from ’Twelve Angry Men’, to ‘Three Men in A Boat’. Thanks to him we had a thorough cultural education at a time, and place when something like that was very hard to come by.

I wrote this piece on the 30th anniversary of his passing and I decided to write a piece for jazz guitar trio and string quartet – two classic ensembles of their respective genres that would be the perfect vehicle for what I wanted to express. In choosing the musicians to play the piece it was a foregone conclusion that my brother Conor would play drums on the project, for obvious familial reasons as well as the fact that we'd played together for over 20 years.

(John, Conor and I at the rehearsal for the 1st performance of the music)

In choosing the guitarist for the piece, I wanted someone who could not just play the instrument well, but play in many different emotional climates - which is not a common quality in many players, and certainly is rare in young players. So I asked John Abercrombie to do it - we'd worked together several times previously and I had studied with him in Banff in the mid-80s, so we knew each other on both a personal and musical level. John is of course one of the great contemporary guitarists with a unique approach that is much more multi-faceted than most guitarists, or indeed musicians. John has the ability to play completely sparsely and quietly, or to completely burn. he also has a unique harmonic approach and sound and is a true improvisor. His sensitivity to the music and what I was trying to do with it was perfect for this project and he played the music beautifully.

In choosing the string quartet, I knew I needed really good players - in writing the piece I wanted to represent my father's love of modern classical music and I definitely didn't want a typical jazz 'string pad' effect. The writing for the quartet is very involved and very challenging at times, and Ioana, Cliodhna, Cian and Kate really did an amazing job on the music, I couldn't have asked for more.

(Rehearsing the piece at the 1st performance in 2005)

The piece itself is in six movements, each one inspired by some memory of my father: some are inspired by quotes from his favourite books, some by music he loved, and some by general memories I have of him.

1) Stillness/Movement

A recollection of my father taking me cycling up to Killiney Hill, a local beauty spot, at dawn on a summer morning around 1970 when I was about 12. There were few cars in those days, and even fewer at 5am, and there was this feeling of being the only two people in the world -  utter silence. Then the birdsong began, and got louder and louder till it reached a cacophony......

2) Mr. BP

Brendan Patrick Guilfoyle, was my father's name and this is a lyrical tune dedicated to him

3) George's Hat

This refers to a line from 'Three Men in a Boat' - 'It was George's hat that saved his life that day' - that my father found hilarious  - and it is hilarious! If you know the book you'll know why, and if you don't then check it out!

4) This Was Very Odd Because

This refers to another line from classic literature, this time 'The Walrus and the Carpenter' from Alice in Wonderland', which my father would read to us and we would be expected to know the last line of every stanza.

5) It Was The Middle Of The Night

Although my father was a wonderful man with so many great qualities, he also had his dark side for sure, and could be pretty scary at times. This movement reflects that aspect of his personality

6) 2 Degrees East

The only explicitly musical reference, to John Lewis' blues 'Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West'  from 'Grand Encounter'. My father loved this piece and played it incessantly. The theme is referred to here, but the treatment is completely different to the original.

Here are excerpts from each movement in order

  Excerpts from 'Renaissance Man' by RonanG


And here is a little film about the making of Renaissance Man

My father passed away before any of us began playing seriously, and I’ve always felt that it was so unfair that he never got to hear the results of the groundwork he laid for us. But I also feel very fortunate to have been able to write this piece, and to have such great musicians perform it. Renaissance Man is written in recognition of the great gifts he gave to us, and the debt we owe to him.


As a little bonus - here's some footage of myself, John, Joey Baron and Michael Buckley playing a quartet arrangement of the 2nd movement, 'George's Hat'

Whenever you release a new recording it's an exciting and special moment, but for me, this release is particularly special and personal. In this case the importance to me of the music being widely heard outweighs any other consideration and so I'm selling the physical CD for a very low price. If you're interested in purchasing a CD you can click on the Paypal button at the top of this page. If you want to buy it in downloadable format you can do it here

Want something? Go get it...

    Wheather it's a
blonde













or a brunette












... we, men, have always loved women. Sometimes more that we should've.
     And, to be honest, women have always been the best motivation for us to succeed in life. It is genetically encrypted in our DNA, that we need to get beautiful women to "love" us. It is the way of life.
     I am starting a new blog, about relations wth the opposite sex, because that is a really important chapter in our lifes, so it needs our full attention.
     Leave a coment bellow about what the firs post should be about. I know you have lots of questions, so fire away!
     Also, according to the title of this post, I am leaving you a link to the downloads section, where you can find free the most important software that you can use to beat roulette, which used along with the safest system, is in my oppinion unbeatable.
     After you solve the part about money, you can begin to think about what really interests you, and that is living a FULL LIFE:

 CHEERS!

 

Down With Jazz! Bejayzuz!

It’s not that long ago that Ireland was to all intents and purposes a Theocracy, not unlike present day Iran. In a similar way to the contemporary Iranian state, right up to at least the 1960s, the country was under the thumb of a cabal of clerics who interfered with every aspect of the state and whose number one concern was the wielding of their own power.  They interfered in every aspect of Irish life and left a legacy of brutality and child abuse (such as in their schools and Reformatories), which Irish people are still having to deal with today. But disgusting as the institution of the Catholic Church was,  (and often still is), occasionally the behavior of some of the dimmer members of that church, through the stupidity of their actions, gave us a badly needed laugh at the Church’s expense. One such dimwit was Father Peter Conefrey.

Conefrey was the founding member and leading light of the ‘Anti-Jazz League’ in the 1930s – a movement he hoped would rid Holy Catholic Ireland of the corrupting effect of jazz. Coneferey was convinced that jazz (although what he thought of as jazz would certainly not be recognised as such by any jazz fan or musician), was destroying the morals of the young people with its unholy rhythms and lewd dancing. He managed to lead a march against jazz through a tiny town in Ireland and through his contacts get questions asked in parliament about why Irish music was getting displaced on the radio by this sinful jazz music. But under the thumb of the clergy though Irish politicians may have been, this was too ludicrous for even the most devout Irish politician and the movement fizzled out relatively quickly. There’s a fascinating documentary on it here

This coming weekend I'll be taking part in a festival called 'Down With Jazz' which humorously takes the anti-jazz movement as its theme, but has in fact the opposite intention of the idiotic Father Conefrey, in that it is celebrating Irish jazz.

Over three days sixteen bands will show the variety and quality of the music produced here in Ireland by the local musicians and it should be a great festival since there's never been a higher standard of jazz music being played in ireland than there is now.

I think it's fair to say that in western Europe, Ireland's jazz scene is the one that is least known outside of its own borders. Every other scene in western Europe - the French, Italian, German, and various Scandinavian scenes for example - all would be known through various famous practitioners who have gained international reputations and are well known everywhere. Musicians such as Enrico Rava, Martial Solal, Jan Garbarek, and John Taylor are known internationally and through them people know there is a scene in the countries in which they live. Ireland would not be known in the same way in the jazz world, and truth be told, up to recently, while there were some great musicians here, there wasn't enough of them to constitute a 'scene'

Jazz had a slow start in Ireland - there were jazz influenced jazz bands in the 40s and 50s, but the first real jazz musicians began to appear at the end of the 50s and into the 60s with players such as the pianist Noel Kelehan and the drummer John Wadham, both of whom were world class. There were other players around the scene who were good also, but the real breakthrough came with the appearance of Louis Stewart, the great guitarist who was the first domiciled Irish musician to get international attention. Before that the bassist Rick Laird had played with musicians such as Sonny Rollins and Wes Montgomery as part of the house rhythm section in Ronnie Scott's Club in London, and later went on the play with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Due to his Mahavishnu stint and appearances on various 'Jazz Icons' DVDs, he remains Ireland's most famous jazz musician. However Louis Stewart broke the mould in that he was the first Irish jazz musician, living in Ireland whose work was recognised internationally and he performed with Benny Goodman and a host of other great musicians during his career. A phenomenal guitarist, he inspired a generation of Irish players (including me), and made them believe that this music could be played at the highest level by Irish jazz musicians.

My peers and contemporaries, who came up in the 80s, included some really great musicians, many of whom were determined to expand their horizons beyond Ireland, some by moving abroad, some by studying abroad, and all of whom were very interested in current trends in jazz. Many of us were interested in developments beyond the customary hard bop style of the Dublin jazz scene and the result of that was a broadening of stylistic approaches in the Irish scene and the founding of something that every other European country had - a jazz school.

It took a lot of time to get the full time courses going there, but when they did the school had a real impact on the development of the music in Ireland and aspiring jazz musicians now had access to the same training and information as their European and American counterparts, as well as getting to sit in classes with many visiting musicians of renown. All of this, with the addition of the rise, development and ultimate boom (and now bust!) of the Irish economy had an explosive effect on the jazz scene here. With the coming of serious money into the economy more musicians started to land up on irish shores and this is turn enriched the scene further. Recordings were made, tours undertaken and organisations such as the Improvised Music Company, (the promoters of this weekend's event), created imaginative events and programming.

And this weekend will show the variety and quality of what's currently on offer in Irish jazz at the moment - everything from electronic-infused improvisation to traditional jazz, from through-composed large scale compositions to standards, from duos to big bands. The Irish jazz scene has come of age and the festival is a great showcase for the many great musicians and bands now playing here.

Here's Phisqa, a group that is an exemplar of what effect the influx of overseas musicians has had - led by a Peruvian drummer, it features a South African saxophonist, an Italian guitarist, a Venezuelan pianist and an Irish bassist

More traditional fare will be on display too and I'm really looking forward to playing some standards with the truly world class saxophonist Michael Buckley

I'll also be playing a set with 3G - a family affair that features my brother Conor on drums and my son Chris on guitar.

Things have really changed for jazz in Ireland and hopefully this (sold out), festival will help to make more people aware of the musical riches the scene currently contains. As they might  say in Ireland, regarding this weekend's doings - 'if Father Conferey was alive today he'd turn in his grave.....'

Common Sense

I returned to Moab yesterday, camping out in the heat last night.

The Peace Corps reunion in San Diego went really well.  My Peace Corps friend, Stephanie, drove me there from Colorado, and, of course, it was splendid getting to know her better.  We were both so happy we overcame our reluctance to go. It was the first I'd seen most those folks in 23 years, since we were in Ecuador together.  I was actually really surprised to see how little everybody had changed.  Joe Griffith (I think voted the "sexiest" in Peace Corps training), who had disappointed his fellow female volunteers (and some male :-)  by marrying an Ecuadorian, pretty much organized the whole event.  His Ecuadorean wife and sister-in-law even cooked up a gourmet Ecuadorean feast for us, which brought back a flood of magical memories.

On returning to Moab, I got to spend time with Carolyn and her new boyfriend, Thembe, who had dropped into the area for a couple weeks.  They then brought me to Fruita, Colorado, to visit my parents.

In Fruita, I discovered a group of new friends (Kyle and Jeanine, Ken and Rachelle, Cullen and Veronica), and a rad, artsy center they'd created, called Cavalcade.  They wanted to jam in Cullen's woodshop (he also makes harps and guitars), and I figured I'd join these refined musicians with my rookie guitar skills.  There were a bunch of woodsaws hanging up, and somebody jokingly asked if anybody played the saw.  I said, "yes," and sawed some tunes with them.  They convinced me to stay longer and play saw in Cavalcade's variety show with Kyle Harvey.   

Meanwhile, I've been reading a book my Missoula friend, Kate, gave me, "The Spell of the Sensuous", by David Abram. At first I'd thought it was just another nice nature book.  The title kind of throws you.  But it is utterly profound, with revolutionary ideas.  Maybe if it had a different title, and not classified as a nature book, it might be more well known, in fact revolutionary, to scientific, as well as theological and philosophical, thinking.  It's helping me crystallize ideas developing for decades in me.  I hope to write them out sometime.  Meanwhile, here's some musings it inspires in me:

COMMON SENSE

All physical reality is sensual.
All physical reality is known only by the senses.

The senses are the prophets, the seers, the sent,
bearing witness to Unchanging Consciousness.

To repress the sensual is to deny physical reality,
To deny the sensual is to deny compassion,
to deny the Word in the flesh,
Consciousness in the flesh.

Paradoxically, to repress the sensual is to be a slave to the sensual,
to express and share the sensual is to be served by the sensual.
To express and share passion is compassion.
How?

Passion is sense.
Shared sense is common sense.
Common sense is common passion.
Common passion is compassion.

Senses hidden, senses not shared,
Passion hidden, passion not shared
are our slaveholders,
are our destruction.

Compassion is Omni-pre-sence
Omnipresence is God in everyone,
One Consciousness in everyone.
Compassion is Common Sense.

All physical things are sensed.
To share all things is to commonly sense.
To share everything is common sense!
Common sense is concensus.

To think we own anything
is to deny common passion,
to deny common sense,
is to deny omni-pre-sence!

To breathe is to share,
air common to all.
To breathe is to be alive.
To breathe is to sense.
To breathe is to make sense.

To breathe is common sense!
To breathe is to respire, inspire,
be filled with the Spirit,
To realize all life
literally is One Breath,
One Spirit,
Whole Spirit,
Wholly Spirit,
Holy Spirit.

Can you possess air?
can you own breath for later? 

To deny this common sense
is to deny Omni-pre-sense.

Possession means possessed.
Possessed means not free.
Not free means bought and sold.
Only slaves and prostitutes
can be bought and sold,
Slaves to our senses,
because we repress our senses.

Free means priceless.

Free Market is an oxymoron!
Free literally means free!

Market is price institution.
Price institution is pros-titution.
Prostitution is commerce.
Commerce is common market.
Common market opposes common sense.
Common sense is com-passion.
Common sense is consensus.

(In Hebrew, commerce is canaan.
All the world has become Canaan).

Mammon is delusion.
Delusion is idolatry,
mistaking illusion for reality.
Compassion is reality.
Reality is omnipresent.
Omnipre-sence is common sense.

Either love Mammon
and hate Reality
or vise versa.
It 's impossible to love both.
Can you simultaneously love
both the Prostitute of Babylon
(Queen of Commerce)
and the New Jerusalem
(Queen of Grace, of Gratis)?

If life cannot share
how can it be life?
To buy and sell life is to deny life.
Every particle in the Universe is life.
Universe means omnipresence.

To not share is to reject all the Universe,
to repress your own senses,
to not sense the senses of others,
to reject compassion,
to not make sense,
to reject common sense.

Compassion is the Spirit
breath, sense,
Spirit confessing the Word in the flesh,
beyond words.
Any spirit that does not share
denies the Word made flesh.
Because any spirit that does not share
is in a lung that does not breath,
not speaking the Word beyond words.

Common Breath
Common Sense

I said in my heart, 
"Concerning the condition of the descendants of Adam, 
God tests them, 
that they may see that they themselves are animals."
For what happens to the descendants of Adam 
also happens to animals; 
one thing befalls them: 
as one dies, so dies the other. 
Surely, they all have One Spirit*.
Adam has no advantage over animals, 
for all is emptiness.
All go to one place: 
all are from the dust, 
and all return to dust.
(The Bible, Ecclesiastes 3:17-20)

*Hebrew, Ruach, meaning Spirt or Breath.