Blog

New Indaba Group

Mantis Evar — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:54:00 -0500

Hello everyone - I started a new group called Listen Up. This is a group where you can talk about the music that you are into now and from your past. What is in your CD player? What is your favorite song? What is your favorite album? What is your new favorite band? Please, be the first to join the group and let us all know the music you are into. I am looking forward to hearing what you like! Click here to join the group http://www.indabamusic.com/groups/55860

Let us know what you think about this song:

New songs posted!

Mantis Evar — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:58:00 -0400

Hello my Indaba friends. I just want to let you know that I have uploaded some new tunes to my profile for you all to hear. I also added a ton of links on my profile so you can check out some of the very talented folks I have had the pleasure to work with over the past many years. Please, check out the links and let me know what you like or, experiences you may have had with some of these songs/musicians.

I will place my predictions for what the Indaba team might like:

Dan – Will probably like the Beastie Boys and ScoHoLoFo
Matt – I think Lou Rawls
David – Anything in the Definitive Series
Chris - JA.DE, St. Germain or, Lemonade (music sample section)
PJ – The Recovery!
Gordo – Erik Truffaz
Jesse - Medeski Martin and Wood
Josh – Supergenerous
Ryan – Chucho Valdes
Streeter – Hopefully will like the rock stuff (music sample section) because he is an awesome rock drummer/god.

IAJE

Mantis Evar — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:59:00 -0400

I have been a member of The International Association of Jazz Educators for the past decade and I am sorry to announce that after 40 successful years the organization has disbanded.

The mission of the International Association for Jazz Education was to assure the continued worldwide growth and development of Jazz and Jazz Education.

This great organization allowed the Jazz community to gather annually performing for each other at their conference. Thousands upon thousands of jazz musicians and fans were also attracted to IAJE through its Teacher Training Institutes, student scholarship programs such as the Clifford Brown/Stan Getz All-Stars and its website and magazine.

I have received a note from IAJE President Chuck Owen stating that IAJE has filed in Kansas bankruptcy court and has already closed its doors

I have had the pleasure to work with jazz legends such as Max Roach, Joe Lovano, Joe Chambers, John Hicks and many others at these events through the years and several members from the Indaba team were lucky enough to attend the very last conference held in Toronto last January. We are very sorry to see it go. Hopefully, there will be a new organization dedicated to the perseverance and education of this art form we call Jazz.

I will miss the great performances like this one from Bob Mintzer's Big Band:

French legend Henri Salvador passes

Mantis Evar — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:25:00 -0500

Henri Salvador, the velvet-voiced French musician credited with inspiring the bossa nova, bringing American rock 'n' roll to France and helping to create the music video, has died, his record label said.

He was 90.

Salvador died at his Paris home of a ruptured aneurysm, said Carine Herve, of the Polydor label.

Salvador was known for his claps of booming laughter, raucous sense of humour, silky singing and incredible staying power. He worked past his 90th birthday last year and Polydor said he had planned to record a new album in 2008.

He ended his stage career with a farewell concert in December. "I am the only one who can bow out while still alive," he said then.

Innovation was a constant force in Salvador's long and varied life, which took him from France's South American enclave of Guiana to Paris' most prestigious stages - and won the hearts of generations of French fans.

President Nicolas Sarkozy said Salvador existed "at the crossroads of jazz, song and bossa nova, of Europe and the Americas," and that his death was a cause of "infinite sadness". "For more than a half-century, with humour and elegance, Henri Salvador was the incarnation of the art of song 'a la francaise'," Sarkozy said in a statement.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon said in a statement that Salvador's "hallmark laugh and his sunny personality will be missed by generations of French people".

Salvador's honeyed voice appeared to defy the passage of time, remaining smooth and supple until the end. Salvador chalked it up to his technique. "I don't sing, I whisper," he said in a 2006 interview. "When you whisper into the mike, you are able to transmit real feeling."

Whether he was singing jazz, blues, rock 'n' roll or chanson francaise - traditional French pop - feeling was the key ingredient in Salvador's prolific and varied music.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Salvador

Gary Lucas

Mantis Evar — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:04:00 -0500

Keep an ear out for a record that producer Jerry Roche and I are currently working on. Ex-Captain Beefheart guitarist Gary Lucas and his band Gods And Monsters which includes Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads) on keys, drummer Billy Ficca (Television), bassist Ernie Brooks (Modern Lovers) along with a horn section had played a great set of music at the CMJ Festival and we have captured it! For your ears AND eyes!

Jerry has decided to release this as a CD/DVD package! The CD includes 14 high-energy tunes that took the audience to their feet! Indaba videographer Chuck Fishbein had collected his crew and filmed the entire event including the private pre-show solo performance and interview at the Indaba loft! The live concert was recorded by Indaba member Liberty Ellman at the Bowery Poetry Club in NYC.

Gary Lucas was co-writer on the Jeff Buckley hit Grace and can be most recently heard on Chris Cornell’s latest album. The CD will be titled One Man's Meat. Here's a sneak preview of that night and don’t tell Jerry I showed you!

Welcome to my room!

Mantis Evar — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 15:23:00 -0500

Welcome to my studio! This is where I work!

I started writing this a while back. I am a little late in posting this as I was busy building the studio. Now I will attempt to play catch-up and tell you a little about the space. I will add more current photos as the studio is now completed.

The 7 spaces include a control room, drum room (main space; room A), piano room (room B), bass room (room C), guitar room (room D), vocal booth (room E) and a separate space used as a music library; CD's, dats, VHS, Hi-8's, vinyl, cassettes, mini casstettes, multi track tape.

Some construction photos:

Regarding the construction and separation of each room, the studs of the walls are metal, as sound transfers less through this metal than wood. We built double walls to get some thickness and some space between the rooms. We have added double insulation and had used a product called Quiet Rock on the inside of each of the rooms. Quiet Rock is 5/8ths inch thick but is 8 times denser than regular sheet rock. It looks like regular sheet rock on both sides but contains a sheet of steel in the center, and it has to be cut with a circular saw. Unfortunately it's double the cash and is 3 times the weight of sheet rock, but it is certainly a better material to use for this purpose.

Josh in control of the control room.

A few patch bays:

Ghost 32. Beautiful board.

Each room is suited for video and monitoring as well as having your own mix control in the headphones. If the bass player needs more drums, he can just turn up the drum channel. If the drummer needs more guitar (usually does not apply in rock bands!), he can just add more in his mix. Most rooms have 4 inputs that accept XLR and 1/4 inch. Each input can be switched to an output in the control room. The studio uses Pro Tools and is used primarily for Indaba Music. We have already have had some of our members in to start recording for the site!

Keyboard room: Yamaha, Rhodes, Phonebooth.

Hand made room treatments. Wool, wood, burlap and glue. I don't remember much after the glue.

The studio has 2 panes of double-sided glass between each room. The rooms have angled glass in order to break up the sound preventing cancellation. The glass windows span from 3 feet to 11 feel depending on the room. The glass is also mounted on a 1-inch rubber based wood frame in order to prevent as much sound bleed as possible.I will add more studio photos in the near future!

Albert Ayler

Mantis Evar — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 09:16:00 -0500

MY NAME IS ALBERT AYLER

“If people don’t like it now, they will.”

“One of the most starkly beautiful and moving
documentaries ever made about a jazz musician.” Jazz Times (USA)

MY NAME IS ALBERT AYLER is a documentary about the prophetic free jazz saxophonist Ayler, who today is seen as one of the most important innovators in jazz. Ayler was obsessed with his radical music and by the thought that people one day would understand it, as he said in his own words “If people don't like it now, they will." In 1962 he recorded his first album in Sweden. Eight years later he was found dead in New York's East River, aged 34.

The documentary follows the trail of Albert from his native town of Cleveland by way of Sweden to New York, meeting family, friends and colleagues who help tell the story of his life and music. Albert himself guides us with his voice and music. Seven years in the making, the film includes newly discovered footage of Ayler and his band.

Check out the recent reviews!

New York Times
http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/movies/08ayle.html?ref=movies

The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/film/my_name_is_albert_ayler_collin

Village Voice
http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0745,hillis,78265,20.html

New York Sun
http://www.nysun.com/article/65994

Flavorpill recommends! http://flavorpill.com/newyork/events/2007/11/8/my-name-is-albert-ayler

Gawker recommends! http://gawker.com/news/gawker-calendar/albert-ayler-mariko-mori-and-conans-writers-320616.php

"An extraordinary portrait of an extraordinary musician…Something of a triumph ... manages to bring its austere subject alive, turning Ayler's short, turbulent life into a compelling narrative. ... shows that, underneath the brash, proto-punk tone of Ayler's saxophone, there was a real heart." - SIGHT & SOUND

"During his cruelly short lifetime, tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler, who died at the age of 34 in 1970, often claimed that his tumultuous, spiritual form of free jazz would be understood by audiences only after he died. ... A loving and elegantly crafted documentary that charts the saxophonist's commitment to his art … His music, which this film will make you wish to run out and hear, is the sound of a pack of lions unleashed."- DAILY TELEGRAPH

"An excellent documentary film… about artistic integrity in the face of poverty, and of commitment to a musical vision." - THE GUARDIAN

“a tender and slightly unsettling love letter to iconic avant-garde saxophonist Albert Ayler” - TIME OUT (CRITIC’S CHOICE)

“Collin's film is a haunting mesh of old cine footage, paint-stripping live performances and interviews with surviving friends and family. A strange shot of a semi-naked Ayler, staring silently into the camera, threads through the film, as if the subject is daring you to dismiss him …” THE SUNDAY TIMES

A loving and elegantly crafted documentary that charts the saxophonist's commitment to his art … His music, which this film will make you wish to run out and hear, is the sound of a pack of lions unleashed." - DAILY TELEGRAPH (Sukhdev Sandhu)

"By turns illuminating and heartbreaking … completely alters the way you hear and feel the music." -THE WIRE MAGAZINE

“Heartbreaking as it is, this film is a rarity and not to be missed.”-ALL ABOUT JAZZ (USA)

Anthology Film Archives:
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/schedule/search/film/?id=8534

Passing Tones...

Mantis Evar — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 12:09:00 -0400

Jazz legend Joe Zawinul, who soared to fame as one of the creators of jazz fusion and performed and recorded with Miles Davis, has died, a hospital official said. He was 75. Zawinul died early Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Vienna's Wilhelimina Clinic said, without giving details. Zawinul had been hospitalized since last month. Zawinul, who turned 75 on July 7, won widespread acclaim for his keyboard work on chart-topping Davis albums such as In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew, and was a leading force behind the so-called Electric Jazz movement. In 1970, Zawinul founded the band Weather Report and produced a series of albums including Heavy Weather, Black Market and I Sing the Body Electric. After that band's breakup, he founded the Zawinul Syndicate in 1987. Zawinul is credited with bringing the electric piano and synthesizer into the jazz mainstream. This past spring, he toured Europe to mark the 20th anniversary of the Zawinul Syndicate. He sought medical attention when the tour ended, the Viennese Hospital Association said in a statement last month. Joe was always very nice to me and his music will live on with all of us.

You can see Mr. Zawinul playing here with the great Trilok Gurtu:

GREAT PRODUCER, GREAT PERSON, GREAT FRIEND.

Mantis Evar — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 17:06:00 -0400

I had first met producer Jerry Roche back in 1993 when he had delivered a two part Leo Kottke release titled Instrumentals: The Best Of The Chrysalis Years and The Best Of The Capitol Years to my NYC office. Since, Jerry and I have been working closely through the years and have become very good friends. Jerry works at Mosaic /True Blue which have just introduced a new division called Mosaic Contemporary . Jerry also owns his own label called Mighty Quinn Productions . At Mighty Quinn we have worked on and released many gems. At first, these were all reissues previously unavailable on CD. The releases include and are not limited to Pepper Adams , Lou Rawls , Don Ellis , Harold Land , Eddie Condon , Edmond Hall , Roy Ayers and Ray Nance . Mighty Quinn Productions has also expanded beyond reissues and is now supporting several touring artists such as Gary Lucas , Steve Marcus, Mike Millazzo, Johnnie Winter and Hello Dali. Jerry is musically passionate and absolutely fantastic to work with. It is people like Jerry that makes this music available for our ears. Please, support Mighty Quinn by checking out their site and, since your there, buy a CD or two!

Take a look at this clip of Leo Kottke:

Greg Osby

Mantis Evar — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 17:05:00 -0400

Killer sax player and Indaba member Greg Osby and I became friends well before I started working with him. The first of his albums that I was involved in was a 2000 release titled Invisible Hand. Since then, we have worked together on many albums and live events. I am more than happy to say that he has strayed from the friend role and became more like a brother to me. Here is Osby performing Help on the Way with Phil Lesh and Friends;

And here he is with the World Saxophone Quartet featuring Hamiet Bluiett, Oliver Lake, James Carter:

Also, check out this Indaba Music contest he was nice enough to hook us up with.