Wealth of Choices

Even thought CD sales aren't what they used to be and music downloads are becoming more prominent, Shlomo Schwartzberg in this Critics at Large piece draws attention to the music magazines that are helping keep CDs alive and well.

So Much Richer: The Diversity and Variety of Modern Music

http://www.criticsatlarge.ca/2012/04/so-much-richer-diversity-and-variety-of.html

It arrived later than the other music magazines but the French cultural/political magazine Les inrockuptibles’s Best of the Year music issue is an illuminating read and listen, both because it’s so different than the Anglo-American annual music lists but also because it provides incontrovertible proof that when it comes to music, unlike other art forms, the critics are on so many different pages.

Charmingly titled Best of Musique 2011 (an apt mix of English and French) and accompanied by a CD of 16 of the mag’s favourite tracks, entitled La bande-son 2011(Soundtrack of 2011), Les inrockuptibles’ top 100 discs, 50 reissues and 100 tracks certainly offers a cornucopia of sonic richness. But I was especially intrigued by its deviations from Uncut and Mojo’s top of the year lists. Generally of the top 50 albums cited by those British music mags, about half or so of the CDs chosen differ from each other. They shared a common preference for such albums as Gillian Welch's The Harrow and the Harvest, Wilco'sThe Whole Love, Fleet Foxes' Helplessness Blues,Tinariwen's Tassili and Radiohead's The King of Limbs but Mojo also picked Glen Campbell's Ghost on the Canvas and Nick Lowe's That Old Magic as among their best discs of the year whileUncut went for the likes of Ry Cooder's Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down and Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX's We're New Here. But Les inrockuptibles went even further in charting its own path with some surprising choices on tap. I would expect them to choose some home-grown discs, from French artists François & the Atlas Mountains and Daniel Darc – the Brits tend to ignore most non-English music outside of Africa – but how did they come to focus on an Oklahoma group called Other Lives, which I don’t recall being mentioned by either Uncut or Mojo (who supposedly keep a close eye on the musical output of their Anglo cousins). Other Lives was not the only American band whose album (Tamer Animals) was mentioned by Les inrockuptibles as among the year’s best; other choices included both predictable ones from Bon Iver, Tom Waits and Fleet Foxes as well as left field choices, not picked by the Brits, like M83, Hanni El Khatib and Salem, American artists whom I’ve never heard of. Surprisingly, Paul Simon’s So Beautiful Or So What, though featured on both Mojo and Uncut's best lists, was absent from Les inrockuptibles's chart They also focused on Canadian artists like Drake and Timber Timbre who were shut out of the British magazine lists. (Feist's Metals made both the French mag and Uncut's top list but was overlooked by Mojo.) And of course being neighbours and all, lots of British choices, including the releases from Arctic Monkeys, PJ Harvey, Gruff Rhys, The Horrors, James Blake and Cat’s Eyes, not all of whom placed high in their local lists. Interestingly, Harvey's (overrated to my mind) Let England Shake was Les inrockuptibles's eighth best disc but placed number one with both Mojo and Uncut.

The Black Keys

I should mention Les inrockuptibles’s number one choice, The Black Keys’ fine El Camino, which didn’t factor in the top 50 lists of Mojo orUncut at all. That’s likely because those magazines go to press earlier than the French magazine’s music year end issue does, in November and thus they don’t consider albums released in December for their lists. (El Camino was released in early December in the UK and North America). I’m betting it would have qualified though as The Black Keys’ previous album Brothers was in Mojo’s top ten of 2010 (number eight) and placed at number 28 in Uncut’s Top 50. To my mind that taints the British lists, though the album may end up on their best of 2012 lists as most of its sales and presence would be in 2012 calendar year. Back home in the U.S., El Camino did place highly in publications like The Village Voice, Time magazine,Spin, Rolling Stone and (online) Paste magazine.

The Pulse of Jazz

For all the current readers of Critics at Large, we've resurrected the Luna Sea Notes website to publish previous C @ L posts. The idea is to introduce readers to pieces they may have missed from earlier in our incarnation. Since we now have a huge body of work to draw from, the goal is to post articles that may also have some relevance to events of the day.

It's rare for any publication today to have a music critic whose interest and taste in music is as broad as John Corcelli's (which was one of many reasons why we brought him on board at Critics at Large). While most of his posts are reviews of new music, including pop, jazz and classical, he occasionally does profile pieces such as this commemorative look at Downbeat magazine.

The Downbeat Goes On

http://www.criticsatlarge.ca/2011/08/downbeat-goes-on.html

Despite the changes in the music business, particularly from a technological point of view, criticism is still relevant. This particular website is dedicated to reviewing the arts by distinguishing itself as an honest broker of artistic endeavors around the world. Downbeat magazine, which has been the best and longest lasting periodical of jazz, has just issued its 59th annual Critics Poll (August 2011). As a monthly journal that has adapted well to change, its Critic's Poll and Reader's Poll is an important barometer of what's being heard and reviewed in music.

The August 2011 edition of Downbeat features the critic’s picks for the best in jazz of the past 12 months and as a critic who did not participate in the poll, I was happy to see certain musicians getting recognition, namely, American pianist and composer, Jason Moran. His album Ten (Blue Note, 2010) was voted the best of the year. Moran himself was voted as Artist of the Year and he led the poll in the Piano category by getting more points than Keith Jarrett and last year's poll-winner Brad Mehldau. This is fine company, to say the least, and while I'm generally fickle about "best of" lists, I was very happy to see Moran grace the cover of the magazine and win three categories. Ten made my own list of the top records in 2010, and I have to admit that I'm feeling vindicated for trusting my ears and choosing new releases off the beaten path and rarely with a high profile. Nevertheless, with all the great music and musicians vying for our attention, which is bloody difficult in the 21st Century, it’s nice to see the so-called purists at Downbeat support up-and-coming musicians. In fact, that’s been an important part of their mandate since the beginning.

Established in 1934, Downbeat has had the unique history of growing with the music. (This is the single best reason to read it.) It’s a periodical interested in educating the public about the history of the music and the musicians who play it. The only other magazine of comparable quality is CODA, which is struggling now since the death of Founder and Editor John Norris in 2010. CODA started in 1958 in Toronto as a bi-monthly about jazz and improvised music. What makes Downbeat magazine special is the history of its ownership. The current President is Kevin Maher who took over the position from his older brother, John 'Butch' Maher in 1991. John 'Butch' Maher was made publisher of Downbeat in 1989, but died two years later of cancer. Jack Maher, who passed away in 2003, became president of the publication in 1970 after his father, John J. Maher, died. (John J. Maher purchased the publication in 1950.) From 1949 to 1979, Downbeat was published every two weeks. Jack Maher decided to go monthly and the magazine thrives to this day without corporate ownership by a major publishing company, such as Time-Warner.