NEW YEAR

So here it finally is – the end of 2005.

This was definitely the most difficult year of my life. Sadness and illness were the main themes, although not all was bad and all is well that ends well…

I hope 2006 will be much better in every respect and I wish the same to my Family and Friends all over the world. A New Year is always good for a boost of optimism and hope.

Rody and me and some friends will go to a New Year’s Eve dinner – we do deserve some fun. Champagne at Midnight… and kisses!

JAZZIS WEB SHOP

I was hellishly busy in the last 24 hours, as I announced yesterday a sale of some items on the shop for the ridiculous price of US $ 1.00 per CD. I didn’t know what to expect, but I guess a lot of people could not resist this offer and the orders just kept streaming in at a feverish paste. I made no money on this (hopefully didn’t loose any as well), except the items sold will save me time when I’ll take the stock of the warehouse tomorrow and they free space on the shelves. I hope people will enjoy the music – which is always the main point for me.

2005 was not a bad year for my shop – I managed to increase the sales volume by about 50 % - less than the 100 % I did in the last 4 consecutive years, but than again those were early days when the business was just starting. I hope I can do at least as well next year.

HAVE FUN!

MUSIC

Here is the rest of the Angel Air batch:

“Mutually Assured Destruction” by Gillan is a live recording of the band from 1981, one of many live recordings by Gillan and the Ian Gillan Band on Angel Air. I enjoyed the album a lot, but I’m not convinced it is really something worth considering in view of the multitude of similar albums already on the market and the rather dubious sound quality. But Gillan was one of the greatest voices in rock, a singer with bravado and incredible power that could move mountains. His bands were always well-oiled mean hard rock machines and the shows were showcases of rock energy and vocal virtuosity. Two points of interest on the one: The title track being remarkably similar (in melody and structure) to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven” and the superb imitation of Arthur Brown (the “fire” man) on “No Laughing In Heaven”. For dedicated Gillan fans only.

“Clevedon Pier” by Andy Davis – a reissue of the 1989 album by ex Stackridge and Korgis member. Andy is a multi-talented musician and his “Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime” remains one of the best ever pop songs. This album - mostly instrumental - is pleasant, but unremarkable. He examines some Celtic roots and ambient atmospheric moods. Not worthy of repeated hearing.

“Dan The Banjo Man” is a one-man instrumental project by UK guitarist Phil Cordell, who had a minor hit with the title tune in Germany. Completely forgettable – I quite after the 4^th tune or so…

“Into The Furnace” by Pete York’s New York is a nice 1980 jazz-rock album by the original drummer of the Spencer Davis Group. After SDG disbanded York started a solo career and also cooperated with another ex-SDG member Eddie Hardin. This album was released only in Germany and in time became a rare collector’s item. It is a pleasant listen, with some tunes being more interesting than others, but it is very far from the timeless highlights of jazz-rock. Interesting but not essential.

As you can see the output on Angel Air is really quite varied. I appreciate what they do, especially for the musicians, but I can hardly say that I find their entire output if interest or importance.

JAZZIS WEB SHOP

One of my regular US customers is visiting Israel with his family. They all came over to my warehouse this afternoon to visit and of course also bought a bunch of CDs. We had a nice chat about music and personal matters and it was very nice to meet people in person that you only know by “customer number”. As I always say – meeting people (either virtually or in person) is the greatest benefit of the shop. We all become a bunch of friends eventually.

HAVE FUN!

RODY’S PROGRESS

Rody completed today her radiotherapy! We just came back from the hospital where she had the final session and then met the physician in charge. He wished her good health and told her “to forget her illness”. Easier said than done, but as far as medicine is concerned she is now “healthy” and her cancer episode is behind her. Of course she will be under constant supervision in the months / years to come and she has to take a medicine for 5 years to minimize the danger of remission.

These were the most difficult 6+ months of our lives together (we are together for over 34 years – married 31 years next February). Trying times in every respect – days of despair and anger, resignation and hope. We tried to lead a “normal” life through all this as far as possible. Since Rody’s surgeries were in the summer, during the school vacations, she didn’t miss one day of work during all this time.

We had a lot of support from our friends and that was very helpful. Our close friends tried to cheer Rody up in many ways and our friends from all over the world sent us thousands of sympathetic emails and prayed for Rody’s health – Jews, Christians & Muslims alike. I wish to thank all of them wholeheartedly for their support – knowing that many people keep her in their hearts was a tremendous psychological factor that helped Rody to overcome her sorrow.

Rody’s illness brought us even closer together (if that is possible). The moment you realize that you can not take life for granted you start to appreciate a lot of things you never even previously considered. That can be very scary, but on the other hand it is a learning experience you can benefit from.

MUSIC

Today I listened to 3 albums on the UK Angel Air label. Angel Air releases mostly reissues of material recorded starting in the 1960’s and up to 1990’s, with occasional new recordings. They also produce DVDs. In the relatively few years since they started they released well over 200 titles, which is quite remarkable considering they work with a “closed” circle of associated musicians. However, sadly the releases are of extremely varied (musical) quality – from brilliant musical treasures to absolutely worthless stuff (to me of course), as the following albums amply demonstrate:

Chas Jankel’s self-titled album from 1980 is typical example how bad the rock music was in that period. Even the hit single “Ai No Corrida” sounds completely tasteless and the rest of the album is just a pain to listen to. I quit after the 6^th song…

“Transformation” by Dave Davies (the younger brother of Ray Davies, his partner and co-leader of legendary Kinks) is a live recording from 2003. Dave fronts a reformed Kinks (by name only – no other original band members are in it) and plays a well-performed set of original, including several Kinks hits. Dave’s strained relationship with his brother resulted in some of the best pop music written at the time and his solo stuff is far from the same level of artistry, but the old stuff still sounds remarkably well, especially in view of the fact that Dave kept his remarkable voice almost unchanged. All together quite a nice album. BTW Dave suffered a stroke about a year after this album was recorded, from which he apparently recovered by now.

“Originals” by Andromeda is one of those treasures I was talking about earlier. The band was led by guitarist John Du Cann, who was later the lead guitarist with Atomic Rooster. They released just one album in 1969 before disbanding shortly after. This album is the “original” album, as recorded by the band, in contrast to the version that was released in 1969, which was severely cut (by stripping all the long instrumental parts present here) and shortened. This is typical proto-Prog / Psychedelic music, with plenty of interesting melodies and great playing. Definitely worth investigating for fans of that period.

JAZZIS WEB SHOP

A few orders came in today, much to my surprise. I mailed my customers about having in stock some of the albums released by the now sadly defunct Israeli label Mio Records. These albums are now all out of print and collector’s items, with eBay prices way higher than my prices. A few customers must have checked that out and finding it was true ordered those items from me. If I was in it for the money I would have “sat” on those albums for a couple of years and then sold them at outrageous prices… well. It’s not me.

HAVE FUN!

MUSIC

Today I listened to a bunch of American independent Prog productions that were waiting in the pile of albums to be heard.

The first one was a real surprise: The album “The Origin Of Consciousness” by the group “The Underground Railroad” is one of the best albums I have heard in ages and deserves a run for the title “Best 2005 Prog Release”. Absolutely stunning stuff, heavily King Crimson influenced, but original enough to keep me on toes for the entire duration of the album. Incredible guitar work and the rest of the players are not far behind. I’ll definitely watch out for these guys.

“Acts Of Deception” by Cerebus Effect is a much weaker album, which I found difficult to listen to after about half of it. It is RIO oriented, with repeated riffs and dark blurred sound, but it lacks the virtuosity needed to make a good RIO album and (for me) missed the point by a mile.

“A Lasting Impression” (double CD) by Leger De Main is a reissue of two of their albums: “The Concept Of Our Reality” from 1995 and “Second First Impression” from 1997. I don’t know why these were reissued, but probably the originals were just CD-Rs? The group features a female lead singer (always a good sign, well almost) and plays music somewhere between Folk-Prog and Symphonic-Prog, all well done. Nice tunes, good playing and all together a pleasant listen, nothing revolutionary though.

Keyboards wizard Eric Norlander is already well known to most Prog (and now also Prog-Metal) fans. The “Special Edition” (double CD from 2004) of his 1996-97 album “Threshold” is a great example of his Prog work. He uses a myriad of keyboard instruments and some additional players to create long multi-part suites, which are always very melodic and rich in textures. I always enjoy listening to his music.

On another (and very sad) note I heard today that the UK guitarist Derek Bailey died yesterday. Bailey was one of the greatest pioneers of improvised music in Europe (and I say improvised music and not free jazz, as his music was way beyond what falls under the free jazz domain). A visionary and a groundbreaker, he did his own thing regardless of what the public or the critics said, totally free of any pre-conceptual traps. I heard him play many times in London, always awe-struck at his feverish mind-boggling inventions. His (relatively many) recordings are much more difficult to swallow in my opinion, as his music was at its best when heard live. In any case the world just became much poorer today as far as musical inventions as concerned.

Which reminds me of course that so many great musicians died in 2005… what a difficult year…

JAZZIS WEB SHOP

Still very quiet - nobody wants to buy good music apparently. I wander if anybody would buy a Derek Bailey CD… not in a 100 years.

HAVE FUN!

INTRO

Today this Blog celebrates its first anniversary – one month. Over 1,400 visits so far – I admit I am surprised. I thought nobody would read my rumblings.

HANUKKAH EVE

Tonight we light the first Hanukkah candle and every day for the next 7 days we will add one more candle - by the last evening eight candles will be lit. The “hanukkiah” is the special candelabra, which holds the Hanukkah candles. If you ever wandered why the “hanukkiah” holds 9 candles, here is the reason: We first light (using matches) a special candle called the “shamash” (custodian in Hebrew) which then is used in turn to light the other candles. So on the last night we have eight Hanukkah candles and the “shamash”, hence the nine places.

Hanukkah is a happy holiday (as opposed to most Jewish holidays, which are mostly somewhat somber). It is mostly celebrated by our kids, who get vacations from school and money to buy whatever they wish – this is a special Hanukkah allowance called “dmei Hanukkah”. The National food associated with Hanukkah is the jam filled doughnut – sweet and fattening.

Our winter finally arrived here with heavy rain and very cold temperatures. There is snow on the Golan Heights and some snow will be soon on the highest Galil Mountains and perhaps even in Jerusalem. We need every drop of rain and every bit of snow we can get to keep the balance of our water system, one of our greatest existential problems. So even if it is inconvenient, we look at the rain as a blessing.

Tonight I wish all my Jewish friends all over the world a truly wonderful Hanukkah. I hope you are all able to be with your Families and the Hanukkah candles light up your homes. May God bless you all!

MUSIC

The French Prog group Nemo (yes Captain Nemo, the underwater hero) released recently a live album called “Immersion Publique – Live”, which captures them performing their music earlier this year. Very well done in every respect and I quite enjoyed the album, although some French Prog can get on your nerves when it becomes over-dramatic and theatrical to the extreme. Nemo manage to keep a nice balance between melody and the riffs, with great instrumental passages. This is AFAIK their fourth album and they release their albums independently – well done guys.

JAZZIS WEB SHOP

Still very quiet.

HAVE FUN!

CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas is of course not a Jewish holiday and therefore it is not celebrated in Israel, except by Christians, who live here (a tiny minority). As I teach in Nazareth, I have quite a few Israeli Arab students, who are Christians and in Haifa there is a Christian community, so I do get to feel some of the Christmas atmosphere. No snow, mind you, but still almost…

For me Christmas is always a good opportunity to travel back in time to my childhood in Poland, where Christmas was a major event in every respect. As we (Jews) were a tiny minority there and all our friends and neighbors were Christians, we could not avoid taking part in the festivities. Of course the Jewish Holidays of Hanukkah are always more or less around Christmas time, so there was a double reason to celebrate.

Christmas is a “family” oriented Holiday, which of course is very nice. People tend to become more tender and mellow, and get into the so called “Christmas Spirit”, which is truly tangible. And getting a lot of presents and a lot of tasty food is always good!

Tonight I wish all my Christian friends all over the world a truly wonderful Christmas. I hope they are all able to be with their Families and the Christmas Spirit prevails in their homes. May God bless you all!

MUSIC

What could be more appropriate than listening to a “Christmas” album tonight? While writing these lines I do exactly that, but that is of course a very “different” Christmas album I just received by mail from my friends in Finland. Tapani Rinne is a great Finnish player and composer, leader of Rinneradio since many years and a prolific musician. His new “Silent Night” album is a beautiful, very serene and atmospheric treatment of some traditional Christmas carols as well as some of his compositions. He employs electronic / ambient background layers and improvises on top on soprano saxophone and clarinet. The effect is truly amazing.

Finland is my favorite musical country. I’ve been interested in Finnish music for over 40 years now and some people say I have the biggest collection of Finnish albums outside of Finland – perhaps true? They just have so mush great music those Finns! Who would believe it, considering how cold that country is? I just love their music so much!

JAZZIS WEB SHOP

Very quiet – I guess everybody is having his or her Christmas Eve dinner?

HAVE FUN!

MUSIC

I watched two DVDs from the “Live From London” series by Pallas and IQ. As mentioned earlier this series, filmed in the mid-1980s at the Camden Palace in London includes rare historical footage, which documents the early days of Neo-Prog. The video and sound quality is excellent and very professionally done, which of course makes watching the DVDs a pleasant experience.

The rise of Neo-Prog in the mid-1980s is quite an enigma in many respects. Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes of the original Prog movement, which by that time was completely dead and done with, Neo-Prog rekindled the interest in the genre, which everybody considered history. Considering this happened at a time when Rock and music in general were at the lowest point of its existence is especially puzzling. A few UK groups, almost underground, started to create music, which was firmly based on the Prog tradition, with extended compositions, concept albums and a lot of improvisation. Marillion, Pallas, IQ, Twelfth Nigh and gradually more and more groups first in UK and then worldwide picked on the idea and eventually it expanded and flourished.

Of course the music business changed drastically in the meantime and most of the Neo-Prog genre developed and operated outside the mainstream music business, utilizing the independent enterprise – small, self-owned record labels, specialized touring organizations, etc., all this with almost no presence on the Media of course.

With the entry of the Internet about a decade later, the genre found a way to get to the fans outside of the conventional marketing channels, and this gave the musicians an new opportunity to spread their gospel wider and easier then was ever before possible. Many of the original Prog fans, who were convinced the genre is dead and buried, discovered Neo-Prog and then eventually re-discovered Prog as well, leading to an enormous wave of albums being reissued and brought anew to the market. A truly amazing story, honestly.

JAZZIS WEB SHOP

Some orders in, mainly of the sale and OOAK items. Hopefully during the Christmas days ahead people will have more free time to sit down and visit the site at leisure.

HAVE FUN!

RODY’S PROGRESS

Rody now completed 6 weeks of her radiotherapy – 3 more days to go (those are 3 sessions she missed when the accelerator was out of order. Originally she was supposed to have only 5 weeks of radiotherapy, but the doctors decided to add one more week to be “on the safe side” – I hope they know what they are doing.

She is feeling extremely tired and worn out by now, but the prospect of the thing being almost over keeps her spirits high. I must say I am tired as well, with the daily trips to the hospital, after a day’s work, are not easy even for a healthy person.

Once this is over Rody will enter a “normal” lifestyle again, with periodical checkups of course. The hope is that these checkups will reveal nothing in the future.

MUSIC

I managed to spin a lot of music in the last few days, both in the car and while working on the computer. Here is a brief summary:

Aziza Mustafa Zadeh’s self-titled debut album from 1991 is a brilliant musical statement, which won me over instantly. I did not listen to it for at least 10 years and now when I added it to my shop I decided to listen to it again and enjoyed it every bit as much as I did the first time when it was released. She reminds me of course of her father and she sort of takes off from where he left his music, when he died. The enchanting Azerbaijani folk motifs she so skillfully employs add a mystery to her improvisations. Her use of vocals – a special kind of scat singing – are also a most refreshing factor. In short this is the kind of music that can lift my tired soul from the depths of despair to the highs of ecstasy.

The 1964 Bob Brookmeyer session entitles “Bob Brookmeyer And Friends” remained unreleased on CD for so long it is a real shame. The session brings together a bunch of top US musicians: Stan Getz, one of the greatest saxophonists of all times and an old pal of the leader; the (very) young vibraphonist Gary Burton, who was a member of Stan Getz quintet at that time (with Chick Corea and Steve Swallow); two members of the Miles Davis quintet – Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter and a member of John Coltrane quartet – Elvin Jones. Just the list of the names should tell the story – highest quality musicians playing in top form – this is absolutely timeless music.

A Brazilian friend sent a bunch of Brazilian releases: Two albums by the Brazilian group Sagrado – “Coracao Da Terra” from 1984 and Farol Da Liberdade” from 1991. The music on both albums is quite similar, bombastic symphonic Prog, very melodic and well done, but I found it pretty boring. Obviously deeply influenced by Italian Prog of the 1970’s but adding nothing original. A double album of archival recordings by the Brazilian group “Som Nosso De Cada Dia” is much more interesting. The group played jazz / fusion influenced music and the musicians were very skilful. Unfortunately the recordings are so Lo-Fi that although I am very tolerant as to the recording quality of important material from the past found this extremely difficult to listen to. The Italian group Malibran has a lot of avid followers, but the 1994 live album “Live On Stage” in addition to rather bad sound quality also adds little musical contents that would turn it into a sonic experience. Nice, nothing more.

Italian keyboards player Stefano Panunzi’s album “Timelines” is a beautiful amalgam of ambient sonic textures and jazz. The album was recorded in several locations around the world and features players and vocalists from many countries, but the overall atmosphere is consistent. Great compositions and excellent performances by everybody involved make this a most enjoyable musical adventure. Loved it!

XII Alfonso’s album “Claude Monet Vol.2” on the French Musea label was a disappointment (I don’t know if there was a Vol.1 of this?). The music would be probably great as a soundtrack to a documentary about the great French Impressionist painter (whom I love deeply), but as an album it does not hold enough (musical) interest to be enjoyable. The music is well played of course, but somehow lacks direction. The beautiful booklet that comes with the CD is another story: It has many reproductions of Monet’s paintings and a biography of his art (between 1889 and 1904). Would someone buy the CD just for the booklet? Why not?

Scavenger Quartet’s album “We Who Live On Land” is one of the weirdest pieces of music I have heard in a long time. Absolutely impossible to describe, it is supposed to be “old-timey avant-garde, rustic chamber jazz” (as the group says) – if this does make sense to you perhaps the music will too, for me it did not (and I am no stranger to the avant-garde, no sir!).

King Crimson double album “Cirkus” (a.k.a. “The Young Persons’ Guide To King Crimson Live”) is a superb collection of KC live recordings from 1969 till 1998. Listening to this album firmly reminded me that for me they are the best Prog outfit there is (and was) – totally and unconditionally. I admire KC (in all their incarnations) for many reasons: their talents as individual musicians, their power as an ensemble, their ability to metamorphose constantly and their ability to stay consistently dexterous. As far as I am concerned KC never (!) recorded a bad album. Each and every one of their releases is either excellent or simply exceptional. Of course it’s just me.

If that is a lot of music, here comes more, now on DVD:

The Traffic DVD “The Last Great Traffic Jam” is one of the best DVDs I have ever seen. It is a document of the 1994 Traffic reunion US tour (75 gigs), with two original Traffic members: Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi supported by four younger, but extremely skilful musicians. They play all the classic Traffic material, but rather than trying to imitate the sound from the past they carefully re-arranged it for the 1990’s, still keeping the original charm. The music is of course heavenly; both veterans are in very good shape and perform brilliantly. The DVD is well edited, with short behind-the-scene inserts and great camera work on stage. In short: absolutely lovely. I wish more DVD material was of this quality and class. The DVD also includes a bonus CD with some studio material recorded while on tour. Watching this actually made me think that this is one of the very few tours I regret missing.

The Snowy White’s DVD “The Way It Is… Live” was filmed in 2004. The video content looks rather amateurish (filmed in Vilnius, so I’m not surprised), with poor lighting and low quality filming, but that does not matter, as the music is absolutely great. White plays some great blues guitar and he is probably the greatest white blues guitarist, as his former boss Peter Green is more or less retired. He plays homage to Green when performing a few of his classics, but most of the material is original (by White) and spans back about 20 years or so and up to White’s new album released recently. Good sound quality makes this a worthwhile listen, even without actually watching the DVD.

JAZZIS WEB SHOP

Some activity after I announced a price reduction on the One Of A Kind items. I must sell this stuff to make space on the shelves for new additions as well as making the move to the new warehouse slightly more manageable. I really hope people will realize what a great music is there for them to grab for peanuts.

HAVE FUN!

BIRTHDAY

Not mine (again) of course, but my daughter’s – Danit – who is 25 today. Just born and here she is, a grown up women.

Danit is one of those “smart cookie” kids – too smart for her own good (if that makes sense). She has been extremely talented from day one, which of course enabled her to fly through her life (so far) with ease, i.e. required relatively little effort / work to accomplish results – pretty much like myself to be honest. The apple…

She already has a BA degree in Cinematography (from the Tel Aviv University) and now is in her 3^rd year of studies (Architecture) at the Technion – my old alma mater. It appears that she likes her studies a lot, although this time they require a lot of effort, especially those endless hours and sleepless nights working on projects. So far so good...

Danit grew up surrounded by books and music – very unusual for kids these days, who hardly even know what a book looks like. She swallowed literature (including Science Fiction, which I love) and later poetry, moving towards philosophy lately. At some stage she worked as a translator (English to Hebrew) for a book publisher. She also swallowed music from age 0, and to my deep satisfaction developed a good taste. At very early age she got hooked to 70`s rock (favorite bands: Doors and Jefferson Airplane) and the entire “Flower Power” movement, including clothes and hairstyle. Pretty funny to see your kid looking like a replica of yourself 30 years later (heartwarming too I must add).

Later on she expanded her musical horizons to include anything from classical to free jazz and even Arabic music (again pretty much like her dad). She has my enormous music library at her disposal, which of course makes things easy for her. Of course we don’t like exactly the same stuff all the time, which is fine – she does have her own mind (although I tend to forget that at times).

The only thing I regret about kids is the fact that Danit is our only child – single children (both Rody and me are single children) have a much tougher life, lacking the love and support of brothers / sisters. Nothing can replace that kind of bonding and being deprived of it is unfair. Se la vie – that is the way things happened.

Rody of course would love to see her getting married and having kids – a Jewish mother is always relentless in that respect. Me? I don’t know. I wish her everything she wishes for herself, whenever that happens.

MOVIES

Late last night I watched the brilliant 1970 Ken Russell’s film “The Music Lovers” a.k.a. “Tchaikovsky”. Glenda Jackson’s acting is just superb here, I loved Russell’s 1970’s work immensely and he was my favorite director for years. I must have felt a deep appreciation for his musical sensitivity, which is almost obsessive, considered how many of his films circle around music: “Mahler”, “Lisztomania” and of course his adaptation of “Tommy”. Of course his non-musical movies are classics as well, starting with the 1969 “Women In Love”, the 1971 masterpiece “The Devils” and later ones like the 1977 “Valentino” and 1984 “Crimes Of Passion”. He was born in 1927, so he is 78 years old – I don’t suppose he’ll make any more movies – what a pity.

JAZZIS WEB SHOP

After a few days of intensive orders, things got quiet again since yesterday. With Christmas / Hanukkah and New Year around the corner I hoped for a much better results – but as usual my hopes and reality seem to travel on parallel trajectories…

HAVE FUN!

MUSIC

I listened to a lot of stuff in the last few days, mostly albums I added to my on-line shop. I always try to listen to the stuff I add before I write my mini-review for the site, just to remind myself how they sound, even if I know them well. Se here they go:

The first three Freddie Hubbard’s albums on the CTI label: “Red Clay”, “Straight Life” and “First Light”. Freddie was always one of my favorite trumpeters and his piercing vibratos are a sure chill down the spine every time. I have met him several times and talked to him at length. He was always bitter about being under-appreciated (as he was), with Miles dominating the scene for so many years. He might have not had Miles’ genius for breaking musical grounds, but as a player he was certainly not far behind. He suffered for many years from excessive drinking, which somehow did not undermine his on-stage delivery, but certainly effected his career.

His output on Creed Taylor’s label (CTI) was quite varied, but always a good listen. Some of his albums were over-produced, but they were all excellently recorded (by the legendary Rudy Van Gelder) and the participating musicians were all first rate, like Herbie Hancock, Jack DeJohnette, Ron Carter, Joe Henderson and other CTI “stable” members. “Red Clay” is especially strong, being the least influenced by the funk tendency of the label, which sometimes was just a bit too much (for me). In retrospect CTI released some great albums between 1970 and 1980 – the decade when it dominated a part of the US jazz market.

“Fuse One”, another CTI release by a collective of musicians, which sounds like a fusion dream – John McLaughlin, Larry Coryell, Stanley Clarke, Joe Farrell, Tony Williams and others. Thy recorded just one album, which sort of disappeared from the market very soon and was sought after by collectors, who knew the famous names. The album is disappointing in many ways, considering the immense potential of its participants, but still worth listening to, especially as a historical curiosity.

Weather Report was always one of my favorite bands. In about a dozen years they had some of the best jazz / fusion players among their ranks and produced some groundbreaking albums, starting from the Miles’ inspired first two albums, which were a continuation of the “Bitches Brew” free style of fusion, through the formative years of modern melodic fusion and the later years of jazz-world fusion. Zawinul is a monster composer and his legacy is just staggering. I listened to two later albums: “Night Passage” and the second self titled album from 1982 – the one with the incredibly ugly cover art. Any WR music always sounds good to me.

Japanese piano prodigy Hiromi Uehara recorded so far two brilliant albums: “Another Mind” and “Brain”. Since there is not much sensational happening on the jazz scene, her brilliant performing abilities and especially the absolutely amazing speed are quite a sensation. For people who have heard “everything” already (like myself), it is always a joy to hear stuff never done before and she surely does that. Hiromi is due to play in Israel again next February and I intend to be there to listen again. I wholeheartedly recommend those two albums to people looking for new thrills in music.

Aziza Mustafa Zadeh is one of my favorite jazz artists. She comes from Azerbaijan and is the daughter of the most famous jazz Azerbaijani musician Vagif Mustafa Zadeh – one of the earliest pioneers of jazz-world fusion. He died tragically of a heart failure at a ridiculous age of 39 (when Aziza was just a small kid) and it is such a joy to see his daughter continuing his legacy. She is so brilliant that every one of her albums is a true treasure. I listened to her trio album “Always” with John Patitucci and Dave Weckl – one of the best rhythm sections ever. Brilliant stuff!

The new Sonus Umbra album “Digging For Zeros” is another fine Prog achievement. I always liked this (originally Mexican, now US) band, which includes very good musicians who write excellent music. This album consists of 20 short tunes, which all form a suite of sorts and requires several hearings to be fully appreciated. I’ll definitely give this one another spin soon.

JAZZIS WEB SHOP

A lot of orders came in at last, still trying to ship them all out as soon as humanly possible. I hope that this trend continues of course.

HAVE FUN!

BIRTHDAY

As incredible as it sounds (to me) I am 54 today. I still remember myself thinking (many years ago mind you) that life is over after 40. Well it is in many respects, but not entirely ;)

Birthdays are supposed to be days of reflection and self-examination (sort of like Yom Kippur), but honestly I had no time for that today. Rody and I (and some friends of ours) went yesterday to Tel Aviv to spend the weekend at the TA Sheraton Hotel – just to get away from home and rest a bit. We had a good time walking this morning for hours the almost empty streets of the city (Saturday – our day of rest), which was also a bit bizarre, as these streets are so incredibly crowded during week days. There is a “street art” exhibition at one of TA main streets, which was great fun to see. A 100 life size bulls (plastic of course) are displayed along this boulevard, each and every one painted (or otherwise decorated) differently. Those 100 bulls represent 100 top Israeli companies, whose stock trades on the TA exchange and which sponsored the artists. Nice to see some corporate money going to art – wish there was more of this happening.

Back home now writing these notes, but we will go out again for coffee with other friends later this evening. Not a bad way to spend one’s birthday. Hope to be here one year from now?

As to the reflections and self-examination: surely there will be time to deal with that at a later time…

JAZZIS WEB SHOP

A sizeable bunch of orders came in, as the big End Of Year discount will be over by the end of the day. I wonder why people always wait for everything till the last moment? Well I suppose I do it myself sometimes (even if I hate it…).

HAVE FUN!

MUSIC

Just one album today – the breathtaking 3 CDs Led Zeppelin set “How The West Was Won” (released as a companion to the Led Zeppelin DVD entitled simply “DVD”).

Zed Zeppelin released only 9 studio albums (one of them double) through their entire career, now collected in the magnificent box set called “The Complete Studio Recordings” – a mother of all box sets! Although there are hundreds of Led Zeppelin live bootlegs circulating on the market, there is scarcely little officially released live material - the BBC sessions album being the only exception, but that is hardly a real “live” album. Therefore when Jimmy Page decided to release these two concerts (in 2003), recorded in June of 1972 during their US tour, nothing could make me happier as a great admirer of Led Zeppelin’s artistry. Anybody listening to these recordings should be easily convinced that they were undoubtedly the greatest rock band of all times. Period.

The 3 hours long set gives the listener everything there is to give. Superb performances, heartbreaking lyricism, divine sophistication and musical virtuosity – very lofty words, I know, but 100 % solid truth. They were just eight miles higher than anything else on earth at that time or after. Page is a giant and a genius, so inventive that it is truly scary. His treatment of the instrument and his ability to improvise are stellar. A 25+ minutes of “Dazed And Confused” and 23+ minutes of “While Lotta Love” are typical examples of what they sounded like at their best and how they could turn any of their songs around any way they wanted. I could really brag about this for hours, buy talking about music is like making love over the telephone, so just get this damn album and listen, and listen again. A little brain damage never hurt anybody! ;)

JAZZIS WEB SHOP

It is high time for me to re-evaluate a lot of issues about this business. As it is becoming a major time black hole, and the revenues are proportionally much too low to the investment (both time and money wise), I need to cut down the running expenses as much as possible to make it float. That means moving to a smaller warehouse (the one I have is a legacy from the Jazzis distribution days – way too large and too expensive for my needs)

Also I need to change my marketing strategy. It turns out that the “nicer” you are to your customers (i.e. the more you lower your prices) the less respect they have for you and consequently they also buy less. So no more “Mr. Nice Guy” (as far as prices are concerned) – I’ll concentrate now on expanding the repertoire even more, especially in the jazz department, which I have criminally neglected.

I hope that the customers, who understand the quality of my service and the quality of the music I keep, will stay with me. Since I am doing this for fun, let it stay this way before it becomes a major burden – there’s been enough of frustration already.

HAVE FUN!

MUSIC

Yesterday late night I managed to listen to a 2 CDs set by Scott Walker called “Classics & Collectibles”. The name will probably say nothing to the younger generation, but Scott was quite an important figure on the pop scene in the late 1960’s. Often mistaken as an Englishman, he was actually an American. In the early 1960’s he was the baritone in a vocal trio called The Walker Brothers (he was the only real Walker there) with a string of hits on the US charts. By the mid 1960’s he moved to UK to continue his solo career there, which went on for about 8 years (1965-73) and was quite successful.

Scott was what is often described as a “crooner” – a singer of mostly ballads, with a clear precise voice and perfect diction. The rich orchestral arrangements on his releases and his great musicality (which he learned from Sinatra and European singers like Brel and Aznavour) create a nostalgic atmosphere, which I sometimes quite like. Scott was also a talented songwriter himself, as well documented here. In short another trip down the memory lane.

On the way to work and back today I listened to a couple of excellent jazz albums I received recently from Barcelona, Spain. A new Spanish record label called “New Mood Jazz” released a series of albums featuring local musicians, which are all (at least the ones I listened to) truly great.

Both albums – “This Is New” by German Kucich and “Candombe Influenciado” by Jose Reinoso – are basically piano trios, my favorite jazz setting. The piano trio is an ideal vehicle for creation of jazz, as it is intimate enough to allow the listener to follow all the intricate details of the creative process on one hand, and ample enough to provide a full tone and a driving rhythmic support on the other. I love this format and this is very well reflected in my collection, which surely includes well over 1,000 piano trio records.

Both players are very eloquent, and both rhythm sections do a wonderful job in supporting them. The Reinoso album uses a percussion player (as a fourth group member) to enrich the sonority, which is very effective. Both albums are superbly recorded and beautifully packaged – the only problem is that the liner notes are in Spanish only? It is truly heartwarming to hear such excellent jazz coming from outside the “usual” jazz producing places. I look forward to hearing more albums on that label.

JAZZIS WEB SHOP

Not even worth mentioning…

HAVE FUN!

MUSIC

Although the weekend was busy (as usual) with all kind of social and work obligations, I did manage to go through some music:

The new 4 CDs Family Box Set “Old Songs New Songs” was a major source of joy to listen to. It is an anthology of sorts, beautifully produced in a book form, with extensive booklet. The music includes the previously unreleased album of the same name, which was the first ever “re-master”. Chapman & Co were not entirely satisfied with the instrumental work on some of the songs on their first two albums and re-recorded them in 1971, releasing them on this album. The rest of the set includes plenty of previously unreleased bonus tracks mixed with selections from their albums. The 5^th CD (a special bonus in the limited edition) includes demos and live material from 1970 – very Lo Fi, but also very interesting - with the band stretching out much more then on any other known live material. Another nice bonus is a reproduction of the 1970 Isle Of Wight festival programme. All together a lovely set, especially in view of the fact that Family has always been one of my great favorites. They were better and more creative than most of their contemporaries and surely deserved more recognition that they ever got. Chapman possessed one of the most unique voices in the history of rock, rivaled only by very few, like Joe Cocker.

Crosby, Stills and Nash self titled debut album remains to this very day one of the most remarkable rock creations. Three enormous talents, singing in perfect harmony and writing superb material is an unbeatable formula that worked. When Neil Young – the second Buffalo Springfield drop out – joined them for the second album “Deja Vu”, this was beyond super-group – it was a meeting of the Gods! I listened to both albums (in their re-mastered edition version) with tears in the corner of my eyes – they don’t make music like that any more, no way. This is just perfect rock. Those are albums that I return to once a few years to recharge my music appreciation batteries and get my bearings.

The first two albums – “Airconditioning” and “Second Album” – by the British Prog group Curved Air also got a spin this weekend. The group included immensely talented musicians and songwriters in Darryl Way and Francis Monkman and that combined with the unique female vocals by Sonja Kristina made them one of the most interesting ensembles of early Prog days (1970-72). Those two albums sound interesting today, losing nothing of their original charm (but well deserving re-mastering, as the original sound is rather dull). Their next album – “Phantasmagoria” – is also excellent, but after that Way and Monkman left the group and the new version led by Kristina was vastly inferior.

A new series of 12 DVDs called “Live From London” appeared on the market recently. All the material was filmed between 1984-86 (I’m not sure, but probably for TV broadcast), with very decent sound and film quality. Not all of it is musically interesting (to me), but the one point of interest is that it documents the early days of neo-Prog with performances by Iq, Pallas and Twelfth Night (reports about those later). The first one I watched was by Snowy White, the great UK blues guitarist, who came to fame playing with Pink Floyd and Peter Green. This DVD took me by surprise, as White plays an excellent set in almost fusion style. His guitar playing remains bluesy, but the backup group is very fusion oriented – the result works very well and they all play their hearts out. That Gibson sound! – Unbeatable delight.

JAZZIS WEB SHOP

A few orders dripped in – as the Yiddish saying goes: not enough to die and not enough to live…

HAVE FUN!

FUNERALS AND WEDDINGS Pt.3

We (Rody, Danit – our daughter - and me) live in a typical Israeli small apartment building (3 floors, 2 flats on each floor) in a quiet residential area located in the northern suburb of Haifa called Kiriat Haim.

Our next-door neighbors (and that is literally next door with a common wall between our flats) for almost 20 years are both more or less our age and their daughter is the same age as our daughter. The girls grew up together from the age of elementary school.

In the late spring of 2004 our neighbor was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Of course this came over us with a strength of a thunderbolt. As common as cancer is, when in strikes near you, it is really shocking and scary. He underwent a complicated surgery and then chemotherapy treatment and a few months later he was strong enough to move around and even travel abroad.

Our neighbor was one of the most high-spirited persons I have ever met. He had not an inch of despair or dissolution in him. I have spoken about his case to some of my doctor friends and they all told me that the prognosis in cases like his was pretty dismal, but as far as he was concerned his illness was a thing in the past.

By the time Rody’s breast cancer was discovered (on the 10^th of June 2005 – a dreadful date) we entered a nerve-wracking emotional hurricane of our own and pretty much forgot about everything around us. When Rody was hospitalized for her surgery we discovered that our neighbor was a patient in the same ward – he had a remission. From that time on his health gradually worsened.

In October 2005 Pnina (my wife’s cousin), Israel and their daughter went for a short holiday in Prague. During their stay there Israel felt ill and upon their return he was hospitalized in the cardiology ward, where he underwent a series of tests. It was discovered that while in Prague he suffered a heart failure. We are all devastated.

Israel had a bypass surgery seven years ago and since his surgery he conducted a rigorous lifestyle, with strict diet and plenty of exercise. To all of us he was always “the symbol of health”, so to speak. He felt fine and functioned normally, worked hard and we never worried about his condition. This new development shocked us really hard.

I went to visit Israel in the hospital every day, and while in the hospital I discovered that our neighbor was also hospitalized there in the oncology department. So my daily visits would start with Israel and end with a short visit with my neighbor, who unfortunately was dying before my eyes.

A few days later Israel was sent home, pending further treatment and my neighbor (whom I saw just a few hours earlier) died. His funeral was the next time I visited the cemetery – no body identifying this time.

Just a month later Bernard - Pnina’s father - died. His health was deteriorating in the course of several months and there was very little anybody could do for him. Pnina was naturally suffering terribly, losing her second parent in the same year and Israel’s health condition on top of that. We tried to console her as much as we could and I hope we did our best.

Bernard’s funeral was my next trip to the cemetery. Israel could not attend the funeral, as his doctors did not allow it, so it was I again doing the body identification. Bernard was laid to rest alongside Rene.

While at the cemetery, I discovered that the next funeral (immediately after Bernard’s) was a father of person, who belongs to our wider circle of friends. Naturally I stayed for that funeral as well. Two for the price of one, so to speak.

Israel, thank God, is doing fine, after a cardiovascular procedure he had a couple of weeks ago. He is back at work and smiling again. He really had me worried.

In 10 days from today I’ll be at the cemetery again for Bernard’s “shloshim”. Life goes on.

HAVE FUN!

JAZZIS – A BRIEF HISTORY Pt.3

When it was becoming apparent to me that Jazzis distribution’s days were numbered, I began contemplating the notion of downsizing the business and moving it to the Net. I was well aware (since the late 1990’s) of the growing importance of e-commerce by watching the burgeoning number of sites selling music and books. In parallel I was keeping up to date with the latest Web technology, as Net development gradually became the bulk of my computer related activities.

On the musical front I rediscovered Progressive Rock, a genre I loved intensely when it originally flourished in the late 1960’s and throughout the 1970’s. I did loose touch with it for about two decades, but the explosion of reissues in the late 1990’s made me listen to the music again and fall in love with it again. I also became aware of neo-Prog, which started in the mid 1980’s, a development I missed completely only to discover it when it was already ten years in existence. Up to that moment I was sure Prog was dead and buried under the heaps of musical garbage of the years that followed it.

I started to develop contacts with the labels, which were releasing Prog reissues and neo-Prog albums and slowly built up a sizable collection of Prog releases, filling the holes created by years of my Prog coma. By the year 2000 I was back “in the trenches” on the Prog front.

When the idea to create an online music shop started to take shape I decided to concentrate on the two genres I loved and knew best – Jazz and Prog. The idea was to create an online shop, which would carry the music I would personally buy. Since it was clear there is no way to make big profits by selling quality music, at least I’d have the luxury to deal only in stuff I really liked – an ideal setup as far as I could tell.

I took me about 3 months to study all online music vendors I could find on the Net and learn how their sites operate and what was the repertoire they carried. Once I knew what I wanted to do, it took me another two months to write, test and debug the software that would run my online shop. On July 7^th 2001 I launched the Jazzis Web Shop – my new musical enterprise.

I knew I had the best (technically) online shop on the Net. It was faster and had infinitely more user features then any other online shop I was aware of. It had absolutely everything I’d ever dream to find in an online music shop: extensive search capabilities, multiple currencies, orders history, full description of the albums, pictures of the covers, etc. My only disadvantage was the meager size of my catalog (the selection of items). My main objective was of course to expand the selection as rapidly as possible and attract as many customers worldwide (as Israel with its tiny market for Prog was negligible) as possible. I assumed geography was not an obstacle as far as online sales are concerned, as the Net knows no National borders. I also had the advantage of relatively inexpensive postage charges in Israel, which allowed me to offer my customers very reasonable shipping costs.

However, in spite of the apparent advantages the Jazzis Web Shop had, the actual development of the business was painfully slow and tested my patience each and every step of the way. The market for quality music turned out to be extremely limited and the competition was fierce. Many potential customers were hesitant to order from a site located in Israel (especially US ones) as a result of false preconceptions about expensive shipping and slow delivery. Others were cautious about giving their credit card details outside their home countries, even though I offered a secure site (SSL) from day one. Others were already used to buy from other vendors and wanted to stay loyal to them (understandable). In short, it was a grueling task to get customers to give Jazzis Web Shop a try (in most cases when they did give me a chance they got hooked).

In the four and a half years since I launched the Jazzis Web Shop I did manage to double the selection and the sales each consecutive year – a remarkable growth rate by any standard. Yet the number of customers grew by a much smaller rate (which means the existing customers bought a hell of a lot more). This remains my main problem to this very day.

Although operating an online business requires relatively low costs, those are still significant, especially relative to the business’ size. Considering the low profit margin in music (as a rule), a certain volume of sales is required to cover the operation costs (warehouse rental and maintenance, insurance, web hosting and server – hardware and software – costs, etc.). I have somehow miraculously managed to make the ends meet and all profits were invested into expanding the repertoire.

The operation is also extremely time-consuming. Considering the fact this is a one-man-show (and the man in question has another full time job), this means that I am working 16-18 hours 7 days a week – a true slave labor. Mind you – I love every minute of it, but the sheer physical effort just becomes too much at times. When Rody was diagnosed with cancer last summer, I was very close to packing it all up – it was just too much – period.

A few months ago, when Meidad Zaharia (founder and owner of Mio Records – a small Israeli record label, which produced some superb, but totally noncommercial releases) announced the closure of his label, I had a very long conversation with him about the reasons leading to his decision. Meidad told me that he started the label since he loved the music and wanted to have fun while bringing the music out to the people. The reality was that once the label was active, he had no fun whatsoever, being constantly busy with the practical side of managing it logistically, financially, etc. – this on top of his full time regular job (also in computers). Eventually it was just not worth it any more, he said. My situation is quite similar in many ways.

I have been battling with myself over this issue over and over in the last few weeks. Is it worth it? Sure I love the music (even passionately) and sure I have this intrinsic need to try and spread it to others, like a gospel. But should I allow this passion to take over my life so completely and overwhelmingly?

I have not reached a decision yet. Perhaps I am afraid to make up my mind. In any case, as far as I know myself, even if I decide to give the Jazzis Web Shop up, sooner or later I’ll be at it again – some other crazy notion involving music – a radio station? Who knows? I am crazy enough to do it…

HAVE FUN!

JAZZIS – A BRIEF HISTORY Pt.2

My involvement with music and my many activities in that field were always just one part of my life. The split-personality complex fits me probably much better than it does most mental patients diagnosed with that disorder.

The other part of my personality always was a computer geek, passionately pounding on the keyboard for hours on end, reading hexadecimal dumps in order to figure out what the hell went wrong and devising algorithms to solve logistic enigmas. My work with computers dates back to the late 1960’s, when computers were the size of locomotives and using them meant punching holes in paper cards. This just goes to show you how old I am (or how fast computers developed?). Hence it is hardly surprising that my formal education and then professional activities would involve computers in one form another (i.e. programming, managing, teaching Computer Science, etc.).

By 1994 I held a Senior Management position (Head of Data Processing) in the largest Israeli Oil Company, called Paz Oil Ltd. I have worked there for quite a few years and had a nice time at it, till about a couple of years earlier. The company, which was owned earlier by the Israeli Government (i.e. a National Venture), was sold to a private investor as a part of a general trend to privatize all Government owned businesses (which goes on in Israel to this very day). Paz Oil was one of the first such privatization deals and the deal itself was so scandalous (i.e. one big rip-off with stinking wealthy people stuffing their pockets with towering sums of money and the Gods of corruption and stupidity having a ball) that I couldn’t shut my trap. My hippie ideals got the better of me and I started voicing my opinions on the matter, which of course were not to the liking of the new company owners. I managed to stir a lot of shit, but when things went out of hand and I was threatened with my life I finally decided to kiss their ass goodbye and quit.

Since I was dead tired of corporate business bullshit by that time, escape to private business was the obvious choice. And what better that music business – something I knew a lot about and was sure I could handle. And why not mix business with pleasure?

I already had Jazzis Ltd. as a working business, so by the very end of 1994 I bought an existing music distribution company (called Monopol Ltd.) and incorporated it into Jazzis Ltd. Starting January 1995 Jazzis distribution blasted off to conquer the Israeli music market.

I retained Monopol’s head of sales – a great, honest and hard-working guy called Zvi (who in time became a dear friend) and we started to expand the business rapidly. One year later Jazzis was the biggest independent music distributor in Israel, representing over 200 record labels from all over the world and selling heaps of CDs. Mind you, it is important to understand that the music business is a vast and complex area. To start with, 80 % of the business is owned and dominated by (then 5 now 4) monster international corporations. Hence the slice of the cake left to independents like Jazzis is relatively small to start with. With the naturally small music market in Israel (Israel being a tiny country contrary to popular belief) that means there is not much space to grow. Nevertheless it seemed that Jazzis was unstoppable…

Little did I know at the time that the fate of music distribution in Israel was doomed. In November of 1995 Israeli Priminister Itzhak Rabin was assassinated. With him the hopes of millions of Israelis for Peace with our Palestinian neighbors was assassinated as well and so was the Israeli economy for years to come. Immediately following Rabin’s death Jazzis sales came to a virtual standstill. It took many months to return to a reasonable level of sales, but by then we were seriously hurt.

Another trend that started to dominate the Israeli music market in the late 1990’s was the collapse of the traditional retail outlets. Small privately owned brick & mortar shops, which were the basis of the music market, were virtually disappearing at a frightening rate and eventually there was virtually no privately owned music retail market left.

About the same time Jazzis distribution started, Tower Records opened their first 3 stores (in the 3 big cities – Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa) in Israel. Since Tower was affiliated to the US home company, we had a great working relationship with them and they were our biggest customer. However, following the economic crisis, Tower was sold to one of the local majors. With the corporate resources at their hands the new owners started to expand the Tower Records chain dramatically, reaching 70 stores in just over a year and replacing all previously privately owned small shops. Thus they practically dominated the retail music market (against the monopoly law of course). Two other smaller retail chains followed suit and by the end of the 1990’s Jazzis had basically 3 customers (each chain buys and pays through a central office). That developed an unhealthy financial dependency (all eggs in one basket), and it was only a matter of time when serious trouble would pop up – and it did.

By 2000 Tower Records wad practically bankrupt (although never declared as such, since the corporation that owned them would not allow it). They announced to us that they were unable to pay us the outstanding debts, which by that time amounted to a very (and I mean very) sizeable sum of money. I had no choice but to take them to court, which meant that if I was ever to see my money, it would take months, if not years. In the meantime Jazzis was paralyzed and practically “dead”. Eventually I had no choice but to agree to arbitration (which meant I’d only get a part of my money), but by then it was the end of Jazzis as a distributor.

Zvi and myself kept the distribution going till the end of 2001, mainly in order to sell out the huge stocks in the warehouse, but we were operating at heavy losses. Eventually we sat down, we cried, we hugged, we got drunk and we parted our ways.

So here I was, 6 years later, facing another downfall. This time I suffered not only frustration, sleepless nights and a lot of anguish, but also a heavy financial loss making a big dent in my private bank account. Not fatal, but by all means not negligible. It seems I paid dearly for my love for music and my wish to make it a significant part of my life. Did all this taught me a lesson and discouraged me from dealing with music in the future – no way Jose (as the next installment will show).

HAVE FUN!

INTRO

Today is Friday and I’ve spent the entire morning in the Jazzis warehouse, as I do every Friday morning in the last 10+ years. There is always stuff to be done there: unpacking shipments, packing orders, checking stock, etc. While there, it struck me that people often ask me about the origin of the name “Jazzis” and the history of my company (which of course is my own history as well) and I have never actually written it down. It would be easier to point people to a written blob than telling the story. Se here it is – the abbreviated form of the Jazzis saga:

JAZZIS – A BRIEF HISTORY Pt.1

I came up with the name “Jazzis” in 1987. I was trying to find a name for a new record label I was about to launch at that time and Jazzis seemed just the right name for that purpose. It is of course a combination of the word JAZZ and the first two letters of ISRAEL, which is exactly what the new label was all about: Jazz from Israel.

There were many different reasons why I decided to start Jazzis Records. I have been involved with the jazz art form since my early childhood back in Poland. Listening to the jazz broadcast by Willis Connover on Radio Free Europe (the anti-communist broadcasting corporation set up in Western Europe in the midst of the “Cold War” to spread propaganda to the Eastern European countries) metamorphosed me absolutely and completely from the earlier classical music influences into a devoted jazz buff. There was no looking back. When jazz became finally “legal” in Poland (after Stalin’s death and the changes that followed) it exploded with all the might of a high-pressure container, soon to become one of the most advanced jazz cultures in Europe. I swallowed it all like a sponge and it became deeply embedded in my personality and prompted me to get involved with jazz in every possible way, shape and form.

When I first arrived in Israel in 1967 there was simply no jazz here whatsoever – one of many shocking discoveries I made as a new immigrant. It did not bother me that much to be honest, as I was already involved in jazz on the international scale with my writing and record collecting. I had friends (musicians, producers, label executives and journalists), who kept me supplied with current news and releases. Later on I became involved with the International Jazz Federation (which kept me travelling all over the globe and meeting jazz people), where I served as a Board Member for several years.

In the meantime jazz music made some (mind you not very significant) progress on the Israeli scene. The first wave of Jewish immigration from the Soviet Union (in the early 1970’s) brought in several excellent jazz musicians and the early signs of a jazz scene became to materialize (jazz clubs and later also festivals). I tried to contribute to the local scene as much as I could. In 1978 I founded the Israel Jazz Society. I also organized tours for some of my friends / jazz musicians from abroad to play in Israel.

However, in 1987 (that is 40 years after Israel was established) there were no Israeli jazz albums! Well, there were about 10 releases in existence by that time – hardly a legacy. My many friends from all over the world kept pestering me to send them Israeli jazz albums and I had (almost) nothing to offer them – I was ashamed and frustrated for so long that I decided to do something about that: ergo the decision to start Jazzis Records.

The incident that actually cranked me up to finally doing it (I’ve been contemplating it for a few years earlier) was a demo tape by a group called Zaviot, which included the clarinet player Harold Rubin. When I heard that tape I told myself: “It’s now or never” – the music was so powerful, original and unique that I just couldn’t let it be forgotten. In June of 1987 the first album on my new label – Jazzis Records – was released. It was of course the debut Zaviot album.

In the five years that followed I produced and released 26 Israeli jazz albums and one Israeli Prog album - not bad considering it was 3 times as much as everything done in 40 years before my label existed. Since Jazzis Records was launched at a time when CDs were introduced, my first 4 releases were done on vinyl (LPs) and then the rest on CDs.

My emphasis was always to produce albums, which included almost exclusively original compositions by the musicians. I thought it was rather pointless to produce albums with people playing jazz standards, as good as those might be. Well I’ve always been a sucker for nice compositions. In retrospect I’m really proud of those albums. They not only documented a period in the cultural history of my country and provided an opportunity (which never existed earlier) for many musicians to make a mark for posterity, but they also are all damn good albums! Well, so much for objectivity. In retrospect the establishment of Jazzis Records also prompted many Israeli musicians to make and release albums independently in the years that followed.

In 1991 I formalized the Jazzis trademark by registering Jazzis as a limited company – Jazzis Ltd. – which was to become my business venture in the years to come.

However not everything was working well for Jazzis Records. By the end of those five years I found myself with a huge stock of albums, which were more or less gathering dust. They were also freezing a sizable amount of my assets, as I not only produced the albums but also financed them from my own pocket.

In spite of my extensive international connections I failed to establish a meaningful international distribution for my label. There are many reasons for that: My artists were of course totally unknown outside of Israel (I had a few well-known guest musicians from Europe and US but apparently not enough). The incredible abundance of jazz albums on the market that exceeds demand by a huge factor is always a problem for all jazz labels. Also please remember these were the pre-Internet days – the Net opened endless opportunities for marketing music, which were non existent then.

Since the local market for jazz music was miniscule, there was no way the label could survive on local sales. On top of that many of the groups I recorded disbanded soon after I recorded them, musicians left the country, etc., which meant that even the local sales were almost non existent.

Anybody who produces an album will tell you that there is hardly anything more frustrating than sitting on a large unsold stock of your masterpiece. Therefore I had to make the heartbreaking decision to put Jazzis Records “on ice” and stop producing new releases.

This however did not mean I was going to stop my involvement with the music business – en contraire, as the next part of the Jazzis story will soon unveil.

HAVE FUN!

RODY’S PROGRESS

Rody now completed 4 weeks of her radiotherapy – 1 more week to go. She is feeling really tired and worn out by now and her breast is sore and a little scalded. I only hope this evil is really necessary and will eradicate any chance of her illness returning. She still works full time – a real heroine! I respect her and love her more that ever for this.

MUSIC

A couple of nights ago I caught the Milosz Forman’s movie “Hair” on the TV. It was a monster trip down the memory lane as only a former hippie like myself can experience (he he he). The 1979 film was made over a decade after the original stage production (and the period when the story actually happens). Although Forman tries to stick to the original as much as possible (both the story line and the music of course), the kitsch spirit of the 80’s hangs over the production heavily, which of course spoils the fun (for me). As someone who experienced the “Summer Of Love” and “Flower Power” mentality first hand, the film presents a cynical and often even critical attitude (towards the 60’s), which for me means that the director misses the point entirely. The social revolution of the baby-boomers (but let us remember it happened all over the world, not only in the US) was undoubtedly naive, unrealistic, shortsighted and in many cases a bit shallow. Nevertheless it was also pure and innocent to a large extent, as opposed to many other pivotal historical events / movements before and after. Of course it was also the revolution with the best damn soundtrack ever!

On the way to work and back yesterday I managed to listen to two albums:

The 1966 debut album by Chick Corea – “Tones For Joan’s Bones” (recently re-mastered on Rhino and originally released on a small label called Vortex, which belonged to Atlantic). Chick leads a quintet with Woody Shaw on trumpet, Joe Farrell on sax, Steve Swallow on bass and veteran Master Joe Chambers on drums (Farrell will of course return and play with Chick many more times later, including the first version of Return To Forever). The music – composed by Chick except one tune by Kurt Weill – is basically hard bop with a distinct Latin tinge, which of course is hardly surprising as Chick paid his dues playing in several Latin bands led by Mongo Santamaria, Willie Bobo, etc. His stint with Stan Getz also included a lot of Latin influenced material (Steve also comes from Stan’s band). The album lost none of its power and excitement over the years and is a damn good listen. The only pity is that the reissue does not include the 2 outtakes from that session, which can be found on the “Inner Space” album.

The 1976 Chicago X album is quite another story. It includes a couple of Chicago’s great hits, but it comes dangerously close to MOR music at times. The band even gives up their “sound” in favor of string arrangements here and there – all in good taste but that is not why people like myself loved the band in the first place. This was a reasonably pleasant but hardly memorable listening experience.

Today the drive was a real kick though! I listened to the new Deluxe Edition (2 CDs) of Joe Cocker’s “Mad Dogs And Englishman” – whew!!! Two solid hours of first class musical delight. Of course I know this album by heart, having listened to it ad nauseam 35 years ago when it first appeared. The re-mastered sound is superb and the bonus tracks complete the picture of how the entire show was conducted. Cocker’s Woodstock appearance was obviously so impressive that a US tour was arranged for him the following year (1970). The accompanying band, led by the mighty Leon Russell, provides Cocker with a perfect vehicle for his vocal pyrotechnics. The lad really shows the Yankees the true meaning of Rhythm and Blues! I have no idea how this album sounds to the young people of today? This should amaze anyone with a musical sensitivity, but than again it might be my stupid nostalgic anesthesia talking?

Today I also managed to listen to the 1991 Marillion’s album “Holidays In Eden” (another Deluxe 2CDs edition). Here again I’m sold in advance, as I love Marillion, and this is definitely one of theirs better albums (not that they made any bad ones mind you). The bonus CD is really great, with Marillion’s covers to some Prog classics, like “Sympathy” (originally by Rare Bird), and other goodies. Solid gold! (Or I’m just in a mood for this?).

JAZZIS WEB SHOP

A few orders in, not enough to make me smile…

HAVE FUN!

ISRAEL

After a few months of relative tranquility there was another suicide bombing yesterday in Natanya, a town 30 kilometers north of Tel Aviv. The shopping mall in the center of town is the “favorite” of suicide bombers, as this was the 4^th time a bombing occurred there. A few people were killed and many more wounded. Normal people like you and me: old and young, male and female, people with wives and husbands, children and parents, brothers and sisters. They just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time…

It is quite amazing how people get used to anything, even terrorism. Acts of terrorism are supposed to terrify and horrify, but Israelis got pretty much immune to them by now. Even the media coverage is less intensive and somewhat subdued by now…I wander if the people who send the terrorists to explode are aware of this thinning effect their acts have in the long run?

The forthcoming elections are probably going to be quite different from what Israel witnessed in the last few decades where the National Security issues dominated the public debate. This time it seems social and economic issues are far more acute. Polls show that security issues are only in the third place, after social and education issues. Are we becoming a “normal” Nation?

MUSIC

I watched today a DVD with two concerts by Deep Purple from 1972/73. This is the first DVD from so called “archival series” which EMI and the band intend to release. The first concert is filmed in black and white, which has a nice nostalgic effect to it. The sound is cleaned up and upgraded and the visual material pretty decent, so overall this is not too bad, surely better than most similar archival material.

The music (for me) is of secondary interest. Deep Purple Mk. II (Gillan, Lord, Blackmore, Glover & Paiste) were heading into heavy rock and although there is quite a bit of instrumental improvisation there (by Lord and Blackmore), the on-stage theatrics look pretty ridiculous in retrospect. They were a hell of a show for sure and they all could play incredibly well, as opposed to many of their contemporaries.

The interesting thing about the DVD is that there is an option to watch it with a “commentary” switched on, which means that you hear a commentator’s voice on top of the soundtrack. The commentary is quite well written, very informative and often even witty / funny – typical British humor mind you. This brings up considerably the educational value of the DVD.

JAZZIS WEB SHOP

There is a collection of items on my site, which I call “One Of A Kind” items (since those are mostly one copy in stock). This is stuff that accumulated on the shelves in the last 10 years or so – leftovers of stocks from labels I don’t work with anymore, labels that folded, out of print items, etc. – all in all a very diverse heap of “odd” stuff. In the last year I tried to sell out all this stuff (in order to make space on the shelves) by offering it at a ridiculous price (US $ 2.00) and I did manage to sell a few thousands of them, but there is still quite a few left. I mention this since it is always fascinating to observe how people decide what to buy. It seems that most people are extremely cautious / suspicious / narrow minded about music they are not familiar with. Only a handful of people have an adventurous spirit in them to try “far out” / new / unfamiliar things. I personally find this bewildering as I always did (and still do) try to keep an open mind about music and ready to give anything a try, shunning any form of pre-conception judgment. Especially when the “risk” involved (the cost in this case) is so minimal. Go figure…

HAVE FUN!

MUSIC

It takes me about an hour each way to drive to Nazareth, where I teach at a local collage twice a week. Those two hours are of course “music time”, the only infallible music time there is, as during my days so much tends to happen that often they could go by without any music whatsoever. Thanks to those hours (and weekend listening marathons) I manage somehow to go through all those new releases that pile up on my shelves. Mind you at any given moment I am always at least 200 CDs behind!

Today I listened to the Blue Note reissue of the 3^rd Chick Corea album “Is”, entitled “The Complete “Is” Sessions” (2CDs). I have not listened to this stuff in ages and it was a true revelation. These 1969 sessions were recorded shortly after Chick joined the Miles Davis ensemble, replacing Herbie Hancock, and just in time to participate in the musical revolution Miles was conducting at that time (with “Bitches Brew” to be recorded soon). Chick would play some of the most intensive music ever recorded with Miles, often in a keyboards threesome (with Zawinul & Jarrett).

He took two of the Miles’ players with him to take part in this recording: Dave Holland (bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums) – one of the finest rhythm sections ever. The rest of the players were Chick’s companions from the past: Hubert Laws (flute), Bennie Maupin (tenor sax – he of course came to fame later playing in Herbie Hancock’s groups – who was omitted from the album’s credits due to record companies’ contractual bullshit), Woody Shaw (trumpet) and a second drummer Horace Arnold. The line-up collects some of the most talented cats on the scene at the time, and the resulting music does not disappoint.

Although mostly admired as a brilliant player, Chick was always first and foremost a composer. His complex compositions are quite a challenge to perform and to listen to, especially for a lesser-trained ear. The emphasis at that period (in the history of Jazz) was on collective improvisation – several players developing their improvisations concurrently. For the listener this means splitting his attention between several instruments as well as listening to the overall effect – all at the same time. I have always found free jazz to be highly rewarding intellectually, but I can understand other people, even those who love straightforward jazz, having enormous difficulty in comprehending / enjoying free jazz. Mind you, this music is definitely on the “lighter” side of free jazz, with strong driving rhythms and distinctive melodies.

The material recorded at these sessions was originally released on two separate LPs. Four selections were included on the “Is” album (released in 1969 on the Solid State label) and the other four were released three years later as “Sundance” on the Groove Merchant label. I have them both on vinyl of course. What a piece of history! The Blue Note reissue adds all the alternate tracks, which of course are always very interesting to a jazz enthusiast like myself.

JAZZIS WEB SHOP

No orders today (yet, but the day is almost over) – honestly I don’t give a damn any more.

HAVE FUN!

MUSIC

Late last night I watched on the TV the movie “The Doors”. I remember watching it years ago when it first came out and being really disappointed, and this time my feelings were even stronger. Although I am a big admirer of Oliver Stone’s cinematography (he co-wrote and directed the film), this time he missed it big time, at least from where I stand.

It seems Stone’s obsession with violence and the dark side of the human nature (so omnipresent in his films) was ill suited for a film about music. He surely lacks the empathy and understanding of all things musical, as opposed to other directors, such as say Clint Eastwood (see his wonderful “Bird”), Bertrand Tavernier (see his “Round Midnight”) or Spike Lee (see his “Mo’ Better Blues”). After all The Doors were first and foremost a musical phenomenon and Morrison’s poetry / mysticism / prophesy and theatrics were just one factor in the overall picture.

Here is a link to a write-up about the movie that sums it up pretty well:

http://homepage.eircom.net/~mojodk/thedoors/themovie.html

JAZZIS WEB SHOP

A customer ordered the Chicago Box Set a little while ago – amazing! I was sure this item was going to be stuck there for a long time, especially since it is relatively expensive.

Well, one “tzadik” (a righteous man) did not save Sodom and Gomorrah, so there is little chance this will improve the pathetic sales, but it is heartwarming nevertheless. Sometimes it makes me think that it is worthwhile to keep the site going, but those nice moments are few and far between.

HAVE FUN!

INTRO

Things are pretty hectic around here with very little time to do anything but the essentials. Hence I had no time to write anything down in the last few days. Between my lectures (I teach Computer Science in a couple of Collages), the music business (Jazzis), home and Rody’s treatment time is a most valuable commodity these days.

RODY’S PROGRESS

Rody now completed 3 weeks of her radiotherapy – 2 more weeks to go. She is feeling fine and even her mood is only occasionally affected by this. I admire her persistence and stamina. Hopefully life will get back to normal after this treatment is over.

MUSIC

Among all this mayhem I managed last week to get in some music (late at night mind you).

On the TV I watched a documentary about the legendary sound engineer Tom Dowd – one of the most inventive, influential and prolific people in the business. Dowd was the staff sound engineer for Atlantic Records and between late 1940’s and up until his death in 2002 he engineered and later also produced some of the greatest and most important music ever recorded – form the genius Jazz musicians like Monk, Coltrane, Coleman and Mingus to Pop and Rock artists like Ray Charles, Cream, Allman Brothers and so on – truly amazing! Watching this documentary brought on many memories of course, musical and others. Here is a link to a web site about the man:

http://www.thelanguageofmusic.com/

I also managed to watch the Cream reunion DVD. I’ve had it for a few weeks but never could find time to watch it – well a decision had to be made and a few hours of sleep were sacrificed. Of course Cream was such an immense influence on my (musical) life that watching this was a very emotional experience. They are all in their 60’s (where I am heading very fast) and it shows, but then again it seems their musical abilities (rather than physical capabilities) are undamaged. The fire and ferocity are gone, but the virtuosity is still there. Seeing the Royal Albert Hall fully packed was uplifting, since obviously they still have a lot of admirers and neither the music nor the musicians are forgotten. God bless modern medicine for Jack’s successful liver transplant, which made this possible!

I also managed finally to listen to the complete (4 CDs!) Chicago’s “Live At Carnegie Hall” Box Set. I have always loved Chicago (with their ups and downs) and this amazing piece of history is a musical experience I wholeheartedly recommend to anybody. They were there for the music – no doubt about it. The new reissue (on Rhino – one of the finest reissues producing labels) includes an entire CD of bonus material released for the first time. Listening to that stuff made me wander (again!) about the fact that there must be thousands of hours of fantastic unreleased material in the record labels' vaults. Bring it all out you bastards!

JAZZIS WEB SHOP

Sales are painfully slow. The sale discount offer seems to have little effect on customers and I’m wondering if they all lost their senses? 12 % off on my low prices is a great bargain. How can so many people buy from places like Amazon and other corporate monsters, paying more, getting lousy service and still going back? Beats me (and makes me bite my mustache).

HAVE FUN!