September 2003 - zorn-list - mailman.xmission.com

Re: tonic factory
by Herb Levy 15 Sep '03

15 Sep '03

Various people wrote various versions of: > Government grants would make Tonic better. As someone who's done a lot of work writing grants and doing other administrative tasks for various non-profits over the years, let me say that government grants would make Tonic different and Tonic would also have to be different to be eligible for most government grants. Some of this would be invisible to most audience members and some of it would be quite visible, but given the amount of government funds that are actually likely to be available, as well as the fact that the grant application process is competitive and Tonic might not even receive any grants, the changes might not be worth the trouble. Especially for a club where complying with city fire codes is an "unexpected expense" this becomes a big issue, because dealing with government grants is all about increasing your exposure to and compliance with bureaucracy. This is always time-consuming and often expensive. To be eligible for most relevant government grants, Tonic would have to be a non-profit organization, which is significantly different from whatever kind of business structure (sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, whatever) they now have. Each of these business models has different advantages and disadvantages and the current owner(s) of Tonic may have good reasons for the way they have things set up and may not be interested in changing how they run things. Being a non-profit is NOT a license to lose money. Tonic would still have most of the same expenses to pay as well as some other obligations of both time and money that are unique to non-profits. As a guess, without knowing ANYTHING about how the financial details of Tonic or the local funding scene, the necessary changes required to become a non-profit may not be offset by the additional percentage of government money that would be available. I expect that Tonic will do what most businesses (whether they're for-profit or non-profit) do, try to increase revenue while cutting expenses. For music that at the very best might attract a maximum audience of 500-1,000 people and usually many fewer listeners than that in a metropolitan area the size of New York's, that's a daunting task that, as several folks have already written, may not be sustainable in the long run. Bests, Herb -- Herb Levy P O Box 9369 Fort Worth, TX 76147 herb(a)eskimo.com

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Account of The Gift show
by Paul Michael Sager 15 Sep '03

15 Sep '03

Well, I've only seen one show so far, the first set of The Gift. I haven't heard the album, but the show was phenomenal. Sorry I can't provide much contextual analysis, and I imagine that they mainly played the album, so pardon me if any of this is obvious to those who know it... I'd seen most of the musicians play with Electric Masada in June at Tonic, but Marc Ribot wasn't there, having been replaced by Jon Madof. Madof is a novice, of course, compared to Marc Ribot (though it's probably not fair to judge him sitting in for Ribot). No one here needs convincing of Ribot's talent. But I'd never seen him before, nor heard that much of his recordings, and he astounded me. Dave Douglas was on the written line-up, but didn't appear at all. Zorn played keyboards and of course conducted. Jamie Saft also played keyboards. The keyboards/organ/piano were almost always rhythm instruments, along with Baron's drums, and Cyro Baptista and Richard Rodriguez's percussion. Ribot w as the melody instrument (apart from the one atonal moment provided in "Bridge to the Beyond," the most exotica number, in which Zorn played a funny theremin solo using raised eyebrows, crossed eyes and tongue-flicking on the antenna). Cyro Baptista was one of the stars of the show; he deployed an even larger arsenal of instruments than with E. Masada when I saw them, his wacky stage presence fit wonderfully with the partly campy, mostly outright luscious music. Overall the sound and style of the music, apart from the instrumentation, was of course in another realm from the jewish melodies, 70s fusion sounds and hand-signal improv that constitutes the latter. Joey Baron was beaming with delight the whole time, Saft was taciturn as usual, Zorn seemed to enjoy his time on the keyboards, with Saft aiding him at one point to turn the right timbre on and even correcting him once on the number of measures to count before the bridge of one song. Ribot looked tired but performed perfectly. He was the only one reading music. Oh, and Trevor Dunn--unrelenting, humble repetition of rhythm with maybe once a solo-ish two or three bars. His facial expression looks like mildly drugged ecstatic trance, his spirit seemingly floating above the endless cadences his hands quietly extracted from the bass. But Ribot, as the only lead instrumentalist (apart from one, maybe two short solos by Saft), destroyed my mind and then put it back together behind my back. If Zorn is a mad scientist, Ribot's a shaman. Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="part1_144.18eb5b3e.2c972327_boundary" --part1_144.18eb5b3e.2c972327_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Yeah, I thought for sure we'd get multiple daily reviews. Steve Smith, where are you? Wishing he lived in NYC, Tom In a message dated 9/15/03 10:06:44 AM Eastern Daylight Time, a_gadney(a)hotmail.com writes: > How's the Zorn month going? Any good shows?? It's surprisingly quiet here > on > the list about it... :-( > > ______________________________________________________ Discs I'm playing at work Johnny Cash -- American Recordings Johnny Cash -- Unchained Johnny Cash -- American III: Solitary Man Johnny Cash -- American IV: The Man Comes Around Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson -- VH1 Storytellers --part1_144.18eb5b3e.2c972327_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <HTML>Yeah, I thought for sure=20= we'd get multiple daily reviews.  Steve Smith, where are you? Wishing he lived in NYC, Tom In a message dated 9/15/03 10:06:44 AM Eastern Daylight Time, a_gadney@hotma= il.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=3DCITE style=3D"BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT= : 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">How's the Zorn month going? Any= good shows?? It's surprisingly quiet here on the list about it... :-( </BLOCKQUOTE> ______________________________________________________ Discs I'm playing at work Johnny Cash -- American Recordings Johnny Cash -- Unchained Johnny Cash -- American III: Solitary Man Johnny Cash -- American IV: The Man Comes Around Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson -- VH1 Storytellers</HTML> --part1_144.18eb5b3e.2c972327_boundary-- _______________________________________________ zorn-list mailing list zorn-list(a)mailman.xmission.com To UNSUBSCRIBE or Change Your Subscription Options, go to the webpage below http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/zorn-list

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Re: Zorn month?
by Steve Smith 15 Sep '03

15 Sep '03

To be honest, I have yet to make it to a single performance. I meant to get to the second night of Painkiller but fell ill due to exhaustion after hitting a triple-header of Marty Ehrlich, Sonny Simmons and Anthony Braxton the previous evening. I do hope to catch some of the chamber music, game pieces and improvs later in the month, though. Steve Smith ssmith36(a)sprynet.com

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Re: Zorn month?
by Samerivertwice＠aol.com 15 Sep '03

15 Sep '03

Yeah, I thought for sure we'd get multiple daily reviews. Steve Smith, where are you? Wishing he lived in NYC, Tom In a message dated 9/15/03 10:06:44 AM Eastern Daylight Time, a_gadney(a)hotmail.com writes: > How's the Zorn month going? Any good shows?? It's surprisingly quiet here > on > the list about it... :-( > > ______________________________________________________ Discs I'm playing at work Johnny Cash -- American Recordings Johnny Cash -- Unchained Johnny Cash -- American III: Solitary Man Johnny Cash -- American IV: The Man Comes Around Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson -- VH1 Storytellers

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Zorn month?
by Arthur Gadney 15 Sep '03

15 Sep '03

How's the Zorn month going? Any good shows?? It's surprisingly quiet here on the list about it... :-( _________________________________________________________________ Fast, faster, fastest: Upgrade to Cable or DSL today! https://broadband.msn.com

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Tonic factory
by Edgar Lee 15 Sep '03

15 Sep '03

I thought it was strange when I saw Masada at the Tonic 2 years ago and the barman said we didn't need to tip when we bought beer there, unlike most other clubs in the USA. So we ended up buying more beer. Edgar NP Johnny Cash - Hurt http://search.yahoo.com.au - Yahoo! Search - Looking for more? Try the new Yahoo! Search

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Re: tonic factory
by Manolis 15 Sep '03

15 Sep '03

As an outsider just back to Amsterdam from a fascinating week at the Tonic, maybe I can contribute to this discussion: I was there 7 nights in total, yet I only bought beer once (apart from the 2 times I was "forced" to). The reason is simple: first you spend half to one hour waiting outside, then you rush inside to be at a reasonable spot, and as soon as the set is over they throw you back to the street. Well, how could this scheme ever work? I can compare the situation to two examples here: First at the Bimhuis, where the bar is rent to someone who runs it and is therefore a separate business. The doors open 1 hour before the concert, people come in and drink in a relaxed mood. In 99% of the cases there is an intermission before the second set (notably you dont get kicked out) so one can drink again. Then people also stick around after the concerts. And this is a place where concerts attract any size of audience, from 5 to 400 people. Second at Zaal100, which in some manner might be more appropriate for comparison, as it is never "commercial" music, yet is housed in some kind of squat (I am not sure if they pay rent for example). The concerts are not well advertised, mainly through email lists. The turnout is usually 20-40 people, yet all drink as the drinks are really cheap. Very cheap, like 1.5 euro/dollar for a whisky. Therefore poeple drink. Plus in that case too, there is no time pressure. You walk in and out in peace. I cannot see Tonic operating like either of the above, as its situation is different, but a slightly more relaxed attitude towards the audience wouldnt hurt. Needless to say, I didnt care shit about waiting or not drinking; the music was breathtaking and refreshing. But if I lived in NY and thus would go more often I would care. In summary: The JZ/Milford Graves duo was just incredible, my highlight. The JZ solo set was also excellent. The Gift was quite uptempo and beating, not the lounge/martini thing I expected and quite like Electric Masada. Bar Kokhba was good as ever, with a great Joey Baron, even though the tracklist doesnt seem to vary a lot. Painkiller was also a real killer. Also the filmmusic night was very beautiful. Plus: dont miss the eggplant rolls around the corner from tonic at cafe Luise ! manolis

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somewhat political?
by Theo Klaase 15 Sep '03

15 Sep '03

http://www.isil.org/resources/introduction.swf __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

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Re: italiana?
by giuliana ferraris 14 Sep '03

14 Sep '03

Thank you! Where are the other women in the list? >From: skip Heller music <velaires(a)earthlink.net> >To: giuliana ferraris ><contactgiuliana(a)hotmail.com>,<majordomo(a)lists.xmission.com>,<zorn-list(a)mailman.xmission.com> >Subject: Re: italiana? >Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2003 12:14:40 -0700 > >on 9/12/03 12:01 PM, giuliana ferraris at contactgiuliana(a)hotmail.com >wrote: > > > Why do men have so many stupid ideas on women? > >In these parts, it's often because the kind of guy who can listen to >TORTURE >GARDEN all the way through is not usually the most adept at dealing with >the >opposite sex. The thought that there might be a woman who can deal with >that music is a ferverent hope. > >Every so often the question comes up on this list, and I have to wonder if >whoever is posing it at the time hasn't just had a bad experience with the >personal ads. > >skip h > >NP: art pepper, art standards (pretty good, actually) > _________________________________________________________________ Get Hotmail on your mobile phone http://www.msn.co.uk/msnmobile

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tonic factory
by Kurt Gottschalk 13 Sep '03

13 Sep '03

In a message dated 9/7/2003 2:33:15 PM Eastern Daylight Time, shkin(a)shkin.com writes: >The drink minimum so far is only for Friday and Saturday shows. Hope >Tonic won't become Knit2 in trying to get as much money from customers >as they could. > the problem the knit had, and tonic is having, is that this audience don' drink nuff. i'm not sure what the answer is, but the money problems are real. they got hit with unexpected expenses when they had to redesign the club to meet fire code violations. and keep in mind, even if the house is packed, 25% of the door only goes so far. the knit's response was to become a rock club, because those people drink. and actually i do know what the answer is. art shouldn't be dependent on an open market system. look at places where there are great festivals and you'll find government grants. _________________________________________________________________ Fast, faster, fastest: Upgrade to Cable or DSL today! https://broadband.msn.com

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