on 12/11/03 3:40 PM, rancho hagman at connah@earthlink.net wrote:
And yet, is this what JZ himself does (as listener/label honcho/session funder) when he makes album suggestions to various artists? was D.Bailey's "agenda as a player" really about making a trio record with W. Parker, etc?
I think the minute Derek says yes, it's his agenda. Also, Derek with Parker is a logical combination. It's not like Derek doing a record with Chris McBride or something. Also, there's a question as to what Zorn sees as the role of his label, exactly what is he trying to document etc. If the label is an outgrowth of John's specific vision -- AND HE'S THE ONE WRITING THE CHECKS -- then he's far from being a Monday Morning Quarterback. What Tzadik does and how it operates is a far cry from Blue Note. And I think Zorn is definitely into the idea of his label being different than other labels and documenting different stuff than other labels document.
i am sure some artists pass on his suggestions for projects but doubtless if they do, they do so with great ambivalence because for many impoverished artists there are few funded recording opportunites. (example: JZ suggested to John Schott that he make a gtr/b/d trio album. schott passed on it, but i think he was ambivalent...and he is arguably underrecorded.)
Schott is pretty amazing. But I think if you're John Schott, you don;t record much, and somebody offers you the opportunity to make a record that's automatically got some visibility attached to it but it's not gonna show you in the best light, then you're likely wise to say no.
sometimes i find myself wishing JZ, and others in his position, would not make the suggestions to the artists but let them come in with their own ideas (i know, this does indeed happen alot). other examples of what i'm talking about--that koto player's trio record of monk tunes was a label guy's suggestion if i remember correctly.... and various other boutique label owners' bright ideas for personnel groupings. i mean, this still happens a heckuva lot in the jazz/improv world. more than i wish it did. (after awhile i start to tune out the onslaught of debabatable concepts). I guess it happens in other scenes also, more than i realize?
The 1970s bluegrass scene was rife with this kind of crap, dear Brother Nacho. skip h