| I'm sure that if they exposed jazz and all the other arts, the people would go for it. But they don't want to because once people start thinking, they'll do more and more of it. Jazz is a true thing, and it's got to be surrounded by truth. And they don't want to get into truth. |
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 | | Lee Morgan at the Ridge Crest Inn in Irondequoit, N.Y., 1958. | | (Paul Hoeffler/Redferns/Getty Images) | | |
| quote of the day |
| "I'm sure that if they exposed jazz and all the other arts, the people would go for it. But they don't want to because once people start thinking, they'll do more and more of it. Jazz is a true thing, and it's got to be surrounded by truth. And they don't want to get into truth." | | - Lee Morgan, 1970 | |
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| rantnrave:// |
Get There to Where You Will Belong
Wow those first 90 minutes of JEEN-YUHS: A KANYE TRILOGY, which shadow a young KANYE WEST from his move to New York (New Jersey, actually) in pursuit of better production gigs and an artist deal of his own to actually getting that deal, on his third (at least) try, in a ROC-A-FELLA RECORDS conference room in which the camera gets to keep rolling and Kanye appears to be rolling without any legal representation. We'll take that last detail as our evidence that "jeen-yuhs," like almost all exactly-as-it-happened, you-are-there documentaries, isn't quite presenting this story exactly as it happened. It's fashioning a narrative, always. But it's a really, really good narrative and it's astonishing raw footage of one of the giants of 21st century pop music during his come up. Here he is in his apartment in Newark painstakingly recording a verse of "ALL FALLS DOWN," hitting stop and trying again, and then again. Here he is badgering various MTV employees to put him in an MTV News "You Hear It First" segment (damn that was a different time). Here he is bumrushing random offices at Roc-A-Fella, where he hasn't yet signed, to play "All Falls Down" on the occupants' stereos while they try to get work done. Here he is telling SCARFACE what "FAMILY BUSINESS" is about and trying to convince him, with no luck, to take a verse (and here's Scarface explaining to Kanye that one does not take one's retainer out of one's mouth and put it on a desktop in plain view of one's guest). Here he is explaining that, no, you can not have one of his beats on spec. Here he is clearing up some bad vibes with old friends and mentors in Chicago. Here he is going to his mother for emotional support and centering. She really was the rock he's always made her out to be.
This is basically GET BACK, with the same fly-on-the-wall vibes, but six or seven years earlier. They could've called it GET THERE. And you can watch these 90 minutes, at least I could, without worrying about what's to come two weeks from now in part three, which gets uncomfortably close to the present day and all that entails. This is when the turntable was still spinning in the right direction. The film is shot and narrated by CLARENCE "COODIE" SIMMONS, who has more than a bit of a RAY LIOTTA in GOODFELLAS cadence to his voice, which may have something to do with the fact that he's talking almost himself almost as much as he's talking about his ostensible subject. You may find yourself wondering, at times, who this film is about. But no worry, one of these men is in no danger of being overshadowed by the other, no matter who's in charge of the edit.
Episode one of "jeen-yuhs" is on NETFLIX now. Coodie co-directed with CHIKE OZAH, who hasn't shown up in the story's timeline yet.
Rest in Peace
Bollywood disco singer and composer BAPPI LAHIRI... Early rock songwriter BEVERLY ROSS, who co-wrote the hits "Lollipop" and "Judy's Turn to Cry" as well as songs for Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison and Bill Haley... BLAKE MEVIS, country songwriter, producer and publisher best known for his long association with George Strait... Early '00s Canadian rocker DUANE LAVOLD, aka Custom... Philadelphia punk bassist ROGER SEGAL, a onetime member of Trashlight Vision and Sorry and the Sinatras. He was murdered Sunday in Philadelphia.
| | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | |
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 | | Detroit Metro Times |
| | An evening with Babyface Ray, the new face of Detroit rap | | By Kahn Santori Davison | | It's 4 p.m. on a recent day in January, and downtown Detroit's Saint Andrew's Hall is bustling with all the moving parts needed for the evening's show, a one-off record release performance featuring rising Detroit rapper Babyface Ray. | | |
 | | The New York Times |
| | Mitski, in and Out of the Spotlight | | By Jon Caramanica, E. Alex Jung and Cat Zhang | | The indie-rock musician's albums inspire deep feelings and attract ever-bigger audiences, but in many ways she remains a mystery. | | |
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 | | HISTORY.com |
| | Pop Music Pirates | | By Sally Helm | | How did a group of young rebels launch an offshore radio station that gave the BBC a run for its money? And how did they change the course of music history? | | |
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 | | Music x |
| | NFTs, externalities, and the future of music | | By Bas Grasmayer | | The problem facing the industry now is that anyone can create an NFT of any media. I can create an address on a blockchain, create an NFT of a random song on Spotify, and put it up for sale on a marketplace like OpenSea. Nobody would even know it was me. | | |
 | | Dada Drummer Almanach |
| | The Lockdown Concert | | By Damon Krukowski | | Just as the virtual classroom turned out to have some strengths, at least for certain students and situations, the lockdown has opened up virtual concerts in a way I don't think would have happened otherwise. | | |
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 | | The New Yorker |
| | Angélique Kidjo Has Heard It All | | By Julian Lucas | | At sixty-one, the doyenne of African pop is recording with everyone from Burna Boy to Philip Glass-and still searching for new rhythms. | | |
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| what we're into |
 | | Music of the day | | "Ceora" | | Lee Morgan | | From "Cornbread," recorded 1965, released 1967. With Jackie McLean (alto saxophone), Hank Mobley (tenor sax), Herbie Hancock (piano), Larry Ridley (bass) and Billy Higgins (drums). | | |
|  | | Video of the day | | "I Called Him Morgan" | | Kasper Collin | | Acclaimed 2016 doc about jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan and his wife, Helen, who rescued him from addiction and, 50 years ago this week, shot and killed him. Widely available on streaming sites. | | |
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| Music | Media | | | | | | Suggest a link  | | "REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask 'why?'" |
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