Secret Society

And your voice mail is off, cause I called you

I have only just now been told that for the past several weeks (eek), my voice mail has been all kinds of fucked up, and people calling me when I'm unable to pick up have been getting unceremoniously disconnected.

Now that I've finally been told there's a problem, I was able to get T-Mobile to fix the damn thing, but if you've been thwarted in your attempts to reach me by phone recently, my sincere apologies. 'S'all good now.

RIP Teo Macero

A belated shout-out to [rasp] Teeeeee-o.

Kyle Gann reminds everyone that Teo was also a composer in his own right.

One of the saddest things I witnessed during my time at New England Conservatory came during a visit by Macero, who had been welcomed to the school as a guest artist. The concert in his honor was to include several of his orchestral works, to be performed by the NEC Orchestra. The students in this ensemble threw an abominable hissy fit at the idea that they be required to perform Macero's music, which they considered beneath them. They took their complaints to the Dean, and if I recall correctly, they had the backing of several classical teachers at the school. The concert went ahead, but you can imagine what the rehearsals were like.

Anyway, more obits here:

Ben Ratliff (NYT)
Phil Freeman (Running the Voodoo Down)
James Hale (Jazz Chronicles)

And via WMFU, a YouTube video:

"Egna Ot Waog" - Andrew D'Angelo (from Skadra Degis)

MP3: "Egna Ot Waog" - Andrew D'Angelo (click to listen/right/ctrl-click to download)

I picked up Andrew D'Angelo's new trio record (with Trevor Dunn, bass and Jim Black, drums) at the Tea Lounge benefit on Friday night. It came with two free beers. I am of the opinion that more CDs should be sold in this manner.

It's a really great record, and quite different from anything else in Andrew's catalog. It is both incredibly varied and tightly focused -- all but one tune is under five minutes long, and most of them either sustain or slowly develop a single, simple idea for the duration. Andrew is known for his jugular-attacking intensity and that's certainly in evidence in tunes like "Bo Bee Bo Bee Bee" and "25 Hits" (which you can sample over at Feast of Music), but what I've always loved about Andrew is that he combines that take-no-prisoners freepunk swagger with warmth, humor, and a composerly sense of form and scale. Some of the best moments on this record are the more intimate ones -- the haunting subtones that open "Fichtik," the chamberlike bass-clarinet-arco bass counterpoint on "Rutloosic," the heart-on-sleeve diatonic Ornetteish balladry of "Fam Hana." But my favorite track so far is "Egna Ot Waog," a sinister, trancelike piece that, like Javier Bardem in No Country For Old Men, doesn't need gunpowder to make an impression.

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You can buy Skadra Degis from Skirl Records. All proceeds go to help pay for Andrew's medical bills. Thanks to Skirl for permission to post the MP3.

Also: Secret Society co-conspirator Josh Sinton is playing a benefit show for Andrew tonight (Tuesday 26 Feb) at the Bowery Poetry Club with his band Holus-Bolus.

Andrew D'Angelo Benefit Show @ Tea Lounge, 22 Feb 2008

Amazing turnout at the first NYC Andrew D'Angelo benefit show last night -- the Tea Lounge was packed stiflingly tight, and trying to make your way up to the bar or back to the bathrooms was a major excursion. There were so many musicians in attendance that John McNeil, in his usual deadpan, suggested that someone ought to blow the place up, enabling them to step in and snap up all of our lucrative gigs.

I got there a bit late and only caught the tail end of Matt Wilson's set, but what I heard was, as usual, nimble, spirited, and warm-hearted. Wilson's regular quartet includes D'Anglelo, and he also leads a band called Arts and Crafts with Dennis Irwin on bass, so this can't be an easy time for him. Stepping up to the mic at the conclusion of their set, his voice was understandably a bit overwhelmed with emotion.

Bill McHenry passed out earplugs to his usual Sunday night co-conspirator and donned Blues Brothers shades before taking the stage with Jamie Saft and Mike Pride, who both know how to throw down when it comes to facial hair. (ZZ Top beard and horseshoe mustache, respectively.) The noir-metal vibe sounded like the music Robert Rodriguez should have used for his Grindhouse segment. (Instead of, you know, hiring himself.)

Trevor Dunn's Trio Convulsant contrasts the smart, spiky modernism of guitarist Mary Halvorson with the unslaked primal bloodlust of drummer Ches Smith, whose playing I had not previously heard. Clearly this was a major oversight. Ches, Mike Pride, Matt Wilson and Jim Black, all in one night... sweet Christ.

Chris Speed first met Andrew D'Angelo and Jim Black playing in a youth big band, back when they were all Seattle-area high school students. They moved to Boston to go to Berklee together, formed Human Feel together, and then moved to New York together. Last night they, joined with Trevor Dunn, who also plays bass on Andrew's new record, Skadra Degis, and one of Andrew's closest friends, saxophonist Oscar Noriega, in a set of D'Angelo originals. I think everyone felt the need to bring the heat, to infuse the music with Andrew's nitroglycerin spirit. Which they did, most especially on the blistering, incisive "Sich Reped."

Andrew has been heart-rendingly candid about his situation on his blog, but the good news is that Nate Chinen's Times piece apparently attracted the attention of a doctor at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, the best cancer treatment center in the country.

If you can, please donate.

Photos below the fold.

UPDATE: Comic artist Jeremy Arumbulo has posted video of this hit to YouTube. Here's "Sich Reped":

New Health Rock

Nate Chinen (NYT) brings some much-needed mainstream attention to the plights of Andrew D'Angelo and Dennis Irwin, both of whom are fighting virulent cancers, neither of whom has medical insurance. It's a good piece, but it raises some issues that could benefit from a wider view -- especially in an election year where both Democratic candidates are promising major health care reform. [John McCain, for his part, promises more of the same. As a US Senator, his health care coverage is just fine, so what's the problem?]

The article is pinned on the idea of community support -- when jazz musicians get sick, the jazz scene steps up with benefit shows and the like:

When the focus turns toward the health of jazz musicians, the discussion assumes a different, less abstract character: solicitous and supportive. Most people who play jazz for a living are accustomed to self-reliance. When that system fails, they lean on one another.

“Since I’ve been on the scene, there have been benefits for musicians that were in need, unfortunately, because so many of us are,” the guitarist John Scofield said in the rear stairwell of the Village Vanguard on Monday night. Along with the tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, he was playing a benefit for the bassist Dennis Irwin, who has recently been struggling with a spinal tumor.

Benefit shows are great, of course, and I know both Andrew and Dennis have been floored by the tremendous outpouring of love and support in their time of need. [A reminder that the first benefit show for Andrew is tomorrow (Friday) night at the Union St. Tea Lounge -- I will be there, and I hope you will be too.] But let's get real -- treatment for brain tumors and spinal tumors is crushingly expensive. The costs run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and could easily push past the half-million mark. The people showing up for the benefit shows at Small's and the Tea Lounge and kicking in whatever they can are primarily other jazz musicians. You know, the people who can't afford health insurance in the first place. This is not a viable solution.

We also see, lurking in the wings, the old right-wing trope that people who "choose" to live without health insurance are "irresponsible," and therefore if they are faced with crippling medical bills, they deserve what they get. Chinen acknowledges the sentiment and tries to defuse it:

It may seem negligent that so many jazz musicians lack basic health-care coverage, but monthly fees through an organization like the Freelancers Union easily run to several hundred dollars, and these days many gigs in New York literally involve a tip jar.

Jazz musicians living in New York -- even relatively well-known jazz musicians like Andrew D'Angelo and Dennis Irwin -- have trouble enough paying the damn rent every month. If you have a full-time day job and are lucky enough to get decent coverage through work, your employer shoulders much of the cost of health insurance -- but as a freelancing musician, it's all on you.

Chinen mentions the Freelancer's Union, which is an organization that sells health insurance to the self-employed -- but in order to even be eligible, you need to show them proof of either 20 paid hours each week over the previous eight weeks, or $10,000 worth of income over the past six months. If you're working mostly cash gigs, this documentation can be difficult or impossible to come by. Even if you are eligible to join, the least expensive plan with the highest deductible still costs $239.64 every month. And if you have a couple of lean months and can't afford the premium, you lose your coverage.

Still, Chris Speed blames himself:

“A lot of my friends, myself included, don’t have insurance, which seems really idiotic, especially now,” he said.

But this is absurd. Chris Speed doesn't have heath insurance because he can't afford to have health insurance. Not having a reliable extra $240 of disposable income kicking around every month is not a moral failing or a stupid mistake, it's simple a fact of life for the overwhelming majority of NYC jazz musicians.

What is idiotic is the American system of for-profit private health insurance, which costs far more and covers far fewer people than any other system in the developed world. It forces poor working musicians into an impossible situation, and then lays a guilt trip on us for "choosing" to be the victims of a broken and exploitative system. As jazz musicians in America, we gamble with our lives, placing a sucker's bet every month: health insurance or rent, health insurance or food, health insurance or buying an instrument, heath insurance or renting a rehearsal space, health insurance or making a record, health insurance or hiring a publicist to promote your record, health insurance or going on tour, etc. Not to mention that even those who do mange to obtain heath insurance often still end up bankrupted by medial bills. (And of course, then there's the Bankruptcy Bill.)

And then if the unthinkable happens -- if you are diagnosed with a brain tumor, or a spinal tumor -- the system says, "Too bad for you, but it's your fault for not having gotten a real job. If you cared about your health, you wouldn't have become a musician in the first place. But, hey, don't despair, I'm sure your fellow musicians can raise a few hundred bucks for you at benefit show. That'll really put a dent in those six-figure medical bills."

Ezra Klein, the blogosphere's best health care wonk, has a piece in the American Prospect: Why 2009 Is the Year for Universal Health Care. Let's fucking hope so.

Andrew D'Angelo Benefit Shows

Unbelievably tragic news:

Fuck this is not easy because it's not good news folks. I have brain cancer. Oligodendroglioma. Is the form. They grade these aggressive tumors on a scale from 1 to 4, (4 being the most aggressive), mine is a 3. Poopshit. The better side of the news is, that for now, they feel they got enough in the retraction so there will be no immediate surgery. That's a bit of a relief for my head. For sure. Down side is, I have to start figuring out how to attack this thing and shrink it.

I don't really know what the hell to say. Everything I try to write seems laughably inadequate.

I only met Andrew once, briefly, after his big band's Tea Lounge gig, but I've been following him on record and live for years, and watching and listening, it seemed like there was no division between the person and the music. Via Ethan Iverson, we learn that Andrew's Human Feel bandmate Kurt Rosenwinkel describes Andrew as a "pure element," which from a fan's perspective seems absolutely dead-on.

It strikes me that far too many people still don't know about Human Feel. I was talking to some young Toronto-area jazz students at The Rex during IAJE, and while they knew and greatly admired all of the individual musicians -- D'Angelo, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Chris Speed and Jim Black -- they had no idea those four dudes had come up in a band together, nor how deep Human Feel's influence runs.

For more, I direct you again to Ethan Iverson, and to Steve Smith's writeup of the band's 2006 reunion show at Fat Cat.

Benefit shows are taking place all over the world: Antwerp, Olso, Ferrara, Ghent... here are the Brooklyn dates:

February 22, 2008 : 9pm - Benefit Concert
The Tea Lounge
http://www.tealoungeny.com/
837 Union St. Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY
718.789.2762

FEATURING:
• Matt Wilson group •
• Whoopie Pie - Mike Pride, Jamie Saft, Bill McHenry •
• Trevor Dunn's Trio Convulsant with Chess Smith and Mary Halvorson •
• Jim Black Chris Speed Oscar Noriega Trevor Dunn play D'Angelo •

February 28, 2008 : 8pm - Benefit Concert
Barbes
http://www.barbesbrooklyn.com/
376 9th St. (@ 6th Ave.) Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY

FEATURING:
• Jessica Pavone and Mary Halvorson duo •
• Laura Cromwell's Queen Moonracer •
• Trevor Dunn and Shelley Burgon duo •
and more TBA....

More to come, I'm sure.

Andrew does not have health insurance. Because this country is unbelievably fucked up, heath care in America is a luxury, one that the overwhelming majority of jazz musicians cannot afford. Andrew is literally fighting for his life here and he needs our help. He will likely require radiation or chemotherapy or some combination thereof.

Come to the shows. Make a donation. Buy his CDs -- they are astounding. Read his blog -- it is as uncompromisingly personal as his music.

Disorderly conduct

It seems I have been drafted to emergency-guest-conduct the premiere of Chris Jentsch's Cycles Suite at the Kitchen tonight.

We're binary code, a one and a zero. You wanted violins, and you got Nero.

Yes, I am seemingly jacking everything from Atrios these days, but I can't very well post this without showing you this, now, can I?

[And yes, for you kids out there, Cindy McCain really did steal drugs from her own charity, and that "$50/hour to pick lettuce for a whole season" thing doesn't make any more sense in context.]

Video by Lee Stranahan, originally linked to by LitBrit.

UPDATE: And yes, there's another one:

This one is by comedian Andy Cobb. Via Hilzoy.

Captain Brain

Andrew D'Angelo's surgery is today. In fact, it should be currently underway as I type this.

Just a few hours ago, Andrew published his final pre-surgery blog post -- I take back what I wrote earlier, "fucking hardcore" doesn't even begin to cut it. Andrew has been a big musical inspiration, but the personal resilience and humor and unmediated candidness that comes through in his most recent post (Hospital, the day of) is really something. Reading it, I couldn't help tearing up a little. Take good care of that brain, Dr. Alterman.

Best of luck to Andrew, and best wishes to his family and loved ones.

Lily Maase brings word that the first benefit show for Andrew will be February 22nd -- details TBA but rest assured I will keep you all posted.

Allegiance

Fucking hell.

Andrew D'Angelo, of Human Feel and many other influential groups, sent an email around earlier today directing people to this notice on his website:

SAXOPHONIST ANDREW D'ANGELO HAS BRAIN TUMOR

On Friday, January 25, 2008 world-renowned saxophonist/composer Andrew D'Angelo suffered a major seizure while driving in Brooklyn, NY. Tests in the hospital revealed a large tumor in his brain. Andrew will undergo brain surgery at some point in the next few weeks. At this time, it is believed that the tumor is not cancerous, but this will not be confirmed until a biopsy is performed.

Like many Americans, Andrew has no health insurance. A fund has been established to help with the costs of his surgery and recovery. Donations can be sent via PayPal to [email protected]. We deeply appreciate any efforts that can be made to spread the word about Andrew's situation.

Benefit concerts are currently being planned for New York City and Boston. More information about these concerts will be posted on www.andrewdangelo.com as soon as it is available.

Andrew D'Angelo, born 1966 in Seattle, Washington is one of the key members of Brooklyn's avant-garde jazz community. His work as a composer, performer, and bandleader has been a pivotal influence on his peers, as well as on younger generations of musicians. Andrew first achieved worldwide notoriety as a member of Human Feel with his longtime friends Jim Black, Chris Speed, and Kurt Rosenwinkel. After moving to Brooklyn in 1986 he joined the downtown music community centered around the Knitting Factory, working with musicians like Mark Dresser, Erik Friedlander, Bobby Previte, and many other leading artists. He is also currently a member of the Matt Wilson Quartet and Hilmar Jensson's band Tyft. Skirl Records released "Skadra Degis," the debut of Andrew's trio with Jim Black and Trevor Dunn on January 31, 2008.

For more information, please visit www.andrewdangelo.com.

Please take a moment to sign Andrew's guestbook and wish him well.

UPDATE: Andrew is blogging from his hospital bed. Because yes, he actually is that fucking hardcore. See also the photo gallery, wherein you can check out his MRIs and CT scans.

Surgery has apparently been delayed until at least Wednesday, possibly even Thursday or Friday. The good news is that Mount Sinai's Neurosurgery Department is the bomb.

We are pulling for you, Andrew.

I approve this message

Good video. And I'm speaking here as someone who normally loathes the Black Eyed Peas.

I'm still a bit bitter that Edwards couldn't stick it out through Super Tuesday, at least, but Obama really could be transformational. I have been skeptical that his "can't we all just get along" approach would be effective against the GOP goon squad (not to mention the Vichyites in his own party), but he really is inspiring heretofore cynical and/or apathetic young people to get involved, in unprecedented numbers. It's increasingly clear that Obama might actually be able to deliver on his promise to unite people of good will against the forces of douchebaggery.

Convenient parking is way back, way back

I love Atrios's occasional posts on urban development. His rant against street-level garages is dead-on -- these things have been proliferating all over my Brooklyn neighborhood, and they are awful. If you absolutely positively must have a street-level garage in front of your home, go live in the suburbs.

Dennis Irwin Benefit Shows

As you may have already heard, Dennis Irwin has been diagnosed with a very serious illness.

It would be impossible for me to count the number of amazing shows I've seen with Dennis Irwin on bass. The above photo is from his appearance with Matt Wilson's Arts and Crafts at the 2007 IAJE Conference, just one among many truly memorable hits.

There are two upcoming benefit concerts to raise money to help Dennis pay his medical bills, and for us to show our appreciation for the man's outstanding musical contributions.

The first is tomorrow night (Sunday, Feb 3) at Smalls, organized by Spike Wilner:

We will be having a benefit event for him at Smalls Jazz Club on Sunday, February 3rd after the Super Bowl.  Even though this may not be the most convenient date, time is of the essence and we cannot wait here.  We will begin at 10:00 PM and continue until 4:00 AM at Smalls.  Everyone is invited to come down and participate by playing and also by making a contribution. A box will be set up so that the donations will be discreet and anonymous.  Everything collected will go directly to Dennis. There will be no cover charge for this event but you'll be expected to contribute something, whatever's within your means.  Smalls will be donating a portion of bar sales to Dennis as well (so come and drink!).

And on February 18, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra will pay tribute to their longtime bassist:

On Monday, February 18, 2008 at the Village Vanguard, the Vanguard  Jazz Orchestra will honor its great bassist Dennis Irwin with a night of music featuring guest soloists Joe Lovano and John Scofield whose bands have also run on Irwin power for much of the last 15 years. The motivation for this night is to say thanks to a rare person, of great value to all of us, on and off the bandstand.  The reason we're doing it now is because Dennis is undertaking a medical battle and we're in it with him.

Show times are 8:00, 10:00, and 12:00. Sets one and two will feature Joe and John with the band playing material from all periods of the band's great library.  Set three will open it up for the band and many of Dennis' friends to come down and tear it up. The bar will be open as usual but admissions will be tax deductible and may be cash (receipts available) or check (made out to Sixteen as One Music Inc.  memo Dennis Irwin) at the door.  All admissions going to Dennis.  Sets one and two - $75. each.  Set three - $50.  Those who wish to contribute but can't attend should send checks made out as above to:

Sixteen as One Music Inc.
888-C 8th Ave.  #160
New York, NY  10019

Jon Wikan in Nicaragua Part 1 (Airplane to Hotel)

Even as we flew above the capital Managua before touching down I knew it would be a wild place. From the air I could see piles of trash that must have been bigger than city blocks with people digging around looking for valuables and food. Roof tops were frequently rust color giving away that they were just pieces of tin thrown over some kind of frame for shelter most of the roads were dirt and not all that smooth looking and I even spotted several horses and even humans towing carriages with people in them. At the airport, we were immediately and impressively, met by an expeditor from the US embassy to help us through the immigration and customs process. They let me through, drums and all with no problems but our keyboardist John Hansen was searched for no apparent reason. Or maybe it was because his keyboard stand, before assembled looked kind of like a makeshift rifle or pipe bomb?

Before even leaving the airport someone from the embassy gave us a quick briefing and explained that during an earthquake in the late 70s the main part of the city was ruined and they just abandon it and build all around the “old city”. That would explain the chaos looking down from the air. The second poorest nation in the region next to Haiti the poverty rate in Nicaragua is at 48% of the population with an infant mortality rate of 27 per 1,000 compared to about 6 per 1,000 in the United States.
As we drove through the capital city to our hotel my camera was clicking away from our van. It was like going back in time 50-100 years. The wild west! Old cars, dirt roads mixed with some paved roads, tin shacks, horses towing carts, the streets were packed with people selling stuff like fruit, cashews, bagged water. Yes people were actually selling little plastic sandwich baggies of water and it was not very clear looking water either. People were gathered around fires build on the sides of the streets, dogs were running wild and kids were begging. Extreme poverty like I have never seen. This even made Brazil, which 31% live under the poverty line, look like New York’s upper east side. Ok , not really but it was noticeable. A particularly sickening moment was driving by a garbage dump type of area with crowds of people, fellow human beings, digging through the garbage. This is all in a country that has made progress since the civil war that ended in the 1990s.
After about 45 minutes of chaos we finally took a turn from the main drag and headed up a hill. The houses went from tin shacks to a bit nicer homes and finally to gated type residences. Definitely not decadent by any stretch of the imagination but what we might call a “middle class” hood with just enough funk mixed in to remind you of where you are and also to give things a bit of spice. We pulled up to our bed and breakfast ran by a more fortunate family; the gates opened and we pulled in. A beautiful colonial type estate with tile floors, nice woodwork, a pool, garden and outdoor sitting area with plenty of wooden rocking chairs to go around and about 12 modest rooms with complimentary wifi in most of the rooms which is a contrast to the $15 USD per night wireless we had in Panama. Our chief bed and breakfast host is very helpful cat named Hose. He spent quite a few years in Jersey while the Revolution was happening so he speaks great English and has a great knowledge of Managua as well. The people in Nicaragua seem very hospitable and would probably give a left arm for a fellow human. Cheers Jon Wikan