DownBeat April 1991 [antikvár]

BERKLEE IN LOS ANGELESAugust 4-10,1991Join the professional faculty of Boston's renowned Berklee College of Music for an exciting week of musicand more this summer in southern California.Offered on the attriictive campus of Clarcinont McKeruia College, the Berklee in Los Angeles program includes:Multi-level instrumental and vocal workshops, ensemble playing, and theory and improvisation classes.All teaching, methods, and materials pro\'ided exclusively by Berklee faculty.Special workshops in synthesizers and their use with various instrument controllers, and in computer applications in music.Faculty performances, student concerts, and a $25,()()() Berklee scholarship awards ceremony.Expo.sure to the beauty and excitement of southern California. Claremont is located 35 miles eiLst of Los Angeles, within a short distance of beaches, mountains, and de.sert. The Berklee in Los Angeles program will be of particular interest to jazz players and singers of high school or college age, and emerging young professional musicians whose interests are focused upon the contempor.iry styles of today's music. Join Berklee in Los Angeles this summer with fellow student musicians from all over the country'.For complete information, call toll-free: 1-800-421-0084, ext. 5008 (9 a.m. to 5 p.m. HST). In Ma.ssachusetts CiiJl: 617-266-1400. Or write: Bl-RKl.Hl-:, Admissions Officc, Dept. 500H, 1140 Bovlston Street, iJo.ston, MA 02215.BerkleeCOI.I.l-GE OF MUSIC Where caivcrs in music begin.on the beatAN UNEASY ALLIANCEby John Ephlandusic and money. Sometimes they mix like rhythm blues; other times, it's oil I and vinegar all the way. When a vital artist makes it commercially, and maintains his or her cultural stature, there is good reason for rejoicing. Many times, however, those enduring art-versus-commerce issues surface, pitting industry against artist. This scenario is particularly true for jazz.At a recent International Association of Jazz Educators panel titled "The Problems and Rewards of Jazz Recording," the lines were clearly drawn between artist and marketplace. For major-label record executives, business concerns tailored aesthetic ones. For not-so-successful but nonetheless important jazz musicians, it meant more frustration with a system seemingly obsessed with non-artistic criteria.The recent major-label successes of many young musicians playing some form of resurgent bebop notwithstanding, there remains debateto put it mildlyover what panelist Steve Backer called "the balance between aesthetics and commerciality." Three major-label jazz execsBacker (RCA Novus), Matt Pierson (Capitol/Blue Note), and Richard Seidel (Polygram)were on hand, representing jazz's recent successes with big money. All three spoke in relative concert about the need to balance their respective rosters with a variety of artists, paying heed to commercial as well as artistic interests. Saxophonist David Liebman, trumpeter Jimmy Owens, and bassist Rufus Reidall three beyond the graces of big-company largesseprovided a distinctive contrast. What essentially became their unified gripe centered around perceived corporate preoccupation with, not surprisingly, money and novelty; commodities all three seem to put at the bottom of their lists.Despite Backer's assertion that "the pendulum is swinging to the left," where "what's happening on the street"e.g., the more adventurous, less calculated reflects those "artists we believe in," Liebman's experience has taught him to be skeptical: Whal really matters to major labels is turning a profit. Consequently, "the bottom line is their corporate jobs." Owens words echoed Liebman's: "The bottom line is record sales, not bringing a greater understanding of jazz to the public."Bul lo say lhal big money and greal jazz have little to do wilh each other isJ. J. Johnson: big money meets great tolentnonsense. Just look at what one label, Antilles, has done for jazz greats Frank Morgan and J. J- Johnson. RCA, Columbia (now Sony Music), Polygram, Capitol, Elektra, and A&:M are also to be commended for investing in many of America's musical treasures and promising new talent. More money is going toward jazz than ever before (check out the news stories in this issue, for example).Having said all this, an ongoing concern has to do with maintaining certain standards of excellence; standards wherein the music industry continues to promote topnotch jazz, doesn't capitulate to market pressures that drag it through the mud, and refuses to play with musicians as if they were some sort of flavor of the month. (It's tough enough to make any kind of living playing jazz for this kind of treatment to be dished out.)