Interview with Ken Micallef pt 3 of 3: Finally talking about jazz with the Jazz Vinyl Audiophile.
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- Опубликовано: 20 дек 2021
- John Devore sits down with writer, reviewer, musician, and audiophile Ken Micallef to talk about all things HiFi and music. Ken has written for many magazines including Stereophile, Rolling Stone, Downbeat, Modern Drummer, Part-time Audiophile and others.
In part three of three: The state of Jazz in the US, record company releases, and 78 rpm.
Ken's channel:
ruclips.net/channel/UCjfY...
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www.etsy.com/shop/DeFprintShop
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They don’t give a crap of the beginning of jazz and be bop. The kings are Ellington, Armstrong and Parker. That’s who should also be pushed but the labels. Yes and Ben Webster and Lester Young ✌🏻
After wondering how to get into Jazz I finally realized the trick is to just go for it. I have built a great collection in the last year. It really helps to have the Prestige, Blue Note classic and tone poet series coming out regularly, I just get them as they are released. And RUclips videos have been a great help as well
Oh man, would love to see this entire conversation. Ken is such a cool, knowledgable guy! Consider this an upvote for that second visit!
Actually CBS/Sony did a pretty extensive Ellington cd reissue program in the early 2000's w/bonus cuts. Very well done. Though I agree that Duke doesn't get the love he deserves these days.
Fabulous video! 15 minutes of such knowledgeable conversation about jazz; never seen anyone do something like this. Congrats both for this!!!
So great! I’d watch like 5 more of those!
The Art of Conversation, Volume 3. What a great time. Thanks, John, for sitting down with Ken and the camera, and then editing it down to these three videos. None of us is going to agree with all of another person's opinions on music and musicians, but it's good to share these things in a trusted environment, and, from this side of the camera, you guys have triggered so many memories! Getting to see Sarah Vaughn sing in a small club in a north Chicago suburb in 1970, Stan Kenton's Big Band in a big public high school gym, around the same time, Chick Corea with Return to Forever on the lawn at the University of Florida, maybe five years later... Great stuff. Man, I'm loving the jazz that I'm still discovering, after all these years, but I'm sure missing live music! Keep up the good work, John. Many thanks, and happy holidays to you and yours!
OK, we need a video entirely on your 78 setup. I’m intrigued!
Really enjoyed the series, John. Hope you find the time to do more of these. Happy Holidays!
Hard disagree on Sarah Vaughan. It’s all about opinions I guess but I’d put her version of “September Song” with Clifford Brown up in the pantheon.
This was absolutely great!
Excellent unrehearsed banter. Comes across very genuinely! Nice perspectives. Thank you!
This is pure gold, thanks for the amazing access to your conversations (that's how it feels!)
Two things…
1) Domenic Miller practices with Bach
2). I used to see Steve Gadd at the grocery store, Starbucks, etc. in hometown Rochester all the time, until he moved to Arizona. He’s as real and down the earth as your sibling or your next door neighbor.
Great video!!!
Which Wegmans? East Ridge? I go to the Wegmans on Titus since I live in WEST Irondequoit! 🤣
The Pittsford Wegmans and Starbucks as he lived here..he was a regular, many knew him and he was like everyone else. I heard he brought his buddy Eric Clapton to the Coal Tower for a bite one time. He was also on several flights of mine from NYC. He told me his wife was not a fan of our winters so off to Arizona they went. I miss seeing him.
Hearing you talk about your 78s made me really interested in what player and system you use to make them sound so good! I feel like it's a very unexplored area of hi-fi for obvious reasons, it's usually very lo-fi. I'd love to watch a video explaining your system for 78s and to see some of your favourites from your collection, major love from Sweden !
John, thanks for the great videos! I do have a suggestion on your interviewing skills. Of course good conversations have a degree of overlap, but I get a bit frustrated that you often don’t let your interviewees complete their thoughts. Maybe work on pausing a beat or two? That said, I am enjoying them immensely.
He caught himself in the second video “Here I am interfering you and I’m doing all the talking.”
How do you spell GRissello? I couldn’t find him on instagram?
CD101 : where smooth jazz lives
Pretty presumptuous conversation. We are bright and enlightened, everybody else… pretty sad
Bach is the Ringo Starr of classical music. Uhuh... 🤣
Alright Ken, I need the Kamasi takes
Huh?
@@kenmicallefjazzvinylaudiop6455 you allude to Kamasi Washington in the video, I'm curious about your opinions on him.
@@lukeroy9384 I did? Not really a fan. Long excuses to blow set over hip-hop production.
Radar O'Rielly: Ahh ... Bach.
Sarah Vaughan does not do it for you??? Come on man!
who is KOB please!?
"Kind Of Blue" Miles Davis
@@DeVOREFIDELITY Jesus, John i’ve been in the business more than 55 years and I’ve never heard kind of blue referred to as KOB. Thanks for letting us in on the secret. If you’re going to talk in code, don’t put it out in public.
In more than 55 years in the record business, I have never heard kind of blue referred to as KOB how about coming down to earth
Surprisingly, sometimes I catch myself still trying to get over the fact that Jazz isn't as popular as it should be. But it shouldn't be. The world is so full of options to enjoy that it's no wonder that Jazz isn't understood by the majority. Jazz is intelligent music requiring bonafide musical training to compose, if not classical training to begin with. There's fidelity. Nuance. Story. It's not flashy or mundane. It's not "pop"ular. Right? Nor will it ever be again. The world moves on, chasing rainbows. The finer things, just like the truth, shall always be understood only by the minority...often only a minority within the minority.
Not quite understanding how prevalent this truth is in all things I for too long thought it was a sad thing that my friends or people in general don't consume Jazz regularly (though it's nice on finer occasions). But I have only just begun to climb out of the mire of the mundane. I didn't understand things as they were nor would I have been able to in the past; I wasn't dissatisfied with the average thing. No doubt most under-20's don't even know how good a CD sounds, even though dad may have a collection, consuming the same pop and TV shows as their friends. 2019 is so "yesterday".
I see that many people who do appreciate some of the finer things in life like jazz often wonder out loud why something more esoteric like Jazz isn't appreciated by the majority with almost a disdain. Why aren't the finer things in life all the rage? Seems a bit redundant to even pose the question, but not for all. Coffee, hamburgers, fries and katchup, social and mainstream media and Netflix is the principle diet of the majority. Wheres the jazz, man?
The judgment isn't warranted: it's simply a matter of a poor fund of knowledge. People are people; whachoo gunna do? This world is a selfish world, and those who know the secrets aren't going to share it; they try to capitalize on it. The principles of life escape even many an intellectual. It's about beauty. Love. Freedom. Truth. So it's up to the lovers of what's good and right to accept that the mountains of indifference, the seas of the mundane and the cities of distraction will always remain. All we gotta do is put the needle to the groove and let love be.
Jazz lovers don't need a barrage of sound bullets bombed in a steam and light show led by a world-famous DJ who tells them to dance in order to get up and dance. They can dance sitting down by the dock of any bay. As Shakespeare well understood, life is a tragedy. So we should get over it and be happy to find to associate with like-minded people and get down. Isn't that how it works?
I remember that a leader of a famous top electro funk pop band from the UK once said that Americans aren't interesting to him. I agree. Too much weapons of mass distraction.
Elitist bullshit - that Jazz is somehow too complicated and sophisticated for the masses. This type of discussion makes me want to trash my jazz records and put on Nirvana
@@tahoesnow I'm guessing you aren't burdened with an overabundance of jazz music.
@@nickburak7518 this is the kind of bullshit I’m talking about. Thanks for proving the point. You have no idea what is in my collection
@@tahoesnow Look man. I love jazz. Seems like you do, too. So why you picking a fight like a tuff guy with a big mouth? Why you would even say that you want to throw out your jazz records (so how many do you have...do you have more than 2,000 quality jazz albums? And so what if you do?) and play Nirvana because someone soaks the truth? It's a Tantrum is what it is. You can't have your way everyday.
I played jazz in a band. I was a jazz conductor and arranger. Nobody special in the grand scheme. Maybe you think you're special. But It doesn't matter how many jazz albums anyone has or that they love or don't love jazz. Everyone is different. I just teased you a little and you exploded. Everyone is unique and has their own free will. Jazz simply isn't on most people's playlists today. Just compare how many subscribers Dua Lipa has as compared to Miles Davis. The difference is a factor of 100 times in her favour.
And Dave Brubek had only 33k subscribers while while Blackpink, BTS and Marshmello have 180 million subscribers together. Stevie Wonder, Miles Davis and Dave Brubek together only pull one million. Case closed.
So Chill. Like I said before, jazz is music for intelligent people. Most people are not intelligent. It's not a put down. It's true. If most people were refined why does Roon only have 100,000 customers who consume red book content in the least and higher res if they can geddit? Why instead do we see one hundred million Spotify customers who don't care or know about red book standard, and who listen to lossy Hip Hop and Pop through their Apple ear buds? Nuance, story, musicianship and fidelity aren't important to the masses. That's why it's called "the masses". The masses are only aware of what the media pushed to them this morning, as they swipe to wake up. They don't search for much in the way of substance. Nirvana was a cool band but the music isn't what you'll hear where brighter minds congregate.
If you want to call that an "elite" thing, go ahead. Doesn't mean it is. Jazz is for everyone but not everyone goes for it. People have other choices more attractive to them. How is that an elitest statement? To not see this is ignorance only.
The majority want to be thrilled. Look at the movies that take the box office. Look at the music charts. No jazz, man.
The sooner you realize that, while there's a minority who are really bent in their mind and a minority who are bright and have good taste, the most of us want Coke, pizza and MacDonald's with Netflix tonight. It's not an elitest view. It's the truth. And the band leader who said that he doesn't want to go to the US because they don't care about funk and disco was Jay Jay of JAMORIOQUAI. And he oughta know. Jazz, funk and disco will never die, but they aren't grabbing the charts.
My point, I think contrary to Ken's opinion, is that jazz is actually really easy to like, and that people have learned to be nervous or afraid of it. Mainstream like to portray jazz as free jazz, rather than modal soul-jazz, or even swing. Jazz was popular music for decades after all.
I think one significant problem with Jazz is evident in this video. There are too many “aficionados” who at act as arbiters of what is good and bad. I’m sure Ken is a jazz genius, but this comes off as pretty snobby. I have a few hundred jazz albums, but I listened to KOB probably 5 times this week, because it is a seminal work in modal jazz by some of the best musicians of all time, and I happen to enjoy the record. Sorry if that makes me a pleb in the order of those who listen to jazz.
snobby? How so? Because I think KOB is overrated and overused? It's the easy go to, when great records by Mingus, Ellington, etc are ignored. People buying their 40th copy of KOB smacks of laziness.
You guys are funny and very opinionated about what's good jazz and bad fusion lol
supermen!