Don Was, bass player, producer, bandleader, songwriter, and now president of Blue Note Records, says, "There are two kinds of music. Generous music and selfish music." Friday, he'll share his thoughts at the Non-Commvention in W. Philadelphia. (GABI PORTER)
By Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic, POSTED: May 17, 2013
There's a jazz man's adage, attributed variously to Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis, that goes something like this: "There are two kinds of music, the good and the bad. I play the good kind."
Don Was, the bass player, producer, bandleader, songwriter, and now president of the storied jazz label Blue Note Records, divides the world differently.
"There are two kinds of music," Was says. "Generous music and selfish music."
Was was talking from his home in Los Angeles as he got ready to head to Philadelphia to for the Non-Commvention, the national gathering of mostly public radio non-commercial music stations, hosted annually by WXPN (88.5 FM) and taking place this week at World Cafe Live in University City.
This year's Non-Comm, as it is known, was scheduled to start Wednesday night with music by French pop band Phoenix and banjo-playing comedian Steve Martin with singer Edie Brickell, among others.
The confab continues through Friday, when Was will be the featured speaker, with a wide range of acts playing before influential radio programmers. Thursday's slate includes the buzz bands Foxygen and Wild Belle and powerful veteran singers Mavis Staples and Tom Jones.
Friday's schedule makes room for Texas gospel belters the Relatives, the British soul singer Laura Mvula, and Philadelphia rockers Free Energy. The shows are sold out, but will be broadcast live on 'XPN.
By "generous," Was means music "that's open, that has something to offer to the listener, something to give."
That's in contrast to "selfish" music, which the 60-year-old multi-tasker - whose production credits include Bonnie Raitt, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Solomon Burke, Willie Nelson, John Mayer, Aaron Neville, Elizabeth Cook, Iggy Pop, and Philadelphia songwriter Amos Lee - says is easy to identify.
Read more: http://articles.philly.com/2013-05-17/news/39312782_1_blue-note-music-alfred-lion
0 Comments:
Post a Comment