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Discussion in 'Music, Movie and Hardware Store Guide' started by Jazzis, Apr 4, 2014.

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  1. Jazzis

    Jazzis Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Israel
    YOUR REVIEWS ARE TOO SHORT AND GENERAL! he he he just kidding ;)

    Thanks for the support.

    I think our reviews sort of compliment each other. I had an option on my site to let users post their own reviews under mine, but as all thing well intended it was terribly misused by stupid people and I stopped it - but your reviews and mine simply flow harmoniously...
     
    Last edited: Apr 5, 2014
  2. Jazzis

    Jazzis Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Israel
    Yes I know why they are on Delmark (the reasons are completely irrelevant to this discussion) - I know them both personally... they also released several recordings in Poland just follow the links and learn.
     
  3. Parkertown

    Parkertown Tawny Port

    This was totally cool. I've been hearing about Stańko over the last decade or so. Didn't he do some recording on the ECM label? (Perhaps on other artist's records...?) I'm still learning about European jazz...

    Adam,

    Can you discuss why you consider this album a classic? I'm liking what I'm hearing here and would welcome some insight to the music on this album.
     
  4. signothetimes53

    signothetimes53 Senior Member

    And while I have focused a laser beam on that "one" review, I also very early on told you that your entire blues section is embarrassing, and betrays a genuine lack of knowledge of the blues. There are problems with a lot more than just one review at your website, and even you admitted in this thread you don't know much about blues. Quantity does not necessarily denote quality. Or to put it in a way that a computer scientist would understand, garbage in=garbage out. Your blues section is virtually worthless.
     
    J.A.W. likes this.
  5. Davey

    Davey NP: Hania Rani/Dobrawa Czocher ~ Inner Symphonies

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    Having tried to capture my listening thoughts on a variety of albums over a few years, on a much smaller scale and in a much simpler format, I can wholeheartedly commend you, I know how much effort is involved even on the scale I attempted. Whether everyone appreciates it is hardly important, you can be proud of the result.
     
    Jazzis and 905 like this.
  6. Jazzis

    Jazzis Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Israel
    You can see all Stanko's albums on ECM and my reviews of them under that link.

    It was Stanko's first album as a leader and after Komeda's death (he played with Komeda for years) he was sort of by default appointed the leader of modern Jazz in Poland and this was his first opportunity to set HIS own direction. The specific Stanko ingredients all all there - "unclean" tone, silences, complete harmonic freedom, all the characteristics that would be his calling card in the future. This was a milestone all Jazz musicians behind the Iron Curtain tried to imitate for the next decade, at least those seeking progress and freedom in Jazz. It is still considered as one of the most important recordings of the period.
     
  7. Jazzis

    Jazzis Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Israel
    There is no Blues section to be honest... I find it simply mostly boring, that's why I have very few "true" blues albums in my collection. Sorry darling...

    And yes I know the difference between blues and blues-rock...
     
    905 likes this.
  8. Parkertown

    Parkertown Tawny Port

    Adam,

    Thanks for your thoughts. I truly appreciate you typing those out. When I read it, I only see you talk about the music on the album for one sentence (which I highlighted in red.) But even then, it is somewhat general and does not give specific examples. Every other sentence you wrote in that paragraph offers me no useful information as they are more declarations...or facts...but not discussion.

    If you could try to have more information like the kind I highlighted, these would be much more useful reviews...for me. This sentence gives me something to listen for. If you had talked about which song he uses these sounds in or where, that would be useful!

    I don't doubt your knowledge, your experience, or especially your enthusiasm. I was trying to give your stuff another chance...you've obviously spent a ton of time working on it. I had hoped some constructive criticism might be welcomed. The website is great. I just wish your reviews had "a little more meat" to 'em...that's all. You state lots of facts and declarations but not really your own thoughts about the actual music.

    And I wish you would... :shrug:
     
    Last edited: Apr 5, 2014
  9. Roger Thornhill

    Roger Thornhill Senior Member

    Location:
    Ilford, Essex, UK
    OK, fair enough but they're still a Polish duo on an American label which seems to contradict your line about everything good about jazz right now being recorded in Europe. And no, I still don't believe it.

    And you're still not prepared to back up your original points. If you want to admit that you can't then that's fine.
     
  10. Quincy

    Quincy Senior Member

    Location:
    Willamette Valley
    These aren’t reviews in the traditional sense. This is a collection of factual blurbs that were used for your online store. And they read that way. You mention band members, perhaps something about the mastering, and declare it a classic. If you can share some examples of reviews where you critically explain why an album failed then I’ll take it back, but otherwise I’ll just assume this is leftover advertising.
     
    signothetimes53 and Cheepnik like this.
  11. BurgerKing

    BurgerKing Forum Resident

    Thanks, but I know what a review is. And I know what it isn't.
     
  12. edb15

    edb15 Senior Member

    Location:
    new york
    Blurbs is the perfect word for most of what's here. Parkertown is right that there is precious little specific that would make anyone interested. And I disagree that the reviews are concise. Who cares how many sessions went into that Allmans record compared to what the music sounds like, where it's coming from stylistically or culturally etc., what kind of feelings it stirs, or what sounds like it?

    The reason so many of these are blurbs is because, as Quincy points out, they are blurbs from his online catalog. Not that it's all useless.

    What lacks, from my perspective, is insight. It all seems like wannabe Wikipedia IMHO. More insight in a (good) three sentence Christgau review than in thousands of words here.

    As for a more eclectic and sizeable body of reviewing work (except you don't write reviews mostly, but blurbs)--how about Byron Coley?
     
    signothetimes53 likes this.
  13. jh901

    jh901 Forum Resident

    Location:
    PARRISH FL USA
    Who authored the biography posted on the site? There is no credit unless I'm missing it.
     
  14. edb15

    edb15 Senior Member

    Location:
    new york
    The same person who declared him world-renowned.
     
  15. Jazzis

    Jazzis Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Israel
    Between 2001 and 2012 I operated an online CD shop. It was a fine shop and operated it on a non-profit basis just to spread good music to many friends all over the world.

    Some of the item descriptions from the shop's catalog are included in the 5,000 writeups - they are a tiny minority, and even if they are just blurbs, they are informative. Most of the reviews were written or rewritten in the last couple of years, most of them are about 2,000 characters long - hardly a blurb.

    I also operate my own record label, which released some fine music over the years. Also non-profit. I do it because I love music and can afford it.

    I am not going to argue with all the posters who waste their energy on the negative - please show us something positive you have ever done... but if you enjoy yourselves that's also fine...

    We have a saying here, an ancient one, which basically sums up my attitude: "The dogs keep barking and the caravan moves on".
     
  16. Jazzis

    Jazzis Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Israel
    Oh well, let me tell you this:

    Talking (or writing) about music is parallel to making love over a telephone connection - music is created to be listened to, not talked about. It's God's language, we are really unable to make it any better by talking about it.

    Therefore my reviews (or whatever you might want to call it - blurbs?) have a completely different purpose - they are informative as to the historic background, dates of recording and release, personnel, connections, etc etc. Their only purpose is to get people to discover some new music ot find a short reference about a specific album.

    I respect it if these guidelines are not enough for you. In this case you should look for other or additional information but it is not grounds to dismiss whatever I do. I do thank you for the positive things you find in my work.

    If you are interested in Polish Jazz, I am also one of the editors of the Polish Jazz blogspot site - which is considered as the most important source of information about Polish Jazz and contemporary scene - but again many of the record reviews there are mine ;) Sorry about that.

    http://www.polish-jazz.blogspot.com/

    Happy trails...
     
    PhantomStranger likes this.
  17. Roger Thornhill

    Roger Thornhill Senior Member

    Location:
    Ilford, Essex, UK
    I can see now from the biog on that website where your personal connection with Polish jazz comes from - that's fine but rubbishing other countries' music without any substantive argument behind it isn't helpful.
     
  18. Jazzis

    Jazzis Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Israel
    One man's rubbish is another man's goldmine...

    And more seriously your insinuations are completely baseless... I was merely expressing my personal opinion about the current state of American Jazz, which you may or may not concur with...
     
  19. Jazzis

    Jazzis Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Israel
    And Roger - please visit Ken Vandermark's site - I'm sure you know him as he is the most prominent Chicago Jazz scene representative - and read some of the material there - it is very educational.

    http://kenvandermark.com/

    Vandermark is very popular in Poland BTW and plays there very often to much bigger crowds than home - almost a superstar ;)

    Tom Daisy (Vandermark's partner in a duo) just completed a lengthy US tour with Polish saxophonist Mikolaj Trzaska, who often performs is Chicago - there are many such US / Polish exchanges of this kind.

    Also check out this record label (Not Two) and see how many US / Chicago artists recorded for this label. There are several other Polish labels doing the same.

    http://www.nottwo.com/
     
    Last edited: Apr 6, 2014
  20. Bruriah

    Bruriah Forum Resident

    Location:
    EU
    A lot of negativeness here...

    I like Adam's site and find it informative - and that's fine with me. You've done a nice job!
     
  21. optoman

    optoman Forum Resident

    Location:
    London. UK
    I picked up on this thread now and can't be bothered to read every post, but a quick look suggests people complaining about the reviews or questioning his expertise. I don't get it. This is one person taking time and making an effort to share his likes. From my point of view, anybody who helps me discover new interesting music is a good guy. I don't particularly care about the reviews other than to get a general idea of the style. I then go to YouTube and listen. If I like what I hear then I can investigate it further. If I try a few suggestions and don't like any, then I don't bother checking more.
    It is not meant to be a comprehensive reference work, just the music that Adam is interested in What's wrong with that?
    I come from the same part of the world as Adam and having grown up in Israel I appreciate similar music and find his site very interesting and useful. Thank you for your effort!
     
  22. moops

    moops Senior Member

    Location:
    Geebung, Australia
    This thread went really weird really fast .......
     
  23. manxman

    manxman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Isle of Man
    I've had a closer look at the site overnight, and whilst standing by my assertion that Jazzis has done everyone a huge favour by writing all these reviews and publishing them free of charge, have discovered a more significant problem with it. Namely, every single review is positive. Without knowing what the author doesn't like, it's very hard to get a grasp on his tastes, and it's difficult to separate the true classics from a competent but rather mediocre band like, say, Karnataka, or dated and disappointing outings by once-great artists (for instance, Sonja Kristina's first solo album or Annie Haslam's underwhelming 1989 effort). Of course, it's entirely possible that Jazzis disagrees with me and thinks that all of these LPs are outstanding, but I would definitely have found the site more useful if he had been more discriminating and critical.
     
  24. Jazzis

    Jazzis Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Israel
    How true... but I'm not surprised :(
     
  25. Jazzis

    Jazzis Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Israel
    That's an excellent point!

    At some point in my life I have decided NOT TO WRITE NEGATIVE REVIEWS ;) It's extremely easy to bash anything especially an album or music in general - this site / forum is FULL of excellent examples of this as is this thread.

    Therefore I decided to write ONLY positive reviews about albums I like - I do own each and every album reviewed on my site and I only keep albums I like - ergo positive reviews. I think that every album reviewed on my site is worth having, but of course different albums for different people.

    I hate ratings and therefore I'd never use any rating system in connection with Art, but ONLY in order to make my point clear - I'd only write about an album which deserves at least a three stars (out of five) (theoretical) rating ;) I realize it might sound strange to some people, but it's my site ;)

    Now back to your point - it is not that difficult to separate the outstanding from the less outstanding - there is an "ESSENTIAL" tag on the top releases - after reading your post I've decided to add a possibility to search for these essential items.
     
    Last edited: Apr 6, 2014
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