Yeah,

Definitely the demographic mass of 'baby boomers' had a huge impact on the commercial viability of jazz. Therefor, I don't get why you follow my trail of the question whether contemporary listeners were actually right to prefer Hendrix' rock improvisations over Ayler's soul jazz fusions of the time (1968-1970).



The 'superficial differences of ensemble make up' between Hendrix and Aylers is a very interesting point you make. I presume that after the 1967 Monterey Rock Festival, black guys with saxophones were simply 'old hat'. However superficial, from that moment on, jazz rapidly lost its hipness in a counterculture that was so eagerly anticipated by record companies. With flower power, they could replace earlier artists that weren't selling records in quantities that pleased those 'majors'. But would you believe Columbia actually invested studio time in a synthesizer record by Burton Greene? It's out there, and I figure a re-release is much more likely than Columbia putting out the latest electronic effort by Mr Greene (mastertapes of his 1999 'Sacred Baboons' album still being unreleased).



From the 80's on, and I presume even more after the invention of the cd, interest in 60's real counterculture emerged again. But I fear, that it had little to do with listeners who are more 'adventurous' than in the sixties, as you say.



Checking out music from the past is certainly interesting, it always has been: compare the esp disks by Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker. Sun Ra and Albert Ayler are the Parker and Holiday of today, in some way: cheap to reproduce, and with some good press clippings over the last fifty years aproximately.



So it's not automatically adventurous new listening, especially when seen in the light where a (partly) Ayler-clone like Vandermark is seen as the greatest thing since sliced bread.



At least, people are listening to cool music again, but so did many people in the sixties and seventies. The age of concertgoers today doesn't tell me anything about youngsters interested in the living music forms of today. It's babyboomers, babyboomers and even older people attending improv music shows. Medeski, Martin & Wood may be one of the few exceptions.



And, very likely, these babyboomers will be exactly the people to buy your book, Chris: so give it to'em! I will keep your name in mind, and will be one of the buyers who's actually a glorious 31 years old. Not exactly young either





Good luck! If you want to spend some more time with me,

e-mail me privately at r.takken@planet.nl



Remco Takken

I am just now seeing this post by Remco Takken. (There is so much on this website that I have completely overlooked this forum for several years!)

It may be of interest that the Burton Greene record on Columbia mentioned below, which I play bass on, and John Hammond produced, along with the never released Sunny Murray recording, only came about because John Hammond was given a small budget by Columbia to produce an avant-garde jazz album of his preference (so that Columbia could claim to carry of full line of contemporary jazz) was intended to be of Albert Ayler circa 1967-68. However, when Albert turned down the offer of $2000, John recorded Burton and Sunny instead. The synthesizer connection was mostly an overdub. The business tie-in was that Robert Moog himself, setup one of his prototypes and was present during the recording sessions, helping Burton get started on the instrument. Amazing that Remco brought this up in the context of an Albert Ayler discussion. BTW, to my knowledge "Presenting Burton Greene" album has never been re-released on CD. It was also a curiousity that a full page ad for the release appeared in "Rolling Stone" magazine. The record was listed in the Schwann catalog under the "Popular Music" category, not "Jazz"! Although quite free-form and experimental (Byard Lancaster on reeds and Shelly Rustin on drums) Columbia seemed unsure of how to promote it, advertising it along with mostly popular rock albums from their catalog.

ST

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Replying to:

Yeah,

Definitely the demographic mass of 'baby boomers' had a huge impact on the commercial viability of jazz. Therefor, I don't get why you follow my trail of the question whether contemporary listeners were actually right to prefer Hendrix' rock improvisations over Ayler's soul jazz fusions of the time (1968-1970).



The 'superficial differences of ensemble make up' between Hendrix and Aylers is a very interesting point you make. I presume that after the 1967 Monterey Rock Festival, black guys with saxophones were simply 'old hat'. However superficial, from that moment on, jazz rapidly lost its hipness in a counterculture that was so eagerly anticipated by record companies. With flower power, they could replace earlier artists that weren't selling records in quantities that pleased those 'majors'. But would you believe Columbia actually invested studio time in a synthesizer record by Burton Greene? It's out there, and I figure a re-release is much more likely than Columbia putting out the latest electronic effort by Mr Greene (mastertapes of his 1999 'Sacred Baboons' album still being unreleased).



From the 80's on, and I presume even more after the invention of the cd, interest in 60's real counterculture emerged again. But I fear, that it had little to do with listeners who are more 'adventurous' than in the sixties, as you say.



Checking out music from the past is certainly interesting, it always has been: compare the esp disks by Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker. Sun Ra and Albert Ayler are the Parker and Holiday of today, in some way: cheap to reproduce, and with some good press clippings over the last fifty years aproximately.



So it's not automatically adventurous new listening, especially when seen in the light where a (partly) Ayler-clone like Vandermark is seen as the greatest thing since sliced bread.



At least, people are listening to cool music again, but so did many people in the sixties and seventies. The age of concertgoers today doesn't tell me anything about youngsters interested in the living music forms of today. It's babyboomers, babyboomers and even older people attending improv music shows. Medeski, Martin & Wood may be one of the few exceptions.



And, very likely, these babyboomers will be exactly the people to buy your book, Chris: so give it to'em! I will keep your name in mind, and will be one of the buyers who's actually a glorious 31 years old. Not exactly young either





Good luck! If you want to spend some more time with me,

e-mail me privately at r.takken@planet.nl



Remco Takken