Chris Robinson's Music & Culture Blog
Among the many different products celebrating Blue Note's 75th Anniversary (or perhaps capitalizing upon is a better way to put it) is the Astell & Kern Blue Note 75th Anniversary Package. When I got the press release I was curious, so I clicked on the link and here's what the package includes: -75 Blue Note …
Continue reading Get Hip! Fast: Astell&Kern Blue Note 75th Anniversary Package
I recently got a press release for singer Cyrille Aimee's new album that featured the following blurb: "When you see Cyrille Aimée perform, you instantly fall in love with her—her voice, eyes, curls and the joyful spirit she invests in each song." The quote comes from a 2013 interview with Aimee by the singer Roseanna …
Continue reading It’s Not about Cyrille Aimee’s Eyes and Curls
So I went and did some work on my favorite releases of 2014 page, check it out here. It comes with my rational for my new approach to listing my favorite albums by year, and some thoughts on a few of the albums. And check back to the page periodically, as I'll be expanding the …
My S.O. said I couldn't limit my thoughts on last week's Django Gold's satirical piece in the New Yorker about Sonny Rollins to five short sentences. I'm about to prove her wrong. In no particular order: If you thought it was funny (I laughed at the Miles bit), cool; if not, also fine. The response …
Continue reading Brief thoughts on the Sonny Rollins/New Yorker/Django Gold Kerfuffle
You might have read Ted Gioia's recent piece on The Daily Beast entitled "Music Criticism Has Degenerated into Lifestyle Reporting." Gioia laments the current state of music criticism, arguing that it rarely includes analytical discussions of the music in the way that football commentators often include details of how a particular play or strategy works …
Continue reading What Ted Gioia Missed, and Absolutely Nailed
In Simulacra and Simulation Jean Baudrillard notes how humans like to stockpile their past as a way to remember it. Perhaps one of the finest examples of this are the various year end poll, best of lists, recaps, summaries etc. This year NPR Music hosted the annual jazz critics poll that Francis Davis has been …
Well shoot, it's that time of the year again - time for me to start going through the numerous albums from 2013 I listened to and try to figure out how to rank them, an arduous task to be sure. As a voter in the annual Rhapsody.com critics poll, I will have to figure out …
Continue reading Voting for Debut of the Year is Gonna Be Tough
