Re: Pheonix Festival (England)

Matthew Robert Chicoine (scooby@umich.edu)
Sat, 15 Jun 1996 05:27:13 -0400 (EDT)


Caron-
As wack as the Gap may seem, I think it is significant that they
are dropping music that's not run of the mill. For some reason,
foreigners seem to be lot more hip to the music we embrace, or a lot more
organized. Thought: how small is England? Thinking about this leads to
interesting conclusions on locality. See what I'm driving at?
Efforts are not futile, ego is. Too much Zen Buddhism. Keep it real-
Matt Chicoine
On Fri, 14 Jun 1996, Banez, Caron wrote:

>
> in doing a little promoting for giant step in new york, though, not at all
> surprising, it became apparent -- that it's mainly the foreigners who are
> supporting the american aj scene/thing -- i don't mean just as far as music
> buying goes, but if you look around at the NYC club, it is people who have
> come from all over the globe. one night i took addresses for the mailer
> list at giant step, and lo and behold, it was a lot of addresses from
> germany, austria, japan, italy. some of the people i spoke to couldn't even
> speak english and i had to break out my schoolgirl italian. and in actually
> handing out flyers, the people that i ran into that were the most
> enthusiastic about attending were the french people at bistro jules, lucky
> strike, cafe noir, etc.
>
> i was happy to get enthusiastic responses, but baffled about america -- what
> will it take to get the american public educated on good music? yeah, i
> know that people have responded on this thread, saying that our music
> magazines will be the machines for alerting america, but those magazines are
> out there and still, it seems as if it is the rest of the world
> thirsting/seeking this type of music, and just a microscopic percentage of
> young americans.
>
> i'm not saying it's useless -- we should still attempt to promote it, but i
> guess a lot of it has to do with music background/history. england and
> japan have always had a deeper fascination and appreciation for american
> funk/jazz, moreso than americans.
>
> once in a while, though, you see that promotion has made a difference. for
> instance, the coffee shop in my building has been playing a tape called "in
> the mix" from the Acid Jazz label that was circulated around town. I saw it
> in second hand thrift stores and restaurants being given away for free. and
> i heard the gap playing a song off of an ubiquity explorations comp the
> other day. the gap employee told me that they had received the tape from
> their corporate offices to play. so sometimes, promotion works...our
> efforts may seem futile, but they aren't.
> ----------
> From: Matthew Robert Chicoine
> To: Tony Reid
> Cc: acid-jazz
> Subject: Re: Pheonix Festival (England)
> Date: Friday, June 14, 1996 12:35PM
>
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> From: Matthew Robert Chicoine <scooby@umich.edu>
> X-Sender: scooby@choplifter.rs.itd.umich.edu
> To: Tony Reid <t-bird@salata.com>
> Cc: acid-jazz@UCSD.EDU
> Subject: Re: Pheonix Festival (England)
> In-Reply-To: <129_9606131502@salata.com>
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> --
> Haven't posted in a few years, thought I'd take a minute. Word to Tony's
> call for mutual support. At this point in time, this is exactly what we as
> music fanatics need to be doing, supporting each other and like-minded
> musicians, DJs, writers, etc... Basically, this extended family of heads.
> This includes starting up your own shit. It doesn't matter how small or
> big, get the word out, there's something going on. This is often a hard
> thing to do when it does catch on. You start questioning people's
> motives, but if they're exposed to something other than pop radio, go
> with it. It will start to rub off whether they know it or not.
> Speaking of the Phoenix festival, I was employed by Mean fiddler
> productions two years ago, the agency that organized and promoted the
> event. As an employee I got to go for free and spend the weekend. It was
> quite an experience. Not on the same scale as a Reading festival or
> Glastonbury, but it was something being able to catch the Roots, Outside,
> Galliano, Herbie Hancock, Roy Ayers, Groove Collective, etc etc etc all
> in one tent. Could it happen in the States? Questionable. Some people
> here at University of Michigan tried to throw what they called
> "Groove-apalooza". They fucked up right there with that name. Regardless,
> they got Brooklyn Funk Essentials, Jazzhole, and some MCs that go by the
> Mountain Brothers. Did it go over? Hell no. It was a free show, outside
> on a beautiful day and they only got a few hundred unversed and
> uninterested nimrods to stand around and pick their asses. It was a sad
> scene indeed. It seemed to be a problem with promotion. Who out
> there has figured out that it is ALL ABOUT HYPE? There are acts out
> there who you haven't even heard yet who would destroy your mind, they
> just don't have the press. We need more hype-machines like SNC, On the
> One, Rap Pages, URB, etc. etc. Props to all spreading a message through
> music and through press (e.g. M. Donaldson and the Orlando posse). Put
> your town on the map! Thats the way to do it. Enough, already. Over & out:
> Matt C
>
> On 13 Jun 1996, Tony Reid wrote:
>
> >
> > Pe> _ why can't us sorry asses here in the US ever see the likes of a
> > Pe> festival featuring such amazing talent as those lined up for the
> > Pe> phoenix festival??? ...oh woe is america...anyone care to comment??
> >
> > more of us need to become promoters (and/or support the existing ones).
> if
> > we show these labels that we're willing to come out and see these groups
> (and
> > buy their records!) they will fall all over themselves to give us what we
>
> > want. before "nevermind" went multi-platinum nirvana was just another
> band
> > from seattle (how many have heard of "bleach" the preceding album?). we
> have
> > to do that for a/j bands. i think by now "plantation lullabies" by
> me'shell
> > has finally gone gold, but she's about to put out another album. in the
> > record-label world, that's too long. we gotta support our artists. if
> you
> > hear about an a/j club--GO! if you know about an a/j band playing @ a
> > "non-a/j" venue, bring your friends/parents/dogs/enemies--pack the place!
>
> > make them wonder what the hell is going on w/this "acid-jazz" thing and
> how
> > they (i.e. clubs/promoters/labels) can benefit from it. excuse me if i'm
>
> > rambling, but my point is just we have to make all the non-hedz feel like
>
> > they're missing out on something (they are, aren't they?).
> >
> >
> > ... stereotypes dj crew-providin' the vibes 310 236 0141
> >
>