First was this insightful manifesto from Chris Kelsey (from whom I borrowed the awesome image to your right.) Chris offers a definition of true artistry:
The greatest players dont play out as a socio-political statement; they dont play in as a way of making debating points. The most radical thing an artist can do is to forget about who or what hes up against, and just concentrate on being himself. Thats the only real source of power.
After digesting Chriss piece, I found myself reading through this thorough examination of the music journalism world at popmatters.com (via Jazz Chronicles.) There, Jason Gross offers a balanced but optimistic recap of the ups and downs of 2009. It offers some measured suggestions for how music journalists should move forward, most notably:
lots of writers are finding themselves in the same situation where theyre doing all of the right things in terms of social media and adding interactive components to their articles, but sometimes finding that its still not good enough. The answer to that is not to give up on these new Internet wrinkles, but to keep embracing them and trying them out in different places and in different waysnot just because editors expect it, but also because it really is the best way to engage with online readers today and tomorrow. Readers are roaming around these sites looking for interesting things, and unless youre there as well, showing off your writing goods, many of them wont care about or know about what youre doing.
Taking these two pieces together, I realized that in a certain sense, the plight of music writers and musicians in the current media climate is very similar. Furthermore, the technological landscape is causing them to actually combine in many interesting ways, leading to excellent musician-bloggers as well as blogger-musicians. The two compliment each other well: text is the primary mode through which we gather information online, and the music is the reason why we seek it out. I take this as an encouraging sign, considering that I have struggled for many years with the difficulty of living with both of those crafts at the heart of who I am.
All this has led me to rethink the role that music is playing in my life right now. During most of December and January, I barely played any trombone. A recent workshop with the fantastic meditation and music teacher Madeline Bruser (my review of her book, The Art of Practicing, will be up soon) left me feeling much more confident about expressing myself through music rather than putting it off completely to focus on my writing/academic ambitions. Im not sure what form this new musical inspiration will take just yet, but at least it has me spending more quality time with my horn.
So well see where this leads me, but in the meantime do check out those articles and let me know in the comments: do you see the same trend towards combining music and writing online? And do you share my optimism that this will benefit the musicians and writers involved?
