Is Burning Ambulance a Great Title, or What?
Writer Phil Freeman has seen the light, and it shines on the world of self-publishing. His latest project is Burning Ambulance #1, the first installment of Freeman’s new “quarterly journal of the arts.” Besides Phil himself, contributors include Kurt Gottschalk, Stephen Haynes, Matt Cibula, and Phil Nugent. The Winter 2010 issue includes pieces on Bill Dixon, Henry Threadgill, and Orthodox. Matthew Shipp is on the cover.
Phil has posted an extended version of his Shipp piece on the Burning Ambulance blog. It’s a great read, in no small part because Phil makes the conscious decision to ignore the rhetorical bombs Matt is inclined to throw and instead concentrate on the music and the philosophy behind it.
[Phil thinks Matt’s rips of Jarrett, Hancock, and the like turn-off potential listeners. I get his point yet disagree. The perceived audacity of Matt’s statements might just as well inspire curiosity: “Who the hell does this guy think he is?,” leads to “I wonder what this guy sounds like?” Of course, both views are purely speculative.]
The article delves into the pianist’s descriptions of his time with David Ware, his attraction to the music of Anton Webern, and the recording of his latest solo album, 4D, among other things. There’s more meat to this article than any ten I’ve seen written about Shipp.
Phil sent me a link to this about a week ago. For whatever reason, I didn’t get to it. This morning, however, as I received yet another handful of “jazz doesn’t sell, we can’t help you” responses from publishers and agents regarding my own book, I remembered Burning Ambulance and gave it a read. The no-nonsense quality of the piece reminds me that the DYI ethos can lead to arts writing without compromise, and that’s a very good thing. It may or may not be the future of jazz publishing, but it sure as heck is the present.
[Burning Ambulance #1 can be purchased here.]
Thanks for the link, Chris. I just ordered a copy.
Comment by Jason Crane | The Jazz Session — March 5, 2010 @ 3:06 pmI can attest to the audacity outcome. Pieces on Mr. Shipp get more readers than anything I do. Younger writers who weren’t in on the old days of assertiveness may not know how out front artists were in the 60’s and 70’s.
And my cohort of punk rock friends, street fighters and those disdainful of vapid civility that masks marginalization actually like to see the artists assert themselves when addressing Jazz Inc.
I’m guessing the original advice I proffered about looking to medium changes for publishing may still hold water. If you bypass paper altogether and do an introductory load of it on the various e book formats, it circulates much faster and tells you where it goes. If it does great numbers, it becomes a pre-condition for publication in paper.
And if paper is a must, Phil’s embrace of Lulu is the hallmark of publication on demand. Rounder records and Mosaic records both have adopted that model.
At the end of the day, the volatility of mediums suggests the focus should be on circulation process in all its potential forms rather than selection of a particular one.
Comment by Chris Rich — March 6, 2010 @ 10:44 am