Schnipper’s Slept On
- story THE FADER
Each Tuesday, FADER editor Matthew Schnipper highlights an underappreciated recent release he thinks we need to know about. This week it’s John Coltrane’s Live at Birdland. Yeah, this is totally not a recent release but let me live. You get a little SXSW wrap up so can we meet in the middle? Check this completely insane rendition of “Alabama” that will make you bummed you were not alive in 1963 (and if you were, why were you not watching this? You have no excuses. OK I am pretty sure my dad is the only person who was born in 1963 that might read this. Dad, you were 16, that was old enough. What is your excuse? Oh, right you don’t have one. Buy Live at Birdland and read Schnipper’s thoughts on it after the jump.
After I decided I hate music I remembered I like jazz. I live in a half-basement apartment that gets good sunshine on weekend mornings and I needed to clean. So I put on John Coltrane and swept the floors. There was a surprising amount of dirt by the front door. I always loved the song title “I Want to Talk About You.” It sounds like the name of a short story. Maybe it is. But it’s not as intense a song as “Alabama,” which Coltrane supposedly wrote as a response to the Birmingham church bombing. I bought this record in a parking lot from a man selling records out of a truck.
Last week I went to Austin, Texas for SXSW and the Levi’s/FADER Fort. I did interviews, drank a few tallboys, had some lollipops and bad pizza, sweated, got sunburned on my nose and tan on my face. I saw a lot of music. Most of them were at our work space, which was nice and relaxing. It feels good, no matter what the reason, to not have to wait in a line. I’ve been able to see my friend Jacob regularly the last few months, though he lives in California. We had outdoor brunch and I won’t seem him again until October, when he gets married. I stayed at a crummy hotel where two days in a row the maids did not close the door all the way. My roommate wasn’t really happy about this. I guess I wasn’t either but that kind of thing doesn’t bother me. Weird things bother me.
I was able to see Girls and Grizzly Bear play in a church. Another band played in between them but I was outside talking. I tried to call my dad back but cell phone reception was bad and my phone has a problematic tendency to drop calls, so it didn’t happen. Sandy, beloved former FADER intern, had come to Austin with Girls and she introduced us. Do you know I have listened to your song one hundred times? I synced my iPhone this morning, one hundred. That’s only two hundred minutes, but it’s something to shake a stick at. How do you explain that to people? You don’t. I sat in the balcony for Girls. The hole in my jeans’ right knee ripped bigger. They’re at the tailor now. I told Chris from Girls I like the part of the song where he says that he wishes that he had a beach house. I told him a few years ago my folks got a beach house. It’s something worth wishing for. After they played someone else asked me if I wanted to do cocaine later. I thought it was a joke but it wasn’t. It’s weird people do that. I saw the guy the next day, he looked more sprightly than me, was wearing lavender.
The reason I like Grizzly Bear is because of the way Chris Bear hits the crash cymbal like it was a ride cymbal. Did you ever get into hardcore? They use a cymbal called a China cymbal for harshness. It sounds like a bummed out rain stick. Chris Bear plays his crash cymbal so it sounds like that. So behind layers of beautiful melodies, clarinets and trilling acoustic stylings is the same flair as mosh metal. I wonder where he learned this? I think it is from jazz. Do you play air drums? Chances are you are playing the ride cymbal back beat jazz style. Chris Bear was a jazz drummer first, indie whatever drummer second. You can take the man out of jazz etc.
I, like everyone else, always had a thing for Elvin Jones. He played drums with John Coltrane in his Classic Quartet until he felt that the group’s style had evolved into a direction of openness he was not interested in. McCoy Tyner, Coltrane’s pianist, felt similar earlier, and left the group. Jones was interesting because he pushed until he broke. On Ascension, Coltrane’s wild large group recording from 1965, Tyner sticks out with his dainty keys, but Jones blends in, melds his style to the wiliness that was breaking through with the younger players and their influence. There was something about him that seemed but malleable but always infallible. Maybe his sound was just consistently mappable to many different genres. I like that. Wouldn’t it be nice to have what you do best be what everyone likes best? I think it’s because of the ride cymbal. Who knew consistently hitting metal was the key to a bright humanity? I guess John Coltrane. And maybe Chris Bear.
I didn’t hear much jazz in Texas. Maybe none. I heard some classical in my coworker’s hotel room. He was on the 24th floor overlooking all of downtown Austin. From above everyone moves so slowly. I had a similar feeling of slow momentum on the plane back to New York Sunday night. I could see where my house was, second exit over the bridge, left at the light, take until it ends, right at the light, five blocks up. It’s a simple path. Have you ever even seen Manhattan from a plane? It’s frightening. I like aisle seats but window is better than middle. I only slept one hour, woke up for some tomato juice. I only ever drink it on airplanes.
I’m going to see more music tonight. Turns out I don’t hate it. Sneak preview: I interviewed Mika Miko for thefader.com. We talked about YouTube and The Misfits. They have a new drummer and he did not say anything. I asked him if he liked being in a band. He said, “This isn’t being in a band.” I said “It is” but I was just being defensive. I think he was right.
Related:
- Schnipper’s Slept On
- Schnipper’s Slept On
- Video: No Age Live-Scores a Dramatic Bear Chase
- Schnipper’s Slept On
- FADER TV: Micachu Interviewed by Grizzly Bear at The Levis®/FADER Fort
- posted on Mar 24, 2009 in SLEPT ON
- tags Grizzly Bear, jazz, John Coltrane
