In the last decade, no organ of music criticism has wielded as much influence as Pitchfork. It is the only publication, online or print, that can have a decisive effect on a musician or band’s career.... [W]hatever attracts people to Pitchfork, it isn’t the writing. Even writers who admire the site’s reviews almost always feel obliged to describe the prose as “uneven,” and that’s charitable. Pitchfork has a very specific scoring system that grades albums on a scale from 0.0 to 10.0, and that accounts for some of the site’s appeal, but it can’t just be the scores.... How has Pitchfork succeeded where so many other websites and magazines have not? And why is that success depressing? A lengthy history and review of
Pitchfork [Media], from an inexpensive online alternative to a music zine, to "indie" music kingmaker, and thoughts on pop music (criticism).
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Jan 24, 2012 -
109 comments
As jazz fans know, fifty years ago on March 2, 1959,
Miles Davis, Bill Evans,
John Coltrane,
Cannonball Adderley, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb met at the Columbia 30th Street Studios in NYC for the first session of Miles new album,
Kind of Blue. (Link goes to the 50th anniversary collector's box set edition page at amazon.) It was the touchstone for many other future recordings bearing its mighty influence and it fostered several high profile careers, and a new modal sound for jazz.
Kind of Blue went on to be
certified platinum, selling 4 million records, the most ever for a jazz album. Bill Evans had left the band in late 1958, but was called back by Miles for the sessions, which included his new pianist Wynton Kelly on one track only,
Freddie Freeloader. The tunes they did that day,
"So What",
"Blue in Green" (written by Evans, though credited to Miles) and "Freeloader" all became standards as did "All Blues" from the April session. Documentaries and entire books have been written on this one album alone. The phenomenon lives on. (
previously on AskMeFi, but just on Trane and Miles.)
posted by Seekerofsplendor
on Mar 3, 2009 -
71 comments
Some good music . . . and a nice flash implementation of access to it. A respite from the toil and strife of the day.
posted by fpatrick
on Oct 18, 2001 -
9 comments
Coltrane at 75: the Man and the Myths. The evolution of the view of John Coltrane as a spiritual figure. Is this a process that happens to any great musician dying at the height of their powers?
(NYT link, registration required, blah, blah) Link via the
AJList.
posted by pascal
on Sep 23, 2001 -
4 comments
