Joys and Concerns #3
In Brooklyn with Mark Helias; Substack and Bandcamp vs. Spotify and Netflix.
NYC is rebuilding its network of jazz rooms after a fairly drastic downsizing (Cornelia Street Cafe, Jazz Standard, 55 Bar). I’m very hopeful about Close Up, a new club on the Lower East Side, and I’m proud to be a part of what’s happening at Bar Bayeux, Barbes, Bar Lunatico, and Ornithology. (Thank you to Keith Hoffman and Laurence Donahue-Greene at the New York City Jazz Record for including my name in the “2024 Live Performances of the Year” for our Keyed Up! night at Bar Bayeux!)
My plan for 2025 is to do a monthly show (schedule permitting) at Ibeam, a musician-run rehearsal/concert space in Gowanus. Next Monday, January 13th, my long-time collaborators pianist Jacob Sacks and saxophonist Chet Doxas will be joined by the legendary bassist/composer Mark Helias. (The show isn’t listed on the website yet but will be tomorrow or Sunday. Have no fear, it’s definitely happening.)
Mr. Helias is a major jazz composer, bandleader, soloist, and collaborator, first appearing with Anthony Braxton in the late Seventies, before working closely with Don Cherry, Ed Blackwell, and Dewey Redman through the Eighties. His own groups, including BassDrumBone (with Ray Anderson and Gerry Hemingway) and Open Loose (with Tony Malaby and Tom Rainey) define the wide-lens jazz perspective.
The two Helias releases I know best are available on his Bandcamp:
The Current Set (Enja, 1987); Ethan Iverson wrote about this album in his brief memorial about trumpeter Herb Robertson. It’s a wonderful album with a standout Victor Lewis performance.
Roof Rights (recorded 2000, released 2020). What a great release, one I covered in my Gerald Cleaver post.
I also learned a lot from a 1987 Glasgow concert by NU, a co-operative group of Don Cherry, Ed Blackwell, Carlos Ward, Nana Vasconcelos, and Helias. Cherry and Blackwell are still under-explored.
In 2022, Michael Formanek booked a two-week tour with his Drome Trio featuring Chet Doxas and myself. Mark Helias, a close comrade of Mr. Formanek’s, attended our first show at an art gallery in Port Jervis, NY. After the gig, which Mark enjoyed tremendously, at a nearby pub, I listened to Mark and Michael reminisce and compare notes for a few hours. This was equivalent to two years of grad school— they’ve seen and done it all with everyone.
Mark Helias is a treasure. Criss-crossing across the scenes and making beautiful music, he literally embodies how jazz in 2025 is such a beautiful thing. When I called Mark about playing with us at the humble Ibeam, he immediately agreed. His exact words were: “Of course. This is what we’re supposed to be doing.”
Right on Mr. Helias!
I love writing Chronicles, and the music community on Substack has endless wisdom to offer. For years, the leading Substacker and jazz historian Mr. Ted Gioia has said that Spotify, Netflix are, at their core, anti-human: forget music lovers finding great music and supporting musicians, or movie fanatics encouraging their favorite filmmakers to go further. Nah. To Spotify and Netflix, ‘users’ exist solely for profit extraction, while ‘content’ has no value or meaning beyond the revenue it generates.
Two distressing articles makes plain how correct Gioia (et al) was/is:
On Netflix, from the wonderful Vince Keenan and N+1.
We can expect more AI stuff on Spotify and Netflix in the coming years. Seemingly permanent fixtures on our digital horizon, these platforms will never help independent artists. For folks like me, the giant data companies serve no purpose— no growth, no meaningful audience discovery, no revenue. Zilch. Bupkis. Zero.
But on Substack and Bandcamp, we get paid for our work while making real connections with supporters. Imperfect though they are, they’re nevertheless actual, real-world alternatives. So enough complaining about Big Tech— let’s get to work with what we have!
Thank you Ludivico Granvassu at All About Jazz for placing my album Sunday (Loyal Label, 2024) featuring saxophonist Loren Stillman, guitarist/banjoist Brandon Seabrook, and bassist Eivind Opsvik, on your “remarkable” list for his Best of 2024! If you’d like to hear Sunday— it is, if I may, pretty happening— it’s available on my Bandcamp as a CD or download1. But don’t take my word for it— read this sympathetic look at Sunday and Saturday (Fresh Sound, 2023) by James Koblin.
A free subscription to this Substack is real, meaningful support. Of course, paid subscribers are what keeps the lights on. The more paying subscribers I receive, the more I can do, more well-researched deep dives into unexplored corners of drum history. So if you like Chronicles, consider becoming a paid subscriber for $8/month.
Older essays you might have missed:
Alice Coltrane and Ben Riley (November 2024)
Burt Bacharach’s Eighth Notes (March 2024)
The Sources of Miles Ahead (December 2023)
For Horacee Arnold (June 2023)
It’s Time: Max Roach and M’Boom, 1970-1984 (April 2023)
The only way forward is to focus on what I care about, and build an audience of colleagues, fans, and supporters. The only way to do that is to plant my flag and see who shows up.
On the internet, I’m on Bandcamp and Substack. In the real world, I’ll play anywhere that’ll have me, and, schedule permitting, once a month at Ibeam.
It’s not on Spotify, sorry.
Right on, Vinnie, and write on!