In the world of file sharing, especially when it comes to private trackers like Cinemageddon, users are required to maintain a ratio hovering around 1:1. In other words, you must upload as much as you download. If you fail to do this, discipline follows, up to and including being banned from the site.

How do you keep your ratio up? This can be difficult for many, especially if they enjoy obscure movies. Usually, such movies don’t have a lot of leechers (that’s the term for folks who haven’t downloaded the entire torrent yet), so once you’ve download the content, you might have to seed for months before you’ve uploaded the equivalent amount of data.

This can even be a problem with popular torrents if you have vanilla DSL. Generally speaking, a popular torrent can download at a vastly greater than a person with vanilla DSL can upload.

A seed box can alleviate both of these problems. So, what is a seed box, anyway?

A seed box is a server or a space on a server which a person can rent, which can upload a torrent at blistering rates, sometimes as much as 6 mg/sec. This allows file sharers to swiftly increase their seeding ratio and remain in the good graces of a private tracker.

Now, seed boxes have been around for a little while now, and there isn’t exactly a stampede to rent them, but that might be changing.

In mid-July, ISPs in the United States will start aggressively monitoring file sharing by their customers, and when they determine that copyright laws are violated, they will enforce sanctions, such as decreased bandwidth, higher charges, limited access to the web, and denial of service. The ISPs will also most likely turn over their data to the government and to the enforcement arm of the entertainment industry, which could lead to enormous fines and even jail time.

So, what does that have to do with seed boxes?

Well, in addition to seed boxes providing increased upload speed for torrents, some also provide users with secure FTP and/or secure HTTP. What that means is that when you download files via secure FTP and/or secure HTTP from a seedbox, your ISP has no way of knowing what you just downloaded. They will know how much you downloaded, but the contents of that download will be encrypted. And of course, the initial download of the torrent takes place on a server that isn’t yours, providing another layer of privacy.

Then again, that doesn’t do users much good if government entities issue a court order to seed box providers demanding that they turn over their user data, but seed boxes may still provide a thin veil of protection if the seed box server is located in a country with strong privacy protections.

One thing is for sure. Users who insist on file sharing copyright protected materials, such as recent movies and music, will be in for a rude awakening after mid July if they don’t have a seedbox.

If you found this post helpful, share it by clicking on one of these icons!

On the other hand, gaming is hugely popular. According to Wikia.com, the gaming industry has already surpassed the music industry in gross revenue, let alone the paltry market share jazz has.

But there is a silver lining.

Apparently, there are such a thing as jazz games, so some of the folks out there playing games might be exposed to the music we love, get intrigued and hopefully end supporting jazz artists by buying cds or attending concerts.

Here is a small sampling of some of the jazz oriented games available, along with brief descriptions:

Treble2

Your keyboard is your instrument - can you feel the beat? Test yourself against driving rhythms and complex melodies, and discover awesome new music!

Jazz Man

A music game with three stages. Stage 1; Avoid. Stage 2; Collect. Stage 3: Match. This is a quick music game with jazz music and jazz art.

Jazz Dancer

Tonight you will be attending a live Jazz event as a stage dancer, its your job to come up with the outfit for all the dancers. Use this girl as your model and start creating your perfect outfit for the perfect stage dance. Choose from many different items of clothing, take your time and you will come up with a great outfit.

Suzy Saxophone

Suzy the Jazz Singer knows everything there is to know about jazz instruments. From the piano to the clarinet, she’s been playing the blues before she could stand. Now she’s standing on stage with a crowd just waiting to hear the rhythms she comes up with next!

You get the idea.

If you found this post helpful, share it by clicking on one of these icons!

American ISPs to Launch Massive Copyright Spying Scheme on July 12
By Stephen C. Webster
Thursday, 15 March, 2012

If you download potentially copyrighted software, videos or music, your Internet service provider (ISP) has been watching, and they’re coming for you.

Specifically, they’re coming for you on Thursday, July 12.

That’s the date when the nation’s largest ISPs will all voluntarily implement a new anti-piracy plan that will engage network operators in the largest digital spying scheme in history, and see some users’ bandwidth completely cut off until they sign an agreement saying they will not download copyrighted materials.

Word of the start date has been largely kept secret since ISPs announced their plans last June. The deal was brokered by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and coordinated by the Obama Administration. The same groups have weighed in heavily on controversial Internet policies around the world, with similar facilitation by the Obama’s Administration’s State Department.

The July 12 date was revealed by the RIAA’s CEO and top lobbyist, Cary Sherman, during a publishers’ conference on Wednesday in New York, according to technology publication CNet.

The content industries calls this scheme a “graduated response” plan, which will see Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and others spying on users’ Internet activities and watching for potential copyright infringement. Users who are “caught” infringing on a creator’s protected work can then be interrupted with a notice that piracy is forbidden by law and carries penalties of up to $150,000 per infringement, requiring the user to click through saying they understand the consequences before bandwidth is restored, and they could still be subject to copyright infringement lawsuits.

Participating ISPs have a range of options for dealing with customers who continue to pirate media, at that point: They can require that an alleged repeat offender undergo an educational course before their service is restored. They can utilize multiple warnings, restrict access to only certain major websites like Google, Facebook or a list of the top 200 sites going, reduce someone’s bandwidth to practically nothing and even share information on repeat offenders with competing ISPs, effectively creating a sort of Internet blacklist — although publicly, none of the network operators have agreed to “terminate” a customer’s service.

It is because of those reasons that the content industries believe this program achieves much more than what might have been possible in the realm of public policy, and the ISPs appear to agree. The voluntary scheme will be paid for mostly by the content industries, which will share some costs with the ISPs.

Not everyone sees it as a positive: The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group, argued that the “graduated response” scheme lacks transparency, and that copyright holders could wield the network operators like a blunt instrument in cases where their claims may not be entirely valid — which is the biggest problem with statutes codified by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. They also pressed for assurances that claim reviews will be conducted by a neutral party, and suggested that users should be given some form of due process before their bandwidth is turned down or cut off entirely.

The EFF also took issue with the system of protest the program puts in place, which only gives users six predetermined “defenses” against a copyright claim. “And even the six enumerated defenses are incomplete,” they complained. “For example, the ‘public domain’ defense applies only if the work was created before 1923 — even though works created after 1923 can enter the public domain in a variety of ways.”

A legislative effort that would have achieved some, but not all, of these ends was utterly destroyed by the Internet’s first ever mass work stoppage late last year, which saw thousands of popular websites go dark in protest.

It’s not yet clear how the tech world will react to the ISPs siding with the content industries to do what the government simply could not.

If you found this post helpful, share it by clicking on one of these icons!

It’s somewhat common for an artist to make one or two great albums and then decline or have a short, intense period of creativity which then falls off (Sly Stone). But a sustained output of superb music is much more rare.

Here is a short list of examples. Feel free to add more examples in the comments section.

Elvin Jones’ Blue Note Period

Every album Elvin Jones made for Blue Note was at least very, very good. Some were out and out masterpieces.

Miles Davis, roughly from 1945 to 1973

Miles is probably the king of sustained bursts of creativity, at least if you don’t count Duke Ellington. (I don’t, because I’m most familiar with his early work from the 30s). This period included Miles’ participation in the formation of bebop, cool jazz, the sophisticated jazz of the 2nd great quintet, the birth of fusion, the great quintet of Live At The Fillmore, and the protean Jack Johnson sessions. And I’m not even including his comeback band with John Scofield in the 80s.

John Scofield, 1977-1987

Speaking of Scofield, he could basically do no wrong between ‘77 and ‘87. Yes, I know, he’s made many brilliant albums since (Hand Jive, Quiet, Uberjam), but his post 80s output has been inconsistent.

Aretha Franklin’s Atlantic Years

Practically every time Aretha opened her mouth during those years, gold poured out. Enough said.

John McLaughlin, 1969-1983

With a few exceptions, everything McLaughlin tried worked like a charm. He was absolutely reckless in his innovation. The free-ish jazz of Extrapolation, the proto world music of My Goals Beyond, the hard rock fusion of Mahavishnu, the soul jazz of New York On My Mind, the Indian fusion of Shakti, the French flavored fusion of Belo Horizonte…wow.

McCoy Tyner’s Milestone Period

I know, McCoy was great even before his tenure with Milestone, but he just caught fire with the label. He was consistently brilliant from ‘72 to ‘81.

James Brown, 1959-1974

Good Gawd! Brown was a protean soul stylist, and not content with that, basically invented funk.

The Beatles

They went from being competent rock and rollers and steadily increased in sophistication until their breakup in 1970. I know, it’s only 6 years, but what a 6 years! They changed styles like some people change socks.

John Coltrane

Coltrane’s career as a solo artist only lasted 10 years, but he made every minute count. He started out as a relatively straight forward bebop artist, but rapidly progressed in a number of directions, experimenting with rapidly shifting harmonies (Giant Steps), pulse-oriented jazz (the great quartet), and finally free jazz.

Now, keep in mind I came of age in the 70s, so there are earlier artists, like Ellington, that I probably haven’t given their due. And who knows? I probably left out somebody obvious. But I think it’s hard to argue with the artists I’ve included.

If you found this post helpful, share it by clicking on one of these icons!

With apologies to the few folks who use the forum for legitimate purposes, I’m shutting it down, effective immediately.

Also, I am belatedly getting rid of the contests link.

I used to give contests in which I would give away CDs, but since no one participated in these contests, I stopped doing it long ago.

I really should have gotten rid of it of the contest link a long time ago, but I slacked. My apologies to my faithful readers.

As for the Jazz Record Labels link and the Live Jazz Venues link, I simply don’t have the time or inclination to keep these current. It seems to me that providing out of date information is worse than no information at all, so I’m deleting these links.

If readers actually want me to reinstate the Jazz Record Labels link or the Live Jazz Venues link (keeping in mind that these materials won’t be updated), I will be happy to comply.

If you found this post helpful, share it by clicking on one of these icons!

For those expecting a rundown of the best B3 dates with a horn section, sorry to disappoint — this blog is still basically dead.

Actually, I’m asking any lingering readers out there to weigh in with their opinions of what the best Hammond B3 organ records are that feature a horn section. To me, there are few sounds more slammin’ than that.

I remember going to a killer Dr. Lonnie Smith date in Cambridge Mass around 30 ago. Just as impressive was his intermission music, which featured a horn section with a B3. I kick myself every time I recall that I didn’t ask Lonnie what that music was.

If you found this post helpful, share it by clicking on one of these icons!

Considering how capable Jan Hammer was in so many music genres, it’s ironic that the one he chose to concentrate his energies the most on was his weakest. When Hammer turned his back on formal complexity and tried his hand at a combination of R&B and rock, the results were mediocre at best.

Terrible albums like Black Sheep and Oh, Yeah? tend to cast doubt on Jan Hammer’s talent and significance, but the fact is that Jan Hammer was a protean and unique keyboard stylist. There hasn’t been one similar before or since. His trademark was a rhythmic precision and a composer’s ear for laying down contrary harmonic concepts on top of whatever genre he was filtering through his sensibility at the time. Hammer could do blues, funk, Latin, jazz, and rock authentically, but in his best work, he burrowed deep into the DNA of the music and left his mark.

Take his acoustic piano work on G.G. or What’s Up – That’s It for example, both post bop tunes recorded with Elvin Jones in the late 60s, right after Jan Hammer arrived in the United States from his native Czeckoslavakia. On G.G., he alternates between swift arpeggiations that outline the harmony and extremely deliberate and deceptively simple melodies. He sounds like no one else. On What’s Up – That’s It, he startles us with a completely authentic Latin ostinato. On the solo, again, there are the deliberate, simple melodies that unexpectedly migrate into altered harmony. Listen to the comping behind his melodies, and how completely it contrasts with the melody.

Hammer continued to exhibit these characteristics in an electric context with the Mahavishnu Orchestra and his little heard work with flautist Jeremy Steig and reed player Steve Grossman, but probably the most complete flowering of his aesthetic can be heard on his solo masterpiece, The First Seven Days, which is mostly scored for various keyboards, augmented with percussion and violin. It’s here that his composing and arranging sensibility can be discerned most clearly.

Taking nothing away from Jan Hammer’s work with Jeff Beck on the classic fusion album Wired, probably the best setting for Hammer as an instrumentalist was on Elvin Jones’ On The Mountain. Really, it’s an Elvin Jones date only in name. All of the tunes were written either by Hammer or the bassist, Gene Perla. Hammer’s playing on this set has all of his virtues: sensitivity, far reaching harmonic knowledge, originality, and ferocity.

Jan Hammer was only a serious musician for maybe ten years before he devoted himself to more egalitarian pursuits, finally trailing off into silence, but it would be a mistake to underestimate his contribution to jazz. He would have no imitators, and next to no influence on musicians of future generations, but when you combine his early solo albums with his contributions as a sideman, you’re left with an estimable body of work.

If you found this post helpful, share it by clicking on one of these icons!

JAZZBO NOTES HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RECORDING

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars


Alright, a little disclosure here. I’m not a big fan of either Milt Jackson or Wes Montgomery (I know — total heresy). So you might want to take my opinion of Bags Meets Wes with grain of salt.

I actually think it’s really good.

First off, it’s a straight bebop date, which I generally find boring (Yeah, I know — I’m just digging myself deeper with each sentence), but that isn’t the case with Bags Meets Wes. Why?

Well, on many, many bebop dates, the cats just blow over the changes, seemingly without a whole lot of thought. Just alot of empty scale running. That’s not the case here.

Jackson and Montgomery make sure they have something to say before they play. Each of their solos is melodic and well constructed.

The rhythm section behind them is better than usual, too. I’ve always admired pianist Wynton Kelly. He’s the epitome of grace and taste. Drummer Philly Joe Jones gooses the music along aggressively, giving it an energy it otherwise might not have. Bassist Sam Jones isn’t a thumper, as many bassists were during the early sixties. Bassists could often get away with playing nonsense as long as they kept the rhythm because they were under recorded. Jones is far enough up front in the mix that you can tell what he’s doing, and his lines are classic, plus he swings.

Who knows, if I really liked bebop, maybe I would give Bags Meets Wes a full five stars, but frankly, I find the material a tad dull. Played perfectly, mind you, but dull. But that’s just me.

If you’re a straight up bop fan, I’d get this if I were you. Even if you aren’t, I still recommend Bags Meets Wes.

If you found this post helpful, share it by clicking on one of these icons!

WORTH A LISTEN

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars


I was pretty excited when I picked up The New Standard. I mean, talk about a dream team: Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker, John Scofield, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, and Don Alias. It doesn’t get any better than that.

The challenge in a date like The New Standard comes in taking a batch of modern pop tunes and making them work as post bop. First of all, you’ve got to pick tunes that are sturdy enough for jazz improvisation. Second of all, you’ve got to find ways to translate pop tunes into the jazz idiom. The band has mixed success in both areas.

Before I sat down to review The New Standard, I hadn’t heard many of these tunes, so I checked out the tiny samples that are available at Amazon.com.

From what I can tell, Don Henley’s New York Minute is a lugubrious, synth infused slog. Hancock and the band take the tempo way up, finding ways to emphasize the dissonance implicit in the composition. The band emphasizes jagged rhythms during the verses, breaking into swing time on the chorus. The band’s sound is as terrific as you would expect. Of course, the rhythm team of Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette and Don Alias is unbeatable. Their grooves kill. Herbie Hancock sparkles on piano in a way that he hasn’t since the 70s. Scofield, too is red hot. It’s great to see him in a post bop mode, concentrating on the notes instead of on tone and effects. Brecker is predictably fine on tenor. The band’s rendition of New York Minute shows that the basic concept of The New Standard could work.

Prince’s Thieves In The Temple is also successful. Hancock has simplified Prince’s original into an R&B groove tune, which works beautifully for the group. It’s the equivalent of someone like Jimmy Smith covering a Marvin Gaye tune back in the 70s.

Regrettably, these are the only unqualified successes. Let’s face it — Kurt Cobain’s All Apologies is a weak tune, redeemed mostly by Kurt’s performance, and given additional emotional heft by the circumstances under which it came out. Hancock’s arrangement doesn’t help matters. Scofield’s guitar sounds whiny. The whole thing sounds sing-songy, which is kind of hard to avoid because All Apologies is a sing-songy composition, not one of Kurt’s best.

Several of the tunes end up sounding like smooth jazz, which is hard to avoid, considering how bland the originals are.

I question the wisdom of including tunes like Sade’s Love Is Stronger Than Pride, Babyface’s When Can I See You, or even Stevie Wonder’s You’ve Got It Bad, Girl.

I just came from a Realistic Orchestra concert in which they covered Stevie Wonder’s Visions and Contusion, both much better choices for jazz covers. It’s almost like Herbie Hancock deliberately chose songs that were resistant to being covered in a jazz context, as if the performing capabilities of the musicians were infinitely more important than the compositions themselves.

If that was Hancock’s intent, I think it was misguided. Certainly, the band Herbie got together for this date is killer, and even the lamest of these songs has moments when the playing of the musicians overcomes the limitations of the material, but as a whole, The New Standard falls short of it’s potential.

If you found this post helpful, share it by clicking on one of these icons!

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars


Double Edge was to be David Liebman and Richie Beirach’s last great duet performance together, meaning that it has their characteristic combination of uncommon lyricism and intense swing. After this, as a duo, they leaned too far into 20th Century classical music harmony for me, at the expense of communication.

If you’re going to do a program of standards, especially if they are as familiar as Lover Man, On Green Dolphin Street, and Round Midnight, you’d better have a unique take on the material. And Dave Liebman and Richie Beirach do. On all of these standards, the duo alters the harmony, sometimes subtly, sometimes fairly outrageously. Mostly, their alterations take the material to a darker, harsher, more edgy place.

India starts with some atmospherics from pianist Richie Beirach, playing the strings inside the piano. When we get the melody, Liebman harps on the augmented 4th. I think maybe they were thinking of Calcutta when they were playing this.

Similarly, Round Midnight has a ghostly air, like the duo are imagining an all but abandoned street with only a few streetwalkers and a mangy cat.

Even when the duo plays pretty, like on the medley of Lover Man and Some Other Time, they still play around with harmony and instrumental effects.

Best of all is the duo’s take on Oleo, that venerable warhorse. If you didn’t know it was Oleo, you wouldn’t be able to tell until the last couple of choruses. The duo starts out the tune at a full gallop, distorting it beyond all recognition, swinging like mad. This is the most violent rendition of this tune I’ve ever heard. It’s brilliant.

But really, Double Edge as a whole is brilliant. I can’t think of a piano/reeds date that’s even close to as good, other that Dave Liebman and Richie Beirach’s earlier dates, Forgotten Fantasies and Omerta.

If you found this post helpful, share it by clicking on one of these icons!