Coda

[achilles]

I'm a recent subscriber (3 issues so far), and though I've had too much trouble actually getting the damn magazine mailed to me (usually have to email them and remind them!), I have found it to be a nice piece of work. It's not as interesting to me as say The Wire, and it's a little thin, but I have found the writing to be excellent--smart, clean, even elegant prose from cover to cover (kudos to those of you here who write for it and apologies if there's already been a previous pat on the back thread).

Unlike The Wire, there are not any articles or reviews that make me cringe from the pretentiousness (no pedantic nonsense, no political rhetoric, no academic cant).

And while it doesn't cover a great range, at least it's consistent, unlike Signal to Noise, which, though I love it, still seems unsure of its audience and is often badly edited (I speak from experience).

So three cheers for Canada!
(or four even, if that seems stingy)

[Bill Barton]

Originally posted by achilles
I'm a recent subscriber (3 issues so far), and though I've had too much trouble actually getting the damn magazine mailed to me (usually have to email them and remind them!), I have found it to be a nice piece of work. It's not as interesting to me as say The Wire, and it's a little thin, but I have found the writing to be excellent--smart, clean, even elegant prose from cover to cover (kudos to those of you here who write for it and apologies if there's already been a previous pat on the back thread).

Unlike The Wire, there are not any articles or reviews that make me cringe from the pretentiousness (no pedantic nonsense, no political rhetoric, no academic cant).

And while it doesn't cover a great range, at least it's consistent, unlike Signal to Noise, which, though I love it, still seems unsure of its audience and is often badly edited (I speak from experience).

So three cheers for Canada!
(or four even, if that seems stingy)

Five cheers for Canada from the Pacific Northwest... Coda has really blossomed under Stuart Broomer's leadership.

Re: STN

"...unsure of its audience and is often badly edited..."

Would you care to elaborate on this perspective? From my experience, Pete Gershon is nine times out of ten a fine editor, but perhaps the sheer bulk of what he pulls off, in what is virtually a one-man operation, may occasionally create some glitches. The only piece of mine that suffered in the editing process was the Highly Recommended Wally Shoup article in the current issue, which pretty much excised all specific mentions of the CD itself, but left in a phrase pointing to the CD, making for a rather confusing passage.

[achilles]

[i]Re: STN

"...unsure of its audience and is often badly edited..."

Would you care to elaborate on this perspective? From my experience, Pete Gershon is nine times out of ten a fine editor, but perhaps the sheer bulk of what he pulls off, in what is virtually a one-man operation, may occasionally create some glitches. The only piece of mine that suffered in the editing process was the Highly Recommended Wally Shoup article in the current issue, which pretty much excised all specific mentions of the CD itself, but left in a phrase pointing to the CD, making for a rather confusing passage. [/B]

i shouldn't quibble too much because truthfully i admire the amazing effort that pete puts in just to keep STN afloat. i'll private message you to let you know what i'm getting at rather than air it here. STN needs all the support it can get.....

[Nate Dorward]

A third vote of enthusiasm for the new-look Coda (for what it's worth--I mean, I write for it a bit, but have been a reader for years, long before I contributed). Incidentally, it's worth mentioning that the current (July/August) issue has a 3-page feature on Paul Dunmall, which is a combination of a conventional writeup, a set of reviews, & (strangely enough!) Dunmall's own reviews of the reviews! -- The issue also has a feature on Carla Bley--no "text", just Patrick Hinely's photos, with some amusing captions. These are different photos than those in the liner notes to the album (which were also Hinely's work).

[mke]

Originally posted by Nate Dorward
(strangely enough!) Dunmall's own reviews of the reviews!

That's an interesting idea.

[gnhrtg]

Erm...googling directs me to a site for Coda with headquarters in Paris and a mag in French, which, so far as I can tell, has little to do with improvisation. Could anyone be of help?

[Nate Dorward]

I've bugged Stuart about this before--Coda has virtually no web presence at all. There's some one-page site somewhere which contains no useful information. I'll send you a p.m. with the editor's email address & he can answer your questions.

[Nate Dorward]

From the Globe and Mail:


IT'S HELLO KRALL, GOODBYE BLONK
By JAMES ADAMS


Saturday, February 5, 2005, Page R3

If the Canadian jazz scene were a chunk of real estate, it would occupy the size of two 49-cent postage stamps. Yet as if to illustrate Freud's notion of "the narcissism of small differences," this turf has been mightily contested over the decades, with all sorts of spats flaring up between and among musicians, critics, record labels, DJs, club owners and the like. Another one is looming over the expected changes this spring at Toronto-based Coda magazine, "the journal of jazz and improvised music."

Coda has been around for 47 years, an astonishing feat for a Canadian periodical, the brainchild of a British expatriate named John Norris (who is 71 this year) who later pulled another Brit, Bill Smith (he's 66), into his orbit as, variously, art director, co-editor and co-publisher. These guys put out this labour of love until five or six years ago, when it was sold to Warwick Communications. Coda's worldwide readership in any given year has probably never exceeded 5,000, but it's been a devoted one, not least because the mag's focus has been relentlessly, almost charmingly, on the obscure and the cultish. In the Coda universe, guys and gals with names like Han Bennink, Peter Brotzmann, Famoudou Don Moye, Susie Ibarra and John Stetch are very big deals indeed.

But not, it seems, for very much longer. Last fall, as total paid circulation slipped to about 2,000, Coda was put up for sale by Warwick, which resulted in the magazine's publisher, James Williamson, forming a partnership with Peter Black, a former Telemedia executive. Beginning with the May/June issue (No. 321), they, along with incoming editor--current sales manager Daryl Angier--and new art director Noel Fenn, will be taking Coda "in a more mainstream direciton to widen its appeal to a larger audience." This means, among many other things, a new logo, full colour throughout its glossy pages, shorter articles and stories "on acts that are a little more widely accessible."

There already is talk of making the revamped bimonthly an insert in The Globe and Mail, a la Toro magazine, as well as a "stand-alone item in Starbucks stores." Another possibility is some sort of association with Jazz FM91, Toronto's jazz radio outlet.

Interviewed earlier this week, Angier said he doesn't "want to get away from the avant-garde base entirely," but he's determined to "make it look more like a magazine than an academic journal." Meanwhile, some contributors already have heard that the new Coda team wants "an attractive female artist" on the cover of its re-launch issue. In other words, hello Diana Krall (or Sophie Millman, or Coral Egan, or Melissa Stylianou, or Carol Welsman), goodbye Keshavan Maslak, Paul Plimley and Jaap Blonk.

One reader who's upset by the shift is Bill Smith. Contact at his home on B.C.'s Hornby Island, Smth said he's "disappointed" the new direction will "exclude the avant garde and the European music that [Norris and I] carefully nurtured over the years. I cannot really see the point of producing a magazine that does not have a specific focus and that will not expand the thinking of the readers."

[Uli]

Coda's worldwide readership in any given year has probably never exceeded 5,000, but it's been a devoted one, not least because the mag's focus has been relentlessly, almost charmingly, on the obscure and the cultish. In the Coda universe, guys and gals with names like Han Bennink, Peter Brotzmann, Famoudou Don Moye, Susie Ibarra and John Stetch are very big deals indeed.

[bluenoter]

(somewhat off-topic)

In the Coda universe, guys and gals with names like Han Bennink, Peter Brotzmann, Famoudou Don Moye, Susie Ibarra and John Stetch are very big deals indeed.

. . . goodbye Keshavan Maslak, Paul Plimley and Jaap Blonk.

Despite having hung out on JC, I've never heard of John Stetch, Keshavan Maslak, or Jaap Blonk. If any of them are *great,* please alert me.

[Uli]

for Rita:

Keshavan Maslak



Biography by Chris Kelsey

An eccentric, avant-gardish saxophonist who undertakes to actually entertain rather than alienate, Maslak is a second-generation American of Ukrainian ancestry. Maslak grew up in Detroit. His musically inclined grandfather introduced him to music via Eastern European folk and classical forms. Maslak began studying at age six. His first paying gig at age 12 was playing polkas and mazurkas to members of the immigrant Slavic community in Detroit.

As a high school student, Maslak developed an affinity for jazz and Motown-style R&B. He attended college, first at the University of Michigan and then at North Texas State University, where he played in that school's prestigious Lab bands. Maslak studied classical sax technique with the renowned teachers Larry Teal and Donald Sinta and composition with Martin Mailman. After college in the late '60s, Maslak spent time on the road with a Motown Records revue. He moved to San Francisco where he studied yoga for a time and played with the drummer (and former Ornette Coleman sideman) Charles Moffett, who exerted a strong influence on Maslak. He then moved to New York, where he became involved with various experimental music. In the '70s, he played with Phillip Glass and Laurie Anderson and became involved with free jazz. In 1978 he moved to Europe, where he lived for four years. Based in Amsterdam, he worked regularly on the continent and recorded for small labels. In 1981 he formed Loved By Millions -- a sort of free jazz/R&B fusion group -- and adopted the pseudonym Kenny Millions. Maslak moved back to New York in 1982. In 1986, he relocated to Florida, where he eventually opened a sushi restaurant with his wife, Junko Maslak.

Maslak has continued to record; his several most recent recordings have been made for his own HUM HA label. Over the years, Maslak has acquired an impressive list of musical associates, including Paul Bley, Sam Rivers, Sunny Murray, and Chet Baker, among many others.

Jaap blonk:

[Nate Dorward]

Actually, the oddest thing is the mention of John Stetch as obscure or avant-garde. He's an inventive Canadian pianist who's no more avant-garde than Brad Mehldau. I'm sure someone else here can say a bit more about him (his recent Monk album seems to have gotten some attention both in Canada & elsewhere).

[bluenoter]

Thanks, Uli, but I can "AMG them" or Google them myself. That's, er, quite a face. Thanks, Nate.

Really, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing anyone *great.*

[Uli]

Really, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing anyone *great.*

Gotta ask somebody else. I've heard Blonk a couple of times. For me I don't think he is "essential." I know I've heard Maslak but cant rmember with whom or any other context.

[sonic1]

I really am sad about the loss of Coda. I've already expressed this. But reading through my old Codas again I have to say how impressive it was that while everyone else was distracted by fusion, Coda kept its eye on the acoustic jazz that happened that whole time. Artists that we are only paying attention to now via reissues were getting press in Coda during that time. Yet, they also kept an ear to the tradition too, without being too preachy etc.

It really is a loss.

FWIW I wrote the president of Warwick and told him what a mistake the change was. I know it won't do anything but whatever...

[achilles]

I've always liked Coda, but I'm not surprised to learn of this.
At some point during some year they should have hired somone
with some marketing sense. They have absolutely no web presence, and unless you found one of the seven newstands where you can buy it, you wouldn't be able to subscribe.

[GoodSpeak]

Thanks, Uli, but I can "AMG them" or Google them myself. That's, er, quite a face. Thanks, Nate.

Really, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing anyone *great.*

As long as everything's spelled correctly....I'm OK with it, too.





[BTW...one must use quotation marks, not asterisk marks, when emphasizing or setting off a particular word. The italics function on this BBs works just as well, Blue'. Oh, and thbbbbttt!!! ]

as·ter·isk n.

A star-shaped figure (*) used chiefly to indicate an omission, a reference to a footnote, or an unattested word, sound, or affix.

[Nate Dorward]

Re: punctuation, there is nothing one "must" do, especially online where the rules of punctuation, courtesy & spelling are very much worked out on the fly.


Adam: no argument from me about the frustrating aspects of Coda such as the lack of a website.

[achilles]

Adam: no argument from me about the frustrating aspects of Coda such as the lack of a website.

Nate, you may recall that I had to ask you how to subscribe and you
sent my Stuart's email address! Not a formula for success.

[sonic1]

I've always liked Coda, but I'm not surprised to learn of this.
At some point during some year they should have hired somone
with some marketing sense. They have absolutely no web presence, and unless you found one of the seven newstands where you can buy it, you wouldn't be able to subscribe.

A few years ago I tried to find Coda and after a lot of searching, on the web and asking around, found nothing. I gave up Coda for dead.

Then Jamey Aebersold told me Coda was still going in passing conversation. He gave me Bill Smiths email who sent me to the right direction.

I WANTED to find Coda and I couldn't.

I wrote this story in my email to the president of Warwick. But it probably won't make any difference. I explained that their problem was not content, but rather distribution and marketting.

I have never seen Coda in a newstand in Tucson, and we have a couple of large ones.

Jared

[Chaz Longue]

Hell, I've never even been able to buy Coda in the international newspaper joints in Montreal. And I've long since stopped asking for it at stateside newsdealers.

I spent 2 months trying to straighten out a subscription problem one time.

I'll contact them again this week, and thanks to those here who have done so.

If they trash the magazine shortly after making it possible to buy a friggin' copy - I'm gonna be pretty upset.

[Ken Dryden]

I think it says it all where Coda's subscription base had dropped to 2000. Unlike Cadence, which doesn't rely primarily on advertising income to keep afloat, but serves essentially as a huge catalog to serve jazz CD aficionados with disposable income, Coda's extremely narrow focus (in the past) worked against it. Without a decent subscriber base, it is extremely difficult to sell much advertising. It's also doubtful that 2000 subscribers brought in much subscription revenue.

I am one of many writers who will be contributing to the revamped Coda. The new editor assures me that this isn't going to be some Pollyanna jazz magazine like Jazziz, while it also seems doubtful that they will go in the direction of Downbeat (adding too much rock).

No promises, but I'll try to do my best work for Coda and hope others feel likewise. The last thing anyone needs after reading a jazz article or review is getting the idea the writer is in great need of a laxative, something that happens all too often for me whether reading reviews on-line or in the occasional magazine I see (and I no longer subscribe to any of them except Cadence).

[Dennis Gonzalez]

Coda was pretty obscure even for me, who loved the first few copies I saw...never could find it after that. I wrote a few columns for Coda about our Dallas daagnim scene back in '80 and '81, and then couldn't get a copy of what I'd written. I hope the new publishers really do retain a bit of integrity.

And blue, I met Keshavan Maslak, aka Kenny Millions, when he played in Ljubljana with his quartet, Keshavan Maslak's Loved By Millions...they were outrageous and funky back in 1983, making us all get up and shake our snobbish avant-jazz asses. He is one big influence on my decision to change the direction of my really out and inaccesible music and aim for a simpler vocabulary. He was crazy looking back then, for a jazzer...gold tooth, white spiky hair, a cross between a zoot suiter and a punk.

[sonic1]

I think it says it all where Coda's subscription base had dropped to 2000. Unlike Cadence, which doesn't rely primarily on advertising income to keep afloat, but serves essentially as a huge catalog to serve jazz CD aficionados with disposable income, Coda's extremely narrow focus (in the past) worked against it. Without a decent subscriber base, it is extremely difficult to sell much advertising. It's also doubtful that 2000 subscribers brought in much subscription revenue.

I am one of many writers who will be contributing to the revamped Coda. The new editor assures me that this isn't going to be some Pollyanna jazz magazine like Jazziz, while it also seems doubtful that they will go in the direction of Downbeat (adding too much rock).

No promises, but I'll try to do my best work for Coda and hope others feel likewise. The last thing anyone needs after reading a jazz article or review is getting the idea the writer is in great need of a laxative, something that happens all too often for me whether reading reviews on-line or in the occasional magazine I see (and I no longer subscribe to any of them except Cadence).

I have been reading Coda for years. I think my point is that had it recieved better distribution and marketting (or any) it would have done a lot better. It's subscription base is likely to drop if even if you WANT to find the damn magazine you can't. Of course the subscription base is likely to shrink under those conditions. God damn it, I had to find someone who KNOWS Bill fucking Smith, the OLD editor, to get to the magazine. What is up with that? It is like someone WANTED the magazine to fail. Coda had a great focus, excellent writers and contributors, and was only obscure in that it was hard to find.

[Nate Dorward]

I don't know why it would have been hard to find in Montreal, I usually found the mag on newsstands quite easily within Canada (e.g. in the Maritimes). But outside Canada was dicey. The easiest way to get it sometimes was just to bump into Bill or (later) Stuart personally at a music festival, where they usually were giving out copies to people they met.

Ken: I can't say that I've ever read anything in print or online that suggested the author required laxatives, except perhaps for Wayne Spencer.

[Scott Yanow]

Let's not trash the new Coda (which I hope to be writing for) until it at least comes out. Otherwise it is like cutting down a movie or a book that one has never seen.

I'll always be grateful to Coda for introducing me to the AACM, the Art Ensemble Of Chicago and Anthony Braxton in the 1970s. I read about them before I heard their music and I think that really helped me keep my ears open.

[achilles]

Might you guys who will write for the "new" Coda suggest
to the new powers that a website could be a good idea.
you might have to explain the internet to them, but no doubt
they will be persuaded of its usefulness.

[Svirchev]

Re: Coda

The following is a variation of the letter I sent to the interim editor of Coda Magazine about two weeks ago. It explains why I have no stomach to continue with the magazine that gave me my first wiritng and photography gigs back in 1989.

Gigs are tough to get these days, but integrity and self-respect are more precious to me than a few column-inches in what is destined to be a third rate journal. Hence my personal decision.
LS

Laurence Svirchev, CIH
Vancouver Canada
E-mail: laurence@svirchev.com
Web Site: www.svirchev.com

Interim Editor of Coda:

After much consideration, I have decided not to collaborate with the Coda magazine that you have defined in your communications with me. My decision is based on the following:

1. The name Coda has a special place in jazz/improvised literature. It stands for celebrating the most advanced musicians and music, along with appreciating the musicians who made possible what we hear today, Giants standinf on the shoulders of Giants. To so radically retrograde the magazine denigrates the efforts of the years of struggle of the founders of a venerable Canadian institution. Those gentlemen gave so many of us our first chance to write about and photograph such amazing musicians, and I can’t abide by seeing their creative instincts be dashed so handily.

Smith/Norris and Broomer are among the most knowledgeable writers/editors one could possibly find on the Canadian scene. No offense to you personally [Name deleted], but for a new owner to leave editorial direction in the hands of the advertising representative does not speak well to the musical integrity of the magazine and its owner.

You stated that economic major initiatives, in the forms of Starbucks and Globe & Mail distributions would take place in addition to setting up a web site. We all know that magazine revenues from ads are declining, at much more than a 30 downward slope. Planet Jazz failed because of this, and Jazz Report is not in good shape either because of this trend. At the same time, you indicated to me that you were not yet aware of your budget and that writers could not expect to receive wage increases. I don’t see why a magazine that is taking such initiatives would not immediately announce payment at similar rates to US counterparts Downbeat, Jazz Times, and Jazziz for its senior writers/photographers.

In regard to the new marketing approach, you had the following to say:
“We still need a cover profile and I would prefer if it were of an attractive female artist who will move copies off the rack. The two candidates that I have in mind right now are [name deleted] (gorgeous and getting a lot of attention right now but a so-so artist), and [name deleted] (another gorgeous singer based in Toronto and a good artist but with less of a profile currently).”

Tomatoes on the cover in order to boost sales? Well that is nothing short of crudest and most embarrassing type of marketing. It’s positively a-musical and insulting to musicians.

Had a new editor with substantial Jazz Journalist credentials been appointed, and had there been a Name Change, that would have tempted me to take a wait and see attitude. But as things stand, I have no intestinal fortitude to put faith in the new ownership.

Laurence Svirchev

[sonic1]

Let's not trash the new Coda (which I hope to be writing for) until it at least comes out. Otherwise it is like cutting down a movie or a book that one has never seen.

I'll always be grateful to Coda for introducing me to the AACM, the Art Ensemble Of Chicago and Anthony Braxton in the 1970s. I read about them before I heard their music and I think that really helped me keep my ears open.

Me too Scott. I really love Coda. My "trashing" is focussed on the fact that in response to lack of sales, and inability to maintain ad space, they change the magazine, instead of fixing what is broken (the obvious marketting and distribution problems-see above).

Let me say that with my music budget (since I have to buy all my music-still have not found a way to get people to send me music for free) I can spend only so much and since it looks as if Coda is departing from the direction that interests me, I will spend my money on something else (more music). Since several of the contributors I read the most are complaining of this, I can trust that my money can be better spent elsewhere.

You are right Scott, I am making judgements early, but my music budget is important to me, and so I play it on the safe side. Maybe I will fill in the few holes of back issues I have.

Jared

[Nate Dorward]

Re: wage increases: actually the rates they are offering for the new incarnation seem to have gone up, though they're still pretty measly. In the past year or two I've seen the pay per review shrink from $12 Cdn/review to $10 then to $8 or worse (the last cheque I saw from them was $24, which was apparently for the issue where I reviewed 3 Ersts + a Lee Konitz). Now they're offering $15 (Cdn, again) per review. This is achieved of course by radically shrinking the reviews section--Daryl's e-flyer said he was planning to have about 25 reviews/issue, & the wordcount would be 150-200 words (compared to 250-350 for the current mag).

I have mixed feelings about continuing to contribute, but will do so unless (1) the editorial direction really moves in a direction I find objectionable; or (2) I find it hard to square the low pay with moves to commercialize the magazine. I can swallow low pay for mags which are basically not-for-profit & for-the-love-of-it, but if it's just another ads-heavy glossy then.... -- On the other hand, there were certainly many aspects of the previous incarnation of the magazine which left room for improvement, lousy distribution & lack of a website being the most obvious ones. One hopes that Daryl will also get on top of other core problems--e.g. the extraordinary lag time between a CD being sent for review, its being mailed to a reviewer, & the resulting review actually being published.