Input/Output

4 A’s worth sharing this week: responding with Andre 3000, tuning with Kris Johnson, checking in with Alex Laurenzi, mixing and matching so much new music, and more...

Here are four things (A’s) I thought were worth sharing this week:

A1. Andre 3000 is a responder. From a recent NPR interview:

For me, I don't know what I'm going to do. But that's the cool and scary thing about it. And I think, as an artist, you kind of got to put yourself out there to be prepared to respond. I'm a responding person. That's what I am. I'm responding to what's given to me. It's responding to my contemporaries. It's responding to what I love. It's responding to what I don't like.

It's responding to all of that.

As an artist, you got to have really strong antennas. And that's really what it's about. So where I am now is where I'm supposed to be. I couldn't plan it. And here's the cool thing. Yes, we can plan it, our limited human brains can plan it. But it's always greater and more magical when you're surprised by these things...

I've seen artists transcend themselves and I get emotional about it.

A2. Check in with saxophonist and composer, Alex Laurenzi.

A3. On rehearsing: a conversation we published last Friday with Kristofer Johnson, Director of Choirs at Phillips Exeter Academy and Artistic Director of the Rockingham Choral Society on rehearsing, sure, but it’s so much more than that.

If you had to single out one point from your list, which is the most important?

I think that the last one, Always Be Tuning (which I often shorten in rehearsal to saying, ‘ABT’) is truly the most important. Although I really do care a lot about pitch, the notion of tuning is about active awareness, a cultivated presence in making music, being in rhythmic ensemble, listening intently and making constant little adjustments based in the current moment. It is a state of deep engagement or flow, full of challenge and intrinsic reward. In some ways, many of the other guidelines are subsumed in this notion.

Read the full interview and snag the list here.

A4. New music this week: the art-rocker, Peter Gabriel’s first album in twenty years, i/o, arrived in an array of different mixes: the “Bright-Side” or the “Dark-Side” mix, each containing the same tracks, with changes that maybe only musicians or hardcore audiophiles will fully appreciate (and if neither mix is quite right, you can opt for the “In-Side” mix, available separately and on the three-disc deluxe edition) (Apple Music/Spotify). “For the first time in a long time, he is singing big choruses, writing in simple verse about human nature, and trying to uplift. It sounds natural, intuitive.” (Pitchfork). For decades, the Mississippi septuagenarian, David Michael Moore, has self-released idiosyncratic fusions of blues, bebop, zydeco, ambient, and modern composition (Apple Music/Spotify). “Adagio Fishing is a group of compositions done a while back (circa 1994, re-released this October). Recorded into an old 4-track machine who has since passed, I’ve decided to pitch it out there anyway. I still like it” (Moore, via Bandcamp). And, Chicago singer-songwriter-producer, Sen Morimoto, tackles social issues through jazzy, soulful music on Diagnosis (Apple Music/Spotify). “We call it a loud record for quiet people” (Rolling Stone interview).

Thanks for reading! 

As you may have noticed, the tone of our newsletter has changed a bit—starting this week, each of us in the Foray crew are going to take the lead. That means that you, our readers, will get a bit of a different vibe and take on the topics each week (even though the format hasn’t change that much).

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I think you’re super,
Charlie

Coda: a three-part, “semi-legendary” Christmas jazz thread by Nate Chinen.

Want more holiday listening recommendations? Check out our Four for Foray: Holiday Music from last November! 🎅