Thank You Harrison Ridley Jr.

2009-03-12T09:37:00.006-04:00

“I remember buying this next record when it came out, down at St. Mark’s Records in New York. Actually I bought the twelve inch single, and it blew my mind. It was a powerful, exciting piece of music. Now when people listen to it, they think it’s quaint and old fashioned. They’re already condescending to it and turning it into an ‘oldie’. That’s the problem – people don’t always realize how powerful the innovators are. Take someone like Chuck Berry. When his records came out they were dangerous. There was nothing like them on the radio, they were like a stampede. Now all these bands just play it louder and faster and don’t really add anything to it. And so Chuck Berry, the creator, sounds ‘quaint’ and ‘old fashioned.’ They’re doing the same thing to Run DMC. Rap records have gotten louder, more camouflaged, faster and dirtier, with a thousand samples. Those records are colorful but it doesn’t mean that Run DMC should just be considered ‘oldies.’ They’re important pieces of art, and art isn’t looked at as something old or new, it’s looked at as something that moves ya. And here’s a record that moves me.”
-BOB DYLAN (On "MY ADIDAS" by RUN DMC)

A jazz historian and professor of mine, Harrison Ridley Jr... Actually, the late Harrison Ridley Junior. As I wrote that first sentence I set out to post a link to his Wikipedia page. As I Googled his name, the second link read "WTRI Remembers Harrison Riddley, Jr." He died three weeks ago. The city of Philadelphia declared February 28 "Harrison Riddley Jr. Day," and I would encourage you to read as much about this man as you can get your hands on. He's a Philadelphia and Jazz landmark, and I am honored by having been his student, and saddened by his passing, as I'm sure many other music and culture lovers are.

He told me something that stuck with me, but took a couple years to sink-in and fill-out in my mind. He told me there are three kinds of music: Folk, Art, and Pop. I didn't understand at the time, but the distinction between the three can really help us understand Music as a form. There is something uniquely immense about art, something which may reach to all mankind, while at the same time is a reflection of the experience, expression, and culture of a few. Looking at these "types" of music can help us appreciate this. I understand that this can probably be applied to all sorts of expression or art, but I'm stickin' with music.

Folk is the musical expression of the people. It is natural, organic, and simple. Anything from kids making up songs to a jump-rope rhythm to slaves singing in fields. Folk expression grows out of a cultural and common experience.

Music as Art is music of intention. It takes those simple folk forms, rhythms, beats, phrases, and expressive colloquialisms, and intentionally adds a structure to it. Art is the connection between cultural experience and expression for expression's sake. It is what links African rhythm to Jazz rhythm. Art, therefore, is colloquial, yet expressive in a way which is accessible to humanity through our shared experience.

Popular Music is music of intention as well... the intention is, of course, to make recordings popular (er... and money.) Popular music uses Art forms to sell to the masses, masking itself in familiar forms. Familiar forms are popular forms, and popular forms sell. All artists need to eat, and there is nothing wrong with selling art, even for large amounts of money, but we need to be able to discern if the music we are hearing is an expression of the writer/singer/player's folk experience, which is always new and exciting, or if it is a carbon copy of an already familiar form. Popular music homogenizes culture. Popular records have gotten louder, more camouflaged, faster and dirtier... and dont really add anything to it." In doing so, the roots of music are dried up..

The difficulty, of course, is not in defining these differences (Harrison Ridley helped me out with that), but rather in learning to recognize the difference when you hear it. After all, sometimes popular music can "move ya" (to use Dylan's words). The real goal, though, is to be a critique of music in terms of its to relation of that Folk experience to the listener.

That is why good music is always a representation of particular cultures. That is why there is a difference between Blues singers who come from Mississippi and the sound of singers from the Carolinas. They might have all recorded in cities like Chicago and New York, and you can call it all "blues," but there is a lot more to it than that. Harrison Ridley Jr. would play records and trace the rhythms to their family home in the south, then to the region of Africa where the ancestors of a musician like James Brown were brought over to America to be slaves. Add the talent and sound of the musicians to those of producers and song-writers like Quincy Jones, Willie Dixon, The Chess Brothers, John Hammond, or Sam Philips and you get something really special. A lot of record companies are looking for the next cash cow, but the few who are artists themselves can enable some amazing sounds.

The American cultural landscape is as diverse and rich as any in the world because of its uniquely "e pluribus unum" polity. Our music is just as diverse. The only way to preserve this cultural heritage is to recognize American Art for what it is... learn to recognize why records are what they are, from the oldest scratchy recordings of Charlie Patton to RUN DMC.

My personal experience is that originators, even the ones we have come to characterize as "quaint and old fassioned" are the ones which can move me the most.

Because in the end, there is just something special about a train disaster song.

Affectionately Yours,
Whiskey 'N' S'mores

Introductions

2009-03-10T16:24:00.000-04:00

"So if you've lost all your hope; you lost all your faith
I know you will be cared for, I know you will be safe
And all the shameful, and all of the whores
And even the soldier who pierced the heart of the Lord
Is down there by the train"
-Tom Waits "Down There By The Train"

Welcome to "Whiskey 'N' S'mores," the second-generation Blog of Justin Pavlischek.

Generation 1 Pav-Blog (THE PLOG) was presented from the point of view of a single, college-aged male, and colored by my experiences as a reformed protestant at a Catholic University. Heroic, tragic, and comedic tales of beer pong, unicycling, studying, and the losing battle to understand women... OR, on a good night, you might get all four!

Generation 2 Pav-Blog (Whiskey 'N' S'mores) will be in the point of view of a soon-to-be-married, college graduate Officer in the United States Marine Corps and will be colored by my experiences as a reformed protestant in an otherwise bewildering cosmos. Who's to tell what type of heroic, tragic, and comedic tales lie ahead.

New job, new home, new truck, new president, new woman.

When she sees me will she know what I've been through?
Will old times start to feelin' like new?
When I get there will our love still feel so true?
Yet all I have, I'll be a-bringin' it to you
Oh bessie, sing them old-time blues -Bob Dylan "Bessie Smith"

New blog, same bad attitude.

So, meet me down there by the train.

Affectionately Yours,
Whiskey 'N' S'mores