| They say I'm a history teacher. I teach listening. |
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Bassist Tommy Potter, saxophonist Charlie Parker and drummer Max Roach at the Three Deuces, New York, in an undated 1940s photo.
(William Gottlieb/Redferns/Getty Images)
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“They say I'm a history teacher. I teach listening.”
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A Love Supreme
This link will take you to PHIL SCHAAP's archive of his WKCR radio shows, including nine years' worth of ORNETTE COLEMAN birthday broadcasts—each several hours long and each exploring a particular theme such as "the monophonic issues of the original records," in which he's currently, on my computer, expounding on the differences between the album covers of the mono and stereo versions—seven JOHN COLTRANE birthday broadcasts, six BILLIE HOLIDAY centennial broadcasts, a seemingly endless scroll of episodes of his daily BIRD FLIGHT and weekly TRADITIONS IN SWING shows, and, well, I’m barely scraping the surface. There's a lot here, on this one page, documenting the work of a man who knew too much, talked too much, owned too many records and devoted his life to preserving and protecting some of the greatest music America has ever produced and sharing it with anyone willing to listen—and willing to accept that two or three more birthdays might come and go before Schapp finished talking and got around to playing the next record, which almost everybody who listened was in fact willing to accept because, as most of them quickly realized, Phil Schaap's insights into and knowledge of every last detail of every last recording was part of the music, too.
He was a DJ, collector, historian, teacher, curator, booker, obsessive fan, friend to many of the musicians he championed, and spiritual—and literal—guide to generations of jazz obsessives and jazz newbies, and his death on Tuesday leaves an enormous hole in jazz, in radio, in New York. If you lived in New York and loved jazz, you knew him even if you didn't know him. "I met him exactly once and just said, hi," composer and musicologist NED SUBLETTE wrote in his newsletter Wednesday. But Schaap "was part of our home. It's like there's an empty chair now." "He was a true inspiration," WYNTON MARSALIS told NPR.
He stood for two particular things that are in alarmingly short supply these days. He was a repository of facts and stories and details that everyone within range of his voice could agree on because they were true and because they mattered—there was something essential to be learned from knowing which take of every CHARLIE PARKER session was the best one, who played bass and who didn't play bass, which tie he was wearing when he recorded it and why "PARKER'S MOOD" sounds exactly the way it does. Liner notes—they're there for a reason. Phil Schaap was the human liner notes for decades and decades of jazz.
And in a world of bottomless supplies of streaming albums and playlists and algorithms and YOUTUBE videos and TIKTOK clips and TWITTER links and NETFLIX documentaries and SUBSTACKS and podcasts, he was a single, sensible human voice who could patiently suggest what to listen to and how to listen. He tells a story in this video, produced by the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS this year when it awarded him an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship, of listening to records with drummer PHILLY JOE JONES, one of his mentors, when he was growing up: "We would spend the whole day listening to as little as three minutes of music. When LPs came in, we'd hear six or even eight songs, but he very rarely would turn the album over to the other side. It was very intensive, repetitive listening." Sometimes you don't want a choice of 30 million tracks. Sometimes you just want one that you can play, over and over, all afternoon. For the better part of his 70 years, Phil Schaap picked up the needle and gently dropped it back down on exactly that track. And he became part of that track. And the next one. And the next one. He remains part of all of them, because he never forgot and he made sure we never did either. RIP.
Rest in Peace
AIDS activist, minister and gospel and disco singer CARL BEAN, whose "I Was Born This Way" is a gay pride classic... Columbia and Arista promo exec JERRY BLAIR, a crucial early champion of Latin music in the US... Rock manager and road manager MICK BRIGDEN—eulogized in that link by longtime client Joe Satriani... Country manager STAN MORESS.
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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The New Yorker |
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| RETRO READ: Bird-Watcher |
| by David Remnick |
| Thinking about Charlie Parker, every day. |
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NPR Music |
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| Phil Schaap's 50-Year Career: The Raconteur Raised On Jazz |
| by Alex Ariff and Nate Chinen |
| We examine the life and legacy of 2021 NEA Jazz Master Phil Schaap with music from Jazz at Lincoln Center and a rare live album produced by Schaap himself at the West End Café in Manhattan. |
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The Daily Beast |
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| When Your Favorite Songs Were Banned in the Wake of 9/11 |
| by Cheyenne Roundtree |
| Propaganda-as-patriotism was behind Clear Channel’s (now iHeartRadio) attempt to ban over 150 songs from airwaves in the wake of 9/11, from pop hits to Rage Against the Machine. |
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Vulture |
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| ‘What’s the Best and Worst Day of Your Life?’ |
| by Jeremy Gordon |
| How System of a Down’s “Chop Suey!” tore up the airwaves -- before getting banned post-9/11. |
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New Feeling |
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| How Music Streaming’s Option Anxiety Birthed Another Single-Serving Economy |
| by Tom Beedham |
| Too long; don't recommend. |
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Penny Fractions |
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| The Record Industry Invests in the Metaverse (Part 1) |
| by David Turner |
| While this may be a marketing ploy, it’s one the record industry is prepared to strap itself right alongside. |
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Billboard |
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| How Twenty One Pilots' Roblox Concert Is Changing the Virtual Gig Game |
| by Tatiana Cirisano |
| The band's first tour in two years will kick off with a virtual concert inside Roblox, performing songs from May album 'Scaled & Icy' as avatars. |
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Medium |
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| A once in a generation opportunity to deliver a fairer music business |
| by David Martin |
| Back in July, the call issued by cross-party MPs on the DCMS Select Committee, demanding a "complete reset" of music streaming, marked a hugely important staging post for anyone and everyone who advocates for artist and creator rights. |
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The New York Times |
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| A Pandemic, Then a Hurricane, Brings New Orleans Musicians ‘to Their Knees’ |
| by Giovanni Russonello |
| A few historic jazz sites were damaged in the storm. But the bigger blows struck artists and clubs struggling to get back to business after Covid-19 shutdowns. |
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The Guardian |
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| Massive Attack call for government plan to cut live music’s carbon emissions |
| by Robyn Vinter |
| Band commissioned report on industry’s footprint and criticise ministers for not doing enough. |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| Fleetwood Mac fired Lindsey Buckingham. So why won't he let them go? |
| by Amy Kaufman |
| Lindsey Buckingham on his new solo LP, the state of Fleetwood Mac ('on the edge of being a cover band') and the real reason Stevie Nicks wanted him out. |
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USA TODAY |
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| 'Stan' culture needs to stop -- or at least radically change. Here's why |
| by David Oliver |
| Swifties. Barbs. Army. Lambs. These names correspond to celebrity fandoms. Swifties subsist on all things Taylor Swift. Barbs say "bottoms up" to anything Nicki Minaj. Army go full-on militant for BTS, and Lambs live by Mariah Carey. |
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Variety |
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| China’s Weibo Suspends BTS, Blackpink and Other K-Pop Fan Accounts |
| by Rebecca Davis |
| The crackdown began days after photos began to circulate of a customized Jeju Air jet funded by a popular Chinese Weibo fan account for BTS member Jimin. |
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Billboard |
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| ‘Bye Mom’: How Facing Death Brings Life to Country Music |
| by Tom Roland |
| When Warner Music Nashville released Chris Janson's "Bye Mom" to country radio on Aug. 20, the label seemingly defied broadcasters' decades-old preference for positive, uptempo songs. |
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Streaming Machinery |
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| Playlists as Fast Food |
| by G.C. Stein |
| To my taste, as a music fan, there is something of a fast-food aspect to how playlists are usually presented on Spotify: A big bold menu with simple choices. |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| 'Mr. Spears has heard his daughter': Britney Spears' conservatorship takes a turn |
| by Christie D’Zurilla |
| Weeks after Jamie Spears defended his role as Britney Spears' conservator, he's now asking to dismantle everything. Her lawyer calls it a 'massive' win. |
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NME |
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| The ABBA 'Voyage' producers on what to expect from the 'magical space circus' live show |
| by Andrew Trendell |
| The makers of ABBA's "revolutionary" new digital show 'Voyage' on what went into it and how it could run "for years to come." |
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VICE |
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| Static Dress Are Remaking Post-Hardcore for Gen Z |
| by Emma Garland |
| They’ve only released a handful of songs, but the band’s 00s aesthetics and mysterious roll-outs are turning fans into web sleuths. |
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Broken Record |
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| Broken Record: Henry Rollins |
| by Rick Rubin and Henry Rollins |
| Henry Rollins speaks with Rick Rubin from Shangri-La pre-pandemic and in full Rollins fashion, the stories just poured out of him. Henry talks about the time he was christened a lead singer by H.R. from Bad Brains, the day he woke up and realized he was done writing music, and why he’ll never be the old guy on stage performing his greatest hits. |
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| Music of the day |
| "Parker's Mood" |
| Charlie Parker |
| "One of the definitive masterpieces in the history of music. But if we’re talking about Charlie Parker, I would expect him to hit it out of the park every once in a while, wouldn’t you?" - Phil Schaap |
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YouTube |
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"One of the definitive masterpieces in the history of music. But if we’re talking about Charlie Parker, I would expect him to hit it out of the park every once in a while, wouldn’t you?" - Phil Schaap
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"I'm a jazz teacher. I have my heart broken every second of my life."
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| Music | Media | Sports | Fashion | Tech |
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“REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in
everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask ‘why?’” |
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| Jason Hirschhorn |
| CEO & Chief Curator |
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