Extensive new interview with Steve

Joined : 02 Jan 2007 Posts : 4

Hi Everyone,

There is a brand new interview with Steve on Innerviews. You can find it here:

http://www.innerviews.org

Thanks for this very interesting information. cheers

great thanks

Joined : 03 Apr 2006 Posts : 278 Localisation : Paris

ok, forum messed up and I lost all I wrote Evil or Very Mad

...so Ill write a sized reduced version now.

.................

Thanks Anil for this great interview, one where you can really read and feel about Steve's personnal changes in the last 10 years.

If it is possible I would like to post this interview on :

www.stevecolemanarchives.com as well !

The only regret I have is that despite the subject being approached on a few occasions during the interview, steve never mentionned the archives website.
I might be the only one (some other forum members too I guess) to really think this archives system is truly important to understand the man. Just listening to Steve's music gives you a petty good idea what the man is thinkin.
I also think this particular way of handling archives is truly unique.

Well, everything is for free anyway, I have nothing to gain by promoting this website except promoting the man himself, which in my opinion, deserve it.

Thanks for relaying the info here Anil,

Dim.

PS : I just can only confirm his actual band is killing, and i hope they will stay together for a while.
_________________
www.stevecolemanarchives.com

Joined : 08 Apr 2006 Posts : 27

Hi Dim,

Je comprends parfaitement ta deception face à la non-promotion de ton enorme travail pour diffuser la musique de Steve...

Peux-être est-ce la mentalité US ou juste son tempérament ?

A ta place je lui en parlerais franchement et fermerais le site. Mais sache qu'il y a des milliers de personnes partout dans le monde qui te sont reconnaissant, qui parlent entre eux et qui utilisent la mine d'or que ton site contient.

Merci pour ca !

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Hi Dim,

I understand very well your deception in front of the non-advertising of your great job to diffuse the music and way of thinking of Steve.

Perhaps it's an amrerican mentality or just Steve's temperament ?

I think you must talk with him about you're deception and close the archive website. But you must know that a lot of poeple all over the world like your website, talk about this and use the material...

Thanks for that !

Joined : 03 Apr 2006 Posts : 278 Localisation : Paris

Merci pour le mot de soutien Jibril, ca fait toujours plaisir.

J'ai commencé ce site il y a 8 ans pour me faire plaisir ainsi qu'a quelques potes que je rencontrais aux concerts, depuis des milliers de gens en ont profité sans meme un mot de remerciement, c'est comme ca qu'est le web :chacun pour sa gueule !

aujourdhui je me pose de serieuses questions...

Dim.

*************

Thanks for the kind words jibril, always appreciated.

I started this website 8 years ago mainly for me and a few fanatics I met at steve's concerts, since then thousands of people have downloaded thousands of files that took me hundreds of hours to edit, sort, check etc.
Thoses folks cant even say thanks ! that's the way internet is today : a very selfish tool

Today Im really asking myself lots of questions about the future of the website to be honest.

Dim.
_________________
www.stevecolemanarchives.com

Joined : 08 Apr 2006 Posts : 27

C'est une époque de consommation et pas spécialement le problème de l'internet.

C'est évident que ce site souffre d'un déficit de visibilité médiatique. J'en avais pourtant fait de la pub sur citizenjazz à plusieures reprises, sans grand succès....De plus, je n'ai jamais vu un seul article dans les magazines spécialisés, n'est-ce pas ?

De nombreux musiciens francais actuels s'inscrivent dans le sillage de Steve époque 90's, pourquoi ne participent-ils pas au forum ? Ne postent-ils pas un petit merci ? Trop de travail sans aucun doute ! scratch

Et les membres des Five Elements, comment jugent-ils ces archives ? As-tu des contacts avec eux ?

Bref, je comprend que tu ais envie de tout laisser tomber...Tu dois en parler avec Steve, c'est obligatoire qu'il apprécie ton geste. Peut-être une autre forme de collaboration est-elle possible à partir de là...Mais tout donner gratuitement etait, avec le recul, une erreur, même si bien entendu j'en ai profité...

-------------------------------------------------

In my opinion we live actually in a consumer period and it's not specially a problem of the Internet.

It's true that the archive website is not very visible in the media. Personally I tried to make some publicity in other forums like citizenjazz (french) or other in english without any feedback...Also, I have never read one press review or article in the specialised newspapers, isn't it ?

In France hundreds musiciens plays actually in a very Five Elements oriented playing (period 90's), I ask myself why they never participed to this forum, or just saying "hello", "thanks" ? A lot of work undoubtedly !

And what does the Five Element members think about this website ? Do you have any contacts with some of them ?

So, I understand that you want to stop and close the archive website...You must talk about this with Steve, I am sure that he appreciates your work. Perhaps you can work togather in a new archive project ? But giving everythings for free was, i think now, a mistake, even if I have downloaded a lot of music...

I do agree with you guys.

I think when Steve mentioned in the interview that he thinks that he wants to record more and more of his live music as opposed to try to document the music through record companies, that was the MISSED opportunity for him to mention that already, some important documentation work have already been done spontaneously by people like Dim.

At the same time he has the link for the stevecolemanarchives on his official web site so that's some recognition there.

As for the interview itself, for people who have been following Steve for a while, I have to say there is not much there that's new. It's the same stuff that I was reading may be 8 years ago in "JazzMan".

This interview may be usefull for people who need some introduction to his way of thinking. But for the people who want to get a little bit deeper there is really nothing. And at one point I thought Steve will use this forum (where for the most part we only have very dedicated fans) to help people get beyond the level of what's covered in that interview. But unfortunately his participation is very low.

Charles

I see a lot of frustration:

Steve Coleman says: “I’m very fortunate in that I’m doing what I want to do”. But I think: It’s a cruel fact that there is no record company which releases his really great music. There are lesser jobs in Europe. He is more than 50 years old. His statement sounds a bit like Dizzy Gillespie’s famous bitter statement: “I only play for musicians.” (Later Gillespie really enjoyed his popularity). After reading Coleman’s interview I was a bit sad about all this underground-situation.

Why didn’t Coleman mention your archives? I think: There may be hundred reasons for that. One may be: In fact it DOES matter that no record company is releasing his music! It’s a disregard if nobody wants to sell your great work – if you only can give it away for free (via your great archives). And this disregard of his music must be hurting I think. Steve Coleman shout get at least what Coltrane got.

I think: It is the same thing which is frustrating you – quite rightly. No thanks, no credit for a lot of really great work.

I’m frustrated too because of the bad situation of all these things I really love: Steve Coleman’s music, your wonderful collection, all the serious Jazz (the “Armstrong-Parker-Coltrane-line” as Steve Coleman calls it) etc. – Since several years I’m trying to push these things a little bit in my area as far as I can. But my efforts seem to be completely unsuccessful.

On the other hand I believe: The things we really love would not exist if nobody keeps them alive. Great things must be kept alive by somebody whether there is a thanks or not – too often there is no. Many people who loaded down from your FTP may ignore your great work but in fact they spread your and Coleman’s work. They spread those things which enrich life – also for further generations. A lot of these things come from your hard work because we would hear pretty little of Coleman’s recent music without your archives. sunny

I’ll try to continue to donate at least a little bit every few months (I hope you got it in January) and I hope some others will do it too. A bit from a few persons will add up to a little amount that really can help. LET US HELP --- COME ON PEOPLE cheers

Thank for your kind words recently, Dim.

Manfred

Age : 25 Joined : 07 Sep 2007 Posts : 26 Localisation : 93

well i don't know if this article bring some brand new informations on steve's music, but i found it really interesting, interviews of musicians are sometimes empty and boring, that's not the case here to me
by the way i heard about a really great book "Notes and Tones" wrote by the drummer Arthur Taylor which is a compilation of some interviews he gives with other musicians : dizzy, blakey, miles davis, erroll garner, nina simone, sonny rollins,...

too bad this site haven't much more exposure in the music media, but maybe the free aspect of the archives site doesn't play for him, a lot of musicians and label don't have the same point of view on the free accessibility of their music

music industry today is based on profit and rentability (like everything else by now), music creativity is badly affected by that, steve talk about is own experience when he dropped the bmg label. So i really think some concept like stevecolemanarchives.com is necessary to keep accessible this type of music, or else it will be to underground to reach it in the future
i feel lucky to have the opportunity to go to Fontenay-ss-bois concert of 5 Elements/ Opus Akoben, and also to the Pro-Verb Trio @ Trabendo, but i miss other live show, and i'm really glad to be able to listen to it by the way of the archives

i don't know what steve really think of the archives, but the concept is great without a doubt
the access to so much live music is like a gold mine, i really got this feeling when discovered this site, and i'm pretty sure everyone felt the same way
i'm also sure this concept will give ideas to some people to develop similar websites, the whole efforts and work done to get this site what it is weren't done in vain

Je ne pourrais pas dire si cet article donne de nouvelles informations
sur la musique de steve coleman, mais je l'ai trouvé intéressant tout de même, parfois les interviews de musiciens sont vides et lassants, ce dont je ne trouve pas ici.
Au fait j'ai entendu parlé d'un bouquin très bien fait "Notes en Tones" du batteur Arthur Taylor, qui compile de nombreux interviews qu'il a fait avec d'autres jazzmen: dizzy, blakey, miles davis, eroll garner, nina simone, sonny rollins,...

Sinon c dommage que ce site ne soit pas plus mis en avant dans les medias, cependant il est possible que la gratuité d'utilisation des archives ne joue pas en sa faveur, de nombreux musiciens et labels voient sans doute d'un mauvais oeil l'accès gratuit à leur musique.

L'industrie étant comme tout aujourd'hui basée sur le profit, la diversité de la création musicale s'en trouve fortement affectée, steve parle même de sa propre expérience avec le label BMG. C'est pourquoi je considère l'existence de ce site très importante afin de rendre accessible ce type de musique, ou alors il deviendra pratiquement difficile de continuer à en écouter, de par son statut trop "underground" bien trop peu accessible par d'autre biais.
J'ai eu l'opportunité d'aller aux concerts à Fontenay en février, et au Trabendo en septembre, mais j'ai raté tout le reste auparavant, et je suis bien content de pouvoir écouter les autres enregistrements grâce au site.

Je ne sais pas ce que pense steve coleman de ces archives, mais le concept reste très fort.
L'accès à tous ces live est comme une mine d'or, j'ai vraiment eu cette impression en découvrant le site, et je suis persuadé que beaucoup de gens aussi.

Je suis certain que ce concept donnera des idées similaires à d'autres personnes, c'est pourquoi tous les efforts et le travail pour construire ce site n'auront pas été vains.

Joined : 08 Apr 2006 Posts : 27

Magic Malik, Geoffroy de Masure, Octurn, Denis Guivarch, Aka Moon, Guillaume Orti, Benoit Delbecq, Thot, Stephane Payen, Sylvain Cathala, Frank Vaillant, Hubert Dupont, Maaks Spirit, Fada, Gros Cube, Alban Darche, Kartet blablabla etc etc etc...

Joined : 08 Apr 2006 Posts : 27

Franchement aucun d'entre eux à mon avis n'arrive au niveau de Black Science (ou Drop Kick), ni dans les compos, ni dans le jeu collectif. Les Francais arrivent souvent a être passionnant comme instrumentistes, mais pour du jeu de groupe, de la direction artistique, ca reste toujours timide, "petit bras", déjà-vu-entendu, monotone, triste, vieux-jeu etc...Aussi ils ont du mal à écrire de vrais mélodies, ils ont toujours un penchant pour l'abstraction. Est-ce un résidu du mépris du figuratif affiché dans les "nobles arts" contemporains ?

Mais tu peux ecouter tous ces musiciens sur leur myspace et te faire une meilleure idée...

Joined : 03 Apr 2006 Posts : 278 Localisation : Paris

Thanks Jibril for the list cheers

Was writing some names but your list is way deeper than mine, lots of people that I dont even know Shocked

Please write in english my friends, this way a lot more people can understand.

Dim.
_________________
www.stevecolemanarchives.com