Back in my youth I considered Nonesuch Records to be home primarily to classical music and those first two LPs of Scott Joplin rags that Joshua Rifkin put out. No more – now they offer people like Bill Frisell, Shawn Colvin, Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell, Ry Cooder, Wilco, Steve Reich, Ali Farka Toure, and Pat Metheny. (If there’s a unifying principal that ties all of these artists together, it must be some combination of high artistic accomplishment and low commercial potential.) They have an internet radio station playing Nonesuch artists which we talked about in The Practice Room last year, and it’s a great way to sample their catalog.
Lately I’ve also been enjoying their blog, www.journal.nonesuch.com. Right now there’s a post that they borrowed from David Byrne’s journal, all about album covers and the usually mistaken impression that they somehow reflect the sentiments of the recording artist. (Did you know that the cover for The Mothers of Invention’s Burnt Weeny Sandwich was originally designed for an Eric Dolphy album?) Byrne suggests that a downloadable equivalent would offer a lot more information than can be squeezed into a CD booklet.
I also enjoyed “What I’m Listening to Now” by David Harrington to the Kronos Quartet. I’ve never heard of most of the people on David’s list (Homayun Sakhi, Rhoda Scott, Nils Okland, Kemialliset Ystavat). There are a few familiar names, though (Woody Guthrie, Stuff Smith, Pablo Casals, Noam Chomsky – what? Noam Chomsky?). Not sure my ears are this big, but I’d be willing to try.
And ear-stretching is the point, isn’t it? Your taste will stagnate if you just listen to your old favorites over and over. Sooner or later you’ll wear that stuff out. (Much as I used to love the Allman Brothers, I really can’t hear “Statesboro Blues” more than once a year anymore.) When that happens, you’ll have to stop listening or go hunting and at some point, no matter how old or young you are, the stuff on the radio won’t do it for you any more.
That’s why I’m always on the lookout for music that has escaped the cookie cutter. If you are, too, Nonesuch is worth a look and a listen.
PS: If you like David Byrne’s article, follow it up with search on “world’s worst album covers.”
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