Soweto Kinch - Shoddy Treatment

[tengu01]

Some of you may have heard of Soweto Kinch -a young british saxophonist who came onto the scene around 2003 and impressed many with his bold approach to music, combining jazz chops and saxophone skills with rap and hip hop, winning a few awards along the way BBC Jazz, MOBO, etc)

I had been looking for a new album of his for a number of months now and took a look at his blog to see whether there was any news. What I read was a very disturbing indictment of the way musicians can be and are treated. I raise it here because he's a fellow saxophonist and I was more than a little concerned by what I read. It is a long blog entry but it's sobering reading

http://tinyurl.com/264jou

(ADMIN NOTE: for your convenience, long URL has been tinied see www.tinyurl.com)

 

[philthd]

ah

doesnt he know that if somethings hard to market its not worth marketing?

 

[Bobby G]

philthD wrote:
ah

doesnt he know that if somethings hard to market its not worth marketing?

Couldn't agree less. If this were true it'd be nothing but Take That and Watney's bleedin Red Barrel. I think we, the great (British) public should be credited with a lot more collective intelligence than we are.

S'pose I'd better go and read the blog now 😉

😉 Cheers, Bob

 

[philthd]

sorry - was an attempt at sarcasm/satire

please dont think im in favour of homogenisation

 

[mfox]

hmm, if im reading this right, he wan'ts his album putting in the jazz and the urban section? well im sure every artist would would like their product in as many sections as possible..
well i like SK stuff but to call the jazz section obscure is a bit strange as this section is surely going to be his bread and butter..

 

[Bobby G]

philthD wrote:
sorry - was an attempt at sarcasm/satire

please dont think im in favour of homogenisation

Point taken philthD, and I realised you were probably being sarcarstic, hence the " " in my earlier reply. Not that there's anything wrong with Take That mkII, is there?

Cheers, Bob

 

[danmays]

Hey there,

I don't see the problem with Soweto Kinch crossing over into 'urban' as this reflects his awesome alto playing plus his society concious lyrics on the hiphop stuff. I do think a change is needed in the music industry.. Mainly because big pay offs are made to newspapers to make a cd their 'main review' regardless of what rating they give it... I smell a pay off! It's such a business now not even really about the art of music. It's a shame but again as musicians we can change this...


Dan

 

[tengu01]

mfox wrote:
hmm, if im reading this right, he wan'ts his album putting in the jazz and the urban section? well im sure every artist would would like their product in as many sections as possible..
well i like SK stuff but to call the jazz section obscure is a bit strange as this section is surely going to be his bread and butter..

By obscure, if I have read the blog properly, I think he means that in a number of well-known high street stores, the jazz section is rather hidden away, either 2 floors up and at the back or deep in the basement. Hence, only those who are looking specifically for it will ever find it and even then.....

The album is a Jazz/hip hop crossover, so music from the album has been played on both Radio 3 and on Radio 1

 

[Jules]

Soweto Kinch's Towerblock Cd actually bugged me (not strictly related to topic).. there's some very fine, slightly old fashioned sounding jazz & some hip hop but no attempt to blend the two. He'd probably say -why should I- but to me it did sound like two (very good) albums rather randomly spliced together (it's not actually a crossover in my books).
On the categorization subject (and rather undermining my first comment) , thisi s one of my pet hates. Deliberately cllassifying what you do for promotional reasons. When i joined Fat45 I was asked if there were any numbers i'd like to bring into the band set, Yes- loads of uptempo New Orleans R&B Dr John etc... reply, no, we're an absolutely straight down the line Jive Bance band, was the reply. At the time this bugged me slightly but it works wonders for getting gigs......
My previous band, Mudlow, were one of the most genuinely inventive bunches I've worked with but- outside a small cult following- bombed when it came to gigs due to being completely indefinable! 'We're a.. um... sort of blues band.... a bit 1950s, with a lot of reverb, and slightly jazzy, in a twin peaks soundtrack way... and our singer sounds like John Martyn, except on slow one's where he sounds like a sort of male Billy Holliday, or maybe Chet Baker... and the drumming's quite heavy and tribal a lot of the time... like the the Bill Pullman's band on the Lost Highways soundtrack.. there's al ot of Tom Waits in there..." etc etc....... great band, but a marketting disaster!!

 

[Bobby G]

Any recordings of Mudlow, Jules? They sound intriguing, especially the Tom Waits bit.

Cheers, Bob

 

[Jules]

Bobby G wrote:
Any recordings of Mudlow, Jules? They sound intriguing, especially the Tom Waits bit.

Cheers, Bob

try www.mudlow.co.uk or www.myspace.com/mudlow (there's a track called The Jester on the myspace space at the moment that's absolutely gorgeous- I feel I can say that as it's been writen since I left, it's got Stereolab's keyboard player palying pian on it too) and there's an album available on CDBaby....

 

[Bobby G]

nachoman wrote:

Bobby G wrote:
Any recordings of Mudlow, Jules? They sound intriguing, especially the Tom Waits bit.

Cheers, Bob

try www.mudlow.co.uk or www.myspace.com/mudlow (there's a track called The Jester on the myspace space at the moment that's absolutely gorgeous- I feel I can say that as it's been writen since I left, it's got Stereolab's keyboard player palying pian on it too) and there's an album available on CDBaby....

'ere, they're really quite good, aren't they. I see where the Tom Waits comes in, the singer also reminds me a bit of the rougher-voiced vocalist in Gomez. Good stuff, thanks Jules.

Cheers, Bob

 

[funkymonk]

I heard the other day he has left his label, Dune, because of the crossover into hip hop.

 

[kandu1]

Soweto Kinch is indeed very talented, and maybe too talented to be appreciated by those who run the music biz.

Unfortunately, these people are focused only on familiar formulas that they believe will continue to work for them (and that they believe will contribute to their bottom line). When faced with a gifted cat like Soweto, they simply don't know what to do, so they put him off to the side.

Let's hope things change for the better.

 

[philthd]

i went to see soweto playing in croydon on friday night

not only did he play an absolutely storming set, he was witty and personable and came out to chat in the tiny bar before the gig.

he has a real passion for what he does, which you have to respect and is quite infectious