Steve Coleman & #MeToo Moment in Jazz

[JSngry]

Access to capital is also important, to have a support system in place to create viable working outlets for people who do not want to play that game, either as producers or players.

I think it's a sad comment on the species that there has not been a natural migration of capital to such a model/models. I'm sure people are trying, but....try harder.

Don't expect "the system" to change. Make your own system, hard as it may be, And at some point, confront this - do you want to do good work, do you want to be famous, or is there no difference for you? If there's no difference, hey, you have a path forward already.

[Quasimado]

The Jazz Wax article on Hipp is here:

https://www.jazzwax.com/2013/05/jutta-hipp-the-inside-story.html      

It seems she preferred life away from the spotlight ...  reasons are given.                

 

 

[bertrand]

Thanks for digging this up. So one the one hand, we know that Feather pursued her and she rejected him. Did he then proceed to sabotage her career as a revenge? Not sure, but we do know that he started bad-mouthing her playing, accusing her of being a Horace Silver clone. Such statements from him could not help her career, he was a tastemaker, for better or for worse. Would he have made these statements regardless? Maybe.

Her personality made it hard for her to pursue a career in jazz anyway, and it looks like she was told to 'get a real job' but the fact is, whatever passion she may have had for jazz was sucked out of her, and we cannot discount the possibility that Feather's behavior may have been part of it. Yes, there were other factors, but maybe she could have otherwise overcome them. At some point, she was passionate. The anecdote with the radio proves it.

Still does not explain why Feather briefly championed a number of female artists but then did not follow up. Maybe he saw no reason to in terms of what was in it for him, that is possible. But other scenarios are possible as well. We will probably never know the truth unless there is substantial documentation as there is for Jutta.

Edited June 4, 2021 by bertrand

[JSngry]

1 minute ago, bertrand said:

 he was a tastemaker,

I believe today's term is "influencer"?

Or is it ineffectual to pursue a dead body with a living word?

[tranemonk]

Okay, I'm chiming in on this years after the fact. I was listening to some of his Village Vanguard sets on Bandcamp and searched here to find this thread. I read through some of the posts to get the gist of what was said. I know the entire relationship between the music and the human beings who make it, is complicated.

I also know the only people who know what actually transpires in a sexual relationship are those people in it. I also know that race, sexuality, access, age, power, and all that stuff are woven into Americana in dozens of ways too hard to decode or make universal statements about. I also agree that #MeToo shifted the national conversation in ways that were both overdue, helpful, and sometimes, extreme and unfair.

That all being said.. I wasn't big into Coleman before and am torn as to whether or not to purchase those VV sets now that I know.

[Rabshakeh]

Seems to me that he was justly censured; a cynical attempt by his record label to portray him as a victim was correctly called out; but I didn't think that his behaviour crossed lines into really really cancellable territory.

I can't say I was impressed by those text messages or by his behaviour, but I am not sure that it would stop me listening to his music?

[JSngry]

There's always a shortage of bass players.

[clifford_thornton]

Gross.

[Dmitry]

On 5/17/2024 at 6:26 PM, tranemonk said:

Okay, I'm chiming in on this years after the fact. I was listening to some of his Village Vanguard sets on Bandcamp and searched here to find this thread. I read through some of the posts to get the gist of what was said. I know the entire relationship between the music and the human beings who make it, is complicated.

I also know the only people who know what actually transpires in a sexual relationship are those people in it. I also know that race, sexuality, access, age, power, and all that stuff are woven into Americana in dozens of ways too hard to decode or make universal statements about. I also agree that #MeToo shifted the national conversation in ways that were both overdue, helpful, and sometimes, extreme and unfair.

That all being said.. I wasn't big into Coleman before and am torn as to whether or not to purchase those VV sets now that I know.

Are you considering dumping your Miles Davis material? 

[Ken Dryden]

21 hours ago, Dmitry said:

Are you considering dumping your Miles Davis material? 
 

Miles may have treated women like shit but I have never heard of him pressuring a teenage student for sex. Doing do while being married adds to the bad optics. The same thing would have applied if she had been a member of his working band. I think that I got rid of his recordings years before this story broke.