Autumn 1998

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Babel surviving on goodwill & integrity

by Oliver Weindling

THE Babel Label is reliant on the goodwill and support of three main sources: the musicians, who have entrusted us with their music; the investors in the label and to whom we are responsible in making sure that (at some stage) they make their money back; the purchasers of the CDs which we produce. To each of these we have responsibilities: lto the musicians, we have to ensure that their music is released honestly and accurately and that it is listened to as widely as possible and, thus, help their incomes both directly and indirectly; lto our investors, we have to ensure that they make their money back (eventually); lto our CD buyers, that, when they pay for a CD, that they get something which will give them satisfaction.
Many organisations in this sector depend on a fourth source - official funding and grants. Thus far, in bringing out 22 releases, Babel itself has received directly just £6,000 to support its activities. For this we are, needless to say, extremely grateful. Why is it so hard for us to get official funding? First, the label started at an unfortunate time in relation to the Arts Council’s Recording Subsidy. Initially, it was too new a label to justify much success. The subsidy was supposed to be replaced by a new Lottery funded scheme. We have been waiting for it for the past two years. And continue to wait and wait.......
The grant system has also tended towards live rather than recorded performance. Perhaps recordings are generally regarded as the preserve of the major record labels and will make money. Tell that to all of the small labels over here, including the new ones such as Steve Noble’s Ping Pong Label, or the Village Life label of Paul Clarvis and Sonia Slany. Finally, we operate in a sector of music which is generally underfunded. Over 98% of the official funding goes to classical music. Perhaps there is a chance for this balance to be redressed slightly over the next year of two. It is for this reason that I have been an active participant in the organisation MusicAlliance. MusicAlliance has been arranging conferences for promoters, labels and others in jazz, world music and folk for the past five years. But this year in particular, with Chris Smith (the Culture Minister in this country, if you didn’t know) in attendance, we believe that there is a chance. Even if 98% were reduced to 96% then there would be more money for all. (Next year’s meeting will be at the Barbican on 26-28 February. Contact us here for more information if you want it!).
We are not a gimmicky label, in that we make no aggressive attempts to pander to the short-term demands of the commercial market to book glamorous guest artists for our releases or second guess a desire to get a bestseller of Kenny G proportions. We continue to trade upon our honest belief in the music scene over here and a potentially wider audience.
Oliver Weindling is the founder and director of the Babel Label.

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Babel Babble

By Dick Ward

CURIOUS. Huw Warren looked fresher coming off a three-week American tour than he did a day and a half with his family. Still, if you insist on having four very active young lads under nine years of age I guess it’s understandable... Mind you, that nearly was reduced to three after one looked rather worryingly at Dave Ramm after a Leicester TLC gig and said: 'You’re too old to be a musician!'

Leeds United fan (I believe they’re a football team) Mike Pickering didn’t just wear his team’s colours at the Leeds TLC gig he wore both home and away colours! Pathetic. Let’s just hope he had two more pairs for Christine Tobin’s Harrogate gig the next night.

Goodbye Thomas - hello Jorg Miegel. The Fun Horns’ new boy made a great debut with the Blues Collective as they stormed the seventh Neubrandenburger Jazz Fruhling.

Real blues guitarist Rick Bolton who not only lost his mobile phone outside the rehearsal but also missed his flight... Why does Berlin always invite transit problems? Possible answers and other Berlin adventures on a postcard - no need for Martin France, Dave R or Oliver Weindling’s trousers to write in.

And finally, this issue’s jazz joke (meaning you’ve probably heard it before!) Q: What is the difference between a jazz musician and a pizza? A: A pizza can feed a family of four.

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Sport

Billy Jenkins vs Orquestra Mahatama
at TJ’s Woolwich on the occasion of the Iran vs USA World Cup match Sunday 21 June 1998.
Ben Watson reports.

SINCE the sole basis for scientific musical criticism is the socio-musicology of Theodor W. Adorno, the news that Billy Jenkins had organised a gig to coincide with the Iran versus USA World Cup football match immediately had this critic scanning the august dialectician’s essay The Schema Of Mass Culture for hot tips. There Adorno writes: ‘Sportification’ has played its part in the dissolution of aesthetic semblance. Sport is the imageless counterpart to practical life. And the more aesthetic images participate in this imagelessness, the more they turn into a form of sport themselves.
The Frankfurter’s words coursed like mustard through my veins! Having long deemed Billy Jenkins a bulwark of obdurate resistance to 'sportification'.
- the reduction of jazz musicianship to competitive virtuosity, the reduction of popular entertainment to competitive chart-placings - his choice of gig intrigued me. Refusing the ivory-tower idealism which allows certain (self-professed) Adornians to ignore popular culture in favour of replaying old albums by Anton Webern, and instead adhering to a dialectical materialism that insists that only interaction with the world can tell us about it, I hot-footed it to Woolwich.
Alighting at the Cyprus stop-off point on the Docklands Light Railway, I passed the great stretch of water that is the Royal Albert Docks to my right, over which a setting sun was casting a fetid aura, and breathed dust as London City Airport aeroplanes revved their jets. After asking directions of a group of cheeky but helpful urchins, I passed under the Thames by way of the evil-smelling North Woolwich Subway. The eerie green light and wide-open spaces of South London prepared me for unusual experiences. A trip through a deserted shopping centre reinforced the suburban surrealism.
TJ’s was dark and closely packed with boisterous young persons. The match was already underway, the live-TV broadcast projected against the back wall behind the semi- occluded musicians. I quickly established that Iran was playing in red kit. The mood of the establishment was in Iran’s favour, and my socialist leanings were gratified by the cheers that greeted any blows against Yankee Imperialism. On top of that, whenever Iran got the ball, Orquestra Mahatma would strike up a Persian Victory Qawwal & Party that was quite simply intoxicating. One craved an Iranian sally just to hear Mahatma strut their Arabian stuff. The Billy Jenkins posse responded with Chuck Berry riffs and bursts of Louie Louie. The way the musicians managed to both improvise to the events of the game and keep the music rhythmic and recognisably melodic was a marvel, and in the best traditions of music-hall’s translation of film into lived, interactive variety rather than alienated, monothematic spectacle. Dancing broke out.
In the intervals it was a pleasure to watch the Babel Label’s honcho Mr O. Weindling relish the sight of nubiles moving to the piped sounds of the True Love Collection.

In the light of this event, one can only conclude (in a detournement of Professor Adorno’s remarks, cited above) that 'Billyfication' had played a part in the dissolution of the sporting spectacle. Active music-making is practical life creating an image of itself in collective communion. The more frequently unique musical events like 'Iran vs USA at TJ’s' challenge the universalising aspects of the sporting spectacle, the more sport turns into a form of music itself.
Billy Jenkins must be congratulated for breaking down this particular Adornoite’s aversion to the World Cup. One should also note his prescience in choosing this particular match (the only one I witnessed): in Tehran, Iran’s victory was greeted with celebration-dances by women who’d thrown off their veils, and men openly drinking alcohol on the streets. Islamic Fundamentalism was confounded for a day.
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