Too Prolific?

zorn,haino keiji, mazzacane connors

Robert Pollard. I'd call it a strength cause no way in hell Im going to try to collect it all.

Zappa.

Rock musicians in general actually look a lot less prolific than musicians from other genres. It was standard form at one time, at least, for jazz (and, to an extent, blues) musicians to release at least an album a year, very often more, for the bulk of their careers. Unlike rock, however, there's really no retrospective pressure to 'collect 'em all,' everyone but really voracious fans just picks and chooses the albums that have a particular style they like or are representative of an artist's body of work. Yes, this is also the case with some/many rock fans, but in jazz, it's more or less a way of life. Also, even the rabid types don't always have all the recordings by an artist, because the nature of the music allows the musican to leave traces of themselves all over the place: starting out as sidemen, early backup-band type recordings, solo careers, joint solo careers, guest appearances, etc. These tend to have more equal weight than an [admittedly archaic but still present] traditional 'one-career' or 'one-band' rock mindset.

So, Prince may have 22-odd releases over a period of twenty years, but 'Trane had more than twice that many over a career spanning only about 2/3 that time.

sun ra

Thing is, jazz musicians could put out an album every three months in part because they were recording a whole ton of standards. In general, the real prolific ones weren't struggling to put out a new album of original music every time. That's a very different kind of pressure.

Prince, e.g. He's just lost me. You have to be in a very special position to put out an album of predominantly good music every six months or whatever. Zappa was the same way -- although he gave himself the luxury of releasing his abundant live recordings, and sometimes of editing live performances into new pieces altogether.

Costello collaborates -- a lot. I don't think it makes it any easier on him, since he does write most of what he records, but it does allow him to keep his approach fresh, to keep himself stimulated with new musicians and new musical challenges.

BTW, one humungous exception to the jazz standards thing is Duke, obviously, who managed to put out a bajillion songs a year, generally very good and geared to whomever he had in his band at the time.

I don't think you can chalk the prolificness of jazz musicians up to their playing standards on record. Post-Bop, lots of musicians filled their albums with primarily new music. But I suspect that has more to do with the process of writing jazz songs in that period.

Also, I wonder if looking at a lot of less famous jazz musicians might balance the picture a little. Using Coltrane as an example sort of inaccurately represents the genre, I think.

I believe that everyone knows just who I think fits this thread (though I be a big fan). But Omar will beat me to a pulp if I mention his name ;-p

Jazz prolificity: but it's also a production thing, isn't it? Prior to Teo, you just set up the mikes and played. If you booked the studio for a half a day (= four hours), you could still record 5 LPs-worth of music.

Sun Ra didn't record enough LPs.

I just discovered I can't stick my tongue out and wink at the same time. (I blame Frank Zappa.)

No one has mentioned electronic artists yet. I only know Atom Heart through his Senor Coconut & Flanger albums, but he has more than 100 releases. I just know there is some great stuff in there, but who knows where to start?

Mark E Smith. The Pinefox? If I like the music it's a good thing, if not it's not. Pretty simple.

Production point a good one, Mark.

Also maybe something to do with genres, capitalism-wise. In the rock era, do you think any band who was that prolific would've sat well with their label? They would want a slower release schedule, etc. in order to take better advantage of the market, unless it's a band like the Beatles where people will just buy it all. Saw the same thing even in the 60s, what with jazz labels releasing 2-3 year old albums when they felt like it. Cf. now someone like Dave Douglas, getting lots of product out by releasing it on different labels.

I'm not prolific enough. I have not written a song this month, which is nearly over.

Elvis Costello is not prolific enough either. Prince is obviously too prolific and should never have released a record.

Bowie had that terrible RCA contract in the 70's that stated 'produce or perish'. Think Prince did as well, hence the whole 'slave' drama he went through last decade. I don't think of that as weakness, more bad circumstances for the artist.

Wu-Tang affiliates, circa 1998.

Josh/Mark: I don't think the popularity of a jazz artist has much to do with their prolific output. For example, Chico Freeman, a mildly obscure tenor saxophonist who worked with Sun Ra at one time, has released around 35 albums since 1976. Alphonse Mouzon, probably best known as the short-lived original drummer for Weather Report, has steadily released one album a year since the early 70s while also having a prolific solo career with various groups.

Also, I don't think the prolificacy of the musicians is directly correlative to their place in time. Brad Mehldau, the pianist, has released 8 albums since 1996. Joshua Redman has 10 since '93. Jazz has been a prolific supergenre both pre-and-post Macero's influence on production, as well as pre-and-post fusion, Marsalis, and whatever other recent milestones that could have possibly changed this aspect of the music one can think of.

Of course, not everyone is like this--indie jazz tends to not be as prolific as othe jazz musicians, but often, they're roughly on par with rock musicians. However, I think it's safe to say that prolificacy is a standard trait of jazz musicans signed to majour labels at least since swing.

Though I'm not overly familiar with her work, critics always seem to point out that Ani DiFranco's albums usually contain filler.

Re He Who I Cannot Mention Lest Officer Omar Should Beat Me on the Soles of My Feet with a Frozen Fish (damn those crazed Spaniard cops): I think a lot of his Eighties rock output fits, partly because he ran out of ideas for that market and partly because I think he over-indulged the fans that got off too much on lyrical scatology (Man from Utopia and Thing-Fish, anyone?). Since he was just as prolific during the Seventies (his best period, IMHO), I guess that would explain the drop in quality. I suppose he did it because he had to pay for that synclavier somehow, and to finance his orchestral work. That said, You Are What You Is and Broadway the Hard Way, to name just two from the Eighties, stand up pretty well. And then there was all that live stuff he released, but I guess you have to be a fanatic to start with to appreciate that stuff.

And, to really piss off Officer Omar, rumor has it that there are hours of unreleased stuff in the vaults (live and Synclavier noodling) that the Family Trust periodically threatens to release every now and then. So keep that billy-club close at hand, there!

Sebadoh. They are going to release a boxset. There's only one problem: they can't find any unreleased material.

Stereolab, although they've slowed down a bit.

BLURILLAZ

v/vm, and stockport affiliates. interesting ideas and some good records lost in snowstorm of releases ("oh look, its another v/vm rec")

I haven't heard of any new Billy Childish records for months, is he O K?

Duane, Billy is too busy being a Stuckist right now (his art movement based on ex-GF Tracey Emin telling him he was 'stuck, stuck, stuck'). Which means he's organising these really pedantic demos for in front of the Turner Prize opening/other art openings. I don't wanna suggest jealousy as motivator because I DO like the guy, but there's nothing worse than making your whole raison d'etre about carping on others' work.

Muslimgauze. Death has only slowed Bryn Jones' recorded output, not terminated it. I still only have an Extreme EP and a 3" CD on Staalplaat. One day I'll cave in...

Stereo MCs and Stone Roses should've released even less than they did

Heheheh glad that my intimidation tactics pay off, Tadeusz ;) Of course an army of killer ninja's are working together with the Zappa- police to hunt down the place where these alleged unreleased tapes are located.

agree with Costello, Prince. And will add Derek Bailey and Merzbow.

I like hardly any super-prolific artists (Nurse With Wound maybe) but I applaud them for existing - just by Namlook or Bryn Jones or whoever releasing so fucking many records (many in limited editions of about 30, har) they break up the critical album-arc which says you can Understand An Artist by owning and admiring their Major Works. Expenditure without hope of return = classic.

Tom: didn't understand that last post of yours.

A little bit late on this one but I just discovered the ILM search and had to look for one of my favourites. Howe Gelb too prolific. You must be joking. Howe/Giant Sand could publish a record every month and I would still go for it. That man is a genius. Some records seem a little chaotic and improvised but after a while you get into it. His music demands time like all really good music.