I recently rediscovered the Evan Parker album The Topography of the Lungs, which I bought a few years ago. Over the course of a couple of listenings, I tried to sort out the logic and arc of the jagged interplay between Parker, guitarist Derek Bailey and drummer Han Bennink, with much more success than when I first heard the album. It was like a revelation to me, to hear that in the midst of the atonal, pointillistic improvisation, I occasionally heard snatches of melody and tonality (See the end of Dog Meat) as well as some passages that even loosely suggested the type of interaction between members of a more standard jazz combo.
The liner-notes that Parker penned to the album also were elucidated to me on this second appraisal. A great focus of his notes from 1970 was the importance of musician owned record labels, as a means of staying in control of ones artistic output (this record was released on Incus records, co-owned by Parker and Bailey.) The first time I read this, I didn’t quite know what to make of Parker’s seriousness on this matter. To him, the need to be in control of recording his own music was as vital as basic human rights. As I have matured as a musician over the past few years, and encountered other dedicated artists, I am starting to understand Parker’s mentality. This time when I read his liner-notes, to me it struck an obvious parallel to the ideas of Karl Marx regarding labor and capital. Marx believed that those people who had the skills necessary to produce things should be the owners of the machines they used, and that the class of people who created nothing but owned the means necessary for production should be eliminated. Similarly to Marx, Evan Parker sees it as equally imperative that musicians should own the means to record and distribute their own music. There are no direct mentions of Marx, however Parker does quote a passage from Aldous Huxley’s forward to Brave New World, “Only a large scale popular movement toward decentralization and self-help can arrest the present tendency towards statism.” According to Parker, there is in this music “a clear motivation by essentially the ideas stressed by Huxley.” As examples of musicians who have moved toward decentralization by founding there own record labels, he cites his own label, Incus as well as Sun Ra’s Saturn Records, the Instant Composer’s Pool and others.
Today there are even more artist owned record labels: Dave Douglas’s Greenleaf, Ornette Coleman’s Sound Grammar, and Jack Dejohnette’s Golden Beams to name only a few. However, there has been no revolution. The record business is still controlled by the big players. The main problem that I would point out is that most artist-owned jazz labels have been primarily self-serving. Most jazz musicians who opened there own labels did so to promote their own music. Of course in this competitive business no one can be blamed for doing that, however many isolated efforts will not bring about any real change. Perhaps the best role-model is John Zorn’s Tzadik record label. Through this label, as well as his venue, The Stone, Zorn has tirelessly promoted experimental music, including a large number of artists with very little wider reputation or commercial viability. Considering what Zorn has done through his own efforts, one can only think that a greater coalition of creative but business-wary artists could accomplish It is cooperation between many that will change the outlook of artists today.
It’s quite possible that I am overreaching in my interpretation of Parker’s liner notes. It’s true that he makes no direct reference to Marxism of any sort. But, whatever his intent was, the idea inherent in this writing is a beautiful one: music as an affirmation of freedom.
