I was at 1755 Broadway about a year ago. A big meeting where the lowest person in the meeting made more in a month than I do in a year. Business is, of course, business.
Last night I was there for a listening party at Universal Music. Elizabeth And The Catapult, an excellent folk alt band from Brooklyn lead by Elizabeth Ziman, are signed to Verve. Verve, one of the great jazz and folks labels, was sold to MGM in 1961. Why? Back catalogue.
Universal took em over when they merged with Polygram in 1998 and they have done a damn good job in not destroying the labels reputation and though part of me feels about major labels the way bears feel about humans (terrified), another part of me can’t see an options anyway.
And if it is good enough for Diana Krall and Nellie McKay it is good enough for me.
The album, a very beautiful melancholic work Ziman compares to a Kubrick movie. Kubrick? I dunno, to change countries, it hits me a bit more Jean Renoir-y. A sorta grand illusion new wave as in not old wave harbinger of beauty. I like the first album, loved “Taller Children” specifically (and will buy into Ziman’s Woody Allen comparison if I must). but I prefer The Other Side Of Zero.
According to the press kit, Other Side began life last Spring as a Lincoln Center song cycle commissioned by NPR’s John Schaeffer and a “cover to cover study of Leonard Cohen’s Book Of Longing Collection”. Hey, don’t look at me, I just cut and paste this stuff.
Elizabeth and a Catapult arrive and immediately jump on copies of the CD around the conference. “The first time we’re seeing it.” Danny Molad says. They then say hello to some friends and eat. Me? I know no one and I hide in a corner and… er, eat.
Finally, half an hour in and I have had enough looking at people i don’t know talking about stuff I am not involved with (in other words: every get together I’ve ever been to). I interrupt Ziman mid-bite and ask her for pix to illustrate this post.
Elizabeth asks what I was going to write. I coulda said: “I was going to write a note recommending your accountant check the expenses for this get together and if they charged you rent for the conference room refuse to pay it”. Instead I say, “Whatever I am going say, it will be positive because I love the album.”
I do love the album. The listening party? Not so much.