Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Whenever I do a WFMU fill-in show I'm reminded why I'm not a good
candidate for weekly slot; it's because when the show's over I'm not
immediately looking forward to the next. I have no great desire to stay
& mine the library for ideas, or come home, dump out my bag & start
filling it up for the following week. If I did a weekly 3 hour mainstream
jazz program late night on a little station somewhere, I could put
together a fine show comprised mostly of artists I already know,
concentrating on a finding a few rarities & offbeat things, & jotting
down session dates & a few anecdotes, it would take a couple of prep
hours. But a weekly free form show turns into a consuming effort. I
had a very large record collection when I was on weekly, it fed maybe
a 1/3 of the total show, & except for very favorite songs no individual
piece of music from it was played more once a year. Every week I was
hitting at least one flea market, warm weather was a much busier time
for stocking up. I was on a very tight budget, too. That was part of the
challenge. By contrast, Friday night was a cinch. My last overnite was
7 weeks ago. There were six pieces of music of ten minutes or more in
length I was determined to cross off on my to-be-played list;
Schoenberg's "Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte" based on the Lord Byron
poem had been on it for three years - since W's "Mission
Accomplished" speech moved me to pick it up at Princeton Record
Exchange. So some of the night was passed chatting with a few other
DJs who were sitting around through the wee hours drinking beer in the
record library.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
candidate for weekly slot; it's because when the show's over I'm not
immediately looking forward to the next. I have no great desire to stay
& mine the library for ideas, or come home, dump out my bag & start
filling it up for the following week. If I did a weekly 3 hour mainstream
jazz program late night on a little station somewhere, I could put
together a fine show comprised mostly of artists I already know,
concentrating on a finding a few rarities & offbeat things, & jotting
down session dates & a few anecdotes, it would take a couple of prep
hours. But a weekly free form show turns into a consuming effort. I
had a very large record collection when I was on weekly, it fed maybe
a 1/3 of the total show, & except for very favorite songs no individual
piece of music from it was played more once a year. Every week I was
hitting at least one flea market, warm weather was a much busier time
for stocking up. I was on a very tight budget, too. That was part of the
challenge. By contrast, Friday night was a cinch. My last overnite was
7 weeks ago. There were six pieces of music of ten minutes or more in
length I was determined to cross off on my to-be-played list;
Schoenberg's "Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte" based on the Lord Byron
poem had been on it for three years - since W's "Mission
Accomplished" speech moved me to pick it up at Princeton Record
Exchange. So some of the night was passed chatting with a few other
DJs who were sitting around through the wee hours drinking beer in the
record library.
