Magic Triangle was my first Dave Douglas album. I first heard The Infinite actually, but MT is the one that my local record store (remember those?) had. I remember giving it a spin the first time and falling head over heals almost immediately. Lucky for me, that dude who helped shape my view of jazz in college is now the dude who signs my paycheck. And MT will likely always be my favorite record of Dave’s no matter how much mind-blowing stuff turns up in my inbox——you always have a soft spot in your heart for your first after all.

That quartet was burning. Seriously burning. So burning in fact that Greenleaf decided early this year to embark on our first, and certainly not our last, reissue project. And that was to combine Magic Triangle and the other equally-burning album, Leap Of Faith, that utilized this lineup: Dave, Chris Potter, James Genus, and Ben Perowsky. Both were released by Arabesque in the nineties, and now have a fresh release here at Greenleaf.

We took the original photographs and cover art, added a bit, and pressed an 3-fold digipak on super-thick 100% recycled paper stock. It’s a textured matte finish that feels and looks really great. The two discs are the remastered original source audio. There are liner notes by Dave included with the original thank-you’s as well.

One other thing that Dave wanted to do to help bolster the reissue was to press a book of all the charts for the compositions he wrote for this quartet. We do a lot of digital sheet music books at the Greenleaf store that you can print off and place in your 3-ring or folder or what-have-you. But for this project, we wanted to give the charts a more solid home, so we assembled them with some of the original handwritten scores from Dave’s archive in a sturdy spiral-bound set. The charts are printed on heavy paper so there’s no bleed through, and the longer (read: 3-pg) charts have a page fold for easy reading without any page turns. Some additional liner notes by Dave about the charts are there, too.

We hope that all this will help reintroduce these works and albums to the new school of musicians out there.

Even if you’ve heard this music before, we hope you’ll go back through this music. There will always be surprises if you’re listening.

Dave Douglas & Keystone in Europe
SUN 13 MAY / Birdland Jazz Club / Neuburg, DE
TUE 15 MAY / Jazz Sous Les Pommiers / Coustances, FR
WED 16 MAY / Blue Note Milano / Milan, IT
THU 17 MAY / Teatro Breton / Logrono, ES
SAT 19 MAY / Teatro de la Alameda / Sevilla, ES
SUN 20 MAY / Jazz Dock / Prague, CZ
WED 23 MAY / Cité de la Musique / Paris, FR
THU 24 MAY / Corte di Palazzo Trinci / Foligno, IT

This video EPK introduces you to Linda Oh’s second album, Initial Here, available May 22nd, 2012 on Greenleaf Music.

Click the thumbnail to read the full review. A very big thanks to Michael Jackson and everyone at Downbeat for the kind words about Initial Here.

We’re really excited to get this album out for the world to hear. Get your preorder in at the Greenleaf store or over at iTunes.

And make sure you Like Linda on Facebook and Follow her on Twitter so you can stay current with news.

Spotify raises some serious issues for artists and independent labels these days. Jim Tuerk, who works with us here at Greenleaf Music, has done a lot of thinking (and a lot of listening) around Spotify and other music services. He wrote some of his thoughts down recently and I believe Greenleaf followers will find them interesting and thought-provoking. Enjoy. —Dave Douglas

I’ve been streaming music on Spotify like it’s going out of style these past few months. The free version was just alright, but as with many in the digital music generation, I hate ads. And as you might guess, I have a pretty expansive iTunes library, so it wasn’t a priority to get in deeper with a paid account——paid accounts remove ads and allow you streaming capabilities on your phone. When I did take the plunge into the paid application, it was mostly so I could stay current with new releases in the indie rock world——something I doze off on sometimes only to be met with, “You haven’t heard _____?!” from one of my friends. And I have to say I am pretty hooked now.

A friend of mine recently equated Spotify to giving pirates the key to the booty, meaning that there really isn’t any reason to pirate a song or record if you can stream it for free online. And I’ve found that to be true. Sometimes, I just want to hear the record before I buy it whether that means scouring YouTube for tracks, or searching out other methods of downloading. What inevitably happens is one of two things: 1) I like the record, and buy the vinyl or digital, or 2) I don’t like it, and delete it from my memory (and my computer if it’s there). With Spotify, I rarely have to search illegal avenues and now have a list a mile long of records I have discovered and now need to buy. And that list grows exponentially due to the social piece of Spotify——which in my mind is the nail-head they hit spot on.

Example: A friend sends me a track on Spotify messenger by a band called White Denim. I dig it, check out their catalog further, fall into fan-dom, see a show, buy all the vinyl they have on the merch table, and go home happy to have supported the band directly with an empty wallet and an arm full of music.

But are there more people like me out there? I assume there are, but in far less numbers than the people who simply pay their $10 and stream all they want without a second thought to buy a CD/LP/download or see a show. For me, there’s something about not owning a piece of music I like that rubs me the wrong way. Call me old-school. Maybe it’s because I’m a musician and want to feel I’ve supported folks like me. But more simply, I think it’s that I can’t quite go all-in on consumption without ownership.

One of my favorite singers, David Lowery, is a smart dude. He wrote this expansive article on the current music business model vs. the old model a couple weeks ago. It’s a helluva read. He writes: “’The consumer wants music to be free!’ [the Digerati] shout as they pound their tiny fists on their Skovby tables. The consumer also wants cars to be free. And beer. Especially beer. But any market involves a buyer and a seller. A consumer and a producer.” And furthermore, that some equate, “the unauthorized use of other people’s property (artist’s songs) with freedom,” but “…when it comes to their intellectual property, software patents for instance, these same companies fight tooth and nail.”

(Note: There is so much more to quote from over there. You should read the full article.)

Spotify hasn’t been forthcoming with their payment structure as of yet (Digital Music News is a good resource for that). While their model allows for a company to join up or pull their content, the “freedom” for consumers at the expense of artist revenues is why a lot of labels are pulling their catalogs from there (one of my favorite labels, Drag City, being one of them). But labels can lose a lot by not servicing Spotify——specifically the aforementioned social aspects of the software. It’s a great tool for artists to get their music out there to the people like me, but none of that matters if people use Spotify as a one-stop for all their music consumption. It really only works for artists if those engaged fans are somehow converted into paying consumers——meaning they don’t just pay Spotify, but rather support the artist directly. Think about the example above: I bought their albums, went to a show, and still listen to them on Spotify. But if I were just listening to them over and over again on Spotify without buying, who’s winning besides me and Spotify?

If you’re here reading this post you probably have checked out some of Greenleaf’s music and gone farther than a cursory Spotify relationship. For us at GLM, pulling our music from Spotify isn’t something we want to do. One alternative we’ve created is the Subscription with streaming and downloadable music not available at Spotify (or iTunes or Amazon or anywhere else). We definitely hope you’ll want to hear this music and join up at one of these plans. For us it’s about having a mechanism in place that helps convert those who find music on Spotify or elsewhere into a more direct relationship with our artists. We’re working with Spotify as just another tool to generate interest in the music, whether it’s live shows, CDs, streams, sheet music, or any creative output coming from artists we believe in.

My larger point in all this is that we all need to be thoughtful about how our consumption patterns affect those who are making the content we’re consuming. Paying your $10 to an aggregator like Spotify every month doesn’t get you off the hook. Get out there and see a show, buy an album or even just a song if you like it. Don’t just sit there thinking, “Man, Spotify rules! I never have to pay for an album again!” because you’ll be left one day without a WiFi connection and a deafening silence that could have been cured for a couple extra bucks——money that will help keep your favorite band alive and kicking one more year.

Preorder Initial Here at:

We’re also happy to let our subscribers know that the album is up in-full at the Cloud Player for an exclusive First Listen. And any new subscriber that wants to hear it, your new subscription comes with a free copy of the CD (ships 5/22).

First listen at the Cloud Player:

The title Villagers and Trumpet comes from a Zen parable, which you can read at the Zendo site. Join us for the first concert at Village Zendo for this remarkable meeting of trumpeters, trumpets, small ensembles, and, yes, villagers. Nate Wooley, Nadje Noordhuis, and Ryuko Shragge will all play sets with duo partners in this very special environment.

Equal parts Keystone and Perpetual Motion, the Key Motion Quintet is co-led by Dave Douglas and Donny McCaslin with Adam Benjamin, Tim Lefevbre, and Mark Guiliana. These three cuts——Moonshine, L.Z.C.M., and Handwritten Letter——are from the GPS: Live at Jazz Standard celebration December 2011 which was one of only two performances with this band. All three tunes are available for stream/download exclusively for Greenleaf Subscribers.

Dave asked me to post about Levon Helm knowing my love for his music. Dave actually got to play with him on the record Jericho. All of us at Greenleaf mourn the loss.

My heart sank a little bit earlier in the week when I heard that Levon Helm’s family issued a statement regarding his decline. After losing his voice a few years back from radiation treatments only to regain it and reinvigorate his career, I guess I hoped he’d pull through, again—he was only 71.

Get your musician friends together and ask the question: List the greatest singer/drummers of all time. Of course, Levon is on always mentioned on this list—along with the Phil Collins and the Don Henley. But Levon was so much more than just one of the top-tierers in this select-few category. And his work spans too much ground for him to be only on a list like that.

He was one of the greatest singers of all time in my mind. He’s the reason why a Canadian boy could write a song about The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down and have it come off as authentic and honest. As my friend Tony says, you can hear that drawled silent “p” at the end of the word “Yankee” in that song. And later, after resting his lost voice for years, he came back and found a new one, one that only seemed frail because you knew where it had been. But soon after, you forgot about it and just listened.

His drumming was so closely tied to the vocal phrase, too, and it’s something that some people forget because his drumming stands on it’s own as amazing. I remember seeing the DVD that came along with A Musical History box set (which is required listening in my circle) and him talking about punching a word with a kick drum or leaving space before the backbeat for the vocals. It’s this reason why I think he’s one of the greatest rock drummers. There was an argument back in high school between whether it was cooler to groove or cooler to rock. Setting aside the ridiculousness of that question, Levon was one of those rare players that seemed to embody both of those concurrently, never overplaying and always feeling head-bobbingly urgent.

The Band was so much more to me than just a band. I have rocknroll friends that aren’t into them. But I always have to say, just like with other band like Big Star and Tom Petty: If you play rocknroll, you like them—you just don’t know it or won’t admit it. Ever wanted to go out to the woods and record your record with your best friends? You know, get away from the city to clear your head and write your roots record? Yeah, well The Band practically invented that with Big Pink. Plus, they got Scorsese to film their final all-night concert playing with Neil Young, Ronnie Hawkins, Muddy Waters, Joni, Clapton, Ringo, and so many other who’s-who names.

And while The Band may be what Levon is best remembered for, he did so much after all the Big Pink’s and all subsequent legal disputes among that group. Electric Dirt from 2009 is an incredible album for example. Take this opportunity to go back through his catalog. I guarantee you’ll find some gems.

I’ll miss Levon. I was already missing Rick Danko and Richard Manuel. Levon might take me longer to heal from, though. I never made it to a Midnight Ramble and had planned to go last year, but the always regrettable something came up.

But ah well, it’s not about me. It’s about Levon.

“It’s time for you to dream away. Because what a big day you’ve been through. You’ve done all the things that you wanted to do.”

For those in NYC, the group (with Fima) hits the 55 Bar on Sunday, April 22nd for two sets starting at 9:30 PM. Come on out and send them off right.