Wednesday, May 14, 2008

I guess it's karma

Just learned of the latest LEEF review, by Brad Glanden (published yesterday in AAJ). Not gonna quote the whole thing here, but there are some bits that are turning my face various shades of I'm-not-worthy-red. Among them:


It's difficult to fathom a universe where someone would not enjoy listening to LEEF.

Durkin could be writing great pop-rock if only he had a narrower instrumental imagination.

”The Job Song” will offer laughs to anyone who has pursued an artistic career against the financial advice of parents, teachers, and -- Satan? The moral is that doing what one loves yields rewards far greater than monetary ones; the song proves its own thesis beautifully [...]

Durkin is the Conan O'Brien of jazz, joking about the band's alleged lack of appeal when so much evidence exists to the contrary [...]


So this seems a fitting rebuttal to my ornery and totally uncalled for outburst about a single bad review (from a guy who was probably just trying to do his best, and who probably had no idea his quickly-dashed-off words were going to be responded to with such precious hand-wringing).

What's to complain about when clearly there are some folks who are into what we're doing?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heh. I haven't had a chance to read the whole review yet, but of the quoted stuff, "Durkin could be writing great pop-rock if only he had a narrower instrumental imagination." is my personal favorite.

Congrats on another great review!

Unknown said...

Terrible review! They didn't mention the second trombonist!

Andrew Durkin said...

Thanks, cats! And James: I agree!

Anonymous said...

Sorry, James--they only allowed me a 500-word review, and you were going to be words #501 and 502...Thanks for the mention, Andrew! This is an addictive blog, by the way. The links can really keep a guy busy.

Andrew Durkin said...

Thanks, Brad! Looking forward to staying in touch... glad to see you're blogging too!