RBD: Recently, as employees of an small jazz record label, we have noticed a couple of interesting things that have turned up in reviews. Now, not everybody knows this, we love getting reviews of the albums we release. The reviews usually gauge the importance and popularity of the album before it is officially released. I will let mda talk more about the process of sending out the albums and gathering the reviews. Anyway, with the release that gets sent out, a bio or a description goes along with the album (sort of a detailed explanation about who is playing: what where and when). If the reviewer takes, say 3 minutes, to read the description of the album, then listens to the album, then writes the review, there really should be no errors in who is playing what when and where on the album. That however, doesn’t always seem to be the case.
mda: I agree it seems like it should be quite easy to read the accompanying material and go from there. However, I am going to play devil’s advocate for a second. I am sure these reviews receive 20-50 albums in the mail every week…if not every day. And then the publicists are calling and/or emailing wondering if the reviewer will publish a review of the album. I would assume they think they do not have the time to read and then listen to the entire album. This should not be an excuse! I would think that publicists would want to do the best possible job day in and day out, which would mean reading and listening to all material.
RBD: I agree with your devil’s avocado argument mda. I can see that reviews do have a TON of albums to 
review each and every day, but at what point does their lack of time listening to the album, or reading about the album begin to effect the quality of the review? When you consider how much the artists, not to mention, the record labels rely on honest reflections and reviews of their products, when does this lack of attention start to hurt the product? Is their a happy medium? Less reviews for more money? (do reviewers get paid to publish reviews?)
mda: I actually do not know. I think there are two different types of reviewers now: the traditional newspaper/magazine reviewers who get paid for their words each and every day; and the internet/blog/webzine reviewers who generally do it because they enjoy music and care about educating the public about new, exciting music. These people might get some piddly compensation if it is a large enough blog that is supported by another entity, but I believe they mainly do this on their own. And have you noticed a difference between these two reviewers?
RBD: Well, actually no. I’m not sure where I stand. As we’ve had reviews coming in, some of our artists have gotten upset and asked why more musicians are not doing the reviews. My answer has been that either a musician is to busy practicing/gigging to do reviews, or too bitter for not practicing/gigging that
Greg Osby
you don’t want them to do a review! All this discussion comes to me from a blog written by Greg Osby. His band was touring in Italy and they received a poor review. He argues that perhaps the reviewer needs to walk a mile in the musicians shoes. The writer commented that the band sounded somewhat uninspired and misdirected. Osby agreed, but thought that had the reviewer known that the band had been traveling and performing for weeks on end, there could be a benefit-of-the-doubt given. I don’t know if that’s right, wrong or not important, but ultimately I want reviews, of concerts and albums, to be honest, but with some insight, some appreciation for HOW the music comes together! (especially if they get a sheet that tells them how the music came together!!)
mda: I agree and I think unfortunately only 60% really do that. Oh well, I don’t think it can actually be changed. People are going to do what they do no matter what. What do you think would have happened if, say Robert Schumann or Hector Berlioz (both well known reviewers/writers during their time) didn’t really pay attention to the concert and wrote some nonsensical review? They would have been laughed at. The world isn’t like that anymore…such a shame.
RBD: I guess you’re right and it is a shame. What do you think? Should we start accepting albums for review? Or should we just stand on the sideline and criticize the critics?
mda: I will gladly accept albums to review. I love listening to new music and educating others on the wonderful new music.
RBD: Well that settles it. No reviews. Sorry.
(OK, we are indeed up for doing reviews if you want to send us anything! Just email us at chamber.indy@gmail.com and we’ll send you our address so you can send us your music!)
Renaissance Brothers 