John Pazdan

I have been in the music business for a long time, first as a working musician, then adding composer to my so called resume. Along the way, I figured out why I dislike the music business so much (wasn’t all that hard to do!), but I couldn’t figure out how to deal with the simple so-called fact that in order to make a living playing and writing music, one had to be a cog in a greasy bloated corporate machine. Around the “turn of the millennium”, when I began to understand the ramifications of the internet, especially in regards to how it freed up music on a level never seen before, I made a point of learning about copyright and intellectual property rights, and joined the fledgling group The Future of Music Coalition. From there, it was an easy jump to Larry Lessig and Creative Commons. These people made a lot of sense to me, and pointed to a new way of conducting the business part of Art. I also joined a great group of people online at ccMixter.org, where the culture of sharing and remixing was beginning to go full steam. Through these two groups, I’ve met people all over the world (strangely though, no one from Chicago). I work with people at ccMixter on a regular basis, collaborating and remixing music for the Commons.

There are links to these organizations on the right, and I won’t get into how good they really are, as you can read and decide for yourself. But two good things happened over the last week, and it showed me how much I know I am on the right road with the principles these organizations espouse.

I am for free source software, as understood through the tenets of Creative Commons, and one of the better programs in this realm is called GIMP. It is a labor of love from some very smart programmers, coders and graphics designers. It’s for editing and creating images, and is on a par with the top $$$$ edition of Photoshop. It basically do what that program do, but..it is absolutely free, as in “download it and use it” free. This “little” fact gives people all over the world the tools to do what previously only people with a lot of money could do with images and photos. The thing is, like Photoshop, it is very deep…there’s a lot of stuff it can do, and it needs to be explained. It comes with an good pdf manual, but for people like me (and believe it or not, I am actually proficient at a lot of audio software) it needs a bit more explanation. A teacher named Rolf Steinort in Bremen Germany started a series of podcasts aimed at this; he provides these ‘casts as a service to the World Community, and like GIMP, at no charge. No charge..for a lot of time and effort, and real quality results.

Recently, he put up a request at ccMixter.org for some new music to back up his podcasts and lessons, and I jumped at the chance. I wrote a new piece for him, called “Rolf’s Groove”, and sectioned things off so that he could use the different pieces of the tune as he saw fit. I worked with him through email and box.net. The project was successful, and the first podcast, with my music, comes out this week. I will put a link up as soon as possible.

The second good thing happened this morning. I received an email from writer/producer Ellie Markovitch in Paris. She had produced a multimedia article for the International Herald Tribune and New York Times about the plight of migrants in Calais, France. I was honored that she chose a piece of mine called “The Long Goodbye” as the music for the article. It is one thing to write music, but to have it used in a constructive and worthwhile way like this makes me one happy bluesboy. The photography in the piece is by Susan Meiselas, who is an internationally known photographer, specializing in political issues involving the 3rd World. Her images are startling, and at times the narrative and music seem almost superfluous. This is photojournalism the way it should be, and if it’s what replaces print and teewee, count me in. Another other good thing about this is that my music has just been heard by millions of people who viewed the article online at the International Herald tribune and The New York Times.

here’s the links:

“The Long Goodbye” at ccMixter.org, where you can download it and read some reviews.

International Herald Tribune,

New York Times

Migrants in Calais, France produced by Ellie Markovitch for the International Herald Tribune. Photos by Susan Meiselas/Magnum Photos and Reporting by Caroline Brothers.

I’d like to thank my friend in The Hague, Marco Raaphorst, for his continuing dialogue with his ‘merikan friend regarding the basic principles of Creative Commons, and why it works. These two examples speak the truth.

…and now, from the OVERDUE! Department of Pazdan Creativity

I will be putting the next series of my original and remitzed Creative Commons licensed music up this week, as I wanted to finish two new things before I did…there’s also the two ads for Barack I did, the NYT article, a long version of a piece I did with photographer Perry Slade, and more..including a new tune that is the first in a series of songs I am posting for my new band, and Rolf’s Groove, a complete version of the music I am doing for GIMP…sorry it took so long…. I been sick..Scout the dog ate my homework (she really did bite Lake Michigan last weekend, I am not kiddin’)..the car battery died…I had to campaign to make sure Hillary lost..you know..STUFF.