I'm Sick About My Hat

I'm Sick About My Hat

ASIN: B00001T3BY

Editorial Reviews
From Jazziz
Even if you don't know who John Corbett is in relation to the burgeoning Chicago post- rock/avant-jazz scene, you must admit he does have some heavy friends: trombonist Jeb Bishop, drummer Hamid Drake, multi-reedist Mats Gustaffson, and cellist Fred Lonberg- Holm, among them. Corbett, who is best known for his role as a Chi-Town promoter, organizer, and pontificator, has sparked these musicians to enter his half-baked soundworld of tape slicing and randomness. Trombone solos end in electronic swoops. Saxophone blurps create neo-Beefheartian squatpiles of uninspired improv expressionism. Creaky acoustic-guitar motifs, repeated throughout, fail to evoke the blues/folk tradition intended or to anchor the "pieces." Much of these moody yet skronky, uselessly abstract flavors create a definite whiff of art-prank. The Barnes & Barnes/early-San-Francisco-art-punk-style "cover" of James Brown's "Cold Sweat" is probably the most egregious outburst. Nothing more than the lyrics of said minimalist groove-anthem spouted onto pitch-altered tape, it fails to reveal the Dada poetry Corbett apparently felt was present in Brown's writings; instead, the listener glimpses a certain unmistakable grad-student smarminess. Real listener pleasure applications for this are frankly unclear.

Tracks:

1 Of 1 (I)
Speed Hump
In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
The Silent Treatment
1 Of 1 (II)
Parapoli, Rosa E.
Lagavullin Breath
Ready Kilowatt
1 Of 1 (III)
Cold Sweat
Road Rage
A Note On 'The Mess'
1 Of 1 (IV)

Customer Reviews:

heavy as a lead balloon.......2004-04-10

This is some of the crappiest stuff I've ever heard. I'd like to say that the writer - whose self importance is of titanic importance - should stick with writing but even that stuff is pretty lightweight stuff hiding behind a few dropplets of critical theory. Don't waste your time, your energy or your money.

Sam

A different opinion.......2000-08-02

I've enjoyed John Corbett's record. It took a few listens, butit's now among my often-played favorites. While I am aware that Corbett is a contributor to Downbeat, I allow that "I'm sick about my hat" is not intended for a puritannical jazz audience. Still, Corbett's a big man in improv jazz circles. He gets cred points from the contributors on his album, Mats Gustaffson and Jeb Bishop for example, to the people he' s produced: Peter Brotzmann, Hamid Drake, Ken Vandermark, etc. John Corbett also writes for the Chicago Reader, teaches at the Art Institute of Chicago, deejays a radio show, hosts a well-known improv series at the Empty Bottle, writes books, and so on and so on. The guy does not stop. For full disclosure, while I've had the pleasure of seeing Corbett play live twice, I am in no way his friend.

The Critic as a "real" musician.......2000-02-22

John Corbett is a jazz critic who writes for Downbeat magazine. Here he actually makes an attempt to make the music that he makes his living criticizing. To say that he is a weak musician and conceptualist would be kind. He is a total zero - there is nothing of any originality or musical merit to be found here, and one has to wonder after hearing this record just what kind of ego it would take to have the gall to attempt to write about music that he here proves to be so completely inept at presenting. Like his writing, he attempts with his music to be "ironic" and "edgy" - but without any real point of view, and certainly minimal musical skill and knowledge, it all comes off as the whinings of a high school sophomore given the keys to the electronic music lab of his school for an afternoon. There are no substantial musicial ideas, only "mood" pieces that might work as really bad film music for a film that no one would ever want to go see. And when he does attempt to address a "standard" tune, (In the wee small hours of the morning), it is nothing short of embarrassing in it's lack of conception and understanding and it's inability to do anything but summon up the usual alternative newsweekly brand of ironic kitsh that passes for "avant garde" in todays world. One thing is for sure, after hearing this record, Downbeat readers will be able to pass over his reviews, which are now rendered as meaningless as if they were written by an amatuer musician with the pretense and illusion of competence - exactly what we have here.

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