Modal Newspaper

I realized something today.

I think a newspaper that has a staff like The News Record resembles a huge band playing modal jazz for eight hours and coming out with an album. Three times a week.

OK, so if you're not quite familiar with modal jazz, it goes something like this: Instead of basing a song off of a set of chord progressions, it uses scales. Listen to the song "So What" by Miles Davis off of the record "Kind of Blue." You might not like jazz. But be aware that those eight or nine minutes of music are all based off of ... maybe... 50 preconceived notes in three bars at the max. Still with me?

While that might not resonate with some people regarding the difficulty of being able to do all that for EACH song, think of it this way: you get a writing prompt. It's on the history of the Asia. You're with five other people, each writing a line and then passing it on to the next. And you do it for four or five pages.

Yeah, I think it's something close to that.

Trane, "Cannonball," Miles and Evans were all able to carve out careers on their own, but egos had no place in making an album hailed as "the greatest single session of jazz" ever recorded.

Today, it was great to see staff members work together in such a way that highlights their ability to work under pressure. We came out with a very pretty paper and no one will know the pains we put into it.

They might use it to leave on their floor for their dog. They might use it as a starter for a bonfire. Or you might just see Monday's issue on the concrete in front of Swift Hall deconstructed and not think twice about it.

It's really a beautiful thing, working at a newspaper. When someone picks it up and reads it, it's informative and they might even take something away from it just as someone who has never listened to jazz hears "So What" and thinks "This trumpet saxophone stuff isn't too bad."

I think they go together pretty well. There's a lot of impromptu action and decisions that come up around here and it's nice to see that where someone leaves off, another person on this staff can finish it seamlessly and even sometimes add a drop of grace.

-Gin

(For those of you who want to branch out to something besides Miles and Trane, I'd recommend "Cheesecake" by Dexter Gordon. What a tune.)