22 Comments
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yardex's avatar

I'm trying to compare myself to Miles but getting "division by zero" error.

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Rob Ewing's avatar

We need a separate category for best poster. Downbeat critics are still voting like the internet wasn't invented yet.

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Jeb Bishop's avatar

This is a masterpiece of deadpan humor.

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djic's avatar

I liked the article but I'm a little mad about the photograph because I totally thought that was real for a minute.

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Jacob Garchik's avatar

Sorry. I took a little poetic license.

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ETHAN IVERSON's avatar

The sensational picture of Oscar Peterson having fun with his new togs reminds me that I have to review IN THE KEY OF OSCAR sometime

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Jon Opstad's avatar

I enjoyed this 😆

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Matt Merewitz's avatar

This is hilarious. In so many ways.

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ROBERT SCHWIMMER's avatar

The folks objecting to the OP AI photo are joking…? I’m hoping.

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Jacob Garchik's avatar

We have to ask the AI replica of Oscar Peterson to find out.

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ROBERT SCHWIMMER's avatar

Ha! Oscar Pederson?

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ROBERT SCHWIMMER's avatar

NØPE

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ROBERT SCHWIMMER's avatar

Or as Paul Simon’s AI replica sang, “You Can Call Me AI”

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Richard's avatar

Who is James Brandon Lewis?

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Jacob Garchik's avatar

1. Who is James Brandon Lewis?

2. Get me James Brandon Lewis!

3. Get me someone just like James Brandon Lewis!

4. Who is James Brandon Lewis?

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Richard's avatar

Just watched him on YouTube. Not heard of him before. There are so many great players out there now and I don't like to be critical because everyone is trying to make great music. I wish him the best of luck and wish him as long and as successful career as Lovano and Lloyd. They always move me.

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Christopher Fryman's avatar

no need for ai images

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Philip Sullivan's avatar

A picture that includes a vt100 terminal get a thumbs up regardless of subject

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JD Considine's avatar

Even if you imagine that social media interactions have an impact on how artists are perceived by critics, this analysis is valid only if you assuming the voting body has equal access/exposure across all platforms, which I doubt is the case. I can’t speak for all Critics Poll voters, but I personally would be largely unaffected by the frequency of any artist’s Instagram postings, because I spend almost no time on Instagram. I imagine other colleagues would say the same thing about FaceBook. Moreover, however much posting on this or that platform might raise an artist’s profile, there’s no guarantee that those posts will end up in the feed of any given critic. For example, before reading this, I had no idea that Chris Potter posted anywhere.

I do agree that it’s worthwhile to throw things against the walls in the hope that something will stick. On the other hand, no amount of social media exposure will help if you don’t also have a good album.

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Jacob Garchik's avatar

There are two conclusions that could be drawn here. Either social media, deemed to be important by much of society, and holding so much importance for young people, is a waste of time, or critics are vastly out of touch with the metric that truly matters, social media reach.

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JD Considine's avatar

I’m not suggesting social media is a waste of time, but rather that it’s diverse and somewhat siloed. Linked-In is apparently fire for some people, but a platform others wouldn’t be caught dead on. BlueSky doesn’t seem to have become the new Twitter, and X is … well, definitely not the old Twitter. And what would a Venn diagram of FaceBook users and Discord users look like?

James Brandon Lewis is in my feed on FB, Chris Potter is not. I voted for both. I’m not sure what conclusion about social media reach can be drawn from that, but maybe I’m just clueless.

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Yuma's avatar

the real number I'm curious about is the number of people who buy the physical print of Downbeat vs the numbers of total views the poll posts get across all social media platforms + all the musicians posting about it 🙃

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