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“Journal” by Joseph Lepore… as Well as the State of Jazz: Let’s Start a Conversation!
A review and conversation started by Raul Amador –
This is my first review of anything in the Jazz genre that hasn’t been world-music. When I listened to “Journal” by Joseph Lepore (Produced by Inner Circle Music, ICM), I enjoyed it to the extent that I wanted to do this review. That said, I also want to discuss the “State of Jazz“ in present times.
I recently read that the Recording Industry Association of America reported that in 1999, Jazz sales accounted for 3% of all recording sales. By 2008 this percentage had decreased to a meager 1.1%! And with the decline, I don’t want to think where we are in 2010! That said, any Jazz performer is the bearer of a huge responsibility to keep this unique American music form alive against all odds; I applaud anyone that elects to do this!
I do, of course, have a theory about why this is our current reality. I enjoy Jazz. Many years of listening to my son (You know, the Sax player) perform from elementary school through high school and many summer camps in between, gave me great exposure. The most common pieces that they played were the standards. These good-old tunes were the kind that any everyday Joe could hear and tap his toes along to. You know the ones I am talking about, Miles Davis, Coltrane, Byrd, Monk, Basie and so many more.
As time has gone by and Jazz has evolved, the music has become something so much more complex and at times even disjointed that it is way above the reach of common people. Many contemporary Jazz groups are playing amazing, technically precise pieces that can only appeal to other musicians and a diminishing group of enthusiasts.
This trend parallels what I have seen in the world of plastic arts where a huge canvas splattered with paint is acclaimed as a masterpiece and supposedly worth millions. (I saw it at the Bellagio in Vegas!) It kind of looks like a, “Painters drop cloth” to me.
Maybe I am just artistically ignorant but I do know what I like. I think that the dwindling number of Jazz listeners may be telling us what the public likes as well.
I may be over-simplifying this whole thing and I encourage you to leave any comments below if you have a different point of view!
OK, now I will get off my soapbox and on to the task at hand! “Journal” is a collection of eight original pieces composed by Joseph Lepore himself. The quartet comprised of Joseph Lepore on Bass, Lance Murphy on Tenor Sax, Tim Collins on Vibraphone and Nasheet Waits on drums make for a classic Jazz ensemble. All of these guys are excellent at what they do. They come together as a very well oiled, precise, intertwined combo. No weak links here!
We are treated to a mixture of some pieces that have more of the “old school” feel and some of the more contemporary ones that are a little more abstract. This variety offers a little something for everyone. There are some interesting time signatures reminiscent of Brubeck. Other time signatures have more of a “World music” kind of influence. A couple of tunes have that “classic” jazz feel that I was talking about earlier. One is so smooth that you might wear a smoking jacket and puff on a pipe while you listen to it!
My favorite is the first track “Running”! I play this track and feel like I have my own soundtrack behind an adventure movie, or some spy flick… and I am just driving to work! (Well… that in and of itself can be an adventure sometimes…) I really dig the tight combo work and that Sax. It’s all very cool.
All in all, I really enjoyed this CD and if you are one of the few loyal Jazz enthusiasts left on the planet, you will too… Check it out online at www.josephleporemusic.com! And listen to some samples at: www.reverbnation.com/josephlepore.
Available online at Innercirclemusic.net
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Photo: Self-portrait by Melissa Auf Der Maur
Melissa Auf Der Maur is a Canadian bassist who played with Tinker, Hole, and The Smashing Pumpkins. She released her own work and is a photographer with photos published in Nylon, Bust, and National Geographic. She released her ‘90s Rock Memoir “Even The Good Girls Will Cry” on 17 March 2026.
KB: Did you always want to be a singer-musician growing up?
I’ve played music my whole life. In school, I played trumpet and sang in a children’s choir, so music was always within me. My mother was the first female disc jockey on the Montreal airwaves; her record collection played a huge role in my inspiration and love of music.
KB: When did you start playing bass, and why this instrument?
When I was 19, the early 90s music explosion began to percolate in tiny clubs around the world. I was lucky to be a ticket girl at Montreal’s underground music club. In one year, I saw Hole, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, and The Breeders – all had female bass players. That’s when the seed was planted. By the age of 22, I was the bass player of Hole.
KB: Which brands of basses have you used in your career, and which one are you using now?
The first bass that I learned on was a vintage Squier Precision. Hole was sponsored by Fender guitars, so I upgraded to Fender Custom Shop Precisions. That is all I play, but I have a cool vintage 8-string Greco that I use on recordings to thicken up guitar parts.
KB: What equipment do you use or have you used with your basses?
Ampeg SVT amps and cabinets, a couple of Sans-Amp pedals, and that is it.
KB: How did you become a member of Hole, and what is your fondest memory of that time?
Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was helping scout a replacement for (RIP) Kristen Pfaff, Hole’s bass player. My band, Tinker, opened for them on the Siamese Dream tour, so Billy had seen me play and could vouch for me. Courtney trusted her talented friend, and that was it. I initially said “no thank you” due to my commitment to my photographic studies and the drama and chaos surrounding the band during the “Live Through This” album release. Courtney took it as a good sign that I said no, so convinced me to reconsider, and soon after, I accepted their invitation, in the name of helping put females in the male-dominated landscape of rock music. My fondest memory is every show we played as a mostly female band, symbolizing what a woman could do in a rock band. Every show had a purpose: get more women to play music.
KB: You are a photographer as well. What makes a great picture? Do you shoot in color or b/w?
I started shooting photographs at age 15. Initially only shot black & white and worked in the art school darkroom. In university, I took a color photography course, and shifted mostly and forever to that, because it was easier to process film on the road when I joined a rock band. I experimented with many cameras, point and shoots, manual, polaroids, medium format, and vintage finds. The trick to a good photograph is to shoot many and all the time – the magic is in the edit and selection process.
KB: Are there artists you would love to collaborate with or wish you had?
??I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some of my favorite musicians in my career. I would still love to collaborate with a new generation heavy electronic artist on an analog bass, heavy electronic drums, and synths collaboration project. Take me out of my usual zone, merging the past and future: my love of 80s dark new wave and new artists exploring that genre. It was very futuristic back then, and we are now, after all, living in the future. I am in the mood to play bass to heavy beats I want to dance to.
KB: What are your 7 favorite bass lines in music across all genres? And why these 7?
“Mountain Song” – Jane’s Addiction (love a rambling, rolling bass line – feels like the ocean waves)
“Black Top – Helmet” (was the first bass line I taught myself)
“Gold Dust Woman” – Hole from “The Crow 2” Soundtrack (it was my first bass line contribution to the band)
“Get Ready” – The Temptations (Motown just feels so good, because of the bass)
“Lucretia My Reflection” – Sisters of Mercy (makes me want to hit the dance floor and play bass simultaneously)
“Be My Druidess” – Type O Negative (full chord bass playing at its best by iconic, demonic, Peter Steele, RIP)
“Romantic Rights” – Death from Above (1979 – unique distorted overdriven tone, combined dance rhythm and melodic intelligence, all in one shot – also! Shout out to a bass & drum only band, which is awesome, and we should have more of, but the bass player needs to be a killer to fill that role.
KB: What are you currently up to?
Releasing my ‘90s Rock Memoir “EVEN THE GOOD GIRLS WILL CRY”. Visceral healing process, it was to get it out of me and write it, but I suspect the real magic will begin by putting it into the world and reflecting with others on what the magic of the ‘90s was all about. Powerful music decade that carried us into what is now a brave new world of digital corporate weirdness – may the past shed a light on our future. That’s my hope for this book release and tour.
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