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Anyone who cares about art music in any sense owes it to themselves to read Alex Ross' blog on a regular basis. Today he analyzes a Guardian (UK) report about record sales. His conclusion, with numbers to back it up:

The major labels are much smaller than they used to be. But classical recording is bigger than ever.

Those of us in the business of creating and presenting improvised music, I believe, should be paying careful attention to, and aping, the way classical music, especially "new classical" music, has been creating and presenting itself in the last 10 years. We don't have some of the institational support they do, but they are succeeding by building from grass roots, and programming interestingly without pandering. Speaking of which:

Soundslope has the lineup for this year's Vision Festival. Many great acts- I'm hoping to make the 6/22 hit; I can never get enough of Myra Melford and Brandon Ross. I'm not the biggest William Parker fan on the planet, at least musically, but he deserves sooo much credit for worling tirelessly to make this event happen, every year bigger and better.

Finally, a local program note: Monday night Chris Potter and Dave Holland play a duo concert at NEC. 8pm, Jordan Hall, Free. I'm salivating.