The sting. The pitfalls of the industry

How does the music business treat you? "And this was going so well too... now for the sting in the tail." The question awakens the critical side of Jorge Pardo's nature. "The truth is I just have nothing to do with them. I've never felt good in that environment. I couldn't give you one particular reason above any other." The saxophonist's experience with record companies has been for the most part with the Nuevos Medios label, "which I consider to be a pretty atypical company within the sector, as they've always provided an artistic environment, facilitating the birth of some little treasures. Considering how artists are managed in other places, it's somewhere I have freedom as to how I work. I have to be frank, and that's what I'm trying to do." He summarizes the situation thus: "I'm aware that there are limited resources because the big companies take the biggest slice of the cake." And he takes a firm stance against this. "I don't care. I'm still doing my thing. I'm lucky enough to be independent".

Jorge Pardo, by Mario Pacheco

Still on the subject of this valuable freedom, Jorge Pardo turns to the Internet: "I'm very much interested in all avenues open to artists to distribute their work. Internet is a medium as yet undiscovered by artists. I think it's hugely significant because it's a very direct means of communicating with your audience, with the listener. The artist exhibits his work, you finish it one day and the next it's published on the Net." And he adds a footnote for the cyber-community: "I'm ready to publish work in this format whenever someone has a good idea."

(And fifteen minutes of the interview are missing here, while "we tore everyone to shreds". A couple of clues as to whom: Kenny G, Ottmar Liebert...)

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