The Old Country New Again: Revisiting Keith Jarrett

John Kendall Hawkins

 December 13, 2024

Facebook

TwitterRedditEmail

Back in the mid-70s I had a friend who attended the New England Conservatory, a school for future musicians of all ilks — jazz, classical, guitar, sax, orchestration, composition, etc.  My friend, Mark, was an Army brat whose father was a colonel stationed at Ft. Devens just 40 miles from Boston. He had shown great promise as a child of cultured parents who pushed him to excel in music.  He played piano; I thought he played well; and he found himself attending the Conservatory to improve his playing standards to a professional level.  I admired him more than all the friends who had come and gone in my life.

I was essentially homeless around that time, having dropped out of Groton School, and living in a tent in woods not far from the school, like some scholastic ghost locals might talk about later.  For money, I spent some time picking apples in nearby orchards, and sometimes hung out (along with another friend) with the H2A Jamaicans brought in to harvest the fruit. They would start off their seasonal journey in Maine and work their way down to lower New England, orchard by orchard, and some would go on to strip peaches in Georgia, and others would end up in South Florida cutting cane before returning back to Jamaica. We usually hung out with Heady, a father of three, who would go into Groton town once a week and send money home, buy some stouts or Red Strip at the local packie, and meet up with an acquaintance who would supply them with ganja.

At one point, I cannot recall the details, I found myself even without a tent. Mark found out about this one weekend home and invited me to crash in his dorm at the Conservatory. I slept on the floor and was snuck into the food line in the dining room.  I had the room to myself a lot of the day as Mark attended classes.  In the afternoons, he earned money tuning pianos and helping to restore old pianos. To save pocket cash, he would frequent The Top of the Hub, the spinning restaurant atop downtown Boston’s Prudential Building, which had a cheap but delicious buffet array. The ambience was languorous and the speakers emitted jazz.

The biggest thrill Mark had at that time was his gig tuning the Steinway at Symphony Hall, just up the road from the Conservatory.  He was especially excited one time getting to be the tuner who had worked on the piano at the Jazz Workshop  just prior to one of Keith Jarrett’s concerts there in 1974, with Dewey Redman, Paul Motian and Charlie Haden, with whom he would jam regularly. Mark was a huge Jarrett fan.  And I would learn to hear the nuances and technical prowess of Jarrett’s playing, with Mark signaling as we listened to his records on special moments of seeming genius. My first impression of Jarrett was his store of energy and life; this guy was not morose but transforming his blues into abstract dances that were pleasant to listen to, interesting patterns and rhythms, and affirmative.

The one time I saw Jarrett in concert live was in Istanbul in 1993.  I’d moved there to teach English to Turkish kids who often didn’t want to learn English.  Especially from Americans.  I got that.  I was teacher living in a building with other foreign teachers, Brits and Aussies almost exclusively, listening to them carp and carry on and backstab each other, but jolly up  with each other at dinner chowing down a curry cooked by Bill, a legend-in-his-own-mind from Yorkshire, all of whom, I leaned later, would turn on me together when I was out of the room. When Jarrett came to Istanbul in 1993 he played solo at the Cemal Resit Rey Concert Hall.  I attended the concert with Bill.  It was a lot of fun listening to the musical improvisation most jazz pianists could only fantasize about. But it was also fucking annoying having Keith stop at times and get up and walk away from the piano in ponderment or keening to hear how he would proceed or some secret genius business. Who the fuck knows? But since he was solo, when did that kind of thing, everything stopped.  And we all knew it was too early for the standing ovation, so we kind of looked at each other and kind of didn’t.

Back then I was listening to Belonging a lot. I loved Spiral Dance and Long As You Are Living Yours and The Windup. He was playing with top notchers: Jan Gabarek, Palle Danielsson, and Jin Christenson.  Lots of life.  I also loved listening to the legendary Köln Concert.  But I was also partial to the classical arrangements of the three-song Arbour Zena, especially Solara March (Dedicated to Pablo Casals and the Sun). But even then, those musical wonders were about two decades old.  Jarrett had gone on to new feats and heights.

Jarrett was part of a most exhilarating period of my life, homelessness mixed with high culture, living with different friends at different times in different homes in Groton, Back Bay, Dorchester, Concord, NH. Peterboro, NH, Hollywood, West Palm Beach, and the Northampton VA Hospital.  I fell into jazz, I knew by heart the blues, knew how to exchange food stamps for cash for smokes and booze. Slept out in a blizzard, Lived in a tent. Practiced composing my Stücke after Robert Schumann and Oscar Peterson, smiling like Casablanca Sam when the Smith College girls walked in. In LA, learning violin, Suzuki style. Playing an extra in Raid on Entebbe, an Israeli on a mission….

I might have forgotten all those years ago; they all eventually fall away, as new flaws in the human project absorb one’s remaining attention in a long life of many disappointments and a few crucial stand-out moments of love.  Jarrett, now almost 80 and debilitated by a couple of strokes that left him partially paralyzed and unable to play the piano, last month released a “new” album, The Old Country: More from Deer Head Inn.  It’s a trio album featuring musicians Paul Motian and Gary Peacock providing rhythm. But it is not new really. The album is a compilation of “more tracks” from the concert of 1992 at the titled venue. It features songs like “Solar” (Miles Davis), “You Don’t Know What Love Is” (Gene de Paul, Don Raye), and “It’s Easy to Remember” (Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers).  Mostly bright, sprightly finger dances you could listen to all-night as you make light conversation with the love of your life sitting across from, who you just met about an hour ago .

Jarrett played with everybody it seems — Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Dewey Redman, Chick Corea, and Art Blakey, and many others.  He brought new life to jazz but also put new spirit into Bach, Beethoven, Scarlatti, and Shostokovich.  He could play piano and saxophone. He also composed pieces for brass, string orchestra, and other non-jazz instrumentations. He was extraordinarily prolific, putting out dozens of albums.

He had amazing technique, especially in the left hand, where he seemed to own ostinatos, described as a continually repeated musical phrase or rhythm (see Pierre Piscitelli’s explanation of how Jarrett went about ostinatos below).  He could improvise all day long.

Also, he had an annoying habit of humming and buzzing along to his own tunes, which you can hear on The Old Country: More from Deer Head Inn. You think maybe he has a touch of autism and doesn’t even give a shit if you’re listening once he gets cooking. The Old Country’s not a great album, but it is not dated either after some 30 years.  Listening to Jarrett again brings back a lot of mixed memories and the beginning of my musical education in jazz. This is a good thing. And the album’s worth a listen. Want some inspiration in these bleak times to be human, give it a turn.

John Kendall Hawkins is an American ex-pat freelancer based in Australia.  He is a former reporter for The New Bedford Standard-Times.

The High Price of Pretty Feet: Addressing the Plight of Nail Salon Workers

Stewart Lawrence

 December 12, 2024
Facebook

TwitterRedditEmail

Photo by Gabriela

Nail salons are often hailed by labor economists as an immigrant success story. Well over half of the 200,000 salons nationwide – up from just 50,000 in 2010 — are owned and operated by Vietnamese women. But there’s a huge downside: the industry is rife with health and safety violations.  Not only are American consumers – mostly women, eager for low-cost manicures and pedicures – increasingly at risk for bacterial and fungal infections, but the salon workers themselves – many of them undocumented, and over 80% women – face workplace exploitation in addition to threats of toxic contamination.  The industry is in desperate need of regulatory reform, union organizing and stronger labor enforcement.  Will it ever get it?

Threats to Consumers

Like so much of the undocumented service industry, abuses largely occur under the radar, until a horrific tale of abuse surfaces.  Back in 2016, a report about an Arkansas woman who contracted a nasty foot infection after visiting a nail salon went viral. Following her visit, the woman’s ankle became swollen and turned red. Soon it spread to her knee and she was barely able to stand. She also developed a high fever.

When the woman went to the hospital, doctors told her she had cellulitis, a bacterial infection that’s most common on the lower legs. She was bedridden for four days and unable to work. She planned to sue the salon for damages.

Stacy Wilson’s case may seem extreme, but incidents like these are becoming more frequent, and thanks to social media, more widely reported. The range of infections varies, from the mild to the severe. Some, left untreated, result in HPV related diseases, lost toe nails and toes, but in some extreme cases, feet and legs may require partial amputation.

In 2017, several nail salons in Indiana were fined and placed on probation after a man’s toe was amputated following a pedicure. The man became infected after a salon cut him while shaving hard skin off of the bottom of his feet.

Florida is another state where the nail salon industry has become notorious for consumer abuse. Back in 2004-2005, an undercover investigation in South Florida found rampant health and safety violations. In fact, the state issued more than 250 citations to a wide range of salons, from small storefront shops to big name operations.

“What’s happening in Florida is the tip of the iceberg,” Nancy King, editor of Nail Pro magazine, told the Orlando Sun-Sentinel. “[Salon workers] are not tested on how to disinfect their tools. And many…..are not even aware of health problems such as not treating someone who is diabetic because they have a high risk of infection and their cuts won’t heal.”

Industry supporters admit that there’s a need for better regulation and enforcement of health and safety laws, and more training for salon technicians.  But industry watchers say conditions have not improved all that much in recent years because salons are growing like topsy and states have only limited resources to monitor them, let alone cite and meaningfully fine offenders.

In fact, some risks to the public’s health are not regulated at all. Chemicals like acetone and toluene, found in nail polish remover and artificial nails, are the biggest culprits. Some of these chemicals will simply make those exposed dizzy and nauseous. However, long-term exposure to toluene, for example, can damage the liver and kidneys and expose unborn children to harm during pregnancy.

Worker Health and Safety

Of course, it’s not just salon customers who are at risk.  The health and safety threat to workers – trapped all day in cramped and dingy rooms with poor ventilation – is far greater. Nail salon workers are known to work long hours for low pay and fail to take their own basic safety precautions, in part because their employers fail to insist on them.

Health studies have shown that salon workers are subject to toxic poisoning but are often completely unaware of the health risks of their profession.  And those that are may be too desperate for the work to inquire, let alone complain.  Some of the most recent health studies have suggested an elevated risk for ovarian cancer and birth defects among pregnant manicurists and other salon workers.

Another problem is cultural and linguistic barriers.  More than 50% of nail salon workers have limited or no English literacy.  Even state-mandated handbills and signage relating to health risks are unlikely to affect their awareness of them – or their ability to protect themselves.

There are growing signs of pushback. In 2016 hundreds of nail salon workers in New York wonalmost $2 million in backpay and damages in a class action lawsuit after a New York Times investigation exposed abusive and unsafe working conditions in the industry.

The state did pass a package of reforms including new licensing rules and beefed-up requirements for personal protective gear and safety training to deal with toxic chemical exposures on the job.  All good measures – but without constant monitoring, not necessarily enforceable in a meaningful ongoing way.

Other states, including California, home to America’s largest Vietnamese immigrant community,  are facing similar regulatory pressures, but progress, if it comes at all, will take time, given the many obstacles to raising awareness and compelling enforcement.

Some of the best studies of abuses in the nail salon industry are being conducted by the UCLA Labor Center, sometime in collaboration with the Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative.  The group’s seminal 2018 study established a compelling demographic profile of the industry in New York and its 2023 study has done much the same for California.

In some ways labor advocates have a unique advantage in pressing the case for reform of the nail salon industry because workers and consumers alike face much the same health risks.

But public attention tends to focus almost exclusively on threats to consumers, who tend to be middle class and above, and have the social leverage to be more vocal about threats to their well-being.  Union organizing might help, but the workers, given their irregular status, and language and cultural status, are difficult to approach.  Many just prefer to stay quiet.

Looking Ahead:  The Expanding DIY market

The last five years have witnessed a significant shift in the nail salon industry, analysts say.  The COVID-19 pandemic led to a growing number of niche companies (as well as big names like Marie Claire) expanding into both the mobile salon and the DIY market.

With the pandemic shut down orders, many salons were forced to close. Others began reopening with masking and the installation of plexiglass barriers, but some regular clients have been afraid to return because of the close intimate contact with salon workers required.

In the coming years, expect the nail salon trend – including new “mobile” salons that bring the service to women at their place of work or nearby — to grow.

But experts say there is also the potential for a glut in the market that will narrow the profit margins that salons already facing stiff competition can earn.

That’s a recipe for smaller salons especially cutting corners on cost and safety. One industry analyst estimates that presently at least 75% of all US nail salons are guilty of at least one health and safety violation.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment in the nail salon industry to grow “much faster than the average for all occupations” in the next decade—by 22 percent. That should make health and safety in the industry a top priority.  But regulations and enforcement resources continue to vary sharply by state, and the undocumented nature of the workplace leaves workers extremely vulnerable to abuse.

In some ways, demand from consumers is also driving the problem. New beauty trends and products with unknown chemical compositions are emerging on a daily basis.  And the growth of the DIY market is only narrowing the already tight profit-margins in the industry.

That’s a recipe for smaller salons, especially, cutting corners on cost and safety. One industry analyst estimates that presently at least 75% of all US nail salons are guilty of at least one major health and safety violation.

Organizing for Labor Rights

In the short term, salon workers will continue to face enormous challenges. Labor unions haven’t yet cracked the industry and OSHA, the federal workplace health and safety agency, is still poorly funded and hamstrung by employer-friendly regulations.

Moreover, fierce market pressures are pushing the industry to expand under intense competitive pressures.  Not only employers but even sympathetic local regulators and politicians, anxious to spur small business development, especially among minorities, seem reluctant to crack down on time-worn industry practices.

In the short term, the most optimistic scenario is for nail salon workers to begin speaking out and organizing on their own – and then demanding reform and supportive legislation – from local and state governments.

That effort is already underway.  Earlier this year in New York, home to the highest concentration of nail salons in the nation (more than 4,100 statewide), salon workers began promoting a bill, the “Nail Salon Minimum Standards Council Act” and are now working to secure passage by the state assembly.  The bill calls for the creation of a semi-permanent sectoral council comprising salon workers, business owners and government representatives to jointly recommend reform. Instead of a conventional union, the board would support and promote sector-wide changes, better protecting salon workers but also streamlining business licensure requirements. Businesses deemed in compliance might also receive special tax incentives and loan subsidies.

It’s not a novel solution. Across the country, other vulnerable groups facing barriers to union organizing are following suit. So far, these efforts include nursing home employees in Minnesota, fast food workers in California and rideshare drivers in Massachusetts. In each case, workers are mobilizing to develop their own version of a permanent tripartite council that includes business and government representatives coming together to establish industry-wide standards. But the salon worker effort may be unique for having such a high percentage of undocumented workers who are women – and Asian women to boot – spearheading their cause.

Another important innovation is the development of salon worker healthcare interventions.  Last year an all-Vietnamese research team led by D.T. Nguyen, founder and CEO of Koan Health, investigated health conditions in nail salons in the greater Philadelphia region. Nguyen’s team interviewed Vietnamese-speaking salon owners, workers, and community-based organizations to design and implement a health promotion plan. The team collected baseline and post-intervention individual data about health symptoms and behaviors, as well as personal chemical exposures.  A local community partner was trained to deliver in-language training with technical assistance from the research team.  A counterpart intervention by Nguyen’s team brought the relevant stakeholders together, including salon owners, to discuss the results, and push for greater workplace cooperation.  The project’s still in its infancy, but it promises to achieve results that could be recognized and validated by local regulators, establishing a de facto enforcement regime.

Ad hoc sectoral councils and successful academic-community partnerships are no substitute for the institutional reforms needed to protect nail salon workers from ongoing occupational abuse. But like similar interventions among Mexican farmworkers facing pesticide poisoning, partnerships of this kind can highlight critical unmet issues, raise public and consumer awareness and spur workplace interventions to ameliorate dangerous conditions. Designed properly they also allow one of the most disadvantaged and super-exploited constituencies – low-income Asian women – to achieve a meaningful social protagonism that can foster greater recognition for their struggle for dignity and human rights at the workplace.

Stewart Lawrence is a long-time Washington, DC-based policy consultant.  He can be reached at stewartlawrence811147@gmail.com.