“I’m not saying his music is bad.”
The original Tatoeba sentence uses “pessima”.
I’m also wondering if “sia” would be possible here; that’s what I would have thought.
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Ciao morbrorper. Not sure here, the person is making a very firm comment where there seems to be no doubt etc so perhaps this is correct. Brutta seems OK to me.
I’m also not sure if “sia dicendo” would be possible here. Interesting. A dopo…
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Sorry, I meant “sia brutta”.
Ah, allora ho capito. Me too, I might have put “sia brutto” perché è il mio tenso preferito:-)
Brutto is one of those delightful words that sounds what it is.
A dopo…
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@mike-lima: Maybe you, as our knowledgeable madrelingua, could say whether “sia brutta” would work? 
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If the sentence was in the positive, that is “Sto dicendo che…” then you have to use the “indicativo presente” because this would be a simple case of “indirect speech”.
But here, with “Non sto dicendo”, you are denying the truth of the statement, so the subjunctive is appropriate, as the truth of the subordinate is not acknowledged.
I think the version with the subjunctive feels more polite.
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