sgcim

Yeah, beautiful arr. by Gil with those french horns. M&S never sounded as good as it did on that album. I don't know about the thesis of that article, Burrell is as well-known a guitarist by anyone into the music. Even rockers love "Midnight Blue".

Probably not. He's into Kerouak. Neo-Beats are known for poor investment choices...

There's no money in the record business anymore. That's why he's still touring at his age.

Fagen used to love listening to Les baxter scores. There's a funny story in the book where Mike McDonald was doing some weed late at night, and the SCTV skit came on with Rick Moranis playing MM running back and forth from record date to record date to add background vocals to Chrisopher Cross, Steely Dan etc...songs, and he thought he was having a psychotic breakdown watching himself on TV! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JLbhEUE_5U

Hey Felser, thanks to your posting of the Nazz playing "Hello, It's Me", I decided to check out Todd Rundgren's "The Individualist". I'm only halfway through it, but it's a fascinating look at the 60s and 70s scene through TR's eyes and ears. I never knew he was such an accomplished producer. Thanks! Sure, Fagen ripped off the intro and feel of Jarrett's tune, but listen to the great song he composed on top of it. It was stupid on his part to not give KJ credit. He paid for it. KJ is now listed as co-composer on the record. When Keith complained about it at first, DF used to post "your check's in the mail!"

Yes, the author goes into that. Horace just enjoyed that he was remembered by a rock band, but as you said, Keith was the Karma. However, SD is the most sampled white rock band in the history of music, and they quote Fagen saying, "Oh, we've got thousands of lawyers working on that stuff right now". BTW, this is written in conjunction with an artist, who draws pictures of every character in Fagen's 'stories' contained in their songs, as well as drawings of many musicians, producers, managers, and anyone else involved with the fascinating story of SD. The author dedicates the book to WB, whom the author apparently had a very strong connection to, and was literally destroyed by WB's death. Fagen answered the question that everyone always wondered about concerning what role WB actually had in the actual writing of the songs. Donald would write the songs completely by himself. When he was done, he'd send it to Becker, and Becker would make one little change in some aspect of the song; maybe the lyrics, maybe a chord change, maybe a melody note, and then DF would consider the song finished. That's coming back to haunt him now, because Becker's estate is suing him for whatever they can get.

Winnipeg 30.

They wrote the intro. Sample was playing what they wanted him to play. He had NO compositional input. This was one of the first cases that required that rappers have to legally clear their 'samples' with the people that actually composed the music. It was T&G's decision to sign the agreement. The joke was on SD, because T&G found out that Sean Combs was going to include that 'sample' in one of his songs. SD could have made millions of dollars off of it, but didn't. T&G got a million bucks for clearing their 'sample' of the work of another artist. The fact that they couldn't sell anything after that is not SD's fault. Before cases like this, it was like the Wild West in rap music; they could steal/sample anything they wanted to, and not pay a cent for doing it.

All I've read are Eminent Hipsters by Fagen (which I recommend) and the one by Brian Sweet (which I don't). This one is good, but the others might be better. I buy very few books. I got this one from Columbia University's library The only new book I bought was Phil Woods' autobiography. Everything else I've either bought used from library book sales, or gotten from the NY public library system or Columbia's library.

Fagen rapping "Uptown Baby, Uptown Baby at 1:03 into it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKq61QkulZo&list=PLOWxWZ_V0ieRNPrkkWByUU0p1NNhYFn_K&index=4

One of the funniest parts of the book is when they talk about Peter Gunz and Lord Tariq using Joe Sample's intro to Black Cow for Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)their independent release. They signed a million dollar record deal with Sony to re-release Deja Vu on Sony, but they had to clear the Black Cow sample with Fagen and Becker, who were willing to authorize their use of it- in exchange for 100% of the publishing royalties, sole writing credit, and $115,000 in cash. Tariq and Gunz agreed to SD's terms, figuring that this would be mere bump at the beginning of a long career. 20 years later, there was Gunz on VladTV talking about how he and Tariq handed over all the rights to what would end up being the only hit song from their one and only album. Meanwhile there's a video on you tube of Becker in his home studio, hanging out, grinning and showing off a plaque he was awarded for the impressive sales of "his" song, Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)". Fagen jokingly referred to it as l'affaire Gunz in the the Classic albums documentary on Aja.

LOL! Burroughs is not my cup of tea, either. I go with Gaddis and Pynchon. I'll have to check that out. Love Deodato.

Alright, leave Jim alone, too. I know what you mean, I don't listen to them much anymore, but when you find out what some of their lyrics were saying after reading this book I think I might start listening again. We used to play poker and listen to stuff like "Everyone's Gone To the Movies" and think it was about a guy and a girl being alone to do their thing together. DF had a completely different story line in mind... I played Gaucho for my HS class, and one of the kids asked me what the lyrics were about. I had no idea, and just told the kid, "It's about these Latin American cowboys called Gauchos". He said, "Oh". One time I didn't feel like teaching, because I had a late night gig the night before, and got no sleep, so I just put on "Do it Again" , and it felt like the classroom was levitating...

I went into the JRC once, and the owner was playing Tal Farlow's Fuerst Set album, and I went up to the guy and said to him, "Y'know that Eddie Costa solo on Yesterdays is probably the greatest solo in the history of jazz". He agreed with me and said it was his favorite record. I felt I really bonded with the guy over EC. That's why I was surprised when a year or so later when I went in there without having bathed or shaved in a few days, he practically threw me out of the place!

You look eerily like Walter Becker in your avatar. Are you sure you're not here to haunt Organissimo for not taking SD that seriously? If so, haunt all the other members; felser and I always took you guys seriously!

I managed to obtain a copy of this book, which is completely out of stock from the publishers, and there are some great Donald Fagen quotes about Bird and Jazz in it. He goes to sleep every night listening to Bird played at a low volume. It was written by Alex Pappademus. He curses the music's present day detractors and desecrators. He tees off on Fred Armisen for making fun of jazz on a stand-up special ("I'll never watch him again. I never want to see that guy again. Y'know why? Cause he's an idiot...I now despise the guy.") and Damian Chazelle ("F-ck that Mother f-cker") for "making it seem like white people invented jazz" in La La Land and "confusing stage band student jazz" for the real thing in Whiplash ("He doesn't even know what it is, and yet he's making movies about it? It's disgusting. He must be really dumb"). It's an exhaustive study of their songs, and the author quotes people like Ralph Ellison, Thomas Pynchon, Terry Southern and many others to examine the forty+ year history of this very unusual band.

How go you follow Tatum?

That's weird, man. That Charles Bell record was one of the first jazz records I listened to. My father used to buy any jazz record that had a guitar player on it, and that had a guy named Bill Smith playing guitar on it. When I was listening to it once, a kid named Bill Smith called me up for guitar lessons. I told him I was just listening to him playing with Charles Bell. He studied with me anyway. They were talking about Jimmy Giuffre playing at some concert overseas on another website, and Charles Bell was there too. Someone wanted to know who the guitar player was with Giuffre, because it wasn't Jim Hall. Maybe it was the mysterious Bill Smith? That's weird, man. That Charles Bell record was one of the first jazz records I listened to. My father used to buy any jazz record that had a guitar player on it, and that had a guy named Bill Smith playing guitar on it. When I was listening to it once, a kid named Bill Smith called me up for guitar lessons. I told him I was just listening to him playing with Charles Bell. He studied with me anyway. They were talking about Jimmy Giuffre playing at some concert overseas on another website, and Charles Bell was there too. Someone wanted to know who the guitar player was with Giuffre, because it wasn't Jim Hall. Maybe it was the mysterious Bill Smith?

Yeah, Bob Cooper Tenor Monte Budwig Bass, and Chuck Flores Drums.

I saw Arthur Lee live at Town Hall perform the entire FC album His band, Baby Lemonade, did a superb job, and they were augmented by a string trio and trumpet player. David Angel was hired by Elektra to do the arrangements for FG, and he had an amazing career as a jazz saxophonist, ghost arranger for Woody Herman, Art Pepper and others, wrote music for TV shows, and led his own big band that played his own pieces. He worked with AL every day for a few weeks at the piano for FC, and said that AL was a genius, and could've become a great composer if he learned how write music.

A friend of mine won Prix de Rome in the early 60s and wound up gigging with him all over Europe.

Sorry to hear about Pye, I'll notify Kim Novak about it.

I've been listening to the way Herbie Hancock comped for Wes Montgomery on one of Wes' albums, and the combination of Herbie's imaginative comping ideas, and Wes' straight ahead melodic genius was probably one of the greatest groups in jazz. Add Ron Carter's rock solid bass, and Grady Tate's tasteful groove, and you've got a perfectly balanced group.

Never heard that version. Sounds better than TR's, but where's the trombone solo?

Yeah, it's wild, isn't it?