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ombudsman

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  1. This is more of a big picture thing (whether anyone agrees or not) but I don't think anybody really has any idea what other people are feeling, other than obvious, kind of superficial, situational observations, like the person in the sun sweating with their mouth open is hot, or the person with the red face and the tensed up face is angry. I get surprised by my own emotions fairly often. I think I'm having one and then in a moment it turns out to be another. How are other people supposed to read my mind when I've been me for half a century and I can't do it ? Priming, expectations, and biases, now those can explain things.
  2. I use the term to mean traditional music (from outside USA/Europe), so I probably would not put Ibeyi in that category, but with the others mentioned that I was not familiar with it does become a better stocked category than I realized before, which does make me feel a bit better about it.
  3. I'm very disappointed for the second year running. Lots of reruns (a certain amount of this was usual, and welcome to me since I couldn't see everything I wanted each year), rock is up, free jazz/improv is down, minimalism is down, and world music is non existent unless I am missing something. I don't know why this is happening. Ashley sold AC Entertainment to Live Nation in 2020, but Big Ears is a nonprofit, so (while sources online are not entirely clear) I think it's separate from AC Entertainment now. On the other hand, some of the more mainstream acts look suspiciously like cross bookings with the other fesivals. He must have gotten a nice sum for the company, and I know he is a long time fan of free jazz and minimalism, and still heavily involved with Big Ears.
  4. ombudsman

    Pet peeves

    It's that certain kind of dumb that serves as a fictional pretense to avoid cutting a check. It's not like the authors of "Pennies from Heaven" or "Anthropology" are difficult to identify.
  5. Some background here on Steve Fassett's recording activity. http://woodberrypoetryroom.com/?p=3044
  6. ombudsman

    Pet peeves

    I think it's the market speaking, on that one. Classical listeners historically have been less accepting of compression. And after all, it is a technical advantage of CDs that they have more dynamic range than LPs.
  7. I'm very disappointed with this lineup. Big Ears has pretty much been the highlight of my year since 2015, with many bucket list shows achieved, but unless they add some heavy hitters (which may happen) I am probably going to skip it. Seems crazy, but here we are. Not that there aren't some artists I like on the list, but when it comes to those I haven't already seen and might motivate me to do a road trip and drop $1500 on one weekend, it's really just Annette Peacock, and I wouldn't mind seeing Zorn. That's a big departure from previous years when they were always about 20-25 artists that were represented in my record collection in the lineup, who I had never seen live.
  8. I don't have a lot of experience with big festivals but this was my 3rd year at Big Ears and I plan to keep going as long as possible. I went to at least 20 shows this time, including Carla Bley twice, Gavin Bryars twice, M.E.V., Hans Joachim Roedelius, etc. Would have put a few more on my list before the drive home (Rangda, Henry Threadgill, and a Norweigian fiddle player whose name escapes me) but by the middle of day 4 it takes a real toll on the legs.
  9. A little late but I saw Kahil El' Zabar and Ethnic Heritage Ensemble at the Loft Society, Cincinnati last weekend. It was fantastic; not just great music as it was, but with a vintage rant by Al before each set, and some engaging and grounded statements from Kahil in the second set about current events.
  10. I only know the first 3 above, but I'll be there again this year. MEV are bucket list for me, they alone would have been enough.
  11. An older friend of mine who is not much for the internet recently told me about seeing Ayler a couple of times. The second time was at Slug's later in the 60s, so, nothing really new to report there. But the first time was a cute story. He was about 16 or 17 (I think he said it was in '64) living outside of Cleveland and had just gotten access to a car for the first time. What to do ? So he and his friend decided they should go to a strip club. They found one one Euclid Avenue and went in, where they were the only white people inside. There was an organ trio doing soul jazz type tunes to go along with the strippers, but with this saxophonist who was playing in a way he had never heard. On a break the saxophonist came up and spoke to them at the bar for a minute. Jess didn't recall if he mentioned his name but remembered him being in a suit, being short, and having this white patch in his beard. He also saw Peter Brotzmann in Cleveland in '69, which was earlier than I realized he had played in the US. He and Peter were reminiscing about that at a show here in Cincinnati a few months ago.
  12. I've spoken to Mats at shows. His tastes are pretty broad. As record collections go, I've seen many large ones and many that focus on free jazz but I would rank his as among the most interesting. He has many titles that you just don't see, they're on a whole different scale of scarcity than what makes up a typical good jazz record collection. One thing I love about visiting another collector is once in a while when they pull out something that is completely out of the blue that has a good story behind it and is in a style that I appreciate or even specialize in, but I just wasn't aware of. In a good collection you might expect to find just a few of those, but even just one is something to be savored and remembered. For example, to a fan of free jazz or experimental music, I used to have about 6 of those, but now due to some unlikely reissues it's down to maybe 3 or 4. I love those so much more than a shelf of original Blue Notes or modern 45rpm pressings. My tastes being what they are, I can tell it would take considerable time to go through all the ones just of that type that Mats has.
  13. As a sometimes upright bass player I find it very understandable how a guy who has been playing a lot of gigs could get very tired of the constant logistical challenges involved in transporting and amplifying an upright. Even more so years ago when bass pickups and amps and PA systems were less developed. I've had gigs in recent years that were little or no fun because the combination of a hollow stage, high stage or monitor volume, and a less than optimal sound guy made me struggle with feedback all night. Sonny even being a big name artist must have had his share where the upright was either not audible to him on stage, or where it was feeding back. Swapping it out for an electric is a very effective solution. Being able to hear the bass while playing is surely the more critical issue than the tone of the bass. If you look at other tradeoffs like this in music gear - tube amps vs solid state (or more recently, no amp at all, just pedals or modeling software), real organs or electric pianos vs sampled/modeled, "real" acoustic guitars vs guitars that look the part but are really designed to be played amplified and are braced so heavily that they can't make much sound on their own - lots of players have made the pragmatic choice. It's also comparable to the choice of vinyl vs digital, or a serious home system with good speakers to an Ipod or whatever. I don't care for the electric bass in jazz with a capital J, but I understand. When the choice is being able to focus on playing vs worrying about problems, it's pretty hard to remain a purist.
  14. Sato is indeed the pianist on S'posin, I was going off topic on the tangent of Gary Peacock recordings from when he lived in Japan. Thanks, Matrix sounds like one I should pick up as the reissue lp.
  15. Homefromtheforest, are you familiar with "Matrix" ? I have not heard that one, and wonder how it fits stylistically. Jay - Silver World and especially Voices are albums of mystical power to me. Poesy and Eastward are good too but Voices is very special IMO. And if those work for you I then suggest Paysages by Sadao Watanabe and S'posin by Helen Merrill.
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