Big Wheel

Right, if he has a Google alert set up for his own name or whatever, he'll get an email after Google indexes this thread. I highly doubt he just stumbled on the board by coincidence this week (he conceivably previously could have been a lurker, but I think that's unlikely also).

He does not need an account to read any music-related post. The only part of the board that requires an account to view is the political forum.

Well this is awkward.

I don't mind Miller as much as some do but Marv Albert is really starting to grate on me. Just doesn't come across as sincere anymore. Mike Breen is better and has very good chemistry with JVG but I sometimes feel like he relies on pet phrases a little too much ("throws it down", "OH WHAT A BLOCK FROM X", "puts it in," "BANG," etc. I actually wish we saw more of Kevin Harlan or Mike Tirico in the postseason doing play-by-play; the color guys I am less picky about (Miller, Hubie Brown, JVG etc. are mostly fine in my book).

Doubtful; the program used to be run by Bob Parsons, a very Jim McNeely-esque arranger. The current faculty does not suggest it either, although it's probable many of the biggest names are on there for show and they spend very little time actually teaching NYU students. I was being tongue-in-cheek with the harmonic analysis but really, you can make just about anything function "properly" if you know enough substitution tricks. Which is what I love about both science and jazz - how students learn through a process of constantly scrapping everything they learned before to accommodate the complexity needed to cope with the real world: In chemistry you first learn that electrons spin around a visibly big nucleus (the Bohr model) and they're in spherical "shells" or energy levels. No, actually there's a cloud of electrons around a miniscule dense nucleus and the shells are just probability spaces determined by crazy quantum mechanical math You start by learning there's something called a "double replacement reaction" and then you get to organic chemistry and realize that it's much more subtle, it's just some reaction between a nucleophile and electrophile and real chemists don't even care about what happens to half the products (except as it applies to how to get rid of them) You learn that pressure of a gas increases with decreasing volume....oh, except when it doesn't And then you get to biology and realize that there's still an "order" there, but all the math in the world will not be enough to model a typical real-life system properly because it's just too complex In jazz you start by learning triads and basic 7th chords Except if you want to play real bebop, then you better find some hipper voicings and add extensions The chords should use stacked thirds...unless you want to play like McCoy Tyner, then it needs to be fourths It's supposed to swing...except when it isn't The blues has 12 bars. Except when it has 8. Oh, sometimes it can have 44. Or 16. McCoy Tyner's harmonic ideas are "acceptable" and allowed in this order. Are Andrew Hill's acceptable? Are Don Pullen's? Bird's ideas on form are the ones you should follow. Why are Ornette's ideas on form not? Why not Cecil Taylor's? It's one thing to say you should probably know what you're doing before you play an Andrew Hill voicing with a natural 11th and a sharp 11th on the third bar of Girl From Ipanema. It's quite another to say that a whole conception is invalid. Although as someone pointed out in the comments on Youtube, it's plausible that Hoffman just hates Osby and Shorter because they were his judges in the Monk Competition and he didn't make the top 3, and has invented a bunch of nonsense as an ex post justification for his anger about it. Really, Steve Coleman doesn't understand Bird? Steve Coleman has learned more about Bird than possibly the entire jazz education movement put together.

So, no point in arguing with such retards? Now YOU are talking out of your ass. I watched the whole hourlong interview; did you? No disrespect intended to those with the above disorders, but if you listen to the guy it's clear he has an irrational fetish for ORDER. MUST HAVE ORDER. CAN'T HAVE TRUE BEAUTY WITHOUT EVERYTHING IN ITS PROPER ORDER. What's the point of engaging in detailed takedowns of obviously irrational fetishes?

"The function of Dsus is not to go to D major." Sure it is. D sus is just a C major 7 with a D in the bass. As anyone who has ever played a I-VI-ii-V progression knows, you can virtually always substitute a iii for a I chord. The iii of C major 7 is E minor 7. E minor 7 is of course the ii chord of a ii-V-I that goes right to....D major! Did Alex Hoffman just admit that he doesn't know ii-V-Is as thoroughly as Wayne Shorter? I'd point out the irony of Hoffman's worldview valorizing science while completely misunderstanding the point of science (it's a method of asking questions to learn about how the world works, not the One True Way that prescribes how it should work). But I have a feeling he just is somewhere on the Asperger's spectrum or maybe has mild to moderate OCD.

Had a Smithwick's while watching the NBA playoffs today. Full Sail is making some very good and underrated beers, which thanks to Trader Joe's liberal 6-pack breaking policy I have been sampling bottle by bottle. Having only tried the Gordon Biersch Vienna lager I thought I just didn't like the style, but FS's version is really good.

Sadly, Simon Salz died of cancer in 2005. He was only 50. He (along with Eddie Higgins who he called to do the gig) was the entertainment at my bar mitzvah reception in 1995. Really a shame that neither of the the two are with us any longer.

The last two years I've been a victim of identity theft on my tax account and now filing is a Kafkaesque mess. Not because I've been threatened by the IRS or audited or anything (yet). But because it's impossible to tell whether or not the IRS has done anything to clear up my account and there are disturbing signs that they haven't. Last year it was the correspondence they kept sending me that had my first name wrong. Two months ago I sent their fraud division a letter along with a copy of my social security card to fix it. This year I had this conversation: "Hi, I know I need to use the ID Protection PIN you sent me but I also need a separate PIN to e-file. Your online system is refusing to give me one." "Did you put in your correct address?" "Yes. Didn't work." "Do you have last year's filing PIN? You can just use that." "Didn't e-file last year because you told me I couldn't because of the identity theft." "Oh fine, well we can just use your AGI. Do you have that?" "Yes, but I tried that and that didn't work." "What's your SSN/name/date of birth?" I tell them. "OK, your AGI last year was [NUMBER MUCH HIGHER THAN MY REAL AGI]. You put that in when e-filing." "That is not my AGI. That must be the AGI the identity thieves used." "Well, you can't get a PIN without it. I suggest you use it if you want to e-file." "I'm supposed to put in a false AGI in your form because you still think that's my real AGI? How has this not been resolved yet? And isn't this going to lead to a bigger mess for years to come as I'll now be legitimizing the mess that's become of my account?" [MUFFLED SOUND OF THUMB BEING SHOVED UP ASS] "OK, just do me one favor please. Can you at least look up my name and tell me what name is on my account?" "Sure, it's [sAME WRONG NAME AS APPEARS ON ALL MY IRS MAIL]." "FFS I sent your ID theft guys this two months ago!" "No problem, I just fixed it for you." [This is something that required 3 calls to the fraud division to assure me the only way to resolve it would be to send in a photocopy of my social security card and she just apparently went in and changed it in 3 seconds, so either the fraud division is full of crap or she just blatantly broke some security precaution. Or, more likely, whatever change she thought she was making isn't actually going to work because there may be several different IRS databases that have only been half-explained to me in the past and it appears the database that matters is not so easily changed. So I'm just going to keep getting mail addressed to [WRONG NAME] forever.] FIN Can't wait till next year!

You meant to say "certain" Californian wines, surely. Right, obviously there are exceptions. And my sample size is very small and very Italian-centered (one friend was trained in Italy, and two others work in one of the highest-end Italian restaurants in town). But it was eye-opening to realize that much of California's wine culture today is actually not at all geared toward eating. I had always just sort of assumed that the rise of Napa and Sonoma was deeply intertwined with the development of "Caifornia cuisine," Alice Waters, eating locally, etc, etc., and it sort of was, but the reality turns out to have been much messier.

Kind of raises more questions than it answers, especially given the panning of the 2001 shows. He's going to be on Fallon next week as it turns out. Thought this was an interesting video: http://www.shuggieotismusic.com/news/song-premiere-hear-special-shuggie-otis-inspiration-informationwings-love

Just checked out the outstanding Etta James/Cleanhead Vinson Blues in the Night - especially good is the second disc of the two. Shuggie is on guitar and in very strong form. Rest of the band is Red Holloway/Jack McDuff/Richard Reid (b)/Paul Humphrey (d). This was recorded in 1986. Was Shuggie Otis on other sessions around this period? My understanding was that he dropped out of the scene by the early '80s...would be interested in hearing what else is out there if it's anywhere near as good as this.

Really good (at least consistently really good) wine is out of my price range, so I settle for finding great values. I have gotten very adept at spotting good closeout wines at Trader Joe's; a lot of their regular stuff is bilge, but every 4-6 months they dump a limited amount of cases of something that's legit. Often it's private-labeled to protect the winery; for example, last year I scored a few bottles of the $2.99 "Landing Place 2009 Chardonnay" which was actually an overstock of Rodney Strong Chardonnay (retail: $20). Excellent, and I don't even like a lot of Chardonnays. Currently drinking this, which cost under $5 this year I think and is very nice, dry and easy-drinking: http://sourmashed.com/2012/11/review-louise-destree-brut-rose/ From what I can tell it's made in the champagne methode traditionelle but with a little red wine mixed in to make it a rose. One interesting thing I learned this year is that a fair amount of professional cooks in the Bay Area actually are not big fans of California wines. They find most of them pair very poorly with food compared to stuff from Europe.

Ended up watching for the first time: Yojimbo Sanjuro Sanshiro Sugata Ran out of time before getting to: Drunken Angel Rewatching Rashomon or Seven Samurai Am I the only one who thinks those new to Kurosawa should NOT start with Rashomon or Seven Samurai, but instead pick something shorter/simpler? I watched SS first, over ten years ago, and the length was so overwhelming that it kind of kept me from checking out the other stuff.

Streaming on Hulu for the director's 103rd birthday (may be country-restricted, not sure): http://www.hulu.com/playlist/160174

That's nice. After all, it's not like Zappa had this keyboard player in the band who was an equally capable improviser or anything. Good thing he made sure to excise that hack's shitty solos so those who are more metal Zappa than me don't have to put up with them!

Who are you trying to convince that this is the optimal way of presenting this music: me, or yourself? FYI, I've had 2/3 of the records up to Zappa in New York for several years. It's everything after that point that I am only familiar with in bits and pieces.

The jams themselves on Shut Up are not unstructured, the problem is the lack of any real context which takes away any structure from the record as a whole. Like the Bird Benedetti box I guess I'd rather have them than have nothing at all, but simply hearing these clipped chunks of Inca Roads doesn't really do it for me. Was the rest of the tune really not interesting enough to be issued? I'm done with the last 3 studio records, now working my way through You Can't Do That on Stage vol. 2. In a bit I'll post my impressions of the whole sweep.

Just finished up Make a Jazz Noise Here. Not counting the archival tapes and so forth like You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore 1-6, the only original records I have left are: The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life The Yellow Shark The last 30 or so tracks of Guitar

OK, I'll take a crack. This is one of those areas where I think those with training instinctively "get it" and those without don't. In most such cases, yes, it's fair to offer this kind of criticism. "Oh but this guy is a LEGEND you can't criticize his note choice or phrasing or rhythmic feel, because he's a legend for a reason" doesn't wash. There's a long tradition of older players coming down hard on younger ones for various deviations from "authenticity" when playing. The big example that comes to mind is inattention to detail to the lyrics of standards, leading to phrasing that sounds awkward or weak when you know the original sheet music. But there's no reason this can't cut the other way too. In this case, the essence of Oliver Nelson's writing isn't just the melody or the changes, it's the voicings in the harmony. That's the reason The Blues and the Abstract Truth is a top-100 jazz recording and every cover of it is just some dude blowing over a minor blues after playing the melody line. So unless KB (or another player) is doing something else that's equally hip on the head, it's fair to ask "why are you even bothering to play THIS tune rather than Equinox or whatever if you're not going to show that you've thought about what made the tune interesting in the first place?" ...adding to say, this is the same reason Larry Goldings's "Hans Groiner" character is hilarious. He's taking things to an extreme by not treating Monk's music with the same pedestrian attitude as 95% of players playing the tunes out of the Real Book. Only the gag in this case is that Groiner has thought very carefully about Monk's music...and as a result has made deliberate harmonic/rhythmic choices that are the exact opposite of what makes Monk's music tick, taking care to iron out every single quirk.

Yeah, I've heard a track or two off Guitar before. Oy. Saw recently a discussion of how Dweezil asked FZ which of his compositions he thought were his "signature" tunes. The three he picked were Zoot Allures, Watermelon in Easter Hay, and Black Napkins. Which to me is fairly revealing (especially the latter two) - all are sort of searching and a bit sad/wistful. At his core, under all the goofing, Zappa seems to have identified most with a deep, heartfelt loneliness.

Virtually all of the Zappa catalog is now available for streaming on Rdio/Spotify. Not sure if they are the new remasters. I've been going through in chronological order and listening to the ones I don't have...so far I'm almost done with Shut Up N' Play Yer Guitar. Much better than I expected/remembered: Overnite Sensation (which I liked the first time I heard bits of it, just not as much) Better than I expected: Apostrophe (which I thought was blah at best on a first hearing awhile back) About as good as I expected: Freak Out, Fillmore East, Waka Jawaka, Bongo Fury (not meaning to damn them with faint praise, they're all very good to great), Sheik Yerbouti, Joe's Garage, Tinsel Town Rebellion Disappointments: Studio Tan and Sleep Dirt - I know a lot of people here love these records....so far I thought Greggery Peccary was sort of an inferior version of Billy the Mountain and the records lacked any coherent focus, which is unsurprising because they weren't really supposed to be standalone albums anyway. Skipped over for now: Orchestral Favorites Soldiering through: Shut Up N' Play Yer Guitar - fine solos, just very monotonous