Never thought I'd be happy to hear Schaap

[Big Al]

I tell ya, as often as I gripe about Phil Schaap, I think I'm gonna give the guy some slack from here on out. Why? Because if nothing else, he's not soporific like the other DJ's that put me to sleep last week during the Jo Jones fest. I never thought I'd see the day when I'd actually feel comforted to hear that familiar baritone that just resumed in the midst of the Monk fest.

Anyway, just putting it here cuz I didn't wanna hijack the Monk fest thread here.

Edited October 11, 2011 by Big Al

[Christiern]

I prefer the young lady who, in a near-whisper, reads from the liner notes and labels. She does not illuminate, but neither does she orate. Who wants to feed on the kind of nonsense and assumptions Phil dishes out.....endlessly?

[7/4]

I prefer the young lady who, in a near-whisper, reads from the liner notes and labels. She does not illuminate, but neither does she orate. Who wants to feed on the kind of nonsense and assumptions Phil dishes out.....endlessly?

That near whisper is the reason I can't understand her.

[Big Al]

I prefer the young lady who, in a near-whisper, reads from the liner notes and labels. She does not illuminate, but neither does she orate. Who wants to feed on the kind of nonsense and assumptions Phil dishes out.....endlessly?

That near whisper is the reason I can't understand her.

FWIW, I noticed last week during the Jo Jones fest that there wasn't any more or less music played when Schapp was on the air and when someone else was running the show. I've gotten to the point where Schaap's voice is only so much white noise and can be easily tuned out. The students, bless them, are trying their hardest (I hope), but listening to someone struggle verbally has always been painful for me.

Edited October 11, 2011 by Big Al

[Hardbopjazz]

Am I the only person that doesn't mind listening to Phil Schapp? His goal, as he says, is to educate the masses that listen to his program(s).

[BillF]

Am I the only person that doesn't mind listening to Phil Schapp? His goal, as he says, is to educate the masses that listen to his program(s).

I recommend short sound bites for the masses.

[Christiern]

I recommend short ones, too, especially when facts are replaced by supposition and the latter is presented as being the former. In short, Schaap lies. In his eternal quest for recognition as the world's greatest jazz authority*, he will tell you things that you never heard anywhere else, and you never heard them anywhere else, because he made them up.

Were it truly his "goal" to "educate the masses," he would not let them eat upside-down cake, as it were.

The music and facts speak for themselves.

[Chuck Nessa]

Intelligent radio (or aspirations toward intelligent radio) is a tough thing. Many "presenters" have a vision of themselves as saviors of the uneducated. I have some sympathy for this but Schapp seems to be over the top much of the time and seems to create his own "facts".

I also think Chris should understand 90% of us here understand his negativity in that direction.

[MomsMobley]

Well I hope yo donated $$$ Big Ale because the # of people checking out DFW radio from afar is just about zero since The Weird Beard went off the air.

Chuck, I think you have lopsided exposure to Schaap's achievement, colored by Chris A's long-time hostility and-- yes-- jealousy. While I believe he doesn't want to be Schaap the person (even if meant more time with Papa Jo Jones), he resents Schaap's fame by blowing a few foibles way the fuck out of proportion.

I could play you dozens upon dozens of Schaap interviews you couldn't stop listening to, starting with, say, Truck Parham... and you might say well, someone else could have done it better (tho' I do not think that's true) and I'll say why the fuck didn't they? Any number of Lawrence Lucie interviews are great too and even more obscure, how about Leonard Goldstein from Red Norvo et al?

Schaap's an extremely strange dude (you would be too if raised by Queens jazz freaks w/ middle-aged to elderly black men as yr friends/heros) but has done far far far far far far more good than bad-- go through the gig listings & ledgers of the West End Cafe, for example. I'm 99% sure there are killer interviews w/ Percy France too. (99 out of 100 Joe Lovano "fans" just said who?)

Finally, again, how many effin' Bird records are there? A finite # even with air checks, Benedetti, etc.

You wanna LISTEN to those alone, who the hell's stopping you? Esp. in internet era where all that stuff is "free."

I'd rather hear 30-40 minutes speculation on Tommy Potter's shoes because who the hell else is talking about Tommy Potter?

Someone, I hope, but not very often.

Sharif Abdul Salaam is a cool WKCR dude too, while Ben Young is ultimate Schaap protege, all the useful obsession w/o some of the tics bug some (but aren't SO objectionable in larger scheme , per above.)

Edited October 11, 2011 by MomsMobley

[Big Wheel]

I'd rather hear 30-40 minutes speculation on Tommy Potter's shoes because who the hell else is talking about Tommy Potter?

But that's exactly the problem - Schapp has an infinite number of interesting subjects he could be talking about when it comes to these obscure figures, and instead wastes 90% of his airtime with pointless minutia. What's the point of talking about this stuff at all if you focus on entirely the wrong things?

Part of Schapp's problem, I think, is a form of Rock Critic Syndrome - as a non-musician he actually doesn't really understand the music as well as he would like to. To the average listener a lack of total understanding is OK because what they don't know is OK with them; they don't feel they need to know every single facet of what they are listening to. But because of his obsession, Schapp wants badly to get the music on every conceivable level, and so he overcompensates for this knowledge gap in painfully annoying ways.

Edited October 11, 2011 by Big Wheel

[J.A.W.]

The name is Schaap, not Schapp.

Edited October 11, 2011 by J.A.W.

[Christiern]

Schaap and I know each other and we get along well whenever our paths cross. MM's contention that I am jealous is as off the mark as many of Phil's stories, so I guess they have something in common—too bad that it isn't a positive trait.

BTW, this is among my favorite albums, and it's not just because I took the cover photo of Phil

[mjzee]

Well I hope yo donated $$$ Big Ale because the # of people checking out DFW radio from afar is just about zero since The Weird Beard went off the air.

Chuck, I think you have lopsided exposure to Schaap's achievement, colored by Chris A's long-time hostility and-- yes-- jealousy. While I believe he doesn't want to be Schaap the person (even if meant more time with Papa Jo Jones), he resents Schaap's fame by blowing a few foibles way the fuck out of proportion.

I could play you dozens upon dozens of Schaap interviews you couldn't stop listening to, starting with, say, Truck Parham... and you might say well, someone else could have done it better (tho' I do not think that's true) and I'll say why the fuck didn't they? Any number of Lawrence Lucie interviews are great too and even more obscure, how about Leonard Goldstein from Red Norvo et al?

Schaap's an extremely strange dude (you would be too if raised by Queens jazz freaks w/ middle-aged to elderly black men as yr friends/heros) but has done far far far far far far more good than bad-- go through the gig listings & ledgers of the West End Cafe, for example. I'm 99% sure there are killer interviews w/ Percy France too. (99 out of 100 Joe Lovano "fans" just said who?)

Finally, again, how many effin' Bird records are there? A finite # even with air checks, Benedetti, etc.

You wanna LISTEN to those alone, who the hell's stopping you? Esp. in internet era where all that stuff is "free."

I'd rather hear 30-40 minutes speculation on Tommy Potter's shoes because who the hell else is talking about Tommy Potter?

Someone, I hope, but not very often.

Sharif Abdul Salaam is a cool WKCR dude too, while Ben Young is ultimate Schaap protege, all the useful obsession w/o some of the tics bug some (but aren't SO objectionable in larger scheme , per above.)

I actually like this post.

Many people are annoying in varying proportions. You have to take the good with the bad.

[MomsMobley]

Big Wheel-- you know Schaap studied music/played until his early 20s, right? Well now you do... He had very little talent, despite the tutelage/mentors and became an advocate instead. All the things you could be if Jo Jones and Lennie Tristano were your (near) neighbors

Chris A-- I'll even accept it's not 'jealousy' per se but a 'grudge'-- earned, or un- or exaggerated it still distorts Schaap's corpus to people who don't know the whole.

re: Tommy Potter's shoes, Benny Moten's shinola stash, or Plessy v. Ferguson, or Eddie Durham's childhood fascination for silk-- YOU can talk about whatever you like, as can I-- that's HIS bag.

Schaap's flaws are obvious enough (failure to WRITE being chief among them thus his legacy rests on disputed 'oral culture' (w/ tapes)) there's no need to invent more.

But if anyone has tapes of The Weird Beard, get at me-- will trade a sliver of Fred 'Hootin' like Wotan' Jackson's reed or Joe Chambers' drum key.

Thank you.

I'd rather hear 30-40 minutes speculation on Tommy Potter's shoes because who the hell else is talking about Tommy Potter?

But that's exactly the problem - Schapp has an infinite number of interesting subjects he could be talking about when it comes to these obscure figures, and instead wastes 90% of his airtime with pointless minutia. What's the point of talking about this stuff at all if you focus on entirely the wrong things?

Part of Schapp's problem, I think, is a form of Rock Critic Syndrome - as a non-musician he actually doesn't really understand the music as well as he would like to. To the average listener a lack of total understanding is OK because what they don't know is OK with them; they don't feel they need to know every single facet of what they are listening to. But because of his obsession, Schapp wants badly to get the music on every conceivable level, and so he overcompensates for this knowledge gap in painfully annoying ways.

Edited October 11, 2011 by MomsMobley

[Big Al]

The name is Schaap, not Schapp.

Dangit! I always get it wrong; I went back and edited my posts, but I can't help but wonder how I got the name right in the thread title but misspelled it everywhere else? Unless, of course, someone changed the title for me, for which I offer thanks!

MM, by Weird Beard, are you actually referring to Redbeard, the guy who did rock radio around here? Or was there someone really called Weird Beard?

[JSngry]

Russ "Weird Beard" Knight. First with KLIF (The Mighty 1190), but then to KILT in Houston, which is where I first heard him.

We're talking mid-ish 60s AM Top 40 here.

[J.A.W.]

The name is Schaap, not Schapp.

Dangit! I always get it wrong; I went back and edited my posts, but I can't help but wonder how I got the name right in the thread title but misspelled it everywhere else? Unless, of course, someone changed the title for me, for which I offer thanks!

I think the thread title was corrected, initially it said "Schapp".

I wonder if Mr Schaap is of Dutch descent, his name means "sheep" in Dutch In Dutch the "ch" is pronounced like the "ch" in the Scottish word "Loch".

Edited October 11, 2011 by J.A.W.

[brownie]

An update on Schaap in The New York Times today.

[mjzee]

An update on Schaap in The New York Times today.

Inside One's Memory Bank - Roz Chast

[paul secor]

An update on Schaap in The New York Times today.

Hope no one lets Chris A. know about this.