Duke Ellington - Afro Bossa

[medjuck]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Uh, maybe by not letting the MegaEvil SoulSuck Of PopCulture into your brainblood and instead just simply being curious, paying attention, and searching the universe for lifes other than your own Narcissistic Mirror Self?

That seems to work in damn near everybody, at least that I've known.

The DJs have a show called Morning Becomes Eclectic. and their taste is indeed that (more so than mine and I expect yours)  but they weren't born when this was a new record.   

[JSngry]

No, they've only had 50 or so years to learn about it...and one of them did. So for the others to wonder where did you find that, it's easy, really. Just be curious, pay attention, and keep looking. Block out the noise and follow the music.

With Ellington, especially, disregard the typical "narrative" and just look at all of it. There's marvels everywhere!

I had a college buddy who bought AEE because he thought it was a takeoff on the phonebooks of the time, the ones that had all kinds of faces, if you're old enough, you remember. But he heard that monologue and GOT it, made him LOL, actually, because, yeah, phone book only UBER so.

[JSngry]

Seriously, in a world dedicated to truth (or reality, at least) instead of narrative, that monologue would be taught at at least a high school level, as would a basic awareness of Marshall McLuhan.

But, you know, narrative doesn't want people to understand what is happening in their world, much less why.

[ghost of miles]

3 hours ago, medjuck said:

On Monday "Press Play" on KCRW started a week of listeners picking their favorite tracks and though most of it was recent pop/rock/dance etc the host began by playing her favorite: Chinoiserie from Eclipse.   She included part of Ellington's  spoken intro and the guest djs on the  show were blown away by it.    (One of them exclaimed something like "How did you find that!")

Why, surely she heard it on this Night Lights show when it first aired several years ago! ☝️ Ah hahaha... ha.  Delusions of audience reach aside, DJ Spooky is a fan of the record and has talked it up, for whatever that’s worth. And I think interest in Ellington’s late-period, post-Strayhorn recordings has grown in recent times. 

Edited July 28, 2021 by ghost of miles

[medjuck]

13 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Seriously, in a world dedicated to truth (or reality, at least) instead of narrative, that monologue would be taught at at least a high school level, as would a basic awareness of Marshall McLuhan.

But, you know, narrative doesn't want people to understand what is happening in their world, much less why.

They haven't been alive  anywhere near 50 years. It's easy for old farts like us to know this stuff. I mean, I studied with Marshall McLuhan-- twice.

[JSngry]

Anybody - ANYBODY - I meet who's even halfway curious about Ellington, I make sure they hear that monologue. It's one of the essential statements of the 20th Century, imo. I've also made sure that both of my kids got exposure to it. It's our moral obligation as caring citizens of love to fight back against the "narrative".

It's a basic question of cultural literacy, imo. That the culture has failed to produce masses of people who are not literate about their own life is hardly shocking, but let's not make excuses for the illiterates. It's not mostly their fault, but they are not blameless, I mean, they're on cool radio saying cool things, apparently they don't take that as too much of a responsibility. thank god, one of them "found" it, and more than one of them has a radio show where, I guess, they're supposed to be taken seriously about "music".

And now they're all hip, right?

[rostasi]

1 hour ago, medjuck said:

The DJs have a show called Morning Becomes Eclectic. and their taste is indeed that (more so than mine and I expect yours)  but they weren't born when this was a new record.   

We had a guy here in Dallas named Chris Douridas that went on to do that show.

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

Uh, maybe by not letting the MegaEvil SoulSuck Of PopCulture into your brainblood and instead just simply being curious, paying attention, and searching the universe for lifes other than your own Narcissistic Mirror Self?

That seems to work in damn near everybody, at least that I've known.

Yup. When I got promos from Fantasy in the mid-70s, that record came into the studio
and I was immediately drawn to it. My mother played it constantly as well.

[JSngry]

Just now, rostasi said:

We had a guy here in Dallas named Chris Douridas that went on to do that show.

Oh, I knew Chris fairly well. He was the guy who took off the dedicated weeknight jazz programming off of KERA in favor of more "eclectic" programming. He's a poster boy for knowing a little bit about a lot of things, and has turned it into a pretty lucrative career. Because, let's face it, there's a market for not having to know too much to think you know a lot.

But what it comes down to, from my experience and observations, is that he's a big fan of narrative. Specifics, not so much. But that's the reality.

He's not the only one, either, but you called him by name.

[rostasi]

Oh, that sounds like me (but not the lucrative part).

[JSngry]

But you can do both, narrative and detail.

[Teasing the Korean]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Anybody - ANYBODY - I meet who's even halfway curious about Ellington, I make sure they hear that monologue. 

Do you think it inspired "Turning Japanese" by the Vapors?

[JSngry]

No idea, but it certainly came to mind when that record came out  

Or maybe it was inspired by McLuhan. Again, I don't know 

Or maybe it was a completely independent observation..ore than one person can reach similar conclusions independently.

[ghost of miles]

6 hours ago, medjuck said:

On Monday "Press Play" on KCRW started a week of listeners picking their favorite tracks and though most of it was recent pop/rock/dance etc the host began by playing her favorite: Chinoiserie from Eclipse.   She included part of Ellington's  spoken intro and the guest djs on the  show were blown away by it.    (One of them exclaimed something like "How did you find that!")

I think that's fantastic--glad so many listeners got exposed to this track.  God knows they're not likely to encounter it on most media outlets, including radio stations that play jazz to any degree.  Most people you'd pull aside on the street today would have no idea who Ellington even is.  That's sad, that's the reality of the kind of deep cultural illiteracy that Jim mentions, but I don't see the point of dunking on a DJ for playing it on a major-market radio station with a large listening audience, even if he/she doesn't have 300+ Ellington recordings, hasn't read Eddie Lambert's book at length, played numerous Ellington pieces in performance settings, or whatever measure of deep Ducal knowledge you want to use that's more likely to be in possession of posters on this board.  Or dunking on a listener serving as a guest DJ who wanted to know how the host had come across this particular Ellington recording.  Again, yeah, students in a better world would be required to take courses on music history, both American and global, with considerable time devoted to Ellington.  And I'd like to help bring us closer to the kind of consciousness that might make such a world more likely... but the present-day reality is waaaaaaaay removed from that.  And perhaps the presentation of this Ellington recording in this particular manner doesn't do it the justice it deserves, but at least it's being introduced to people, potentially a lot of people.  Maybe some of them will go in search of more DKE on YouTube, Spotify, or whatever streaming service the young'uns (and the old 'uns) are using today.  Maybe somebody turns into the next David Berger, I dunno.  Or maybe none of that, but at least a significant Duke Ellington piece got played on a large-market, non-jazz radio station.  Anyway, thanks for sharing the anecdote, Joe.

Edited July 28, 2021 by ghost of miles

[rostasi]

There’s always this:

 

7 hours ago, medjuck said:

On Monday "Press Play" on KCRW started a week of listeners picking their favorite tracks and though most of it was recent pop/rock/dance etc the host began by playing her favorite: Chinoiserie from Eclipse.   She included part of Ellington's  spoken intro and the guest djs on the  show were blown away by it.    (One of them exclaimed something like "How did you find that!")

We have a station here called KNTU that elicits surprise comments both from the broadcasters and the listeners!

[JSngry]

"dunking on a dj"? Now it's my turn to be culturally illiterate, what does that mean? 

10 minutes ago, rostasi said:

 

 

We have a station here called KNTU that elicits surprise comments both from the broadcasters and the listeners!

31 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

Or maybe none of that, but at least a significant Duke Ellington piece got played on a large-market, non-jazz radio station.  Anyway, thanks for sharing the anecdote, Joe.

Yeah, my money's on "maybe none of that". 

Besides, kudos to the person who played it. Major fuckyous to the idiot who asked "how did you find that?"

How do you find anything, and is it really harder with the internet giving lapdances to everybody?

People without a natural curiosity deserve what they don't know.

[JSngry]

Duncan?

Kudos to Betty White!

[JSngry]

Or dunking, is that the thing that results in the spilling of the tea?

In which case, serves you right for dunking with tea, what kind of a culturally malformed notion is that? Almost as bad as chocolate and peanut butter, or salt and watermelon, or cream gravy and haggis.

[JSngry]

Internet lapdances to the rescue!

https://slangit.com/meaning/dunk_on

Don't ask me how I found that, just ask what took me so damn long to do it.