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Rudy Van Gelder interview from 1995


Jim Alfredson

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1 hour ago, Scott Dolan said:

Do people ask you to play standards outside of the Jazz genre? 

FREEBIRD!

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

Good to know. If I ever go to one of his gigs I'll ask him to play Rite Of Spring. Or You Are The Sunshine Of My Life.

Hell, Stella By Starlight, please, Boss!

I would request that he simply not play.  I think Bruce is simply awful on every conceivable level. 

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1 hour ago, Dmitry said:

Dude, he does Twis'n'Shout.

He does Jambalaya on the Bayou.

He does Take it Easy, for chrissakes.

I'm sure for you he'll do Surf's Up.:D

Can you do Jambalaya on the Bayou?

 

Dude, I have played all that shit, and have often enjoyed doing it. Depends on the people in the room and the money in the pocket. I've played wedding dates and club gigs form more than 3/4 of my life now, so please disabuse yourself of whatever notions you have that I am hostile to, ignorant of, and/or inept at playing the standard repertory of pop or jazz.

Gigs, on the other hand, gigs, not working, not playing, but gigs, are another story. Gigs are a job, and nobody's going to love their job forever. Frankly, I no longer have a desire to get paid to play ambient jukebox or restaurant music for random consumers. That's not fun anymore. And if it means that you will not pay to hear the seagulls fucking, awwww...like I want your money? Or your ass in the room? If you like what you hear and want to be there, hell yeah, welcome. Otherwise, get your complaining ass outta the room ASAP, if not sooner. Complain to the manager, get the band fired, I really do not care. I'd rather play for free to 3-4 people who want to be there than make "money" (and really, it's not usually all that much money, even a good gig) playing for people who either don't want to be there or have no idea about why we're there and then start enforcing their "expectations". Like, really, you've heard 30 minutes of what no doubt to you sounds like intense squeaky/squawky neurotic noise and you think that requesting "Satin Doll" is going to lighten the mood or something? Uh....no. And yeah, we'll have attitude about it. Just leave, especially if you put a dollar bill in the tip jar before making your request. Let that be a teachable moment for you, money can't change the world, but ignorance can cost you a dollar.

Fuck all that, I got a day job, I don't need those asses in somebody else's room, and I don't need their money in my pocket.  Give me some people who want to be there, we'll have a party. Otherwise, as Cynthia & Jerry's message so eloquently said it - ALL THE SQUARES GO HOME.

Or let me go home. STAY home. I got a nice enough house, a loving wife, a comfortable bed, and a good TV, none of which are dependent upon playing shit I don't want to play for and with people I'd rather not be around. Whether or not you yourself are one of those people, I don't know, but with all this seagull fucking talk, you probably are. So, let me know where you'll be, and I'll save us both some trouble by being someplace else.

And no, I don't think Bruce will do "Surf's Up" for me, at least not as a spontaneous on the gig request. That's one hard song, and I doubt he could just whip it off/out like he could a Hank Williams bar standard.

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Do you really think he knows those words off the top of his head? Not that he should, I mean, I don't think he should. Point just being that "Bruce takes requests" is kinda like...well, sure he does. But from who, and so what? If you're a bar/wedding band (and whatever else that band is, they are, at root, that), you learn a lot of tunes that you know people will request. And if you're good at it, a lot more that people probably won't request but might, once in a while. This is not one of those tunes. Nobody requests "Surf's Up". Hell, not that many people know it. They might think they do when you say the title, but no... Not saying Bruce and the band couldn't whip up a rendition during a soundcheck or two and then "take a request", but just yell it out from the audience? Maybe, but...I doubt it.

otoh, where are the Van Dyke Parks cover bands of the world? I'd love to drop into a bar and request "Jack Palance" and not feel like a fool!

A diamond necklace played the pawn
Hand in hand some drummed along, oh
To a handsome man and baton
A blind class aristocracy
Back through the opera glass you see
The pit and the pendulum drawn
Columinated ruins domino

Canvass the town and brush the backdrop
Are you sleeping?

Hung velvet overtaken me
Dim chandelier awaken me
To a song dissolved in the dawn
The music hall a costly bow
The music all is lost for now
To a muted trumpeter swan
Columinated ruins domino

Canvass the town and brush the backdrop
Are you sleeping, Brother John?

Dove nested towers the hour was
Strike the street quicksilver moon
Carriage across the fog
Two-Step to lamp lights cellar tune
The laughs come hard in Auld Lang Syne

The glass was raised, the fired rose
The fullness of the wine, the dim last toasting
While at port adieu or die

A choke of grief heart hardened I
Beyond belief a broken man too tough to cry

Surf's up
Aboard a tidal wave
Come about hard and join
The young and often spring you gave
I heard the word
Wonderful thing
A children's song

Child, child, child, child, child
A child is the father of the man
Child, child, child, child, child
A child is the father of the man
A children's song
Have you listened as they played
Their song is love
And the children know the way
That's why the child is the father to the man
Child, child, child, child, child
Child, child, child, child, child
Na na na na na na na na
Child, child, child, child, child
That's why the child is the father to the man
Child, child, child, child, child

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbIKxUcYoxQ

 

 

 

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He might, but...those are a lot of words, and I'm sure he might remember some of them (I've remembered "Columinated ruins domino, canvas the town and brush the backdrop, are you sleeping" from pretty much the first time hearing it, I mean, those words with that melody, how do you not remember that, that's a fucking
HOOK) but you know, next time you see Bruce walking down the street, stop him and ask excuse me Mr. Boss, what are the words to "Surf's Up", and when was the last time you played it? Remember what key?

And have film rolling when you do. Pictures or it didn't happen!

And don't be surprised if he says, hey, who am I, the fucking Wondermints?

Now that's a band that could probably field a request for "Surf's Up". But that's their bag, right?

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1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Like, really, you've heard 30 minutes of what no doubt to you sounds like intense squeaky/squawky neurotic noise and you think that requesting "Satin Doll" is going to lighten the mood or something? Uh....no.

But the chicks dig it.They think you're an intellectual; troubled and mysterious. :g

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36 minutes ago, Dmitry said:

But the chicks dig it.They think you're an intellectual; troubled and mysterious. :g

Yeah, well, that would be a mistake on their part, and besides, what am I supposed to do with that? Pursue adultery with women who get turned on by an image, not by a reality? Feed the lie, right, because the lie will feed you back.

No doubt.

All the more reason to stay home.

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38 minutes ago, Scott Dolan said:

Well, at least we've graduated from Jim's consternation concerning requests for tunes he doesn't want to play, to Springsteen not playing Surf's Up because he doesn't have the words memorized. 

Not sure what we've proven, or solved, but here we are! 

Yeah, no matter where you go...:g

But seriously, this whole thing sprung back to life from a quote of a statement I made a few months ago, that was more or less, iirc, in the defense of pursuing a path of playing original music, which in turn was more or less flowed out of a defense of Allen Lowe's all-around insistence on going with what he heard, methodology and all else be damned, and yes, Allen is a guy who has lived by that at a lot higher level of investment than I have, and I respect the hell out of that. I sluffed along and tried to play commercial gigs and original music in the same body, and that was fun while I was young and idealistic (as well as middle-aged and pragmatic), but at some point (probably when old & cranky started becoming the new normal)...the commercial gigs got worse and worse and at some point, you know, is this really worth it? Not for me. Fuck it. I dig Allen because he had the "fuck it" response looooong before I did, and he's got a life to show for it.

So, props to Allen for consistency of vision, warmly jagged fuckoffs to anybody who is in the room with seagulls and complains about it when all they have to do is walk out, lunch in an hour, and sleep tonight.

I don't know here we are, but that's where I am. :g

Now having said all that, if you got a gig playing for dancers, like, a real gig with people who can really dance (or enjoy it like they really can), if it don't involve polkas all night (personal preference, not a value judgment), aand your band can tell the difference, call me. I don't care what the book is.

 

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2 hours ago, JSngry said:

 

Gigs, on the other hand, gigs, not working, not playing, but gigs, are another story. Gigs are a job, and nobody's going to love their job forever. Frankly, I no longer have a desire to get paid to play ambient jukebox or restaurant music for random consumers. That's not fun anymore. And if it means that you will not pay to hear the seagulls fucking, awwww...like I want your money? Or your ass in the room? If you like what you hear and want to be there, hell yeah, welcome. Otherwise, get your complaining ass outta the room ASAP, if not sooner. Complain to the manager, get the band fired, I really do not care. I

I think I went over the line. It looks like you've taken it personally. Sorry if I caused discomfort. No hard feelings?

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49 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Yeah, no matter where you go...:g

But seriously, this whole thing sprung back to life from a quote of a statement I made a few months ago, that was more or less, iirc, in the defense of pursuing a path of playing original music, which in turn was more or less flowed out of a defense of Allen Lowe's all-around insistence on going with what he heard, methodology and all else be damned, and yes, Allen is a guy who has lived by that at a lot higher level of investment than I have, and I respect the hell out of that.

 

Actually, that part of the conversation had nothing to do with Allen. You were quoted from when you and I were debating the art/commerce thing. 

Allen's only contribution to this thread had to do with him prosthelytizing about 24 bit unicorns recreating the "warmth" of analog, telling me to shut up, and Kevin to fuck off for telling him 24 bit unicorns didn't really exist or recreate the "warmth" of analog, and remaining completely silent when a contemporary told him exactly the same thing. 

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And the art/commerce thing was prompted, or at least inspired by, my understanding of Allen's hostility towards being told that what he thought he heard wasn't there. There's a connection between trusting what you think you hear, or need to hear, and being able to create based off what you think you hear, or need to hear. so I got that. Totally.

Not going to get into "defending" his manners of communication, but I do get the "trigger" here. Hell, I got triggered by it, and I really don't give that many shits about "audio". But for people who do hear things that aren't there (yet), yeah, like/understand it or not, the need to trust your impulses when going forward, that's a real thing. To "civilians", not really relevant, but to "artist(e)s", yeah, it matters.

And yeah, maybe delusional though produces delusional music. so be it. Some of my favorite music can very easily be looked at as "delusional" at one or more levels.

1 hour ago, Dmitry said:

I think I went over the line. It looks like you've taken it personally. Sorry if I caused discomfort. No hard feelings?

When you responded to me about that seagull thing that "you wrote", I assumed it was so directed, perhaps from having a listen to some of the clips from my soundcloud found in my signature. I've made no bones about what those are and are not, so, you know...

If you were speaking to a general "you", then your intent was misread here, and no, no hard feelings.

Gertrude & Heathcliff, otoh, are coming over to fuck you up. :g

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35 minutes ago, JSngry said:

And the art/commerce thing was prompted, or at least inspired by, my understanding of Allen's hostility towards being told that what he thought he heard wasn't there. There's a connection between trusting what you think you hear, or need to hear, and being able to create based off what you think you hear, or need to hear.

Not really. 

OK, OK. That's a lie. 

Not at all, actually.  

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