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So, What Are You Listening To NOW?


JSngry

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1 hour ago, Peter Friedman said:

41bVvVZO4NL.jpg

:tup

 

20 hours ago, JSngry said:

When it comes to things Christlieb, make mine Don!

As for both Woods & Pete C., they each made two of the most distinctive and memorable recorded saxophone solos of the Rock Era, and no, not everybody can do that. So, respect where due, no problem.

 

A wonderful player, but FWIW Christlieb testified circa 1954 as a "friendly witness" before the House Un-American Activities Committee and named 33 musicians, as well as Norman Granz, as former members of the Musicians' Branch of the Los Angeles-area Communist Party (to which Christlieb himself had belonged). One can imagine the pressures Christlieb himself might have been under from HUAC and the Feds at the time, but his testimony brought down much grief upon the heads of those he named (loss of jobs in the film studio world, etc.), and a good many in the LA musical community never forgave him for what he did.

From Tad Hershorn's Granz biography:
 

'Granz never forgot about these incidents and never forgave those whose testimony against former party members often destroyed their professional lives….

'Almost twenty years later Granz took a moment to stick it to his onetime accuser, Donald Christlieb. His son, the tenor saxophonist Pete Christlieb, was part of a big band led by Louis Bellson being recorded in the mid-1970s for Pablo Records. Greanz inquired about the status of the elder Christlieb.
 
 '“He’s retired,” Christlieb replied.
 
'“Tell him Norman Granz said hello,” Granz said.
 
'“I never heard back on that,” he said.'
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You know, I think that "blowing" is not something that everybody should aspire to. It's really a very specific esthetic, particular to a maybe only slightly less specific cultural continuum, and god knows, how many people really need to do that? A lot of less-than-essential life energy is spent on pursuing some illusory ideal, like dreaming will make it so, and, uh....no.

But you take some crap like Bud Shank and Oliver Nelson making an easy listening record, that's got a clearly defined purpose, expertly executed, and respectful on all fronts. All it asks you to believe is that here's a convenient record of pop songs for more general audiences and we're not going to bullshit you into thinking that it's anything else, but we're also not going to give you grounds for saying that any of it was half-assed.

Truthfully, if I'm going to spend a few minutes listening to anything, I'd rather spend it with the principled expert bullshit than the self-yanking chains of so may people pulling yesterday's reality out of their ass expecting me to be impressed or something, like you're deserving of my time jsut becuase you can play. Respect, yeah, always. But time? MY time? No. I ain't getting any younger. so I will listen to all kinds of bullshit, but not any kind of bullshit.

 

Inspired!

 

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1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Details!

 

So much happening...

 

One thing I have felt is kind of odd/unfair is that in most record stores I've seen Dionne Warwick classified in the "Vocals" section alongside Sinatra, Streisand, Crosby, etc, while her sister Dee Dee is classified in the "Soul/R&B' section.  To my mind Dionne Warwick was/is a soul singer -- maybe not a let-it-all-out, funky soul singer (there are/were plenty of those in the world as it is), but certainly a soul singer nonetheless.

 

Now playing:

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MI0000510757.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

Kind of like "The Gentle Side of Betty Carter".  Tracks 1, 5, 9, 12, & 13 were recorded 55 years ago today, Aug. 10, 1962.  Gotta respect the longevity of guitar players; of all the personnel listed for that recording session, only Kenny Burrell and John "Bucky" Pizzarelli are still with us.

 

Edited by duaneiac
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Johnny Lytle!!!

MI0002755419.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

I've long loved this gorgeous Johnny Lytle penned ballad (not something one might expect to find on an album bearing this title).  I don't know if there are/were any lyrics to it, but if not, some talented lyricist should get to work on that.  This is a tune which deserves to be covered by other instrumentalists and singers.

 

 

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1 hour ago, duaneiac said:

One thing I have felt is kind of odd/unfair is that in most record stores I've seen Dionne Warwick classified in the "Vocals" section alongside Sinatra, Streisand, Crosby, etc, hile her sister Dee Dee is classified in the "Soul/R&B' section.  To my mind Dionne Warwick was/is a soul singer -- maybe not a let-it-all-out, funky soul singer (there are/were plenty of those in the world as it is), but certainly a soul singer nonetheless.

All of the above! And more!

You know, when I was a kid, I thought all of "that" was kind of dull/whitebread/etc. Then I read a really good appreciation of Burt Bachrach in Jazz and Pop magazine that started me to slowly re-listening and reconsidering (also in the issue was a deeeeep interview with Rahsann, where he talked about shit like how Wes Montgomery put his life-soul into his sound and now you can push a button and sound like Wes Montgomery, so yeah good insights from Rahsaan and good insight into Bachrach all in one skinny magazine, it was so easy to learn about different shit at the same time then...oh well).

When I was in my teens, I hated this. Now, I get it. It's not about cum, and it's not about Fuck The Man, and it's not about anything that a kid, hip or nerd, would be instinctually drawn to. What it is about is really boring stuff like metric/harmonic displacements, tension and release, and creating a melody line the just keeeeeeeeps on going. And going. And going. It's sexual in a most cerebral way, and cerebral in a most sexual way. Don't expect a kid to know what that means, a kid won't know, a kid can't know, a kid, perhaps, shouldn't know.

I mean, once you calm down and start hearing details, once you learn enough to get an awareness of how harmony has a shape, rhythm has a shape, orchestration has a shape, damn near everything has a shape, ok, then you hear all the details on this record and realize that everything that is happening happened intentionally, and yet Dionne is just in the zone with it, it's all intentional but there is still soul and energy, humanity out the ass, full humanity, yin and yang, it is humbling. Listen to the bass line, listen to the little background touches that didn't have to be there to sell the record, listen to that goddamn trumpet player just bringing it home and putting it to bed (dynamics, too have a shape, and list to the dynamics of that, what, two bars? JUST two bars!), there is so much motion, contrary and complimentary all at once, this is just one hell of a human achievement, and it's all in a fucking pop record. I'm not going settle for less than that in any music, not as an ongoing investment. It's not about anything except fully realizing the spiritual potential of what it means to be alive, in whatever body you are in at the time. It can be little or it can be huge. But what it's not about is settling, even settling for "excellence", that's ultimately the devil's game. Life is a series of contractions and expansions. And. Not or. When you settle, that's not life.

Betty Carter would eat you ass live right in front of your face and you would take it because she was always right. Lockjaw Davis will slit your throat and drink you blood (film at 11!). Dionne Warwick could take more Burt Bachrach psychodramas than any one human should have probably healthily had inside them and create a very adult, suburban soul that is at lease as so covertly subversive as to be paradigm-changing.

Life is short, humans are eternal, and at some point in life, details matter. It is only in real life that a girl has to cry.

If there's such a thing as American Pop Songs As Lieder, "art songs" not just consumptional warmfuzzies, this type of thing gets in on the first ballot, at least if I get a vote.

There, I feel better now. :g

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