Michael Fitzgerald

Sorry - misspelling. Jean Simmons.

My point about musical elements seems to have been missed. OF COURSE hip-hop has "some of those elements" - it has ALL of those elements. Those are things that describe music - they aren't classical-specific, or jazz-specific. When we talk about physical objects - weight, height, length, width, density, etc. - no matter what physical object, we can analyze it using those things. What I'm asking is not "are these musical elements present" in whatever music, but rather "what is being DONE with these elements". Since music is sound organized in time, everything has tempo or speed - my question is how is that being addressed in whatever music. Of course, some musics place greater or lesser emphasis on certain elements. If you want to say that hip-hop is so new and revolutionary that it can't be described with those elements, well, how are you going to describe it? What elements are you going to use? You can come up with a revolutionary new element, say, "phatness" and say that whoever is 90% phat while someone else is 74% phat - but what does it mean? However, I *don't* see it as all that revolutionary - I hear recycled drum machine beats, I hear sampled loops, I hear sometimes entire musical pieces appropriated for use here. That is *traditional* music, with all those elements I mentioned. There IS harmony - it's just simplistic. There IS tempo - it's static (and fairly restricted). I am not claiming that I have heard plenty of hip-hop. Since I haven't heard anything that appeals to me, it's only logical that I don't have any in my own collection. But I have been hearing it for some twenty years, going back to the 1980s. I worked in a record store in the 1990s. I don't live under a rock in Antarctica. I've asked a number of acquaintances to play me stuff that is more interesting than the most popular and have been presented with things like Arrested Development, Digable Planets, Guru, A Tribe Called Quest, Squarepusher, others I can't recall. Ain't none of them made me change my mind - like I said, I'm still waiting for something that meets *my* standards of musical interest. If the rest of the world wants to listen to it, that's fine for them. But as yet, what I've heard is repetitive and primitive with pretty much no sophistication. In the rap area, I'm more favorably inclined to toasting, but I'm not a huge reggae or ska fan either, but a group like The Beat which incorporates toasting, reggae, jazz, new wave, and Motown kinds of things has much more appeal to me. BTW, I'm not a big minimalism fan either. Mike

Well, if you want to call it culture or whatever - sure. But with *music* you're dealing with centuries and centuries of evolution. Musically, this stuff is not interesting - it's repetitive and if by mandate of style all vocals must be "in-your-face" then it's not expressive. And music that eliminates expression is - well, bad. I disagree that a fast tempo necessarily eliminates the possibility of expression. But if we're OK not calling it music, then fine. Music has elements that transcend style - melody, harmony, rhythm, texture, form, timbre, tempo, etc. What is being done with these? In what I listened to, not much. I'm trying to establish objective criteria - I'm not apalled or repulsed that Maestro Bach was borrowed, it could have been interesting - I'm disgusted that the end result was so bad, so cheap, so pointless. But if it's not music, then these criteria don't apply. Pastiche is one thing, but cheap boring pastiche is another. As for the range of the form - where's the range? Just in the fact that what is layered in the loop is Bach? Could someone do something interesting with this stuff? Probably - but I'm still waiting. Mike

Big deal - a Bach ripoff, not even performed just sampled (and then slowed down by half at the end so the flute sounds bad. The vocals have absolutely no expression, no dynamics - they're just loud and in-your-face. The interlude seemed just typical juvenile - ooooh - a "message"! If one wants rap or hip-hop to be considered music it would be nice if these folks would actually *compose* and *perform* some instead of just taking pre-existing recordings. Yeah, I know "yo, but that's the point" - shoot, at least B. Bumble And The Stingers PLAYED the classical stuff that was being ripped off. And if you're going to try to deal with classical music like Bach - don't negate it by flattening out every element of contrast just to fit your boring repetitive pre-programmed (or worse yet, sampled) drum loops on top. Not a fan - waiting for something to impress me. Mike

YESS!!

Thing is, Cuscuna would tape using dbx and they neglected to decode, plus he ran his deck with the pitch knob on slow to get some extra time on his cassettes. Then there's the polarity thing.... Mike

On three of the CDs they are going to leave off a track and on the rest they will use crippling copy protection? Oh, and on the Andrew Hill, they will misspell Debby Hutchinston's name. Right?!? I gotta come up with some way to avoid spending money! Mike

They just quickly threw that on when they heard you arriving. Prior to that it was an all-Brotzmann evening, but you weren't to know. Mike

No, it's there - 5020. This is the summer 1970 material - either from the Lighthouse or from the Both/And. Most complete issue on a 2-CD set on Fresh Sound. Mike

But wasn't Phantom Navigator issued on CD at the time? My LP doesn't have a note "Also available as...." but it seems that CBS didn't do that like Gramavision and GRP (to name but two I checked). Apparently PN did make it to CD in Japan. Mike

Certainly possible they played the Cellar Door again. The research is ongoing. So there was a DC Left Bank Jazz Society that was different from the Baltimore, MD one that was doing Sunday shows at the Famous Ballroom at the time? I know Albert Dailey was on one of those Baltimore LBJS shows with Blakey on September 13, 1970. Where were the DC LBJS shows held? (Sorry - it's only 35 years ago. I won't ask the soloist order.) Mike

Shepp has done it several times. Apparently also Big John Patton on a 1995 DIW. No evidence of a McLean. Mike

I'm partial to the Roulette sextet sessions from just before the Concords, which is where this whole sound came into being. I don't mind the Wynton stuff, but he's set up as the showpiece far too often. Now, about that personal aside - how sure are you about the dates? I know the band played the Cellar Door in late 1969 with Brecker, Garnett, Sonny Donaldson, and Skip Crumby. Where did you see the band and about when? 1970 personnel is damn tough to learn. Always looking for Blakey recollections. Mike

Just stay away from playing Bix and Kenton and you'll be OK. Next on the viewing list is The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie. Mike

Egads - one bonehead's mix tape. Stop the presses. Big deal. Mike

I spent half a year studying nothing but Monk tunes with Kenny Barron (who knows a thing or two about Monk). What I found to be the biggest challenge were the tunes that don't seem to do anything - like "Green Chimneys" and to a lesser degree, "Well, You Needn't". They just vacillate between two chords. Even the melody of "Green Chimneys" doesn't give you much to go on. Playing the head is a breeze, but when your solo starts, everything sounds wrong. For a pianist, seeing Monk play the tunes is revelatory - even if it is not something to copy. His fingering is just absurd. Watch "Rhythm-a-ning" on the Straight No Chaser movie. No one plays it like that. Only Thelonious. Mike

I got a chuckle from the use of the phrase "their penis" - surely "his penis" is the right phrase, by definition, for "anyone" - and I'm not just talking about the singular possessive of "mankind"...... In the end, what has McDonald's done about this? Put a written notice on the cup? Is it only in English? And what about the illiterate population? Are they now not allowed to eat at McDonald's? Shoot, for every software installation I'm required to check an "I Agree" box - I think every McDonald's coffee-drinker needs to sign a waiver before taking delivery of said very hot cup. Mike

Ted Curson: Urge on CD Fontana PHCE 1008 (1990) - no, I don't own it. Mike

First you get down on your knees......

OK, not a restaurant - but tonight while on *hold* with the credit card company customer service number, I heard NOT ONLY Jimmy Smith & Stanley Turrentine: The Jumpin' Blues BUT ALSO Horace Silver: Strollin'. And that's just in 10 minutes or so. I mean, damn - that's better than a whole lot of radio stations that supposedly play jazz! Mike

Well, let's see - choice A is "the folks eating off the floor"; choice B is "the folks eating out of the toilet"..... Mike

Oh my God. Well, like I said - *never* underestimate...... Mike

Time signatures? Note values? Not having ever heard this college band, dare I ask whether there's anything out of 4/4 in their repertoire? I know it's all fun, but like a few other things that colleges do, this kind of stuff is demeaning to the people who are there for education. Too bad those folks can't get their moment in the spotlight. Mike

Never mind, answered my own question here: http://www.plosin.com/milesahead/Sessions.aspx?s=581101 Mike

That letter is from when Evans was in Florida (or perhaps Louisiana - does it give a return address?) visiting family. Books like Ken Vail's "Miles' Diary" and the Chris Sheridan Cannonball book are not aware of this, but the Pettinger bio of Evans does mention this absence from the scene. I'll try to find out exactly when Evans left the Davis band because Vail and Sheridan list him all the way up to the Village Vanguard in November. There are some broadcasts of MD during this period - who is playing piano on them??? Specifically, the Spotlite Lounge, Washington, DC on November 1, 1958. Can anyone who's heard that one comment? Is it Red Garland? The other broadcast is the Show Boat in Philadelphia on September 20, 1958 - but I guess that's still Evans at that point. Mike