AllenLowe

I can't seem to find the True Blue version of this - anybody have a link?

'50 and '51 were very good years for Prez - he was looking for new things and still relatively cognizant.

just this sneak excerpt from the new bio: Herbie The Love Bug Date of Birth 1963, Wolfsburg, Germany Mini Biography Herbie, a Volkswagen Beetle, has worked alongside human stars ranging from Dean Jones, Buddy Hackett, Don Knotts, Helen Hayes, and Cloris Leachman to Lindsay Lohan, Matt Dillon, and Michael Keaton. Herbie received his first on-screen credit in the 1969 hit 'The Love Bug'. Set against the backdrop of San Francisco, 'The Love Bug' featured Herbie saving the day as he fueled a down-on-his-luck racecar driver's quest for victory and romance. Initially unmarked and all white, Herbie was emblazoned with his famous number "53" to compete in the races. Herbie then took the title role in 'Herbie Rides Again' (1974), 'Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo' (1977) and 'Herbie Goes Bananas' (1980). He also had a television career, with the 1997 telefilm 'The Love Bug'. Along the way, he inspired many imitators and collected die-hard fans. Herbie appears in 'Herbie: Fully Loaded' (2005) alongside Lindsay Lohan, playing four different roles: Junk Yard Herbie, Tricked-Out Herbie, Demolition Derby Herbie and NASCAR Herbie. 38 different VW Beetles were used in the production, and Herbie achieved a top speed of 132 MPH during his NASCAR racing scenes.

the condensed version -

hope it's always fun.

Bertrand - you can wait until 2014. I'm gonna review it even before I read it: how's this? "Herbie, one of the leading pianists in jazz, writes with a child-like innocence of his days with Miles, disco ducks, groovy days and funky nights."

Herbie who? Isn't that the name of a car?

1) just realized I can't listen to All God's Children Got Rhythm any more. Will have to stick with Reets and I. 2) Joel - it was Skinny Bergen on bass - Skinny was a friend of mine, sweeheart of a guy; I got him into the West End, as a matter of fact; I introduced him to Percy, IIRC. He was a terrific player, had worked with Hamp; played at my wedding in 1982. 3) Thanks, Phunkey, for the compliment, but you spelled the CD title wrong; though anyone who CALLS himself Phunkey cannot possibly know what funk is. Kinda like a Jew named Brent.

I gotta stop drinking this early in the day. Seeing double.

btw that Willette/Green cut is the real thing. As someone once said, I may not know what is authenic, but I know what is inauthentic. and by the way, one of the reasons a lot of those older guys had so much soul is TUBES, No kidding, you can't get there the same way with solid state. and let's not forget Joe Puma, who played the most beautiful thing I ever heard, at Bill Evans' funeral.

well, it's bad enough I can't watch Julia Child; and no more Child Ballads. Forget about All My Children, Children of the Korn. A Child's Garden of Verses, no more Fairchild Publications. Maybe Valerie was right,

damn - now I can't read the bible -

"you often mention the white blues players as your earliest influences, while your jazz influences are more directly black perhaps. So maybe reconciling the two is your own personal journey. I don't think it's ever been a 'thing' for the players I've listened to. " assuming this was directed at me, Freelancer, I wanted to respond - my actual earliest blue influences were a mix - first Bloomfield/Butterfield, but when I got into it more deeply, Son House, Lil Green, Broonzy, Frankie Jaxon, Muddy Waters, Wolf, basically the early Southern guys - plus T Bone Walker. as for the jazz guys who played more to the pop side to the '60s - I tend to think that for most of them it was a dip in the money pool, an attempt to get a piece of the action they thought they were missing, Percy France pretty much told me this, if not in so many words. He preferred more straight ahead things. So did Sammy Price, who played on a lot of '50s semi-rock and roll things and then went back to the older Texas/jazz thing. I don't know about Willis Jackson, but he could still blow straight ahead when I played with him in the '70s, and he was a mean s.o.b. anyway, so I wasn't about to discuss it with him. the problem to me in all of this, from Lou Donaldson to Herbie, is that the jazz guys always sound over-qualified when they try to go down home. Same with a lot of contemporary players. Once again, I will just say to check out my group's version of Bull Connor on my web site - this was a very specific attempt by me to get a grip on the more basic side of the blues, and my guitarist, Ray Suhy, whom nobody knows but who is one of the best, nailed in on slide. It's on this page: http://www.allenlowe...mpiricle-truth/ more funky than a barrel of Headhunters.

actually, Shawn, I caught my tail a long time ago. Now I'm licking my nuts. but that's another story - however, you should re-read my reiteration that I am not talking motivation but the specific quality of the work. You may disagree, but the issues need to be clear. Val - many writers will tell you that they think of a title first - before writing a song, a story, an article. That the title is the stimulus that gets them going. I've even done this a few times with jazz compositions (and everyone will tell you that Larry Kart came up with the name of his book collection in 1947; but that's another story). now, I don't always reject something based on title - but the word "child" became, at some prior point, a delusional symbol for innocence. This kind of thing makes (or has already made) me crazy. No one's perfect. I open doors for old ladies, am kind to animals, help my friends, and pay my taxes. I just cannot listen to or read anything with the word "child" in it. now, Pete C. - to me anyone who agrees with me politically is authentic - Jim - as for judgement being a middle class value - nah, I don't think so. There are too many important critics I've read, from Larry K. here to Walter Benjamin to Adam Kirsch, for me to think that judging and criticizing is some kind of class-based luxury. For me it's education, and more like breathing. It's part of engaging life and ideas. Old fashioned, maybe, but it works.

well, we all make judgments on a regular basis. Otherwise we would sit at home, never vote, never do what we consider to be the right things, never make any attempts at personal growth.

"however, I find the whole question of authenticity in black music (and that category includes white players playing black music), along with its assumptions about class, is a slippery slope full of questionable assumptions that I had thought were put to rest ages ago. I also think that third parties judging the "authenticity" of other artists is just plain bad form. I'm not talking about aesthetic judgments, I'm talking about something that almost takes on a dimension of moral reprobation. " I make no assumptions about class, I only note that it is often a factor; and "moral reprobation" depends on other things. There is something somewhat unethical about an artist deliberately doing something opposed to his principles; problem is figuring out what, if any, those principles are. As for authenticity, I am not talking about black versus white, but rather in all things creative. As I said earlier, I believe it's a legitimate consideration, but the problem is criteria. Mitt is inauthentic, as I (almost) said; the problem with authenticity arguments is not the attempt at determination but avoiding past abuses, those things that have been done in the name of authenticity (for instance, many of the intellectual crimes of the multicultural movement). However, everyone has that moment, that flash of light, that tells them, in the moment, that "this is it." I had it when I heard Muddy Waters at Newport in 1969. And I remember standing next to Roswell Rudd on stage one night maybe 20 years ago when he let out the most beautiful blast of music I'd ever heard. Loren Schoenberg looked over at me and said, "Now that's the real thing" and I knew exactly what he meant - let us say, to quote Peter Handke, that it was "a moment of true feeling." For me, that's the best definition of authenticity.

1) I agree that Benson is a great guitarist - but please note, I NEVER use the term "sell out" or "sold out" - I engage the music on its own terms - I have no concrete standard of acceptance or rejection. On the other had, Breezin' makes me want to breeze my way out of any room in which it is playing. 2) Larry - not sure if we are disagreeing or not. Certainly many great things, artistically-speaking, have come from middle class sources. But I do believe they tend to come as a form of resistance, though that resistance, and its dynamic, can vary. And I also note, ironically or not, that certain aspects of the middle class - standards of education, intellectual query, at least as I experienced them - are integral to not only my own being but to the survival and persistance of certain musical and literary movements.. But this may take another thread entirely (or a book)-

ok; the problems of going to sleep. Valerie came back and made fun of me. But that's ok. I just want to mention a few things before I actually work today. 1) I don't "look down my nose" at other kinds of music. This is a Republic tactic of argument - don't deal with the specific argument but attack the motivations of the person you are disagreeing with. It's dishonest. And anyone who knows me knows that I am not a snob, as a matter of fact probably have put in more time with vernacular music than any other jazz musician on the planet. And I like Kitty Wells and Molly O'Day more than I like Herbie Hancock. 2) as for George benson and Lou Donaldson: I respect Lou's history, but also think he's a a hypocritical jerk. There I said it. HE puts down commerical music and then puts out things like Hot Dog (well he once did). He puts down Dolphy, Ornette, and everybody else but hasn't played a fresh idea since, maybe, 1953. He's a good player but boring. Now that's his right as a jazz musician, but he lives in a glass house. Benson has made a fortune playing crappy music, at least to my ears. What does it prove? It has nothing (well, it has SOMETHING) to do with the middle class, but that's a longer argument than we might want to get into here. I don't really care what he does. As with Herbie, It's Muzak done by a superior muzaker. but yes, the middle class, both black and white, is frequently culturally destructive. Tends to want to back off from/deny/disavow its own history. Just as European Jews looked down on those from Eastern Europe, Maud Cuney Hare wrote an entire book in which she tried to disavow the blues, pre-blues, ragtime, pop songs, medicined shows, and tent revivals. Different than what he are talking about here but, from a cultural perspective, similar in its almost complete misinterpretation of her own sources and heritage. as for playing funky, jazz people tend to be overqualified. Almost everything goes through their fingers and turns out slick, when they are trying to play pop music. For down home funk by outsiders, I'll take any of a number of '60s teen bands (see the Nuggets collection), each of whom, on a bad day, out-funks Herbie and all his friends. yes, just my opinion. And I think Noj makes perfect sense here. We all have different expectations. It's not right and wrong, but those are what I hear. as for my own personal ideas of it all, see my last CD; I spent 5 years showing that there are other ways into the blues for jazz people than through the top 40 or Lincoln Center. I also just wrote an essay on a related question, and which can be found somewhere around here.

it's hard, trying to keep the weight down and my incentive up. Living in the desert here, intellectually speaking.

the sacred principles of the honest jazz musician. The Golden Rule. A few commandments and maybe one or two constitutional amendments.

well, there are two issues - the first is the quality of the music, which I really feel is sub par. We shall continue to disagree about this. No problem from here. the second is based on certain principles. I do think Herbie has violated them, but more so by pretending he hasn't violated them. just my take. and no heart attack; feeling good. Just took a stress test and scored about 20 percent better than the norm for my age group.Herbie can't hurt me anymore.

no, a real person playing slick and shallow music is slick and shallow. and actually, impossible, the betrayal isn't personal - it's more ethical. look, sometimes you gotta do the right thing. I once turned down a job offer from Jackie McLean. Long story, which I will only tell privately. But people with much more to lose take much more principled stands than Herbie takes.

George died? I think you're confusing him with Mutt.

there once was a man from suburbia who played funk like Jose Iturbi-a but no matter how bad he played it, that lad still played it much better than Herbie-a

now you're talking - and yes, it is a question of authenticity - but not in the way you think. Because the problem isn't the consideration itself, but how authenticity is determined. Herbie is too middle class in his musical attitudes to pull any of this off in a way that's musically interesting. It's all synthetic. And not in some kind of ironic, detached way. It's really just crappy music, slick and shallow. And slick and shallow = inauthentic, at least to me. authenticity is the ability to care enough about doing something so that it sounds like it comes from your own sense of self, from your own soul. George Romney is inauthentic. Rick Santorum is authentic (unfortunately). authenticity is not a question of ethnicity of birthright or class - though sometimes, of course, it's related (listen to the difference in the way the old-time New Orlean jazzers play; some have the blues, other are like George Baquet). If we did a blindfold test this would sound to us like a mediocre wedding band.