AllenLowe

it's nice because I almost never listen to jazz anymore, have just been so saturated and find that the music is sagging - but this is the real thing.

have heard some of those guys, yes, but I hear real connections, sonically, with the past. but I understand what you mean.

those guys aren't together enough when it comes to jazz, imho. I knew a guy on the committee about 20 years ago - he used to ask me for suggestions, but it was clear from the way he reported back that they either did not know enough or went for the obvious choices (even if sometimes deserving). Maybe it's better now, I don't know, but Zorn was a bad choice, as were a few others.

interesting stuff, and almost a primer of why I can't stand Rouse's playing - it's so conventional, if couched in some un-conventional turns of harmony and phrase. Listen near the beginning of Rouse's solo as Monk comps in a very brittle and intrusive way - Miles Davis, for one, had the brains to realize that this was a challenge to either rise to or respond to negatively (as in telling Monk not to play) - Rouse, in a very arrogant way, just keeps on as though nothing is happening behind him, doesn't play against it or really respond in any way. And it sounds idiotic. What a dope. (sorry to be so negative, but Rouse ruins a lot of Monk for me) -

just listened last night to Vonski speaks; my reactions as follows - 1) wow 2) double wow 3) there are many reasons why I think he's one of a only a handful of sax players doing standards or playing on changes that I have the patience to listen to any more - soul, of course, but also a commitment to the music that is so intimate and first hand as to defy category or comparison. 4) as for sound - clearly falls within the Chicago school, I used to think of this as containing a dark, rubbery sound at the core. Reminds me of very late Ammons, too, and Coleman Hawkins (non-Chicago of course), though in a completely personal way. 5)Time-wise there is a debt to Hawkins, in the uneven articulation and stop-start rhythms (also, I would bet, in the absolute commitment to chromatic harmony); but Freeman is simply amazing - there is so much chord-play going on as to make this some of the deepest stuff imaginable. He seems to be saying, grab a note, grab any note, and see if you can turn it back toward the tone-center - not unlike Art Tatum. 6) I wish I could remember where I saw it, but when I was doing some of my blues research I came across an interview which included Von; this interview was noteworthy because of his deep appreciation of blues and rhythm and blues; whereas most hip jazz guys regard that music with maybe some grudging respect but primarily condescension (even in regard to guys like Muddy or Howlin' Wolf), Freeman's remarks were to the effect of well, it's a lot simpler musically than what we play, but it really ain't. I cannot tell you how important that attitude is, and it carries over to the sense of verity in every Freeman solo. Hence, too, his Blues For Sunnyland on Vonski Speaks. If there had ever been a real and honestly constituted Popular Front, Von would have led the way. has this guy gotten one of those NEA Masters Awards yet? If not, what the hell are they waiting for? (and Obama's from Chicago) -

I'd have to speak to John - I DO remember that the book he referred to which talked about such things was, as he told me, in German, and had never been translated.

thinking about it more - after all these years, it actually might have been something on King, except that I recall being shown a record jacket and I remember that Crown logo. but it has been about 30 years. the mystery deepens.

that's definitely not him. I will have to think about it. I also remember that he died of cancer not long after I met him.

thanks, Chewy - funny thing is I think I heard his name a few months ago - they would be Nat Cole-type trio albums.

"the modern avant-garde bassists took bass playing to more places arguably than musicians playing on all the other standard jazz instruments - and much of it is played with a bow" sorry, but Pops Foster and Bill Johnson took the bass to the same places, about 50-75 years earlier. not to mention Jimmy Blanton. Hell, Pops used to say if he didn't know the changes he would just thump away and watch all the pretty girls. Can't get much further out than that -

I always loved those cheapie discount labels - years ago there was a pianist who used to visit a friend of mine in New Haven and apparently he had some good-selling records on Crown, in a Nat-Cole vein. Nice guy, African American, could really play, but I cannot think of his name (and he had a cute girlfriend about half his age).

yes - and don't hold the Third Stream accountable for John Lewis. Sorry, I always found him pretentious and precious.

only in self defense.

he was a bit of a prodigy as a tenor saxophonist around Hartford in the '80s - could really play, too. Oh well.

that explains the music - traumatic brain injury.

allright classical people - years ago I knew Pat Zimmerli as a very fine young saxophonist in the area of Hartford Connecticut. Well, looking around I see he has become a classical (neo classical?) composer. Been listening to some of his stuff and I find it god-awful. Sorta like bad PBS new-age bored-of-the-dance stuff. anyone else have an opinion?

plenty of good third stream - listen to the Brandeis concert -

my suggestion for new thread title: "Boy George and Kenny G: Separated at Birth?"

McNeil is terrific - I did something with him about 5 years ago - can play and think, not as easy as it sounds -

well, Green played ok, but 50 years of chunk-a-chunk gets a little tired. It's funny, because people always praise his rhythm playing, but there were 50 Western Swing guitarists who did it as well if not better than he did it, because that lighter-than-air thing was pretty much a staple of Western music from the 1930s on, and there are a million good recordings that show everybody was doing it. And the model for those other guys tends to sound more like Eddie Lang.

actually, this is not complete - it doesn't include the threesome with Cicely Tyson and Betty Davis -

getting paid? Do we wanna be wage slaves? No! Well, you know what makes wage slaves? Wages! **** ***Groucho Marx

well, John Szwed once told me that there are parts of Africa with concert band traditions - lots of horns and orchestras.

Bobby could really play, he also recorded with Ammons.

probably not - though something tells me that among those early recordings are some audible tenor-guitar strummings. and speaking of guitar and Green - as I recall, another fine guitarist, Eddie Durham, died while getting ready to go to Freddie's funeral. oy....