AllenLowe

well, as somebody once said - dying is easy - COMEDY is hard -

and I think that poem is unfair; I don;t know of any serious student of any art form who is truly like that - it builds on a "type" that itself is virtually non-existent -

not long ago I was reading a book of Richard Gilman's critcism and he expressed an admiration for art that, to paraphrase him , predicts the next thing we will think, the next gesture we will be making; it tells us what we will be doing and thinking next - and this is a perfect description of Coltrane, Ornette, Bud Powell, Louis Armstrong - but not of Josh Redman. and more recently I was reading Marshall McLuchan who, interestingly enough, says much the same thing about important "new" media - such media tell us not necessarily what we already know is "happening", but the effect of of events, the next thing that those events will lead to, the next ideas and gestures that will be made in response to those events, before those gestures are even made. this is a very high and difficult standard for art, but it is a necessary standard; without it, things would just, well, come to a stop -

and I don't find jazz boring per se, I find the current practice of jazz boring, frequently - which is why I play, to find a solution to this problem of boring jazz.

"Despite the fancy critical schemes we can build up, discussions or arguments about humanities seem to always boil down to tastes and preferences, relativism rules not absolute standards" that's fine for you - notice we don't attack those of you who have that particular perspective - just realize that to me (and not just to me) music isn't simply as serious as life, it is life - strangely, as I have gotten older, virtually nothing else interests me besides the occasional novel, the JFK assassination, and some other politics - and those other things, much as they interest me, remain external. Music (and not just jazz) has become like another appendage, for better or for worse. I'm not crazy, btw, about relativist arguments; by this standard Kenny g = Josh Redman; it's just a matter of personal preference; as a a perspective, it will get you in trouble - I mean, why crticize Cheney? he has his perspective, I have mine -

"it definitely seems true that there is an enormous amount of negative energy directed to those musicians who achieved mainstream success but not for the right reasons or for playing music that is/was too conventional. Or perhaps the number of positive/negative messages are balanced the emotional vehemence is certainly on the side of the detractors. I do find this unfortunate and even a little sad. There are artists I don't care for and a handful I really dislike, but I don't feel it is my life's purpose to tell other people to avoid them (not saying that you should hold your tongue or that I want to enforce civility on the board -- just saying it is unfortunate)." silly - has nothing to do with conventional or uncoventional but with substantive criticisms based on content and quality - sure, people who dont like stuff tend to be a little stronger in their opinions - this is called life - we are not telling people to avoid them, we are just saying why we don't like them; imagine if these same kind of standards you advocate were applied to politics - what right do we have to tell those Republicans they shouldn't support that war, starve those children, give money to those rich corporations? It's all so negative - well, some of us take jazz as seriouly as we take politics, and think that the same rigorous intellectual standards should apply -

and, btw, the problem is not just with jazz -

but if you all want to be serious about this matter - it ain't enough to say, "hey these guys are out there living the life " - so are Karl Rove and Pat Buchanan - big friggin' deal - the problem as I see it is that the whole system of how we produce and distribute and listen to music is completely outmoded - and I'm not talking about downloads/cds/lps/format wars/blue light/pooper scoopers- I mean the reasons and the way we make music, the length of performances, the way of presenting them and selling them - 45 minute sets here, a whole 2 hour concert there, three hours of Keith Jarett masturbating, 12 hours of Mehldau doing the hoky-poky - throw in Diana Krall doing the Dance of the Virgin with Elvis Costello, along with Eric Clapton on guitar - it's all become so boring that the challenge is to do it differently, to cut and paste the music into something resembling interesting art performances - so it doesn't matter how far Redman has come - he is working in a dead medium, so, from an artistic perspective, he is wasting his time and ours - this, by the way, is just my opinion, before everybody reminds me of that - but jeez I am SO BORED with jazz -

by the way, for one example, I like the Bad Plus, but what's the harm in everybody giving their opinions? don't stay away from here because of negativity - come here to see why people think the way the do, jesus h cohen, let us not be afraid of some serious and strong criticism (note to board moderators: as long as it's not about any of my CDs) -

"Bitching and moaning that Mehldau is no Monk isn't going to make Monk rise from the grave and start giving concerts again" maybe not, but it's worth a try -

Mehldau can play - hell, I remember when he was, what, 16 or 17, used to come to the Hartford jam sessions in diapers - and if Lee Konitz likes him he can't be all bad - but not too long ago I heard him play solo on some cable channel, and it was one of the most repulsive jazz performances I have ever seen - shallow, narcissistic, self absorbed, boring, offensive, annoying, cloying, silly, boring, stupid, redundant, megalomanical, repetititve, dumb, masochistic, non-symbiotic, parasitic, self-referential, and inhumane. thanks for reading.

wait 'till I start stripping to the latest Mehldau solo record

best suggestion - make it affordable - as I remember, if it's the same book I'm thinking of, it was way too expensive -

dowager lady: "I have been to the Great Wall of China. Do you know the great Wall of China?" Curley: "No, but I know a big fence in Chicago."

I used to master music for a living and Jim is right - it's mostly BS unless the cable is really crap - and I like the idea of coat hangers-

"When masters like these reach a certain level, I think they play what they WANT to play...not what YOU might necessarily want to hear. How that stacks up in a "sports" kind of what to their past doesn't even matter to them. Music ain't a competition. I'm sure Sonny played EXACTLY what he wanted to play and Kirk played EXACTLY what he wanted to play and they could probably both give a shit as to how anyone perceived it." this is as irrelevant as the lawyer's speech at the end of Caine Mutiny - I saw the Milestones all star tour (which is what that clip was) at the time - an overcrowded, musically boring waste of time - and Sonny was terrible - I hate to say, but sometimes the emperor remains naked for a long period of time -

well, I will quote my song "Goyishe World:" "just because we killed your lord - hey - it was the weekend, and we were bored"

I actually think Curley was a hipster and have named by new production company - Big Fence Productions - in his honor (from a line in an old short)

1) Joe Romano was a fine tenor player. I have him on some record, can't remember what, might even be a Xanadu "live" thing - is he still around? I also seem to recall a bootleg CD from the 1960s where he goes against Art Pepper 2) Josh Redman may not be the most interesting player, but he sure dresses nice, and he has the advertisements to prove it - 3) He gave us Brad Mehldau? Surely Mehldau, who can play, has become one of the most repulsive jazz performers in the universe - narcissistic, yech, pseudo intellectual - for this alone we should put Redman in the stockade -

I see this as the beginning of the end for Sonny - Kirk outplays him so much it's a little sad -

love Ellis in that - would like to kill Bernstein -

I haven't listened to Redman in some time, though I do remember Don Byron telling me once "he's like the guy who's the best player in your town. That's all." An apt description. and I though I was the only one who remembered Bosley Crowther...

at the risk of dumpy mama making fun of me (because I have said this before) I will use nothing but Tayo Yudens - I have burned thousands of these and mastered Devilin Tune on them - they also double as birth control devices -

well, to paraphrase someone else, I read the obits every morning - and if I'm not in 'em I go to work -

saw him in London in a Christopher Hampton play, maybe 1971 - brilliant actor -