AllenLowe

I would suggest another bassist -

I actually think there is much more to this than just poor public education - in the last few years I've been listening more and more to alternative rock and roll and so-called new folk, as well as a lot of contemporary new music in general - I, myself, am working on several music projects in which I am writing songs with actual lyrics in them. One thing that has struck me, in everone from Jeff Tweedy to your average folkie, is how badly they all use language. Their sense of poetics is poor and warped, with awkward rhymes and poorly set up thematic transitions, bad hooks and cloddish symbolism. To me this has only a little to do with public education, as it sucked when I ws young also - one learns most of these things (and I mean not only language but about intellectual history and world events), IMHO, not from school but from independent examination and the reading of books and documents from newspapers to magazines. THIS is what has really declined - I have often told my wife that we suffer from a post-literate generation. Much as I love television, it has contributed geatly to this, as has the proliferation of independent recording. This ties, as well, into my recent complaints about the very empty formalism of a lot of new music - 1)it is based on a fetishization of process, as opposed to a synthesis of process and substance and 2) it reflects the work of musicians who know little history or literature, but mostly other contemporary musicians. It is similar to the poor state of independent film, highly touted as that form is. Most of these filmmakers know Tarantino and little else; they need to see Antonioni and Renoir, they need to read Proust and Beckett, but their works exists in a "contemporary" vacuume.

I could tell you about a few - but than I would have to kill each and every one of you -

someone posted it a few weeks back - brilliant article - nails the whole vocal situation -

1) it was not suicide because of what the police were able to determine was the distance from which the shot was fired 2) there were personal conflicts with someone to whom which Jaki was close - but that's all I'll say - there were tons of rumors - the police also believed it was someone Jaki knew because there were no signs of a struggle or break in -

as far as I know, there is nothing new, though there is one person who was and is considered to have been the likely shooter (I will not mention the name because the evidence is anecdotal and because of law suit possibilities) - I talked to Jaki about 2 weeks before the murder, and though some have mentioned that he was quite depressed and that it may have been a suicide, this is not likely. The police have said that the wound could not have been self-inflicted because of the ballistics info; when I talked to Jaki he actually seemd a bit better than he had been, though he was still grieving for his wife, who had died of cancer. Jaki was a great man and a genius.

interesting thing about the verse and the melody to Stardust - as someone else once pointed out, both sound very much like something that might have been improvised by Bix Beiderbecke, who was, indeed, a very great personal influence on Carmichael at this time -

my favorite is the verse to Tea For Two -

actually he was playing the Door's tune, The End -

I am about 7 and 1/3 in dog years -

this is not a musician, but quite a funny story about dying on-stage - the head and founder of Rodale Press, James Rodale, was on the Dick Cavett show talking about the company, which basically made its fortune with books and publications about organic gardening, and which advocated all kinds of self-health and natural cures. He had just said, on-air, "I'm so healthy that I expect to live on and on," when - guess what? He dropped dead of a heart attack -

maybe not, but it helps if everyone's strung out and cranky -

just did a little research - Tiny Tim did not die the first time he collapsed on-stage, but three months later at ANOTHER gig - my friend - Joel Eckhaus - was playing uke at the first performance - there's actually a video tape of the incident -

it is interesting, because I've heard Jackie McLean complain that he felt the junkie musicians were taken advantage of, doing lots of quick sessions to get the money to feed the habit - of course, it works both ways, as these musicians were probably happy to go in, play the music, and get the money. Fortunately it coincided with a period of time when the music was fresh and creative - though I'm always amused by the take in one of Jackie's sessions where everything breaks down and they all start arguing. Dealing with junkies takes it's toll -

aarrgh - musical piracy. I don't like CDRs, as they will not, ultimately, last, in all liklihood. If I want something and I think it's important I'll probably buy it. (though I do have a vast CDR collection of the Nessa label ) all seriousness aside, if I can't get it commercially I would think it's ok to copy - bootlegs are bootlegs, but the reality is that our understanding of jazz and its history would be about half of what it is without them -

however, Abe Lincoln died on stage - and I don't mean the trombonist -

let's not put down Tiny Tim, who actually had a remarkable repertoire of American song - and he did not die on stage. He had his first heart attack on stage (a friend of mine was actually playing in his accompanying band) but he died a few months later -

I know thst Schlitten was definitely a "hands on guy," suggesting tunes, themes, ideas, musicians -

"The Keno twins" the doublemint twins the aesop brothers The Fender Twin

strange thing, too, is that I recently heard a bad vocal version on BET jazz by a bad singer with even different lyrics - also, I figure you mean that Zawinul wrote the tune -

around here, it's usually crappy musicians working a GOOD gig - actually, maybe it's crappy musicians working crappy gigs...

sorry - just being a wise guy (I would say wise ass, but that would be a bit much) -

sure, why not -

I'm not sure I want my ass blown from the piano - actually I'm not sure what that means, exactly -

let's not forget the Buckingham's version of Mercy Mercy - probably made Cannonball (at least I hope) a fair amount of cash - I don't know who wrote the lyrics -