AllenLowe

thanks - it's a little weird that the review posted never mentions that -

is he still alive? I thought he died -

wel, maybe a few - but where's Andre Previn?

I'm sorry, but not one of those guys is listed as one of the top 50 jazz pianists of all times, at least according to the top jazz minds -

by the way, just to get some perspective here - Hal Leonard rejected my book on 1950s jazz, even though the editor recommended it, because his boss said it was about "has beens and never was" - (note that it includes Mingus, Gil Melle, Paul Bley, Teddy Charles and many others) -

so negative, boys - I hope Roger Williams is on the list - me and Sal were listening to him just the other day -

let's see - top jazz minds: Scott Yanow Kenny G Stanley Crouch Leslie Gourse Allen Lowe Sal well, I think that gets all of them -

isn't "top jazz minds" an oxymoron? just kidding really, as I'm trying to be less negative today (as I caught some flack yesterday for pooping on a thread) - look at the good side - at least he mentions Al Haig, I seem to recall (unless I am mistaken) -

yes - how my heart sings! it has wings - and these are only a few of my favorite things...

I'm feeling so positive today -

and the goose step of local Nazis -

rampaging visogoths -

and nails on a blackboard -

on behalf of Sal, let me say that you are welcome - and I still don't like Dexter Gordon - but I do like children and small animals - and walks on the beach, and sunsets in the summer - the moon on a winter night, the sound of sea spray in the wind - and the smell of napalm in the morning -

I like the duet CD with Braxton -

and let's look at reality - the only thread, recently, that I recall, in which I disagreed with praise for the subject, was Dexter Gordon - can you name a few more? I'm getting old and I tend to forget -

well, it does ask what "you" (or I, in this case), recommend. Just trying to help. I figured you guys are tired of reading nothing but good reviews in all the standard jazz mags. Sometimes it helps to have a second opinion. You should not fear this - and I'm sure Mario would agree - if you want happy talk, you should be reading the fan mags -

I tend to like Zorn best when he is dealing with non-original material-

remember, also, how much education is oriented towards standardized tests and the expectation that certain levels will be reached - this greatly restricts what teacher are allowed to do; "leave no child behind" has had a particular impact on this, preventing creativity and using false standards of evaluation.

and why is that?

I think it has Roy Eldridge on trumpet -

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 -