AllenLowe

Gene Barry from Burke's Law? I missed that. I did enjoy the film - it just gets spoiled by the fact that in films like this I feel that the script writers are taking lazy short cuts, as though the audience is too dumb to realize - but than, scripts are usually written by committee, so probabably the writers (and Spielberg) were too dumb to notice - as for Cruise, I think he's become a very good actor -

not a problem Chris - I'd be happy to re-do the whole thing, but for some reason Sony and Phil are not asking...

thanks - it takes a little work, but CEDAR is a powerful and user-friendly tool. It also helps to understand EQ and, last but not least, you need a reliable set of monitors -

too many inconsistencies and too much ill-logic - right at the beginning Cruise stands around and watches the city destroyed around him while his kids are alone in the house - no parent would stand and watch - every one would head for the house and the kids - at the end - when the aliens get sick and die - why are the shields non-functional? They are not susceptible to illness, even a sick alien can push a button to activiate - and, how the hell did the son get to Boston, and why is a major city area like the ones his in-laws are in untouched? Also, when they intially get to his ex-wife's house - 1)why is the door open and the lights on? And 2) why do they need to eat the food they brought with them and why, having refused that food, do his kids remain hungry? Woulddn't the house be well stocked? Spielberg is a great filmmaker but this script, while not as bad as Sgt Ryan, shows that brawn still comes before brains in his movies -

I think that Junk presentation refers to a Chinese jazz cruise - but back to the subject - what Eldridge does the Mosaic cover?

Chris - you really ought to publish a jazz scrapbook, along the lines of the Condon book-

there's a cut from a Savoy collection, '46 or '47, that's incredibly modern, must have been a big influence on Rollins - I'll have to look up the citation -

I enjoy the give and take, not a problem ever for me- and no, I never did hear Taylor with Frank Wright- did they ever record it?

well, Pepper was strung out to the end - contary to the official story he was taking large amounts of cocaine, supplementing it with methadone when he could pass the urine test - so it's not surprising to see him strung out at this time. Pepper was really hung up, for the last 15 or so years of his life, with sounding "contemporary" - to the end he would alternate sublime playing with fake Coltrane-isms and the occasional pointless squeal, as though that showed he had kept up with the times. This is all just my opinion, but his ballad playing got more and more maudlin as well - all part of a pervasive junkie narcissism, as I see it. And yet - I heard him 4 or 5 times post-1976 and there were some still-brilliant moments - and he was probably the greatest clarinetist I ever saw -

I don't care if this one is co-sponsored by the the Aryan Nations - get it - fascinating early Dylan, recorded when he still had a great singing voice, and a great snapshot of an absolutely masterful performer before he was corrupted by illusions of his own genius -

just go to the yellow pages and start calling 'em up -

Personally I can never get enough of "Feelings..."

well done - that's what we used to call a shi*-filled twinkie - very friendly-looking on the outside but filled with something we would rather avoid injesting -

actually, Phil doesn't like anyone else making up stuff when he has plenty of new things to tell us -

sorry, Jim, I'm going to have to do some thinking - can't remember right now - and I like Joe Manieri - look, Steve, periodically people complain here about lack of civility - I simply expressed my opinion and you got a bit nasty, let's face it; Jim and I disagree all the time, and he, at least, has perfected a civilized manner of telling me he thinks I'm full of shi* - your tone was really unnecessary, and I say this as one chastened from my own recent excesses - so go stick it -

it's also a little bit like hearing Bush give a human rights speech - good speech, but I just can't forget all those dead Iraqui civilians - or, with Hemingway, that severely wounded song form -

it's a little like admiring Jackson Pollack but remembering when you used to be in his art class and he couldn't draw a human figure (and here's where Steve jumps up and says, HA! got you, Allen, because Pollack COULD draw representationally! and then, here's where I say, no, smart one, I got YOU - because Pollack COULD draw representationally) -

and yes, guys, this is my problem, not yours, so feel free to listen to as much Hemingway as you like - just don't hire him to play your kid's bar mitzvah (the guests will lynch him - ever try to dance to havah nagila while the drumme'rs playing in 3/4 and than 5/4?)

hey Steve, if you want to keep behaving like an asshole, that's fine, but I will continue to discuss this with others on this forum - and I did not dismiss Hemingway out of hand - just said it was troubling, and it is troubling, schmuck (there, we have finished exchanging insults) - there's a difference here - Julius knew what he could do and what he could not do and worked with his strengths - Hemingway, Jim, wasn't missing the form, but could not keep the straight 4, kept turning it around - and worse, unlike Hemphill, he had NO IDEA he was goofing or struggling - I don't care how great he sounds, on other things - this is basic jazz ed. 101- and somewhat pathetic for an established player, especially since he was so clueless - his playing is fine (if a bit dead-sounding to my ears) - he's entitled to his style and preferences - but there's lot of drummers who are more musical and play, to my ears, much more interestingly - and who can hear the difference between 2 and 3-

than thanthanthanthenethenethentehhenr - take your pick -

I think it's a matter of many things, including conditioning - put an old bebopper in an open situation and you might see them become musically paralyzed (as I have also seen with some great musicians) -

thanks - I never could get that right - and I've written 4 books -

well, than, let's not forget : Strangers in the Fuckin' Night (in 5/4) -

I was only pointing out a problem I had with Hemingway - maybe the problem is, if you can't perform well in a certain style, you should not do it - but a gig is a gig and sometimes musicians will do it for the money - though I'm willing to bet, put Hemingway behind Lovano playing Body and Soul and he'll be lost before the bridge. Now, I don't complain that, say, Monk couldn't play like Glen Gould - but if he tried to play those Goldberg Variations, he would have done it right or not at all. Free playing can mask a lot of problems particular players have (I say this from personal experience and won't name any names beside my own), but I have played with some well-known people whose difficulties with certain aspects of the music might really surprise (and dismay) you - look, ok, I'll fess up briefly - Julius Hemphill was the most amazing musician I ever met, but, on a session, I learned that you don't give him a set of standard changes to play over and than expect him to do what he does best - I was surprised to discover I did it better than he did - but than, as a composer and "open" player, I am not in his league. So calm down Steve, I got in a lot less trouble on this forum for being more polite to fellow Organissimmo members than you were in that rather nasty post -

if we talk about standards in the old sense than we have to think of the form - sometimes AABA, sometimes not - and the styles of triadic harmonies, the typical ideas of chord movment, and and see if musicians really have the feeling for that anymore. Few do, for better or worse - those standards, and the older jazz players who wrote their own, arose at a time when the pop music of the day was relatively harmonically complex - you just don't hear new pop tunes like All the Things You Are or You Go To My Head, or Like Someone in Love or Darn That Dream or Now That You're Gone on the radio anymore. Perspective changes; with all music you've really got to hear it all the time in your head it before you can play or write it with conviction, it's got to be part of your life, socially and psychologically, most likely, before you can do it well - it's the same reason that so much contemporary bebop falls flat - it lacks that initial sense of freshness and discovery, the sense of musicians who were truly JUST THAN discovering and mastering the form.