Simon Weil

She did a really nice duo record with Hersch on JMT in the 80s called (I think) "As One". I saw this in the cutout bins a few weeks ago. It's where I came to her and is still my favourite. There's a freshness to it. I quite like her stuff since then - I mean it's all worthwhile, but I still kind of miss the promise of something I heard on "As One". The excitement of a woman just coming into her own. Simon Weil

Well...I think "the enemy is us" - in the sense that all these societies (Western) are getting more hollow, aggressive and nasty and the task for us is to reverse that. Which is easy to say. Inasmuch as it is a real, pervasive, slow descent it is hard to see how one can get a handle on it and which bit one can fight against and land real punches. But I also think it's kind of simple. I mean, what I long for is some kind of decent society. So if I feel that someone is particularly against that - like Bush is with all his million and one nasty things in the cause of a supposedly democratic world - then I'm against him. In Jazz, what I have against Marsalis is that he brings such a nasty spirit with him. I think he's like the Jazz version of Bush. Fighting nastiness is one thing, but fighting hollowness and aggressiveness is different. For that, in my opinion, you need something you really can believe in - a positive ideal. For me, it's the decent society. For other people, it'll be other things. But, I think, that's where the hollowness in society comes from - a lack of core ideals that people really believe in - not say they believe in, but do believe in. I mean once you get that, society isn't so hollow - per se, because people have things to believe in. And they're also not so aggressive because they have, on some level, an idea that there's some point to life - and they don't feel pissed off and futile and running round in circles like fruit loops. So I'm nostalgic for when decent people believed. Simon Weil

I just want to say one other thing about nostalgia. It tends to assert that the past was wonderful compared to now. Now thinking about how I related to jazz, coming up in the 70s - I always tended to think of the 50s and before as a golden age. Which in a certain sense, and compared to now, it probably is. But, then, on the other hand - there is buried in that is a sense that what was happening "now" can never be any good, really, compared to what went before. I think that is how I've felt about Jazz ever since I came up. But why? I mean - just because the whole Golden Age thing is a myth - there is no particular reason to think that the future, in Jazz or whatever else, can't compete with the past. The trouble is, if you buy into the Golden age myth, you're never going to try - because of the unexamined proposition that it can't be. That's what's wrong with nostalgia. Simon Weil

"Nostalgia never goes out of fashion". I mean if Eve hadn't eaten that apple of Free and Fusion forbidden knowledge we never would have gotten kicked out of Eden/Blues and Swinging Heaven. Oh, wimper, weep, sad, sad, sad. Bleet, bleet, bleet, bleet, bleet. Simon Weil

then what makes jazz different from other musics ? I like a lot of the things you're saying but, well...You're being too rigid. You have to leave a space for: "I don't know". Look down. Simon Weil

You can have things happening which, while they may have value and be valid in a general sense, don't really address the spiritual/emotional issues that press in on you. That's where I've been. Simon Weil

In my opinion culture has been flat for the past several years. The non-existence of interesting new Jazz musicians has been part of that. But Jazz has got a remarkably committed core audience. The music has been, and remains, relatively a deep cultural experience. In a society that doesn't want to look too deep (aka flattens culture), that's not an advantage. But things do change. Whether they change enough and in our direction remains to be seen. But, in the meantime, I think Jazz ought to do something about women. That has the potential for both increasing the core audience and tapping on a relatively unused resource of creative energy. And it would make us feel oh so moral. Simon Weil

Yeah, but the point is not that Ellison like the result but that he identified a possible mindset from which the music might have been created - and identified it as existing amongst blacks at this time. Or not. Simon Weil

Well, I mean, I don't think it's directly protest. But related....on the question of protest. This is from Invisible Man, which is later, but not much later: "I am an invisible man...I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me...I am not complaining, nor am I protesting (underlining added) either. It is sometimes advantageous to be unseen, although it is most often rather wearing on the nerves. Then you're constantly being bumped against by those of poor vision. Or again, you often doubt if you really exist...It's when you feel like this that, out of resentment, you begin to bump people back. And, let me confess, you feel that way most of the time..." The Invisible (Black) Man chooses not to protest, but instead chooses to "live in a hole...in a state of hibernation." And: "My hole is warm and full of light. Yes, full of light....Perhaps you think it strange that an invisible man should need light, desire light, love light. But maybe it is exactly because I am invisible. Light confirms my reality, gives birth to my form.." To interpret this (validly or otherwise), a man who is told by society he has no value - as blacks were told - and who is unable to protest because it is ineexpedient, needs something to convince him he is still alive - light in the darkness. In that sense, maybe, producing a new form of culture - bop - might have convinced those blacks that produced it that they were still alive, did exist, despite what the world told them. In that sense, bop might have been produced as an alternative to protesting - but, because it was produced thus, it could later have been, legitimately, picked up on as a source of Black identity. Like whites could take everything from blacks but not that. Simon Weil

Well, I don't know...This is probably BS but...Black culture hasn't historically been a written one - As I understand it. I mean much of Jazz "teaching" is word of mouth. I guess there must be newspapers, maybe recorded sermons, stuff from nascent Civil Rights type movements..But how much? I just wonder if you're not better off looking for non-written sources - I mean contemporary blues etc. (with written lyrics) which might evoke black consciousness from a different angle. Isn't it often the case of putting your resources in the right place with research? I'll stop sucking eggs. Simon Weil

On the specific point of where Ayler's technique came from...I think Don Cherry's comment, that he was conveying the spirit of the Sanctified Church, more or less fits the bill. But I do think it's more likely that his development was via R+B. I mean he played R+B as a teenager - and himself says the influence on his music is clear (Edited here). Moreover there's a record of him playing before his fully formed style where his solo style is an R+B one (He also does a Jazz style solo on a companion recording) - and etc. What seems to have happened is that, after leaving the army, he "spiritualised" his music through listening to Coltrane (he says this) - and rather "reconstituted" an religious-style sound by adding this spiritual vibe to his capabilities as an R+B player. Kind of the root from Gospel to Soul in reverse. To set against this is the fact he played sax in church as a child. On the zeitgeist stuff...it does seem like the whole changing the world vibe, chanelling grandiose powers, of the Civil Rights movement and whatever else - got into his work... I mean, the scale of it. Simon Weil

As you know, he specifically mentions Ayler as key influence (in the Kofsky interview) - and Ayler's statements back this up (to do with him sending Coltrane records etc.). If I ever get manage it, I've got an article to write on Ayler which attempts to elucidate one core element of these extended techniques. You're right, Ayler does attribute it to R+ B - but I'm inclined to think he's lessening his achievement when he does that. I mean it's vastly expanded, and it's made central, as a basis for musical expression. Simon Weil

Happy...birthday... Simon Weil

I like this quote from Martin Williams: "[Young's] temperament was not universal. Indeed one sometimes feels he was gaily gentle to the point of deliberate innocence and innocent to the point of self-delusion. Yet his musical personality is so strong that, while one is in its presence, little else exists. He did create a world in which one can believe fully, but when his personal world came in touch with the real one, we know the results might be tragic." The Jazz Tradition 1983 ed p133 In a way, then, you can say that both Hawkins and Young kept the world at bay: Hawkins a seemingly relentless juggernaut of creation - invulnerable like that - and Young creating this special little world of his. I mean, aren't seeming invulnerability and ultra-sensitivity two parts of the same thing? And what if they were both responses to the 30s? - after all that was what popular art was about then - keeping the world out. Some political philosophies too. Simon Weil

In a certain sense it does seem like Dizzy and Bird "descended from the clouds" with this stuff. I don't mean, necessarily, in a technical sense (in which regard I'm hardly qualified to comment) - but in a kind of vibe way. I mean "where did all this stuff come from?" is kind of my first response to bop, in that it just feels so very different from all that came before it in Jazz. But there is a parallel that can be made - and that's to Film Noir, also a distinctive genre within its form. It's the unease, the darkness - and, I guess, the access to strange and not terribly pleasant depths that gets me. Both of these are products of 40s (late 40s for Film Noir) America - and, because I see a parallel in them.... Well, it's kind of hard to see bop as a response to elements only occuring in black society. I know Film Noir comes about, in part, from the infusion of Expressionist elements (e.g. from 20s German cinema) and Bop also seems to involve the greater absorbion of "serious"(Like Bird liked Stravinsky) elements - and I'm just wondering if this doesn't have to do with American culture maturing (or attempting to do so) by looking at darker, deeper forces within itself. And Black people stating their case at the forefront of that. Simon Weil

I could never get on with this book (which I've got). I thought it's largely a sensibility issue - his sensibility just feels largely at odds with mine. He seems to take a sort of micro-attitude to social problems (which I agree need dealing with) - (My feeling:) missing the wood for the trees. On Allen's point about historiography. He's super on that - he's got an article that's been anthologized a couple of times (at least) which may well prove to be a real contribution (i.e lasting). But being good on critiquing the critics ain't the same as being a critic (speaking from experience). Actually his attitude to the social basis of the music reminds me of the historiographical trend that came up in the 70s, according to which everything historical was reducable to the social and economic. This is an instinctive response, but I do feel the secret of Jazz lies more in the area of Grace. I like the Proper box (not that I like Proper). Simon Weil

There's loads of good stuff in this book. At the same time it seems to lack a (moral?) centre and be overblown. Like it makes up in weight of articles what it lacks in organising intelligence. Like if this is what matters about Jazz........ Simon Weil

I think Balliett is a proper writer with a real style - the only one, really, to write about Jazz. By that I mean he is a guy with an essentially "literary" style which stands up to repeated readings. It's art, what he does - and no-one else in Jazz (that I've read) comes even close. The trouble is I think loads of people try - and don't succeed. Where there's a kind of integrity to Balliett's approach (A kind of obsession with aesthetic issues because that's where his heart is, in an interest in beauty (divorced from social content)) and he writes out of a certain coherent sensibility - other people don't. You don't need to be an artist to be a (Jazz) critic. If you're not, don't try. Balliett is. Happy days... Simon Weil

Wrong forum, but anyway. I once had a lift from a taxi driver who told me how much he loved playing the saxophone. Self taught and just did it at home. He came to it because he heard a Kenny G record. His niece heard him and was inspired to take up Jazz at college. So I guess I'd give the poster the benefit of the doubt. Simon Weil

Thanks Chris. I take your point about it not being reality. I think someone else made the same point (but from a less positive side) when they said it was full of "dramatic" moments. The thing is, Haggis clearly intended it to be an assault on the senses - a crash of a film, if you will - because of that spiel at the beginning where it's asserted that the only way people get to interact is through crashing into each other. The rest of time they're stuck in their cars - read stuck behind, I don't know, their social defenses. So, I guess, it was like a movie about the "real" interactions in society (as seen by Haggis). The other thing is the idea that movies are like life with the boring bits taken out. Haven't seen Brokeback yet. Sounds very good. Ang Lee is a fine director. For his abilities visually, Ride with the Devil, his civil war film, is a great showcase. I like tasteful, me. Simon Weil

I didn't like the movie - but I think it's a very good film. Go figure. What I mean by that is that I think it's very well made, articulates its vision well, and is just somehow dislikeable in its core. The thing that strikes me is that it evokes the idea of the world as chaos (the women choosing the blanks is a perfect example of that), just to knock it down (the choosing of the blanks turns out to be a moment of grace, saving a life). All the lives turn out to be interrelated and there is a very strong thematic undertow. The horrible thing about it is the racism, presented as inescable. The two major non-racists meet, only to have one kill the other - an antithetical moment to the moments of grace revolving around the bullets. Like I said, strong thematic undertow - basically "all human life is here", or something like. This comes about when one tries to show the other this Christian statuette (that both own) - and I have a feeling the director is a Christian and the film invokes his vision of the world is Hell (i.e. apparent chaos, held together by Christian grace). the reason I think that, is that in the Haggis script, the key moment in "Million Dollar Baby" has the heroine corrupt herself and receive immediate and terrrible retribution. Haggis is an oscar-winner. Maybe that's how Hollywood Liberals see it right now, a desparing vision. Simon Weil

Oh, I just love that movie. I am a Bresson fan (one of THE poets of cinema), but the whole way that guy got out of jail is kind of amazing. I mean, you were around at that time...So it's all about escaping from certain death. Simon Weil

Thanks Mike and Ghost. Jazzscot: I thought it might be "Well Kept Secret". Wasn't sure, though. Simon Weil

Well, I've got to vote for her as she's English! But still...wordless vocal is where I first became interested in her. But really she's a proper stylist. Light toned, quite expressive with a concept that works (deep enough to) from (I think) early ish Brit big-band avant to a nice record (under her own name) with Jimmy Rowles (one of his last). IMHO, she's the real thing. What is that Rowles record called? Simon Weil

Thanks guys, for the various nice thoughts. It was RSI, which got fairly vicious(?viscous) in January. I particularly appreciated Ghost writing to me. Unfortunately I've still got this, although some of the family tension things that seem to have played into it seem to have relented a bit - and there do seem to be some positive signs. Anyway I do have an Albert Ayler article I'd like to write (but not yet awhile...) In kind of limbo. Simon Weil