Simon Weil

I have looked through the books I've got. The only thing I can find, at all relevant, is this: Jazz In Black and White/Gerrard p77 There's an interview with Tyner in Len Lyons, The Great Jazz Pianists pub 1982 (maybe the interview's from ca 1980) - he seems undifferentiating in his musical interests as far as race goes. He also doesn't seem interested in Africanization any more. But, even on Sahara (obviously a very Afro-centred record), he uses a koto - so he can't have been that Afro-centred even during this period. Or, perhaps, black-centred. Simon Weil

This was posted to rec.music.bluenote in 2001: There's also a post from 1992 saying more or less the same thing. I'm a big fan of "Enlightenment" (The bass solo gets me every time) and also have "Sahara" and "Echoes of a Friend", both of which are good. On the black/white issue, hasn't he had the same, white, drummer for years and years? Or am I getting confused? Simon Weil

Yeah, that's worth buying, in my opinion. Not a classic, but valuable photos and the text is sound, alright. Charles Fox was a decent critic - was on BBC radio three for ca 25 years - and, in my opinion, the last proper radio Jazz crictic we've really had. Up to date with the avant-garde, knowledgeable about all the rest. Really missed. He was one of the co-authors on "The Essential Jazz Records Vol 1", which is a really dense, rich read (and recommended). He doesn't get much of a chance to stretch out here, but it's decent enough. And, yes, loads of character-full, unexpected, Wilmer photos. Abebooks (second-hand mart) has copies. Simon Weil

Oddly, I'm not a guy who forms mental images all that much when I read, Dr J. I am quite visual (used to take photos etc) but it's more the mood I get from the text. It is probably "your milage will vary" - kind of sensibility related issues - to some (even some major) extent. But I do stick to my guns - say in relation to Ridley Scott, who apparently visualises whole scenes and then transcribes them to celulloid - I do think there's some lack in production design. I mean to me the detailing on "Blackhawk Down" or "Gladiator" or "Blade Runner" or "Alien" is just so convincing. Perhaps it's unfair to compare. Simon Weil

The one great thing that Jackson has done - and it is a great thing - is transfer the book to film and make it work. I mean I was one of those people who simply didn't think it could be done. So please view my comments within the context of that. Basically I don't think Jackson is that great a film-maker. I think the production design, particularly in the first film, wobbles - and makes it difficult to achieve the kind of underlying filmic texture that would add to the cohesive sense of the movies. I didn't like the design of Rivendell and Lothlorien, in the first movie, and Treebeard and the Ents, in the second movie - at all. And because these are kind of magic zones in the work, it does take away from the magic of the movies. Liv Tyler is a realm unto herself, however. I think Jackson is much better on the human stuff - and achieves a depth and a grandeur in that. And Aragorn really helps. I think that's some fine acting there. I think that's the real strength of the movies, in the human zone, though I'm getting more impressed by Frodo as the movies go on. Gollum does work- and that eye is pretty evil. On the books, well I'm about half way through the Two Towers, reading at the pace of sludge. I just remember it more or less as I'm reading it. I never thought it was a great work, like Tolstoy or something, but it's a very good one. A bit of a modern myth that works. It has its flaws. I agree that he can be a bit didactic and the poems are skippable, but it is all of a piece and kind of magical. So... Simon Weil

Whatever these "studies" are, they aren't science. I mean, honestly, coming to some sort of conclusion on Bolden (Daniel A's link) who: 1) We don't have any records by (apart from Chuck's cylinder that is). 2) We don't have any interviews by 3) Our knowledge about is, in general, terribly lacking is just amazing. Quite apart from trying to psychoanalyze the poor guy being in appalling taste, you simply don't have any evidence to work on. It's cheap magazine journalism, sensationalist yes, dressed up. In a way, what these articles seem to do is take the old myth of Jazz being the result of black primitives and recast it as a new (attempted) myth of Jazz being the result of emotional primitives - i.e. people with psychological problems. Devious, Unpleasant. Simon Weil

I read that they were going to put out the two existing movies in the run up to the final one too. Seems like a nice idea, both marketing-wise and fan-wise. I got Two Towers a week ago. I think it's actually the more cohesive movie, of the two. They've changed the story-line significantly(from the book), which they didn't do with the first movie. I thought the first movie lacked a certain dramatic tension - which the second movie does have. All the stuff about Aragorn falling into that deep ravine and then coming back to the battle, I don't remember as being in the book but was of a piece with Gandalf coming back from his fall into the deep and the kind of moral descent to the depths that they're putting Frodo through. I don't think the movies are a patch on the book, really. They don't have its texture. But they're good fun. And, like the Philip French review said, they do have a certain grandeur. I was surprised to see how glad I was to have the characters back again. Simon Weil

Here's a review by Don Rose on the Jazz Institute of Chicago site. A google search also says there's been a review in Coda (March/April 2000). Simon Weil

Yeah, that's it. I don't remember it as being distinguished, I just kind of liked it. I have this weird sensibility where sometimes I can do the whole intellectual thing and sometimes I go for mindless rubbish. Whoops, there goes my credibility. Simon Weil

Yeah that was a good movie - and bleak. It's by Christopher Nolan, who's English and quite young. In a way the hero redeems himself at the end, which cuts down on the bleakness quotient. Before that Nolan did Memento (?sp) which was even bleaker and/or better. That was one of the more original American films of recent years. It has the guy who played the Judas-figure from the Matrix as the villain. I quite like Pacino even though he does go in for operatic-style scenery-chewing. He raises the octane of a film even while you notice how he recycles the same sorts of chewing from film to film. He was in the Mann film I mentioned. I remember his younger style as being quieter, but maybe I'm kidding myself. Imagine Pacino in Bresson film. Maybe a Besson film. Simon Weil

Yes, I remember Louis Malle saying something to that effect. The Bresson film is another monument from his most creative period. The man was creating superb austere films from 'Journal d'un Cure de Campagne', 'Pickpocket', 'Le Proces de Jeanne d'Arc', \Au Hasard Balthazar', 'Mouchette', to 'Une Femme Douce' all in a row. An amazing succession of masterpieces. Louis Malle's Lucien Lacombe is good but in the same WWII mood, I should have mentioned Joseph Losey's 'Monsieur Klein' which gave Alain Delon his best film part ever. I'm no fan of Delon but he was incredible in that gripping and (yes) bleak film. Yeah, I just love that minimalist aesthetic - a bit related to Japanese art and at the very opposite extreme to current Hollywood. I suppose the Joan of Arc film would be a natural for him and that's one I'd really like to see (actuallyown). There is something terrible compelling in the sort of texture in his movies. This is probably sacriledge (and it's not really the same because it lacks Bresson's kind of mystical thing. Michael Mann is operatic), but the slow textural detail of "The Insider" (the 1999 Hollywood movie) is compelling too. Delon's (?) a romantic lead. I saw him in a gangster movie with Belmodo once - quite liked that. My knowledge of French movies isn't good, really. King Ubu wrote: I don't think I've seen "L'argent. "Lancelot Du Lac" is really bleak and when I saw it in the 70s I thought "that's probably what the Middle Ages were really like". I think some days I just need bleak more than others. Simon Weil

I haven't seen that, or really know Malle's work, but I do seem to remember him saying that the central character is more or less that of the young boy in Bresson's "A Man Escaped", which is one of my favourite movies. In general, I really like Bresson from when I saw "Lancelot Du Lac" in the 70s. "Au Hazard Balthazar" is another I like, and I'm probably forgetting a few. I think Bresson and Kurosawa became bleak at more or less the same time, in the late 60s. I do love Kurosawa. He is evidently influenced by Western movies and I also think John Ford is great, the Cavalry Trilogy etc, etc. Actually there's a scene in "Seven Samurai" where the bandits rain down on the village from the hills which is just like the scene at the end of "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" where the calvary attack the Indian camp. Ford also got bleak towards the end, with "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", "The Searchers" etc. I think "The Searchers" is a very special film. Yes, bleak is the mot de jour. Simon Weil

It was pretty well reviewed, but on my couple of listenings, I didn't really like it. I thought it was a bit monochromatic. It does occur to me, now, that I found the "comeback" Gateway recordings (also with Dave Holland) like that, but on return listening found an awful lot going on under the surface. I think Holland and Jones are an exciting team on Joe Lovano's "Trio Fascination" and I've also got an ancient tape of a radio braodcast with them and John Surman and Albert Manglesdorf which is really good. In general, I don't think this is a particularly representative Frisell album. If you like the "post-modern" thing is Frisell, I think his duo record with Fred Hirsch is very worthwhile (though perhaps also not particularly representative). Of the more recent records, I also like Marc Johnson's "Sound of Summer Running" which couples him with Metheny to gorgeous effect. I guess I think his records for ECM are his "representative" ones. Simon Weil

Maybe this one, based around a Stephon Harris quote. Certainly has Braxton in it. Simon Weil

sidewinder, that's interesting about Dury. He certainly seemed at home wandering about before the gig, in his element. He was kind of a charismatic presence, a star, there. brownie, we could do with more people being philosophical around here! Simon Weil

You're right! Hobsbawn did write a book about Jazz. Philip gave the name. To go with Sartre, there's a bit in _American Journey_ where Camus goes to a Jazz club and enjoys it. Ahh, Jazz and philosophy. The closest we've got is Albert Murray who seems to have rewritten Adorno's view of Jazz as though it were a good thing (in my opinion). I've got a copy of the correspondence between Adorno and Benjamin and I seem to remember Benjamin going along with Adorno's view of Jazz, so you're going to have to convince me he actually liked it. Still, I think we could do with some really good Jazz philosophers. Course, once you do that, the old Anglo-American distrust of intellectuals is going to wake up. On the other hand, I once saw Ian Dury at an Old and New Dreams concert. Simon Weil

Interesting. I picked up *Jewels* over the weekend and find it to be as strong as some of the others on Impulse. But yet, the *Penguin Guide* dismisses it completely, and I don't quite understand why. There is a magazine review Richard Cook did of the Olantunji (sp?) concert where he basically disses the hell out of Sanders' style. Cook is one of the Penguin Guide authors and I think there may be unacknowledged sensibility issues behind some of the reviews therein. I think a lot of people have problems with Sanders' scathing spiritual energy style. Simon Weil

In the UK there are TV programs which specialize in taking these sort of guys to task in the court of public opinion. Perhaps CDstreet might also be like that. At any rate, while you would not get your money back, you might get some satisfaction. The CEO with $1.9m does sound like "a story" from the journalistic point of view. Even if TV programs aren't interested, perhaps journalists might be. I mean it'd be good to get the word out about these guys. Maybe CDstreet is too small for that. Simon Weil

I think it's common to see inclusiveness in Society as a core good (I mean like a plural society) and I think people tend to carry that over into music. I do think that accounts for some of the popularity of world musics etc.. i.e. It isn't strictly musical what is going on. I catch that in myself sometimes. On the general issue, if he wants to say that popular music has declined in technique as a result of eclectism, I think that's BS. I mean you can play Johnny B Goode with three chords and get on stage and get people dance along with you - and that has nothing to do with eclectism, and was happening more than 30 years ago. My general feeing is that technique has improved in art/culture (say photography) over the last 20 years. The problem is people have less new to say. Maybe musicians get more eclectic in their attempt to find something new to say. I think there's truth in that. And maybe listeners do that to, in their desire to hear new stuff (and not be bored). But I'm not sure that a musician's technique is any the worse for it (I mean he's got all these new complexities to grasp). "Science has shown..." This is a bit of cod psychology he's pulled out of the air. Simon Weil

Apparently there is a little group of politicos at Westminster. I did hear Clarke on JazzFM (when they still played a fair amount of Jazz) once, and he was pretty entertaining. Played some Coltrane if I remember right. I wasn't actually at Jenny Agutter's table, and perhaps I shouldn't have said gig - more like concert. It was at the QEH and she was just standing there having a drink (?wine) and chatting away. I think I would have melted if I'd have opened my mouth (or put my foot in it). So I just kept it shut and smiled at her. Simon Weil

Jenny Agutter (star of The Railway Children, saw her at a gig once). Spike Milligan (played trumpet) Kenneth Clarke (ex UK chancellor of the Exchequer) [From the UK] Simon Weil

I think Harold Z nails it when he says: I mean, I think people like Ben Webster and T-Bone are obviously related. On the other hand I don't think you can really call James P. Johnson a blues player (although there's a vibe in there which does kind of fit him into the continuum thing.) - And he's a sort of primal Jazz pianist. Other than that I respond lot of pre-electric blues and T-Bone Walker but am not really keen on electric guitar urban blues. And never really got into mainstream rock of the Cream sort (which is evidently related to black electric blues). Do like Hendrix, but he's very much sui generis. A lot of Euro-Jazz isn't blues-based - it adds another dimension to the continuum. Simon Weil

As a general thing, there is a set of people who don't like losing but aren't terribly good at arguing either. So what they do is drag the discussion into abuse. That way they can bat away at the posters who post content-rich stuff until they knock them out of the way. Thus they "win". I've seen that happen, unendingly, on rec.music.bluenote, which is now merely a shell of what it was. Like I implied previously, the sort of posters you get here are going to do their abuse in such a way that no particularly unpleasant example will appear. They aren't going to take the chance on having their "fun" curtailed by getting themselves ejected. What they will rather do is raise the temperature gradually and continually. You still get dragged into abuse, just more slowly and insidiously. The whole idea of asking these people to be civil is a no-no. They just take it as an opportunity to be more devious and underhand. Call me cynical. Simon Weil

I would censor it. I mean, with all moderators there's a threshold level at which a thread just becomes unacceptable - and, for me, this tit-for-tat nasty picture posting passes that. In general, I think it's hard to effectively stop determined people who, let's say, appear to stay more or less within bounds, while posting in a needling or manipulative or otherwise aggressive spirit that impacts negatively on those surrounding them. Let's say those people who play by the rules, but not by the spirit of the game. It's hard to get rid of such perpetrators, but one can send them to Coventry. Simon Weil

I've got "The Restful Mind" and "Lady Coryell" and like both of them for, I don't know, the way Coryell plays within the distinctive, introspective vibe. "Spaces" seemed to me a kind of supercharged/hypercharged "supersession" and I was never really very keen on it. Actually, my favourite Coryell record is the one he did with Emily Remler (just the two of them). Lovely, in my opinion. Simon Weil