Simon Weil

So change the equation. Make them see it as art - and not just art, but some of the greatest and most substantial art of this era. Which is what it is. Then they'll be stuck. Simon Weil This reminds me of the old argument of the upper crust that aiming for an egalitarian society is ludicrous; we should be trying to raise the working classes into the upper crust. Yeah, they meant that too. The term 'Art' is a means of exclusion. Well look, Bev. Jazz was produced, invented by American blacks. About as lower class as you can get. You don't have to raise nothing to nothing. All you've got to do is demonstrate that the stuff produced by these people, and others who have followed in their wake, is just as good as stuff produced in other forms. If the word "art" sticks in your craw, don't use it. The 60s is when the current period for Visual Art begins (more or less). Jazz since the beginning of the 60s is much more interesting, profound etc than visual art. Just because a bunch of public school guys run the art council doesn't mean you can't beat them at their own game. Unless despair is in your system. Simon Weil

So change the equation. Make them see it as art - and not just art, but some of the greatest and most substantial art of this era. Which is what it is. Then they'll be stuck. Simon Weil

I think the question of women may be important for the future of Jazz. It is telling that so few women turn up on these internet boards/usenet discussion groups, whereas plenty seem to turn up to concerts. Evidently Jazz playing has been very much an activity for men and it remains rather difficult for women to make it to the top. To me this seems basically social , and I rather think the same obtains in these discussion groups and in Jazz collecting as well. Yet women do have an interest in Jazz, as evidenced by their appearance at concerts - and there is no real reason why, for example, a majority of leading figures in Jazz shouldn't be women. Simply in terms of numbers (there being as many women as there are men), you could look to a doubling of the Jazz CD buying audience if these social barriers were removed. And having key, central figures in Jazz who were women would doubtless also help. And there's the burst of energy you'd get from an influx of new people. Simon Weil

I've never heard it referred to like that in the UK. But, evidently, it used to be. For, amongst other things, a google search brought up this: That was written 1911. Maybe the loss (or impending loss) of Empire gave us a different perspective. Kipling was "an icon of Empire". It'd be interesting to know when the change took place. Simon Weil

rec.music.bluenote is a usenet/newsgroup discussion group, which is archived by google in its "groups" section. If you go to: Google advanced group search Type rec.music.bluenote into the newsgroup box and whatever else you're interested in into the other boxes... For example, I typed " Albert Ayler" in where it says "exact phrase" and got ...this..... Have fun. Simon Weil

I have an old copy of the Musichound Guide, which is what I use to for a first sketch. I do also have a whole bunch of other things, including various versions of the Penguin, which I do check things with. Plus there's things like the google archives of rec.music.bluenote, which is a source I use relatively frequently. I never did take to the allmusic guide - finding it lacking a distinctive voice which would enable me to judge its recommendations against - and, as I have said in different ways on other venues, I don't really trust the Penguin. The Musichound is not wonderful, but I feel at home with it. The rec.music.bluenote archives are a useful resource. Simon Weil

It's .....here..... Mny. Thanks... Simon

Yeah, I had my one of those a couple of years ago...AND I managed to mangle my computer by overdoing the deletion process. Not an experience I'm ever liable to forget. .. For about a year (starting some months after the above) I got emails with attachments to my alternate email address (associated with my website on Wagner's antisemitism). None of them came from addresses I recognised - and at least some were forged for sure. Maybe I got 50, I can't remember, a lot. I concluded very soon that someone was trying to mess me up. In a way it became amusing - because NO WAY was I going to open them after the experience I'd had before and someone was expending energy in sending me the damn things. The guy seems to have stopped now... Anyway, I definitely learn from this sort of thing...The hard way. Simon Weil

Well, Frisell has a particular sensibility which doesn't appeal to everybody. It didn't appeal to me for a long time (at least not on record. The first time I ever heard him was as featured soloist [i think] with the Mike Gibbs band [?late 70s] when he played scorchingly). There is something sideways and post-modern about his playing which put me off, until I decided I ought to listen anyway. And now I like it a lot. I read that Jazzwise review. I thought it was written on auto-pilot. Man, everyone thinks they have open ears (even me). Simon Weil

I've got this. Though I've only listened to it a couple of times, it seems to me mellow and sweet. A grower, I think. Maybe sweeter than before. I like it. Simon Weil

This concept will self-destruct in ten seconds. Simon Weil

Weil is German for "because". It's also the name of various villages there. My favourite origin myth (?) is that when Napoleon conquered Germany, he ruled that all Jews had to have their second (aka Christian) names written down. There were too many Levi's, so some became Veil's (anagram) and Weil's (near anagram). I guess the renamed Jew could then say "warum"? (why [the change]?), and the official making it could go "weil" (because). Also, I'm S.A. Weil. The first bit of that S.A. works out as "essay" when spoken ... essai in French...or try. so I'm "try, because". I always thought I was named after Simone Weil, famous French philosopher, also S. A. Weil. Her "A" is Adolphine, mine is Anthony. Thankful for small mercies. My mother denies this is so, but I don't believe her. Simon Weil

The following are available here. Living the Jazz Life. Conversations with 40 musicians about their careers in jazz. W.R. Stokes. Oxford, 2000. (£20.00) Sale price £3.99 Myself When I am Real. The life and music of Charles Mingus. Gene Santoro. Oxford, 2000. (£17.99) Sale price £5.99 Lost Chords. White Musicians and their Contribution to Jazz, 1915-1945. R.M. Sudhalter. Oxford, paperback, 1999. (£22.50) Sale price £4.99 The Thelonius Monk Reader. Edited Rob van der Bliek. Oxford, 2001. (£22.50) Sale price £5.99 Clifford Brown. The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter. Nick Catalano. Oxford, 2000. (£17.99) Sale price £4.99 Louis Armstrong in His Own Words. Edited by Thomas Brothers. Oxford, paperback, 2001. (£14.99) Sale price £3.99 Trumpet Blues. The Life of Harry James. P.J. Levinson. Oxford, 1999. (£20.00) Sale price £3.99 Some good stuff there. Simon Weil

Yeah, I think Allen was Catholic and really had it in for the church. He *was* really good. The longer I think about it, the more good TV shows there seem to have been over the years, but somehow I seem to have burnt out on that stuff - or maybe things are worse now. At any rate I hardly watch TV at all nowadays. I thought Fry and Laurie were pretty good also. The show I did actually end up rolling (literally) around on the floor laughing to was the last ever Faulty Towers. The one with the "great siberian hamster" - Manuel's idea of Basil the rat (the name of the show). This had, on the one hand, said rat - and on the other, a government health inspector. You just knew that, sooner or later, rat and inspector would meet - and the whole interest and tension of the show was just how and when. I think it's absolutely marvellously constructed (in retrospect) - something like a piece of classical music. The denoument was such a combination of funny and painful, I literally couldn't stay on my chair and ended up rolling around on the floor, hitting it repetitively and laughing in my pain. Only time I've ever experienced anything like that. Simon Weil

Monty Python, Faulty Towers, Dr Who, Hill Street Blues, The Sullivans (Australian soap) ...Also I loved the combination of music and visuals in the credit sequence at the beginning of Hawai Five O. Simon Weil

John L wrote: No, you're being too easy on Piazza. He's patronising about Ayler in his history. On primitivism, check the reference I gave if you want. BruceH wrote: Can't see why. John L wrote: I haven't actually seen Crouch do it. Murray and Marsalis do. People expect the Lincoln Center mob - and particularly Crouch - to take these sorts of "outrageous" positions. Piazza and Gioia - not so. They aren't supposed to be "extremists", certainly not Gioia. That's why it's important that they do. They don't explicitly say that listening to Ayler if you're white means you want blacks to be noble savages, but the way they structure the debate across, sometimes, a number of writings ends up pointing in that direction (certainly if you write - or think - about Ayler fundamentally in terms of emotion they'll accuse you of that.). It's hard to dig out - and to do it you'd have to write articles. Which I'm thinking about. Probably someone ought to do it. Simon Weil

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you Usual Channels. My attention must been elsewhere (it must have been). Actually, I'm in the process of researching the stuff. I may write something at some point.... Check out: Ted Gioia in Jazz and the Primitivist Myth (in The Imperfect Art) Tom Piazza in Blues up and Down (in the collection of the same name) Martha Bayles interview (online but not a great example) The Lincoln Center lot (Murray and Marsalis) also do it. Simon Weil

I think New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture, 1965-1975 by William L. Van Deburg is a pretty solid treatment as far as it goes. My problem with that, and other books I've seen on the subect, is that they don't seem to deal with the violence in a comprehensive way. I have the impression that this is one of America's unresolved problems from the 60s (from across the Atlantic and 35 years later). I'd be interested in recommendable books on this subject too. Simon Weil

I just listened to this. Very nice. Thanks, Bev. Simon Weil

The show is actually on (according to both the BBC and my newspaper listings) at 8.00 PM UK time. That's ca 2hours and 10 minutes after this message goes up. Simon Weil

Could the Organissimo Forums be next!?! Well, send Jazzwise a CD and they might review it...(not sure if Organissmo is up Jazz Review's street. Nice CD BTW.)... Jazzwise Publications Ltd. 2b Gleneagle Mews Ambleside Avenue London SW16 6AE UK While I'm at it - and veering completely off-topic - if you feel like sending freebies across the Atlantic, there's a guy called Peter Young at JazzFM (terrible station, great DJ) who does kind of Soul into Jazz shows and does have a taste for Organ Jazz (e.g. Jimmy McGriff's "The Worm" was his sig for a long time). Peter Young Jazzfm Radio 102.2 London 26 Castlereagh Street London W1 UK And now back to our scheduled ... Simon Weil

I bought "North Star Grassman' when it came out. It's a dark record, in my opinion - kind of unrelenting and monochromatic in that way, and for that reason flawed. I've never owned Fotheringway, though I've heard it. I think it's a good record, though not quite up to the best of Fairport. Strictly speaking Fotheringway was a group (but this is nit-picking). I do think the last two Sandy records are "produced", but for me there's something in them to bring them up to more or less the same level as her other records. I agree with Bev that there was something good in all her stuff. I did see her live (with kind of folk-rock backing) in her last year - and she still had that voice (also in my opinion), so that whatever her production style, it still seemed like the core of her sensibility remained untouched. God knows how she'd have dealt with the 80s though. Actually the record I like of hers the best is more or less a pure folk record which came out on Saga records (recorded 1967) and cost me 60p. I don't know easily available it is on CD. I don't know that I'd ever describe her as fresh-voiced. There is tremendous, unrestrained melancholy power on some of the stuff on the Saga record - kind of breathtaking and majestic on some of it. I think freshness is only part of it. She could still sing later on. Simon Weil P.S. I now see that Amazon.co.uk has the Saga record under the title "The Original Sandy Denny " on Mooncrest.

Yeah, she fell down stairs at home. Tragic. Not made any less so by the fact she'd just had her first child. "Most accidents occur in the home". Not a "rock death", anyhow. I think her Fairport stuff is the best, at least in terms of consistency. All her solo records are worthwhile, but don't overall reach the level of, say, Unhalfbricking. I've got the box set (LP version) of her stuff - and I think that's more satisfactory than any of her individual records - contains music from all sorts of places (incl. Fairport natch). I remember being torn up about her death. Simon Weil

Simon Weil Interesting. I suppose it was only a matter of time. I'm not sure that the "Douglas matter" is grounds for dismissal; after all, I've seen some wicked reviews and other negative articles in jazz magazines that went almost as far. This will no doubt be more fuel for Stanley's fire. My impression, from reading the discussions about Crouch's Jazztimes articles (I don't get the mag) is that he didn't have a lot new to say - and to make up for that, was saying it at the top of his voice. In terms of content, yup, it was just a matter of time. Maybe the reaction to the Douglas article concentrated JT's mind. Simon Weil P.S. In terms of adding to Crouch's fire, my view is that Wynton's (and thus Crouch's) moment has passed. Sure he'll get pissed off, but nothing will come of it. Hurray!

"Quality of ear"!!! Chuck's reply was much appreciated and fair comment,but Simon this ear quality thing sure does sound like an elitist concept.We like what we like for a variety of reasons and as Chuck pointed out communication(taste) is a very personal thing as in how we like to be communicated to(and vice versa),but better "ears",sorry but I don't think that was what he was getting at.My basic aural hardware handles Ayler to Metheny and plenty of points in between depending what mood I'm in-once you get into someone's taste(and judgement) is better the more rarefied it is then you're in elitist territory in my book. In my opinion, Chuck's ear is better than mine. Simon Weil