Michael Weiss

Zorn's SC recording was IMHO the epitome of bad taste. A "cynical parody" is exactly what it sounded like to me. And I love Cecil Taylor, Jimmy Lyons, Marshall Allen, etc. But I never heard them do a similar number on someone else's music like Zorn in this case. I love Archie Shepp playing Ellington. I can even appreciate, albeit in a very warped kinda way, Sun Ra playing Fletcher Henderson. Maybe you misunderstood me Chuck – About my problem with the tastes of those in jazz journalism, I don't place the blame on John Zorn personally. With very few exceptions, most jazz critics writing today just don't appreciate or understand the kind of melodic invention in music like Sonny Clark's or Hank Mobley's. That said, you see Zorn's treatment of SC getting 5 stars, while those who can really play the shit out of those tunes AND put their own thing on it will go right over their heads.

It doesn't make any more sense to me, nor is it any more appealing, than the Dukes of Dixieland covering A Love Supreme. I'm not very good at articulating what I'm trying to say but you get the idea: Zorn's cynical parody of Sonny Clark music in the late 1980s was a pivotal recording for the jazz media's flaunting and celebration of their ignorance and total lack of understanding or appreciation of bebop or hardbop, more or less dooming any artists honestly and authentically working within that idiom to the bottom of the review stack.

http://www.lmaweb.com/wlacpast.html Livestock Auctioneer World Champs Put a rhythm section behind these guys. Actually they ARE a rhythm section unto themselves.

See my modified post.

Anybody else see this today (mid afternoon). First talked (a long time - relatively) about new technology, then somehow tied that in with why jazz is good for the world, education, etc. with a bit of self-congratulating along the way (certainly not undeserved). Played Maiden Voyage and Dolphin Dance solo. Must give it up, he's still got it.... Link here

I can already smell the garlic chicken from Versailles Restaurant. There are two locations both within a ten minute drive from LAX. Anyone up for going Friday evening?

Does anyone remember the episode where there's a box of "Jackie McLean Pizza" on the table? I saw this flash by in about a tenth of a second.

This has been a proud piece of my vinyl collection since college. Used to play the title track on gigs with Pookie Johnson and Al Kiger. Harold Vick and Blue got the feelin'. Blue's vibrato - soulsville.

Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. The winners are: 1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs. 2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained. 3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach. 4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk. 5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent. 6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown. 7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp. 8. Gargoyle (n.), olive-flavored mouthwash. 9. Flatulence (n.), emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller. 10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline. 11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam. 12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists. 13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist. 14. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms. 15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), (back by popular demand ): The belief that, when you die, your Soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there. 16. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men. The Washington Post's Style Invitational also asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year's winners: 1. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future. 2. Foreploy (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid. 3. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period. 4. Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high. 5. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it. 6. Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late. 7. Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness. 8. Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.) 9. Karmageddon (n): It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer. 10. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you. 11. Glibido (v): All talk and no action. 12. Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly. 13. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web. 14. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out. 15. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating. And the pick of the literature: 16. Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

What is the gigging ratio of piano sucks and good instrument properly maintained?. That all depends where you work. The more high-profile clubs will have better instruments, but not necessarily real good ones. The Vanguard happens to have an excellent Steinway B. There really are too many variables to give a simple answer. A piano can be well maintained and still suck!

I've worked there a few times, with Cecil Payne and Frank Wess. Small jazz room in back of the bar. If you're interested in hearing what Bill Lee is up to, I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to go up there to catch him. Piano sucks, but that's the only serious downside. Let us know how it was.

I never played with Freddie Hubbard. But I worked a lot with Art Farmer and before that Bill Hardman. Don't know how Freddie's doing. I saw him in NYC at a conference last January and he seemed fine. I didn't hear him play. I think he lives in LA, no?

I'll be playing with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra there on Saturday.

My LP says "Live in Montreux" My favorite moment on this record is how Gilmore plays the melody to "Lights On a Satellite." In those days, the way they'd play it live, while Gilmore played the melody on the bandstand, the other reed players would play the harmonized background on flutes while walking around the room.

Was just listening to JMac's Hipnosis 2ferLP, which lists "Blues For Jackie" composer unknown. Sounds obviously like KD to me. Maybe this was credited in later editions.

Is Zawinul a Barry-ofile or what.

Playing... alto

Our Beaujolais of choice. He also makes a very nice and reasonably Chardonnay. Tonight with duck confit it's a Pomerol - Chateau Bourgneuf 2001.

WTF!

Santa Duc's vieilles vignes Cotes du Rhone 2001

Sure enough...In any Wayne interview there's a gem of a quote: "Art comes first—the Baby, save the Baby!"

If I'm free I'll try to catch you in the neighborhood at Bar 4.

Since forming his present quartet in 2000 (2001?), obscuring the role of the soloist seems to be precisely Wayne's intent. Wayne and Herbie's duets are great examples of this as are the earliest versions of Weather Report. There seems to be more give and take in the dominant/subdominant roles (soloist/accompanist?). But don't be fooled - there's more structure than meets the ear! – at least the first few listenings. (Scores do help.) This reminds me of a tangentially related story: I went to the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, NY in December 1977 for a ten-day "intensive" with the Art ensemble of Chicago. Needless to say, I was a little conflicted, between my interest in "Free Jazz", Cecil Taylor, AEC, Paul Bley, Sun Ra, etc. and Bird, Bud and Trane. You can imagine what a "jam-session" was like there. Although I had a nice time playing Cherokee with Lester Bowie. Anyway, the most interesting experiment, and the one thing I remember most about that week, was a piece that Roscoe Mitchell had us, a group of at least thirty musicians, play. He passed out different colored cards to each of us. Each color represented a role: dominant, subdominant, supportive, nonsupportive, and the like. This opened my eyes to different possibilities of structuring free improvisation without having to write a note. Despite the cards we were dealt, my recollection of the event was that the dominant roles were claimed by dominant people. It was, nevertheless a worthwhile experiment and the kind of thing a fixed group of musicians could accumulate years of hard work before really pulling it off (AEC!) Reading and listening to what Wayne has to say is almost as much fun as listening to him play. I'd love to see that DB interview.

Huh?

Dottie Dodgion Don Drummond (Skatalites)