David Ayers

What shrugs said. I didn't know these sides, but at this moment of listening I find them to be some of the best playing by either Lacy or Waldron which I have ever heard. I'd say, make this a priority if you don't yet have it.

One thread.... nay three threads.... nay, thrice three thousand threads in three hundred languages (that's enough pseudo-oriental hyperbole - ed.) would not be enough to express the wonder and passion, the nuance and numbness, the nuttishness, nerdishness and sheer groovemania that was the BNBB. What we really need is a BNBBBB to weep over the old days, to celebrate lost warriors (now presumably over at valhalla.org) to toast the age of giants with, er, a slice of toast and a nice cup of tea, and to, er, etc. Mighty men (mostly) felled by midgets wielding the dishonorable weapon of DELETE ALL. Its like in science fiction where it turns out that the spaceship has a self destruct button. I mean why look in your car there is no self destruct button it would be just too tempting! Waaah waaah waaah rail rail rail bloe you hurricanoes usw. Don't look back in anger did I hear you say? I say, do not go gentle into that good night. Oh, where is shamelethactor when you need him!? Or urchin aric, who in those distant seeming days was barely knee high to a federal marshall. Who now remembers that Lonson was once merely Lon? Who fell in wonder at the 10,000th post? Who wept at the sammich? The twinkle in whose eye blended hope and sorrow when the wobble on Dialogue was first revealed to a fearful public? And who now remembers (help me remember, Mnemosyne, aid my epression, Calliope, do not betray me, Clio, descend from Heaven, Urania, comfort my nights, Ohura) how hope won out over sorrow when He, yeah even HE, (for I speak of only one, the one who was your father before he went over to the dark side with the mystical folk called Bean Counters and learned how to do the neat hurting your neck without touching it thing) sent that rainbow into the sky proclaiming peace on earth and free replacement discs to anyone who could be arsed to mail it in and didn't think the whole thing sounded like a car crash anyway and where can I get the TOCJ (for that was only the evil Orc Ayers who forever moanethed about the treble setting on the legendary RVGs) ah yes! OHHHH - I ha'e ta'en too li'l care o' this. What is man if not a poor naked record collector, and what is the earth of not an endless unredeemable platter on which the groove of eternity must play its course? Oh smooth your hair with automatic hand! Remember the countdown to the end of Hill, of Rivers, yea even of Fuller and Jones?? Remember cowering as the hollow echoes of the absolute lack of fuss surrounding the demise of the Shank set echoed emptily in the heads of hollow men crammed to breaking point with where to get a record they didn't really want anyway for a dollar less? Already with thee! Tender is the night! Oh night oh night! But ahh, those joy-filled, wonder-struck, offeringandlookingfor-laden days of the summer which seemed it would never end!! Feel the force! Feel the force! Feel the force!

I hold no brief for Mark Knopfler, but the violinist in my band once asked me why the big deal about Dire Straits. I said whatever I said, about his technique and so on, but she just said - 'if it is so special how is it any pub you go into there is a band playing 'Sultans of Swing' exactly like Dire Straits?' In those days (late 80s) she wasn't exaggerating much, and it seems to me something like that is true of Hank, who however much affection you may have for him (squeaks and all and he really DOES squeak - SNF requires to be inserted into the palyer with a thick coating of WD 40 - uhhhh, that's a light lubricating oil, chunter chunter....) is always (sentence resumes) vulnerable to the charge from the unsympathetic of going straight down the middle. He's good though, just not in your face, and I prefer him over some more dramatic tenors who perhaps have more of a following.

The best place for CDs by a mile is Lou's Records, a pleasant drive up the coast on 101 (uhhh... its on the left as you go north - keep your eyes open...). For vinyl, it's probably worth calling in Off The Record (3849 Fifth Avenue). OTR is in Hillcrest. While there you can also check out Record City (3757 6th Avenue), call in to two or three decent used book stores, and take something to eat at the highly recommendable City Deli (corner of 6th and University). There is also a Tower near the Sports Arena (uhhh.... unless it closed recently...). I never figured out the live music scene, but I never fail to visit these locations. Prices at Lou's are great too so be sure to take your wallet!

Can't say that I "know" it, but I have passed it over at the used record store that I frequent many times, because of some bad reviews that I've read, both on this board (I think, maybe the BNBB) and on AMG. This one is worth two or three plays but I wouldn't buy it again. The percussionist is just annoying and inopportune, the bassist sounds horrible, but the rest is fair. Always nice to have another version of Moontrane, I suppose. I have never heard the titles with Tone Jansa, but they can be sampled at hmv.co.jp.

Depends what you like, of course, but I have always regarded Song of Singing as a minor marvel.

Well, now is the time to buy that Prestige set (albeit maybe without booklet or box) from Zweitausendeins. Rollins is one of the very few real improvisers in jazz, in that he creates very structurally, something that very few supposedly free musicians can do. He is one of the few who can change key by making a surprise transition. This handling of keys is the essence of the harmonic system, but most jazz substitutes predictability for surprise, and most free music (er, best not go there, ed.)

The second one is even worse.

Ya wonder why Cuscuna doesn't put this out, maybe as a ultra-limited edition Conn or something like that. I mean Sonny and Dexter, even when drunk, must still have more to say, musically, than a lot of musicians. Even if it (the entire session) was released purely as a historical document, I'd jump all over it. BTW, to those who have heard the one track, what's it like? You've got more faith in drunk musicians than anybody who has ever played with one! Or been one for that matter!!

Actually we do get a passing mention in The Crying of Lot 49, so there is something going on...

I got my Evans disc also, by return post. These sets are amazing value even if you already own much of the music, but a caveat on the sound which is distinctly dated. The Pepper Galaxy LPs were originally issued in fantastic sound and certainly suffer in these dry, dull transfers. But as a guide to this music the sets are very valuable, and those who wisely resisted replacing their LPs (at unwarranted cost) can now finally (!) supplement them at a discount. Of course if you don't know any of this music at all then this is the bargain of the century!

Hey! Don't I get any credit for my pithy if facetious and unhelpful answer!?!?

Literally rendered speechless. So you are one of those irritating people who normally talks throughout the concert, eh....

The question probably should be 'what were CDs?'. A question to which there is no polite answer...

I regularly visit California, and I completely appreciate the ban on smoking in bars and restaurants. It is not just a question of health but of aesthetics. Smoke smells and tastes and irritates your eyes and lungs. California really went the right way on this. There are a lot of places I won't visit here in England because they just have an unpleasant environment. In California the law is so taken for granted that hardly anyone even thinks about it asny more - that's the way it will be everywhere, eventually...

The Rava track isn't on here. I made a brief attempt to compare the CD tracks to the LPs and gave up. The sound of these CDs is pretty good.

shrugs has got it right - the LPs are the way to go

I don't have the LPs but I do have the CDs (at that amaz-ing price;)) - but there is so much material on them I don't understand HOW it can be less? Uhhh... but I'll take your word for it...

Well hopefully when the JRVG comes out we can all buy it again, and then trade it in again when we are reminded why we traded it in the last time...

The point of subsidy is access. You are right, end those subsidies you mention and the well-heeled would not have to do without. But access would be denied to the less well-off. But your hostility to venues such as Covent Garden is not an argument for subsidising anything else. Why the hell should anyone's taxes pay subsidies for any art, say for jazz or folk, which in any case is much cheaper to put on than grander things? The question is do people who want it have access? The answer in the case of jazz and ther musics is certainly yes. Only Madonna is oversubscribed and subsidies wouldn't help there. I don't think your ressentiment would translate into public policy - neither is it hard to see why public policy has not gone further in the direction you would like. By the way your argument to be effective would need to embrace other modes (theatre) and have something to say about the funding of the BBC (end the license fee) before it even began to take effect in the way you would like. The argument about who pays for what, why and how, is broader than the tired old argument about jazz subsidies. What other aspects of your life would you like tax payers to pay for?

But Bev, you understand entirely the distinction between art and non-art since it is at the heart of the radio listening figures you quoted. Setting aside the fact that audience cannot be properly understood from radio listening figures (I would stress concert attendance) you implicitly endorse the notion that jazz should be treated differently from other musical forms which you choose not to mention. Shouldn't pop rock folk etc etc all be included in your analysis? It is debatable whether jazz should be insisted on as anything other than a historical genre (I agree with Miles and Duke on this one). But if you are going to insist on this generic identity then at least acknowledge that what you are doing is insisting on a notion of art and quality. The more I look at this debate the more I think that I have over-rated jazz.

I don't think you can judge the nature of interest in jazz from the number of (re)releases and the amount of vanity publishing (yes, loss-making self-issues etc) that goes on. There are probably a few thousand collectors world wide who sustain the market in reissues. It is questionable whether such collectors constitute a viable audience base for a music that aims to be both popular and cerebral (and yet actually is not quite either). It is quite evident that jazz does not have the massive audience base of opera and classical music, which can pack large opera houses and concert halls even when competition is stiff. It is not clear that an audience of CD collectors (as opposed to a real social audience including, as at opera and concerts, many women) can meaningfully sustain the activity. As I have argued before, it is not clearly important that people in general should have a range of Donald Byrd CDs to shoose from in their record stores. This is already a matter for collectors, who by the way are of two sorts - musicians and fans. So yes there are masses of reissues out there, but this is no guarantee of a meaningful future for jazz, nor is it clear that any entity called 'jazz' deserves or desires such a future. Eminem makes more meaningful music than Greg Osby, like it or not.

But perhaps you should mind. Only about 4% of record sales are made online. Without stores the bulk of sales will be lost and all projects whether new or reissue, will become less viable. For most jazz collectors it is the availability of LPs which is the important issue. No-one has any real affection for the CD as a commodity or as an audio experience. CD collections (unlike record collections) are worth far less than they cost (at shop value). I think the truth is that we are at the end of the reissue cycle with no really compelling new music coming forward and it is hard to imagine jazz not slipping.

18.16 euros at amazon.fr going like hot cakes well, like cold custard

Our reputation for savagery precedes us. Do you know that if you play the end of the Kind of Blue LP in reverse it comes out ass backwards? There ought to be an inquiry.