David Ayers

My question about judgement (which come from a professional in the area of aesthetic theory and therefore should be attended to according to Jim's theory;)) is just a suggestion that it is hard to work out and properly theorise the difference between technically-expert and non-technically-expert judgements. Judgements of beauty which are purely receptive are clearly different from judgements which are through technical knowledge in some way identified with the process of artistic production. Anyone who has ever produced art of any kind knows that more is about feel than anything else, even if the technical means must be in place, they are ONLY in place in order to achieve the aesthetic result. Incidentally, this is why some improvisers play only themselves, not self expression simply but also the technical limitation of having evolved only to play the music you have decided to play. What I also think is that it is important in life not to get bogged down attending to things that are just OK on the grounds that yo might be missing something. call what is OK pants and move on. Be bold in your rejections. Concentrate on the sublime and don't settle for less. You can always come back and check out what you passed over. Oh and don't fall for the overworn spiritual-musical 'journey' metaphor. Have you ever been on a train?

Hell, they are sending me back behind closed doors.

Even my mother, whose hands are not of the most flexible, has no problem getting out the most recalcitrant CD by just shoving in the centre 'til it pops out. And it 'never did her any harm' etc.

I realise that my many supporters did not want to embarass me by filling this thread with nominations for me - so I'll save them the embarassment and just nominate - ME ME ME

Chuck said they were in "the 2000s" of a 2500 issue.

This argument about opinion concerning music as between musicians and non musicians looks a bit different if transported to another world. Lets say, the movies. Now, I do know how to play an instrument, but I don't know jackus shittibus about making a movie. Even knowing nothing about it, I tend to know what I think about movies. Moreover, if someone who had made a few movies told me x was great (x being regarded by me as so much poo) I would tend to take no notice. I think we'd all agree on this. Now, I don't think that analogies between the arts can be easily made, but I wonder how the analogy would work in this case. I wonder why this is such a difficult matter to grasp.

Thanks Brownie - I think I can see why that needs tidying up! Dmitry - as you gathered from the useful link - this is indeed tatu. My signature quotation is from an American interview. It was the girls' reply when they were asked if all the mock-lesbian stuff was not very politically correct. I quite liked the way they transformed that question into their own terms. (J Larsen came up with an even better one - and B3-er found an even better use for it - here, if you can be bothered to trawl through...)

Arts workers are perhaps not the only workers in irregular employment who can benefit disproportionately from a welfare system drafted with longer term work patterns in mind. I am not surprised that the French Government has finally got around to this.

Doesn't read the liner notes and memorise personnel and dates ???? Next thing you'll be telling me he just listens to the music and thinks about it. What a bozo.

... INDEED!!! Another eloquent argument for making LP reissues of original LPs. Who the hell would want a digitally stilted (oops sorry remastered) version at the cost of losing this awesome original artwork in its full scale glory? Lets hope the CD issue frees up some original copies somewhere. I know Bev doesn't like the word, but this is what I call ART.

Pity these have to be Selects.

These seem to have dried up for now at the website - well, it was good while it lasted.

Aren't these Band That Swings with Strings sides also on the Proper? Correct me if I am wrong. Uh no scrub that I just checked - only a selection.

This is the first I've heard of the label itself! Heh heh. Well if you ever read the Wire, get the Mole Jazz mail order list, or visit Pete Stubley's euro-improv site, you will know ALL about the endless releases of Leo...

I love this kind of thing - to me it is literature. Or can be. Like the cut ups of William Burroughs. There are people going in to print with material of this kind - though I can't give you any references right at this moment... This is a kind of found poetry - of course careful editing is required in presenting it. The choice of a document such as the Gettysburg Address is a good one. The passage can keep its title while all the words are changed. If you never looked at William Burroughs' The Ticket That Exploded now is the time!

Well my selection might not have been very well thought through (), but I was just basically getting at the fact that at certain times certain names get pushed and then pushed some more, but basically beyond the fact that they can tickle or puff their instrument you can never quite see what the big deal is. I don't blame artists (except the self-hypers), but a media (including 'big' companies and the futile infrastructure of reviewers and critics) which needs someone to puff or it will fold.

I missed off Eberhard Weber, whose brand of bland annoyingness we were all once supposed to revere as 'art'.

I shouldn't even be reading this. Now what was I *supposed* to be doing?

PS Excluding WM of course cuz we just about covered that.

Ok its a hodge podge. Still, I had no difficulty placing my vote!

Well I am glad you find this one as pleasurable as I do! I have mentioned this as a favorite of mine before. It doesn't get much attention though, does it?

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!