Big Al

Now THAT'S keepin' it greeeeeeeeeeeeazy!!!!

Anyone whose board handle is the name of one the grooviest Blakey albums ever made deserves all the coolness heaped upon him! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

That's just...... poetry, y'know? Wonder how many junior-high-school yearbooks contain these lines?

Well, if I had even a clue as to what I was talking about..... Seriously, I suppose I used the term "avant-garde" to label pretty much any jazz I don't get..... which at last tally was somewhere around 83% of it.... I mean, I think I showed my hand when I didn't realize that, in this particular case, there's a difference between composers and improvisers. The article and this discussion helps. So, yeah, I'm glad you posted this article here. It just shows to go that even the purest art forms are not immune to the shameless opportunists of the world. For that reason alone, I hope that the scene written about in the article remains undistilled. I, however, will continue to be full of shit!

Just ordered my copy from Amazon used for $16.50! Thanks for the tip guys!

I see that you also have a copy of "The Worst Rock & Roll Records Ever Made!" I don't have that book... maybe I should get it. I just picture the guys from Journey smoking a big ol' joint and having a deep philosophical conversation about the "wheel in the sky". Let's listen in: Steve: Hey man, you know there's this wheel in the sky... It keeps on turning. Neil: Really man... Wow... that's pretty profound... it never stops turning Steve: Yeah... just keeps on turning... around and around, just turning. Neil: Dude! You should write a song about it. Steve: Yeah, great idea! I can work on it tomorrow... oh yeah, but I don't know where I'll be tomorrow. Neil: Yeah! Put that in the song too! The Wheel in the Sky keeps on turning - BUT I don't know where I'll be tomorrow. Steve: WOW... that's PROFOUND! The Wheel keeps on turning yet I don't know where I'll be tomorrow. It's just like life, man... Neil: Yeah it is. I'll come up with this cool guitar part. Man! We'll have a hit. Steve: Yeah... and speaking of hits, pass me that bong. I need to reload. That's my vision of the creation of that song. I think you may be on to something here!

Me too!

A very good read. Having no real interest in the avant-garde personally (and knowing even less about any of it), it distresses me nonetheless that any useful artistic movement (in this case, the Uptown/Downtown movement) could be accused of coming under a LCJO-type influence! Of course, I could be wrong; what’s your take on it, 7/4? Does he have a point (i.e. that the Uptown/Downtown scene is being overrun by poseurs who think they know everything because they’ve heard a few Zorn albums), or is he full of it (i.e. he’s afraid of his “scene” becoming too mainstream for his tastes (just a conjecture on my part, based on what I read; like I said, I could be completely misreading it))?

I see that you also have a copy of "The Worst Rock & Roll Records Ever Made!"

ss1, yer KILLIN' me!!! I mean, you gotta post their masterpiece: “Chain Reaction!” Anyone remember the Journey video game? Always enjoyed playing that, and got pretty good at it, to the point that one night I kept a game going for so long at a Six Flags arcade they gave me two quarters to just walk away from the game I had going so they could lock up for the night!!! Then, as I started to really despise them, I would play the game just to kill them off! And when I got to the part with the bouncer trying to protect the band, I wouldn’t even try! It was enough of a pleasure to watch folks take away the band’s instruments! Yeah, it was worth the quarters spent!

Yeah, I just wish I could remember this killer version of "Creepin'" that I heard on KNTU a few years ago. Can't even remember if they said who it was, but it was SMOKIN'!

Would you just shut the fuck up already?!?!?!?! SHEESH!!!!!

Dammit, the ONLY reason I don't book a flight to Phoenix to kick your ass for posting the words to that godawful song by that godawful group is because..... well, because........ It WAS featured prominently in a very... er, special scene in Heavy Metal that to this day I remember seeing as an impressionable 12-year-old and thinking, "DAMN, those guys can draw!!!!" (That, and I'd probably get my ass kicked before I even threw a punch!)

Couldn't agree more! That type of playing by Evans is my favorite type of piano jazz, and for my money nobody plays it better in that vein than Evans!

Who's your favorite drummer with Evans? I’m torn between Paul Motian, who helped define the sound of the Bill Evans Trio and was as sympathetic a drummer as you’ll ever find with anyone—the man could listen and accompany as if he could read Evans’s mind; and Philly Joe Jones, who could make Evans swing like no one else could by lighting a fire underneath Evans, forcing him to play with more fire and passion on the swingers than he normally would. What do y’all think?

If it's an RVG, you might not have any choice... Is dat bad? :g

Of the ones posted in the list, I chose Moon Beams. I might’ve chosen that one anyway (along with its companion How My Heart Sings), because the sense of longing and mournful loss is so palpable, and yet it manages to be so without being maudlin. Take a song like “It Might as Well Be Spring,” which Evans transforms from a hopeful song of new love into a forlorn statement of hopeless resignation (or put another way, the emphasis is no longer on which season it is (i.e. “it might as well be SPRING”) as much as it doesn’t really matter what season it is (i.e. “it might as WELL be spring”). An additional bonus is the fact that Chuck Israels fits so nicely in the void left by the tragic death of Scott LaFaro. Then there are the favorites not on the list: Know What I Mean, the Verve comp ‘Round About Midnight, and Quintessence. And then there are those, both on and off the list, that I can’t wait to eventually hear: Interplay, California Here I Come, and At the Montreux Jazz Fest!

Used to be, in the old days, hearing your record on the radio meant you’ve made it big. Nowadays, getting listed on iTunes is a sign that you’re on your way! Much-deserved congratulations, guys!!!

Well, just like Hunter himself, Duke won't ever really die.....

Enjoying Max Roach Plus Four as I type, trying to resist the urge to just spring for the whole friggin’ box! Thanks again, Jazzbro!!!

I guess about the only thing of any value I have is a copy of Lalo Schifrin’s The Dissection and Reconstruction of Modern Music as Performed by the Demented Inmates of Lalo Schifrin’s Ensemble as a Tribute to the Memory of the Marquis de Sade Verve Elite Edition (not sure if the title is accurate, I’m going from memory and don’t have time to check AMG). Found it used for $8; it was hard not to giggle like a little kid at the register while paying for it! As far as autographed stuff goes, I have an autographed copy of Chuck Jones autobiography Chuck Amuck, that’s taken on even more sentimental value since Jones’ passing.

Well put. Nuts! Beat me to it!

Y'all are so ignorant......

...”Boogie On Reggae Woman,” “Creepin’,” “I Wish,” “Knocks Me Off My Feet,” “Send One Your Love,” (heck, all of side two of Plants), “All I Do,” “Ain’t Gonna Stand For It,” and since my vote was different, “Living for the City,” “Too High,” and “Golden Lady!”

What, no "Secret Life of Plants?"