Kreilly

I attended every performance at this year's Vision Festival except for the Saturday afternoon session, "A New Generation". The Ware quartet were a fitting end to a great festival, they blew the roof off the place. Sam Rivers' groups, both orchestra and trio, were also superb. Rivers' drummer Anthony Coles played piano, and tenor as well. The guy is amazing. The highlight for me was Saturday evening's performance by Roscoe Mitchell and the Chicago Quartet. I was under the impression that it was not possible to practice circular breathing on anything other than a reed. Corey Wilkes' circular breathing on the trumpet was a sight to behold. I think he may be the best avant trumpet player on the scene today. From Harrison Bankhead's bass playing and Vincent Davis' drums to the inimitable Roscoe Mitchell, this quartet was unlike any other at this year's festival. David S. Ware looked good and apart from a limp looked fit. He played tremendously. The Ware quartet is my favorite place to hear Shipp. It was a very solid set before a very enthusiastic and packed house. The surprises of the festival were the lyrical performance of Charles Gayle on alto and the unexpected appearance of altoist Jemeel Moondoc as part of the Raphe Malik Tribute Band. One thing about the festival that was annoying, other than MC Steve Dalachinsky, were the small cadre of diehards that snuck in early every day and reserved the first three rows by putting shirts and bags on the seats before the doors even opened. That itself seemed unfair to those who stood in line to be the first in each night but what really was shameful was that many of these "claimed" seats remained empty until the "main" act of the evening. People who wanted to see the Whit Dickey Trio could not get a seat up front even though many of the seats were empty (but for the shirts draped upon them) only to be filled 5 minutes before David S Ware took the stage. These were minor, perhaps unavoidable flaws, in a festival that was really all about the art. Patricia Nicholson's spirit imbues the entire fstival with a selfless, friendly, artist-centered vibe. Lots of stuff to digest, I'm still decompressing.

Because if you listen to it, followed immediately by "I Like Big Butts And I Cannot Lie," the decline and fall of pop music, and civilization, is undeniable. Maybe, but if I listened to "Lady Be Good" followed immediately by some of Stevie Wonder's, Paul Simon's, Burt Bachrach's, Monday Michiru's, Joni Mitchell's, Brian Wilson's, et.als. better/best songs, I might come to the conclusion that the art/craft of popular songwriting has actually evolved significantly and positively. Can't say that I'd say the same about society in general though. No mention of Bob Dylan? Shame on you. As far as society goes, the crime rates have declined. Who can really blame Bolton? There's a market for this stuff, always has been. Pat Boone. Music with an edge has to be domesticated for mass consumption.

You're blaming the 'New Thing' for Jackie's post-67 work? Can you name some post 67 titles where this is evident? Jackie's respect for the avant garde produced his best work on his 60s Blue Notes. If you want to "blame" the 'New Thing' for something, blame it for Let Freedom Ring, Destination Out, and One Step Beyond. Jackie does have one blip on his radar, Monuments, his disco album from 1979.

It's one of my least favorite McLean Blue Notes. It's fairly straight ahead and not as avant as Jackie's other Blue Notes of the time which is apparently why it wasn't released. That being said, it is a fine recording, there are just half a dozen or more other McLean's I'd buy first.

Sad news!

OK. This is a stretch but I figured out what I'm hearing. In the first thirty seconds of "Burning Spirits no.1" I'm hearing a fast, distorted echo of Roland Kirk's "A Stritch in Time" which is on "Domino". Anyone else hear this? I suspect not. Kevin

I was listening to Sonny Simmons "Burning Spirits" and I hear what I think is a deconstructed Mingus tune on track one "Burning Spirits no.1". I can't place the title of the tune. Can anyone help? Kevin

I guess you're right Fer .... some hate it and some love it. Just in case, I meant hated "by musicians" because apparently his music was difficult and as a leader he was a very demanding taskmaster. Still, a fascinating and overlooked character. F I've had his "Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights" for a couple years now. Scott's recordings are devoid of improvisation of any sort, so in that respect they're closer to a classical recording than to "jazz". Reckless Nights is like the soundtrack to your childhood if you grew up on Bugs Bunny cartoons.

Today I heard "Winter 1972" by Kaoru Abe for the first time. Anyone familiar with this guy's work? Recommendations? Kevin

The Zooid was just at the Jazz Gallery, much less pricey than the Iridium and more intimate.

I have a bootleg of a different mix of the Born Again album. Gillan's vocals are much more upfront and some of the vocal tracks are different. Zero the Hero in particular is still a work in progress vocally but the music is pretty much the same. I agree the riffs on the first two Dio Sabbath albums are good, especially Heaven and Hell.

Avoid the Dio stuff altogether! Pick up a Tenacious D cd, Jack Black does a better Dio than Dio. Just compare the lyrics from the Ozzy years when Geezer wrote anti-war (War Pigs; Children of the Grave), anti-heroin (Hand of Doom), and other songs with some social commentary (Johnny Blade) to Dio's dungeon and dragon rhymes. All of Sabbath's important material was recorded before Dio came on board. I saw them at Madison Square Garden with Van Halen opening in 1978. Then I saw them at the Garden again in 1980 on the Black n Blue tour (Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult). It was night and day. By the time of the Mob Rules tour, the only thing left were Iommi's riffs, everything thing else was cheesy. The best and last post-Ozzy show I saw was with Ian Gillan in 1983. No offense to Dio fans intended.

I'm a big fan of the original line-up. With the sole exception of Technical Ecstasy, their albums still hold up quite well to my ears. I remember reading an interview with Ozzy after the Never Say Die tour when he was booted out of the band. He criticized Iommi for the jazz influences in Iommi's guitar work on Never Say Die. I also like the album with Ian Gillan. I've seen the original line-up, with Dio and with Ian Gillan. The Dio stuff just doesn't hold up. Fairy tale lyrics straight out of Tenacious D. Every now and then I'll throw on Paranoid or Master of Reality when I need a Sabbath fix. Sabbath and the early Alice Cooper group recorded some great early seventies stuff.

Moncur will be appearing in a Trio at this year's Vision Festival with Khan Jamal and Byard Lancaster on June 14th sandwiched between performances by Sam Rivers' Big Band and Sam Rivers' Trio. The Warren Smith Ensemble is also playing that night. Oops! The Moncur line-up at Vision has changed. Grachan Moncur III Quartet: Grachan Moncur III (tmb), Calvin Hill (bs), Noriko Kamo (pno), Richard Pearson (dr); Special Guests: Khan Jamal (vibes) and Byard Lancaster (tnr sax)

Thanks Allen, the Anthony Davis Gramavisions arrived!

The subject says it all. Roulette at Location One Showtime: 8:30 Tickets: $15 Roulette is located at 20 Greene Street (between Canal and Grand Streets) Reservations: 212 219 8242

Can you elaborate a bit on "Snakish"? I almost bit on Jason's copy over at JC but hesitated because of some review I read.

I agree with you re grammar and spelling, but shouldn't that be "themselves"? (them = plural) I'd agree with you, although Oxford University Press usage - a barometer for many academics here in the UK - has recently changed to allow 'they'/'them' as gender neutral singulars... The singular "they" can be found throughout Jane Austen's writing. I used the third person plural as gender neutral singulars in my dissertation (completed in 2001). There were not many formal guides on it back then. I believe I located a MLA manual that noted it but Turabian had nothing as far as I can recall.

Does ejazzlines backorder stuff? I prefer a store to let me know if the item is in stock or will be backordered. Nothing is more irritating than to wait for an item I ordered only to discover 6-8 weeks later that they cannot get it. Jemeel Moondoc's "Tri-P-Let" is listed on ejazzlines with a projected shipping time of 5-7 days. It is out of print at Eremite, so my guess is that you could order it but would only be informed later that they could not fill your order. Also, ejazzlines has the "list price" for Moondoc's "Fire in the Valley" as $17.90 and their online sale price as $17.08. You can buy it right from Eremite for $13.00. Based on these two observations, it would be unlikely that I would use the vendor. I hate feeling like I'm being gouged. Kevin

Same here, promo copy.

This is spot on. Why is it that we hash this whole topic over every few months? We see the same shit every time. To expect another Marvin Gaye is like waiting for the next Bird. It ain't gonna happen. Culture evolves, as does the musical continuum. Remember Lincoln Logs? Man they don't make toys like they used to... Culture evolves, but that doesn't mean it progresses. I'm not pining for the past, but I'm sure not gonna say that 21st century America, from a cultural standpoint, has progressed from where it was 30 years ago. I'm hoping for a way forward. Cultures don't progress; they change. There's no way anyone can say that any culture is the result of more progress than any other culture. MG I could not agree more.

Have you listened to old blues lyrics? Stagger Lee? Murder ballads? Metal lyrics? Lots of objectification of women, lots of violence. Watch a boxing match or a UFC match. People cheer for two men to pound each other into submission then hoot as scantily clad women strut around between rounds. Sex and violence are everywhere in this culture. Why single out rap for something that permeates the culture as a whole? Doesn't it make much more interpretive sense to see rap as yet another symptom rather than the cause? Also, have you considered the comic elements of the extreme cartoonish hyperbole that characterizes most rap? My 18 year old and her friends love rap and they find it hilarious. Slim Shady is a persona for Marshall Mathers much like Alice Cooper is for Vincent Furnier. I loved Alice Cooper's early seventies recordings and at 13 I found the song "I Love the Dead" to be hilarious, not enticing me towards necrophilia. There are more levels than the literal and while I'm not endorsing the misogyny or homophobia in any lyrics, I find the danger attributed to rap to be greatly exagerrated.

This is thoughtful and interesting though I'm not in agreement. I love atonal music. And believe me, I don't intellectualize it. I find it completely a-rational. It is soothing. I listen to it and I escape. My take on what's happening now is that with diy artists selling their own cds and music downloadable directly from indy artists' websites, it is not the death of an art form but the death of marketable demographics. There are so many different "types" and styles of music to satisfy everyone's tastes but fewer that appeal to large targetable masses. It's a marketing problem and the record companies are not prepared or perhaps not designed to deal with it. Artistically there is a renaissance going on but not many of the emerging art forms have mass appeal. As to your negative evaluation of rap lyrics and their damage to our society, look at the pervasive misogyny, violence, and sex in traditional blues music. I remember reading one critic who condemned the "soothing sounds of the saxophone" because they led youth into illicit sexual behavior. The major rap marketing demographic is teenage white suburbia. Where is the damage? There are no reputable studies linking rap or heavy metal to an increase in real life violence though there are plenty of studies linking extreme poverty to violence and crime. In fact, inner city crime was much higher during the hey day of the Motown era.

I'll have to give this one another listen. I prefer his more inside out stuff. I read somewhere that Consequence was not released because Alfred Lion wanted Jackie to make more of the avant leaning stuff. Listened to New Soil, Right Now and Destination Out yesterday. Went to see Sonny Simmons last night and they were playing Action at the venue. Just put on New and Old Gospel. Kevin

There is a 1968 Jackie McLean session for Blue Note that was never released. It is listed as "rejected". Does anyone know anything about this session? Woody Shaw (tp) Jackie McLean (as) Tyrone Washington (ts) Bobby Hutcherson (vib) Scott Holt (b) Norman Connors (d) Plaza Sound Studios, New York City July 5, 1968 In Case You Haven't Heard Hymn to Rap One for Jeru Kupenda Abrasion