Alexander

I think I'll go see it again. Maybe take one of my kids this time. AMAZING movie. But then, I've never seen a Pixar film I didn't think was extraordinary (well, "Cars" was probably the weakest of the bunch). I love the film's vision of mankind's future (without walking)!

Tell that to the predominately black audience who came to see him back in 1995 at an outdoor music festival on the campus of Michigan State University. That was a great show and the audience was at least 90% black. Same is true of Green's performance at the Freihofer Jazz Festival last summer. The VAST majority of that audience was black. I was one of the very few white folks that I saw there...

That certainly is emblematic of the "jazz" fans who think Boney James is the shit. I am kind of disappointed that we didn't get a demographic report on his audience though. I was astounded and frankly sickened to see, years ago, the Bonester winning a "jazz" award on a BET broadcast. I listened to the James music from the outside of the ampitheater (on my way over to see Aaron Goldberg and while I lingered at the Borders tent) so I didn't get to see the crowd first hand (as I did with the Dianne Reeves crowd). I did wander down towards the ampitheater, just to get a sense of the SIZE of the crowd (which I could see was considerable). Certainly the people on the lawn seemed to be digging James' sound. I saw several people (particularly African-American couples who appeared to be (again) over 50) dancing to an instrumental version of "Grazin' in the Grass". The line to get autographs was a bit more diverse, although I would say that it was roughly 70% African-American and 30% white (the woman with whom I had the above conversation was white, for example). Just to give you a sense of this crowd, I saw a LOT of white male baby boomers with gray pony tails. (Shudder) At one point, I was looking over the Aaron Goldberg CDs (deciding which one to buy, as they were $20 a pop) with a few other people who had seen AGs show. There were two young white guys (late teens, early 20s I would guess) who kept asking which was his most recent CD. I told them it was called "Worlds," but they kept insisting that he had mentioned a CD called "Shine." It took me a minute, but it dawned on me that they were talking about Boney James! I pointed out that they were looking at the wrong guy's CDs. This seems fairly typical of the observational powers demonstrated by the Boney James fans that day...

He did, actually! I forgot to mention it!

For Fathers Day it has become customary in my family to buy me tickets to the Freihofer Jazz Festival. I went both days, and while I didn't see all there was to see, I heard a lot of great music. Here's what I saw: Saturday - I had lawn seats and rain was predicted, so I came prepared with an umbrella and an (ostensibly) waterproof chair. I found a good spot, right near the ampitheater so I could see the stage. First, I saw Conrad Herwig's "Latin Side" band. I've been getting in to Latin music lately, and I've always loved the Latin Side albums (I have both Miles albums, both Trane albums, and the new Wayne Shorter album). They performed numbers from all of the various "Latin Side" projects. Great stuff. Herwig played some burning solos! Next up was Ryan Shaw, a young R&B singer with Gospel roots. He was impressive and I picked up his CD. Unfortunately, it started raining during his set. I opened my umbrella, but I still got wet. My chair got especially wet. Next came the Saxophone Summit (Lovano, Liebman, and Coltrane). It was fantastic, but marred by the fact that I was very uncomfortable and wet. I decided that however much I wanted to see Return to Forever's reunion show, I wanted to be dry more. So I went home, changed clothes, and went to a movie ("Mongol," which was very good, btw). Sunday - Not wanted to get stuck out in the rain again, I decided to see if I could upgrade my lawn ticket and get a seat inside the ampitheater. They wouldn't do it, but I had already resolved that if I couldn't I would just buy another ticket. I wound up with a great seat. I also wound up sitting next to an interesting guy (a bass player and a professor at Hamilton College) who gave me a copy of his CD. I listened to a bit of it in the car and it was pretty darn good! I look forward to hearing the whole thing! First up was Terence Blanchard, who I saw at the Egg a couple of years ago when my friend Brian Patneaude opened for him. His show was largely based on "A Tale of God's Will" and was very good. His band was great, especially his tenor sax player to had some excellent solos. The highlight of the day was Charles Lloyd with Jason Moran, Rueben Rogers, and Eric Harland. What an amazing group! I've never seen Lloyd peform before and it was a real treat! He dances around the stage in an almost Monk-like manner when the others are playing. Moran took several amazing solos, as did the other members of the rhythm section (it was like a band with four leaders, really...each player was top notch and really commanded the stage when they soloed). I was grinning like an idiot through the whole set, which seemed to fly by. It was at this point that I took a walk over to the gazebo stage to check out Rachel Price, by whom I was quite impressed. I'll have to look for one of her discs. Next up was Dianne Reeves. I only have one album of hers, but I admire her talent. At the same time, she's certainly not my favorite vocalist in the world (a little too showy at times for my taste). Her set was good, but she had some moments where she seemed to be dazzling the crowd for the sake of dazzling them. I've heard her in a more restrained mood, and I prefered it to her set today. The crowd (which seemed to be largely African-American and over 50) loved her, however, and was very vocal in their support ("Take 'em to church!" was what one guy shouted). I stayed for about forty-five mintues of her set and then went to check out the Brubeck Brothers on the gazebo stage. They were very good. I got to see the end of their set during which they did a nice version of "Take Five" which the (largely white and over 50) crowd really dug. At this point I got a bite to eat and had an interesting conversation (largely about movies) with a father and his college age son who asked if they could sit at my table (the dining area being quite crowded). Jazz fans are so friendly! At the ampitheater, Boney James and Jonathan Butler were wowing a packed house (I noticed, with some rue, that less than a quarter of that number saw Charles Lloyd. Mores the pity). Never having heard James' music before, I lingered for a few minutes to "take in the scene". His style seems to be largely influenced by Junior Walker and the All-Stars, but not as funky. The crowd, as I said, loved it. I went over to the gazebo stage to see Aaron Goldberg (whom I had seen last summer playing with Carl Allen). To my surprise and delight, his trio was rounded out by none other than Reuben Rogers and Eric Harland (who peformed earlier that afternoon with Charles Lloyd). After an excellent set (marred only by the sound of Boney James bleeding into the gazebo area) I went over to the Borders tent to see if I could get one of Goldberg's CDs. As it happened, Goldberg himself was scheduled to do a signing. As it also happened, Boney James was scheduled to do a signing immediately afterwards and the tent was soon SWARMING with Boney James fans, who quickly lined up at the signing table (this despite the fact that their hero would not be appearing for more than a half an hour). The quick witted Borders people decided to have the people there for the Goldberg signing line up alongside the Boney James people. We made a rather sad spectacle: Four of us were waiting to have our CDs signed by Aaron Goldberg (I hadn't planned to get an autograph, but when I saw how few people were there I decided to increase the number by one) while literally hundreds of people were already lined up for James. I wound up sharing a few wry comments with the young woman (a Skidmore student, I learned) in front of me in line. I also had a rather surreal conversation with the woman in the line next to me: "Who are you here to see again?" "Aaron Goldberg." "Does he sing?" "No, he's a piano player." "Oh! I love the piano! Who does he sound like? Does he sound like George Winston?" (Pained smile) I would have stuck around to hear at least part of the O'Jays' set (they were closing, as Al Green closed the festival last year), but they started late and I felt that I had seen and done enough for the day. In all a highly enjoyable experience! (Despite the rain yesterday and the Boney James fans today. I certainly don't begrudge the man a living, but you have to pity a man with fans like that!)

I caught the very end of her set today at the Freihofer Jazz Fest in Saratoga. She sounded pretty damn good to me (I would have gone to see her whole set, but she was opposite Charles Lloyd (wth Jason Moran), and you know I'm not missing Charles Lloyd!). I went over to the Borders tent to see if they had any of her CDs, but they told me that her managment wouldn't let them sell it (probably because Borders sells such things on consignment, which sometimes jacks up the price).

17 out of 20. I clearly eat too much candy!

Certainly not true. Read the original article. The mother herself has suffered harm. I read the article. I said that there was no "lasting" harm done. The mother will recover.

That's true. Unfortunately, though, it's not aimed at you, either. I think part of this goes back to my original comment in post three that it's an age thing. I think JETman has simply grown out of the age group that contemporary rock/pop/etc is made for, whether he can accept that or not. And there's nothing wrong with continuing to think Clapton is the greatest guitar player ever. If he does it for you, enjoy it and be happy. My daughter currently likes Chris Brown, Rihanna, Lil Wayne, etc. I don't see it as breaking any new ground, but ultimately who cares? It's not stuff that touches me, but she enjoys it. And she will look back at it fondly some day, as her mother did to ABBA (and other things that make me shudder). As you look back on Clapton now. edit - I agree with impossible too, in that there's plenty of music out there that's "aimed" at me, that may have been recorded 10, 20, yrs ago or whenever. It's just up to me to discover it, not just look at what's out there today and bemoan that stuff. I have Rihanna's "Good Girl Gone Bad." It's pretty good, actually.

That's true. Unfortunately, though, it's not aimed at you, either. Don't care who it's aimed it. I'll take it anyway!

Bad example. The Clash COULD play their instruments. They just wanted 'em to sound like that!

Just read about this the other day. Sounds great! I'm looking forward to it!

I agree with you about the use of James Brown, Parliament drum samples being far more common than John Bonham. However, surely the Funky Drummer break was the most commonly sampled. Certainly in the early days of hip hop you could hardly move without hearing it. Wasn't the Amen Break more often used in Drum & Bass? You may be right. The Amen Break has been used in all kinds of music, however. I know I've heard it dozens of times myself, usually in an early hip-hop context (Grandmaster Flash used it as did the Beastie Boys, just to name two artists off the top of my head). But the "Funky Drummer" was also heavily sampled, which is why I brought up Clyde Stubblefield in the first place...

Fair point, although I wasn't suggesting listening habits should be determined by a musician's importance in popular culture. It is only one measure of the relative significance of the music compared to the vaunted 90s bands like Pearl Jam etc. I would definitely argue that bands such as the Who, Led Zep, Stones etc had a much wider influence and impact - and a more lasting one - than the Smiths, for example, ever had ( outside Manchester ). How many bands formed as a result of these 60s and 70s bands compared to those 'inspired' by The Smiths? Arguably more indie bands formed as a result of listening to The Velvet Underground - a 60s band. Source? A famous remark, often attributed to British musician Brian Eno, is that while only a few thousand people bought the first Velvet Underground record upon its release, almost every single one of them was inspired to start a band. Ehhhh. That's a cliche and an apocraphal story to boot. As much as I like and admire the Velvets (I have all their albums), I really don't think they had quite the impact attributed to them...

Right on! I'm the same way. Listening to Warren Zevon right now...

Incidentally, the most sampled drum break EVER is the "Amen Break," which was recorded by the Winstons and performed by drummer G.C. Coleman. I would think that this would make Coleman "the most sampled drummer ever."

That's a big affirmative. Thank you too, Shawn. How's this for impact?: Which drummer is sampled on just about every rap and hip hop record put out here in the good old US of A? I'm going to guess John Bonham. I would think that Clyde Stubblefield has been sampled a HELL of a lot more than John Boham. How about Jerome “Bigfoot” Brailey or Ramon "Tiki" Fulwood? Tony Thompson? I would think that all of those guys have been sampled more often than John Bonham! You are incorrect. Bonham has been credited by all the usual suspects in those other genres. Shall I start a new thread? Huh? I don't understand what you're saying here. Are you saying that Bonham has been credited in more album liner notes? Or that he has actually appeared on more hip-hop albums? Would you please name your source? Here's the thing: For the first fifteen years of its existence, hip-hop was largely fueled by James Brown and Parliament/Funkadelic samples. Clyde Stubblefield played drums on most of Brown's most influential (and therefore most sampled) works. I would think, therefore, that Stubblefield appears on literally hundreds, if not thousands, of hip-hop songs. Brailey and Fulwood played drums for Parliament/Funkadelic. Dr. Dre alone must be responsable for a large number of Parliament samples (which formed the foundation of Dre's G-Funk. Get it? P-Funk, G-Funk?). Tony Thompson played drums for Chic (among many, many other disco and funk bands in the seventies). Chic was a frequent candidate for early hip-hop sampling (see "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash and the Wheels of Steel" for an example) as were other disco and funk groups. You're telling me that out of all the JB, George Clinton, and other assorted funk and disco albums sampled through out hip-hop's thirty year history, John Bonham has been the SINGLE MOST SAMPLED DRUMMER? It doesn't make sense. I need to see a source here.

Calexico played on the "I'm Not There" soundtrack (which has some KILLER performances on it, btw). I found them to be quite impressive and have been thinking of checking them out. Is "Feast of Wire" the best place to start?

That's a big affirmative. Thank you too, Shawn. How's this for impact?: Which drummer is sampled on just about every rap and hip hop record put out here in the good old US of A? I'm going to guess John Bonham. I would think that Clyde Stubblefield has been sampled a HELL of a lot more than John Boham. How about Jerome “Bigfoot” Brailey or Ramon "Tiki" Fulwood? Tony Thompson? I would think that all of those guys have been sampled more often than John Bonham!

WONDERFUL stuff! I just listened to it again recently. The booklet is great, too! Lots of information on Medicine Shows and a compelling argument that they are the model for modern sponsor-driven television and radio. Lots of info on the artists as well. A very different spirit from the Harry Smith Anthology (although both have Frank Hutchins performing "Stagger Lee"). While the Harry Smith Anthology feels as though it has come from the mysterious depths of time (although that might just be a lingering impression based on my first hearing years and years ago), "Good For What Ails You" is a much lighter experience (not a bad thing. Just different). Since the collection focuses more on comedic material, there is some stuff that seems "insensitive" by modern standards (there are a few Coon Songs, several "nagging wife songs"). One of the most impressive performances comes from Emmett Miller on "The Gypsy." It's a comic number in the blackface tradition, peformed as a kind of rap. Although the idea is anathema today, Miller's impersonation of African-American speech patterns is one of the best I have ever heard. Although his delivery is broad, he generally avoids the stereotypical "darkie accent" that we've come to associate with blackface comedians (think Amos and Andy). Miller really has the accent down, and one can only imagine that he aquired it through an excellent ear and association with actual black people (rather than with white people pretending to be black people). I could be wrong, but that's how it sounds to my ear. This collection also contains performances by Pink Anderson (who, along with Floyd Council, provided the name for the band Pink Floyd), Stovepipe No.1, Papa Charlie Jackson, Uncle Dave Macon, Blind Willie McTell (under the name Blind Sammie), Gid Tanner, and Charlie Poole. Most of this stuff would be classified as hokum, but it's damn good hokum! (I do wish there had been some Frankie Half-Pint Jaxon, though. He was the king of hokum!)

Jack White Brian Burton Sufjan Stevens To name just three... If those guys aren't masterminds, I don't know what is.

There's your problem. Boomers...ugh. They think they invented everything interesting or important since the end of WWII. "I was there, man. I remember where I was when JFK was assassinated..." Speaking as a baby BUSTER (born in 1970 when people just weren't having babies), I have to say that I REALLY came to despise the boomers as a grew up. Nothing was EVER geared to people my age. It was either aimed at my parents or my younger brother. There weren't enough people my age to make it worth their while. Then the early 90s happened. And there was something that was just being made by people MY age. And it was bitter. And dark. And nihilistic. And wonderful. It put all the flower power shit up against the wall and pulled the trigger until the chamber was empty. I still listen to Nirvana and Pearl Jam and Beck. Hell, yeah! I do love music from the sixties and seventies, I just don't fool myself into thinking that it's the only stuff that matters. Best songwriting team since Lennon/McCartney? Morrisey and Marr!

Sorry, but "covering your ass" is not the same thing as "acting in the child's best interests". Once again, would you be willing to take the chance that the child was not being abused? When the consequences, both to the child and to you, are so great? Yes, they were "covering their asses" but they were ALSO "acting in the child's best interests."

There are rock sub-cultures. It's a fragmented art form (jazz is the same way), too many different types of music being lumped together by a single word to try and describe it all. But adding sub-genre tags just makes the water muddier. My view is listen to whatever you like and ignore what you don't. I'm hip!

can't believe i am not the only fan here (guess nobody has figured out my avatar so far)... i am not promising i will still treasure this in 10 years, but don't miss the libertines albums and the libertines demos that are available for download in several places (legally)... edit: i mean especially the leg ii sesion: http://djmonstermo.blogspot.com/2005/02/li...ines-demos.html hope the links work Thanks for the link! Lazy Sunday? Hell yes! Close my eyes and drift away... Edit: The demos and Lazy Sunday are broken, alas. Guess I'll play the Small Faces one. Funny, I never made the connection before, but the Libertines really DID have a Small Faces thing going, didn't they? Not so much in terms of sound, but definitely in spirit ("Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" is one of the best psychedelic albums after Love's "Forever Changes" and Pink Floyd's "Piper at the Gates of Dawn").