MomsMobley

is anyone on to this recent Bear Family release yet? "When researching aspects of the history of the Caribbean, American ethnologist Dick Spottswood unexpectedly uncovered an unknown musical treasure. From the depth of a library he fished out several flat cardboard boxes containing matrixes. The accompanying note said the recordings were made by a 12-piece jazz orchestra from Trinidad in 1912: Lovey's Trinidad String Band..." http://www.bear-family.de/es/folk-world/world/lovey-s-original-trinidad-stri-calypso-dawn-1912-trinidad-string-band.html I ordered this immediately but in case ya'll need a sample--

>>>> inane and unlistenable Ken Vandermark's life in any possible context, past, present or future-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoHB8RSQ8-0 Vandermark is so inane, such a dead ass emotional and intellectual hack, he's the enemy of sound-- even physics even!!-- let alone "jazz," or "creative improvised music (featuring 'telepathic interplay)" or whatever genre he's trying to glom onto the for benefit nothing but his own desperate worth-by-association shuck. he's not the only one who sucks; I accidentally heard parts of a radio show dedicated to drummer Dave King yesterday and the Bad Plus parts were-- surprise!!-- fucking horrific. wow, these chumps listen to crappy rock music and try to make "jass" from it... swift are the winds life for dummies, eh dipshits? >>>>>> Vandermark + all Bad Plus combined forever and always (to say the least)-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZvieim9lyM I am, in certain contexts. He's made some interesting albums. Sometimes he leaves me a little cold in the same way that Jeff Beck leaves me cold. I thought that the V5 took a little bit of a dip after FLH joined. The Alchemia set is good in very small doses for me.

Lark's reply is preposterous... If JSngry DID have an interest and "wanted to let the music speak for itself" he could READ the score and cut out the middlemen or women altogether. INTERPRETATION IS EVERYTHING always, everywhere, though it'd take a FAR greater interpreter than Ralph "Bleh" Blechacz to make this program worthwhile. Verdict: RETURN without hesitation... the ONLY disc this schmoe has made that's worth even a fraction of a second thought is the Debussy/Szymanowski program, and that only for the chance you'd appreciate some Szymanowski in your life, though even there I'd hep you to other solo piano compositions, both pre- & contemporary with Duke, Cecil, Dolphy et al, first.

this can't be emphasized and understood enough: that Dolphy was a consummate musician in every possible way-- praise be Hampton Hawes Sr., Lloyd Reese, Eric's parents etc +++... There was nothing Mingus couldn't love about him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOd4TlP7MP8

& the David Paich revival also continues http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdBShxnovLQ

featuring David (son of Marty) Paich

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJzHrttrzB0

Miller impatients and/or restless DD adepts should jump to 4:40-- Bonus! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dob3Nq0uNZo&

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04zbFueiBMI

tons of great work here-- http://louisdl.louislibraries.org/cdm/search/collection/p16313coll4 there's a Ralston Crawford show ongoing at the New Orleans Museum of Art too if anyone's near there or will be soon-- http://noma.org/exhibitions/detail/50/Ralston-Crawford-and-Jazz- http://noma.org/news/detail/178/Worth-the-Trip-Ralston-Crawford-in-New-Orleans Gumbo on Jeffcrom!!

i'm not even an aretha fanatic like that but this is right up there with dino & louis... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FCrk98Fjsg

>>>>> Kenny Burrell + John Abercrombie + Joe Morris combined...

Right, H. Danko is a fine musician per se, I just choose not to support Scientology anything... If any of ya'll have spent much time in or near Clearwater, Florida, you might understand why... William S. Burroughs and Paul Metcalf (read Waters of Potowmack for starters) both dabbled in Scientology in the 1950s but, between 'em, they checked out everything and shucked it... Hopefully that's the case w/ H. Danko & Lee too. *** R. Danko "Java Blues" (lyrics by Emmett Grogan) >>>> anything Band + Allen Toussaint

Danko was (is? I dunno) HEAVY into Scientology-- this is not speculation, it's FACT (I say to the A. Lowe skeptics)... Is Ken Dryden still around? From his review of a Danko "Chasin' The Bad Guys"-- "The oddball cowboy cover art might make one think this is a country album, but pianist Harold Danko leads his quartet (the Geltman Band, named after a pair of Scientology leaders) though a better-than-average date from the late '70s..." Ya'll wanna see something even crazier? Peep this-- http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/stats/by-name/h/harold-danko.html Thankfully I have no Hariold Danko records that need purging and I always liked George Cables about a jillion times better. It's disturbing and disappointing both that Lee Konitz, with a million other educational options in his life, chose THAT one...

I must disagree with my esteemed colleague of the clavecin, Herr Weil. I recently picked up Haas books 3 & 4 on Alpha and think this it's some marvelous Couperin playing-- Time for Larry to retire or supplement those old Kenneth Gilbert lps! (I think I'm remembering that right.)

Dick Katz is great-- everything someone like Fred Hersch is too arrogant and dull to even wish to be. A pleasure to hear Dick talk about music too, especially insightful on John Lewis, for those JL skeptics among us.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, Brother Jeffcrom... Surely AT deserved more than he got for his best work but-- being VERY distraught by his '70s arranger-for-hire (that Band stuff being perhaps greatest gulf between huge rep and lame achievement), I hoped his solo moves shucked that more aggressively... Also, timid covers of Professor Longhair are as irksome as the jillion inane Monk covers (Paul Motian's among the worst) tho' perhaps less common.. And I will say, pace AT's voice... it's better than Burt Bacharach's!! Sidenote 1: I finally got a copy of the elusive Richard H. Knowles' "Fallen Heroes" + cd... more anon. Sidenote 2: horrible as the Band and its solo iterations largely were after 1968, this is pretty hot, ridiculous (lyrics by Emmett Grogan)-- Sidenote 3: Lizzie Miles + Sharkey Bonano

I'm surprised at this, Brother Jeffcrom... What aspect(s) of Toussaint's solo schtick do you find engaging or exceptional? At his best he's not unpleasant; more often you just think how great an arranger/producer he was and wish for the sources of his myriad pastiches... If we cut him slack for doing crap with the Band (can't blame him for cashing the check or being unable to elevate that tiresome mess of hacks and junkies), what's anyone's excuse for that Elvis Costello shit biscuit? Etc etc... I know some people who claim Toussaint's last one "Bright Mississippi" was his 'best' ever but come on, it's not even as good/interesting as Dick Curless (speaking of Maine) on Rounder, let alone Teddy Edwards "Mississippi Lad," and requires a lot less I-wish-it-was-better indulgence... Tho' I think AT's best is greater/more "important" than, say, Duke Pearson's, their solo output is pretty equal, except I bet Duke could sing better if he had too and I'll take Lizzie Miles 11 times out 10 over both of 'em. I will admit that this post really set me off, to the extent that I just turned off the computer and walked around for awhile. Everyone's taste and judgement is different, but to me, talking bad about Allen Toussaint is like talking bad about Abraham Lincoln, or something like that. In a calmer mood, I'll say that I don't think this performance represents him at his best - at least the parts I saw. But I'll also point out that Toussaint is one of those musicians who is way more than the sum of his parts.

As an expert Brucknerian I'll admit that's a fair question but I'll also say we could listen to a Celibidache 8th* THREE TIMES in a row for as long as the most bloated Morty pieces... Even a Knappertsbusch "Parsifal"! And yes duration is its special bag (pace Sorabji too), just because one can... doesn't mean one needs to, beyond the test of doing so. (At least in tantric sex you can cum multiple times as in "Tristan und Isolde.") That's athleticism, and sorta 'impressive' in its way but even Coltrane c. "Live in Japan" ran out of jellybeans. I don't know how your prostate is doing but I feel more comfortable letting it flow earlier than later. I agree Morty is closer to Faure-meets-Babar than the 'minimalist' shuck he's lumped with; the Poulenc influence in his work is also under-recognized, appreciated. * none of which would be my favorite Because it's been my experience, for the most part, that "for that long" is a significant part of the overall musical/aesthetic effect. Also, as far as I'm concerned, "minimalism" (or Minimalism) has nothing to do with it, nor with anything that Feldman meant or had in mind. Don't know if Morty himself ever recorded his opinions about any of the Minimalism we've come to know as such, but I'd be surprised if he found it anything but annoying and/or simple-minded. And IMO anyone who thinks that Morty's music is simple-minded is ... you know the rest. P.S. about "for that long"-- Do you think Bruckner symphonies should be shorter?

Just the part about his knowing what he's doing... If I take "exquisite" to mean concentrated + brilliant than sure that's necessary but again, why bother (not why patterns) for that long? A sampling of representative Feldman will do most people well but once your attuned to Feldman, I'd argue someone like Szymanowski and Delius gives you so so so much more. Granted there are some hardcore "minimalist" advocates who don't WANT more (or only want maximal minimalism a la Morty) but a good chunk of the Feldman cult is comprised of dimwit "rockers" (sic) who found in Feldman a music comfortably dull but quieter. Unless you got/need time to kill, you can get 97% of what Feldman has to offer in those mega chamber pieces from Working Out With The Barney Kessel Quartet and Edgard Varese.

the soundtracks and ballets get you most of the best of Shosty; "The Nose" opera is pretty great too. for political and social-historical reasons-- which i do understand-- people wanna try to listen to Shosty like he's Schubert or LvB but really, it just doesn't work out... and there's TONS of great Prokofiev that's far too little heard, beginning with the Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution. the DSCH story is fascinating if irresolvable (I do side more with Volkov et al than debunkers) but the music itself is often too ponderous or dull; I tend to like folk-y or zany Shosty best, with some exceptions. I'll plump for parts of the first violin concerto too.

A typical reaction from Feldman cultists not actually well versed in the western classical tradition Feldman is an extension/refinement/dead end of. Feldman is fine, he did a few things well, had an excellent sense of humor in person and though confident/arrogant like many composers was also a good natured huckster who could compare himself to Beethoven AND Delius depending on the audience... That 99.999999% of people interested in music, western classical or otherwise, need to follow Morty around in circles is silly; a small handful of works from each period suffices and though the Mode series, like it's Cage series, is admirable cf. a documentary procedure, the idea that it's all "interesting" let alone "important' is nonsense and people REALLY interested are better off reading the scores. leo ornstein >>>>> opus clavicembalisticum >>>> for bunita marcus though good luck finding Feldman fanatics who've even tried.