neveronfriday

Cheers!

It's that time of year again ... [and thanks everyone for the nice cakes ... I'm beginning to put on a tad too much weight ... can you make them low-fat for the next 30 birthdays? Thanks!] Cheers! P.S.: Low fat:

Who wants to be my friend?

Tonight I stumbled into one of these concerts that make you wonder what the world is coming to. By chance, I found out from a friend that Albert Lee and Hogan's Heroes were performing in a pizza restaurant in a small village north-east of where I am. When I got there, the first set was almost over and I am definitely not in a country mood at the moment, but Lee was smokin'. I think there were all of 100 people (at the most) in attendance at a place which was built for 50. Albert Lee, former member of Chris Farlow's Thunderbirds, Country Fever, Head Hands and Feet, Eric Clapton's Band, Emmylou Harris' Hotband, the reformed Everly Brothers Band (1983-) and countless others (Dave Edmunds, Joan Armatrading, Ricky Scaggs, Joe Cocker, Willie Nelson, Linda Ronstadt, Travis Tritt, etc. and winner of a Grammy in, I think, 2002) together with Hogan's Heroes: Gerry Hogan on steel guitar (Head, Hands & Feet, Matchbox, Emmylou Harris, Everly Brothers, Tracey Ullman, Sonny Curtis, Mott the Hoople, Dave Edmunds, etc.), Brian Hodgson on bass (Jonny Halliday, Kenny Rogers, Kirsty McColl [on TV together with Neil Innes and Fatso, Eric Idle and George Harrison!] etc.), Pete Wingfield on keyboards (Jellybread, Van Morrison, Hollies, Everly Brothers, Beautiful South, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Paul McCartney [Run Devil Run], and, and, and) plus Peter Baron on drums (Leo Sayer, Chris Thompson, Chales Aznavour, The THree Degrees, Cleo Laine, and, and, and) ... ... in a village (1200 inhabitants), playing in a pizza place. God. Just fine handmade music (Lee and Wingfield did a whole lot of stunning trade-offs). Loved it, despite my country abstinence. Cheers!

Well, John's definetely a guest at the birthady party. Who's next? Cheers!

Hi, Hermie!

Yep!

In order, if I had the money, I would add these by Dennis Stock (these come from an online site and are much too dark, unfortunately): If a good reproduction was available, I would probably move the last one (Mulligan) up to place two. It radiates a wonderful atmosphere.

Ah, what the hell ... I scanned it. Zutty:

I could never afford those photographs I would like to have, but there is one I would buy if I had the money and if it was available. It was taken by Charles Peterson and shows Zutty Singleton keeping time for an HRS session of Pee Wee Russell's Rhythmakers on August 31, 1938. Most of you would probably laugh because there are so many great other photos out there to be had (or not had), but being a drummer myself, that one single photo embodies everything I like about jazz. It's a very subjective thing. I can't scan it in (I hate to bend the hell out of my books) and can't find it on the Net, but here they are at least ... Charles Peterson, Zutty and Louis.

Not alpha, but ...

Yeah, I got hooked again for over an hour (the "Europe 1919-1950 section) after I posted the first entry in this thread. Getting that hardcover in mint condition from Powells for under $30 was like Christmas. Currently (this is not an invitation to start a flame war), what's stopping me from crying into my beer is Ken Burns' "Jazz" volume. Am really enjoying it again (for the umpteenth time). And, I'm having a gin tonic anyways, so crying into that would be sacrilege. Comparable to leaving out the lime. A gin without lime is like a girl without, err, you know.

*envy* I guess my postcard set doesn't compare? Cheers!

I think it jumped the shark with the, (ahem), phallic analogy. Ok, guess I misread the room. My bad, and duly noted for future reference. But... The meat of that post (no pun intended) was in this paragraph: People had been asking how much of Miles' reputation was mystique, how much of it was purely musical, and what was the basis for the mystique. I'm of the opinion that the music and the mystique are at some fundamental level intrinsically intertwined. Few artists of any medium have allowed so many (seeming) contradictions to co-exist in their work and their persona as did Miles Davis. Name any "artistic attribute" and you can find both it and its opposite in both the music and the life of Miles Davis. Perhaps I misspoke when I used the phrase "truth is found in resolving ambiguities", because Miles never really set about resolving the ambiguities. He instead seemed more than content to let them coexist, not as battling forces, but instead as opposites that peacefully coexisted as a matter of fact, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to be equally yin and yang at the same time rahter than being one or the other at any given moment. Which is how most of us are. We all have our various "sides", but how many of us can display them all at once, and in a most natural manner at that? Very few people can do that, and Miles, both as a person and as a musician seems to have been one of those few. The implications of this are quite real - here is a man and a music who can more or less exemplify many different things to many different people without any of those people necessarily "getting it wrong". At the level of celebrety, this is called "charisma", but it goes deeper than celebrety - it goes to the very real possibility that Miles' appeal, both personal and musical, was based on providing us with "bonding" based on providing us with bonds of recognition of ourselves and recogniton of our "complimentary opposites". Miles' music was "masculine" AND "feminine". "sloppy" AND "tight", "tough" AND tender", yin AND yang, and not one or the other at any given moment, but everything all the time. Arguments about Miles inevitably take the tact of Point A being refuted by a "yeah, bit" Point B, as if one refutes the other by having greater weight in the overall appraisal of the situation. Although that works in a lot of instances, it just doesn't fly with Miles, I think, because both are inevitably correct. Was Miles an asshole or a warm human being? Both. Was he a trumpeter with great chops or one who found a way to make do with what he had? Both. Was he a genuine innovator or an opportunist who was not above outright theft? Both. And none of those qualities necessarily takes precedence over the other. In fact, they are often all true at the same time. How many jazz musicians, no, how many PEOPLE can you say that about? Very, VERY few, and I'll wager that those of whom you can are people with a "mystique" their ownselves. Which leads to the question - when we choose "what it is" about Miles that we like (those of us who do like him, anyway), are we choosing to ignore the very real OPPOSITE qualities that he also embodied? If we are, are we doing so because we honestly don't see them, or because it would bother us to admit being so attracted to the buzz from the positive that we are more than willing to overlook the negative? And if we are willing to admit the latter, does that not open up a whole other set of personal "quandaries" about who and what we ourselves REALLY are? What we are willing to accept in order to get what we want/need is a major defining element of our personal character, isn't it? So, placed in the context of the above sentiments, I thought that a Glory Hole analogy was not only appropriate, but genuinely relevant, especially considering Miles' rumored bisexuality, which in itself is a literal embodiment of what I'm talking about and might go a long way towards explaining his personal and musical essence. That is, if it doesn't make the "enigma" (as it appears to a hetereosexual white male SERIOUS lover of Miles Davis' music such as myself) even more complex. Because whether we like to admit it or not, it's impossible to get the "good" Miles without also getting the "bad". If we like it, he music is fellating us, to use a figure of speech, but we really don't KNOW just who or what is doing it, not completely. And for something like that, if you don't know completely, you really don't know at all. I thought it would make sense. I guess I thought wrong. Err, I think this calls for a drink. Or four. Cheers!

WTF: I'll just go for the Mosaic. You guys are gonna kill me one day. Cheers!

I completely bombed out on blindfold test #7. How about we get together, get wasted and cry into our beers? Then ... back to shopping. (That hardcover is quite something, isn't it?)

Damn. Yeah, my memory. That happens if you are too sure of yourself. Yeah, I have that one too. I should be home right now to pull out some discs. For now, I'll just change my birthday back to 1 ... maybe that'll help the memory part. [depressed] Cheers!

Need to keep it (reasonably) cheap.

You mean to say that #5 is NOT from this CD? I'm just going to step over here and kill myself for a second. I'll be back later. I suck at these BFTs. *whine*

I seem to be unable (today ... not my day) to unearth a copy of Randy Weston's CD "Little Niles". I've stumbled over so many recommendations that I wouldn't mind picking this one up. So far, I know it's on the Mosaic set (which I do not intend to buy) and that there is a Japanese re-issue which costs an arm and a leg. All too complicated. Does anyone have a source in Europe where I could get this from? Man, this is not my day.

That softcover has completely different content than the hardcover, correct? If you mean The Blue Note Years: The Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff (Wolff, Lourie, Cuscuna, Schnider (Contributor)), the hardcover and paperback should have the same contents. I only have the hardcover, so I can't check. [Edit: The book entitled Blue Note : Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff seems to be just another release and also identical to the others].

For people in Europe, the German edition of Claxography (with English text?) is available for Euro 40 from Nieswand Verlag: http://www.nieswandverlag.de/categories.ph...ewindex&catid=1 (3rd from top) (30 x 33 cm) Nieswand also published the Putfarcken above and has lots of really nice stuff available (Karl-Heinz Schmitt. Pieces of Jazz in Black and Colour. 24,5 x 33 cm. 55 colour- and duotones, f. ex.) Mark, I knew all the ones you listed (and have quite a few), but the Monterey Jazz Festival one I don't think I have come across yet. Sounds interesting. I'll go and check it out ... now. B) The Leonard limited edition of Jazz Memories is stunning ... but out of my price range. The standard edition I'm looking for used. http://www.hermanleonard.com/limited.htm ($495 ... ouch) Thanks!

And this is a great (Flash) exhibition of cover art, starting with Sthe Steinweiss era: http://www.eisnermuseum.org/_albums/index.html Click on begin. [Edit: There used to be a lot more. I think they reduced it. I haven't checked that link for a long time. Not really all that good anymore. Sorry.].

Some Alex Steinweiss covers: http://www.xs4all.nl/~rabruil/remcovart.html

Got it, and yes, I left out TONS of stuff. Looking forward to hearing from others regarding their recommendations. Cheers!