Soul Stream

I like most anything. I almost always listen to jazz on my own. But I really listen to stuff when I'm just hanging out around the town. I live in a pretty eclectic town, so you're bound to hear most anything. Most stuff triggers something in my mind. It could be a bluegrass song, AC/DC cover band I pass by, some classical thing in a movie, an old middle of the road worn out radio hit from the 70's. I'm usually surprised what will intrigue me. Most anything. The one thing I really don't dig is Reggae. I know, a cardinal sin, but it's never attached itself to me. I do like ska when I hear it, and Bob Marley, but other than that.....I'm not a fan. Anything "roots" and American you can count me in pretty much. Not much of a "world" music fan though, except stuff like Latin, Cuban, ect I'm a big fan. And African. Ragas are not high on my list. Let me put it this way...I bought a Albert Ayler CD and a George Jones CD when I went to the record store last night. Even the audio-weary guy behind the counter thought that was pretty odd.

When I bought the Larry Young set, I never had heard him. Remember NO sessions as a leader or sideman were available as domestic cd reissues when that was put out. I had seen pictures of those records and had read a little about him. But other than that, had no clue. I'll still never forget the moment I put that first CD from that Mosaic set on! Wow, I didn't know what the hell he was doing, but I damn sure knew it was a long, long way from Smithville. Still, hands down, my favorite Mosaic. (followed by the Sam Rivers...) That set exemplifies Mosaic at it's best.

Yeah! How 'bout some Mothership! I don't want to hear no talk about another Hill until I get the thumbs up that Mothership is about to land. I don't think Larry ever hit a bad note on Blue Note. But, ever notice at the end of Luny Tune where it goes from Larry's solo to the head....either that's a edit, or Larry shifts gears pretty quick. If so, I'd like to hear the unedited version.

Thought I'd fire up the engines for the great Larry Young. Surely one of the greatest organists to ever touch the console. I doubt any organist will ever take the instrument to such great heights again. So, what's your favorite Larry Young moment, track, album, riff, motif, or all things Larry...?

Ahhh...finally found a drummer. A good one no less that could squeeze it in before him latenight gig. Relief.

I'm thinking about just calling a horn player. Trouble is, it's kind of a Saturday-nightish vibe to the gig. Going drummerless may prove to be too mellow. Maybe not if I get a fiery tenor. I'm tired of calling and thinking about the whole thing. This late in the game is getting very stressful, no matter who I get. This time frame seems to be overlapping most players late-night gigs. Uggg. Plus, as you know, playing in untried configurations of people unfamiliar with certain things always makes it stressful on leading a group through 2 hours of music. Thanks for the support...

Well, here it is mid-afternoon on Friday. I have a decent paying 6:30 to 9 gig tommorrow evening ($100 a man) easy gig. My drummer bailed a couple of days ago for a super-paying private party out of town. I said it was cool and immediatley began the calls. Well, I'm fucked again. I've called everybody and then some with no luck. I'm so fucking sick of this shit I could scream....

I think most musicians in general "skip" the basics. Good time, phrasing and listening make up 90% of what we think of as good musicianship. Technical capacity beyond those concepts is just gravy. Most players, myself included, aren't to the level where what is espoused as virtuosity is little more than mindless licks and flash. The ability to incorporate the mind-boggling into the song and still keep it musical is not something I'm capable of. As are 99.9% of musicians I think. The great players I've come in contact with are always bringing it down to the most basic levels, even for themselves.

Yeah, but also beware. Sometimes the DG oversell can hurt. Case in point...Albert Ayler's "Music is the Healing Force of the Universe." I read the hype and fell for it. I'm a fan of Albert, but this is pretty tepid stuff from our man in outer space. The woman singing should have been excorted to the nearest cocktail lounge to sing My Funny Valentine with Larry Young's wife....

I find that most musicians I know who come out to catch a gig DON'T want to sit in for the most part. They usually come out to listen to someone else play. That's the way I feel about stuff. I KNOW how I play, I wan't to hear someone else if I make their gig. That's why I came, to see THEM play.

I'm not a big fan of sitting in. If so, 3 songs tops and a thank you, how about a big hand for.... Even if the player is someone you love playing with. After 3 songs the gig turns into something else. If someone does sit in invited and wants to play all night, I guess that's cool if the guy who he's replacing doesn't care. I don't find this to be the case for the most part. Players, with a few exceptions, come to play. Plus, unless it's the leader giving up his chair you can run into problems. I had a drummer who had had a long day (it was his third gig) just tire out. He invited some lesser people to the stand while he rested and let them have a go. Tired or not, I hired that guy for the job because he was qualified, the others weren't so up to it. Needless to say, the gig really suffered and it soured me on the guy. These are all things to think about. Sitting in is over-rated and more often than not leads to a lesser evening for all. Unless you live in NYC or someplace crawling with overqualified musicians itching to play.

I think for the time being, there's two things at work. The bad ecomony (people don't have the money to go out) and the war (people would rather stay home and watch what's going on with the war on t.v.). Either way that means fewer people. Creative as we can be, without patrons the clubs and restaurants won't be able to survive. I've seen that happen drastically in the last year. I'm not optimistic about the immediate future. But like you said Joe, I've actually seen an increase in local creativity since things began to fall apart. It does bring out something in creative people. The adversity factor at work. Personally, my work has increased in the last year and especially in the last 2 months. Go figure.

The way things are going economically lately, $20 is getting closer to the mark! (o.k., not really thank god.) Anyway, a lot of the places are cutting the money in the last year or so. And if the last week is any indicator, if this is a lengthy war the gig money could get worse real quick. The trumpet player I played with last night has found a simple solution. He just plays a lot of duos and trios now. That's almost all he does. I used to see him with a 5 man crew almost exclusively. He works every night somewhere and always wins the top trumpet in the local rag. But money's so tight, in order to make his nut he just cut the # of guys on the gig. A shame, but a neccessary action I guess. It's made me start to re-think some of my gigs. I don't know about up north, but down here there entertainment bus. is hurting.

Hey, who said anything about $100....

Got a last minute call tonight from a great trumpet player, rushed down to do the gig and found out it was just a duo, organ and trumpet. That was one of the most fun gigs I've played in a long time. So, next time I'm pressed to find a drummer, I'm tempted not to get one. I found it much, much easier to play tonight without one that last night with one. Ahhhh freedom...

I hadn't played with a truely "bad" drummer on a whole gig for probably the last 6 or 7 years. So last night was a real horror story. It really makes you appreciate who you play with regularly. I've honestly only played with the same handfull of drummers for several years now. I wouldn't even catagorize last night as playing "music," it felt like something else..."work." Plus, in all honesty this guy is probably "great" for his bag (are you gals and guys ready to swing dance!), his time was fine and he did excel on some things. It's just his style doesn't fit with what I'm doing. That's the killer. People can all be pretty good at what they do, but if the styles don't fit there's a huge problem. Especially for something as demanding drummer-wise as an organ trio. Plus nothing bothers me more than playing with someone who isn't listening to what's going on. They're in there own world thinking they're doing great. The guy never had a clue anything was wrong. Matter of fact, he asked if he could have the gig every week.

We've all had the "sit-in" nightmares over the years. But 3 straight sets was a killer. I knew I was in trouble the minute the guy showed up with his Gene Krupa HUGE bass drum and kit ala' 1930's. He was one of these "swing" guys. It was like playing with a robot. 4 on the floor all night long. And that bass drum sounded like a high school marching band...a huge hollow, ringing sound. Finally, I surrendered to his style and that seemed to work a little better. He sure wasn't getting the clue that the swing era had ended, so I did my Wild Bill Davis impression all night long. Speaking of sit-ins. Some guy with a flugle horn jumped up on stage out of nowhere the other night and just starts playing and then I COULD NOT GET HIM OFF! After the first tune..."O.K. everybody, how about a nice hand for ....." Giving him the hint to get off. No clue. 3 songs into in, I had to tell him thanks, we're going to play a tune you don't know. "That's o.k., I'll wing it" he says. This was after he requested "Lover Man," played the head and then fumbled over the rest. NO, I said...and ended the set early just like you guys did. It's been a rough couple of days, hijacked by a shitty flugle horn player then accosted by Gene Krupa's offspring. Sorry about the rant. Usually I'm pretty humble and understanding, but it's been a couple of hard gigs. Hope I'm not coming off as a know it all jackass.

I've been in drummer hell lately. Landed a regular tuesday night gig, but the two drummers I always use (the two best jazz drummers in town) both have had steady tuesday gigs. So I've been fishing around. The playing level really, really, really, falls off after the first few. Especially for jazz. Tonight I got a guy the guitar player usually plays with in a dixieland band. Fuck. Have you ever hear an organ trio with a dixieland beat? Neither had I, but I did tonight. I've never hired someone sight unseen, but I was screwed and couldn't find ANYONE up until a few hours before the gig. I was super desperate. Why didn't I just hire my usual tenor guy and do it organ, tenor, guitar. I've really learned my lesson. Ugggg. Well, that was my rant. Anyone else have a horrible drummer story.(do I have to even ask?) Since we can cuss here, I just have to end this with fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. 3 sets never felt so long.

Although the series seems to have ended. I have high hopes that the music contained therein will continue. A good example is the recent Eric Kloss 2-fer with Don Patterson and Groove Holmes. If the Legends of Acid Jazz were still going, that SURELY would have been one. Also, they've done some pretty recent (last year) great McDuff, ect. So....I really LOVE fantasy's reissue policy.

Yeah...this is the place for me. I don't go to AAJ anymore. Nothing against it at all. Glad that ended up being a refuge for the old BNBB folks as well. For me, this is make it or break it. I like the smaller amount of activity here in a way, smaller group seems more intimate to me anyway. Without this site, I think I would just shut down the computer.

Let me steer this baby back on track.... I'm not against the political forum at all. I'm just saying this. If you're posting your jazz stuff on AAJ almost exclusively, then coming over here to talk politics...save some of your jazz thoughts for this site.

I check in a couple times a day. It's been getting less and less. Then I realized it's because when I hit the "new posts", it's almost entirely political stuff. I'm one of the one's that really pushed for this to be an open forum. To include politics. However, is everyone doing their jazz discussion on AAJ and then jumping over here to talk politics? If that's the case, I'd like to see someone throw us a jazz topic bone every once in a while. I don't go to AAJ, so this is my only source for jazz. However, if it just turns mostly politics because AAJ won't host that discussion, I'll probably come less and less. I could see it withering the board.

I like Boss Tenors alright. Paul Weeden kind of kills it for me. It's very, very, very early Patterson...so he's at his most Jimmy Smithness. It's a nice outing. So many other of the Stitt/Patterson Prestige recordings dwarf it if you haven't got all those first. I love the Patterson Muse stuff. Right on B3-er, The Odd Couple is bad...

The Natural Soul...hands down. As much as I love Patterson, Stitt, Ammons and Billy James. It's not one of their best outings IMHO. The Natural Soul is the #1 Soul Jazz record of all time IHMO!

For anybody that want to SEE Cannonball in his prime, check out the Jazz Casual and also Jazz Scene USA video/DVDs....they're great!