CJ Shearn

well, since I'm the TA and Mike is the teacher it's entirely up to him what's done but I am sure he'll definitely want my input. Since he intends on using GB, Jazztimes, Jazziz as sources of readings, I think that is an excellent and easy to understand way to access historical type essays, historical reconsiderations of artists (e.g. Grant Green being in the top 10 in JT's guitar issue last year) that were undervalued during their time and also the social issues surrounding periods. There needs to be more articles selected like "Reconsidering the Jazz Tradition" by Scott Deveaux which was read last semester in Keeping Time, a nice anthology, but I sold it when classes were over. There needs to be IMO, a focus on articles like the Deveaux because, they shy away from the Marsalis neoclassicism argument, and it shows that styles of fusion, soul jazz, etc are indeed valid. Also since Mike is a Metheny fan, I hope we could touch on a point later on is that his music was different from fusion in the 70's, fusion in the sense of styles mixing but different because of the melodic openess, the time keeping on the ride opposed to backbeats (although you find backbeats on almost every cut of the first PMG album) and that even though some pieces may not be "jazz" in the traditional sense, he draws on the tradition definitely. Also if the class is on Blackboard, a o/l class message board there should be links to this site, jazzcorner and AAJ to show how us passionate fans discuss jazz. I don't think discussions about RVG would interest folks but certainly other types might.

cool, Rooster. I'll keep that in mind and will discuss it with Mike, Erin and Marcus (the other TA's) whenever we discuss class material. thanks

sank you. any tips? we will cover everything from New Orleans Jazz to bop, hard bop, modal, free, fusion, and today. of course most of my recordings that could be used in class, are hard bop, fusion, some stuff out now, I will have to buy more stuff if things in the class are played that I dig.

the class I took for fun last semester. It's being taught by a guy named Mike Carbone a teacher I've known since middle school and is a person who really finds my knowledge of tremendous value, so he offered me the TA gig the other day in addition to the 2 TA's that were involved in it last semester. Mike is a great teacher in Johnson City and does a bang up job with their bands and also Binghamton University's jazz band so it should be nice. My professor for the class last semester, David Brackett was almost certainly going to offer me a TA spot if he knew that class was being offered this year but at the time BU's jazz program took a dive due to budget cuts. Later by a stroke of luck it was reinstated and the class is being offered again. The way Mike is teaching it will be cool, he plans on using a lot more audiovisual media compared to Brackett, having more in class performances and local players discussion their roles on their instruments, as well as what myself and the other TA's have in their collections.. I think this will promote more critical listening, a skill Brackett was trying to get the class to develop but didn't work. I was the person who heard the most of what he was getting at when he tried to demonstrate a musical point. I will be offered 2 undergraduate teaching credits to boot!

interesting point Hans. I think according to what you and others say regarding TOCJ's, and the sound of them, (I don't have much experience with TOCJ's cuz I cannot afford imports often) the few imports I do have, have a warmer sound that is more pleasing, and not as treble heavy, more of a midrange. At the BNBB I remember Lon elaborating on the pressing differences in US/Japan plants as a possible reason for this. Whereas a lot of the US issues, though they sound better than previous incarnations have unnecessary treble boost and a bass response that's too heavy. Rudy is still a masterful engineer, but I would lean towards the camp of him having high frequency hearing loss, with just a little bit of the tastes in US music production, bright, compressed sound, factored in.

yes Jim, it is a good thing you are not familiar with that.... actually the tune is called "Shower You With My Love" just imagine a lame bassline, a quiet storm drum loop, horrid 80's production, lame but not as bad as you know who soprano playing, a singer with blue eyes and a mullet singing cliche stuff like ::slight roar in voice:: "I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU ::insert melisma here::"

Jim, while your at it, play "Mr Magic" and the George Howard tune "Shower You With Love" ::barf:: what crap, I saw that video on BET On Jazz passing thru, what the hell is that lame ass shit?

Shrdlu, I don't think Rudy would have any one assist him with sonic adjustments, from what I've heard he goes as far as covering the mic labels with tape so no one can see what brand they are. He's very secretive about his techniques in an almost manic way.

Pablo was a label I grew up with for a few records, there are some stuff IMO, especially recorded at Montreux that ranks as the label's best work and some inspired work from those at that time in their careers, some albums I dig are: Count Basie: On The Road, when it hit CD I was very happy. Great solos on this date by Eric Dixon, Kenny Hing, John Clayton and Booty Wood. Basie:Jam Session at Montreux '75: w/ Eldridge, Griffin, and Bags. Fun stuff. Basie: Montreux '77 Jam Milt Jackson/Ray Brown: Montreux '77 Jazz At the Santa Monica Civic '72 Freddie Hubbard: Born to Be Blue, At the Northsea Jazz Festival one thing that always bothered me and still does is Pablo's dry studio sound. Maybe it was meant for a "live" in your face kind of feel, I also heard that Norman had low production values, but the sound on other dry recordings doesn't bug me nearly as much as these.

never heard of this cat either, sounds interesting. I think that if this was revealed to anyone that maybe a lesser known player was dabbling in innovations that a more famous player is credited for it may be controversial, similar to how Jimmy Smith on the organ, has been cited by Joey Defrancesco, and others as doing some of the modal type and sheets of sound stuff Trane was doing.

thanks Jazzmoose, if there are any liners on Pat records they are usually like "I decided to use this guitar because no one has explored harmonic material in this way before" or "Lyle and I wanted something acoustic in nature" or "we are addressing a very particular area of music here hopefully successfully adding our stylistic touches" lol.

What they've done since the last batch of RVG's is change the original serial numbers in the logos or in the typography which is something I don't know why they've done. As I have complained before, it takes away the original retro feel of the series.

This is usually from every time I go out to the Lost Dog to enjoy local gigs played by cats I know. they play these tunes almost every week: All Blues Stella By Starlight (the guitarist Taze always calls this) You Don't Know What Love Is (they always have fun with this though) a funked up Footprints Softly As in A Morning Sunrise Tenor Madness. These are all from the Real Book the way they do them, so even non musicians like myself are getting very familiar w/ these Real Book treatments of tunes. I agree with those that said it's not the tune that's boring, it's just the nature of the improv on it that makes it so.

true. It's just amazing to me how some of the RVG's have this analog warmth and some are overly bright (but still better than McMasters to my ears) you've recorded in RVG's studio? wow, you can send me a PM if you'd like the details. I've always wondered who ya are too, you can PM that as well, b/c it'd be real cool if I was talking to a name cat, especially since I wanna enter the industry as a writer/critic someday.

Maybe this should be posted in audio talk, but maybe it'd get more reads here. With what I read on the Blue Train SACD thread in regards to the excessive treble and Rudy's supposed hearing loss, yes I think a lot of the RVG's are bright, but the ones that sound absolutely beautiful like "Indestructible!" the Monks, the Jimmy Smith's, and the "Love Supreme" deluxe edition, I've read that Maureen Sickler is his assistant, do you think maybe the reason for the really great remasters is RVG just being "on" or maybe she is assistant him with what sounds better level wise? I want some opinions so that I can maybe understand some of the reasonings behind this.

I think what is special about Ron is his tone (after the CTI's I've heard his tone goes completely bass direct) his taste, and his elastic ability to play around with time, and play really odd sounding things that sound just right, like his signature "boinging rubber band" lick that he does. I think Ron's tone when DI'ed totally ruins something for me. I saw him on BET on Jazz playing "Loose Change", from the 70's, his tone was AWFUL, and the solo was just incredibly boring, as great as he is, this solo was filled with an inappropriate number of masturbatory trills, and other bass gymnastics that in that setting, didn't work.

I second that Ron.

for the past 5 or so years and currently, definitely, without question: the most detailed listening I've ever done being a non musician. And then also Miles, Hank, Wayne, and anybody who's been a sideman on those albums. A lot of the recurring names in my collection are due to their apperances as sidemen. pretty much as I'm collecting an artist I go through phases but with the guys I really love there is usually several albums that remain in constant rotation.

I have to conserve cash before I move back into my dorm but I'll PM you when I check out the disc. Maybe even the Binghamton Public Library has it, which might be cool too, but I personally prefer buying discs :-D

Soulive tends to get into the repitition of groove thing as well, and I don't find them very interesting as soloists. I saw them on BET on Jazz yesterday, a tune called "Lenny" where Eric Krasno (playing what looked similar to a Pat Metheny Ibanez model) had this boring solo of nothing but blues cliches behind Neal Evans' 3 or 4 long organ chords behind a synth fretless bass line. If they were interesting soloists it'd be ok, but the way they stay on a groove is not that interesting to me.

thanks for the offer Lon, but I will just go w/ buying the remastered version sometime soon, but I appreciate the kind offer, I really like what Columbia has done in remastering Miles' catalog. Claude, in the two tracks I was sent, I hear what you mean, I am not familiar with Mikkelborg's other works but I sense a very composed kind of thing that sets up an unusual terrain for improvising. In "White", it's hard to hear where the composition begins and ends in the framework of Miles' solo.

interesting Rooster Ties and Lon. I would agree that it is a challenging work, compared to say simpler funkier stuff like "Tutu", "Perfect Way", "Me and U" etc. I'd rather keep an open mind to it rather than a purist attitude, I think it also says something about classic and challenging being two separate entities even tho as in the case of say "Sorcerer", or "Filles" the two are now intertwined. It seems to me that if we forget about anything recorded from 1955-70 in the moment and look at his 80's catalog, it ranks as one of his best 80's discs, if it's looked at in the context of his more cherished albums, it may not rank as high, but I've been trying to find as much as I can about "Aura" in the past few days to try to understand and contextualize it better. Next time I go to Barnes and Noble I may just get a copy.

the album, not his aura as a musician :-D How do you feel about it? The reason I ask is because my friend Daniel and I were IM'ming the other night, and he's talking about "Aura" claiming it was Miles' "most far out shit since BB". Daniel is an electric Miles fan, who's really been heavily into jazz the past few years, myself, have been digging acoustic Miles for a long time as many of us have, and just really have been beginning to explore electric Miles myself (IaSW is on my priority list, the single remastered disc tho b/c I mostly enjoy those Columbia albums by him in their original sequence, as is BB- just two I never got around to yet.. shameful, I know) And while in the very small bits I've heard of prime electric Miles, this stuff is great music, but later on, the era of 80's Miles particularly on record has troubled me. Because the stuff just hasn't dated as well, and while his playing was always great the surroundings he was in, with players like Foley, Holzman, Irving, etc. didn't sound as good on record as they did live. Even the "Live in Munich" DVD, which I've since sold, was an enjoyable trip into his 80's repertoire even if some of the tunes and synth sounds were a little cheesy. (bad sampling, too cold) Anyway, Daniel sent me some "Aura" tracks, "Indigo" and "White" and after hearing them several times, they do nothing for me. "White" has some interesting dissonant writing but it's nothing I haven't heard before in the Evans type orchestration, and the writing is a little rigid. "Indigo" just sounds like "Nefertiti" era stuff without the same thrills. Do any of you consider "Aura" in the midst of Miles' career and tremendous legacy to be another milestone in his career? I may have to pick up the album and give it a whole listen, but opinions would be appreciated. Unlike Hardbop I'm not averse to hearing prime electric Miles although primarily I really dig his acoustic work as do many of us. Anyway, Daniel because he hasn't heard a lot of Miles' work from 1955-68 and because he listens to music for a different reason, is unable to critically evaluate what he likes or dislikes about a work, something that happens when I ask him what he feels about a work. In time hopefully he'll gain this ability. I used to think everything Jimmy Smith did was great, but as I got older I got more critical about his best work compared to what was total garbage.

so far this month: Cannonball Adderley: Somethin' Else RVG Wayne Shorter: Speak No Evil RVG Art Blakey: Indestructible RVG Joshua Redman Quartet: Spirit of the Moment Live at the Village Vanguard Miles Davis: Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk Complete: disc 3