kenny weir

I'm looking into taking up a martial art, but am totally confused after looking in the phone book. I'm wanting both a physical workout and a mental boost, and am not really interested in any contact aspects. I can't imagine taking it really seriously, and would be able to train once - or maybe twice - a week, plus whatever "homework" is appropriate. A colleague has told me I should look for an institution that teaches a "pure" form. A long, long time ago I practised tai chi for several years, and loved it. For that reason, I guess, the moves involved in an a tae kwondo intro class I went to last night seemed quite familiar, or some of it was a bit of a shock to my 47 years old joints. Karate, kung fu, ta kwando, hapkido, aikido and more - what's it all mean?

Hey Dan - I'm here! The first southern hemisphere blindfold test report!!!!!!! I'm writing this before checking out earlier posts on this thread. First off. thanks to Dan for making this happen - and posting me mine before everyone else so I can participate. My notes will be brief - I loved all this stuff, but I'm all at sea when it comes to the guessing game. I thought I knew this kind of music quite well - but it turns out I'm only scratching the surface. And that's a good thing for sure. Time and again I resorted to the same ill-informed guesses, especially concerning the saxophonists. And with the pianists, I kept on going back to limited options _ Gene Harris, Gene Harris and Gene Harris (funny, that). I think I could work a few of these out by going back to my own collection - but it would take time. I loved the bluesy, greasy feeling of the tracks. And there's a lot of church in there, too. And I always love cover versions of pop/R&B/whatever stuff - a different sort of meaning for the word "standards". 1. OK, so I cheated and peeked when this threadstarted and caught one poster's declaration on this. Ramsey Lewis? I'm a bit surprised. I have quite a bit of his stuff, but despite the heavy blues and gospel feels in his playing, I usually think of him as a bit lighter than this. But now I can hear the rhythm section grooving it makes more sense. 2. A boogie thing played by someone who I suspect has a much broader background. Gene Harris? 3. The bass line and arrangement almost gives it away. A bit further into the song I got it (I think). Jr Walker. Or maybe King Curtis? 4. Stumped again - the same names come to mind. King Curtis, Willis Jackson, Rusty Bryant. This sounds like it could be those NY R&B cats - Cornell Dupree, Bernard Purdie and Co -doing the backing. 5. Sonny Stitt, Eddie Harris, Rusty Bryant? 6. The sax and 'bone don't ring any bells. Sounds like this could be a west coast slant on a an east coast trip. Actually, I do know this sax player - but I can't name him. 7. No idea. 8. If this is one of those Groove Holmes/HankCrawford albums, it's not one I own. And I have a few. 9. No idea. 10. See No.5. 11. Great intro, slinky bass. I'd guess this will come from the past couple of decades, in which case I'm even more at sea. Danilo Perez? 12. The Hammond-and-big-band thing - should be a whole lot more of it. But then again, the only thing I really havealong these lines is the Jimmy Smith Verve stuff. I'm guessing Groove Holmes. 13. Lowdown and dirty. Really brooding. See No.5. Really, this was all wonderful. And now I'm gonna see how much I can get for this rare, highly prized sucker on EBay.

LOL! When/if my time comes, I think I'll be able to resist the minor temptation to lard the thing up with brilliant Australians, who are - by definition - terminally obscure.

A collaboration with Acker Bilk is quite consistent with Morrison's long-term approach. He made an album a few years back with Lonnie donnegan, and has worked with John Lee Hooker, Mose Allison, Dr John and heaps more. And he's often dropped the names of his R&B/jazz/rock heroes into songs as a sort of mantra.

A guy walks into a bar with an octopus. He sits the octopus down on a stool and announces loudly to everyone in the bar that this is a very talented octopus, able to play any musical instrument in the world. Everyone in the crowd laughs at him, calls him an idiot, and so on. But he says he will wager $50 that the octopus can play any musical instrument anyone cares to produce. One man rushes out to his car and comes back with a guitar, which he sets beside the octopus. The octopus starts playing better than Andres Segovia, just rippin' it up. So the man is impressed and pays his owner the $50. Another guy walks up with a trumpet. The octopus plays the trumpet better than Dizzie Gillespie. So this man pays his $50. Then a Scotsman walks up with bagpipes. He sets them down beside the cephalopod and the octopus fumbles with them for fully a minute, turning them over and over. Then it puts them down with a confused look. "Ha!" the Scot says, "See, ye canna play it!" "Play it?" says the octopus. "As soon as I figure out how to get its pyjamas off, I'm going to shag it!"

An interesting theory. And don't forget Alice babs.

Black music from Scotland? It could be the gospel truth BEN McCONVILLE THE church elder’s reaction was one of utter disbelief. Shaking his head emphatically, he couldn’t take in what the distinguished professor from Yale University was telling him. "No," insisted Jim McRae, an elder of the small congregation of Clearwater in Florida. "This way of worshipping comes from our slave past. It grew out of the slave experience, when we came from Africa." But Willie Ruff, an Afro-American professor of music at Yale, was adamant - he had traced the origins of gospel music to Scotland. The distinctive psalm singing had not been brought to America’s Deep South by African slaves but by Scottish émigrés who worked as their masters and overseers, according to his painstaking research. Ruff, 71, a renowned jazz musician who played with Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie, is convinced the Florida congregation’s method of praise - called ‘presenting the line’, in which the psalms are called out and the congregation sings a response - came from the Hebrides. Ruff explained: "They had always assumed that this form of worship had come from Africa, and why not? "I said to him I had found evidence that it was Scottish people who brought this to the New World, but he just would not believe it. I asked him what his name was. He said McRae, and I just replied: ‘There you go’." Psalm singing and gospel music are the backbone of the black Church in the United States, with gospel music CD sales alone worth half a billion dollars last year. Ruff’s research has massive cultural implications for Afro-Americans and alters the history of American culture. He said: "We as black Americans have lived under a misconception. Our cultural roots are more Afro-Gaelic than Afro-American. Just look at the Harlem phone book, it’s more like the book for North Uist. "We got our names from the slave masters, we got our religion from the slave masters and we got our blood from the slave masters. "None of the black people in the United States are pure African. My own great great grandparents were slaves in Alabama. My grandmother’s maiden name was Robertson. "I have been to Africa many times in search of my cultural identity, but it was in the Highlands that I found the cultural roots of black America. "I hope to inform the perception of Afro-Americans, and what a gift that is, to give people something to go on. One of the great tragedies of the Afro-American experience is that few can trace their families beyond the bill of sale. After that it’s vague: the name of a ship and never the port of embarkation. The watery highway that those ships took leave no trace." Ruff added: "There are probably more descendents of the Highlands in the United States than there are in Scotland. There are a huge amount of Afro-Americans with light skin or red hair like Malcolm X. What were his origins? "Storytelling and music are some of the best ways to document the true integration and movement of people, because the music can’t lie." Ruff’s journey of discovery started as a child in his home Baptist church in Alabama, when he would listen to elders present the line, which predates, and was an influence on, gospel music. "I remember this captured my imagination as a small child. The elders, some born into slavery, say the lines in unison. They were dirge-like, impassioned melodies. They were illiterate and poor, they had nothing, but they had that passion in their singing. I, like everyone else, assumed it was unique to black congregations in the United States, having grown out of slavery." But last year, during a casual visit to the Presbyterian church in Cumberland, Alabama, Ruff stumbled on a predominantly black congregation that sang the same way as the Baptist congregation of his childhood. "Not only were they singing the same psalms, they were singing in the same deeply profound way, with the same passion which cries out. The tears began to flow." They believed the method of worship came from Africa, but Ruff started to ask whether white Presbyterian congregations sang in the same way. The academic began researching at the Sterling Library at Yale, one of the world’s greatest collections of books and papers. He found records detailing how Highlanders had settled in North Carolina in the 1700s. I found evidence of slaves in North Carolina who could speak only Gaelic. I also heard the story of how a group of Hebrideans, on landing at Cape Fear, heard a Gaelic voice in the dialect of their village. When they rounded the corner they saw a black man speaking the language and assumed they too would turn that colour because of the sun. When I made these connections, I thought: ‘That’s it, I’m going to the Hebrides." A chance meeting with James Craig, a piper with the Royal Scots, put Ruff in touch with congregations in Lewis and Donald Morrison, a leader of singing. "When I finally met Donald, we sat down and I played him music. It was like a wonderful blind test. First I played him some psalms by white congregations, and then by a black one. He then leapt to his feet and shouted: ‘That’s us!’ "When I heard Donald and his congregation sing in Stornoway I was in no doubt there was a connection." Yesterday, Jamie Reid-Baxter, a history research fellow at Glasgow University and a psalm expert, said: "This sounds extremely plausible because of the link to the Scottish slave-owners, who would definitely have brought that style of singing with them. "The slaves would have heard the Scots singing like that, and both these forms of music are a way of expressing religious ecstasy. It’s an intriguing idea." Warwick Edwards, a reader in the music department of Glasgow University, added: "Psalm singing from the Western Isles is certainly known in America. Whether you can link that up with gospel music is another matter. It’s new to me. "One should never underestimate the longevity of these deep-down traditions. They cross oceans and people should be encouraged to investigate this further." Ruff’s research on the integration of Highland culture into black America expands conventional wisdom on Scotland’s legacy in the southern states of America. Although the Enlightenment, especially Francis Hutcheson’s A System of Moral Philosophy, inspired the abolitionists in both Britain and America, Scotland’s darker role in the slave trade is also well known. Scots were influential in founding the Ku Klux Klan, including the traditional Scottish symbol of the burning cross and the KKK’s oath ceremony, which originated from a Highland custom. Ruff said: "There will be Scots who are uncomfortable with the relationship and the involvement in the slave trade. But the Scots are like anyone, and there were many who were abolitionists and who set up schools for black children after emancipation." While Ruff’s claim has been welcomed in Scotland, it has been met with a far less favourable response in his native country. Bobby Jones, producer of the weekly Gospel Explosion television programme which reaches more than four million viewers in the United States, is not swayed by Ruff’s argument. "Gospel music is black music," he insists. Ruff’s next mission is to return to Scotland to document and record the congregations of Lewis. "I’ll be there later this year and hope to record them there and also make recordings of American congregations. In another 100 years I doubt this form of worship will still be around. It’s sad to say that on both sides of the Atlantic this is dying out. "In the Hebrides there are few young people in the churches and this is also the case in the States. In a sense, I aim to preserve a legacy." The lasting legacy of Ruff’s research is an anthropological revelation which forces the re-evaluation of the history of two peoples. Now Afro-Americans, frustrated in their search for antecedence in their African line, might turn to their Scottish roots. As Ruff said: "Why did they leave this to a musician? This is the job of an anthropologist." scotland on sunday

56; soon to be 66.

Garnett Mimms garnett mimms at amg

Chris D

Dan, Have PM'd you.

Ah, it seems - on my work computer at least - the address line shows nothing but the Speakeasy front page. Chris, it was the quote that tickled me, not necessrily the whole thread.

Sad? I take it there was an element of humour in there, but there's an element of truth, too. For me, anyhows.

"Hard bop is one of humanity's great achievements. It's one of the things that keeps me alive. Jazz Corner Hard Bop Thread

Can I get a translation?

VAN MORRISON: Lead Vocal (all), Acoustic Guitar (1, 4, 5, 11, 12), Alto Sax (2, 8, 10, 11) Acker Bilk: Clarinet (5) Keith Donald: Bass Clarinet (1) Lee Goodall: Alto Sax (6), Flute (9, 11), Baritone Sax & Backing Vocals (10) Matt Holland: Trumpet (2, 6-10, 13), Flugelhorn (3, 5, 11), Backing Vocals (10) Martin Winning: Tenor Sax (2, 5, 7-9, 13), Clarinet (3, 6, 10, 11) Richard Dunn: Hammond Organ (2, 3, 6, 8, 10, 13), Piano (7) Gavin Povey: Piano (4, 5) Fiachra Trench: Piano (9, 11, 12) Ned Edwards: Guitars (2, 3, 5-8, 10, 13), Backing Vocals (2, 6, 10) Mick Green: Electric Guitar (7, 13) Foggy Little: Electric Guitar (1, 4, 12), Backing Vocals (1) Johnny Scott: Electric Guitar (9, 11), Mandolin (11) David Hayes: Bass (1-5, 7-8, 12-13), Backing Vocals (1) Pete Hurley: Bass (6, 9) Nicky Scott: Bass (10, 11) Alan "Sticky" Wicket: Congas (3, 13), Washboard (7) Liam Bradley: Drums (1, 4, 9, 11, 12), Backing Vocals (1) Bobby Irwin: Drums (2, 3, 5-8, 10, 13) PRODUCED BY VAN MORRISON TRACK LISTING 1. What's Wrong With This Picture? 5:56 Van Morrison original 2. Whinin Boy Moan 4:15 Van Morrison original 3. Evening In June 3:57 Van Morrison original 4. Too Many Myths 4:30 Van Morrison original 5. Somerset 4:05 Written by Van Morrison with music by British jazz legend Mr. Acker Bilk & David Collett 6. Meaning Of Loneliness 7:21 Van Morrison original 7. Stop Drinking 3:42 Based on a tune by blues legend Lightin' Hopkins with add'l lyrics by Van 8. Goldfish Bowl 5:57 Van Morrison original 9. Once In A Blue Moon 3:26 Van Morrison original 10. Saint James Infirmary 5:29 Traditional New Orleans standard 11. Little Village 4:25 Van Morrison original 12. Fame 5:19 Van Morrison original 13. Get On With The Show 5:35 Van Morrison original

Didn't Giddins express some misgivings about the whole RVG thing in the VV a few years back?

Like others outside, I tend to get a bit testy about claims of the blues' primacy in jazz as it sometimes tends to devalue the work of our own jazzers. OTH, I see and hear scores of brilliant jazz players - who play everything from AG to trad and everything inbetween, often at the same time! - and their playing is almost always heavily imbued with blues spirit. In an international sense, I also do not believe blues ever has or ever will travel as well as jazz. Australian jazz? Incredible. Oz blues? Blech! Perhaps jazz travels a whole lot better 'coz it's always had "foreign" influences - Latin, European, Carribbean etc Blues, by contrast, seems to lose integrity the further it gets from its geographic roots, especially when you're talking about the real downhome stuff. Latter day "Oz blues" can be some fine music but I often feel blues it ain't. I also hear enough contemporary blues from elsewhere to believe that that style is moribund. Jazz - everywhere - seem pretty healthy by comparison. I'm sure there are artists of much merit, but the blues scene - in Australia, the US and elsewhere - just seems a sad morass of boogie cliches. Part of this I think has to do with the mentoring being less a part of that scene than is the case in jazz. Sure, we all know about relationships such as Bonnie Raitt had with Fred McDowell. But by and large I think that as the older blues guys fade away, the blues just lose a whole lot that isn't being handed on. Or maybe blues is just from another age, and doesn't travel as well in TIME as jazz.

Today in the office, (sub)editing on the sports desk. Hey, I take as much pride in my Saturday work as the rest of the week, but as I'm desk bound and doing mostly football (along with a bit of other stuff), Saturday is definitely the best day for music in the office. *Jackie Mclean - Jacknife *Duke Ellington - Such Sweety Thunder *Gary Bartz - Coltrane Rules! (He's playing Wangaratta this year, so the artiistic director slipped me a rough mix of this. It sounds great. Three Trane tunes (Trasnition, Dahomey Dance, Big Nick), one Dameron (Soultrane), one standard (I Concentrate On You) and one original. I don't what label this will be coming out on). *Paul Williamson Quintet - Mutations *John bell Trio - Spirals *Hank Mobley - No Room For Bears

A bloke sees a sign in front of a house in Luton: "Talking Dog for Sale." He rings the bell and the owner tells him the dog is in the back garden. The bloke goes into the backyard and sees a black mutt just sitting there. "You talk?" he asks. "Sure do," the dog replies. "So, what's your story?" The dog looks up and says, "Well, I discovered my gift of talking pretty young and I wanted to help the government, so I told MI5 about my gift, and in no time they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping. I was one of their most valuable spies eight years running." "The jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger and I wanted to settle down. So I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security work, mostly wandering near suspicious characters and listening in." "I uncovered some incredible dealings there and was awarded loads of medals. Had a wife, a few puppies, and now I'm just retired." The bloke is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog. The owner says, "Ten pounds." The bloke says, 'This dog is amazing. Why on earth are you selling him So cheap?" "Cause he's a fuckin' liar. He's never done any of that stuff."

I have seen just bits of this idiot, but the impression I get is that his "entertainment value" lies in goading animals into defensive action. It seems really sad - cringe-inducing, in fact. Pathetic. And, no doubt, like the Crocodile Dundee stuff, this will no doubt give very monodimensional impressions of Australia to millions around the world who believe evertything they see/hear on a screen. Gimme a break - I live in a city of 3 million that has more good coffee than the whole of the US combined! B)

Guess I should leave off my heavy-handed attempts at humour!

The first shocking, and pleasing, thing about this is the process - ordered on Wednesday, shipped on Thursday, on my doorstep on Monday morning in perfect nick! It's a far cry from my first experience of importing records. I must have been about 14, and very much still at high school (very early '70s I guess) when I ordered Lightnin' Slim's Rooster Blues from a shop, oddly enough, in Edinburgh (Peter Russell's???). I had to wait two months and then pay a large chunk to customs before I got my hand on it. I played it to death and still have it (despite having all the material on CD). That was followed by many harrowing and expensive adventures in getting blues, doo wop and various others goodies into NZ - and more than a few examples of badly warped vinyl along the way. So this sort of service is very sweet - about five days from east coast US to Melbourne. Some of the later stuff I know I won't be playing much, but the rest of it just fabulous - I played the first two discs on a sunny Saturday this morning and loved it all. One thing, though, after all this hyperbole and carry on about the Mosaic mystique, I was sorely disappointed by the bland presentation of my first Mosaic set - just a plain ol' black box, nothing special at all. Dull, in fact. No colour pics, just B&W. A real low-rent job, IMHO. (Just kidding)

Bullshit!

Rooster, I remember as a late teens rock fan in the mid '70s listening to Astral Weeks and wondering what all the fuss is about. I liked it OK but it just didn't seem that great. About five years ago, and after listening to a lot of jazz, I revisted it and was quite stunned. I would hesitate to call it a jazz masterpiece but it's not far short - and Davis and Kaye are vital to its success. These days I'm more bemused that Astral Weeks is so regularly regarded as "a rock album with a jazz feel", when to me it sounds like a purebred jazz album - and that includes Morrison's singing AND the lyrics. The connections have also helped me have a deeper affinity with albums on which Davis plays.