John L

RIP.

OK, thanks. That is indeed news!

Why do they call this Basement Tapes collection "complete?" There are only 38 tracks here, less than half of what has been circulating.

Well, here's the problem with this particular line of thinking. If you know who Sonny Rollins is, then you are obviously familiar with Jazz. Non Jazz fans may recognize the names Miles Davis*, Duke Ellington, maybe Dizzy Gillespie because it's such an odd name (and perhaps Coltrane because of the name drops he's received in more popular genres over the years). But only true fans of the genre are going to know who Sonny Rollins is, IMO. And actual fans of Jazz would have their bullshit meters in the red just a line or two into this piece. Those who aren't Jazz fans are likely going to skip over the piece. Even if they do read it, they'll be asleep before the halfway point, and it won't change their opinion of Jazz, and whoever that Jazz musician is in the picture, one iota. To think any differently would be for me to somehow feel I'm simply smarter than most everyone else (since Jazz fans are a relatively small demographic). And that would be complete and utter bullshit. I'm no dummy, but for christ's sake... What this really boils down to is a small, fiercely loyal fanbase of a "long dead" genre of popular music digging in their heels and manufacturing outrage. Because we realize our "kind" is dwindling. And even the most microscopic slight against our genre and the heroes that solidified its place in our history is to be looked upon, and retaliated against, as though it were a surprise nuclear attack. It wasn't. It was an incredibly lame attempt at humor amplifying negative stereotypes of the genre into absurdity ad infinitum. Should we find that offensive? Perhaps. But, I figured as passive stewards of the art form we had gotten past the outrage for outrage sake portion of our journey. *when I had my Sedlik poster of Miles framed, the lady who helped us pick everything out politely exclaimed, "oh yeah, he's a singer, right?!" Yeah, she knew his name... Not the genre he played in... Nor the fact that she amused the living shit out of me suggesting he was a singer. Can you imagine?! Careless Whisper, indeed... Scott - With all due respect, I think that you are wrong on this one. For us here at Organissimo, the article might have been irritating, but did no harm to our perception of Sonny Rollins or jazz. But I think that there are plenty of people, including those who influence allocations of money to support the arts, who don't really know or listen to jazz, but are aware of its reputation as a great American contribution to art, and of Sonny Rollins as one of its greatest artists. In the shoes of one of those people, I would be inclined to believe that the New Yorker would not publish something called "Sonny Rollins in His Own Words" without a disclaimer unless it was just that. It would also affect my opinion of jazz and Sonny Rollins negatively. If one of the so-called greatest artists of jazz does not take his work seriously, then why should anybody else? Maybe this "jazz" stuff is just hype and myth for people who want to champion high culture in America at all costs? There are plenty of people who suspect this. I know such people.

I'm listening through the November 1947 Carnegie Hall set for the first time. Brilliant! Thank you so much, Ricky, Mosaic, and everyone else involved for putting together this fabulous set, one for the ages!

I will finally get to hear (and read) my copy this week. I am really looking forward to it.

As it was claimed to be Sonny Rollins' own words, it arguably did harm to him and his public image. I would think that Sonny Rollins could probably sue the New Yorker for slander and win if he wanted to.

RIP. What a great drummer!

Amen to that. Jimmy Forrest is one of life's great pleasures. I snatch up anything with him on it.

JLH - How about drawing up concrete plans for the Daley box set and taking some very early pre-orders to help finance it? I know that there is a lot of interest here at the forum in making that box set a reality.

I used to just love hitting the record shops in Amsterdam. There were at least two that specialized in jazz and had fantastic selections. Like elsewhere, however, the best ones are no more.

RIP. Teenie Hodges was a SOUND.

I never knew that Midnight Creeper and Natural Soul were more appreciated than Musty Rusty. Alligator Boogaloo - well, yea.

RIP. Horace was one of the true giants.

I wouldn't call it a departure, but the beats are often more "modern."

Is this something you picked up in Nigeria a short while back? I see Sterns are out of stock of all 10 of his albums they reckon to have sometimes. What's the music like? MG MG- Yes. Yinka Ayefele is currently very popular in Nigeria. The music is high powered for the dance floor with fast beats, as is the current rage in the country. Bui the arrangements are more traditional than most contemporary Nigerian pop and, with the exception of one track, distinctly Yoruba. Some of it is similar to Juju. Ayefele's voice is heavenly. I love dancing to it, although it may be a bit too popular / contemporary for the tastes of most people on this thread.

Yinka Ayefele - Everlasting Grace (Yoruba Christian music)

That is a very good analogy. And if developing an appreciation for jazz used to be something like learning French, in today's world it is more like Chinese, at least for mainstream jazz. People at least used to recognize the standards from pop radio, and it was often just a matter of following how they were getting jazzed up. You might also Jitterbug a little while you were trying to do that. (Of course, Bird and Diz were already playing Chinese jazz back in the 40s.) Jazz is also something like mathematics. Once you invest the time and effort to come to grips with it, the appeal and logic of it seems obvious. But it is hard to put yourself in the shoes of a teenager today hearing classic jazz for the first time.

Well, I am part of the audience for jazz and I am ageing...

If I set fire to the first, it probably won't be an accident.

I hadn't read this thread is some time, but I independently ended up taking a similar approach to Jim S. I really wanted to like this book and went out of my way to buy it. I DO like parts of it. Other parts really drag, and Crouch's tendency to go off for pages on distant tangents of little relation to Bird can be annoying. After more than a month, I have also have not been able to finish it, but will keep plugging away every now and again.

RIP. Herb Wong was also the Principal when I went to Berkeley High School in the early 70s.

I think that Albert Murray probably had a stronger influence on Wynton than Crouch per se. Wynton himself often refers to the influence of Murray.

There may be a lot of gray areas, but I strongly believe that a copyright law that prevents the Savory collection from the 1930s and 1940s from being released and heard in 2014 is a very BAD copyright law.

Q - I really don't understand US copyright laws. But I don't think that the public domain rule is so simple. As I understand, the fear is that a relative of any one of the musicians could take legal action in case of release.