Hot Ptah

I believe in that principle. I think there's a difference between stating that principle and what has been posted in this thread.

I remember a Down Beat interview in the 1970s in which Stanley Clarke, Lenny White and Corea all discussed how they found that Scientology helped them work together as a band. I have not read the article for many years, but I remember that I did not know anything about Scientology when I first read it, and that the musicians made it sound like a how-to manual for problem solving. I do not know if Clarke and White stayed with Scientology.

He hasn't looked like that for a long, long time! To me, Corea is one of those artists with such a massive, and extremely varied, recorded output, that you can probably find some albums by him that you will value and like. To me, he is one of the most inconsistent recorded artists in jazz history, but I like the albums I consider his high points. I think that his solo piano albums are fine, his duets with Gary Burton are enjoyable, his piano trio albums are often inspired, and his small acoustic jazz combo work has at times been stellar. To me, he has shown a lack of taste at times. Some of his albums with vocals, large ensembles, and/or complex compositions just don't work at all for me. Some of his jazz/rock fusion stuff is O.K., but some of it is just noisy and obnoxious, to me.

It is an assumption which is easy to make, that he was producing pornography, from the language of the indictment. I understood from the indictment that those uploading files had produced new material, and that this was required, in order to stay in that particular online community. I will join those who wish your apologies for him would end. He had to know that he was not participating in a victimless community, at the very least. Innocent small children were having their lives ruined, as part of the online community he volunteered to be part of. He had to know that.

Far as I can tell/hear, this very definitely means they ARE listening to the Beatles. And the Byrds. And the Velvet Underground. And ... well, you know ... The indie kids I know listen only to today's young artists.

My experiences are with Jim R here. The young people I meet in my business (in their 20s), and through my daughter (in their teens), have no interest in the music of the past, and no knowledge of it. They barely remember the music of two years ago, and find music from two years ago to be so hopelessly out of date as to be not worth talking about. When my daughter and her teen friends are at our house, and a clip of a performer from the 1960s comes on TV by chance, they groan loudly and lunge for the remote to turn it off. This happened recently with 1960s clips of the Beatles, and of Sly Stone. My daughter has a vague sense of who the Beatles are, but resents the fact that she learned that by being exposed to them "too much when you play your awful old music", as she put it. I am sure that none of her teen friends know who the Beatles are. These are honors students at a nationally highly ranked high school. You mentioned Queen. A Queen hit came on the radio when my daughter and three of her friends were in our car. There was a great clamoring to turn that terrible stuff off. None of them had any idea who Queen was. I think that the love of Queen might be a uniquely British thing. My daughter has one friend, who has a father who owns a music studio. This friend plays guitar and likes current "indie" music, and knows just a tiny bit about the music of the past--she has read the names of some of the old groups but has not heard their music. This friend is universally thought of as a "music nut", "a real weirdo with that music", by the other kids at high school. I told an adult friend of mine, who owns a high end stereo store, about this guitar playing teen friend of my daughter. He was very interested, because he did not know any young people who cared about any music other than the current dance/pop hits. The young people in their 20s who I meet in business know about the music of the past ten years only. Even talking about Nirvana with them draws blank stares. Bev, I would love to meet young people like your students. I never have, in recent years.

Thanks for a very intriguing and enjoyable BFT, made up entirely of albums unknown to me. I used to see the Max Roach album for sale at music stores, but never got it. Otherwise I have never even seen or heard of most of the albums. There is a lot of new information here for me, and new albums to check out. I love BFTs like this!

Another thumbs up for Crooklyn. I loved how the film built up to the climatic event of the father performing his own jazz compositions in a showpiece concert, and then it turns out to be a solo piano concert of rather uninvolving material, held in a small room which could have seated about 30 people, with many of the chairs empty. That's how I remember it, anyway.

I usually know it's a Monk tune when I hear it, but often can't name them. I know some of them by name just by hearing them--Round Midnight, Straight No Chaser, Ruby My Dear, Brilliant Corners, Balue Bolivar Blues, Jackie-ing, I Mean You, Ask Me Now, Epistrophy, Misterioso, Pannonica, Crepuscule With Nellie, some others which are not coming to mind right now. Oddly, I find that it helps me identify the titles when they were covered by other artists, when I know those cover versions well. I can hear the recorded cover version in my head and it helps me name the tune. I think that this may be because there is only one Monk tune on the albums in question.

This is a remarkably good album. I have been playing it often and enjoying it a lot.

Let's all go and kick their ass! Um, I'll hold your coat b/c I'm just that kind of guy. One thing I did notice--I posted something there about Allen Lowe's new album, "Blues and the Empirical Truth", and some of the AAJ members came back with quite thoughtful, extended posts about it. When I posted the same thing on Jazz Corner Speakeasy, there were over 300 views and not one comment. When I have posted something here about Allen's new album, there has been very little response. It may not be accurate to paint these jazz boards with a broad brush.

The other thing I have noticed is that the AAJ site is quite a bit different than the AAJ forum, where the members chat. The AAJ forum does not have a lot of lively music discussions, but it does have an ongoing thread about new jazz releases which is quite active. There is more discussion there about obscure new jazz releases than we have here. Otherwise, much like some other jazz discussion boards, there seems to be much less discussion about jazz in general than there used to be.

I have a personal experience about a business friend, an extrememly nice, courteous guy, who was arrested for arranging online to meet a 14 year old girl at a mall for sex, but when he got there, he was swarmed by FBI agents. This guy is the last person you would expect to do something like this. He is married with children. He is known as a scholarly, quiet, thoughtful, meticulous professional by all in the field, and one of the easiest people to work with in a business deal because of his extraordinarily pleasant nature. He worked for a very prominent, important business, and his family includes a high ranking Judge. When it came out in the newspapers that he was caught for his offense, everyone who knew him professionally was shocked--the typical reactions were that it just couldn't be him, that he would be the last person you would expect would do something like this. I think that it is more common than we might think that we do not really know the people we know personally, not to mention those we know online.

I found that I had a different view about "non-violent ex-offenders" when I found that a registered sex offender lived two blocks from my six year daughter's elementary school.

No wonder I couldn't guess that Don Pullen cut--a Horo album which I have never been able to find.

I need a disc. I will send you a PM with the information. Also, BFT 89 is still going on. It is a great BFT, and needs more guesses and comments.

Allen, Where is Mike Shanley's blog? I can't find it on the Music and Arts site, which is where I was taken when I clicked on the link to www.musicandarts.com in your post.

The addition of the "stein" to Allen's name reminds me of the scene in the Blues Brothers movie when the country western bar owner calls John Belushi's character "Stein" in an insulting way, which is meant to be an ethnic slur.

My advice to you--don't think so much. Deposit the money before you have another thought.

I am tempted to change my forum name to Chat Room Chuckie. What's with the "Lownstein"? Is that meant to be an offensive ethnic slur?

It occurs to me that we should congratulate Allen, who has toiled for years, producing great work, and is finally getting some overdue public recognition--BUT, we should also buy his new album, "Blues and the Empirical Truth". To me, it is his masterpiece among his own albums, and one of the best new albums I have heard in years. I have played it many times and it is always fresh and rewarding. I think we should support this major work by one of our own.

John Szwed, in his Sun Ra biography "Space Is The Place", discusses Les Baxter at some length on page 151, and also the influence of Martin Denny and other post-war exotica music on Sun Ra. About Baxter, Szwed writes on page 151, "for Sunny, it was music rich with imagination and suggestion, and free of material constraints." At page 155 of this book, Szwed notes that "Possession", from "Jazz by Sun Ra" (reissued on Delmark as "Sun Song") was a waltz written by Harry Revel for Les Baxter's "Perfume Set To Music" album. Szwed writes about this Baxter recording, "Sunny was struck by the lush string writing, the mysterious sound of the theremin, the interpretations of senses the arrangements provoked." Szwed explains that Sun Ra requested an arrangement of "Possession" after hearing it on the Les Baxter album.

Absolutely. I rank him up there with any of the great jazz arrangers. Lots of people assume he is schmaltz because of his 50s pop hits, but all of those Capitol exotica LPs are among my favorites in any genre. There is something about his combinations of Debussy/Ravel orchestration and Latin percussion that is irresistible. But that track above is fascinating. It is from 1957, and it's just Les on an electric celeste with percussion, no bass or other instruments. The Sun Ra bio sites Les as an influence, and I'm sure Sonny must have listened to that track. But back to Sun Ra: Hot Ptah, did you see my previous post where I listed the Sun Ra 1960s albums I have? I'd like to know where they rank among his 60s work (based on your earlier post about his 60s work being inconsistent). Thanks Les Baxter gets heavy airplay on The Retro Cocktail Hour, a radio program DJed, created and selected by Darrell Brogden, the program director of Kansas Public Radio. You can read his playlists and listen to past shows at kpr.ku.edu/retro He is a very knowledgable guy. He slips jazz into the mix and I have learned about some great jazz cuts from his show--such as the time he played Buddy Collette's "Polynesia" album. I like your list of Sun Ra 1960s albums. I have never enjoyed "Atlantis", but that's just probably me. The others are all fine.

That is fascinating to me. Thanks for posting it.