danasgoodstuff

You'll be thrilled to know Halvorson won the downbeat critics poll as best guitarist, again. Not TDLR/new star, overall best now working. Not my cuppa, but I'm not going to cast for sturgeons. One last observation (ha! that'll be the day), saying something is easy to do is weak sauce as criticism. it's reactionary small town music store practice room stuff worthy of the worst elements of Sax on the Web where they think Charlie Parker ruined music. Sure it's easy to do, but it's very hard to do well and I have no more difficulty telling the good from the not so good in free/avant playing than anywhere else, and I love Ben Webster but I'm not convinced he's 'better' than Turrentine. And sometimes participation is more important than ranking/winning, and always broad participation is what makes the best happen and matter.

So nice to see young people digging Patsy Cline. Thanks, I was hoping someone would know how old they are, because I sure don't.

From the August issue of downbeat, the Rising Star trumpet players according to their 2023 Critics Poll, FWIW I barely recognize a few of the names and that's about it Etienne Charles..................94 Jason Palmer............................87 Keyon Harrold...........................85 Josh Evans...............................77 Peter Evans..............................77 Jonathan Finlayson..................68 Bria Skonberg...........................61 Ibrahim Maalouf........................57 Laura Jurd.................................53 Lina Allemano...........................52 Yazz Ahmed..............................38 Brandon Lee.............................30 Maurice Brown.........................29 Giveton Gelin............................24 Steph Richards.........................24 Sarah Wilson............................24 Benny Benack III......................21 Victor Garcia.............................21 John Raymond.........................20 Josh Lawrence.........................20

I have a personal FB for family and friends and a FB page for my Studebaker Drivers Club local chpt. Don't do Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, etc. do spend too much time on the Hoffman forums and Amtrak Unlimited. Rail fans make record collectors look like amateurs when it comes to mastery of arcane detail.

Somewhat surprising to me is that so-called Spiritual Jazz, combining elements of free and modal, has found a new audience. Martin Williams would be disappointed since he loved Ornette but didn't really get much of 'Trane or Pharoah's work for Impulse! People who lump that all together aren't really paying attention.

Which is why I'm disappointed nobody talks about his work on don Wilkerson's Preach Brother! where he hardly gets to solo (2/6?) but makes his presence known nonetheless.

Attacking Ornette because of some posited 'cult adulation' is a classic straw man argument. and calling it an argument of any sort is probably being unduly kind. Ornette is a player with his own approach, he has his own sound, favours certain cadences that make his work seem more samey than it really is, and he's never even come close to building a coherent theory of harmolodics. But he opened up new territory for others to explore, and I find Ramblin' and Lonely Woman to be as satisfying to listen to as any recorded music of the last century. And as a player, Lonely Woman is a challenge and a joy. Yes, that's what I was trying to say.

Well, what is 'free' anyway? Having played in amateur to barely professional level 'free' situations, it's not too hard to show up and play something. But a lot of that is just as cliched as any more formally structured style. To actually follow your imagination and play what's in your head wherever that might take you, that's not easy since it requires being able to execute whatever pops into your head on the spur of the moment. It would take a lot more practice than I've ever done to do that. and to have that be worth listening to is very hard in my estimation, never having been much closer than spitting distance and then largely by chance or the grace of whatever gods of music there be. Most of the examples given above aren't really free of formal constraints, are they? Dolphy said everything he played was tonal, even if dissonant. And Ornette usually played tunes, and had pet licks, and so on. And I love some of his work but seeing it as overturning the apple cart, when it was just bouncing enough to lose a few apples, is evidence of how compulsively conformist the '50s were. Free can be anything and then morph into anything else, or not. Is People in Sorrow free, and does that matter compared to how beautiful it is? As an option to have at your disposal and a field of possibilities, i think it's far from being played out and probably never will be. But as a scene, a movement, a moment in time, it was done a long time ago.

Love Sonny Clark, don't need to compare him to Bud or anyone else, he's his own flavor. But not getting this since I doubt I'd even notice the sonic upgrade, much less actually care. But if it brings more attention to his playing and composing and frees up used copies of individual dates for the secondary market, then yay!

Tis a pity, I can't think of any one even kind of young I like as well. I don't actively dislike Ambrose, but I haven't been wowed by what I heard either.

Why let someone else get rich playing a bad imitation of you when you can do it yourself?

I have at least one friend who still listens to it, I took this as a sure sign of cognitive decline. Don't really care what the New Yorker has to say about it.

#4 is the title (sort of) and lead track from the last good album Blue made for Blue Note, I'm looking for a copy if anyone has one for sale, good stuff

That's not so bad, I mean it's not very good but it's not so bad either.

Darius Jones' albums covers are all fairly awfull IMHO, too bad because I like his playing

Share What You Got. As a died in the wool Stax/Volt fan, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the great Wm. Bell. Ace (UK) has recently put out two CDs covering all of his single As & Bs for the label, right from the begining before Otis got there through the end or very near to it. He recently came back tot he revived label and cut a pretty good album. Understated and a little philosophical, just like me! I Forgot to Be Your Lover would be my favorite single and Soul of a Bell my fav regular album, and he cowrote Born Under a Bad Sign.

Brotz only rarely did much for me, but he stuck to his guns so hats off and RIP.

Isn't the Flintstones Theme basically Rhythm changes?

IIRC he produced a pretty good Professor Longhair album, so thanks to him for that. RIP

I was only 'maybe' on Rusty because I haven't heard that much.

Ace Cannon!

Art Pepper sometimes Darius Jones could be Rusty Bryant maybe Henry Threadgill and Julius Hemphill could've been if they'd wanted, but they both had other fish to fry Henry Threadgill and Julius Hemphill could've been if they'd wanted, but they both had other fish to fry Cleanhead Vinson

RIP, the man made some fine recordings and I'm glad he got to make a comeback. He made at least two dates for BN that remain unissued. Interesting that he never returned to the label like so many others did.

At that price the're a very good deal IMHO.

I have 4 Tone Poets and lot of originals and reissues from every era and series except the most expensive recent 3rd party ones. The Tone Poets are very nice indeed, as good or better than anything I've heard (both for BN and in general), but whether they're worth roughly $40 a pop is up to you - depending on how much spare cash you have and how much you value what they offer. I have only bought 4 because I had acceptable copies of all the others that I had any interest in musically. And I got some of them at employee discount prices. There are a few more that might possibly make this series, or the cheaper BN Classics series, that I would be interested in. But I'm glad that I have literally hundreds of vintage Blue Notes already and am not trying to build a collection at these prices. I've had no defects and am happy with the 4 I have - Contours, The Phantom, Steppin' Out, and Bring It Home to Me. But as a veteran collector of BN, I knew I would love the music, I couldn't see buying these if I wasn't already a committed BN fan.