Rooster_Ties

I only got to talk with Hill for about 2 minutes tops, and maybe only like 90 seconds. There were like a dozen other fans waiting for his autograph too, and wanting to get pictures of or with him. He was very nice, and (like I had heard in interviews with him), he spoke with a sort of herky-jerky stutter. Not that he has a stutter, in the medical/clinical sense - but rather, the cadence of his speech was highly 'broken-up' and fragmented. In fact, (and I can't take credit for this observation - it comes from Jason Moran), there are some definite similarities between the 'broken'-ness of Hill's melody lines (rhythmically speaking), and the broken-ness of Hill's own 'normal' manner of speech. Pretty cool observation, actually. He was very nice, and I was honored to have met him. He's one of my biggest heroes, right up there with Miles and Ellington, and Ornette and Sun Ra.

Thanks for the tip!!! FYI, the prices there (now) appear to be... 1 year - $20.91 2 years - $41.93 But that's still a bunch cheaper than the $35 Down Beat wants if you deal directly with them. Or are there any other better offers out there by chance???

Although I'm not a jazz musician (I dabbled once with jazz piano lessons, for one semester, during my senior year of college), I will say that I think that now I would be much more inclined to go that extra mile (now), when I'm in my early 30's (or even back when I was in my mid-to-late 20's), than I ever would have been in high school or even in college. There wasn't any suject (music, or otherwise) that I ever got all that passionate about, until I was at least 25 or 26. Something about being young - or younger, anyway - that often keeps one from digging really deeply into something, or even anything. Stuff like that all seems like so much work, to a 'kid' in his teens or even early 20's. I know not all students are like that, but I know many are - including myself, back in the day.

So, we never did get to hear who was the winner (for Avatars up through June 30th). So, who was it????? And what do they win?????

So Moose, have you tried playing "Cruising With Ruben & the Jets (1968)" for your wife?? Don't tell her what it is, just sneak it on, like maybe sneak it into the mix on a five-disc CD player, and put it on multi-disc shuffle-mode. Could be fun!!

Here's a picture of me and Andrew Hill...

I don't know, maybe ask Dmitry???

I like, but don't love "True Blue" (like I know many folks do - here and elsewhere), but I would tend to agree. This title shouldn't be so damn obscure, or scarce. I'd put this high on the list of RVG-able titles, that are also clearly Conn-ish too.

This might be heresy to say, but I really dig Frank Zappa's brand of Neo-Doo-Wop... Cruising With Ruben & the Jets (1968) Slightly warped lyrics, double-entendres galore, and often slightly warped harmonic changes too -- Zappa's warped Doo-Wop keeps me coming back, year after year. I haven't heard much of the real stuff, I'm afraid. Nothin' wrong with it, mind you - just other priorities I guess....

Often it's the drummers that refocus my attention the most, if I'm distracted. A really good drummer, especially if he's suddenly doing something tasty and unexpected, can snap my head about 180-degrees, faster than almost anything.

Really?? Where'd you smell that??? And, what else is cookin'???????? (is there an echo in here??)

I used to subscribe to Cadence for about 2 years total, probably between about 1991 and 1993. While I did like it, they generally covered so many musicians I'd never even heard of, that I never did renew after those first two years. Sure, there was lots that I liked about Cadence - don't get me wrong. But I always got the feeling that I was missing out on a bunch of stuff too, in favor of really obscure stuff that I had no idea what it was even. Also, I had only been listening to jazz for a couple years by that point, so I'm sure if I saw an issue now - I'd probably see more that I had some frame of reference for. Also, do they still include that huge list of records and CD's that they're sellin'?? - in EVERY damn issue?? And shit, the thing was sorted by LABEL, which always made it impossible to find anything you were actually looking for, if you just wanted to see all the releases they had by Andrew Hill, for instance. (About the only thing that being sorted by label did, was give you some idea what else was being released on labels that you knew you liked.) I think my not renewing with Cadence might have had something to do with that too - when damn near half the magizine was devoted to small-type listings of thousands of records/CD for sale - especially when 95% of the list was the exact same from month to month. Sheesh!!!

So how the hell is it that they can put Sam Rivers on the cover of a mainstream product, like a jazz calendar... ...but they can't friggin' put out "Fuschia Swing Song" as an RVG???? ( And it took 'em how many years just to even get any Sam Rivers back in print in the U.S.??? ) I woulda put out "Fuschia..." as an RVG this year, and then "Contours" as a Conn sometime in the next year or two. IMHO, "Fuschia..." deserves to be in the "mainstream" part of the BN catalog as much or probably more than Tony Williams "Life Time" (which is an RVG), and at least as much as Wayne's "All Seeing Eye" (which is also an RVG).

Doesn't matter too much - the guy who had one to trade, has it on hold for somebody else. Hope it does come out as a Conn sometime soon. I've never heard it, but I've got "Something Personal" and really like it, and the line-up on "Easterly Winds" looks outstanding.

Really?? Where'd you smell that??? And, what else is cookin'????????

Somebody wanna post then entire picture here, to this thread?? I ain't gots the disc, but me wanna see it bad!!!

Oh man, then I'm there too!!!

My point was that I was able to get a whole year's subscribtion to RS for less than the cost of buying 4 or 5 issues off the newsstand. Crazy!!!

Damn, that's 'spensive!! I usually only buy two issues of DB per year, three tops - off the newstand. I usually get the "Critics Poll" issue, and the "Readers Poll" issue, and then maybe one other issue - based on some great cover story that I just gotta have. I sent e-mail to Downbeat about two years ago (back when I think the subscription price per year was only like $26 per year), asking if they had any kind of mulit-year discount for subscriptions. You know, 5-year subscription for the price of 4 years. Or even a 10-year subscription for the price of like 6 years?? I wasn't kidding either. Back during my first year in college (1987), Rolling Stone had a deal where you could get a 5-year subscription for like 85% off the newsstand price (seriously!!). I was buying like 4 or 5 issues of RS per year (they publish like 24 issues per year), off the newsstand for like $3.95 an issue. And the 5-year subscription took the price down to like $0.57 an issue - chump change!!! Anyway, I was wondering if DB did anything even remotely similar. They never even replied to the e-mail... Maybe I'll e-mail them again. Every year I think this is gonna be the year I subscribe to DB, but I never do.....

Just pick anything you like, perhaps a “classic title” that you think many of us will already have - or something that would be easy enough to find (in stock) at our favorite shiny-disc-emporium (preferably a “mid-line” priced title, perhaps, which might be easier on the pocketbook - or at least that’s something to think about). Some people (myself included) have started polls with half-a-dozen titles that they're thinkin' about choosing for their AOTW, to solicit feedback about what to choose.

Nah, not really - though I sure wish I could!!! Too far a drive... No, I was secretly hoping b3-er would reveal who that actually is in his Avatar, cuz I feel like an idiot for not being able to figure it out!! (But that face looks so familiar. It's driving me crazy!! )

Amen to that. I want surprises. Even little surprises. I want left turns in solos. I want wrong turns in solos. I want chord substitutions that don't always work, but somehow the cat makes it work (at least a little bit) on some other level - on some less "academically" correct level. I wan't some uncertanty in what a cat's playing - not cuz he can't play, but cuz he's actually thinking about what to play, and sometimes he can't always think of everything that would be interesting to play, until a couple seconds after he shoulda actually played it. I want some stubbling around, a little jaggedness. (That's why I love Neil Young's electric guitar work, precisely because it is so clunkly.) I want to hear somebody actually take that request I often make, for them to play "Take 5"... ...in 7... ...and somehow, make it kinda, sorta work - or at least noodle a bit on the head for 60 seconds, and then tell me there's no fucking way!!! (A relevant side note: One guy said he couldn't/wouldn't play "Take 5" in 7, but he thought he could play Sonny Rollin's "Blue 7" in 5 - and he thought about it a minute, talked to the rhythm section - and he did!!! ) Is some of that too much to ask?? (OK, maybe asking for "Take 5" in 7 really is too much to ask. )

Thanks!!! I'm workin' on a trade with someone who said they had this in a regular jewel-box, but I was unaware of any other release other than the JRVG. Appreciate the info, and the quick turnaround!! -- RT