Rooster_Ties

Also, Jim's post (just above this one) made a really good point, about food and jazz. At this moment (mid-2003), nearly every jazz club/bar is primarily a restaurant, or at the very lease a combination of a real jazz bar (sorta, mostly), and a real restaurant (with a full-service kitchen, nightly specials, etc...). Off the top of my head, there are only a couple jazz bars in town that don't derive a fairly high percentage of their income from the food they sell. And there’s only really one good jazz-bar in town that doesn’t have a kitchen – and they have an endowment that keeps them open, because they’re attached to the American Jazz Museum (technically they’re part of the museum), down in the historic 18th & Vine area. That, more than anything, should tell you a bunch about what the jazz-scene is like here in Kansas City, if almost every jazz venue is primarily a chow-house. I'm sure that shoehorns in the musicians a ton, such that they can't stretch out on anything until at least the 2nd set, or not even until the 3rd set - most nights. (Wouldn’t want to disturb the dinner conversation and all.) Things were a little better even as recently as nearly 10 years ago (when I first moved here), in terms of jazz-clubs - but probably not a whole lot better. I think the biggest blow to the jazz-club scene was when Riverboat Gambling was legalized in the state of Missouri (around 1995 or 96), and within one year - there were suddenly five (5!!!) huge "Riverboat" gambling complexes open, each with like 4 or 5 big restaurants. That drained a TON of customers from the "over 30"-centric nightclubs, which included most of the jazz-clubs. Any that were doing "OK" (in the black more often than in the red), just couldn't handle the loss in customers (even just a 20% loss in customers was enough to put them in the red more often than black), and many clubs had to call it quits. After that, almost any jazz-bar that doesn't have a full-service kitchen - is almost always doomed to failure. Not sure where this is going, but it does give you some additional perspective on the Kansas City jazz scene over the last 10 years. Doesn't look like it's going to change any, anytime in the near future either.

Another day, another perspective. Man, maybe it was something I ate yesterday, but I sure went off on the KC jazz scene, didn't I?? I still stand by most of it, although I might temper my thoughts a bit here and there, if I had it to do over again. And maybe in hindsight, I'd say that probably only half of the jazz in KC simply bores me to tears. (I suppose from my posts above, you might get the idea that nearly all of it does - which isn't quite the case.) Also, to be a little clearer about my position on Standards, I should probably say this... It's the 10% of "The Real Book" that gets played most frequently that really annoys the heck out of me, and I'll venture to say that I think that's about what every other tune is (50% of their playlists) from the half of the Kansas City jazz musicians that I'm complaining about so much in this thread. But, I should acknowledge that there are quite a few guys that don't just play the obvious standards, and for that - I'm always grateful.

Sent you a PM about the Eddie Henderson, and a couple other discs you mentioned in some other threads.

I'll look for you, b3-er, for sure!!! You do look like the picture in your current Avatar, correct?? ...cuz that'll be who I'm lookin' for.

Was Jack Wilson's "Easterly Winds" ever released on CD (presumably only in Japan, I'm guessing) in a jewelbox, which I also presume would have been as regular TOCJ issue?? I seem to remember it was released as part of the JRVG series (none of which I own), but I know those are all in those dreaded "mini-LP" formats, housed in cardboard (which I try to avoid, if possible). But I don't know if it was ever released on CD anywhere, other than the JRVG issue. Thanks!! -- Rooster T.

The rule is that whoever is picked to moderate the Album of the Week (and they pick the album everybody listens to that week), they also get to pick who the next person is who moderates the next week's album of the week. Then that person picks an album, gets the ball rolling, and they pick the next person. Simple as that. Just get in cozy with whoever is "it", and get 'em to pick you next.

Holy shit, there's like 3 hours of live Jeremy Pelt MP3's on his website. I had no idea!!! Thanks, man!!!!

Well at least it's smaller (and probably gets better gas mileage) than one of these... ( And notice that this picture was taken of the Hummer in it's natural habitat too!! )

Welcome aboard, "Free For All"!!!! Glad to have you here, although you've been here already, in a way, for years!!!! Great first post, and I look forward to many more!!! -- Rooster T.

Oh, by bad. It does say "three per title per customer". Well then, break out the plastic!!!!

That's always been my take too, Chuck. I've made some exceptions, here and there, but generally unless an older release really sucks rocks in the sound department, I've never upgraded - like to TOCJ's (never) or RVG's (seldom) - for titles that I've already owned in their prior U.S. release. Or, if I'm really interested in the expanded liner-notes that the RVG's include (along with the better wound), I'll upgrade a title, but then give the old one to a friend who's open to having their soundworld widened. Or put the extra on a shelf until I meet just such a person, who I know will really dig "Unity" or one of the Herbie titles, or even "All Seeing Eye". I'm sitting on a couple older issues right now, just waiting for that 'right person' to appear, as they always seem to, every year or two.

I'm thinking of a few examples now (and trying to think of some better examples than the one's I'm thinking of), but I think I'll save them for when this thread gets going... Are there any records/CD's that you really like quite a lot - and I mean really like a whole lot... ...that have one (or more) prominent players on them, who's own recordings (both as a leader, and as a sideman) you normally don't like much at all??? "I usually can't stand player "XYZ", but man - he's on "Blah, Blah, Blah" - and the whole thing works really well, even with "XYZ" on the date. What's up with that???"

It's Branford. I backtracked on the site, and found this... In a special issue devoted to Hot Spots, The Bop Shop was featured as the Favorite Jazz Record Store in an article by Branford Marsalis. Excerpts from Entertainment Weekly Issue #72 / 73 Friday, June 28 / Friday, July 5, 1991 --reporting by Ron Givens -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I found out about the Bop Shop when I was going to a concert at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. Whenever I go into a new town, the first thing I say is 'Record Shop?' In Rochester, a guy answered, 'The Bop Shop.' The thing that makes this record store so cool is that the people who work here like music. I can spend an hour or an hour and a half in the store, not just buying records, but talking with the proprietor, Tom Kohn.... "It's a hands-on store, a dying breed. Kohn stocks the records he likes as well as the records that sell a lot of copies....He'll order things for you -- other stores say they'll get it for you in three or four weeks, but he'll get it for you in three or four days. "I just spent $200 here on records--all vinyl. I went in and said I wanted blues. They said , 'We got 'em.' I bought three Howlin' Wolfs, two Sonny Boy Williamson's, one Son House. I also got some novelty records and (at the sister store Recorded Classics), some classical and some operas. "Good record-store owners do what they do because they love the music. They're like good musicians--a small minority who deal with the music business because they love it."

MOOSER!! Well, Moose has got the most number of posts in "Politics"... But there's somebody else who's percentage is mindbogglingly high, for number of posts in "Politics", vs. his posts elsewhere. Think about it - it's not very hard to figure out...

OMG, I thought the "highest percentage in Politics" winner was gonna be Son-of-a-Weizen, with 542 posts in "Politics', or 70% of his total posts on the entire board... But there's somebody else who's got him beat by a mile. And yikes!! - his percentage is almost not to be believed!!!!

Hint: The forum I'm most active in is "Miscellaneous Music", with 252 posts to that forum, which is 19% of my total posts on the entire board. Jazzmoose is most active in "Politics", with 673 posts to that forum, which is 52% of his total posts on the entire board. BUT, that's nowhere near the highest "percentage" for some posting to the "Politics" thread... Hmmmmm.... Who could it be, and how high is that percentage????

How do you look up this kind of stuff? Actually, maybe the more interesting question is this... Who has the most posts in Politics, as a percentage of their total posts (from among the top 25 posters on the board, meaning from the very most active posters on this board). Anyone care, not only to guess who the top person is (based on the percentage of their posts in "Politics")... ...and maybe even more shocking, what that percentage is????

Wonder who's on the Peterson disc -- Jeremy Pelt perhaps???

Yeah, enough of Rooster's bitching. What's his problem anyway???

I agree, that standards - in and of themselves - are not the problem. Well chosen standards are always welcome. But hearing "All The Things You Are" or "How High The Moon", and exclusively those kinds of tired warhorses, is what I'm refering to. I honestly think "Green Dolphin Street" would even be out of character for many of these more 'tired' acts to play. And certainly you'll never hear "Round Midnight". I will admit that probably most of the bands - actual groups that have fairly consistent line-ups from gig to gig - are usually half-way decent (and sometimes even excellent - a couple local groups come to mind). But half or more of what passes for jazz in this town are free-lancers who put together gigs with 'pickup' guys, a different guy every gig, for every chair - until they cycle around back to the front of the rolodex. And then they only play what, collectively, that group of 3 or 4 musicans happens to all know how to play. Which, way more often than not, turns out to be lowest-common-denominator tunes, the likes of which are what you pretty much exclusively what you hear on the Jam-Session things on Saturday afternoon, for the old folks. You know, tunes played as faster "midtempo" things that pass for heat, when they barely generate warmth. (Getting to Soul Stream's point about "Energy"!!!! And specifically about a complete lack of energy - which is what I hear all the time.) And, how about playing a cheezy keyboard on stage, on some generic "keyboard" setting (or pseudo-"piano" setting), even when there's a frickin' grand piano on the same stage and everything!!! (The guy was too lazy to move over to the piano, and he wanted to play the "organ" settings on the keyboard for some tunes -- Yeah, it's the same guy I bitched about above in an earlier post -- and (although I won't mention names), he's one of the 3 or 4 best-known local piano-players in all of Kansas City.) Anyway, I think you hopefully are starting to get the picture. There's about a dozen quality cats in town, and the rest are just plain boring as hell... ( Or at least this is based on the guys who are actually getting gigs. Maybe there's much better, but (maybe) younger(?) guys out there? - who just don't network enough, or who don't network with the right people? - in order to get gigs? I don't know what the problem is. All the guys I'm bitching about are in their 40's and 50's, or 60's. Mostly guys who gig several nights a week, and are "well known" in the Kansas City jazz community - for better or worse. )

I know I've heard a live version or two of "Blue Train", on what were some European boots from the early 60's, and probably the same version that's on "Live Trane: The European Tours (1961-63)" - which I haven't ever heard. He may have covered it at other times too, in concert.

Where's Jim?? This thread needs JSngry's input... The rest of you, all pile on too - I don't want this to just be me ranting on about things. Either ya got the same problem in your town, or you don't. But either way, you oughta have somethin' to say about it.

I think Aric has Lou's phone number, if you need it.

(With notable exceptions here and there), On any given night in Kansas City, with any given group - about 80-90% of what you're going to hear is standards, and mostly conservative ones at that. And the only attempts at anything 'hot' are typically over blues changes, or "Rhythm" changes, or almost always something similar. Even a great like Bobby Watson, who now lives and teaches in Kansas City, is more often than not playing local gigs with this same kind of material. (Although, clearly, he plays at a level that's way, way above the norm.) Still, when that's the norm --- program-wise, content-wise --- then it makes for some pretty snoozy listening opportunities. Tired be-bop is still the norm around these parts, and standards that have been standards since 1960 or earlier. Really, you'd be amazed at the number of "professional jazz musicians" in this town, who are mostly playing slightly higher-quality versions of the exact same thing that gets played at all the Saturday afternoon "jam session" gigs (of which there are still one or two left). Really half-assed stuff, with no hint of craft or creativity, save for the occasional accidental lapse when a ballad turns particularly poignant, and usually unintentionally at that. ( And I admit that there's the possibility that I'm speaking a little bit out of turn here. I don't get out to hear these people all the time, clearly, so I'm speaking from what periodic but only occasional experience I've had, listening at random jazz clubs around Kansas City, over the last 8-9 years. Maybe almost every night I caught over the last 8-9 years (3 or 4 times a year? - for the half-ass acts), all just happened to be a 'bad' nights. But, somehow, I kinda doubt it. ) And, for the most part, THAT is what the public around here think's is Jazz. It's not so much Kenny G. that's the problem, as I see it, but rather lazy jazz musicians who don't bother to put any effort into - Soul Stream just said it - who don't put any effort into CONNECTING with the public. And for me, playing the same, tired old shit, decade after decade, is just killing the music. There are some exceptions, and I patronize them every chance I get. But most of the cats around town (probably 60%, maybe 70%) aren't even worth the price of gas to get to their gigs, let alone a $3 cover.

Several Gil Scott-Heron discs there (full albums, not just comps), and a couple significant Ellington discs too (also not comps). A few Lonnie Liston Smith titles, and Sonny Rollins discs too - also not comps. Don't overlook pages "11-17", be sure to hit the double ">>" button, after you look through pages 1-10. Also, from the fine print... "Qualifying purchase transaction must be made between 12:01 a.m (CT) 7/20/03 and 11:59 p.m. (CT) 8/9/03. Limit: 3 per title per customer. No dealers." But since shipping is free, you can just get three for yourself, and have your neighbor get another three, and your coworker get another three -- at not extra shipping costs.