Milestones

I have checked out Vol. 4 on Spotify, and this may well be the best one so far released. The others are all in my collection, and maybe I have not listened enough; but they seem a bit hit-and-miss. The meeting with Ornette was a good idea (in my book), but it sure went on a long time; and I think they should have performed together at least three decades earlier.

I knew that was coming.

I'm curious to know what people like most on the 4 CDs of Road Shows. I have not listened all that much, and not at all to Volume 4; so really it's self-interest--getting recommendations on a manageable running time featuring the cream of the crop.

Of course Miles did a soundtrack for a French noir.

Where is the Payton's version of "Chinatown" to be found? I really like Terence Blanchard's.

You may want to add some tracks from Haden's Quartet West, especially Haunted Heart and Always Say Goodbye. I'd also recommend Bob Belden's Black Dahlia.

I will certainly say that WAR is useless to me.

To my mind, the 15 or so paragraphs of explanation (plus some equations almost no one can understand) seals the absurdity.

For one thing, I don't get who the replacement is. Is it just some generic schmuck who can't hold a candle to, say, Mike Trout?

I have never seen a baseball stat so completely silly and so completely fabricated as WAR. I am sick of seeing it come up in baseball articles--for example, an article today arguing that 5 great players don't belong in Cooperstown--principally because of WAR. I will never be convinced that there is any logic to how WAR is calculated or that it has a shred of validity. Comments?

The Cyrille sounds interesting, partly because I'm a big Frisell fan.

This is all about preference, but who do you listen to as one year ends and the next begins? I've found myself listening to Coltrane's recordings (especially Atlantic) today. On New Yea'rs Day I suspect it will be Miles and Monk.

So "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" is timeless?

Don Cheadle was the right man to play Miles, but this thing was just so silly--and without seeming to have a sense of humor. I had low expectations, but still found it to really bad.

I found the film absurd and horrendous. I could not agree more with Dick Gregory. What the hell audience did they expect to reach? I believe this movie cost less than half-a-million to make. And Don Cheadle needed to put white boy Ewan McGregor in this thing? Couldn't Cheadle have found a couple of million just from what he earned in the Oceans Eleven movies?

The fact is, actors and singers can now be truly immortal.

Right on, Scott, for your highly reasonable posts. Language is by nature flexible, and too many people have gone with a literal and limiting view of the word "timeless."

I guess it would be better to remove "timeless," as this is a term suggestive of infinity. Maybe we should think in terms of "multi-generational"--that the music survives/endures over 3 or 4 generations and many decades. Thus you have many fans, singers, musicians who continue to keep alive the likes of Miles, Trane, Sinatra, Hendrix, etc. Certainly one has to feel that the works of Shakespeare and Mozart, having survived for centuries, will not be vanishing any time soon. Some 20th Century artists may have the same lasting power.

Realistically, I think part of it is seeing/hearing the greatness of something that was created before you were born. That way you remove the aspect of "I heard this when it came out" and "I associate this with my childhood or adolescence." Thus you have Mozart. Thus you have (in my case) some of the work of Miles Davis--for example, Kind of Blue came out shortly before I was born. But in the end it's complicated, and as I've said views will differ.

I'm sure we could go all day on the issue of "timeless." For me, several tunes by Yes are timeless. Sure, neither the group nor its best songs are not as timeless as The Beatles or Dylan or The Stones or The Who. I am quite certain that timeless song/compositions exist in every genre of music.

I never had much Yes in my collection, and only album (so far) in my digital collection. It's a group I had largely forgotten, but I can see value in re-exploring their best work. Was it a group of its time? Is there a certain timeless quality? Opinions will vary.

I'm thinking we have more King Crimson fans around here.

Any thoughts on Yes, since they are in the news for being elected into the Rock Hall of Fame? I was a fan of Yes before I was into jazz, and maybe those long pieces with frenzied solos helped set me up to be a jazz lover a few years later. Clearly many members of Yes love jazz--witness Bill Bruford's extensive work in the field. Steve Howe seems pretty deep into it as well, with several records that sound like a traditional guitar/organ/drums trio.

I had no idea about her. She sounds intriguing.

I've checked out samples and they sound good to these ears. I like the Stones a lot, yet I've never had a huge amount of their discography. I can see myself adding this one.