Jim Alfredson

Sure, but trailblazers are sometimes not fully understood or appreciated right away. As far as choosing to innovate, I think it is more of a personal decision to "forget everything you know" and start from scratch. It seems to me that is what Zawinul did. As Jim states, all that came before is still in there but it comes out as spirit rather than imitation. I don't necessarily agree with that. I don't think any kind of music needs to replace any other kind. They can all co-exist just fine. As for people who try to innovate and fail, I'm sure there are plenty. That's why a talent like Zawinul is special.

She's just a crazy kid in love!!!

Well, I have one on my cheap Kenwood amp (which is why I don't bother having it fixed) which causes static in the right channel and sometimes the channel goes completely dead. The fix is to move the volume knob and then the static goes away and the sound comes back, for the time being.

Cool article. Thanks for posting, rc.

Exactly.

I would have your preamp or amp checked out. Could be a faulty potentiameter somewhere.

How do you know it was just in regards to Barry Harris? Unless fasstrack's quote is incorrect, Zawinul says that he threw away "all my records". He doesn't say he just threw away his Barry Harris records, he says he threw away ALL his records. In other words, he's starting anew. Getting rid of all that has come before and starting over. I see this as not only incredibly brave but also crucial if jazz is to survive as a growing, evolving music, rather than a museum attraction. Sometimes I have dreams of doing the exact same thing myself. Before we recorded our last album, I purposely refrained from listening to ANY music for 2 weeks. It was very hard at first and then I rather enjoyed it. My head was constantly filled with new music, my own music, unblemished by tunes I had just heard today or two days ago or whatever. I came up with some pretty fun tunes that way. I need to do it again. Fortunately for you, there are literally hundreds of people who stayed in the same line that Zawinul deviated from 30 years ago still recording records that sound like stuff from 1950. Unfortunately for those who enjoy where Zawinul went, there are precious few people who followed him and even less that have branched off from there (if any).

Is he wrong? It doesn't mean Barry is a bad player (he's a monster) but there are stylists and there are innovators. Zawinul didn't want to be a stylist, he wanted to innovate and so he did. Simple as that. It doesn't mean Barry's music is any less valid in the general sense, it just means that Zawinul didn't want to go down that route. Thankfully, he lived up to his own expectations of himself!

That's pretty much what I was going to say. Besides, at his age, why should he mince words?

It's frickin' cold.

Give David Mathews my best regards.. We used to play together in the late 80's .. Dave is a bad boy on the organ as well. Very cool! And getting BD would be FANTASTIC!

My good friend Pete Fallico is doing an organ jazz series at the legendary Purple Onion and I'm trying to help him get the word out and get people in the club. Will Blades is a very fine player, as is Nick Rossi. I know we have several members in the Bay Area, so please support live music in your hometown! There's a good chance organissimo will be out that way soon if the series can survive!

Sorry to hear that, Chuck. I'm glad you and the missus got home safely.

It's frickin' cold. So cold that when I got home from the gig last night at 4:30am, the furnace was running. That might not sound crazy, but the furnace is on a digital programmable thermostat and at night is set to 60 degrees. Which means the house was actually colder than 60 degrees, so the furnace turned on!!! This old house is drafty.

I've been getting a lot of people asking for us to come out West. So I thought I'd start a thread for your West Coast dwellers to suggest places for us to contact about playing. Where's Johnny E?

Just got this email from my good friend Pete Fallico: So I was wrong. It actually did belong to Dr. Lonnie Smith. They still sound like poo, though! And I still have one sitting in my garage. Forgive me, Pete!

Thanks! Fun day today. Got 4 tunes tracked. I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

For additional information about our cases contact us at nycase@optonline.net OR Call Toll Free 877- 692- 2738 Call and ask for Frank. They are the ones that made my cases for the XK System. If they can't do a custom job in the time-frame allowed (ie, a case that fits the guitar perfectly) then I think my idea of making a flight case that fits the entire regular case of the guitar is the way to go. Or email Sco and see if he has an extra!

Going into the studio today with my blues / r&b band Root Doctor. Our last disc (first true studio disc) was very successful and we're excited for the next one, which will be mostly originals. Since the last time I recorded at the studio, the owner picked up a nice 1957 Hammond C3 with a Leslie 21H! It'll be fun to play that beauty! Off we go!

Sometimes just to kill myself I try playing along with "Harold's House of Jazz" from the Muse date... the one that's just blistering fast Cherokee changes. FUN!

What the melody really needs is a trumpet/tenor frontline. That's the lineup I wrote the tune for, like the classic "Boppin' & Burnin'" DP record.

We tried it in the studio several times and it didn't have the magic. Maybe on the next one.

That's sweet! I got to see the Wanamaker organ while in Philly a few weeks back. Over 29,000 pipes! Holy crap!

Amazingly enough, I have not gotten there yet in my listening or collecting. I have one of his newer discs (90s). I don't think I have any of his 60s Blue Notes. I guess its time for me to use the search link up above, eh?

So its not even an actual station, just an online station? Lame. Go to Live365 and you can find a ton of jazz stations and DJs who will play your stuff for free. We're still heavily featured on the Hammond Leslie Overdrive station and sold a lot of CDs because of that.