Christiern

I don't know if throwing this ball in AAJ's direction would be such a good idea. Hmmmm...let's see...Mr. "Jazzcritic" will pontificate (with a mention of his big collection); Mike4-whatever will say how wonderful BN was to recognize the world-class, extraordinary talent of a certain corporate trumpeter; and the management will come up with 43 threads of press releases. Then that guy from Ottowa will step in a check for political content, eliminating whatever is left of center.

Hmmm, that's where you'll find some of the most myopic BN worshippers.

All is forgiven, Dan--you were just being your old self. Do you see Ms. Jones as a WMD(Woman of Mass Destruction)?

I don't agree that gender had nothing to do with the discomfort (to put t mildly), but I do believe that it had less to do with it than the fact that she simply was not a jazz artist. Hancock, Benson and Wes's pop efforts did, indeed, turn of some, who saw it as a dilution of jazz or waste of worthy talent. I think Bill's point is that there was less of an uproar from those modulations into a lighter genre than we saw happening over Nora at the BN forum, and he attributes that to gender. I happen not to agree, but it is a fact that women have, through most of jazz's lifetime, been regarded as one might a 6-year-old harpsichordist: good, but with qualifications. The exceptions were the vocalists and pianist, the former were canaries, the latter were playing what was perceived as a feminine instrument. I recall a liner note by Billy Taylor where he "defended" his bring a pianist and felt compelled to inform the reader that he was married with children. That kind of silliness is on the wane, but still lurking. Jim, I know you are running a desperate one-poster race for bbs immortality, but you started this thread, so please don't clutter it with frivolous posts (as I see it) that only serve to increase your 26 thousand plus figure.

I don't agree that gender had nothing to do with the discomfort (to put t mildly), but I do believe that it had less to do with it than the fact that she simply was not a jazz artist.

Bill, don't be turned off to "O" by a couple of misguided members.

"... I know nothing about Norah Jones, I'm afraid" Ah, what bliss such ignorance can bring....although she is 100 notches above Winehouse

The problem that killed the BN board not only lives on, it has grown worse. Now the music business is severely wounded. If that is not an interesting--if sad--topic, I don't know what is.

You are definitely imagining things in this case. Bill McCloskey came over because something he wrote elsewhere was brought up here (by Jim) and made the subject of a thread.

Shawn: "As a long time member of the old BNBB as well as the Big O...I gotta say that you are coming off as an unmitigated, narrow-minded jackass." I'm not so sure that it doesn't take a jackass to call a fellow poster one--but I may be wrong. That said, Blue Note was a great label (emphasis on past tense) that set an admirably high standard under its original ownership. It sank into the gutter when United Artists took it over and made a commendable comeback under Bruce Lundvall. Unfortunately, it failed to live up to its glorious past, and that is certainly--in part, at least--due to factors out of its control: a general deterioration in the music that BN had come to represent so well, a shift in focus from art to chart, and changing public taste. Today, Blue Note coasts along on an old reputation, featuring artists for whom Alfred Lion would probably not have opened the door ajar. Blue Note, because it was such a fine, dedicated label, has developed somewhat of a cult following, but the height to which it is elevated is often unrealistic. Was Rudy the cat's meow of engineers? Of course not, and it is telling that he rarely--if ever--gets adulation for his Prestige work. As a producer, I worked with Rudy and liked what he did, but I was not any happier with his work than I was with that of, say, Ray Fowler. It never ceases to amaze me how subjective staunch BN fans often are. When Bruce opened the door to Norah Jones, he slapped the label's integrity in the face. To borrow a thought from Obama, it is not the signing of Jones, per se, that should bother us, it is the mindset that allowed it to happen. I happen to also think that the subsequent signing of an over-hyped trumpeter was a reflection of misplaced judgement. I should also say that while sexism has left jazz with many scars, I think Norah Jones' poor reception had much more to do with her genre than it did with her gender. Blue Note was, indeed, something special, but life goes on and when big corporations get a hold on anything special, they are know to quickly render that designation void. Worshipping at the shrine of Blue Note is ludicrous, i.m.o. It tends to give the music a back seat, and t hat also goes for the posters atSteve Hoffman's forum, who are so wrapped up in wave forms and the like that they often make the music secondary. Listen to the artistry--that's all we need to do.

Here it is: http://www.nysun.com/article/72180

This is from today's New York Sun, accompanying an article by Will Friedwald.

... and may your happiness multiply!

...and may your gigs get better and better!

I agree with paparus here, Brooks is someone whose presence as a talking head is, more often than not, difficult to justify. I heard him give the same self-serving blather on PBS.

What it took to get an 8th grade education in 1895... Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895? How about right now? This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina,Kansas,USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library inSalina, and reprinted by the Salina Journal. 8TH GRADE FINAL EXAM:SALINA,KS- 1895 GRAMMAR (TIME: one hour) 1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters. 2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications. 3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph 4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of "lie,""play," and "run." 5. Define case; illustrate each case. 6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation. 7 - 10... Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar. ARITHMETIC (TIME: 1 hour 15 minutes) 1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic. 2. A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. Wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold? 3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs. For tare? 4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals? 5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. Coal at $6.00 per ton. 6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent. 7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. Long at $20 per metre? 8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent. 9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods? 10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt U.S.HISTORY (TIME: 45 minutes) 1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided 2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus 3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War. 4. Show the territorial growth of the United States 5. Tell what you can of the history ofKansas. 6. Describe three of the most prominent battles attles of the Rebellion. 7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe? 8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865. ORTHOGRAPHY (TIME: one hour) (Do we even know what this is?) 1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication 2. What are elementary sounds? How classified? 3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals 4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?) 5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule. 6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each. 7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis-mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup. 8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last. 9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays. 10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication. GEOGRAPHY (TIME: one hour) 1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend? 2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas? 3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean? 4. Describe the mountains of North America 5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco. 6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of theU.S. 7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each. 8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude? 9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers. 10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth. Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete. Gives the saying "he only had an 8th grade education" a whole new meaning, doesn't it?! BTW, the above is courtesy of Mr. D'Imperio.

When I review books, I always read them from cove to cover, armed with little post-it notes. Then I go back, having marked the places that requires closer scrutiny. Audio albums? well, I agree with Allen, one listen is not enough in most cases. In fact, even when I had to come up with 12 - 15 reviews a month, I did not limit my listening to the album at hand--it helped to listen to related material, the artist's previous releasefor example. BN, you claim to have written a few hundred reviews--where can we read them?

You did well--I know people for whom it is still 1970.

I don't recall the details of our conversation, but I told him that I had seen a theremin demonstration at school in England and that I found it quite interesting. Very few people I knew were aware of the instrument, so I recall being pleasantly surprised to find that he was very familiar with it. Don't recall if he said he had used it.

Not much I can tell you, really. Varèse liked WBAI, the radio station I used to run, so when we produced a modest fund-raising concert at Town Hall, and featured flute solo), Density 21.5. He was very pleased and asked if he could attend. That was great, because he was in his 80s and I had wrongly assumed that he would not be as mobile as he turned out to be. I was delighted when he accepted an invitation to attend a post-concert party in his honor at my apartment (where I still live). All I can say is that he seemed to enjoy himself, he smiled warmly, ate a little (I had it catered by a Danish Restaurant--Old Denmark), and stayed for about an hour. I had, up to then, only met him once and we had a few phone conversations (I recall talking to him about the theramin). My impression of him was, well, that he was a remarkably regular guy--of course he was not really that, but that's how he carried himself. I think it was my music director, John Corigliano, who originally introduced us. Not long after that, Varèse passed away. Wish I could tell you more.

By all means, please go ahead and do so!! It's not as though you haven't already gone that shameless route with me before, right? Here, why don't you take this pic for your thread and then make up some story about how I won it at the local 4-H Aryan Nation Club's annual spring fundraiser auction and is now hanging in my bedroom. Why crop the picture? Weizen Haus is a show place, is it not?