Christiern

Please, Jim A., don't allow Organissimo's forum to model its policing activity after the Hoffman forum. I enjoy much that is in Steve H's forum, but those so-called "Gorts" definitely abuse their power—which, I sense, is beginning to happen here. Let's be above that sort of thing and handle such differences of opinion in a civil manner. It costs nothing and it feels ever so much better. Yeah, I know—look who's talking. I have been both a victim and an instigator—neither is the least bit useful.

The moderator could have dropped a PM to Allen, stated his objections and asked Allen to either remove or modify. Had that been done, we would not have this fast-growing thread and the only damage would be a slightly smaller No. of posts figure for Mr. Guinness. P.S. I speak from experience.

Leave it to Jim to post a frivolous thread derailer.

How it all began... America blessed by mythical entity

I guess you guys don't know Fischer's background. Think NY Jazz Museum, some 40 years ago.

Perhaps this film concept will die in 2010.

I hope it is published in my lifetime—seems like I've already waited a lifetime.

Hate to say this, but 090290289089082908908920890892089082908208908984787676732456563724 c has always been my favorite take.

I practically grew up with this lady. In fact, I met the model who posed for it—albeit man years after the fact—my grandparents knew her. Well, here she is in Shanghai, at the Danish Pavillion of a World's Fair that has yet to open.Her surroundings here are far less picturesque. They even moved the rocks.

How would you like to play piano with those fingers?

He plays the black keys and the white keys! BTW This is the original flyer, it has not been doctored up to look like Obama.

Thanks for the link. It's within walking distance of my apartment—I'll check it out.

It's great that you made it back home, safe and sound, and that you had a good stay. It was, of course, also great that you made my abode one of your stops, but I am sorry that we failed to hook up again, as planned. Blame it, in part, on Papa Bue (whose liner notes I was writing) and on Time-Warner, whose internet connection broke down and silenced my phone. Can't get over the fact that it took a visitor from Wales to hip me to Senegal in my back yard! Did you shirt up and go there? Finally, I am sorry that you missed out on my dash of Iceland in a Mason jar. It was here, waiting for you, straight from eyafjallajökull and, thus, more pure than the stuff you can capture from the air above Tonyrefail.

The station is WBAI in NYC, which I ran many moons ago. I will be a guest of Bob Fass, whom I rehired many moons ago. I have been rather critical of WBAI on my blog, so I guess Bob and I will be talking about that, but we will also, inevitably, do some reminiscing. He also asked me to bring stuff. Unfortunately (or perhaps, not) WBAI no longer has a single tape machine, so I can't bring any of my old shows (Bob had requested that), but I will bring some of the sessions I have produced over the past 57 years—they do have CD players, and they sometimes work. WBAI is a very poor listener-sponsored station. If you are in the New York area, you can tuned it in at 99.5 on the FM dial. It is also streamed around the world via wbai.org. If you want to hear it at a more convenient time, an online archive will have it for a few weeks, I think. If you don't want to hear it at all, I fully understand. Here's a link to my angry outbursts re WBAI, a station that I truly continue to love and see slipping into that bland radio land. There are several installments of my rant, but one links to the next. If you do listen, I would be interested in feedback.

Blind John Davis told me that he caught them in Tuscaloosa. He said they were "smokin'."

Just about any track from Hyler Twink's two Fosdick sessions would fit that bill, but I recommend the alternate take of "Poontango'" the one on which he adds a Spanish tinge to the last chorus. BTW, Benson did not pioneer that style, he just gave it legs.

Point well taken, Chris, but in my building, the doormen, porters, etc. tip us. In turn, we speak very highly of them at every opportunity, and some of us remember them in our wills. Of course, at Christmas time, we do suggest that they not tip us quite as well. To think that I have wasted hours studying the How to Hail a Cab manual. C'est la vie.

"The problem with so much of this discussion thus far is that it projects all kinds of things that are part of the inner psyche of the posters onto the music the musicians are playing. How much of what people are claiming is "about" the music of any era IS actually objectively about the music - rather than being about their own biases and prejudices and hindsight?" Might one not apply the same assumptions to your expressed opinions or evaluations? How do you distinguish honest opinion from one that is (in your mind) biased? Taste, as someone once said, is a matter of preference It is influenced by so many factors and, thus, subject to change. I don't see the "problem" with this discussion that you obviously feel is there. When it comes to judging artistic judgement, none of us really has an advantage over the other—I fail to see how someone's "inner psyche" (or parts thereof) can be a "problem." Are we not discussing intangibles? One man's rap is another man's crap. Nothing very deep and mysterious about that. Some of the awful "avant garde" performances I sat through in the Sixties were truly awful when measured against other performances in that genre. When a musician is not in control of his instrument, when notes are sounds of happenstance (as when a water buffalo shits on canvas) the result loses validity as a personal expression. Well, at least I think so. Now, if that water buffalo could also render a likeness of, say, a tree (or Bella Abzug) l might believe that its shit was more than random droppings—I might take a closer look, as it were. My inner psyche now tells me to stop and post.

If I remember correctly, the now defunct Imperio label issued a bootleg album called The Best of Henry Benson. Most of the tracks came from Henry Benson: The Men's Room Tapes, which has been oop in the U.S. for many years. Didn't Mosaic also do something with Benson?

I have heard good rappers, but most of them are stuck in an unimaginative groove. I don't think rap is/was the new jazz, but it does remind me of that period in the Sixties when mediocre musicians came out of the woodwork to jump over the jazz fence at its lowest point. That so-called avant garde movement. It was the perfect jazz phase for wannabes who had neither the technical knowhow nor the musical talent. I heard so much awful stuff during that time, performed by people who assumed that their fumbling noises would be interpreted as something profound. In fact, some so-called jazz writers, not having much of a clue themselves, thought their ears were being fed intellectual manna. Then, as with rap today, there was genuinely good stuff floating in the pot of crap. The same thing happened in the art world, people throw things together and call it art, aided and abetted by "experts". Fortunately—whether it's jazz, visual art or pedestrian poetry—in the end, the real stuff always survives the dross.

I took a one-hour course this morning. Tonight we received a DVD: "How to hail a cab."

It might be averted, but...

Sorry, but that's what they get for never having landed their space ship in my old country!

Beryl Booker detested Leonard.