JSngry

What would be cool would be to empower the music of Hank Mobley outside the increasingly incestuous world of "jazz fans". Put Dippin' in a commercial for Scoops, hell yeah, somebody asks hey, what's that badass song on the Scoops commercial, some internet hipster will say, oh that's Hank Mobley. Oh wow, Hank Mobley is cool, he's that Scoops guy. He maybe downloads that song for free someplace and then forget about it sooner or later, but the name and the music has been heard. Mission accomplished. Tell me - how many people are going to read either online or in print that Hank Mobley has been elected to the Down Beat Hall Of Fame and say huh? who is Hank Mobley? Anybody? So, it's kinda like, hey, I'm talking to myself, and boy do I sound GOOD!

It's not bullshit for those who care about such things, but what kind of a thing is being cared about?. It's meaningless in any tangible way. There's no money, no career enhancement, no plaque, no wall, no building, no dinner, no dance, no VIP back room with drugs of choice, no bridge, no street name, no park, no historical marker, no special GPS coordinate, nobody to feel the love except for the list-makers, and nobody to look at the list except db readers and Wikipedia users. If it makes somebody to feel good to get involved in this thing, go ahead. Just don't expect anything other than to be able to open up a copy of Down Beat, look at the HOF results, and then say, hey - I helped put him there, right there, on that page, ME! And then....nothing. Enjoy! Sometimes I need a cell phone to find a gas station so I can take a poop, close enough.

DB Hall of Fame is not even at the level of a non-American postage stamp (of which a surprising many have featured jazz musicians!). At least Metronome made records with their poll winners. And at least down beat made compilation albums from their poll winners way back in the day (and less back in the day, one great and one ok PBS shows featuring their poll winners. At least. But is there now, or has there ever been, at least as much as a local dinner to celebrate anybody's selection into the Down Beat Hall Of Fame? If there is/has been, I'm not aware, and will gladly be corrected. But even if that, yeah, Hank Mobley, you know I love him, always have always will. But this DB HOF thing, there's no there there, it's just another list, made by list-lovers for list-lovers. Not to say that you can't be a jazz lover and a list lover, but you know make that list, check it twice, go to the grocery store and buy some rice.

McCoy always claimed Ritchie Powell as his main man.

Hey - I started reading Down Beat in 1970. I ran the whole cycle with them and all they've done, all the angles they've presented themselves to their readers through their advertisers, and how they handled the Great Seismic Shift of the Neo-Con Con game. They no longer impress me, they no longer compel me to even look for them on a newsstand. I think they're a joke, really. Jazz (and/or) other is not their focus - Down Beat is their focus. The days of them even being a token "forward looking" mag are long over. This Hall Of Fame of theirs is a sham - they have no building, no room, no nothing, just a list of names, that they print when it's time. Glenn Miller & Stan Kenton were in before Duke Ellington & Charlie Parker. When Jimi Hendrix made it, there was a massive revolt. There for a while, you got in when you died. It's a joke, now, and it's a joke then. Plus I see that they've added a "veteran's committee" (did not know this until looking at wikki just now) whoe sole function seems to be to pick giants from the past who today's people are too ignorant to recognize. Look - there's no cash, not sure if there's even a plaque (and if so, who would get it on Hank's behalf?), there damn sure ain't no money in it. It's not an honor, it's a self-serving game for the magazine and a serf-comforting deception for the fans. If you really want to honor the memory of Hank Mobley for generations to come, put up a statue of him, a nice noble statue of thinking man with a tenor and a thoughtful look on his face on a base that's big enough to hold a band. Put that statue and that base somewhere in the middle of Philly or Newark and schedule regular events there. Make it nice, make it right, and call it Hank Mobley Circle. Circle, not square. Or go ahead and vote him into the DB Hall Of Fame, if that's the best to which we aspire. Tony Bennet & Wynton Marsilias will perform at the induction dinner, what an honor for Hank Mobley that will be.

If you think that Hank Mobley's legacy is most properly honored by seeing is name in a trade publication list, then by all means, do this thing.

It's Down Beat, that's why. The only currency that Down Beat has is that which it bestows itself. It's a "Hall Of Fame" that only exists on the magazine's pages.. People say they don't take the DB Critics Poll seriously. Hell, I don't even take the DB Readers Poll seriously. I stopped taking Down Beat really seriously around 1978, and stopped reading it regularly maybe 10 years later. I doubt I've bought an issue in the last five years. I learn more about music, musicians, and records from the choice posters here at Organissimo than I do in Down Beat. There ya' go - lets have an Organissimo Hall Of Fame, let's do that. I'd love to see his name "listed there" if I knew what the significance of it was. I really don't see any other than hey, Hank Mobley's on this list.

He might have preferred McCoy once he heard him, but that does not correlate to not ever liking Red before, or even after.

Is there a real Jazz Hall Of Fame, and if so, is it the Down Beat Hall of fame? I'm really not sure what "overdue recognition" looks like to a dead man with no heirs. Hell, it was overdue while he was alive. Again I have to ask - what does Hank get out of this, exactly? I see people who vote for him getting to feel good, I see Down Beat maybe getting a feature article about him, I see Blue Note maybe selling some more records, but what does Hank Mobley himself get out of this?

What does Hank get if he wins?

Crisis indeed!

It's the Mainstream sextet record with three additional cuts. I've had the original LP for seemingly forever, but had no idea about the extra cuts until today, and they're a treat. Lanny Morgan in those days was thought of as a J-Mac clone, but listening today, he sounds to me more like Booker Ervin than anybody else. Interesting...I don't really care for him overall, but in these years, wow, that was an interesting choice for a white big-band altoist to make for a role model. An interesting choice indeed. Otherwise, Mike Abene, Ron McClure, and Tony Inzalaco don't have any problems driving full speed straight ahead, and Maynard seems more than happy to let them do it. And Willie Maiden is Willie Maiden with every note he plays, which is all he needs to be.

Ok, you have to actually acknowledge somebody as an entity to consciously declare them an existing non-entity, but oh well, life's funny that way, so let's all have a laugh with Buddy!

I think Chuck knows what he's doing. He usually does!

Quite apart from that, any suspicions that Simon is going do be colonization of jazz on this new album is just not based in any kind of historical reality. The guy's been informed by jazz more than a little bit for more than a little while. He's not some dumbass opportunist who's learned a few names and album titles to drop in interviews and shit like taht, he's a sophisitcated songwriter who knows about music far beyond the so-called "three chords and the truth" bullshit. Truth be told, he was using jazz-informed players on his hit albums in the 70s. Weasely or not, there was some fine playing on those records. And like Jaco with Joni, the best, most musical, Steve Gadd you're going to hear is on Paul Simon records. Tony Levin plays great bass there too. No, this is not some fad-faux project, at least not on paper anyway. The results will speak for themselves, and I really do wonder what kind of a voice he has left these days. Changes, the guy knows how to write songs with real changes. If disagreementers won't at least recognize that, there's no discussion to be had, just some emo bullshit venting. And yes, dead or not, I'd still prefer Paul Desmond to Joe Lovano. As compared to all that crazymad buckage money that American pop session musicians made/make? If we must cry, let our tears flow freely and universally, not to where they make us feel good leaving them.

I listened carefully to the charges of colonization/etc and then listened to the music and watched the behaviors. I cast my vote as "not guilty" and still do. The SNL "Diamonds On The Souls Of Her Shoes" was sublime. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp7kaqi1zcc

Not sure how cannibalize fits with other, canibalization is basically the culinary equivalent of incest,, but Simon has had jazz underpinnigsjazz underpinnings in his music for a good while now. If would like somebody other than Bill Frissell, though. And Paul Desmond instead of Joe Lovano.

It’s the digital age, consonantal redundancies fazing out.

does he still have a voice left?

The reason it seems like a rehearsal tape to me is the way almost all of the cuts play out. Nothing is really fully developed, it's more like head, solo(s) that seem to end in a musically "arbitrary" fashion, and then they take the tune out. It doesn't sound like they were doing intentionally short takes, like for a short-take album either. It sounds like Trane wanted to run through some things with the band, touch a base or two, and then take it home to let it soak in for further review. "Rehearsing" a band doesn't always involve preparing for a specific performance or anything, sometimes a rehearsal is just playing to see what happens with material both new and familiar. That a band of this level can make what to me seems like a rehearsal session and still hit it that hard is simply a testament of how high a level they were at. No matter - Jimmy Garrison continues to satisfy. All of that SPROINNNNNG that goes on back and forth between Trane & Elvin happens like it does only because Garrison is providing the foundation like he did. Other guys gave it an equally strong foundation, but not THAT foundation. All praise is due to Jimmy Garrison.

What I don't get is the resentment disguised as outrage or whatever when somebody finds an audience, targets them, and then that audience responds. I don't get offended by parties to which I'm not invited, that's ok. You know, go to your own parties, have fun there.

Put it in the rider.

I don't want digital liner notes. I want something provided to me that I can stick in some kind of sleeve. I still do shelves (and boxes, but those are supposed to be transitional...). Digital liner notes mean that if I want to make my own package, I have to print at my expense abd cut at my own risk. Fuck that, let me pay $3.95 or so and send it to me in the mail. This trend towards virtual everything...I really like what it is they think that they're trying to do with that, but thank you, no. I'm still a fan of the tangible.