JSngry

I think it does a disservice to Earl Bostic, and many others, to highlight their importance just on the grounds that they connected with their audience(s). If that's why they have relevance, does it not follow that their relevance diminishes and eventually does as that audience does? It's not a path of sustainability, really. And yes, Bostic's ongoing relevance will continue to be condensed, because most of his career was spent as a singles/jukebox artist. And that's a world that, if not already extinct, is bordering on it. And there's also the matter of that whole world, jukebox/singles music, it was populated by a helluva lot of people who no longer really matter except when/if somebody wants to do an archeological deep-dive into some extinct world. These folks matter as part of the whole, a picture is not complete without them, but...who's gonna look at that picture in the first place? So what makes Earl Bostic relevant, why should he get a thread of his own, why should people even bother to check him out at all? Because he was a bad motherfucker, that's why. Not because he got to his market, but because of what he got to his market with. Some real skills, skills that were not a function of the marketplace, skills that came from personal "artistic" drive, standards and skills, just good old-fashioned work ethic and a discerning, personally targeted musical taste and some good business sense. Even if the singles all begin to blend into one same record, it's a GOOD one same record, and that's not accidental, nor was that driven by the market place. That there were so many of them, yes, that's the market place, but what they were, that's entirely Artist's Choice. The cat could play, did play, never did not play. Look, Ace Cannon reached his market, and Ace Cannon was a borderline no-playing jiveass waste of time (sure, that's a value judgement, but oh well about that). He's a bad role model for the youth of the future, never mind the youth of his youth. If everybody forgets about Ace Cannon and doesn't bother to re-remember, probably a net gain as far as evolution goes, there's really no "there" there. But time spent absorbing and contemplating the realities of Earl Bostic...it might all basically sound alike, it might all actually basically be all alike (look out, though, those sides with Groove & Pass do seriously kick ass), but what that "all alike" actually contains...you can go forward with that, just the recognition of it, not even the specifics of it, just the abstract truth of what this "is really is. Where you can go with Ace Cannon is straight to the hell you're already in, ain't but no way out, blues and the concrete overshoes. And sure, yes, by all means, everybody familiarize yourself with Ace Cannon. You can't do a meaningful contrast and compare otherwise.

So...."music as art" & "pure listening" are not "part of society"? What, are those things some sort of deviancy? I get the "nothing in it for me" part, I don't get how only "for me" can rightly be viewed as the only "part of society". Are you saying that you only view what's in your world as THE world and not consider other possibilities as valid, even if not of personal interest? That just seems...off, grounds for a culture war based on a notion of separatism that is probably not worth having (the war and the notion) in a world as small as this one continues to become. Not to say it's not going to be fought anyways, there's good money in encouraging rigidity, but really, it's a chump bet. Jimmy Dorsey...other players had respect for the skills. This is the same kind of finger & tone virtuosity that Bostic had. They spoke different dialects/accents, to be sure, but I've no doubt that they had any trouble understanding each other.

Back to much more esoteric matters...who's in for paralleling Earl Bostic to Jimmy Dorsey for sheer instrumental virtuosity, quite apart from any improvisational skills? In fact...how is this not a tip of the hat to Earl Bostic? Sure, you got Pete Brown, Tab Smith, even Louis Jordan in the mix, but to the best of my knowledge, Jimmy Dorsey was not prone to these kind of body tempo musics, the kind that Bostic lived (literally) and breathed (also literally)...it takes one tart-toned virtuoso player and businessman to recognize another, I say.

"music as art" is "not worth listening to"? Like making music to listen to is not a function in and of itself? Like listening to "listening music" is not the pursuit of engagement in that function? Like there's no implicit agreement of potential reciprocity? That's just silly, is that really what you mean? Not sure if life imposes that strict a set of rules as to what its "functions" are. You can choose to impose a fixed set of them upon yourself and then blame life, but, uh, really? Me myself, I use the term "functional music" as a recognition of purpose, and to that end, most music is functional, hell, pretty much all music is functional, you just have to recognize the function. Even silence is functional. Especially silence. without it there would be nonstop noise. Like time is what keeps everything from happening all at one, silence is what keeps noise from being nonstop. I'm a big fan of functional music, all kinds of it, the functions and the musics alike.

I've learned, somewhat, to adjust my perspective from that of the modern man being told yesterday's tales of the future to that of the modern man taking stock of how...impressive it is for anybody to appreciate, anticipate, and actually attempt to articulate a vision of the future that doesn't involve glorifying the past and dropping anchor in the present...."New World"...it took me a while to realize that, yeah, by today's ears, it's "Spiritual" influences might seem obvious and/or superficial today, perhaps even sappy, but at the time...well, let's just say not everybody was looking at things that way, either in terms of the present or for going forth. So, sometimes, "heavy" is not so much a function of execution as it is simply of vision. Sometimes. Still, as it applies to Dvorak, the vision evident in the work is what is drawing me in more and more, not so much the music itself, but what is implied by the music...like it's an invitation to a party that is still being planned. I like that.

Perhaps Don Kirshner's Rock Concert? Friday night?

It was some dime store bargain label compilation that had a track listed as Basie's "Let him Have A Taste" but in actuality was Duke's "Stomp, Look, & Listen", the rowdy Bethlehem one with Cat Anderson screeching like hell at the end, that noise hit a nerve that linked all the horn band, Hendrix, Zappafreakouts that I had been incubating over the last few years...and then once into jazz, screeching big band trumpets soon linked to screeching saxophones like Trane/Ayler/Shepp, and oh hell yeah, I can do this! Parallel to this was a few vintage Mulligan/Brubeck things. Where the sound of the screech linked to previous tendencies, this stuff was dark in tone, quieter, a whole new consideration. And then, Ellington Indigos & Kind Of Blue, Columbia penetrations. This all happened really, really fast, like in about 6 months I was obsessed with all of it, any of it, known or unknown, didn't matter. And I pretty much dropped the "popular" musical interests I had had up until then, just stopped caring any more. To this day, most Rock past 1970 or so is of at best secondary, usually tertiary or less, interest to me. R&B, different story, because that link was already there, deeply, and never went away. I pretty much, to use the vernacular, got turned out by the jazz.

All that Loveable Losers Baggage being disposed of can easily fuel several hot, HOT stoves. It's gotta be one helluva joyful disposal!

Let the fire in the stove burn hotly, fueled by, among other things, the Loveable Losers Baggage being disposed of by Cubs fans, the DAMMIT that was close frustrations burning inside Indians fans, and the pwaaattt?!?! angry indifference of Rangers fans, the latter being too cold to create fire, but more than cold enough to burn like hell.

Yeah, me too. I'm not an O'Day "buff", but I do like her, and those McFarland charts could easily block off a less empathetic and/or skilled singer. Not Ms. O'Day, she dealt!

I think consideration was given to how many great records he was on, indeed, how many great Sonny Rollins gigs he was on, and after a while, it's like, hey, this guy again, he's not bringing anybody down, he's never a weak link or anything, when it gets heavy, he goes there with it, and yeah, it finally sinks in that no, not everybody can do that or make that claim.

Went years only hearing the 50s pop hits an thought she was a ornball. Then, finally, heard the earlier and later stuff and came around in a big(ish) kind of wahy. There's some early(?) Gene Norman(?) live thing where she talks about how her man "beats the hell out of me" that gets a really visceral audience reaction..."Good For Nothing Joe" or something like that. Whatever, it took guts to deliver that line like that in that situation, so props given there. Then I heard some of her post-RCA Capitol sides, including the country one and the one with Ben Webster, and yeah, she could sing a song, not just make noise that sounded like one. I even included one of her RCA things "Lazy Bones" on one of my BFTs, great song, great performance, Kay Starr brought it in the real way. Not a "Soul Singer", but definitely a singer with a soul. RIP, and thanks for not giving up.

Dvorak has seemed a little "light" to me in the past, but recent listening ahs gotten me rethinking. Looking forward to hearing the case made in person!

As opposed to "straight ahead", I guess? Doubt that this was a skateboarding/surfing metaphor, so, what...carpentry? The running board of a car? Diving? It's one of those phrases that I know exactly what it means but have no idea how/why.

same here.

Thanks, this is a real service. Much appreciated!

I took my Ambien not expecting the rain delay...did stay kind of awake enough to see the final out. Smiled at Dad & Uncle Bob then went all the way to sleep. Joe Maddon is not wearing well with me as the seasons pass, but dammit, the Cubs have finally won a World Series. Hopefully the world at large can now get on with the business of moving forward.

This weekend @ DSO, looks fun enough.

So long...

Triumph!