JSngry

Ah, the trick is not to listen while asleep, the trick is to listen in that state that comes just before sleep. Don't know how to describe it, but it's a state where you're not really asleep, but you're definitely not in a "regular" state of consciousness either, nor are your eyes open. Sounds exist as full-bodied entities speaking quite clearly and independently of any other environmental stimulation and take on a very vivid characteristic of a living sound form, individually and collectively. Problem is, you have to learn to put yourself into that state (probably some yoga thing, breathing is definitely slower than usual). I haven't, it's just something I find myself in when relaxing and/or trying to nap. Started noticing it when I was, like, 14 or so, so it's not a residual drug thing or whatever. It's probably some meditative state, but...I ain't gonna work that hard to get to have it at my disposal anytime I want it. Also - it works for any music, not just free improv. Works for any music. Maybe more "revelatory" for music with dense textures and/or highly detailed timbral variances, things where conscious concentration can indeed be counter-productive. Some things work best when they come to you whole, and sometimes listening to hard fails that. Forrest for the trees, etc. Not sure about the note pad thing...I've seen students bring fake books to othe5r people's gigs, and people bring scores to classical concerts...I men, ok, I get the need to study, but time, place, etc, it ain't ALL in the book, no matter what it is. OTOH, you wanna sketch, or write down impressions to ponder later, or even make your own schematic of what you perceived you heard, no harm don, I guess.

Dooley Dodie Stevens Dootsie Williams

Not really looking to get any level of whelming out of any of this, just personally cartographing out of curiosity. New today: Not sure what to think...maybe no need for an absolute opinion. There are times when these are not the right arrangements for Etta Jones (and or when Etta Jones is the right singer for these arrangements). Neither the recording nor the performances (nor, on occasion, the arrangements) are as consistently refined as befits the occasion. Tempos are occasionally bizarre. I'm not even sure if the vocals were recoded live with the orchestra. One wishes the whole thing had happened at another time, anither place, another budget. Perhaps of significance, there are no quotes from either artist in the liners. There are times, though, when it all comes together, and there are times when one element works too good for the other one to interfere with it And either way, I dig Etta Jones, and I dig Oliver Nelson I doubt that this will ever be an album I love, or ever really like, but the next time there's an Oliver Nelson hang, there's a few cuts on here that will get played, and played well.

This is my favorite.

Poor Heiner... I think his work is the perfect argument for not selling things you never listen to - because when you finally do, you'll be glad you still have it. I mean, it is definitely quirky as far as "how does this fit into....ANYTHING?", but those players...If you like Cowell's Brilliant Corners, think of Brains On Fire as it's socially awkward cousin, have a little love and see what's inside the kid.

Why is everybody who's left to go out of business someplace besides where I live? Can't they move here and then go out of business?

Hey, if it's insanity that is to be the order of the day, somebody post one of those vintage videos of TOP where Lenny has the bigass 'fro and is doing that hyperactive aerobic leapdancing with a tenor in his hand. That is not just insane, but also beautiful. That man should probably not be alive today, yet, here he is! Maybe an element of "you had to be there", but...I was.

What Lenny had with TOP that he doesn't really show on the SNL bits is that real Maceo-esque ability to develop a melodic kernel through rhythmic fragmentation (and as for the content of those fragments, I hear Maceo as coming out of Fathead, and Fathead as coming out of Stitt, so...this stuff runs deep, or should/could). But the SNL band is not playing TOP fragmented grooves either, so...oh well, times change. But I'm not ever gonna be genre-shamed into minimalizing the very real love and respect that I have for Lenny Pickett.

Who ya' gonna call?

I recently stumbled across Black Omnibus, and L.A.-based show hosted by James Earl Jones, which, while not focused on jazz exclusively, does have an ongoing parade of jazz artists as performing guests. Haven't been able to find anything about it's origins past this: http://www.thirteen.org/broadcastingwhileblack/uncategorized/black-omnibus-hosted-by-james-earl-jones/ Wonder if there were any parallels in the production rosters (at the executive level) between this and the Gil Noble show? I've seen Elvin, Abbey Lincoln, Willie Bobo, and Ahmad Jamal so far. And Oscar Brown Jr. doing "40 Acres and a Mule", which was really something special, I don't know how much footage there is of him doing things like that, spoken-word performance pieces.

For that money, I'd insist on a positive DNA-testing for residual bodily fluids. Shit, If I'm gonna be asked to pay for Miles, I'm gonna want there to really BE some Miles, ok?

And ok, some people might say Tower Of Power, big whoop, just a funk band, and, no, not really, but even if so for the case of argument, Lenny Pickett created his own voice within that workld that was uniquely his - and was very adept at playing long, extended solos that worked within that voice at all times. This is no small feat, trust me. anybody can play a few bars of a solos spot, anybody can play jazz licks over funk beat, but not very many people can start with Maceo Parker & then grow it out from there into other vernaculars & then end up sounding like nobody but themselves and then playing really longass solos of no small structural integrity while maintaining full contextual consistency . Plus, the cat was one helluva dancer, quite apart from all that. "SNL Sax", yeah, fuck that. But Lenny Pickett, hey, Lenny Pickett can play. Music is always more interesting - and generally makes more sense - when it involves people doing real things in real worlds and not just bullshitting around being dead-brained placeholders. I don't care what kind of music it is. "Lenny Pickett" as "SNL Sax", buuuuuurrrrrrrrrppp. Lenny Pickett as real world gonzo TOP tenor dancist, EX-cellent. Superior life experience even. What happened for one to turn to the other, I don't know. But if a cat's proven his worth and then decides to go actually make the money...not always a good reason for that, but very seldom a purely bad one either.

Lenny Pickett can play, as can David Sanborn (who has made a few perfectly lovely Hank Crawford inspired ballad albums). But for the record, Lenny Pickett was already a fully formed voice long before "Lenny Pickett" came on to SNL. What he plays there is just as often as not a self-caricature (or worse), but don't be fooled, the man has paid full dues and has got full cred from his TOP days, and then that side he did, Borneo Horns, whatever. Lenny Pickett put it out there for a good while, so whatever kind of coast/working- retirement thing he's doing on SNL, hey, go ahead and do that then. Once they got past Howard Shore, SNL seems to have enjoyed having bandleaders as caricatures, who was that guy, G.E. Smith and his bass player, what was his name. Those guys both had plenty of skills, but you'd not know it by watching them on that show.

The talk about Rickles and offensive...I saw a Frank Fay film for the first time recently, had heard the name, but that's all. It was interesting work, so I looked him up, and good lord, talk about a mess... And then just this weekend, was watching Ed Wood's Jail Bait, and out of nowhere comes a clip (probably stolen from an earlier film called "Yes Sir, Mister Bones" that seems to have been removed from the above-ground market place that features a blackface act by one Cotton Watts, who appears to have had a successful club act doing blackface in the southeast up until, like, 1967 or so. Cotton Watts' act was one of those things that might well be amazing if you could see it in a cultural vacuum, I mean, the guys has serious chops as far as timing and pitch manipulation and facial gestures and dancing, but...it's still a white guy doing blackface and no matter how many good jokes are in there, no matter how virtuosic the various comedic gambits are , there's still monkey references and other stereotypes that are not aimed at the enlightened audiences who could appreciate the bigger cultural landscape to parse it all out, because...there really weren't any at the time, at least not in the seats at those shows, not an audience of the cognoscenti, if you know what I mean. So...Don Rickles in a post-WWII environment onwards to today, he's obviously not unaware of Frank Fay, and probably knows the impact of minstrelsy and how it impacted itself out of existence...was Don Rickles one of our first Post-Modern comedians? Or was he just an edgy motherfucker who knew exactly where the line was to not get the shit knocked out of him, figuratively or literally?

Man, all kinds of things come to my door...sometimes it's Amazon, sometimes it's Jehovah's Witnesses, sometimes it's drive-by roofers, sometimes it's Boy Scouts selling popcorn, sometimes it's alleged youth in trouble hawking magazine subscriptions, my door knocks, I DO answer it. I'm forever haunted by the words of the Kipplinger guy from those Changing Times infomercials of the 60s, you know, "opportunity knocks many times - but YOU have to open the door." Besides, it lets people know that the house is not at that point being left unoccupied.

There is a mention in one of the Prestige liners that it was, yes. Did not know that record, though...a hunting we will go... Nelson continued to use Newman too...he has a very memorable feature on "St. Louis Blues" from that Leonard Feather Encyclopedia Of Jazz Verve album, the same one where Phil Woods took that turn on "I Remember Bird" that still gets favorable mention today. well, that was easy! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WILA36?ie=UTF8&keywords=joe%20newman%20at%20count%20basie%27s&qid=1464016378&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1 And Art Davis!!!!!!!

Opportunity knocked and I answered the door.

You're right about it being on there. Not sure about the sequencing.

Viet Cong Don Van Vilet Violetta Komyshan

Let me hear a melody...

Main Stem a quintet date with Joe Newman, Hank Jones, George Duvivier, & Charlie Persip, today was my first time with ii, and it was I it I ally disorienting. The mix is weird, New mas is way undermiked, it sounds more like a Joe Newman record as often as not, I could a stood more interactive comping from Hank Jones, all in all, first reaction was a big fat hmmmmm..... A few more playings, though, and what would have been Side Two of the LP ends up being pretty frisky. Sound is still weird, but the J&B lubricant mentioned in the liners were definitely having their intended effect. I can see why this was an OJC Limited Edition, something is missing as far as overall heft, but there's enough for it to be a keeper, if only after further review And - the closing "Tangerine" is an outstanding example of how big Nelson's tenor sound really was. Not bright, not edgy, just BIG.

Does that make Ben the Jazz Fan Jesus? He listened to singers so we don't have to? I kinda hope not, that's not a choice I will allow myself to be forced to make! O:-)

Jay Leno Kirk Douglas Alex North

I see nothing on here from the Ike Quebec 45 sessions, of which there was a nice Mosaic set, so I'm questioning both uncompromising and integrity as they pertain to this set.