JSngry

Dave "Baby" Cortez Happy Rockefeller Pearl Bodine

Personally, that Nicholson quote could be applied to any solo where Desmond is really in his zone. Also personally, the sides with the Bickert group have never really gotten to me, although they've certainly had their adherents since day one. As for Morello, Goldberg pretty strongly hits at some real, deep friction there. Found a cheap, used copy of Brubeck's Time Changes last week, listened to it today. None of it sounds like Desmond needed to be there, and none of it sounds like Desmond really thought otherwise. Although to be fair to all, the rest of the band seems to feel the same way as well, and don't let it stop them. The end result of the trio sides is like some acoustic proto-fusion band with Paul Desmond sitting in. And the orchestral thing...whoa, Herculeanly Brubeckian..as much as I'm been wanting to brave the world of post-Quartet orchestal Brubeck (available, it seems, semi-widely at really low prices), this was enough to put the brakes on all of that, like, less than halfway through. Not "bad" per se, just...enough already, Dave. Quirky and indefatigable has its charms, but it also has its limits, ok? And the CD uses the tired phrase "witty and urbane" to preface the name "Paul Desmond", and I'm like, enough with the "witty and urbane" shit, ok? If that's all the guy brought to the table, the yes, I will have some cheese with this whine, thanks. What matters more to me is not the end "effect", but the cause of it all - how does somebody who should by any reasonable expectation not make anything other than "witty and urbane" music get to a place where his best work is the antithesis of "witty and urbane", it's freakin' genius observing itself while it works, and the rest of his work like genius observing itself while it avoids itself? I'm kinda like, fuck "witty and urbane", if that's all I want, I'll go look for some Jack Parr or some shit like that. Now I know some people wanna think, yeah, that's it, Paul Desmond, the Jack Paar of jazz, or something like that, but hmmmm...I'm not buying that, just not buying that. Too easy, too witty, too urbane. "Witty and urbane" is profoundly unaware of its limitations and celebrates its unawareness (or, perhaps, the unawareness it crates for itself so that it might seem aware). I think the last thing you can call the music of Paul Desmond, any of it, is unaware.

she weren't no soul/R&B singer either, if that matters in this hypothetical record store (are there any other kinds these days?).

Don't remember if Joe Goldberg was quoting or observing, but I do recall him pointing out that a primary influence on/starting point for Desmond's sound was Lester Young's clarinet playing. And, yes, pretty sure that if he had classical training that he would have started on clarinet, that was just how it was done, and often still is. Pedagogical Imperative/Law, start on clarinet. Which would go a ways towards explaining his comfort in the altissimo register (Roger says that Desmond says he got it from Jimmy Dorsey, but also consider Illinois Jacquet's saying that how he got into the "squealing" thing was to start using clarinet fingerings on the tenor, which would not be at all unusual, physics of instruments, etc.). With all that, though, it should be noted that Desmond's tone was so even across all registers, that with his emphasis ho the higher partials the sound, it was only when he wanted to make a point that he was playing the low/lower middle registers of the horn that you heard it as such. The arcs of his best lines go as far down as they do up, but you don't hear it as anything other than the same sound/tone, usually. That's the mark of a really developed/refined embouchure/air support/etc method of tonal production, to have that type of control over the entire range of the horn.

Joe, this will be of "local interest" only, but the next time you see Roger Boykin, ask him what he thinks about Paul Desmond. The rabidness of his enthusiasm may take you aback, as it did me the first time I encountered it, but he's got his reasons, and he can and will expound upon them at great length. He gets Desmond in a way that not too many do. Also, I may be wrong, but isn't Braxton fond of Desmond as well as Konitz/Marsh? I also seem to recall something about Julius Hemphill being pretty taken in by PD as well, early in his growth. Not influences per se, but...thisng work funny like that sometimes.

Stan Kenton Jack Stanhope Hopistan Jack

Yeah, those are the two that I'd insist on as being "must haves" for anybody looking to listen for information rather than for recreation. Between those two CDs, you get, I think, the full first sets of DBQ records to go to the marketplace in the wake of the Brubeck Trio records, recorded between 1951 & early 1954. I can only wonder how they sounded to contemporaneous ears, especially in terms of timbre, Desmond in particular. And Joe Dodge's Chinese cymbal riding that beat like some kind of endless wave-crashuing. But something like "On A Little Street In Singapore", or the long version of "At A Perfume Counter". They're totally at odds with almost all other "West Coast Jazz" of the time (which was being made, remember, largely by transplanted East Coasters). They don't really take Basie as a reference point, and they use dissonnce and reharmonization in a much more aggressive and unaccommodating way than most of the WCJ that was getting a popular hearing. The closest thing to it might be the Mingus Debut records of the time(!). Definitely more Mingus than Mulligan, that's for sure. The reharmonizations of the standards goes far beyond what Tristano had been doing to that point, At times, it's rudely abrupt, and sometimes flat-out reconstructive. And the green and red vinyls only must have made them seem all the more "different" (I found a green Oberlin with no jacket at a swap shop years ago for a dime, and snapped it right up to have as an "object", but it played well enough to keep as a record). And I find it real interesting that unlike a lot of their other WC compatriots from down the coast who had the studio gigs to keep them happy staying home, the DBQ came East early on. They played Birdland in 1951, Storyville in 1952, and if the NYC scene of the time was, as is perhaps stereotypically considered, perhaps not dominated by, but certainly populated by a lot of junkies playing a lot of already well-worn bebop in loosely organized pickup units, I can only imagine what these smiling (does there exist a picture of Brubeck where he is either not thoughtful or smiling REALLY broadly?), horn-rimmed, suited white guys with hair and horn-rims to match must have looked and sounded like playing all this counter-pointy weird ass harmony and then out of it comes a roar of white-noise cymbal that seemed to wrap up every JATP experience into one man/one cymbal, cotton-toned alto playing that referenced damn near everything except last year's Bird's records, and a piano player who couldn't play single lines for shit, but could pound out some chords that may or may not have seemed relevant to the song that was being played. Must've seemed like a foreign invasion or something...but on the 1952 Storyville Broadcasts, Nat Hentoff is giddy like a 10 year old who's just discovered what petticoats were really for, speaking french and making alliterative jokes like he's jsut some silly boy.Yeah, those are the two CDs people might want to hear at some point. Personally, if I was to ever cull down, I think they might be the only Brubeck I keep. They'd definitely be the last ones I let go. And that long take on Stardust, you mention, that's an amazing improvisation, really, at times threatening to break into the kind of rhapsodic free trilling/thrusting playing that would come from a whole 'nother set of people/places a decade later. There's also a free-association quality to all of the performances, but especially the live ones, that is at times disarming. Nobody's really running licks to make a chorus, if you know what I mean, they're all willing to let it wander as they go along if it needs to, bar lines crossed, changes move around, all of it seeming just because that's what was happening at the moment. Again, disarming, because these were not furrow-browed searchers from the shadows of the regular world, these were all guys you could see out in T-Shirts mowing their yards on Saturday morning or something like that, at least so you might think. Things like that happen often enough over that music, and yet, I don't know that it's really widely known. I get the sense that people who really dig Brubeck find it "formative" or something, not really relevant, and that people who don't particularly dig Brubeck just don't care, period. Can't help any of that, all I can do is say that it's there, it's good, and it certainly is not what you get on Time Out, not even.

Sure, but...wouldn't the stated objectives be more or less the same? Clear away all the baggage and be your ownest, freeest potentiality realization? Only known a few people myself who have gotten into Scientology. Nobody went Hardcore Corea about it, a few dabbled then dropped, and a few got over the initial buzz and kept it to themselves, presumably going forth. So, no immediate presuppositions about it in general. Just surprised that somebody who resisted that kind of "control" would take up something that is, at least in the public view, very much about that. Then again, we are who we are, I suppose, and needs be needs.

I got this email from a buddy who reads the board but I guess doesn't want to actively post: Without going into detail, this guy has a huge collection, I mean, massive, of all kinds of music (i'm tempted to go ahead and say every kind of music, ever, seriously)and never sells any of it. Now, having said that, all I'm doing is passing along the communication. Beyond that, I know nothing about Amoeba other than they exist. But at least, hey, another option to consider.

Scientology? Lee? Really? That's of "interest" to me only he was the first "name" Tristano-ite to declare any sort of real independence...it took Warne until damn near the end of his life to "break free" of that. Maybe Lee's got his own take on it, I've heard that some people do that without succumbing to the "cult" aspects of it, but, still...that seems like a really weird move for such a free thinker. But maybe not...after all what is the practical difference between Lennie's ideal state of playing from the Id, and Scientology's described state of "clear"?

Nothin' to do with nothin'. She been on my last good nerve for years before any of that. She done grated all my nerve cheese almost as soon as she hit the spotlight. I mean, if she's family or something to you, ok, sorry, no offense. Otherwise, me and Silky Johnson stand pat on this one.

Ok, so somewhere in the world, the complete Don Byas Comes Home thing remains intact. Thanks goodness!

The guy's old, yeah, you gotta expect that. And he's committed to feeling it, which cannot be forced. And he seems to get Old Man-ish crankier every year (and I mean that in the good way). So sure, off nights to be expected, but bad nights more than earned, imo. It's not like you show up to hear him play his hits or anything and then get pissed when all he does is play deep cuts off his new concept album. OTOH, if it's really getting that bad, hell. I still would pay money to go and listen to him talk for an hour or two, kinda like Roy Eldridge did when he couldn't play any more. Lee Konitz, is, obviously, a very...lively conversationalist!

What's this Peter Nero record with Barre Phillips? Was this an RCA MOR job, or what, exactly?

Charge extra.

Are you saying that what is on the YouTube clip is all that remains of this work? Please say it ain't so...

Jim, WTF... what the hell has Rosie O'Donnell done that makes you feel she needs to share a room with a pedophile and a serial rapist? Really? She done got on my last good nerve, that's what.

Alvin Dark Remeisha Shade Otrie Barrett

It's the planet's fault for not keeping up with demand. Fuck Earth, we can find someplace better than this dump, especially in this market. I mean, it was good for its time, but, really...take a picture and let it go.

Summertime in 5 with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Leo Morris(!). He sounds less overtly "active" than the work of I prefer,but he doesn't at all sound disengaged, sounds pretty much in control and aware at all times. Recommended reading about Desmond is Joe Goldberg's chapter on him in Jazz Masters Of The 1950s, a really good observation about Desmond and aht makes his playing so special when it was special, It also talks about the changes in the DBQ's music after the addition of Morello and the success of Take Five, as well as drawing the parallel between Desmond w/Brubeck and Milt Jackson with the MJQ, It also contains this splendidly fuquitous quote: Which is more or less what happened (almost). Dude had a plan and executed it.

Francis Lai Hugh Downs Bobby Joe Knapp

What's amazing to me about Lacy is that he played on the softest reed possible, which allowed him almost infinite control over the most finite aspects of his sound. I say "allowed" him instead of "gave" him, because a soft reed is exponentially more difficult to control than a hard one, or even a medium one. So he worked for all that he got, believe me. Not "worked", worked - hours, years of hours, of true physical labor.

Call Japan. Nobody in particular, just call the country and talk to whoever picks up the phone.

I'd like to know what the brain's wiring is as to the "why" that 2nd harmonic distortion pleases most ears. Is it something that somehow puts back an element of "reality" to a clinically recorded output? Because, think about it, really, there are very, very few live performing environments that are truly "quiet". There's always something going on. The inference is that "most people" don't hear it as distortion per se, but as added "warmth" or "presence", which to me sounds like maybe fleshing out some of the "transparency", which kinda makes sense, because the most un-natural listening environment is in an isolated room with all outside and mechanical sounds eliminated. You just don't get that in live performance, any live performance. Of course, if the live performance model is not the one being pursued by the recording and/or the playback, that's a whole different game.