JSngry

It's like going all into a bigass ball of cotton candy only to suddenly realize that you've fallen into an ocean of squid ink. Still delightful, just...unexpected as all get out.

Yep, it's just that simple.

A lot of people have made it out that Kofsky was "pushing" Coltrane into answering some "political" questions and that Trane was uncomfortable with that, but honestly, of the interviews I've heard with him, this is the most relaxed interaction with an interviewer I've heard. Which is not to say that Kofsky was not doing that, just that Trane didn't at all seem to be uncomfortable with the questions, or in his answers.

Flipside of that is what is the statute of limitations for fucking people over? And what's there to disincentivize just waiting shit out once the fucking over has been done? Lawyers? Lawyers!

It's been raining a whole lot in Fort Worth lately. I imagine anybody there could become a Kurt Weil fan these days, given even half a chance.

Iron Bill Dowling Al Downing Ralph Branca

One of the most "imperfect" "perfect" jazz records, ever, imo, especially as people go from being live bodies to dead bodies to lingering spirits who are imaginary only if you don't hear them (and/or how necessary the Rhodes was for times/places like this, REJOICE IN THE RHODES!!!!). Blessed are they who portray the inexact fingers and the wavery embouchure in the service of the lines with consistently perfect time, shape, and dimension, for theirs shall be the Kingdom Of Jazz. All others, verily, risk sitting at the WRONG hand of God.

aka Hamba Khale, apparently not an original Alan Bates production, but one which he seems to have obtained at some point...I do not pretend to understand all the routes this one has taken since 1968. I do understand, though, why it's not on anybody's "top" list, but I don't understand why it also seems to be relegated to the Secondary Bin Of Shoulder-Shrugging Curiosities either...there's more to it than that, as both document and music. For one thing, I don't know that Barbieri has ever been more recorded more clearly/cleanly, ever. That matters to me, because from a saxophonistical standpoint, his post-Pharoah techniques are a joy to hear in this much detail. The usual dismissals of "just biting the reed and squealing" have never been accurate, and if you're of a mind to, you can hear very clearly the exact techniques being used. But that's secondary (at best) to what matters here, fine, passionate playing, very fluent, very substantive, just a reminder that there was a time when Gato was playing like that. This is in no way Ibrahim's Most Transcendent Moment, or anything like that, but he brings his usual focus/purpose to the session, and that is never anything less than a plus. Also a treat to hear him on cello. I got really lucky with the pressing on this one. HEAVY vinyl, and the pork steak I had broiling in the oven was the only real popping I heard on either side. Of all the initial Arista/Freedom releases that went pretty quickly to the cutout bins, this is the one that seemed to stay there the longest and end up the cheapest, stickers pasted over it until it got to the 3/$1.00 point...which is sad, but understandable too, most "jazz fans" of the time either turning up their nose at Gato Barbieri altogether, or not looking for Gato Barbieri in the cutout bins with an album cover like that on a label like that. Not nearly a case of attention MUST be paid, but definitely a case of attention paid will be returned at a net profit, for sure.

This milk is regular Kroger 2%, and there's at thing on there about our farmers have agreed to not use any blahblahblah, but nowhere does it say anything about our buyers have not agreed to buy radiated Japanese bootleg milk that got offered to them under the table for next to nothing, so I wonder... Farmers I have found to be a generally noble and trustworthy lot. Buyers, not so much.

A simple record, Eckstine sings with a trio, Carter takes a chorus and plays some obbligatos, Helen Merrill sits in for the first and the last tunes of the album, lather rinse repeat, except that Billy Eckstine's voice is deeper and richer than ever...there is a gravitas here that I suspect one either gets or doesn't get, put me down as one who does. I find Eckstine's one of the more interesting careers in terms of American sociology, and the records he made after the "bubble burst", when it became apparent that the whole "Sepia Sinatra" thing had a built-in ending, although a very mixed lot, are never without a certain masculinity that, while not "defiant" in any particularly overt way, can surely be heard as resilient within a context where pathetic, trivial, or outright tragic could easily have been both expected and ripe for the picking opportunistic. I think this record kinda came and went (no thanks to the cover, which with its design goes out of its way to invite inattention), 1986, Billy Eckstine, yeah, he had that big band with Dizzy and Bird, but...copies are still around, I think, and if it remains easy enough to sleep on (or through)...just sayin' - gravitas in the face of American marginalization, not a footnote,. If anything, a freakin' monument, a quiet, nearly invisible monument that you don't see until you see it, and then...damn.

I've had milk stay good for a week, maybe two weeks, past the due date. But this is some kind of record. Perhaps this is some radiated Japanese bootleg milk that got dumped on the US market for cheap that will stay fresh forever?

At first i thought Foots was holding his horn kinda oddly. Then I saw - no neckstrap. No wonder!

I got a quart of milk in the icebox with an expiration date of April 18. Just now saw it and of course said oh shit, etc, but you know that morbid curiosity thing, opened it up to see HOW badly it had turned and...had not turned at all. AT ALL. Thinking about having another bowl of cereal, this time with that milk, but, brrrrrrrr.... So, what, are they getting milk from devil cows now? Also - Cheerios with Ancient Grains, pretty good stuff all things considered, grains ancient, cheerios still fresh, not sure how they do that, but then again, 3 week old milk still smells good. World gone wrong, or demons more benevolent than previously portrayed by the mainstream media, somebody help me out here with this, please.

I love a guy that could play with Bill Evans & Albert Ayler with fully equal weight, power, awareness of role, and integrity. Cat coulda been dead 50 years ago and still had that on him. Fortunately, not dead 50 years ago, nor not dead today. Even more fortunately, weight, power, awareness of role, and integrity still alive along with him.

So, see, here's the deal - there was a parallel universe somewhere where Nipsey Russell became a piano playing sock puppet whose face and overall esthetic was really controlled by Joanne Castle. But what not everybody knows is that Joanne Castle herself was actually a sock puppet controlled by Thelonious Monk as an off-the-books source of income as a way to say "thank you" to Nellie, Monk let Joanne Castle run the face and most of the playing (she had a better feel for what a piano-playing Nipsey Russell sock puppet should both sound and look like than you might think, but that you wouldn't think that is exactly why - and how - it worked)), but every so often, every so often, Monk would stop by the office, check the books, walk out with a smile, a grin, and a little bit of hand up all their asses (and by extension, piano- fingers) just to give the world (the part of it who was listening, anyway) a clue what the REAL deal was. Everybody was delighted, everybody got paid, those in on the joke hard to tell part from those who weren't. Meanwhile, in the rest of the marketplace, Oscar Peterson checked to see who had a hand up HIS ass, and finding nothing but that same old stick, snorted a quiet indignity of relief, sweat a little bit more and resumed playing more notes than the time before, Ramsey Lewis looked on in equal parts approval and envy, Ahmad Jamal laughed his ass off (very quietly, and strictly on the inside), and Andre Previn said fuck it, I'm gonna go conduct now. That's in the parallel universe. In the real world, the one with chronology and stuff, take AMG's word for it: http://www.allmusic.com/album/magician-mw0000872527 Or if you're one of those non-visual learning types, play this clip and stop it a 0:07 exactly. And then, continue.

I'd have loved to have heard him arrange a latter-day Helen Merrill date. The reunion was Gil Evans was sweet enough, the last Verve run even sweeter, but...there's a "preciousness" as well as a wounded-ness, that's a part of both of their voices,, that might have really worked. Hell, seal the deal, have them do an all Alec Wilder program.

http://www.nwasianweekly.com/2015/02/memory-ticiang-diangson-legacy-environmental-justice/ Did she sing when you knew her?

I wonder if making that joint also look like a "mushroom" cloud was intentional.

Yeah, the liner notes to the Nono piece open with this, which to me feels right in line with how I heard the performance: I mean, jeez, that for all the world sounds like a guy trying to get his wife into some new bedroom stuff, I love you and I will always will love you, but hey, I got this stuff I GOTTA do, please let me do it with you...hello 1960s just waiting to get started... Sorry to hear about your loss, Larry. It's amazing how much can be remembered when somebody dies, things you thought you had forgotten. Come to find out, nope, not forgotten, just...set aside.

Such a difference, such differences, between the Nono & Maderna on side 1 & the Berio on Side 2. The first two seem more concerned with process, the last with going for it. I get both approches, but jeezus, it's like the Berio piece demands an all-in approach, like if you don't do it like that, you will be embarrassed at your humanity, whereas the other tow seem to be operating from a 180-opposite angle, like if you DO do it like that, THEN you will be embarrassed by your humanity. I'll not argue with either, and when it's time to leave I'll have danced with both, but it's Berio's house I'm planning on leaving an hour or two before the sun comes up.

Went ahead and got that new-ish Ryan Truesdell Gil Evans Project live album...wanting to get high on that writing again, just in a little different way. Anybody else picked up on this yet? Really hoping there's at least as much writing as soloing....

OMG! I was just getting started on "organizing" one f the rows of LPs I've added over the last few years but have not yet gotten to (I'm planning for a long, carefree retirement and/or convalescence), and what was pulled out wholly at random was that Severn Darden Mercury album!

Well....see, I always thought about it, knew "right" from "wrong", and did it anyway. Try not to nearly as much these days, I don't have to. And the cool thing about digital sharing (between consenting adults, of course) if the ability to better target spending on the unknown quantities, let me hear this before I buy it. For some things that might be of marginal interest to me, that's useful, and it frees up money to be spend on things I either know I will have an interest in, will want to have an interest in, or am willing to buy blind just because that's the way I role. Piracy may or may not be "killing" the Music Industry, but Too Much Indifferent/Inessential/Impotentcy-Based Music is providing the guns. Believe me, if you have something to say and can get me into wanting to hear you say it, I will be your friend, ok. Maybe not all at once, because I get lost sometimes, either on tangents or forgetfulness or having to take care of family, I'm monogamous to nothing except matrimony, but when time comes around, I will be your friend. And if not, then...not. Does that make me bad? I don't think so. But it does mean that I do behave in less than industry standard pure,, which to me means A) Fuck Industry Standard Copyshaming; B) At the end of the day, I will do right by those who I feel right should be done by (and if the day ends before that happens, blame the day for its own impatient capriciousness, and C) I will never lie to anybody, including myself. I might go off on an extended bullshitting binge, but I will never lie (and people who don't know the difference between lying and bullshtting...sorry 'bout that. Still time to figure it out, get busy. IMO.). And yeah, I know that this "only follow the rules you believe in" thing is gangsterism, or is always made out to be some variant thereof. To that I say, the only real problem I have with gangsterism is that most gangsters have it as their forgone conclusion that all people are suckers, all people will try to kill you or otherwise get in your way, therefore all people are fair game for whatever it takes. The problem is with that is the "all" instead of "some". Other than that, given the G-Man Or Gangster Game (it's like Marry Or Fuck only a lot more reality-based), I'm not so sure that I don't lean Gangster, As/When Needed. The big thing for me, though is don't lie, and don't be stupid, although, really those are the same thing way more often than not.

This is my favorite Buckley bit, bar none.

Well, even if birds could read, were would they get books?