JSngry

Another contributor of massive proportions has left us.

I'll have to disagree with "unlistenable"...great bands, the tunes are still cool (and on Music To Ease Your Disease, we get the return of Andy Bey). the only "problem" is that, yes, the lyrics are all the way into Horace's self-help bag, and they are expressed rather...simply, let's put it that way.. But if you don't listen to the words, all you hear is a voice singing these cool Horace Silver songs (and when that voice is Andy Bey, extra cool!), and then Eddie Harris or Junior Cook or Clark Terry or somebody starts soloing, and oh, ok, this is cool. So I would say listenable, pleasurable, even, but caveats aplenty about the lyrics. Having said all that, though, I do think that Silver "n Strings was the apex of his determined movement foreward as a composer. Much fine work after that, but...

Joe Henderson Joe Henderson Joe Henderson

Not a real soccer/football fan here, but my son is, and has gotten me into this...and gotta say, the game today was a real emotional engagement for me in a way that most soccer/football aren't. Unfortunately, end result of the engagement was air sucked out of balloon, but c'est la vie.

Gummy Bears Chris Symond Missouri Synod

We Southerners of a certain age use it to refer to something in that polite-but-unquestionably-lacking-in-approval/enthusiasm, kinda like Martin Williams and chewing gum, I would suspect. So, anyway, since dogs can smell time (it's true, saw it on Nova), then people can taste culture. As with all flavor, what might be initially stimulating may in fact turn out to be anything but, only the shock of the unfamiliar gives it the sensation of "newness" aka "spice". Not to say that Hank Ballard & The Midnighters were actually "bland", but time/place, they were hardly the "spiciest" thing happening even in their own local kitchen, if you know what I mean. They were, in fact, pretty "common", and really, divorced from the nostalgia of newness (again, time/place), yes, bland, overall. Does "There's A Thrill" still bring a sweat to the brow? Hell, I turn it off more times than not. There's NOT a thrill up on that hill, y'all go along without me, ok? But youth, youth has neither time nor energy nor motivation to think about all that, do they. That's a good thing, I think, because if you start out numb to any taste, where is there to go? To hell even harder that's where! OTOH, to look at it as to be put in another way..."bland" must surely not be a baseline (and therefore negate the common, if that would be your end-point), because it connotates a lack. A negative deviation from the norm. It's like bland isn't the absence of flavor, it's negative flavor. Not "bad" flavor - negative flavor. But if common is the baseline, then where is the neutral of flavor? Neither spicy nor bland fit that bill (although they can be counted upon to pay it). So me, I will stick with the common/bland equaliviation, at least until a better deal comes along. Perhaps this leads to the conclusion/suspicion that most things in fact are bland (or at least flavor neutral) and that it is only our referenetials of experientials that imbue it with any lean one way or the other. And in that regard, Youth, ftw. Apart from that, though, I have arthritis in my lower extremities and can move my ass much more readily and/or reflexively than I can tap my toes or pat my feet. With that in mind, an elevator ride with Ambrose Akinmusire's music would not be a particular inconvenience (although to be fair, it might not be a particular pleasure either. But nothing is worse than entering an empty-except-for-the-smell-of-departed-rider-fart-air elevator ride, and no way do I not get on the Ambrose Akinmusire elevator and get on that one instead. No way, let's have some perspective on all of this elevator rideiness, ok? Now, Grace Kelly elevator, that on...I think I'll take the steps, tell everybody I might be late/exhausted/hospitalized/embalmed because of taking the steps rather than the Grace Kelly elevator, but that's my choice to make, ok, godblessamerica) . Past that, I have no opinion of more than passing relevance to the General Global Condition, and will gladly stipulate to that effect. Neither nor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwkYOsuMERE oooWHOM

Grynd http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xt49hx_grynd-grynd-official-video_music Peer Gynt Peter Gunn

Really? Could you give me an example from your own experience. I mean, when I was about 10 or so I dug "Lisbon Antigua" and Something Smith and the Redheads's "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie" and Perry Como doing "Kokomo"and maybe some Les Baxter for a minute (no Leroy Anderson, though later on Cannonball played the s--- out of "Serenata"), but it's been my experience and observation over the years that young people tend to go for some version of peppiness/excitement. To me, "bland" = "common". When everything's spicy, nothing is spicy, and/or only the most extempore ends of the spectrum really stand out. Youth tends to be very able to find enthusiasm in things common, and good for youth for being able to do so, becuase in the end, most things are common/bland. By the same token, the devil's advocate wants to play discernment = a ongoing diminishing inability to find excitement in things common, or at least an ever-increasing need to be self-consciously differentiating about them. Nobody is indiscriminately discerning about what is common and what is not, and when "discerning" people celebrate the "common" it is an almost self-contradictory act of saying that, yes there is spice in the bland, which, ok, good, glad there is, agree that that there is, but objectively, say WHAT? Discerning youth tends to be as silly and anachronistic as does indiscriminate geriatrica. Who wants to be either? Although I think it must be said that a little bit of both from beginning to end is always a good thing, or even increasing numbers of each as long as they balance. But the sliding scale thing, UH-oh, that's where she starts coming in through the bathroom window and ends up having her husband have to call Station 51. beee-booo-BOMMMMMMM.

There are only two kinds of blandness: the blandness i like, and the other kind. No more calls please, we have a winner!

Finding pleasurable excitement in blandness is one of the least-appreciated pleasures and abilities of youth.

Not appealing to the aging jazz audience, obviously! What I've heard of him sounds, to me, like some guy playing what he knows in contexts that allow him to do it best he can. That part of it, I like. The rest, not particularly relevant to my lifestyle, one way or the other, generally, but I don't know that I'd rather take the stairs than ride the elevator, I mean, I don't hear torture or anything going on, although maybe if I do confess to sometimes having other body parts set in motion besides the toes and feet, so maybe it's part of this 21st Century Changing Global Demographic thing that looks at toe/feet tapping as a nice but essential restricted method of bodily expression. But really, I don't know, things are different now, I'll let them who are involved decide what's good for them.

http://www.live365.com/stations/phillycomposers Ostensibly "classical", but I've heard Dave Burrell on here and a lot of things that sound improvisatory in nature (a piece by Gene Coleman that I heard last night last night could have been one of Sun Ra's more "spacey" works, all 30+ minutes of it and right now, RIGHT now they're playing something by Ben Schachter that wouldn't be called anything else but jazz) . Whatever. It's not called "new classical" or "new jazz", just "new music", and from Philadelphia (or so it is claimed). Anyhow, it's a resource, so if you're so inclined, there it is.

J.D. Souther Joe South Ji Sou

Somebody here claims Etta Jones, and I can agree with that, although you can't find corroboration in any online discographies..

Eight Arms To Hold You Octopussy The Dave Pell Octet

No records. I only knew about it b/c of a conversation I had w/McNeil in 1979, he talked about how he got the call and had to learn the whole book in something like overnight, b/c as noted elsewhere, Horace didn't allow reading on his bandstand.

How does a tap dancer drown out a band if not for some cluelessass sound engineering?

Ron Bridgewater did a tour w/Horace too. shared the front line with John McNeil.

Abe Lincoln Abraham Lincoln The Continental

I concur about the badass excellence of this collection of recorded performances!

I believe John McNeil as well. Yeah, Eddie WHO? is all up in there.

I also dug how Horace covered Weldon Irvine, kinda like a father saying "thank you, son, I appreciate that". or if you prefer: