JSngry

Finally finished. Overall, glad that I read it, although damn, that was a lot harder than it should have been. Great raw data about Bird, good intentions (sincerely, I believe that), just...not a good final product. Or perhaps more accurately, a lot more necessary of a writing than a successful one. I anxiously await the white label remix.

Order arrived in the afternoon mail. Excited now!

"Prison" is really just the hook, the frame they hang everything on. What it's really about is life choices, making the same mistakes over again (or not), personal character/lack thereof/when-how-why, society conditioning of individual and collective expectations of self and from others, hot lesbians, unhot lesbians, addictions, unmet needs, needs met but not appreciated, needs not understood, needs understood all too well, mostly about addictions and how everybody has them, we are all addicted to something, drugs are just convenient excuses to indulge the urge for addiction (and/or to be addicted), and look out with that, because...just look out for that. Just...do. It takes place in prison, and not really always, because there's plenty of flashbacks to inmates pre-incarceration and of non-incarcerated people being just as clueless and dangerous to others (if not physically, then emotionally) as people who are inside, and stuff like that. There's a lot of comedy, a lot of prison-ishness, and a lot of drama, but I can't think of it as being a "prison drama" or a "prison comedy". That to me is like thinking of Bird as "bebop", on the one hand, well, sure, yeah, but on the other, no, not really, not even, "bebop" was just a device, not the end (or the intent). Especially the 2nd season, which I think tells a much more meaningful/broader story from start to finish than did Season One.

No.

Am I the only one who feels that Snarky Puppy doing real-time re-enactments of what are essentially of Nu/Acid/Neo-SoulJazzHop/Whatever originals and/or remixes is kinda silly? I mean, yeah, they're "real people" playing "real instruments" but if that's all the point of their point, then, huh? This kind of stuff has been going on in some form or fashion for 10-15 years, maybe 20 if you want to stretch it, and what I'd like to hear is somebody doing something with it besides replicating it, not gonna get excited about that, sorry. If that's what passes for "ahead of the curve" or even "contemporary" in "jazz" today, fuck it. It's false hope based on a false reality based on and even more false premise. No - getting a room full of real people to play ersatz sophisticated bullshit is NOT better than any other type of bullshit. Not any better. Just not. Worse, maybe, because it's kinda like people staying on the Titanic because where else are you gonna see the ocean this good?

I generally have no interest in "prison dramas", regardless of how good they are, it's just not a subject matter I find entertaining. Kinda like that myself, still haven't looked at The Wire, although everybody tells me Best Show Ever and such, and truthfully went into this one with the prejudice in place, but as it has turned out, OITNB has ended up being a "prison drama" in the way that Eight Men Out was a "baseball movie".

So...nobody likes this show, or nobody's gotten to the new season yet, or, audience is aging, or...what...

How come you don't see young folk worrying that all the old folks hate their shit?

Ambivalence removed, far less focus on the Piper character/prison as novelty angle and much more looking at prisoners, their issues, their back stories, the whole nine (or at least 8). Very well done, and an ending that I started seeing matierialize about ten minutes before it happened, and even then, not exactly the way I saw it coming (it was even better than expected), so yeah, well worth a weekend bingewatch. And Uzo Aduba, damn, that's a character for the ages right there, Crazy Eyes is.

Anthony Davis? Or maybe ask the guys who are turning you down to refer you to somebody they know who is worthy of the exposure? Or even better still, write it all yourself and then create a pseudonym and persona for each "composer" and revel in the critical afterflow...like, one guy's from Queens, the other's from Tuscon, oh my, here's this woman from Qatar of all places, and wow, this cranky octogenarian recluse from Portland, and most remarkable of all, the deaf-mute from England who "hears" the music by the shapes the notes make on the score, like Bob Graettinger cutting out all the middlemen, some shit like that. It'll really all be you but watch the projected-perception game get played out in very real time. Putting suspicions to the test in the name of hijinks, or vice-versa. And also - are you looking for everything to be played by more or less the same ensemble? Or is somebody gives you, say, a piece for chamber orchestra and alto that just knocks all the lights out, what then? You got a budget for anything like that (he says knowing that probably not, but hoping so!)?

Hey, I'm with you on the wakefulness, something abut that just offends my congenital sense of metaphysical balance (my actual physical balance really sucks). Maybe they've done the math and it comes out ok to do it their way, but geez....

hmmm...more clothes than drums...not sure if dream comes true....

And dammit, we were (and still are) going to start bingewatching tomorrow, but we could have done it tonight, except the gig I thought I had tonight is actually tomorrow night, found that out when I got there. Never had that particular goof occur before, but first time for everything. But yes, tomorrow AM, we begin. Anybody else getting all in as early as possible? I was very ambivalent about Season1 at the beginning, but by the end , they had me, hooked me right in there.

The one that gets me best is the one about the chick with the air-conditioned stomach. I mean, hey, wow, really! Hell, I say that, but Sonny Boy Williamson (this one) is just one of those guys for me...everything, please. But especially the stuff from that time with those players. Tempo uber alles, please. Cool Disposition.

Requesting proof that these are not the artists playing the music, and if in chance they are, what other albums have they made?

A pimp for the Eldridge, again. Visceral music, viscerally so.

Not encouraging regarding defective product, but here is something: http://hub.sonymusic.com/about/feedback.php

Mingus really chewed through pianists in the 50s didn't he? He was like the German army in that regard.

Nadi Qamar (used to be known as Spaulding Givens)...still alive and/or playing?

If asked to choose between Cornbread & Dippin', I'd ask for some buttermilk and get busy having 'em both. I don't even like buttermilk, but it's not about what I like, it's about how to get what I want out of the available options of any given point in time. So, ok, it takes buttermilk. I'll take some buttermilk then.

And not unexpected, really. When Quartet Out was alive and kicking, our best crowds were always young slasher-rock types (don't know all the sub-genres then or now, but I think you know what I mean). Those "types" and an assembly of elementary school kids in inner-city St. Louis. Our worst crowds were always "jazz fans" of our own age. They were put off by the energy level (or at least the means by which it came out). The younger peoples, though, they were like FUCK YEAH GIVE ME MORE. So yeah, ok, I understand wanting and being comfortable, because after a while, life will make you tired and sore, and some days will be worse than others. So I get that. But I also understand and encourage people of any age to not confuse being comfortable with not having to be inconvenienced, and...yeah, I understand completely why younger-ish people are readily attracted to the more "energy"-based types of any music, just a I can completely understand why older-ish people are kinda like, ok, picking my battles here, and not this one, not for me, not today, maybe after while...... Either way, hey - Hamid! Is there a Hamid Drake solo (as in only player, not as in leader) date? It would fit right in with such works as by Baby Dodds, Jo Jones, Chico Hamilton, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and...who else? Max, of course! People say I can't take too much drum solos, but with cats like this, it's not "drum solos", it's music being played on drums, if you know what I mean. A full program of music played on drums by a person who knows how to play all that music on those drums. Me, I'm a fan.

well yeah, jazz audience showing its age in every way Actually, a very young audience overall, mostly folks in their 20s-30s. That ws a refreshing thing to see. also, it was a pleasure to meet Charles Parrish at the gig, Charles being the person who promoted/presented that marvellous Charles Lloyd show in SA a few months ago. Nice guy, we had a good chat. But yeah, HAmid. There you go right there. Hamid. He blew my mind when for about 10 seconds, he became Chico Hamilton. Yes, Chico Hamilton.

Full house! Good gig. It was touching to watch Brotzmann showing his age in every way except musically Some serious defiance going on three. And Drake if Earth gets down to just one Druumer left and it's Hamdi, I figure, hey, earth don't need no help, Earth got Hamid/ FULLHOUSE IN AUSTIN on a Tuesday nigh - and a line at the men's room. All told,good energy aplenty both given, recieved, and returned, The way music is tt it's best, imo.

Don’t know the details here, but based on a 2011 post by Pattitucci: http://www.notreble.com/buzz/2011/01/17/flying-with-an-upright-bass/ the TSA and/or customs can leave your instrument and its case in a state where fairly normal baggage-handling behavior can damage/wreck it. See the sentence below (from the above): "TSA and customs can be a nightmare, so expect them to do things like fail to strap your bass back in after inspection, forgetting to put your bow back in the case (I travel with mine as a carryon) or not re-latching all the latches." The thing about the removable neck really creeps me out. I mean, I'm sure it's doable and when done right won't alter the sound to any but the most dog-eared, if at all (and besides, how often will that really matter these days, all things considered with both venues and listeners), but still....damn. Some of those great old basses were designed/manufactured as a whole, ya' know, not as exchangeable components.The idea is a lot creepier than the reality, I'm sure. I'd make a lousy surgeon, except when/if drunk, and there's a conflict from jump, right there. I like the notion of using Fed-Ex, though. The tenor I play now, got it from a cat in Florida in 1992 or so, a wonderful mid-50s VI, and it came via Fed-Ex, very well packed and equally well delivered.

The Impressions Ahmad Jamal Morton Gould