JSngry

Well, this is what you want, right here.

Everson Walls Todd Bridges John Lennon

Did not know about either, either. Ordered the PC book right away, will see how it is before considering the J-Mac. All I really know about Paul Chambers is that he started early, died just as early, got caught up in the same "personal problems" that a lot of his peers did, was one helluva great player and played on two helluva lot of records, none of them which even remotely suck, at least not because of his contributions. And that he was from Detroit. Hopefully this book will leave me knowing significantly more than that. And I think his bowing improved, at some point becoming very good, actually. so no matter how many other problems he had, finding time to practice his bowing was not among them.

I think it needs imaginative minds more than it needs "good musicians". An imaginative mind will find the way to make the music. A "good musician" will always be a laborer first and foremost, and when the call for that labor is gone, then what? Just another unemployed steelworker or some such, a proud remnant of soemthing wonderful that nobody rally needs any more. I'm certainly one to groove on good craftsmanship, and would like to take up woodworking when I retire for that very reason, but give me a guy who can sincerely discombobulate me with a laptop/etc over somebody who can make the bridge over TSIY in any key and move nobody in the process any day. Burrell, though, can make that bridge in any key and move me, or could...maybe still can. But would you advise your babies to go to Pittsburgh to make steel for the rest of their lives? Different types of bridges, but maybe not so much? No, they (the manipulated pop-mechanics, not the inventive minds lurking in or about "the underground" destroy belief, they do not suspend it. "Belief" and "know" are not nearly the same thing. You can know the obvious so well that it's ALL you know, and then what do you have left to actually believe? TRAPPED! I'd much prefer to expand belief than to suspend it.

Betty Everett Sir Edmund Hillary Harry D. Belock

Lou Diamond Phillips Mark Stryker Picketer (bonus points for not having either Lenny or Wilson come next. Can we do that?)

Nor should you! If you do, you have too much time on your hands (and would have even less in your brain by the time you finish)! And I'm feeling just fine, thanks. I very much appreciate the written word, I'm just at a point in my life where reality has kinda rendered fiction...irrelevant, at least for the time being. But it's a personal thing, not meant as an indictment or anything. Same thing with movies, "classical music", and more jazz than you can shake a tree's worth of sticks at. Anything where you know it's about reenacting than being, just...not in the mood for it. And that includes me and my own shit, here, musically, personally, everywhere. After a while, it's like BLHUCK do something ELSE motherfucker. And it's not like being "un"happy is the same as being SAD. It's not, believe me! It's pretty funny, truth be told. Seriously.

Tattletale Burt Convy Joyce Bulifant

Catfish Collins Digger Phelps Dan Minor

I don't read, remember? And truthfully, fiction has never appealed to me that much. Truth is stranger, and all that. Same thing for movies. Hardly have the urge to watch anymore. I got a few weekly TV things that I follow for fun, but it's always done out of appreciation for the writing, acting, and directing more for than the "story". Hell, I got more than enough "stories" right in front of me, dig? And the consequences of the outcomes are all real. I guess my favorite novel to this point would be American Popular Music and all its variants, and how it's in the process of becoming more American by becoming less "American", less "Popular" and less traditionally "Music". Can't wait to see how that one turns out! What, that's not a novel, you say? Well, it all depends on what you do with what you hear, I would counter.

I'm not really a fan of suspending disbelief. I'd rather know what it is that is being believed and then proceed from there. I don't have to like it, I just need to figure out exactly what it is that somebody's trying to tell me, and whether or not they're trying to lie about it or if maybe they just see a different "there" than I do..

Received an "unmarked copy" of an album of his called The Swooper, and although nothing really "exquisite" or anything, the guy plays in an interesting-enough semi-blurrybop style reminiscent of mid-late 60s Kenny Dorham in terms of tone and phrasing (but not in harmony). That's an interesting choice, I think, one you don't hear much these days. Anyway, the Internet's got nothing on this guy except links to lines from other links, so..who is he? And how does anybody with a record not be on the Internet these days? Is head dead, top-secret, or just what, exactly?

I've been to my share of county fairs (and parking lot carnivals), and I've heard my share of geeky fusion. At some point, the similarities are too much to ignore. But it's all cool, it's all just people being people. Anything that can happen will!

Ah, but there's the cosmic joke - what an artist "chooses" to play is only relevant to how they play it, and that's where technique IS what matters. Might as well say it again - this shit don't play itself, these instruments and these notes. Now, I certainly agree that the "end result" is the object of the game, but people who play the "I don't care a thing about technique, it doesn't matter one whit to me because I'm not a musician, all I care about is how it feels" are kidding themselves, because how it feels is a direct result of how it gets played, and that's a direct result of technique. You might be bored by the discussion and/or the specifics, but you DO care about it, whether you want to admit it or not. And make no mistake, there is no on "proper" technique" to making music. Technique is only relevant to the desired end, and desired ends vary widely, to put it mildly (and with a straight face). There's a lot of Romantic Notionhood about the "creative process", and ok, good, the mystique helps sell the product, and yeah, sometimes their is some magic involved. But between the magic happening and it making to/coming out of your speakers (or wherever), there's execution involved. Just good old-fashioned, you've-either-learned-how-to-do-it-or-haven't-(and-if not,-hopefully-you're-getting-better-at-it)-execution. Without it, you got nothing except ideas, just as without ideas, all you got is manual labor. That's all playing music is - manual labor. Whether or not it gets elevated to "art" at some point is entirely optional. Just remember that when some badass motherfucker who can genuinely play tells you that "it's not about the technique, it's about the music". They just tell you that because they know that if you knew about the actual work, you'd be bored shitless. So they game you, because boring people shitless is not a good career strategy, if you know what I mean.

Tio Tia Abuela

Cozy Powell Mel Powell Mel Cooley

Yeah, you're at the part where it gets really interesting. Enjoy!

One of my favorite jazz bios, this one, not least of all because it's an interesting story well told. Don't give up. The story gets real interesting from the early 1960s on.

Ooops. Sorry to hear that.

...as with the Metheny/Scofield album too? Are you beginning to explore the, for lack of a better term, "post-fusion" musics being made?

Hans Conreid is in there? But other than that, they're all still alive! Freberg, Butler, & Foray. I had never realized until now how much Sven Darden on those old Second City records sometimes sounded like Daws Butler.

Are there recordings anywhere of any quality of Elvin's few days with the band?

That's 70 in dog years, right?