JSngry

Toots Mondello Boots Mussulli Foots Thomas

Yeah, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem!

RuPaul Rupal Chiniwata, M.D. M.D. Anderson

Ah, THAT one. DOH!

Yep. That was the debut of the tune, then called "The Stolen Moment".

Power To The People!

Yeah, if Brandon was Japanese and this was the WWII era, he'd be obligated to commit hari-kari over that one. The Japanese of that era were not made of sugar candy.

Royal Flush is still one of my favorite records of any type. I still can't get with the Mizell stuff (and have tried, and will continue to try if/as the spirit moves), but let it be noted that Dr. Byrd is beloved in some circles spread the gospel of Knowing The Business So You Don't Get Screwed By The Business longly and loudly, and having those hits allowed him to preach it to people who might not have heard it otherwise at a time when the people who heard it were in a position to start putting it to real, not theoretical, use.

I think that having a readily identifiable, personal voice is an innovation in itself.

And he's got that little chokey-growl thing he does on a high note. Very distinctive player.

The Kicker?

You know, I'm happy to hear anybody doing what they want to do and doing it well and with whatever their own sense of gusto is. Whether or not I "like" it or not is just a game for me and myself to play with each other in our spare time. If I need "saving" or whatever, it won't be through anybody's music unless me and myself decide that's how it's gonna be, nor will anybody's music "destroy" me, unless me and myself decide that's how it's gonna be. It's gotten that simple for me most of the time. Really.

Black Miracle?

I mean, I know it's a drag to have to go to dance music to hear such damn fine guitar playing, but...world gone wrong, right, jazz fans?

I could maybe, on any given day, hear either Lew Tabackin or Bennie Wallace for one cut and think that they were each other. But how James Moody gets into that equation...I'm not sure. Then again, players sounds are their voices. Hearing them on a record is like getting a phone call from them. You pick up the phone, they say hey, and you recognize their voice if you've got it etched in your mind for whatever reason, be it ongoing repetition or be it a lot of recent dialouge or be it a notable distinctiveness. If you've not heard the voice in a long time, it might not click right away. But you don't pick up your phone, hear your uncle who you've not heard in five years say heywazzup and think that it's your wife calling from the office, ya' know?

Not to quibble or anything, but in the interest of considering different perspectives, I'd just like to point out that this: expresses a division of quantification, compartmentalization, I guess you could call it, that not everybody makes, or thinks about making. Not that it shouldn't be done, necessarily, just that not everybody does.

Byrd was Bugnon's uncle, fwiw.

I don't get that as much as I do "self-contained". It's a band that's been playing together on and off for quite a while now, so you have the possible/perceived double-edged sword of developing your own internal language and at the same time having people - audiences and band alike - hear it often enough to start to get comfortable with it, and all that follows from that. So...always play with different people who make it always different and never get the wholeness that comes from having a band/family or else have that and sacrifice the "always" new. Not sure if there is any one "right" choice there... People didn't used to have to worry about that, there were always bands. People used to yearn to be in bands. Now everybody's keen on "projects". The whole "project" vs "band" thing...not sure but that I'm still a "band" guy at heart.

Got my copy in the mail yesterday, listening to it now, and am actually a bit surprised how non-abstract it is...everything is pretty much there to follow. A lot more so than Beyond The Sound Barrier, which I found to be maybe a little more "esoteric" than I felt like dealing with. Blade doesn't sound "loud" to me nearly as much as sounds like he's opened up his time and loosened his attacks. It could be heard as a little "sloppy" I suppose, but to me it sounds like he's not been immune to being touched by the "beat" culture, the way that a lot of hip-hop stuff will just slop everything up on purpose just to show you that, yeah, we can roll it this fucked-up and STILL keep it together. Not that that's all I'm hearing, but...why wouldn't somebody be touched by that? Wayne's "minimalism"? I'm not hearing it. I'm just hearing a whole helluva lot of clarity. Not just from Wayne, either, but from everybody. Clarity is not alwasy "surprising", but, rare as it is, it can be startling. The way this band sets up big monolithic chunks of time and Wayne engages them from all angles with all sorts of dramatic parries and flourishes while Double Agent Blade shadows and counters him while at the same time reinforcing the blocks is really...fun. Maybe this is what opera fans get out of opera. I'm not an opera fan, but this does the trick for me just fine. Otherwise, this is the zone where Wayne has been for the last 30-35 years or so, this whole thing of interlocking movements that ultimately form a solid, although at any given moment they could turn into individual parts that leave holes, sometimes GIANT holes in that solid, but never permanently. I guess on the one hand it could be viewed as "mechanical", but otoh, all life is a set of of various systems that ultimately work together, so..who are we to argue with the way life works? Bottom line for me - no, I don't think this is a "radically brilliant" record or any of that hype. I do think it's another damn fine program of damn fine Wayne Shorter music (which is, for me, always brilliant, but radical only if you consider rightness radical...). If you're not fully invested in Wayne Shorter The Non-Blowing Jazzman by now, this won't change your mind. And if you are, it will probably/certainly make you feel good about your decision. Either way, make sure to hear what is actually being played, not just what it "sounds like".

Yeah, I think it's a good thing that not everything works all the time. That would be a little, as you suggest, mechanical, robotic, programmed, whatever. It can also be a pain in the ass, because after a while, you end up with buttloads full of stuff that you think you want to get rid of only to go through it and look at it and say ehhhhh.....maybe not just yet....and then next thing you know, your family is wondering where all the walls went...

So popular that they named the country after a player!

I have been that man once or twice. That's why it's so scary to think about.

Not just some of it - ALL of it!