JSngry

I think that perhaps you misread their reasoning! Being against generic distinctions in no way negates the appreciation of basic differences. Do you really think that Miles heard no basic difference between Willie Nelson and John Coltrane? Of course he did. I think it would be an affront to all three to claim otherwise, just as it would be an insult to both Willie & Trane to point out that Willie could never burn on "Giant Steps" or that Trane never wrote a lyric like "Crazy". Not only is that insulting, it's so besides/not the point as to be obvious I think. The comparisons that are there to be made & the appreciations that there are to be had are on a different plane than that of just "X but not Y" & "for P, E>D". The only way to get to Total Equality (Nirvana?) is to recognize the "equal" and "same" are not going to be the same thing in all ways at all times. The diversity of humanity (hell, of existence, period) pretty much dictates that. The true transcendence comes from seeing the commonality between the differences, which of course means that you have to recognize, understand, and respect the differences just as clearly as you do the commonality, and vice-versa.

Bones Howe Stephen James Howe Steven Roy Howe

So THAT'S where chess sets come from!

Hey, there's only water, too, and fish need it to live in, but all fish can't live in all water.

As well they should. That type of thing is almost unavoidable these days, so much information is readily available, What should be recognized, though, is that just because somebody from World B is informed and/or engaged, either intellectually, emotionally, or even "musically" by/in World A does not mean that the goals and ambitions of World A are automatically now totally aligned & in-sync with those of World B, which therefore legitimizes direct, linear comparisons of "worth", or perhaps even more insidiously "ability". Ability is only relevant to goals, and goals are only worthy relative to needs. This holds true for producers and consumers alike. Everything is just make-believe.

But only "jazz musicians", right? Because, to use the ongoing example, Wagner has absolute, eternally universal importance? I think you know that is not what I meant. Honestly, I did not know for sure if that was what you meant, but I am quite glad to hear that it was not. Honestly. Thank you for the clarification. The real problem I have with all this is the notion that everything in World A has its value measured against World B. Although it's "nice" to be aware of both worlds (and others), at some point in the process of the worlds defining and refining themselves, Worlds A & B just do not matter too much to each other any more. And that's when the "colonial" fun begins... For some, anyway.

The Budweiser Clydesdales The Schlitz Malt Liquor Bull Mickey

just yourself, for failing to accept The Natural Order Of Musical Superiority Thingy Stuff.

But only "jazz musicians", right? Because, to use the ongoing example, Wagner has absolute, eternally universal importance?

Yes, Malaco has the rights to some or even all of the catalog. But they do not have anything close to a comprehensive reissue policy for it. Malaco knows its audience, though, and their audience is not necessarily the "comprehensive reissue" type. Guess I missed this...details, please!

Looks like The New Matt Harrison might've gotten lost during the hunt for The Inner Colby Lewis. Bummer.

Rude... You must understand, Clem's originally from Texas, I believe, but has since immigrated to New York. So it's ok.

Norman Phil Tommy

There's an email function thru the board that works just fine!

Bill Dixon Wagner Bobby Sherman

We live in totally different worlds, and for that I'm sure we are both grateful. I know I am. Add that that's for both Klem & David, albeit for different reasons.

And part of it lies in people having different needs out of music, but at some level thinking that all needs should be the same You say that Braxton is not yet Wagner, like it really matters to you, and I'm sure it does, and I'm sure you have your reasons, valid reasons, but for me, I really don't give a fuck, because the whats and whys and how muches of me needing Braxton and/or Wagner don't really intersect that much, and truth be told, for my life, as I've lived it, I really don't need Wagner, and anybody who tries to tell me that 'I should have this ineffable need to need Wagner, well, hey, go fuck yourself, ya' know? Wagner foes to a place that I can get to just as well otherwise, except for those places he goes that I really don't have a need to go to, and I'm more than ok with that. There's plenty places I choose not to go, and plenty more places that wouldn't let me in even if I showed up. They don't need/want me, I don't need/want them, and afaic, we both of us are well-served by it being so. And ditto the vice-versa. Not everybody needs to be legitimized by somebody else's legitimacy. They create their own. Bill Dixon is one of those, so is Anthony Braxton, hell, so is freakin' Frankie Valli. True, Frankie Valli is hardly Enrico Caruso, but if that matters to somebody, I doubt that that somebody really get either one of them. People make me sick sometimes, they just be all kinds of stupid. Seeking, claiming, and especially needing relative legitimacy in every damn thing is just one way to be stupid. If you're dumb enough to go there, serve you right to stay there.

jeezus dude, what kind of a world do you live in where there's not hype and exaggeration around anybody's music? Or what kind of a world, for that matter, where somebody who doesn't like some kind of music as much as others thinks that whatever acclaim said music has received that outreaches one's own taste for said music is due to hype and exaggeration? Some people preach, some people bitch, hey, it's all bullshit. Proceed accordingly.

That's it? 30 year old liner notes? Post-Marsailis liner notes? Liner notes written when everybody and their half-sister's pimp was staking claim to somebody being A Great American Artist? That's the "hype" I'm (or somebody) supposed to have been suckered in by? Geez, no wonder I'm not in the hype loop!

Oh, so Dixon is not among your favorites, or even semi-favorites & it upsets (apparently tremendously so!) you when people who like him more than you do express enjoyment of his work & recommend it to others on no grounds other than that enjoyment. That's a bit...cranky, I think, to say nothing of irrational. But hey, go with what you know. It's gotten you this far!

I'm up for the down stroke, er...sorry, up for a download, please!

I still don't know what this "hype" is. Either knowingly or unknowingly, I've somehow escaped it. Could you point me to an example or two, please, just so I know what the hell is going on in that regard, because I'm, like, a glutton for punishment with a seemingly unlimited capacity for the inane.

Well yeah, but judging by some of the reactions here, there's been some sort of odious-type hype that's playing the "as great as ABC" game and all that, which is apparently infuriating some of the reactors, and I'm all like, wot's this, then? I've never seen any Lincoln Center-scale effort to redefine Bill Dixon as The Great American Post-Webern MegaGreat Composer, or whatever it is that is...<b> upsetting </b>these people who feel that their world of "composerdom" is being violated or peed upon or whatever it is that's filing their rankles...if there's any of that type hype out there, I've not seen it, which is ok, because that would be for and about a world I have no real interest in anyway, it being half-past dead already, with it's time winding down and it's period of relevance winding up.

What is the "hype" exactly? I've been enjoying Dixon for too long, in too many different places, to have become a target of it, I guess. All I know is that the guy had a voice and a vision of his own, and that he fully exercised them both to some delightfully stimulating ends. What else is there to really know, really?

Nothing at all "sketchy" about Savoy gospel LPs. They were a major player in the field throughout the 60s & 70s. If my memory serves(?), when Arista bought/leased/whatever the Savoy jazz holdings, the jazz holdings was all they bought, and Savoy continued to function as an active gospel label for some years afterward.