JSngry

Tell Dexter I love him, ok? Warts & all.

Hey, I hear ya' on that one! I mean, subjective as it is, we can discuss individual substance all we want & probably have a decent enough discussion whether or not any agreement is reached, but when it gets into discussing "style" as substance, as if any one style of anything has merit over something else just because it is what it "is", then hey, no thanks.

Do you take a 2:15 pop record over a 13 minute Coltrane solo? In all honesty, I take both, depending on what i want/need at the time, and if that means going back-to-back, then back-to-back it is! And sometimes, I take neither, for the same reasons.

I thought so. As a kid I could hear that in the music anyways. It also depends upon which part of Texas we're talking about / looking at. San Antonio, Austin and Houston are all within about 3 hours driving distance of each other, but Doug Sahm does not equal Roky Erickson does not equal The Red Krayola. Go a few miles north and none of them equal Bugs Henderson, who does not equal Bnois King. Then again, a lot of people do not equal Bnois King...

But Stravinsky interpreted "correctly" (at least how I perceive it as correct) makes the rhythm no less important than any other element. Now, with prime JB, what happens (for me) is that the focus on "pure rhythm" allows for that rhythm to then take on more of a harmonic and textural life all its own that putting more on top of it would otherwise allow. People not attuned to that ethos don't hear it that way, which is totally cool by me, but when people try to tell me that it's not there, that harmony can't be heard/created entirely through a certain way of feeling/creating a certain type of rhythmic process, that's when I throw down the challenge. Because you can. But Stravinsky, yeah, Stravinsky swung. Bartok swung. Bach swung. Mozart swung, but more like George Shearing. Point is, every people have rhythm, it's just that not all people have the same rhythm. And now that there's very little room left in which to hide, things can either get really groovy, really ugly, really confused, or all of the above, often at the same time. Definitely interesting times, these are....

It's pretty much gonna be what each individual wants/needs it to be at any given moment. I think it's 'received wisdom'! Well yeah, based on who receives it from who and what they need it to mean. I mean, there is no shortage, I mean, no shortage at all, of people who get a "spiritual high" when a white guitarist plays a 13 minute guitar solo, or for that matter, when a tenor saxophonist (of any color) plays a 13 minute solo. still plenty of people who want/need that, and still no shortage of people to give it to 'em. Maybe not enough to dominate the world market and make it seem "important", but still plenty enough for everybody to get what they're looking for. Trust me on this one... But really, if I have a choice between a nicely-crafted 2:15 pop record or a 13 minute wankfest, I'm going for the pop. And if I have a choice between a 13 minute solo of substance and a 2:15 piece of shit popslag, I'll invest the 13 minutes. Now, who decides which is which? That's the real question, and ultimately people make their own choices, received wisdom or not, unless they're total mind-zombies, and even then, I'm sure that there were Nazis or Khemer Rouge Cambodians or any such group who would tell you that the real "zombies" are the ones who fall for the lie that there isany other way than therir won, so really, hey, follow your bliss, let others do the same, enjoy responsibly, and don't expect a friction-free life, because without friction, there would be no life.

It also explains why quite a few of us rock fans of the early-70s became jazz fans in the later 70s. I was a late 60s rock fan who became a jazz fan, but for me the main impetus was rhythm. Rock pretty much stopped swinging for me, and jazz, well, hey... But now, most jazz has stopped swinging for me, and its the House/DJ scene that really swings to me now (when it in fact does, which is far from always...) Which is not to say that all I need is a good beat, far from it, but any idea delivered without what to me seems the grace of the dance impulse (notice i said "impulse") generally strikes me as being aggressive, oppressive, regressive, and/or any other number of tendencies with which I prefer not to engage. That much dance music does deliver these negative qualities speaks to me more of the "ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it" ethos, in which I am as firm a believer as I can be of anything.

"Dead" is often confused with "not relevant at the time". At the time of the Ramones, and for what the Ramones (and by extension, "their people") needed out of music/life, it wasn't particularly relevant. You get enough people for whom it's not particularly relevant for a long enough time and it will appear "dead", often for quite a long time. But nothing really "dies"... eventually everything will become relevant to enough people again.

It's pretty much gonna be what each individual wants/needs it to be at any given moment.

Well, since Texas is not really part of the "South", I mean, it is in some crucial ways but not in others, I think you have your answer!

That's good stuff...I remember when Hard Again, the first of the bunch was released...it created a bit of a sensation! I didn't like, and still don't, Winter's "cheerleading" exhortations, but Muddy was in great form for those sets, and Muddy in great form is one of those things not to trifle with or about. Yeah, I mean, babies come from sex, period, including rape & incest, not just from love. I also think that the notion of "the blues" is an oversimplified one too, but that's another matter entirely...

For me, it's not so much "new" as it is "life"...life is different when you improvise (sometimes ecstatic, sometimes terrifying, but always different), and Ornette pretty much brought a new level of improvisation to a music that had frequently begun to be less and less improvisatory and more and more interpretive. Of course, nothing lasts forever, and Ornette now is still a delight, but he's also more interpretive than in 1959. I mean, that's just life and it is beautiful. He's no longer inventing himself as much as he is interpreting himself (the difference being, I suppose, in the amount of "there" there is left to uncover...), but that's how it goes, and if you stay true, as he has done, it's a beautiful thing to behold.

No doubt, but without looking at the "to who" and "why?", this is sort of an incomplete thought... like anything else, it's only going to be "important" to you if you want/need it to be at some level, and if you don't, then...life goes on, right? Sometimes even forward!

Many/most people feel discomforted by the lack of a preplanned and/or predictable order.

Particleboard is very important. The modern furniture industry could not exist without it.

Oh, it has them, just not in a preplanned or symmetrical order. They happen when they need to, not when they're supposed to.

Not pedestrian at all, and not just the blues either, and not just African-American forms either... Muddy Waters' famous quote (approximated) - White boy can maybe play the blues better than me, sure. But ain't no way he can sing the blues better than me. Of course, assimilation is inevitable, as is the (de?)volution of any music springing from a deeply specific personal non-verbal (even when it involves speaking and/or singing) language full of "inside" gestures, signifiers, etc. that eventually become just a "part of the style", all these things are natural and not to be feared, I'm just saying that recordings allow us to hear the language at various stages of evolution/assimilation and at some point "speaking the language" becomes less a matter of creating it than it does learning it phonetically, after which of course it then takes on its own "inside" gestures, signifiers, etc., but what it's actually saying is not always/often not what was being said "once upon a time", and I think it's just as important to recognize that as it is anything, otherwise people get to thinking that one guy is the same as the other, and that's "dangerous" enough an attitude when applied within a single time-frame, even more so when applied across them. Some things are indeed eternal, but by no means is everything that comes along with those things.

Sonny Boy Williams famous quote (approximated) - Those English boys want to play the blues so bad. And they do... My question is this - how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if the wood was particleboard?

Not necessarily...speculation has abounded, but it's proven to be one of the best-kept secrets in jazz!

Diiieeeing to know the o ut c oooommm e o t f the storee ee e e e e

Yess it is...so let's talk about music!

Don't know if it's been booted yet, but there's a concert by that band where they didn't have an electric piano on hand (or if they did, it was busted), and Chick has to play acoustic for the set. Talk about driving home why the electricity was not only an inevitable, but also a necessary evolution for this particular music, there it is.

Of what music, for that matter, of what anything, is this not true? Same.

Kim Yu-Na, yeah...same hear, I care next to nothing about the sport, but still....that was one of the most continuously graceful, musical things I've ever seen in my life.