JSngry

Yeah, the uptempo tunes are damn near Broken Beat, yet without being Broken Beat. Of course, Henry's long been in this place, but now that I've heard Broken Beat, it's like, oh, ok, this just reinforces my notions about "this type of thing" being possible. Dance to Now! Dance to The Future! Dance to Henry Threadgill!

I be prepared.

Where does Henry keep finding these drummers?

Oh.... Good thing I just bought dog food then.

Just called the Sullivan's in Anchorage...he no longer gigs there...the manager I spoke with said that he hadn't heard anything about him in about five years...not sure if he was a real jazz fan or not, though, but he did know the name. He offered to take my name & # in case he heard anything, but I don't have time to follow up on anything should it pan out. If anybody does, though, the # for the Sullivan's in Anchorage is (907) 258-2882 Ask to speak w/the manager right off the bat, cause the person answering the phone won't have a clue...

That doesn't mean we're ALL fucked, does it?

Ringo stayed on my wall until my mom sold the house a few years ago. They made better Scotch Tape then.

DANCE ALBUM OF THE YEAR!!!!!

Bass? Indispensable? The future awaits - find the right guy with the right laptop and fuck all that!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6thYpZ44UQ

This is also very true. The ideal is to have support that does not become a crutch, but that requires resonably "healthy" attitudes on the part of all concerned, and...good luck on that! Seriously, nobody's perfect, and whatever works between peoples works. I just get tired of "excuse making" taking the place of self-responsibility. It's something that never really bothered me until my kids got to be teenagers...

Frankly, I see a lot of arrested developement, people so in love with the notions of "art" and "artist" that simple day-to-day responsibility, like the act of paying a bill on time would shatter their creative world (I exaggerate, of course, but...). Hell, just grow the fuck up and accept the responsibility for all of your life, ya' know? It's been done, right? Miles was a freak, but he handled his business, as did Trane, as did any other number of people. For every truly tortured genius like Bird, Bud, or Monk (although is "tortured" the right word for Monk?), there's at least as many, probably more, cats who just don't want to grow up & they construct all sorts of elaborate premises as to why they can't/shouldn't. I'm not talking about the cats with real bio-chemical problems either, just the ones who are always looking for a scam or a con or some other way to get you to handle their business for them. If the Gil Evans bio was to be believed, he was one of those type, and god knows that I love Gil Evans, but the lamenting of his rather limited output over the years could probably be just as directed at him as at any "industry indifference". That's what I'm talking about.

I could name 20 just within the last decade... How do I deal with/see it/them? As people with "issues", some clearly bio-chemical, some more a behavioral dysfunctionality. To the extent that they can make the gig and make the gig happen, it's all good there. To the extent that they do not take over/attempt to take over my personal live/space/whatever, I try to be understanding, encouraging and supportive, usually with constructive results, at least in the short-term. But there comes a point where I got my own life to deal with, and it is not one which offers me the luxury or ability to offer unlimited "me" in service of an unsolvable "problem". And that's when the line gets drawn, not out of a lack of concern or anything, but simply as an act of self-defense/preservation/whatever you want to call it. The worst for me is the cats who need help, know they need help, but refuse, sometimes militantly refuse, to get help and then expect you to continue to be thier support group. No. Not gonna happen.

deeply aquatic pre-emotive resonances at preemptive play here for the unwittingly indigenous

Yeah, Allen, you're probably right about that, and it works for me too, just up to a point. At some point, like Bird said in a different context, you gotta forget all that shit and just play! Believe me, I am not unappreciative of or unsympathetic to the value of understanding cretors from a personal angle. But for me (and I stress, for me), at some point it doesn't matter any more, because, to use one example, the bridge to "Little Rootie Tootie" is crazy enough - yet ultimately even more sane - as it is, and therein lies the truth I need to pursue to be able to forget all that shit and just play! Again, that's just me, and absolutely no dis intended of anybody who goes/comes at it differently.

No, i mean it is important, the book, the illness, all that, just not in a purely musical way. It's more academic, or if you prefer, scholarly, which is important in its own realm, just not so much when it comes to internalizing the music as a player. As a fan, or a scholar, yeah, sure, in those realms that's the name of the game, and Kelley's work is invaluable there. But when I learned "Little Rootie Tootie", there were a gazzillion things I needed to know, and five gazillion things I wanted to know before/besides whether or not Monk was mentally disturbed, and if so, in which way. And now that I know the tune, I really don't feel a need to go back and relearn it in light of the possibility that it might be the work of a mentally damaged individual. Should I?

So, does the fact that I've learned a big bunch about a whole lot of stuff from the work of somebody who was at some level mentally disturbed mean that what I've learned makes me, or could make me, mentally disturbed as well? Do I have to be/be prone to being mentally disturbed to even pick up on these things in the first place? What if all I ever knew about Monk in my entire life was his music, would I be missing something, including the risk of becoming/not becoming mentally disturbed? Should I approach them differently knowing that Monk was mentally disturbed? I mean, I know that at one level this stuff "matters". But on another, perhaps bigger/higher/whatever one, I don't think it does. Learn the songs, play the songs, teach the songs. Find the music in them and then find that music within yourself. Then read a book about it, maybe.

Mine arrived in the mial Friday. Will be listening ASAP, with much anticipation.

Listen to his solo on "Duke Ellington's Sound Of Love" on Changes One. Great ballad playing, period. Adams did have that switch, and he did hit it often, but he also had more. Probably a "sign of the times" that he flipped it as often as he did (was he the Illinois Jacquet of his time, and were the 70s the last time that jazz would have a popular enough base to create an Illinois Jacquet, and if so, does that mean that James Carter should move on, or does the absence of both Adams and the real Illinois Jacquet now make him make more sense than ever?), but when he didn't (or when he did with discretion), he was really something.