JSngry

If I remember Tynan'a "anti-jazz" article correctly, he was put off by the length of the solos relative to the (what he heard as) lack of harmonic variety, as well as the mechanical tonal manipulations used by Dolphy and Coltrane (false fingerings, overtones, mutliphonics) etc. Mingus observed at the time, and not exactly as a compliment, that Ornette was really an "old-fashioned" player. That's been borne out over time. Nothing "old-fashioned" at all about Coltrane & Dolphy other than their pursuit of transcendence through focused intensity, and that was a concept hardly familiar to most white Americans in 1961-60. The funny thing about the charges of monotony relative to harmony that were levelled against both Coltrane & Dolphy at this time is that although the underpinning was fairly "static" (and not even there, really b/c McCoy would follow/compliment Trane's digressions pretty regularly in his accompaniments), what they played on top of it was anything but. Both Trane and Dolphy would superimpose different chords on top of the underlying ones seemingly at will, but they always brought it back home (To me, Trane's digressions seemed more derived from scalar extrapolations, Dolphy's from alternate/superimposed progressions, but that's not something I'd wish to be quoted on...). But if you didn't have the ear to hear when it left, where it went, and when it came back, it would probably tend to sound either all the same, or else like total gobbledygook. Of course, Ornette's music challenged the people in somewhat the same way, but Ornette was always so damned focused on melody, both compositionally and soloistically. And although I wasn't there when it first hit, I do know that my first reaction to Ornette, in 1970, at age 15, was that it wasn't at all "strange". Now, sure, I had already gotten hit by Hendrix, Zappa, Beefheart, and various other "weirdness", but I do think that unless you know why it should sound so different, there's a good chance that Ornette's early music won't sound all that unusual to you, simply becuase there is so much melody to it. I think that most people respond more to melody than to harmony anyway, so Ornette's got a leg up there. Not that Trane & Dolphy weren't "melodic", hell damn near everything is "melodic" in its own way, if you can let it be, but you know what I mean. It's easy to notice the ongoing melodiousness long before you notice the lack of a recurrent chord progression, if you ever even do notice that.

I have. That's that transition I was referring to...

OTOH, if Brian hadn't have been so fucked up from having <Murray as a dad, he might have been able to focus enough to finish Smile the first time around, and who knows what would have happened after that. Maybe. but maybe not. I just find it hard to "thank" an abusive father, or to presume(?) that whatever greatness his sons achieved (and don't forget Carl, the real hero of the immediate post-Brian years) was because of the abuse instead of in spite of it. But that's just me.

I don't get why some folks want to bitch about all the "boogaloo" pieces. I really don't. I mean, ok, yeah, I do, but it seems too simple and too...unmusically astute to lump them all together, like they're all the same. Because they're not. Then again, some folks just gotta have something to complain about, don't they. But if a tune like "Adam's Apple" is the low point of your day, I think you probably gotta be living a pretty charmed life in the first place, at least on that day.

I never paid any attention to Dave Marsh. He came along long after I would have had reason to. So I have no opinion one way or the other, nor do I think I ever will. But I do like a lot of "girl group" records, and I really like this cut (from Shindig, it turns out), by the Shangri-las. I really do think we've done ourselves a disservice as a culture by treating "innocence" as something less than the treasure that it is. I mean, yeah, you don't wnat to hold on to it all forever, but geez, you don't do anybody any favors by losing it all at once and too soon, either. And that "transition" phase can make or break you as to what kind of adult you end up being....

That's all I'm saying.

More evidence suggesting that all that can be said in this "language" has pretty much been said & that now there's nothing left to do other than create an endless series of cut-and-pastes, be it by "real players" or "mechanical tricksters"? That is a question, btw, not a declaration...

Probably. But two wrongs......make three wrongs----or something. Trust me, the stories beside my own are not nice ones----and that's all I'm saying. I'll not put the business of others on the street. Like I said, let's focus on the music. It's the greatest teacher.......... That's not my point. My point is that he no doubt got hit head-on by some full-force human evils during the course of his life and didn't "withdraw" or anything, he kept on doing it and became the giant that he became, asshole or not. In 500 years, if he is remembered at all, will it be as an asshole or as a badass? Most likely the latter, no? If all we study is "the music", then we never learn how to deal with mega-force assholes, of which there are many, and among whom have resided some of The Greatest Ever. So let's do study The Evil That Men Do as well as The Great Music They Make, and let it make us stronger, more resilient, and hopefully, less likely to represent the unseemly ourselves. If you train yourself to habitually avoid assholes who are also great artists (as opposed to simply learning self-defense skills), you'll miss out on more than you save. In my opinion.

I wonder if Woody Shaw was ever on the receiving end of such a cruel, spirit-deflating tongue-lashing? I bet he was...

Hanks's also telling us thru the cover model that the record is by "HM"

I have no problems with anything on or about that album.

Our ladies get a lesson on the dissatisfaction that inevitably comes with rushing things: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuNlEGbAKf0...feature=related

I mean...YEAH! There's so much that's just fundamentally....right about that whole thing that whatever might be wrong with it just don't matter.

UP GfROM THR AMBIRENS OF OBSCURITY!!!!

The Only Mood Of Murray Wilson: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/10/im_a_genius_too.html Not for the squeamish...

Dude, The Treniers RULE.

Hmm...he's good-bad, but he's not evil...

Hell, if I know why, but Mary Wells' "You Beat Me To The Punch" is really resonating right now. The whole thing, song, arrangement, sound of the record, and especially Wells' phrasing & enunciation, which is deeply, soulfully sexy, maybe more so than I'd noticed before. Hardly the Greatest Music Ever Made, but oh well about that. Great will always be there. It's the transient treasures that give flavor & dimension.

Wellsir, that's the difference between you and Grace Jones, although not necessarily the most obvious one...

Pete Rock Tiffany Peate: http://www.facebook.com/people/Tiffany-Peate/1385328079 Rodney Peete

Yeah, we needs us some MG!

She herself, yes. But when she had Sly & Robbie producing her, she had her name on some pretty damn good records. Which is just to say that I enjoy me some Grace Jones records w/o really enjoying Grace Jones herself.

Winky Dink: