JSngry

Oh, and regarding Jimmy Carl Black & "fate" as it pertains to the music business - I lived in Albuquerque from early 1982 to mid-1984. I had heard that JCB was from that area & was living there, so one of the first things I did when I got to town was to ask around, see what his scene was, if he was playing, jamming, gigging, whatever. Everybody said the same thing - that they heard that he was living "outside of" Cerillos ( http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nm/cerillos.html ) & was working as a house painter. More than one person also added (and always animatedly) that if I found him, to let them know because he owed them money. Knowing then as now (usually...) when to leave well enough alone (and to never lie to a sleeping dog), I called off the search pretty quickly.

I'll respectfully disagree. Those are favorites of mine. Billy The Mountain is a freakin' epic! I will say, though, that hearing them as I did in "real time", it was a bit frustrating to see people think of The Mothers as basically a "comedy" band once their WB/Bizarre sides started getting some play. Those of us who had been on board before knew better. Having said all that, I still think quite highly of those two as part of a well-balanced Zappa diet (and fwiw, I pretty much lose interest after 1975 or so...)

It's Madison Time! (Hairspray - John Waters - 1988): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5PwYOPrZh4...feature=related John Waters and all that, but that is cool. "Two points!" HA! But where is some footage of this?

It's a new release, Japan-only, at least so far. Besides Amazon & CDU, it's also been offered at Dusty Groove.

Ok, I'm waaaaay behind the curve, but I'm just now finding out about this... Was this thing actually POPULAR popular? Those calls are wack, and the clips of the dance itself that I've seen...it's like today's line dancing that they do to C&W only with hipper steps & better music.

Yeah, fine. Just speculating out loud. Didn't mean to get weird or anything. Sorry if it came off like that. Just saw the MSNBC doc about Jonestown. Now that was some weird shit...

Hate to disappoint, but no smoking, no drinking, no nothing these days except blood pressure medicines, Lipitor, Naproxen, & the occasional Prevacid. Just the illusion/delusion of a lucidity I've not had in a while. It may or may not be total bullshit. Or it may well be true. Maybe I'm soon to die, who knows? Or maybe not, who knows? It is what it is, for as long as it will be.

I'm just saying that outside (or even inside) of the business realm, musics, no, life - of which music is an inextricable part, is so much about finding one's "place". Now, we often think of that symbolically, or geographically/territorially, but what is more immediate than the sense of "place" that comes from how one individually vibrates within the macro vibration(s) of the universe? Obviously, different peoples (and different peoples within different peoples) vibrate different than others. They have to, because if everybody and everything vibrated identically, then there would be no different peoples, or places, or things (and of course, the position that there really aren't, that our perceptions of "apartness" are in fact fallacious, is one which I will not argue against with any vehemence). So when we look for "meaning" in music, either specifically or more broadly, to do so without getting a sense, not just of "what" is being done, but also why (and yeah, that's a slippery slope to be sure, but oh well, friction is your friend a lot of times, including this one...) this is being done by this person/these peoples in this way instead of this other way, then we run the risk of finding meaning without context, and context without dimension. In other words, we find what we already know, and how we already know it. We just apply it to fit whatever new thing we are looking at. The "one" is real. Everything is everything. But everybody holds a slightly (or greatly) different piece of the one, vibrates a little differently either in contribution to or receipt of (hell if I know which is which, maybe it's both...) the one. this "vibration" thing is not just an abstract metaphysical concept, it's a root reality of exisitence, and it's directly involved, might even be the source of, music, even the crap! This I do believe.

Trio w/Peter Washington & Lewis Nash. a celebration/tribute/whatever to Joe Henderson. "End result" is predictable, but not the steps along the way, which is about as high an achievemnt as this type thing is gonna offer up, and that, all things considered is as it should be, because if it wasn't, then this is not the music that would be being made. To put it another way - this is not the type of album that I usually enthuse about, in terms of neither personnel, concept, nor "style". But enthuse about this one i will, because everybody sounds loose, relaxed, and in the same elevated zone. The music flows. Pretty damn good stuff, and pretty highly recommended.

Why is that? "Euro-centric" pitch is all about standardizing the octave (yeah, there's always "fudging" going on, but...). You think the piano/etc, where the octave is divided into 12 (theoretically) equal intervals is a non-European concept? No way, dude, no way. "African temperament" is a fact of life. Let's not even get into Indian/Asian temperament... Same thing w/rhythm - "Euro-centric" rhythm is all about equal divisions & placements of the beat (again, there's always "fudging" going on, but...). African rhythm is all about floating in and around the pulse, the "one". This is, I'm pretty sure what Allen is getting at with his "vertical" thing, but I myself think it's futile to look at multi-dimensionality through a lens of just two dimensions... Timbre? "Euro-centric" timbre is all about a focused tone, rigidly aligned to fit within pre-determined parameters. African timbre is a helluva lot more open, the overtones are quite frequently more "on top" than in "Euro-centric" musics. All these things point directly to fundamental differences in perception/consciousness, in the way that one's personal vibrational pattern interacts/intersects with one's environment. You can call it "measuring" if you like (it seems a little simplistic to me, but not really "wrong"...) but the bottom line is that there are differences, they are obvious, they are significant, and they are not accidental. It's not a matter of "not knowing", it's a matter of "differing needs". And to that end, "European" "folk" musics have a helluva lot more flexibility/openness in their personal vibrational pattern interactions than do "court" (i.e. - "classical") musics, and also to that end, the closer to Africa the Euro-folk musics are, the more...."intricate" they tend to be. So what does all this mean? Hell if I know, other than looking at music as just/purely music is something that is only good up to a point, and that the sooner one gets to, and then past, that point, the sooner one is likely to start finding what one is looking for. That, and that Johnny Hodges plays more notes than Coltrane, because Johny Hodges plays an infinite number, but Coltrane's can be counted. Anybody doesn't think that that means something, hey, we might be hearing the same sounds, but we sure ain't hearing the same musics.

It's a simple problem, really - Canada is vertical, but mail service is horizontal.

For that matter, look at how our American palate has been evolving towards more spicy/savory foods. That's another vibrational area opening up in response to realizing that it's there to be gone to. It's all the same thing, really, music, food, "tonal", "pre-tonal", everything. Where we are, what we think "is" is turns out to be, not an absolute, fixed quantity, but a relativistic perception. Once we know "different", wheels get set in motion, and reciprocal evolution is off to the races. Resistance is futile, but nevertheless offered by some on both ends of the equation.

Exactly. Ask yourself this - why would you hear a music that reflects precise man-made measurements when you're living in a world that still, mostly, doesn't? I mean, this: would seem to trigger an entirely different vibrational take on the sense of time/space boundaries than would this: Music is first and foremost (exclusively, really, but let's not go there...) vibration. And vibration can and does take on an infinite number of shapes, and existes in an infinite number of dimensions. "Tonal" music reflects the development of a more "measured" (in all sorts of ways...) world. One could well argue that the "liberating" effect of all things "African" (real or imagined) to the 20th Century "Western" world was to (re)open some of the vibrational spaces that had been closed off/up by the "precision" of a "tonal" vibrational culture. One might also well argue that the Viennese School, etc attempted to "destroy tonality" in an attempt to get into those spaces, but jeez, there's the matter of timbre, micro-rhythm, everything else besides harmony that those guys were just too far gone from to really go where they thought they wanted to go. Think about how radical Louis Armstrong really was in terms of rhythm - into a world where time had been strictly measured & segmented, here comes this guy who finds time in between time in between time in between time. Or so it seemed. Really, he (and all whom he represented, past, present, & future) just related to time & space from a different vibrational stance, not because they were trying to find something, but because they were already there! The rest, the various forms & rhythms & colors & everything, that was just engineering. And yeah, people who weren't already there called their travel agents regularly & excitedly. Factor in all the various Euro-ethnic vibes that were still active, and you got a fertile ground for time & space to be defined in a way that the world had yet to see - American Music. I don't know who agrees or disagrees with me on this, but I'm firmly convinced that you can't talk about stuff like this just in terms of tonality, or rhythm, or any one "element". It really is all of a piece, a holistic entity that reflects a basic type of interaction with "life" - the vibrational path of existence as its peoples interact with time and space on its way to becoming what it - and they - will be.

Kinda like I asked a guy one time - who played more notes, Trane or Johnny Hodges? He kinda snickered and said Trane, of course. Ok, I said, how many notes are in one of Hodges long-ass glissandos? An infinite number he said. Ok then, I said back, how do you play more notes than an infinite number? He says he's still scratching his head over that one...

Those ballads are some of the finest ever, imo.

My bad, same link for both (thanks, Tom!) Newer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrSpQYsoq3o Actually, I htnk i prefer the newer, although there's one that predates the King version that is my overall favorite...

http://classicshowbiz.blogspot.com/2008/11...-1938-2008.html

One for the ages: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u40WaTN5Rs

I'll Remeber April on piano: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf5dobq14aI

Gangster of Love Older: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXmzeEJT26o Newer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXmzeEJT26o ...and that's your wife on the back of my horse...

Three Hours Past Midnight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juQCEMBoIPI

Hot Little Mama: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leGzvQDhS24

This guy....what a motherphukker! Who needs Tattoo You when you can Ta Ta you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0tF8LxpAKA...feature=related

Johnny Guitar Watson was indeed a BAAAAAAAADDDDDD motherforya, but there ain't no feedback on that clip. Tell you what though, the man was one of the unsung giants, Johnny Guitar Watson was, and not just in the 50s. Nobody else was doing shit this consistently hip (or more accurately, shit that was hip like this, in this way) in the 70s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0tF8LxpAKA...feature=related Tiem for a new thread...

http://nicealbumshameaboutthecover.blogspot.com/