JSngry

To quote Mr. Costello, I used to get disgusted, now I only get amused. So, here's another, "this "big thing" y'all see? It's really not that big after all" attack on reality. Of coursxe there are otehr albums of the time that might be "better", and of course the use of modaility on KOB was neither totally original nor the bulk of the album. Ane sure, the "marketing" of the album exists, to this day, just as it does with A Love Supreme. But geez, Louise, you can only market something so much. You can't create such an enduring (if you can call a mere 50 years "enduring", but let's do it for the case of this argument) classic on hype alone. There's got to be something there. And that "something" is simple - mojo. "Better" music often has less of it, but that's irrelevant to anything, because mojo is one of those things that you either get or you don't. Of course, there's always somebody who just doesn't get it, refuses to get it, and somebody whose subjective disengagement with an item gradually turns into a bow-tie-wearing-ish contrariness that delights in denying the existence of something that most people get without too much, if any, effort. That's the nature of mojo - it bypasses "reason" and "subjective analysis" and just goes straight to your own personal Point Of What Really Matters. If somebody comes up and just says, "eh, I don't get it. That's just me" and stops there, hey, cool. Not necessarily right, but cool. It's the guys who go one step furhter and say, "I not only don't get it, but I think you've been duped if you do" that make me wonder if they don't have some misanthropic streak in them somewhere, some inabilty to not only understand what others feel that they themselves don't, but some need to disallow others to feel what they themselves don't. You want to "blame" somthing fo this album's iconic status, try this - has there ever been any other album whose music has been so consistently, as in 100%, perfectly in sync in terms of timbre, tempo, texure, and space with its recorded sound? No, I think not. Has there been anything else quite like that seemingly eternal decay of Jimmy Cobb's "crash" (I use the term advisedly) cymbal coming out of the head of "So What" and the seamless emergence of his ride cymbal while Miles leaves the space for it to happen before riding back in to perfectly add yet another texture to the mix? No, I think not. And this is an album virtually full of such sonic moments, moments that would still ba as musically valid if recorded differently, but not as "magical". Reverb is an instrument unto itself, as is room sound, as is (as has long been noted about Miles) microphone technique. All are items to be "played" just as felicitously (or not) as any instrument. And all go a long ways towards creating mojo, since all are things which function (unless specifically directed otherwise) in the realm of the "extra-musical", even though when played right, they become as integral to, as much a part of, the music as "the music" itself. There's more to this album than just the playing & the tunes. KOB is not just about "music". It's also about sound, environment, ambiance, experience beyond the subjective, all those "extra-musical" (although not really, not in my book) things that make the difference between a greeting card and a nice romantic note and a love letter that convinces you to pack up your bags and begin your life anew. That is mojo, and you either get it or you don't. Mr. Myers is apparently one of the ones who doesn't get it. Many, many more do, and contrary to what he migh be hoping for, this proves nothing more than that he doesn't get it and that many, many more do. Good for him, but excuse me if I pretty much give him a rousing, "so what?".

Which if his recordings would he recommend to a total jazz neophyte, and why? Which of his recordings does he think and/or hope that people will be listening to long after he's dead, and why? Which of his compositions does he think/hope should become "jazz standards"? Did he at any point in his career contemplate making a "power play" into the classical world as he did into jazz? If not, why, and if so, why did he finally decide against it? What does he consider the greatest strengths and weaknesses of his playing and his composing?

Good paoint, Mr. Wy. Programming is a woefully under-commented on aspect of BN albums, I think.

A movie star as well as a serious actor, a man who got married (and stayed married) and remained a sex symbol, a rich race car driver with a philanthropic bent, an actor who could do goofy and serious with equal aplomb, a celebrity with substance. In short, a life well lived.

The story I've heard is that Grossman was playing like Bird by age 15. Iuse to think that Stone Alliance-era Grossman was all Trane, but going back to it, I now hear the underlying Rollins influence as well. It's subtle, but it's there.

Human breast milk is quite tasty.

My personal hell: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...;videoid=708346

Have a Coke & a smile. Because...

May I have a cup of tea, please?

For the Moose:

Here's that thread: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=187 But still, we don't know who the Laura was to whom Grace was speaking. Odd...

Right at the very end, just before the guitar solo. It's the last thing she says. I guess it's "Laura"... Maybe it's "lava", "love Ra" or something else. Right now today, I really don't care. But in 2004, I guess I thought it was "Laura" & thought there might be a story there. What I want to know now is why the hell Moose resurrected a 4.5 year old thread that had heretofore gotten zero responses. That's just weird, Laura.

Looks like some Jazz Composers Guild affair.

Ok, I have been negligent. Kullrusk, a quartet of Per "Ruskträsk" Johansson & my hero-in-(still)waiting Jonas Kullhammar (saxes/clarinets, electric & non- ), Sven Lindvall (bass, ditto), & Martin Jonsson drums. Everybody's involved in other projects, so the "focus" of this group is to play the music with this instrumentation. It's all pretty much uncompromising stuff, not different from what they play acoustically, but the electronics add textures otherwise unavailable, which make it subtly but undeniably "different music" than the same thing play acoustically. Available on Moserobie records, supplies are limited, what's come out so far is probably gone already except direct from the label, but poke around and carpe diem when opportunity arises. These guys come to play. Ok, seek and ye shall find. Excerpted samples here: http://www.kullrusk.com/ http://www.quesonegro.de/audio/alice_the_babs.mp3 http://www.quesonegro.de/audio/twod.mp3 http://www.quesonegro.de/audio/hard_shit_luxury.mp3 http://www.quesonegro.de/audio/01_hellstone.mp3 http://www.quesonegro.de/audio/05_he-mam.mp3 http://www.quesonegro.de/audio/07_merguez.mp3 Discs available from the Moserobie website: http://www.moserobie.com/main.html CDs are "120 SEK except where noted. Price includes shipping within Sweden. For international shipping rates, please ask!" 120 SEK = 18.3473 USD Pricey, but for some, not astronomically so, and the music is damn fine. Proceed accordingly, I suppose. Dutty Goove sells the CDs for $13.99, but again, supplies are limited, and if you don't get'em on the first shot, there ususally ain't no second shot.

Not any shorter than a few decades worth of 78s...

Camden, NJ, not Camden the label.

Some of the tunes remind me of Carla Bley's earlier work. It's funny, the personnel was not released with the CD, you had to go to a website to get it, but Elvin was immediately identifiable, as were Sweets, Taylor, Burrell, & Toots. For me, the whole thing falls into a category of Things That Are More Serious Than They Appear, Intentionally Or Not.

That link doesn't load for me, Bertrand. What are we seeing?

Not just that, but if you want to imagine such a thing as fanciful as a "collective American rhythm" then he's one of the prime architects of one pretty hefty chunk of it. I love how he used to call back home and tell the cats that "they're using two drummer out here to do what we did with just one". That's a metaphor for so much of the American experience than just music. If anybody can find the YouTube clip of hip jamming with the DJs, the scratchers, that would be a gas. The guy has a look on his face like he iunderstands exactly waht is going on, and yeah, why it needs to be going on. RIP indeed, and we owe you more than we could ever repay.

Per AMG: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&a...0nfoxqualdfe~T1 AMG show the drummer on the Gamba side as being Paul Motian. Hmmmm..... Who is/was Jack Gamba & what was Paul Motian playing while with him? AMG also does not give the third album on which he allegedly appears.

Word, but remember, we're almost 30 years into the post-_______________ America and/or jazz scene, and things got.....turned around and have yet to get turned back around. Ya' know what I'm sayin'?

Yeah, safe to say that I'm a fan.

so Harold, was he just recorded really well on that Jacy Parker side, or did he really have one of those old-school fat-ass sounds with all kinds of "air" in it, the kind of thing that makes playing over it like walking on air? Alos, I guess he "stayed local" during most of his career, eh?

Braxton swings. Period. Not as a "style", but as a reality, a physically sensed/heard/felt quality of irresistable momentum in the service (often extrapolated out a dimension or two, but always present nevertheless) of the dance impulse. Plenty of different ways to get there, but once you do, there you are. And you can't fake it or get rid of it. Braxton swings. Period.

Funny how time changes things. I dug up this old thread and saw many things I wrote at the time and I've reversed myself. Open House/Plain Talk has grown into one of my favorite J. Smith Blue Notes. Two words, dudes - Ike Quebec.