JSngry

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Thing is, there's always cynics who think that if you play something else other than "hardcore" music that you're doing it because you feel you have to, not because you might actually enjoy it. What was it that Cecil Taylor said in response to Baraka's analysis of his take on "This Nearly Was Mine" and how it represented Death to All That That Type Thing Stood For? "Doesn't that fool realize that I recorded that song because I like it?" Ornette's been going on foir years about how "style" is the enemy of true feeling in the playing of music. I respectfully submit that the same is true of listening to music as well. There can be soul & spirit anywhere in any type music, and just because it "appears" to be there more in some types than others, it would be wrong to confuse what one responds to personally with that which is actually there as long as one presupposes that one is going to get it more in one place than another just because of the type of music that it is. Although there's certainly nothing wrong with "liking what one likes", I do believe that it is harmful over the long haul to convince one's self that what one likes is the only true source of soul, spirit, and substance in degree and/or quality.

Yeah, it's a band that actually had a show - something that customers would sit down and watch, like Vegas, only not. Often unmistakably not. As opposed to a dance band. There's variety, there's patter, there's costuming, there's choreography, there's all kinds of shit that you don't have to do if all you're doing is playing background and/or straight-up dance music. I met my wife while playing in a hotel show band. That used to be the lifeblood of many young musicians just coming into the professional world. Damn near every town in the US with a population of over 50,000 had at least one hotel that had a lounge that featured show bands. Either that or a show room. You'd play 3 dance sets, and in between, there would be the shows. Sometimes the front person/people would participate in the dance sets, sometimes not. Between DJs & karaoke, that scene is dead now. But when it was going, the only way not to get a gig at some level on that circuit was to either not try or else to really, really suck. There were that many bands, that many rooms, and that many gigs, ranging from entry-level to pretty plush.

Yeah, call.

Not necessarily. Choice of material & presentation are one thing, spirit of the music something else altogether. The former is a business consideration, the latter a spiritual one. Those musicians who fail to grasp that have either incredibly strong visions or else a failure of imagination. The first group gets to be the Ornette Colemans of the world. The second gets to be the dark souls who bitch about what idiots the public is. Listeners who listen to "style" without getting the "spirit" of any music also suffer from a lack of imagination, I think.

And no matter where you go, there you are. (geez, what's next, Keep On Truckin'?)

Michigan?

And that what you want it to be might ultimately be governed by what you need it to be.

And it might be equally comforting to think not. Which perhaps suggests that ultimately, it is what you want it to be.

And there are those who are very good at each of those, without creating or perpetrating anything worth a wholesale declining. And there are those who aren't.

I understand why people hate bad pop music, but I don't understand why people hate all pop music, as if it's all bad just because it's pop. I mean, really, I just don't understand that. I fully understand "prioritizing" and such, but that's a whole 'nother deal right there. Life is funny sometimes, and I don't discount the power of a few stray rays of sunshine as opposed to one blinding beam of it. Seems to me that as long as you know which is which and what's what, there's no need to be so damned...afraid. Or whatever it is.

You're right, it's Ronnie. There's a certain irony in speculating about the kinship of people involved a movement that was all about creating "family", ain't there now.

My thought as well. I do not know. From the NCA New York article: "AJAS produced its first jazz concert on December 24, 1956 at Small’s Paradise, with Lou Donaldson and the Bill English Quartet and a group of young budding jazz artists, George Braith, Bobby Capers, Vinnie McEwen, Oliver Beener, Pete LaRoca, Ray Draper and others." Yeah, got that, but there's other people mentioned named "Brath". I've also seen "Braithe" (or "Brathe"?) & "Braithwaite" mentioned as names around that scene at that time (although not in context of this exact movement, which I'm just not learning about).

My thought as well. I do not know.

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/421534/

More about Grandassa (after Grandassaland, the name that African nationalist leader Carlos Cooks applied to Africa) & AJASS (the African Jazz-Art Society & Studios): http://ncanewyork.com/2006_flies/revisted.htm http://ncanewyork.com/vol2no1/vol2_no2_page_2.htm http://yeyeolade.wordpress.com/2006/12/15/...is-beautiful-2/ http://www.cocojams.com/clothing.htm http://www.artaboutus.net/artist_klytus_smith.html This is all a bit of a revelation (although not really a "surprise") to me, and goes straight to the core of where Freddie Roach was coming from. "Required knowledge" in my book, better late than never, and thank god for the internet. Also, as one (of many, I believe) who thought that the name "Grandassa" was a bit of a put-on & the agency a bit of a sideline/hustle/whatever,, all I can say is that I am sorry. Deeply sorry. I can but plead ignorance, and now, shame. This is a story that needs a louder and more prominent telling!

Even more so in the header:

So the magazine sold out by putting Lenny White on its cover? How so? He's a pretty popular player even now, and after all, their business is to sell magazines. Sounds like a darn clever idea to me!

Well, it's early in the week, but I don't think anything this week's going to beat The Ummah's remix of Grant Green's "Down Here On The Ground" on The New Groove (The Blue Note Remix Project Volume 1). Why? You say (or snicker...). Easy - the vocal of Dianne Reeves, a singer towards whom I am otherwise perpetually indifferent (which, mind you, is not the same as hostile or uninterested). She sings the hell outta this song here, & The Ummah's chopping of the GG original (which does leave plenty of Grant's solo in the mix, btw) results in a pocket so deep you could hide an ocean liner in it. But really, it's all about Reeves' vocal. I honestly didn't have the notes in front of me at first and didn't know it was her until I looked. all I knew was that I kept playing the cut over and end over and over and over. And over. Ms. Reeves was killing me! As for the rest of the CD, uh...it's ok here & there, a really nice things on "Kofi" & "Move Your Hand", but the rest of it...eh, whatever. A good $5-$6 used buy, I'd say. But that Dianne Reeves cut is worth all of that, and more!

I would prefer to leave the robber standing there alone, wondering where I went. Or better yet, rob him while he's going through the motions of thinking that he's robbing me. Wish I had those superpowers. One does not eat the butter until one milks the cow. And even then, one must follow the advice of Wynonie Harris & keep on churning until the butter comes.

Why did you put Lenny White on your cover if you think he sold out?

I would prefer to leave the robber standing there alone, wondering where I went. Or better yet, rob him while he's going through the motions of thinking that he's robbing me.

No, what we're saying is that what's legal and what's honest only sometimes intersect, and that if you ever decide to go outside the law, it should be done while stepping in the footprints of honesty.