JSngry

The band sounds horrible (and most likely intentionally so - May had the charts sent out to the band to get them road-tested for the studio, & Duke never pulled them out)! A wide stereo spread, a gazillion tones of reverb, a few ringers brought in (Al Porcino being one) helps hide that fact. But I had a speaker go out on me one time bavk in the day, and the vocal pretty much got lost, leaving the brass section. My GOD were they ragged! Of course, this being the Ellington band and all, it comes off wonderfully, that band could make loose and ragged sound profoundly beautiful, but I'm just saying, even by those standards...

Life insurance companies? I bet Mrs. Lowe don't play that...

No shit. The JFK assassins' "families" would take your ass out in six months or less. And I don't mean for dinner.

Went through the same thing (and still often am) with so much recorded music of "styles" with which I have become intimately familiar over a lifetime, especially after the all-round awakening that discovering Monday Michiru put me through. And I haven't had any personal loss. Not to discount the personal element of your experience, far from it, but...you're a sharp guy, always have been, and would you consider the possibility that at least part of what you're feeling is a symptom of an overall cultural condition? That is, that society right now is irrevocably approaching one of those great "turning points" that comes along every so often, and that your reactions to music as, if I may paraphrase, "being over before it begins" is a (perhaps subconscious) reaction to that? Myself, I've found some new musics that, although in no way as "evolved" as what I've grown up on/with, still engage me in their sense of "nowness" (and this has nothing to do with"trendiness", I can assure you, I'm about as "trend"-conscious as a sleeping dog), which is to say that, flaws and all, I still get the feeling that I don't know what's going to happen before it does, and often enough to keep me going, I am right about that (not knowing). I know full well that "it's over" has been used many times in may places to cheap and or manipulative use, but the reality is that sometimes, it really is over. It has to be, otherwise, how'd we get here instead of still being there? And this, in my perception, is shaping up as a time when it really is over. And I'm ok with that, since I realize that it's necessary. I have my memories if/when I need them, and although what is shaping up as what is coming (or, at least, the part of it that I have been engaging) will never be my "native tongue", I can still "get" enough of it to feel a sense of "ancestorship", and therefore interest/concern/whatever. "Grandparent-ly" feelings, perhaps. Perhaps this is relevant to you, perhaps not. But your feelings of "foregone conclusion", and being deeply turned off by same, definitely struck home with me. Are you still spry enough to take dance lessons? I'm serious.

Rascal Flats The Rascals Gene Cornish

Typical Scopitone craziness. The more of those things I see, the more I realize that insanity and inanity are seperated only by the letter "s", and that stands for Scopitone! I wonder who the arranger was...I dug the chart, more or less.

For my wife, I want to buy some of those socks for my wife.

There is no place in the world that is in need of tenor players. Trust me.

I want to know about those socks. Where can I get some, and what do I ask for?

Yeah, but. Preponderance of the evidence, if you know what I mean. Not saying it wasn't there, just that it didn't get as fully realized as often (or as publicly) in him as it did in others. Having it & getting it out are two different things, no? For Tristano himself, I don't think there's any question whatsoever that he had it. But the getting it out was...not without "issues". Ironically, the guy in that circle who worried the most about getting it out, perhaps even got mental about getting it out, Warne, was the one who ended up getting the most out. At least to me. Lennie talked so much about "freedom", and what he said had so much truth to it. But his playing, far more often than not, seemed to be "curbed" at some level, although where that level was was often pretty high up. Lee, well, Lee got it, still has it, but for Lee, "it" is a state of mind communicated through the music. His music draws you in, deeply, but seldom (anymore) does it startle you. Nor should it, for it engages deeply & fully on its own terms. Warne, otoh, was just about one of the freest motherfuckers in the history of this or other music. He got there through the "classical" route of discipline and overwhelming intimacy with set materials, but some of the shit he played was just...OUT THERE in the deepest, most bestest way imaginable. Lennie never even got close to where, at his most freest, Warne got. Which is not a dis, just an observation. Like I said, I remain a fan & admirer or Tristano himself. But I do believe that if there was a "Promised Land" in all that he was after, that he was not the one to actually get there and settle it.

The Soul Note trio album w/Sirone & Andrew Cyrille is one that I would recommend unhesitatingly. Although I would do that for basically ever Dickerson album, this one gets it even more so.

Doctor Vomisa Marissa Tomei Bill Toomey

Friday Tuesday Weld Monday Michiru

There are other "essential needs" beyond those material, no?

Maybe so, but Tristano's own playing never seemed to me to realize the full potential of its implications the way that Konitz's and (especially) Marsh's did. So maybe that mouth was part of the problem for more than "political" reasons, maybe he really was that...stifled, at least at some level. Still, I remain a fan and admirer.

Pedro Ramos Pedro Bourbon Sneaky Pete

Julio Finn Richard Benjamin Jack Buck

I've got a trio album (Serendipity - Steeplechase) he did w/one Rudy McDaniels on electric bass & Edgar Bateman on drums, recorded live in Philly, 8/11/76. Rudy McDaniels became far better known as Jamaladeen Tacuma and for playing far different music(s) than this. And yet he sounds perfectly in sync w/Dickerson here. I've got to think that that's because Walt Dickerson's own voice was so strong and secure that playing with him was actually "easy" if you had the requisite body of skills and openness of mind and spirit. There's no sense that he's "trying" to do anything, he's doing it. It's the voice of a leader, a person who knows exactly what they are doing and exactly where they are going with it, and it is a joyous privilege to be able to play with such a voice. This holds true of every performance of his I've ever heard, this clarity of vision & voice. It is a rare quality and one of the hallmarks of a truly mature artist, the ability to make "complex" thoughts "speak" clearly and unambiguously. Many people might have slept on Walt Dickerson in his lifetime (and some of that was due to his self-imposed semi-isolation), and many more might well do so in the future (as they will so many others), but anybody who does get to the work of Walt Dickerson will find it all of a piece - strong, principled music that speaks its truths with a combination of "complexity" & clarity rarely found in any music.

It was never this big.

But I bet you there would be a song there, somewhere, somehow, at some point. It just seems to be part of human "instinct", and I'd perhaps posit that when that instict is snuffed out, life itself is soon to follow.

Ed McMahon Arthur Treacher Regis Philbin

Harold Alexander Monty Sunshine Ronnell Bright

"Baia" still carries a mojo for me, especially the opening vamp.

But seriously, that's the level of music that I think is "essential". Now, some may argue that that's too..."basic" to be considered "music", but I don't think so. I think that that's "it", and that no matter how evolved/sophisticated/experimental/whatever or primal/simple/traditional/whatever it all becomes, it all springs from that, in some form or fashion.