JSngry

Hey, stop off at a church on the way in and go through the communion line 4-5 times.

Guy Lombardo Vince Lombardi Chef Ettore Boiardi

No Allen, that clip was from the 1975 Down Beat Poll Winners Show from PBS... But thanks for paying attention anyway!

Call me crazy, but I think it was kinda fun how you could take what is basically a jazz chord progression, turn it into a moody R&B vamp, add some vocals w/some with some nebulous lyrics that could go as deep or as shallow as you wanted/needed then to be, put it in a really good pocket, have it turn into an R&B hit, and then, right at the end, throw in a tenor solo that is a equal parts Joe Henderson & Grover Washington. i.e. Searchin' Now, for some this is sure to be just More Pop Music. But knowing enough about Pop music(s), who they get made, what they "mean" and what they "convey" in both content and production, I don't think so. This is kinda...sneaky, and in a very good way, I think. And yeah, it sold quite well. So, you had Ra & you had Roy Ayers both doing relatively ok careerwise, and nobody questioned the presence of either being where they were doing what they were doing - it was obvious. In between that, you had all sorts of other things going on, some horrible, some just fine, some "experiments", some hardcore standing pat, and everything in between in terms of content, intent, and success. If that wasn't fun, then I've never had any fun. And this is DEFINITELY NOT FUN.

Maury Wills Bump Wills Coke Escovedo

On the one hand, if "serious" and "entertaining" are no longer capable of co-exisiting, then that's very possibly the audience's problem. I mean, if we subscribe to the American Public Keeps Getting More And More Illiterate Theory (and not just in music...) then whose fault is it if any/everything over the Very Lowest Common Denominator goes over people's heads? On the other hand, yeah, there's no harm in projecting something besides aloofness & detachment from the bandstand, nor is there any harm in welcoming an audience's "engagement" in your music. I do know too many players who automatically assume that the audience is too stupid to care, project that attitude from the bandstand, and then get their feelings hurt when it all comes to pass. DUH.

NOT FUN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ed-Dx9MMWE

The "middle" Atlantics are kinda dire, but the early & later ones, although in no way "profound" do have a "thing" going on. They copped their own kind of groove, if you know what I mean.

"Maybe" is about as far as I'm willing to go. How about 1955? Assuming that there were gigs to be had in 1955, of course. Point not being that Monk wouldn't have hired Redman in 1957, or even 1967, that's a no-brainer, but that in 1957 (or 1967), the line to "the top" was longer, and said top was a higher place than it is now. So even if Redman is in fact "a force" in today jazz world. so what? That's not too terribly much different than the St. Louis Browns making the World Series in 1944.

When I die, I'm taking this with me.

Would Monk have hired Charlie Rouse in 1957?

Nothing. Nothing at all. People started dieing and using electric instruments and messing around outside the lines, shit like that. It was a mess. You were right to ignore it all.

It was Betty Hutton & LeVar Burton. Supergroup starpower from Day One.

Well, that's kinda the definition of A Very Good Player. It might be "damning with faint praise", but only if you look at it like that. I really don't have a problem at all with Redman, Lovano, etc. My problem is with the "environment" as a whole. Used to be that Very Good Players weren't the State Of The Art. Now...they pretty much are. That too might be one of those things that's only a problem if you look at it like that, but I do look at it like that, so for me, it's a problem.

Ask Ed Freeman. http://www.edfreeman.com/ef8.html I just did. Talk about good karma! Mr. Freeman was at his computer and answered back, like, immediately: So there you have it - it's a SAMMICH!

Oh, my bad. Soundtrack is the one Atlantic that I've never gotten. But everybody I know who's into Lloyd swears by it.

Word. DB 3-16-72

I recall DEEP saying that the album was a masterful splice job, that the tensions of the tour spilled over into the performances. So maybe just an "as is" reissue - which would certainly be excellent - would be enough. Although, if you hear the shit that's going after Benny give Phil Woods the "cut" in "Titter Pipes", maybe not... :w :w

Much love!

That's interesting, because the last-recorded Atlantic side (Soviet Union) is the least "debauched" of them all, or it is to my ears anyway. Wonder if The Red Menace has any insight as to why this might have been so... And actually, this clip is pretty non-debauched, relatively speaking.

Ask Ed Freeman. http://www.edfreeman.com/ef8.html I just did. Cool site!

You wanna go strictly on the records, as if "the music" is contained entirely therein, then yeah, I concede the point, and without prejudice. But you and I both know that's not the case. And besides, the "things-ain't-what-they-coulda-been" game is like masturbation in that the further things get out of hand, the more unlikely/improbable the possibilities become, and if they come true fine, but it still ain't gonna ever be that. No, we don't have Sonny/Max, and believe me when I tell you that I've been making noise about getting that one going since that shindig @ the Carter White House Lawn (remember that?). But oh well. Shit happens. And doesn't. More than anything else though, what I want to know is, if people are "disappointed" by the outcome (and again, if "the records" are all you got to go by, you're excused from the room), just what the hell are you looking for? An "exciting sense of discovery" when pretty much everything the guy was going to discover he had discovered by 1969? Explain to me how that's gonna work, ok? You want him to become an "intrepid explorer", somebody who keeps going on and on and on outwards/inwards like Jimmy Giuffre? That's a nice wish, but c'mon, get real about that happening. It couldn't, therefore it shouldn't, and it didn't. Can't fight Sydney Hall, dig? You want him to become an "Elder Statesman"? Hey, Jimmy Heath's got that gig already, and you see what that's worth. You want to believe that what he does is still a..... relevant pursuit to society at large, that hey boys and girls, practice your changes and you TOO can be a bad motherfucker just like Sonny Rollins? In 1948, yeah. In 1958, HELL yeah. In 1968, still hell yeah. But in 1978?, 1988? 1998? 2008? Going, going.... No, it doesn't matter to society at large. The whole "soloist w/rhythm section" thing doesn't matter any more outside of those who haven't figured out yet that no matter where they go, it's already been gotten to, bigger, badder, and better. The only reason that Sonny Rollins still matters is because He Is Sonny Rollins, and his command of the instrument remains second to none, and that, combined with his life experience, allows him to, when he feels like it, kick us all in the ass with a...LARGENESS of spirit that we most all can use in a pretty fundamental way.That's it - a largeness of spirit in a world where any size of spirit is a target for extermination. Fuck all the "baggage", what we need is SPIRIT, and Sonny Rollins still has it. Yeah, it's a drag that so many of the records haven't been all we'd like them to be. But some of them have, and some of them give us enough of an appetizer to let us know that "it" is still alive somewhere. That's how it's been, and if it ain't all it "could" have been, well, hey. Take a look at this: Yeah, it's an old man (I said earlier that the end was nowhere in sight, but that's a lie...), and no, it doesn't really hit that "zone", but dammit, there's still life in that sound, big BIG bunches of life, and it's a spirit that, not at all unlike later Louis Armstrong, might not withstand "critical scrutiny" or some such, but when you take it to the streets for some everyday application, it'll get you a lot farther than a bunch of stuff that does. That shit DANCES, and if you can't dance through at least some of life (or even worse, if you don't want to dance through some part of life), then... fine. but I can so NOT relate. Sue me. I understand that "the records" are what matters to most people, and ok, hey, you got me on that one (mostly). But otherwise... uh-uh.

Well, mid-70s was when the "reissue boom" first began, but it wasn't until the format change to CD that the shit went nuts. And yeah, what you don't know maybe can't hurt you, but it sure as hell can affect what your perceptions are! One of the reasons why I "developed" differently than my peers was that I was always digging in the cutout bins, and not just to save money. It was a great way to find some even greater stuff that was long gone from the regular shelves. But most people I knew stayed away from the cutouts because it was all "old stuff that nobody wanted", if you know what I mean. But nowadays, that's the shit that everybody wants! Hey.

Not only is that stupid, it's wrong!