JSngry

A convenient generality.

You don't really expect the loser spam artist to respond, do you Jim? You mean this is SPAM? Oh, neve mind then.

"Smooth" jazz I got no problem with. Smoothed-out and/or smoothed-over jazz, hey, that's another thing altogether... It's really instrumental pop. But if pop ain't gonna at least wink at you, then damn is it obnoxious.

Man, I checked out that Alphonso Blackwell thing that was hyping all the "dance grooves", and DAMN was I not impressed. You guys ever heard of Masters at Work? Now, that's dance music you can listen to with as much engagement as you can dance to. For that matter, ther's any number of good house producers who lay down grooves suitable for improvising over. Unfortunately, from the samples I just heard, none of them are currently in your employ. Not wishing anybody any ill will or anything, far from it, but please stop making music that has no groove, no fluidity, no bounce, no grace or sensuality, and then calling it "dance" music. PLEASE!

Title? Availability? It's called Hot Line: It's been available in Japan, but you might want to consider the 1896 American LP reissue , which adds a cut. Hot Line is a fine album indeed, not least for the way that Andrew Cyrille handle's Barron's quirky-ish compositions.

That's right, they graduate to politics and business as their preferred venue for all that stuff.

You, sir, are in the distinct minority! Tony=Dirk? Nah, Tony's got guts, he's just a flake. Dirk is gutless.

Geez, what about just having a simple song in your heart because you really are happy? Oh wait, I guess there are plenty of people who don't have use for that. Anything that simple can't be real, can it. Life is nothing if not a series of psychologically motivated "events". Never mind.

Just shows that the classics never go out of style.

I've been questioning this team's mental toughness to anybody who would lsiten all season long. Thing is, nobody would listen. Fandom & objectivity do not seem to be able to live together in the DFW area. Too many people, especially locally, swallowed the Romo-As-Jedi-Knight bullshit. The guy choked in the clutch again, not dumping the ball when he should have and losing yards - and secongs - he didn't have to - douldn't afford to - lose. No it wasn't "all" his fault, not even remotely. But when it came time to get it done, it was on his shoulders, and they weren't big enough. On the one hand, he flaked out less blatantly than last year. But he still flaked out. So maybe he's "growing". On the other hand, I've watched maybe two Mavericks games this year. Wake me when either of these franchises turn into real championship-caliber operations.

I played a corporate "party band" gig last night, and for once,the DJ who played during our breaks actually had a feel for dance music (usually they just spin the hits and the corporate drones reflexively respond). But this cat was spinning a mix of deep hip-hop & house that had the dancefloor packed. And why not? The bass lines were viscerally throbbing, deep in the pocket, drum beats were crisp and swinging, and vocals were mixed with an ear for maximum tonal/rhythmic effectiveness. In short, the "songs" weren't anything to brag about, but the "songs" were decidedly not the object of the game. What ws the object of the game was getting people's minds and bodies in the mood to move, and the music was succeeding splendidly. So the guitar player in the band, a really nice guy about my age with first-hand tastes in popular music that go up to about the mid-70s, looks out, sees the packed floor full of youngish people all getting there groove on, and says to me, "Whatever you call this music, I don't get it, but they sure do!" His tone was actually benevolent, as if he knew there was something there, he just didn't have a clue as to what it was. Debating whether or not "popular music" is "good music" is somwhat like decidng whether or not a car is what you want based solely on looks. There's definitely cases to be made one way or the other, but really, the main object of a car is transportation, and can you find fault with people and cars who just want something that runs really well? We might want "more" (and/or "different") but if the masses just want a good, steady ride that's not a total piece of shit, hey, that doesn't mean that it's not good. Arguing the esthetics of esthetics while ignoring the fuctionality of functionality is kinda....dumb. But quite common.

You want porn, look at & listen to Lani Hall singing that first bridge on Going Out Of My Head http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHlSivhPfB4...feature=related , dig how she starts out all hot and then brings it down real quick to not let on where she's really at, & then imagine her coming home to you after the gig (still wearing that same mini-skirt), when she can finally let it all out for as long as she needs to take to get it all done.. If that don't get your imagination going....

Well, it's kind of a mark of BN's "quality control" that they didn't take the subsidiary route, isn't it? It was either deemed worthy for the label or it wasn't. There were probably some economics involved as well, but really, the "mystique" of the label has a lot to do with the lack of diffusion, no?

When mini-skirts work as intended, we all benefit! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHlSivhPfB4...feature=related

What he does to the bridge of "Night & Day" is, as they might say on the old tuxedo-clad-thank-you-for-inviting-us-into-your-home What's My Line, simply delightful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktYD37TgrzM

Oh hell, then, you'll love this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GlM0mikhRo

Yeah, the Dewey thing is the deal-sealer. Got to have that.

That's not a good song, and I know it's nothip to say so, but man, I dig a lot of Sergio Mendes' shit. Of all the ways you can choose to be "commercial", he made some very non-obvious and very musical ones. Gotta smile about that, I do. "Light under a bushel" and all that.

Ahhhh....Lani Hall.... on e of the great voices, quiet as it may (or may not) be kept.

I wonder if he meant that hardly anybody knows about it or that the people he knows look down on it... Either way, that's unfortunate.

Trombone players know all the positions.

The Kenny Cox stuff is good, and might sound better today than it probably did then. The "influences" are pretty obvious, but that's not as much an issue these days. Myself, I'd say there's more "important" and/or "better" music made from this time, but when it comes to saying that you should bypass/ignore the Cox BNs because of that, I'll not do it.

I've heard it, it's "good", I 'liked" it, but...

Red Zinger?

Yeah, once again, what is there to say other than "great music!" and a few variations/personal spins on that? But ok, once again - I love this music (and the various live shows of the time), & in many ways think it's Miles' most personal & innovative, if not alwyas his best "formed". But it did set some precedents that have only fairly recently been gaining momentum into the mainstream (and not necessarily of jazz), and for sheer sonic color & other audacities, it's pretty hard to beat - if you're into this/that kind of thing. If not, hey. Life still goes on, right? But really, as popular/populist music becomes less and less linear & macro-unichromatic (no it's not a word, but I mean it to signify one overall "general" textural color) and more and more omni-directional & coloristically fluid, this music's prescience becomes more and more apparent. Again, if you're into this/that type of thing. You want me to come back in a few weeks and say the same thing differently?