JSngry

"Don't Stop The Carnival"

7 James Sangrey

It's about time.

Dude - everybody past the age of...13 or 14 has baggage. Everybody. If you get somebody who's not revealing their baggage to you (and I assume you're not talking raving-lunatic Psycho level baggage), you're getting somebody who is not being their true self. That certainly makes for Fun Dating but it also is a recipe for piss-poor intimacy. Ain't no such thing as a free lunch, my friend. Sorry.

Personce Lipscomb

You really need LiveIn Tokyo to get the complete picture. That one is a motherfucker, as were the other two albums, as was the band. But... I think that to talk of the change as "decline" as an "absolute quantity" instead of strictly a matter of personal preference is irresponsible - at best - & does not bear up under musical examination. Tokyo is an amazing album, and an amazing performance, but it definitely raises the question "what next?" Really, where do you go from there? Keep jamming and honing that approach? Well, yeah, but... everybody concerned had already come out of that type of thing to one extent or the other, and I'm guessing that sure, the band wanted/needed to make more money, but besides that, they wanted to get it by doing something bold musically. These guys weren't going to play bullshit just to get over. If they were going to "make a move", it was going to be by doing something meaningful. With two principles such as Zawinul & Shorter, that meant composition, and that's where the band went next. Shifting from open ended thematic/motivic improvisations to more "litereal" pieces. Sure, I guess you could call that a "decline", or a "sellout", or something like that, but that's just a matter of taste, I believe. Because the compositions themself, the arrangement and the orchestrations (and when polyphonic synthesizers hit the scene, Zawinul was liberated in a major way), everything about this "new direction" WR was well-thought out, musical intellegent, highly creative, and not at all "compromised". There ain't no lowest common denominator shit to be found, dig? So I look at like evolution, nothing more. Some will look at what was lost and feel betrayed, but I can't look at it like that, not when waht was "lost" was replaced by something of an altogether different but equally high caliber. I don't remember the exact wording, but Wayne at some point described as the diffence between "indoor" music and "outdoor" music, or something like that, and that, I think, is at the root of why some people felt betrayed ro whatever. "Jazz" even then had come to be a largely "indoor" music, in the sense that it was created & dissemenated "behind closed doors", if you know what I mean. Yoiu had to go to it, it didn't come to you. (Of course this is a broad generalization, but I think that overall, the point holds, and even mroeso today than then). The "new WR was definitely not going to be about all that - it was going to be loud, it had no aim to not tickle your ears and feet, and it would not be above taking a walk down the street to get your attention. But - and this is crucial - it always (at least until Jaco started wigging out, and even that was a soemtimes thing) did it with music that was smart, soulful, and not in the least bit pandering. The "indoor" type people looked aghast at the notion, but ya' know, it's good to go outside and play in the sun sometimes. Healthy, even! And FWIW, I know it's "fashionable" to dislike Heavy Weather, just as it is to dislike The Beatles, and for much the same reasons. But I adamantly believe that that is an album of extraordinarily high quality in every regard, in many ways the 70s equivalent of Ellington's run of classic "minatures" from 1940-42. Sure, "Birdland" has gotten overplayed into Pukedom, and sure "Teen Town" has become the muso-bassist's equivalent of music-shop "Stairway To Heaven", but oh well. That's "baggage" and doesn't have anything to do with the originals, much less the album as a whole. I have the luxury of having lived with Heavy Weather literally since its first day of release (KNTU aired it in its entirety the night before it hit the stores), so all this "aftermath" means nothing to me. The music, however, does, and I tell you, afaic, it rates. Seriously.

My sentiments exactly, on all counts. Don't have particularly "exciting" memories of this one, though, preferring the more "spacey" WB sides that followed to this one (although preferring the two Eddie Henderson Capricorn sides even much more better to them). But it's been over 20 years since I've really listened to this one, and my impression then - that it was a collection of good, funky material in search of - in need of, actually - an equally funky band to make it work, may well have changed in the interim. What was the deal with this side in the first place again? Herbie scored some Fat Albert shows or something, right? But this was before the Saturday morning classic show, right? I dunno, somthing like that, or not. But yeah, "Tell Me a Bedtime Story", that's a stone classic that you can play all kinds of ways. I still remember the Pieces Of A Dream version that was a hit right when "Quiet Storm" was transitioning into "Smooth Jazz". That version played to the "pop song" angle of the tune, and did so very nicely (have heard nothing else by that band that pleased me, though...). Pretty sure that it's picked up lyrics over the years, no?

Infinity to the power of Infinity!

She introduced herself to me after a gig. It was literally love at first sight. I turned around, there she was. The second I made eye contact I was like, "UH-oh. This is it!" And so it was, and so it still is. To you guys "still looking, still waiting", all I can say is this - don't overthink it. I've seen more potentially good long-term relationships go down the tubes because one or both parties got hung up on the other's "quirks" and let it ruin their respective days, and eventually thier relationsships. Life is not perfect, so she won't be either. And you damn sure ain't. So hold on to what's really important, that "spiritual" attraction and bond, work on keeping that together and strengthening it, and let everything else just be what it is. There's always a million excuses to break up, but only one good reason to stay together. So don't get distracted.

Is Whataburger any good? My wife and I were in Dallas over the Labor Day weekend and saw a couple, and had never heard of it before, but didn't try it. Varies by location. Some are great, some are lousy. They were a lot more consistent back in the 60s & 70s before they became omnipresent. But a well-made, fully loaded triple-triple is one of those things you can't get anywhere else that you wish you could.

I mean, you can et grilled chicken sammiches at Whataburger for pete's sake.

I hear that people still marry their cousins down your way too. And still resent the Union... Well, yeah. But grilled chicken ain't nuthin new.

What a sheep.

What about Sherbert?

My strongest memory of this side is a odd one of sorts. It's 1978 or so, on a Thursday night, & as usual I'm in The Recovery Room to listen (and sit in with) Marchel Ivery's group w/Thomas Reese on piano, Charles Scott on bass, & Walter Winn on drums. Now. Walter was by any definnition a "colorful" character as well as one helluva drummer (when he wanted to be...). So anyway, it's the break between the 2nd & 3rd sets, and Walter's been next door at the strip club (or something) & he comes back inside while Lee's solo on the title tune is playing on the jukebox. As usual, he's a bundle of beautifully slightly manic energy. On his way back to the men's room, he stops dead in his tracks when Lee makes those two downward octave eighth notes, sings them right in my face, and then keeps on walking. Just out of nowhere, this cat stops time and goes "dee-daht". And then it was over. Maybe you had to be there, and it's a story that is definitely better demonstrated than writen about, but that's the very first thing I think of in conjuction with Blue Train.

Yeah, but that's Left Coast vs East Coast. Here in The South, we only know fried chicken, and this new grilled chicken ain't something we wanna know anything about. We're too insulated for all that fancy stuff. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

http://money.excite.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt_top...-d8rlqib00& Fuck these bozos. They make it sound like in order to get grilled chicken while eating out, you gotta go to some clandestine Yankees Only club with a secret password or some shit like that. Good god, I can get a grilled chicken sammich pertnear any damnwhere, including KFC & Chik-Fil-A. What kind of idiot writes shit like this, and what kind of uber-idiot editor thinks it's newsworthy? Yes, El Pollo Loco is going into "unknown" territory by offering only grilled chicken, but these puntheads make it sound like we don't know what that is, or if we do, we view it with suspicion. Ignuntass foos.

Is this Dan Gould we're talking about? Well hell, sure then - Happy Birthday!

Exactly, and there's any # of other things from that time you can say that about, I think. But seeing as how you can't go back in time, the best we can do now is point out what was, what might have been, and say hmmmmm....how about that? Or how about that! as the case may be. I just don'tthink it's right to ignore it completely, though. Some things went right (like Iapetus), some things almost went right (or went almost right), some things were noble failures, and some shitjust plain sucked from jump. But the New Orthodoxy has it that everybody abandoned The One Truth Faith alla t once to become Rich & Famous Rock And Roll Whores. The reality, though, is far more complex - in both time span and motivations - and seeing how/when/where/why it played out back then might be useful to people today who are again trying to bust out of The Official Orthodoxy with a populist take on things.

Now that I'm not so sure about... In some cases, yeah, but in others...seems like the whole "before and after" thing is fair.

There is no "like" hearing something for the first time.

Hade to be a prick, but it's "what-some-ever". Sorry, but I still got a little bit of Down Home Pride left in me. Gotta keep the language right, and all that. Sorry.

Well hey backatcha, I know exactly where you're coming from. My interest/whatever in this one is more from a "historical" perspective. There was a little subset of "California" players who entered the '70s apparently ready, willing, and able to make a jazz that was neither ching-chinga-ching (or the equivalent Trane-influenced slash & burnfests) nor one that had gone so far over, as it soon would, into pop and/or rock land that it lost it's core of "jazz". Wasn't just in California, really, it was everywhere. Plenty if folks everywhere were realizing that between The Beatles, Hendrix, Miles, Trane, & Ayler, that the same-old same-old was really not... necessary, something that you just had to do in order to make "jazz", unless it really was all you knew (and more power to you if that was true for you). Of course, this had long been apaprent to the "free" players, but now, the more "song-oriented" players had begun to feel it too. Sure there was faddism, but there was also, I believe, some genuine curiosity afoot about how to move the shit along in a new but still ompatable set of directions. So there's this little..."pre-fusion" window of music that varies widely in ultimate "value", but I think is worth noting as a whole as something that did happen for some very fundamental reasons. What brought those reasons to the fore, as well as what happened pretty quickly after that particular door opened, has been pretty well discussed right now. Less discussed is this short period, an instant, almost, when the main thrust was on the creation of the music, not of the product. This album, in retrospect, is certainly not "heavy" or anything like that. But I do think that compositionally, structurally, and..."feel"-wise that it offers something that is, if not exactly unique, then at least "different" enough to be of interest to, as I said, those who are into that type of thing.

Well see, that's part of the deal for me right there. By today's standards, it really doesn't sound too much like "fusion". Not at all.

Lennie, of course.