JSngry

I'll try and play it again in the next days... That bass Merritt uses (on the entire album, btw!) is a so-called Baby Bass made by Ampeg - he was one of the first jazz bassists to use them. An upright with a small body and built in pick-ups, less cumbersome to travel with, but the feel of a double bass for the player. Sound was in between an acoustic and a Fender bass, depending on how you adjusted the controls. Actually I like that sounds he gets on the first track and think it fits the groove pretty well. Play it loud!!! Also, the Ampeg was a solid-body instrument, right? And yeah, play it loud!

Yeah Mike, as I'm sure you know, the Baby Bass was a staple of Latin/Salsa bands for quite a while. So we're not necessarily looking at any sort of "rock" influence or anything like that here. The landscape was (as it almost always is) broader than that. And King, I'm not trying to bust your chops about this, nor are you the only one who's expressed reservations about Max's later music(s) over the years. It's just that I so do not hear/feel it that way. Max's playing from that time got to me pretty primally then, and it still does.

Nice flow to the interview ,David. I read a lot of interviews these days & it's like question/answer/question/answer etcetcetc one after the other, no flow, pretty much a questionaire being filled out verbally. This one was more like a conversation, and that's the way I like it, myself.

I've just heard two - "Black Satin" & "It's About That Time". I like both (especially the latter), not blown away by either. But they're better than I had feared. Some interesting beatcraft & pulling together of chronologically disperate elelments that works, I think. Don't know about the rest of the EP, but these two seem to me like doing what Teo originally did (hell a lot of that shit was highly "remixed" in ways very similar to these before it even went to presses the first time...) taken to the next logical phase. A full-length CD of this type thing done this way would be too much (Panthalassa this ain't, not by any means, but I don't think it's trying to be...), but at EP prices (and EP durations - even if the rest of it sucks, two likeable cuts on an EP is ok), I'll probably bite at some point. Not in any real hurry though...

Yeah, but he put in some serious military yearage first...

Excellent bumper sticker, though I'd LOVE to see that on a billboard. Give that man a cigar! :tup :tup

That shit is long gone, dude.

You said it just fine. That cut has so much power and majesty, and it all stems from and runs through Max. No other drummer could have made that piece sound like it does on this record with these players. No one. I still play this on LP. and I strongly prefer Side One to Side Two. But that first side grabbed me by the cojones the first time I heard it, and still hasn't let go. BTW - The CD Age was a blessing, as this one used to be a bitchandahalf to find on vinyl. It was on Extreme High Priority for several years after first hearing, and finally finding a copy of my own was cause for both deep gratitude and massive celebration. Some have talked about Max around this time and about this album in particular as having "fallen behind" or some such and trying to catch up in a less-than-successful manner. Whatever. If that's what you hear, fine, I guess. I don't hear it, not even a little. I hear Max still being Max (I mean, shit, who else would have had the nerve to come out of the breaks on "Abstrutions" the way Max did?), and apparently having learned from both Satchell Paige & Wile E. Coyote, looking neither back nor down. To my ears, Max never "changed". But he did contiue to evlove, to grow to find new stimuli to be challenged by and to challenge in return. Apparently he left different people behind at different times by doing so, but one person he never left behind was Max Roach. All love & fullest props to the music of Max Roach. All of it.

I see he was born in Gilmer, Tx, about 12 miles up the road from my hometown of Gladewater. Gilmer's grown zero for the annual Yamboree, a festival celebrating the yam (which is not the same as the sweet potato, they'll want you to know), the birthplace of Johnny Mathis (which they still don't commemorate in any way that I know of), and the home of on of the ugliest, virulent anti-gay rallies I've ever seen. "God wants all of you DEAD. NOW." was one of the milder sentiments offered in that neck-bulging bug-eyed scream of irrationality finally conquering even is hate that is peculiar to ignunt ass country folk who don't know any better because they don't want to know any better, so fuck'em all then, ok? The Piney Woods of East Texas is full fo folk like that, and yeah, fuck'em all. It would be interesting to know what Salim's birth name was (assuming that it was not Salim), because it is quite possible that he might still have family in the Gilmer area. I like what I heard on the MySpace page. He sounds like a less "technically proficient" Booker Ervin who doesn't miss what he don't have (and therefore can't be said to "need" it, so is anything really "missing"?). if you know what I mean. Definitely sounds like somebody of his age and his background, so hey, works for me. I hear a lot of Texas in him, and that'll always be home to/for me, so again - works for me. Given his age, time in Houston, etc. I was wondering for a quick minute if this was perhaps the elusive John Manning (as to whatever became of him, nobody in Houston that I know knows), but probably not. He sure spent a lot of time in the military, eh?

Geez, even the hype is recyled: http://www.jazzpolice.com/content/view/6042/79/ The Jazz Police dig it!!!!!!!!!

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...iid=chix-sphere

http://www.projecthoneypot.org/bss_X19tb2R...nkrS29yYW50ZW5n

...If you lived in your car, you'd be home by now!

Can we call you M. Diddy now?

It's more of an indirect effect, Ray. In a lot of areas (Dallas is one of them), there's a level of promoters who are somewhat "musically neutral". That is, they really don't book events based on a mucisal "vision" or anything, they just book on perceived reputation & status. So what happens with thee people is that they see the Marsalisian model as one to be emulated for thier own endeavors, many of which are semi-well-funded & publicized. So as a result, you get all these local series/events where the "feel" & "look" of both the music & musicians is in the Marsalis "mode" just because that's what the promoters are looking to offer and hopefully capitalize on. That whole "sanctioned jazz" thing for any overflow/offshoot of the audiences that go to the "real ting" LC-type events is all about catching wwhatever money might be left over, and there is some to be had, it would appear. Now sure, that's a case of a prexisting market having its needs met by promoters who are looking to do that instead of [resent the entirety of the music as it currently exists. But in markets lik eDallas (and I suspect many other ciities) where the jazz crowd is indeed older, more set in their ways, and more out of touch with the music's ongoing evolutions, then it become a matter of looking for more of the same to keep the product line running than it does keepin the music itself alive and healthy. Seems like every few years around here there's some new guy popping up who starts getting promoted at the various "events" and stuff, and this guy is just...so much more of the same, and all but devoid of any personality of his own (but is able to execute a huge repertoire of cliches) to varying degrees of effectiveness), and dammit, there's another 20-30 years of job security, playying music that doesn't know any better for people who don't know any better, but by god, it's JAZZ doncha' know!!! No, this is not a direct result of anything Marsalis. But is is a distinct outgrowth of the intellectual & institutional "culture" that they have led the way in creating, and to the extent that they are still out there doing it, they're still offering moral support fo others to grab onto their way and get whatever is left over. People say "Do it yourself!" or "Make your own way!" or "Find your own audience!" and all that. Which, hey, that's the spirit, indeed. But the reality is that for the overwhelming majority of people who want to play a different type of jazz, they still want it to be called "jazz", and they still want it to reach the "jazz audience". Been there myself. The reality is, though, that there is only so much seed capital & "institutional access (from concerts to clubs) in the "jazz world" and it is increasingly going towards the more codified, Marsalis-esque muic and culture, since it seems to be a better "investment" (no surprises, same thing tomorrow as today, etc, all the benefits of a "brand name" type of music - if it's gonna be called "jazz", then everybody knows in advance what it'll be, and hey now, ain't THAT easy!!!). This scene is not interested in music that falls outside of some fairly rigid ly set parameters, and more and more, if you want to get into the "jazz scene" to play for the "jazz audience" this is what you're up against - their way in or nothing. You can say balme the audience instead of the business machine, but it's really more of a "the chicken or the egg?" syndrome really, especially since as more and more people come to jazz from a state of total ignorance of the music's depth and breadth and are just looking for an easily understood "perception" of "what is jazz and will I like it?", what are they going to be offered for their considered consideration, hmmmm? The chicken or the egg indeed, and eitehr way it's gonna get eaten up. Which is why I say it again - anybody looking to do something "different" in jazz, be it to the end of "breaking boundaries" or to the other end of "taking it to the people", (or, especially, doing both). start thinking outside the jazz business box about who's gonna put the money into your system to get you started and who's gonna put the money into your pockets to keep you going. Becuase the jazz business box is pretty much in the process of becoming all about one thing and one thing only, and if your thing ain't that thing, hey - forget about it. Is Wynton directly responsible for all of this? No. But is all of this part of his "legacy"? Yes, I believe it is, and I believe that him and his supporters view it as a good thing.

Well, there's that complete RCA set, but the best & nuttiest stuff is live and kinda wickedfunkykinky in sound quality, on GNP (live in Pasadena) & last I looked, Vogue/BMG (live in Paris). There's a thing on Dragon that's almost as good (and much better recorded), but those two are that shizznittlonia.

Well, that's interesting too! :tup As is this - the disc that plays at the too-slow speed actually shows a duration of 1/100 second less than the one that playes at the correct speed! :blink: Somebody explain the science to me, please. That's all I'm asking. :)

Checking out the new Basie/Birdland reissue, & Budd is sweetness al over that one.

I remember more than one BN album, but maybe not, maybe he was shifting from BN to UA and all that stuff.

You should see the photos of her & Hal Singer...

The only sample on that page that I could really call broken-beat is the "Money..." cut. The other songs are all pretty straightforward contemporary R&B-ish in origin, which is not waht the vast majority of the CD features. Go figure, keepin' it underground, I guess... But ehy now hey - check out Daz-I-Kue's MySpace page: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...iendid=50943353 The way this cat plays/manipulates/layers the rhythms....

Birks Works is a wonderful issue but let's not go friggin' nuts. Hell, it's not even on a par with Dizzy's earlier big band. That band was friggin' nuts.

She's always kinda reminded me of Alyce (sp?) Beasley, the chick who played the receptionist on Moonlighting. But she sings a lot better!

We might have a street team member working here, or not. Either way, Luciana Souza is a damn fine artist. That renders the issue moot afaic. This time.