JSngry

No - Rap was always the old Disco. MG No - House is Disco (in all its forms, good bad, and indifferent). But half (or more) of what we think of as "disco" was actually pop music in the style of disco. Real dance music is not designed to be pop music first and dance music second.

Good to see you again. Don't be a stranger!

This one:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't it be King instead of Bethlehem? Or did King reissue it once they bought Bethlehem?

Church.

Has this EVER not been the case? Of course not! That's why articles like the one you posted tend to elicit a from me before anything else. I mean, yeah, the guy's making some valid points, but it's all really just the next phase of The Eternal Inevitable, if you know what I mean.

The irony here for me is that club DJs, who have been the brunt of much criticism (often justifiably), are often restoring dynamic contrast to music which has none built into it. Certainly not all DJs, and certainly not dyamics in the traditional musical signposts, but dynamics nevertheless. One cat in particular, a British guy by the name of Colin Cooper (see http://www.radiogotsoul.com/content/audio/...cat=ColinCooper ) makes these longass nonstop house mixes with plenty of dynamic variety in the "upper strata" of the sound field. Now, that's house music, and there's usually not a lot of variety in tempo or basic beat or dynamics within same (although there's a lot of variety on what gets layered on top of that basic beat). "Musical journey" is a cliche, but that's what this cat puts together. I know that's a type of music (or esthetic) that not a lot/most of the people here are going to be interested in (most will probably find it repugnant), but the point is that there are people who recognize the "problems" with the music that "the industry" is providing and who are being proactive in "correcting" it to meet their needs, as well as the needs of any potential audience they might have. The "tools" are there for damn near anybody to take a basic cut and play with it any way they want to. That's "dangerous", but it's also liberating. Depends on who's doing what and for what reasons, and it makes GIGO directly relevant to operator as well as raw materials in a way that's perhaps more direct than ever before. Bottom line is that if you don't like it, you can fix it, one way or the other. Noting & bemoaning the loss of what was is certainly understandable, but if it doesn't serve to motivate some sort of corrective, all it is is more whinyass pissybitching. My hat's off to anybody who carpe diems, no matter what genre they're in.

If all you listen to is aboveground music through aboveground distribution matrices, then yeah.

I hear ya' on that. Shit's largely played out and has become self-indulgent, self-referential, and not really speaking to the audience as directly and relevantly as it once did. People are starting to not care too much any more, and good for them. So, I guess it is true that rap was the new jazz...

Eugene Chadbourne's AMG Bio:

Oh, I can hear what he's playing. It's totally an issue of tone for me. I just don't feel his tone. But like I said, that's my problem.

Good stuff.

I'm still not convinced about Sam Brown, but that's my problem. Otherwise, yeah, this is a great album.

I've been going through some changes, but hell, Hewitt's been discussed enough here by now that anybody who ought to check him out out to already have done so without any further nudging from me (or anybody else). As for the people who haven't checked him out yet because they need to be bludgeoned into thinking that they should but they're still not SURE, hey - the One O'Clock holds auditions every semester...

Yep, that's her.

Get Joe to play you some Ursula Rucker.

Dude, it's already going on in the dance underground. Has been. Of course, it's not "all natural" anymore, but oh well. club djs tell me they are so sick of that 70's stuff resampled........ That's not what I'm talking about, sampling. I'm talking about the various "neo-soul" acts and older bands like Ingognito & Brand New Heavies (erratic output form both to be sure) who use the progressive soul of the 70s as thier starting (and too often, finishing) point for their original material. The "not all natural" point had to do w/the use of drum machines & such.

And anybody wondering where the Real Soul Singers are these days need to go to the underground.

Dude, it's already going on in the dance underground. Has been. Of course, it's not "all natural" anymore, but oh well.

Elder Don, you have hit the nail squarely on the head. Now that the primary audience for "jazz" is white folk (middle-class & upwards, and slightly less middle-aged and upwards), and now that real jazz musicians (i.e. - those who came up in the music/culture organically) number between slim and none (with Slim looking at the clock on the wall and then the door in intervals of increasingly shorter duration - a cat like Shelley Carroll is the exception that more than proves the rule), the need(s) for all concerned to have Crouch's "unlettered black person who should be the final arbiter of value, because they have absorbed the truth through their nostrils or something when eating collard greens and cornbread when growing up poor in the South" to have a voice through his mouth is going to be too powerful to resist. Crouch calls the notion of such a figure having such power "sentimental" & "bullshit", but damned if that's not the role he's been working himself into - The Educated Voice Of The Soul Of The Black Man's Jazz Who Is Able To Articulate That Which Has Heretofore Been Inadequately Articulated For Those Who Most Want/Need To Hear It. Too many degrees of separtation at this point, waaaaay too many (Crouch himself may have at one time been such a person as he fantasizes about, and deep inside, he may still be one, but like the Road Runner running through air after running off the cliff, once you look down, it's all over...). For almost everybody concerned. It's a con game, pure and simple, and there's enough marks to make it lucrative for the duration. But the truth is much more complex, and it's the nature of true evil to take the truth of the past and turn it into a lie for the present in order to capture your soul for the future. I'm not saying that Crouch himself is a tool of the devil, or anything like that, just that he's one of many who are falling for the lie that freedom of the soul comes in a package of ready-made pre-fabricated identity. It doesn't. But dammit if there's not a market.

Monday Michiru Newsletter Happy Chinese New Year! So I couldn't make a newsletter for the January 1 new year, but at least I made it for the Chinese new year! I trust everyone is starting 2007 well and staying healthy. Some very exciting news with projects that I would like to share with you: NEW PROJECT WITH ARTISTSHARE!! -- It has been incredibly busy for me this last month and half, unfortunately doing a lot of mundane computer work, writing, and tedious administrative stuff, but all for the love and purpose of finally launching my new project with ArtistShare. The project name is "Flow" and I am very excited about the concept, creative potential and just really getting in there and sinking my teeth into it. It will be launching before the end of the month alongside a facelift for my website -- please check out www.mondaymichiru.com for more on the "Flow" project and what I am planning for it. LIVE AT SOBs, March 4 (Sunday) -- After a series of tours in Japan much of 2006, I am happy to finally be able to do a live here in my home state, New York, and SOBs is the place! Our 4th time there, we have a great band lined up for our Release and Launch Live: My husband of course on trumpet and flugelhorn, Hans Glawischnig on bass, George Colligan (who we went to Indonesia and Japan with recently) on keyboards, and Masanori Amakura on drums. Masa is actually living in Japan and I began working with him last July and he is BAD! (...you know that means GOOD "bad.") He planned his vacation to New York and I couldn't resist putting together the SOBs live to coincide with his trip here. SOBs (Sons of Brazil) 204 Varick Street at West Houston (212) 243-4940 www.sobs.com 8:00 p.m. $17 if you buy ahead, $20 at the door Jephte Guillaume of Body & Soul will be spinning that night "ALTERNATE ROUTES" Remix EP-CD Release! -- Gosh, can you handle all this new stuff?! This is what I've been destroying my eye sight and giving up my social life for! Yes, it's finally out, a compact EP of 6 tracks: 5 remixes and 1 original track. Already some of the tracks are creating a buzz in the underground, namely the one of "The Right Time" remixed by Jephte Guillaume (who will also be spinning at SOBs on March 4). This CD is available exclusively through my website as part of the new "Flow" project under various packages. ETC -- In an effort to keep this one short, I won't go through the zillion other pots I've had my hands in and focus instead on the other exciting things coming up: A covers album which I'll begin recording soon for Geneon in Japan due for release in July; and several collaborations on my husband's upcoming ArtistShare release due out the end of May. As for lives, I'll be going to Japan for an event that Starbucks is doing in Marunouchi of Tokyo on March 13, 14 & 15 -- 2 sets each day; I'll be performing with guitarist Naohiko Higuchi-san. There's also talks of a tour in Japan during the summer as well as a possible live in NY again in June, and as things firm up I'll definitely keep you in the loop. **** On a different subject, I want to congratulate trumpeter/composer/arranger Brian Lynch for his Grammy win on his ArtistShare release "Simpatico"! Brian played for years in my mother's big band, and also did collaborations, arrangements and playing on my albums in the past, so I feel like a family member has won! Keep yourselves warm, healthy and happy! Peace, Monday Michiru

HOLY SHIT!!!

Or evidence! http://cgi.ebay.com/Joyce-Hatto-fraud-Rare...1QQcmdZViewItem