JSngry

Yep.

No way. That was Lou Bega, and as far as I know, he was/is a "personality" more than anything else. Louie Vega is a whole 'nother thing entirely. Producer/DJ/conceptualist/dare-I-say-visionary?/etc. The cat's got something real going on, and he's been on quite a roll the last few years.

Nope.

Of course, the conundrum/challenge is this - how do we realize that we're all part of the whole & function as such w/o relinquishing the individuality that defines us as such? Well, that's life for ya'!

What I take away from this writing is that music is spirit, not product, and that nearly all of us have been conditioned to view the spirit throught the lens of product, whether we do it consciously or not. Of course, there is music that is created solely as product, but that itself is a certain kind of spirit at play, no? I think he's telling us that no matter where we turn, we're confronted with "foreign" sounds, whether it be a Brooklynite hearing Merle Haggard, a jazz fan getting smacked by some hip-hop, an American hearing a Bollywood soundtrack, a raga master composer hearing samba, etc., etc., etc. Our perceptions have been so shaped by the "controlling forces" of our individual societies that it's all but impossible to not hear these "new" sounds as something/anything than the expressions of spirit (and "spirit" is not necessarily a benevolent thing...). Our first instinct is to contextualize them relative to what we "know", which, let's face it, is something that is almost always things we've been "taught" rather than things we've "leaarned" (cf Monday Michiru's opening line to "Mysteries Of Life" - The kind of life I've learned is better than the one I was taught). Well hey - life is short, time is tight, and if I hear some "strange" sounds coming from someplace in the world that I've never even heard of, much less have a chance in hell of ever even visiting, I can be forgiven for thinkng of it as "exoctic", filing it away and moving on, right? Yeah, but... I think Braxton's overriding point to all this is that the same mindset that leads me/us to do that also has an effect on how we process musical information much closer to home, and that does lead to some "problems", doesn't it? Pretty soon, we can find ourselves just hearing all music but "ours" as a "representation" of "somebody else", and that leads us to the unpleasant possibility that maybe what we're hearing/feeling as "ours" is essentially what we've been conditioned to believe is ours. In other words, we've let others define for us who we are, who we should be, and by extension, what our "place" is in this life/world. The implications of that from an economic and spiritual angle are immense, and not a little overwhelming, but there they are nevertheless. As always, Braxton is talking about macro-social/economic/spiritiual issues in terms of music, and to think that he's making a case for only "higher" forms of music would be a mistake, I believe. Not to in any way diminsh of degrade the notions of "taste", "discernment", etc., but if these forces lead to only an "appreciation" of perceived "sophistication" and a dismissal (or token respect) of "simpler" things, then that again is an incomplete processing of all the information, and creates an eual opportunity for the "highbrow" to be every bit as manipulated/exploited as the "common". It's my belief (and over the years, Braxton has played a huge role in my coming to this belief) that the only true freedom comes in realizing that it is "all good", even if not all "good" is good, if you know what I mean (and if you don't then let me put it this way - there is no such thing as "one side". It's impossible. One side can't exist without another, and it's all part of the whole, which is really all we have, attempts to cherry-pick not withstanding). Anything less than that sets up a dynamic where we become more concerned about who we "aren't" than who we "are". The literally endless opportunities for manipulation/exploitation that then result should be obvious, and if you look around you, they will be. Braxton's challenging us to not believe the hype, the "knowledge", or anything other than the simple truth that peoples is peoples no matter where they are, not matter what they do, and no matter how they do it. When/if we can get there (and it's by no means easy, even when you want to), then, and only then, will we, all of us, be free to experience life as the eternal vibrational Dance Of One that it is. Until then, we're going to be looking for a way to be "apart", and ultimately, there is no such place. But there's plenty of people who are more than happy to let you think otherwise...

He had some neat turns of phrases. I'll gladly take those and leave the rest.

To me, it's Sonny practicing in a free-association type way. It'll either be fascinating or boring as hell depending on how that type thing intrests you. I'm in the former camp muself, but indivdiual mileages will vary dramatically.

Well, according to AMG she was singing Gospel before she went into R&B.

Little Miss Muffet Little Debbie Little Richard

To better digest the jargon, I've been reading this a paragraph at a sitting, and it makes perfect sense to me. Braxton understands.

James Beard ZZ Top J.C. Higgenbotham

No, I don't wonder. I know. It's industryspeak for any non-C&W popular music that isn't MTV-Ready. You probably already own some/lots of it and are not even aware of it.

John, do you know Kenny Bobien? This guy's got a career doing Gospel House: http://www.undagroundarchives.com/people/artist/kenb.shtml http://www.discogs.com/artist/Kenny+Bobien Who knew?

More Ann Nesby on the cut beginning @ 22:38 of this mix: http://www.routesinrhythm.com/routes/music/route209.mp3 Kenny Bobien feat. Ann Nesby - Spread Love (Shelter Mix) Not a bootleg! This thing runs for 8 minutes and evolves from a pretty straightforward thing into something a bit more involved. But Ann Nesby, who's apparently a "name" gospel singer of somewhat recent vintage but is somebody with whom I was heretofore unfamiliar with, shines from (almost) start to finish. I need to check out this woman's catalog... And for those so inclined, the next cut of this mix is a DJ Spinna remix of Stevie Wonder's "My Heart Is On Fire" (from A Time For Love) that not only has a pretty groovy Hubert Laws solo, but also remakes the song in groove, tempo, and harmony into such a superior version of the original cut that it ain't even funny.

43:34-43:36 is the stuff that makes me happy to be alive.

First you gotta open or download this: http://www.routesinrhythm.com/routes/music/route211.mp3 Then skip over the first 42:02. Totally disposable. At 42:03 begins an incredible thing - Ann Nesby's "Let Your Will Be Done" remixed by Louis Benedetti and retitled "Let It Be". A totally bootleg thing, but GOOD GOD! (Above information from http://jazz-not-jazz.com/reviews/12/03_1_12inch.html ) Sounds really good under headphones too, btw. Computer speakers don't deliver the bottom the way it's there. Aretha could ("should") be doing stuff like this, but she's not, so hey. Following this one, @ 50:29, it fades into Kenny Bobien & Friends "Why We Sing" (Church Mix), which is pretty groovy too if you can suspend the obviousness of the remix technology. I can almost get there, but not quite. Guess I need more faith... But it's fun. Come to find out there's a whole sub-genre of "inspirational house" residing deep within the already sub-genre of Deep House. I gotta get out of the cave more! In the meantime, if you ever see this puppy, snap it up!

That narrator's voice sounds awfully familiar. Any idea who it is?

Really? That's not been my experience... A few, yeah, but overall, the fill rate's been quite high.

Often enough to know that if I set the money aside and hit the "notify me when..." button, that I'll get it within a week or four. Wait, let me rephrase that... "Hard to come by in any quantity, but if you hit the "notify me when..." button, we'll get it within a week or four, and with a nice, spiritual vibe!" When in Rome...

Phil Spector, then in smaller writing International, it is a english copy That would be a reissue, then. PSI reissued the Spector catalog in the 70s.

God, there's just no romance left in music retail is there...

But here's an idea that'll make you puke - Strata-East Remixed. That shit is so influential in certain areas of the "dance underground" that it would be fun to see what the cream of the crop could do with a bunch of Tolliver/Cowell/etc tunes of yore. Hell, "Impact" is already a freakin' prototypical broken beat dance groove as it is. Mosaic, Tolliver, Strata-East, dance music, hell it's all coming together in the nightmare of your dreams! I'm only kidding (maybe...) but hell - do you think that Dusty Groove carries all those Strata-East sides just for hardcore jazz fans? No way...

I'm wedded to a Barnette, actually. Can't say that I've ever met anybody named Dance.

What, a Felsted set? I'm in! I guess you just don't get dance. I'd trust Mosaic to do a dance series like I'd have trusted Dance to do an Cecil box.