JSngry

This is the first year I can remember that we have not been solicited for cookie sales at home, work, or anywhere. Didn't realize they were out until we saw the girls seeling them form tables at the grocerie stores, etc. WTF?

The opening part of the YouTube video where Braxton describes the theory of GTM (getting away from sonata form, infinite options of free-association, building music of erector set components, etc.) makes it sound like he's a top-level house DJ putting together a non-stop club mix. I've heard more than a few such things about which you could say the exact same things. Hold your fire . I know full well the difference. But if we're looking at music in terms of defining individual and/or "new" thought processes, definitions of time/space/place etc., then the parallel is striking, and certainly food for thought on a macrosocial plane. The "differences" are there, and real, but so are the "similarities". Nothing exists in a vacuum.

To repeat - Griff & Lock is included as 1/2 of Blues Up and Down. It's not jsut the solos on that one that make it my favorite. It's the way the heads get played. Possibly the tightest and most idyosyncratic of such of the lot, and that makes a big difference to me. Carpe diem.

let's see if this draws him out of hiding... JOE MCPHEE SUCKS!!!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's all great (as in great). Buy'em all and love'em forever (and I do mean forever) But.... When Desert Island Time comes, this is the one I'm taking with me, and unhesitatingly so. I'm even extracting it out of the OJC tw-fer w/the same cover just to have it all by itself. Because it is that good. If "Hey Lock" isn't the greatest recorded example of TenorTandemOrgasm in the history of the this or any other world, then I'm a ring-tailed monkey with the cobbity chop. And I'm not.

PJ had a little bit of a "now sound" thing going on back then didn't they, what with the albums listed above + the Buddy Rich & Gerald Wilson sides, not to mention Craig Hundley. Nehrus and/or turtlenecks on the house!

Depends on how bitter you still are...

Dude - I GooglImaged "Free For All birthday", and up it came, like a welcoming welt of warm wishes. How could I not?

The few really old King LPs I have are black label, if that means anything.

Superb phrasing.

You beat me to it, Lazaro! I haven't been listening to a lot of jazz lately, but this one got left in the changer for a week, and gladly so. Highly recommended!

Ok, thanks. Must just be site-specific issues. Again, thanks!

Another thing about the best house - it rewards (yes, rewards) close listening (yes, listening). The best cats are highly specific about detail and minutae of all things sonic, and subtleties abound deep within the mixes. Surprised, no - shocked the hell out of me, but there it is. Now, let's get back to George Russell.

Has anything been up "legally" in the UK about podcasting the last few weeks? Two UK sites I've visited (one with a relatively lengthy history/archive) regularly have both suddenly stopped updating. The archives are still online, but nothing new since mid-late February. Both of these sites had been updating weekly until then. No explanations given anywhere that I can see. Just wondering if there had been any sort of government/regulatory actions taken and/or threatened about podcasting in the UK that would explain this. Thanks in advance.

The best stuff I've heard swings like a mofo. Swings. When I last left house, mid/late-80s, it was something I heard unwillingly on breaks in clubs, and it was pretty mechanical/techno/boring/irritating. I hated it. Things have changed, at least in some quarters (there's so many sub-genres, and I do not give a rat's ass about learning what's called what). There's effortless swing, joy, grace, and above all, soul. Deep soul (screw all these "divas" that get all the press. You wanna hear REAL soul singing, there's some stuff in the House that'll blow all that stuff away, and make you wonder where this has been all your Smiling At Freeway Of Love Because It Was Simply An Update Of The Good Old Stuff Wasted Life). I'll take it for as long as it's good to me. One thing, though, that's definitely sticking is the notion of "set structure". I've long been enamored of playing (in both "free" & "inside" contexts) seamless, continous sets that create an arc, tell a story (big cliche, but a useful one nevertheless), and treat seques between songs as integral musical entities in their own right. But getting players to think like that takes some doing. The bass player needs a sip of scotch. The drummer needs to adjust his hi-hat. Somebody gets sweaty and needs to remove the offending wetness from their forehead. On and on and on. Cats think it's normal, and maybe in one zone it is, but dammit, there's a zone to be reached where none of that shit matters, where you're in the music and the music is in you and it just flows and flows and flows and if/when you stop, you come back to where you started from w/o ever really leaving. I've seen the AEC play sets like that. I've seen Tower of Power play a set like that. I've got a bootleg or two of Sonny Rollins playing a set like that. I've seen all kinds of bands play a set like that, sometimes as an act of professional necessity, and sometimes as an act of true communion with the musical spirit. And this house stuff, these DJs (who may not be "musicians" but who certainly seem to have a better grasp of what's at stake than many/most who "are") goes there willingly and gladly from the git-go. GIGO still applies, obviously, but you get a cat who's savvy on all counts and you can get there. You can do it live with "real" players, but it takes a willingness to want to get there, and too many cats just aren't interested. Sign of the times... The bass player needing to stop the groove for a sip of scotch between songs and things like that are definers of a musical zone that I'm no longer interested in inhabiting. If you come to a natural point of rest, hey, take it. But stopping as a matter of ingrained custom and/or "self"-consciousness, hey - you ain't transcending a damn thing in that zone, you're just digging yourself deeper in. Fine for those who want it, but I'm not one of 'em.

Ok, I listened to samples of all the clips. Good enough, but, uh....Max & Abbey done been there, done that, timelier, angrier, and better. At this point in the real world, this is truly harmless music. Certainly not what he had in mind, I'm sure, but damn... I feel sorry for the guy at this point. I really do.

Well yeah, if he had wanted to. One of the memories I have of that clinic is Russell recounting how he had been offered the arranging job for Art Mooney's record of "I'm Looking Over A Four Leaf Clover" (I've heard rumors that he actually took it, that that was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back as far as him pursuing a career as a "commercial arranger", but rumors is all they are). The look of disgust on his face and the tone of repulsion in his voice were almost freighteningly intense. So I don't think he had any eyes whatsoever for anything other than what he did.

I spent a day with him at a clinic back in 1981, and I left with the impression that a "bit" is all that anybody's ever going to get. But that's enough to get you started...

I've had a burn for a while, finally went legit @ 12.99. I dig it a lot. It's kinda nutty, funny, all in a hip way. Much of it has an I Dream Of Jeanie vibe. Makes me wish that Braith had written sitcom themes. Life for TV viewers would have been infinitely better.

Young-Holt in reverse!

Call me old school, but...Albert Mangelsdorff. The original liner notes to Tension are a freakin' manifesto.

Well, if they wanted a truly "accurate" picture, that would be what they would have to do. Impractical, obviously, but it ought to serve as a reminder that "history" is never complete, that it's always going to be an interpretation of what's left behind, not a true representation of things as they really were. Nor should it be anything else. As long as everybody recognizes that and proceeds accordingly, everything's cool. But that's not alwyas the case, is it...