JSngry

Well yeah. There's a big difference between playing, and then having it naturally become part of something ongoing, and deciding up front that you're participating in American Mythology or some overripe bullshit like that and then going out to play. Seems to me that once you buy all the way into a theory like that, you're no longer participating directly in it, but are instead becoming an impartial observer. Because this "mythology" (or whatever the hell it is) that everybody wants to love is the result of, not the impetus for. the action. If I spontaneously make love to a woman all night long, it's pure magic. If I pick her up specifically to just do her all night, it's simply stunt-fucking. Ain't no magic nowhere in sight. It's the lesson of Eden all over again - the way that Evil co-opts Truth & Beauty is to package and sell back to you what you already had for free. And it's sold back in significantly reduced quantity, because once you give it up, ain't never no getting it all back. There's a sucker born every minute...

Oh really? I mean, I like branford, always have, but "giant", in a music where "mega-giants" on even the same instrumet would have to include Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, & Albert Ayler, as well as a whole big lot of people who in any other creative realm might well be contenders for mega-gianthood, but instead are "merely" regular giants in this one due to the mega-sized mega-ness of the aforementioned mega-giants, I have a hard time considering Branford as even a semi-giant. Wow. Maybe the biggest mega-giants should be designated "giga-giants" to distinguish them from the merely mega and kilo-giants. (And of course, there's the rare tera-giant.)

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&a...myxvadokv8w2~T4 He's British, he's been around for quite a while, and as you've discovered, he can play!

Paul Desmond once said that he had another octave range on his alto until he started thinking about how he was doing it. Then he couldn't do it anymore.

Great tune, but I agree it's become a cliche. Too much of a good thing, etc... I still get the hardon for "Elegant People".

If it was real, he'd be wearing white drawers so we could see proof of his manhood.

Does that mean only people like him are person of the year, or do forum posters qualify too? Uh... http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...st&p=592530

Well, Wagner, man, you know, he got Bird's axe and shit...

Connie Booth John Wilkes Booth Squeaky Fromme

Eddie Vinson Wayne Venison Rob Deer

Is that in the men's room? MG Wherever two or more are gathered in swing's name...

And that differs from swing how?

On the Internet, there's always pie!

Side dish? Those who know suggest... Seriously, I like lamb quite a bit, but have not eaten much of it outside of restaurants. Let us know how your recipie goes, ok?

Swing is...nature making love with time.

PMS! (The "S" stands for Sent...)

I can think of a few others - Pat Williams, Mike Mainieri, George Benson, a few others, but your point is well-taken nevertheless. I wonder if maybe this is at least partly because American culture has always been about finding a place of your own through finding a place apart, often out of an overriding neccessity to do so just to get away from all the bullshit. But I also wonder if we've not lost a certain level of connectiveness in the process, if perhaps our very real need to exist on our own individual terms keeps us from realizing and building upon certain broader commonalities. No easy answers... I'll tell you this, though - a world where people bitch about pop being mindless pap and then complain that the little bit that isn't such isn't really "important" because it is pop is a world that maybe doesn't want to be connected at any level to any other world than the one that already exists for them. Fair enough, but more and more I find myself asking why the "dumb people" should have all the fun. I mean, there's a huge difference between whoring out & just making real music that's not too "complicated" for a larger audience to get. But that then becomes a matter of spirit, and our spirits have been conditioned to tribalize and defend against intrusion as a material and spiritual survival mechanism. And that's a very real consideration. Still, simple pleasures (in life and in music) do not always equate to meaningless (or even less meaningful) pleasures. We lose sight of this at our peril, I believe.

Phil Ramone Creed Taylor Creedence Clearwater Revival

Funny thing about this music - I'm finding that even though it's not meant to be "listened" to, I get into it a lot more when I do listen closely. The rhythmic overlays are often quite involved (and varying), and if I don't get past the underlying steady 4 (when it's there - in broken beat, that's not an issue), I don't get to that layer of the music. Of course, once you get into that layer, it's easy then to just let go and fly, but you gotta get there first. Not being an active dancer (yet...), that means listening, and closely, even though I suppose you're not "supposed" to go at it that way. So much for preconceptions and "conventional wisdom"...