JSngry

Not you. To me, "restricted" means that there's a struggle involved, if only at the level of not being able to do exactly what you want to do. I don't hear Ornette struggling at all in PrimeTime. All I mean is that instead of the melodic flow & rhythmic alterations being "restricted", which to my mind would mean that he was unable/less able to make them, that he found another way to do them, other places to put them. I still hear the melodic flow & the harmonic/rhythmic twists & turns, just maybe a little more "stretched out", less sudden and more "inside" the overall group texture. Truthfully, though, I don't hear that as anything new. To me, the truly "freest" Ornette in those regards was the L.A./early NY Ornette. Once Haden left the band, things started changing (hardly an original idea, but...). His playing became more "formal" to my ears, more consiously "developmental" in focus instead of "freely melodic". The change became really pronounced after the hiatus. Solos were based on motifs instead of longer melodies, and the scales in thirds thing really became the most frequent ground from which he built. Still marvellous, but definitely different. And it's a difference that did not at all conflict with the sounds & rhythms in PrimeTime, at least not to my ears. There's also the matter of playing/leading in a group like that as opposed to a smaller (and acoustic) one. There was a lot more going on in Prime Time at every level, and everything I've read Ornette say about it indicates that he wanted it like that. Ornette's music has always been built around group interaction, but he seemed to be really obsessive about it with this band. The whole Harmolodics theory came out publicly then, and as evolving/vague concept as that seemed to be, the one thing that was always stressed was that every voice was equal at all times. Well hey - six voices, three of them amplified and able to play multiple notes simulataneously, is going to create a different group dymnamic that an acoustic horn(s) + bass/drums one. The way that Ornette responded to that different dynamic seemed to me to be by submersing himself into group's collective mentality even more than he had in his previous bands. He had to, You may hear that as "restricting", but I hear it as leading the band by example. The music of Prime Time could have easily veered off into total chaos, but Ornette's playing always held it together, gave it its gravity and focus. Ornette, willingly it seemed to me, changed just enough to make the group work the way he wanted it to work. I think that was a pretty astute move on his part, because it allowed the band to stay together & evolve in a most organic/wholistic manner. As much as I love DIYH for its raw energy and gonzo physicality, I think that the Antilles album (name escapes me at the moment, is it Of Human Feelings?) shows the group functioning much more as a group, if you know what I mean. The comments that Lazaro referenced regarding the "orchestral" thing are reflected in the ongoing evolution of the group sound. This wasn't an "Ornette soloing" band (not that any of his bands have been just that), this was an "Ornette orchestra", and the leader was just one member, albeit the central one. I think that Ornette relished both the concept of the band and his role in it. I've spoke in the past about my awe at Tone Dialing what a visionary & viable conceptual and practical model it is for music of the future that aspires/needs to at once be free & creative while at the same time in touch with the densities & textures of the contemporary world. There's a lot of information in that music, and it all works for me. But the density of the information necessitates adjusting one's concept of being a "soloist". "Soloing" per se is rapidly becoming less an imperative than is creating a healthy, organic group environment that's in tune with the struggles of the times (fighting today's battles with yesterday's weapons is always an option, but so is suicide...). 'Twas always so, but the landscape is radically different now than it was in 1959, 1969, 1979, or even 1989. Tone Dialing points the way as well as anything I've heard. Ornette's always been very vocal about his music being about, at root,/basic helping people be more fully human. It makes perfect sense to me that as the challenges & obstacles to reaching that goal change, so does his music. And I don't think that his ego is such that he's going to place his "style" as a soloist above doing what it is that he thinks needs to be done to make his groups do what it is that he thinks they need to do to serve his greater goals at any given time. Is it really "restrictive" to do that? Or even if it is in a literal sense, is it a bad thing when/if it's done knowingly & willingly in the service of a perceived greater cause? Some might call that discipline in the service of vision. Great people do that, and Ornette, crazy as he might be in "practical" matters is nothing if not a great man with a great vision of what it means to be human. Now, have the concepts of Prime Time ran their course as far as Ornette's visions for humanity goes? The "retro" sound of the Sound Grammar group might suggest so. But I'd rule nothing out from/about Ornette, especially since the world at large is just now beginning to sortakinda get its ears & souls around the sounds of his 1959 music. Maybe that's where he's coming from, sensing that there's perhaps more real hunger (as opposed to a niche market) for that earlier sound now, so bring it back home for the people to taste in the flesh. I'm just thankful that he continues to put it out there, because no matter what format he puts it in, electric, accoustic, large group or small, that "it" is the stuff of life - unrestricted life. Just my opinion, and I'm not looking to change anybody's mind. As if I could.

John Blair John Blake John Bubbles

Can't say that I heard "restrictions" as much as I did "restructurings" and/or "redistributions". Never heard him sound less than himself.

Good Thing Sweet Thing Wild Thing

What Cyrille brings to Barron's subtly tricky quirky originals is beautiful. For my overall money, the best drummer Cecil ever had, and that's saying a lot.

John Handy Handy Dan Mister Fix-It

Little Boy Blue Little Girl Blue Blue, who gives clues

I think it's also quite tongue-in-cheek.

I think you answered your own question!

Joe Raposo Kermit Ruffins Little Miss Muffet

What do nasty BMs have to do with board activity? Wait a sec, I can see a connection...

Hank Ketchum Hank the Cowdog Batgirl

Does he have any (embrochure) chops left?

Start diggin'. If you can free the Atlantic Trios, I'll wash your car and paint your house!

Now see, that's what I'm talking about, learning something new. I never knew that kazoos had reeds. Puts everything in a new perspective!

Haven't read it in a few years (or longer), but the reviews in Jazz Times seemed to be built around that principle. There was no such thing as a bad record, and we all know that's bullshit, especially when it's some middle-aged local songstress and/or lounge pianist trotting out another round of The Songs You've Come To Loathe, or A Man Who Has Practiced Other Peoples Music All His Life, of which there seems to be an endless supply of in these, the Last Days Of Jazz, when everybody who has nothing to say is finally getting a chance to say it. Personally, I think it's built around not pissing off potential advertisers. If you review an album that's not so good but paint a picture of it being "pleasant enough", especially if you include one phrase or sentence that can be extracted for an advertising blurb, you become "advertiser-friendly". Not that there's anything wrong with that per se, but that means your reviews are going to be, like my old man used to say, god bless him, as useless as tits on a boar hog. I believe I might have broken some rules with the above expression of personal perspective. Oh well, fuck it.

Heading down the home stretch... You'll laugh, you'll cry, not necessarily in that order. I'm end 'til the end.

The Basement Tapes!

Not sure that I see the need for including the mutilation. Do a good LP dub if you have to & digitalize it in. that can be done, can't it?

Yep.

On the later Impulses!, Pharoah seemed to be on autopilot sometimes/lots. But there's usually some good stuff going on without him, so... To that point, though, I've heard passing mention over the years that Pharoah went through a period of "disillusionment" in the mid-70s. Don't know whether it was personal, musical, spiritual, or what. But I can hear it in his own playing on those later Impulse! sides, and it might put the Theresa things in a better perspective. Anybody know about this?

Is there mutilated tape on "Russian Lullaby"?

Same here. My favorite of the bunch, actually. I've heard that The East had an unofficial "no white folks" policy. Not enforced, but vibed. Don't know it that's true or not, but geez, between this one & the Mtume Strata side, it sure seems like it was a good idea.

Am listening to this right now... the sound on this is GREAT! Some wonderful playing all around, and Monday's voice is captured nicely on this recording. After hearing some of her work on CD, I wondered how well she would sound live. Well, I got my answer... this is some damn fine stuff! I'll definitely be looking for her the next time she plays in Southern California. Cheers, Shane Downloading this now. I'm very eager to hear this since despite all the praise heaped on her I've yet to see/hear a lick of her recorded work. I got the gift from DanLon and was digging it all last night. It's great to hear how she lets her band loose. Not too many singers have the kind of ego (or lack of) to go that route. And the arrangements are all significantly different from those on the records. Again, much love for that. But.... You need to hear the records. That's where her brilliance really comes to the fore. She's on record many times admitting to an insecurity with pitch (and again - so much love for that, because I've never known a singer to cop to this quite common trait, much less as matter-of-factly as she does), and you'll hear it here, as well as some really great moments as well. Yet by here own admission: Read the entire interview here. It's refreshing to hear somebody be so honest about themself and not go all ego-tripping out. But I've never read anything by her that's otherwise, and in the few e-mail exchanges we've had, that same, for lack of a better term, righteous humility comes through. Such a beautiful spirit she has! Anyway, the point is that she's one of those artists for whom the studio is a genuine tool of expression. Now, some might cry "SHAM! If you can't do it as good live as you do it on the record, you're a fraud." Well, yeah, ok, whatever. But really, do we expect great playwrites to be great actors? Do we expect great authors to be dynamic public speakers? Do we expect great photographers to be great painters? Of course not. There's still a school of musical thought that resists the "studio as instrument" esthetic. Again, yeah, ok, whatever. Sure, it's a marvellous tool for polishing turds, but it's also a marvellous outlet for people with visions that can't be fully realized (if at all) otherwise. Monday's studio work (especially once she really began to hit her stride around the time of Delicious Poison, which, ironically, is a "live in the studio" affair) is about as deep as any pop music I've ever heard. the woman's vision is staggering in its combination of musical breadth, sophistication, and spiritual intuitiveness. If she needs the studio to get it all out, goddamit, give her the studio! Because with her, it's ultimately about the vision, and for my money, it's as beautiful a human vision as any I've encountered in quite a while.

Agreed. Didn't mean to put down musicians' opinions in any way. Thought that I was careful to do that, but I guess that I wasn't. Just wanted to point out that the two sides (or more) exist. No man, you're cool. I hear you, believe me. I've had more than a lifetime's worth of ears-glazing-over conversations w/players who can only hear the technique(s). ARRRGH! I feel sorry for those folks when I'm not plotting ways to stick my foot up their ass. I understand/dig craft, but it's a tool, not an end. And if you can't recognize that about the work of others, odds are you don't recognize it in yourself. Life is short. Play hard, but more importantly, play well.