JSngry

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.

Exactly. Anybody who's worked in a corporate environment eventually figures out that most policy/procedure manuals aren't written to get the job done right, but just to get it done. And that the people who religiously abide by such manuals aren't living to get right, but just to get (which begs the question - why such an unwillingness/fear/whatever to depend on somebody else to provide for your validation?). It's a living, I suppose, but it sure ain't a life, not in my book. Nothing personal, much love to all (sincerely) in spite of, but there it is.

Ya know, it's just as fucked up to not be able to see the trees for the forest as it is to not be able to see the forest for the trees.

Ive always dug the organjazz, but I've learned more about the finer points of it by listening to the experts here. Yeah, it's music first & instrument second, but at what point does developing a better discernment about the particularities of the instrument enhance the ability to hear the finer points of the music? At some, I'm sure. I know I hear things in tenor players that most non-players don't, & it only enhances my appreciation (or disdain) for the music the player's making. The goal is definitely expression, but it's done through craft. Balancing the expansion of one's grasp of both craft & expression is a good thing, no? Mr. Yannow's little bit of passive-agressive drama is ok with me (it's just one form of drama among many found here), but really dude, are you saying that you can't learn more than you already know about something you've already heard? If that works for you, fine, but... When it comes to some things that some people say, I ain't listening too close, because I already done heard all that. But when somebody hits on something I don't already know about something that I know I like, even a little, I'm taking heed and paying notes. Yearnin' Learnin'

Nifty little group.

Can't say that PIL & PT struck me as playing the same game even a little. For one thing, PT was always relaxed underneath it all, and PIL....wasn't. Must be one of those non-related parallel out-of-time universal convergence flukes of the universe things you were talking about earlier. They do happen...

Is there any reason to hope that he's a more interesting tenor player than he is clarinetist?

I wasn't aware that it was a cage match.

Despite your protestations, you be much jumpier at 13-17. Music encountered during this period "imprints" and it is up to the recipient to allocate importance. I have youthful weaknesses for Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and even Timi Yuro. Never started a thread about this stuff 'cuz I know (and accept) what it is. Many post in the past but no response. It is very important when one encounters music and how that is folded into one's personal taste. The pop "imprinting was well underway by the time I reached those years. 13 was when the tide began to turn. 14-17 was spent listening to anything but Top 40 pop radio music, except that which was unavoidably around in the environment (and that which "crossed over" from the cave into the mainstream). Some's stayed, some's gone. 18, I got sentimental and turned the radio on again, and it was fun. Guess I had a "youthful weakness" for, a.o., Armstrong, Ellington, Ayler, Bird, Trane, & Sonny that I've still not shaken. OTOH, "youthful weaknesses" for "jazz-rock" as an umbrella style, weirdness for the sake of weirdness, and all that type of stuff have pretty much been shaken. It's fun, but that's it. And I don't mind having fun. But the meat stays, and there is meat there, whether it's to your liking or not. Weather Report & electric Miles are substantially (& substantively) different musics than "fusion" in general. Etc. etc.etc. It's a good argument in theory, Chuck, but it's only partially accurate. If you ever catch me saying that The Buckinghams were "major artists", then you can smack me down. Until then, one size (or one age) doesn't fit all. You of all people should know that.

And that's another thing - I've never seen a cat @ a bus stop w/a Leroy Vinnegar side in his bag.

Dammit, it's "lu-PEEN-o", not "lu-PAIN-yo".

Apparently, by 1974, to get to the other side: Quoth da'bastards: Judging by the title "Damn My Feet Hurt", all that walking took its toll...

Songmy is really an Ilhan Mimaroglu thing, imo, allt hings considered. Russell, remember...

Well, if you want to talk about people who got into electronics in "ways that partially transformed their musical vision", and if "taste" is not a consideration, then you gotta put Don Ellis in there. For every 10 (or 100...) pieces of gimmicky bullshit, there'd be a thing that showed real vision. Probably more trouble than it's worth finding them, but if you're so inclined, they're there.

If this is it, then it did: http://www.dustygroove.com/warehouslp.htm#21846 If it's not, then I don't know...

Figured you might enjoy it. Glad you did! Now, if you don't already have this one...

Mister DJ Mister Magic Mister Mister

No problems here w/electric Ornette. Some's better than others, ranging from great to merely pleasant, but no real problems. Probably just those damn hormones interfering w/my judgement.