JSngry

...and I'm listening to the local Desi station. It's a Friday night party set, they got the shit going on, the DJs are taking live calls and shoutouts over the music, and yeah, ok, let's roll. It's all new to me, but I know a party when I hear it. This shit is jammin' for real. Then the DJ comes on with a trivia quiz. Usually on this station, the trivia questions involve something Bollywood related. But this is Friday night, and the target audience is clearly a younger set than what gets played during the day. So I'm wondering what the trivia question is going to be, whether it'll be Bollywood, or something about the Hindu rapping that's been going on or just what. Hell, I don't know. Like I said, this is all new to me. So here it comes... "What is the oldest object oriented programming language? Call us NOW at 972-XXX-XXXX!" They had a winner in less than 5 minutes. Simula. (numerous claims of Smalltalk were rebuffed) Impressive! And the party never stopped.

Harold Wheeler.

I bought a remaindered copy of Balliett's Collected Works: A Journal of Jazz and read almost all of it (skimmed in places). The guy hates hard bop, and constantly throws in such digs at the genre. I don't feel confident enough to say "fallible," but his tastes are sufficiently different from mine (I listen to lots of hard bop, for instance) that I wouldn't go by his recommendations. I like reading Balliet for his language, not for his taste. Sometimes his tastes and mine intersect, sometimes not. But his use of the language, stylized though it often is, is enough for me.

Unworthy of my vision of you Jim. Well yeah, and I did qualify it in the following sentence. Probably sounds harsher than I intend to. But still, this whole notion of guidebooks is one to which I simply cannot relate. Different strokes for different folks, I know, but I've never been one to use a map except when I'm driving. I find the online AMG site fun for discovering "obscurities" and such, but that's using it for discographical/exploratory purposes rather than using the reviews to guide my purchases & steer my interests. The reviews are not the object of the game for me, although the sound samples, when available, are. Honestly, no disrespect meant to those who use those things for such purposes. I'm just not one of them, and the whole concept frankly befuddles me. I can fully realte to Scott's purported goal of hearing everything there is to hear, but really, shouldn't we all be doing that ourselves if that's where our interests lie? Sure, you hear a lot of shit along the way, but so what? That's part of devolping a perspective, as I'm sure Scott will atttest. If you only stick to things that you know in advance are going to be "good", then you run the risk of becoming somebody who, as we malcontents like to say here in Dallas, know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

And, to complete the ensemble, a Quincy Jones theme.

Peter Graves Barbara Bain Anne Bancroft

Any Eddie Palmieri solo.

With better editing, I could look like Ironsides...

When I feel fully Titanized, I'll throw in the vowels. But the m, hey - nobody gets the m!

Colbert on Charlie Rouse? Were either of them in Ra's band?

Gimme your credit card numbers. All of them. And dude - Valerie B is her real name. She's Walter Bishop Jr's ex, and she's for real. Better luck next time.

Offering Clem rope is like threatening to throw Brer Rabbit into the briar patch... I didn't even see that... Oh well. Look, Scott Yanow's work apparently serves a constructive useful purpose for many of y'all here (including titan Chuck), but I myself ahve a hard time relating to the concept of exploring music through a book. That's just not how I did it, and that's not how any of my peers did it. But that was a different time and place, full of still-living practitioneers of the artcraft who could fill your ears full of the real thing right in your face, and who would regale you after the gig with tales of shit you'd never heard of and you believed them because, hey, they were doing it their own selves. The music was alive, in the flesh, and even reading Down Beat once you got out of the sticks and into a scene was an act that some considered "cheating". And that was in the days when cats like Messrs. Kart, Litweiller, & Morgenstern were filling it full of stuff that spoke deeply of and to personal feelings about the music, be they emotional, intellectual, political, physical, and/or some/none of the above. You could feel that you were reading a letter from your older brother who'd left home and who was excited about some shit going on right now that you just had to know about. Those days are pretty much gone, and maybe reference books are all that's left for newcomers to the music. If that's the way it is, fine. Scott Yanow seems to be a fair enough evaluator of a lot of the music's past glories, and I've got no real axe to grind with him, other than I'd just once like to read something by him that brings some personal feeling to the table. I know a lot this music already (and what I don't know, I'll get to eventually, in the course of my natural musical odyssey, and what i don't get to, hey - there's always never, if you know what I mean...) so if I'm going to read about it, I want to read something that makes me think/feel/pissmybritches/etc. I dig the shit out of dialogue, debate, etc. but have little use for "textbooks". Not at this point, if ever. Not for this music. I understand and respect that he's not that type of writer, apparently by choice. All I'm saying is that the function he fills for many here is not a function for which I myself have much use. For those who do, hey, have fun letting somebody else set your course for you. I know, it's not that simple, but c'mon folks - half or more of the fun in this trip is taking it w/o a net! Being an Accidental Tourist is safe, and the results are guaranteed, but... Having said that, though, I'd like to welcome Scott. I think/hope that at some poiint he'll join in on some of our more "opinonated" threads here and throw down with some real insight and/or personal opinion/perspective. Personal music deserves personal engagement, which in turn engenders personal feelings. If the books, reviews, etc aren't the place for them, hey that's showbidness. But this place sure as hell is, so dive in. Y'all come!

I'm with Chuck. Taking easy shots at easy targets isn't funny in and of itself, especially if you're "preaching to the choir".

Garzone's kind of an "underground" player in a lot of ways. He consistently straddles the line between the Post-Trane "inside" school of harmony-based playing and outright free playing. His playing almost always gets to me in a way that few, if any, of those type players do. Don't know how much you'd be into it, MG, but there's a DIW side called Pink Inc. that's a trio of Garzone, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, & Alex Deutsch that's a really good "inside-out funk/fusion power trio" side.

Is it really a problem or is it just the way things have been since time began? As for Colbert, that was funny! If you can't laugh at yourself... Yes, that's the way it's always been. Thus "problem" instead of problem. As for Colbert, I've never found him funny. Ever. And if it turns out that he's really a Zorn-whoever fan, then I can buy into the whole "laughing at yourself" buisness. Otherwise, I'm not amused. But then again, I've never found him funny.

The reason most rock critics love Elvis Costello is that most rock critics look like Elvis Costello.

Colbert can go fuck himself. He's not funny, he's like Dennis Miller with one ball missing. The "problem" is a simple one - most people are unable to confront a reality beyond the end of their oen nose, and most people who are are unable to relate to those who can't. And neither are particularly willing to peacefully and lovingly coexist with the parallel universes that the other resides in.

Richard Carlson Herb Philbrick Phil Brito The Flying Burrito Brothers The Flying Nun The Daring Young Man On The Flying Trapeze

No, he connected "Red" to "Red". Oliver Twist Laurel & Hardy Mikki Shout

That's a pretty happy & healthy looking family you got goin' there dude. Congrats, and back atcha'!

BB&Q is a fine side. The one w/Oliver Nelson ain't. And I'm a big Oliver Nelson fan...

Unless he signed a really bad contract, Ferguson's death would be beyond their control. Maybe they plan on slightly altering the packaging with a sticker or something to reflect Maynard's recent passing?

Big Band & Quartet is live.

As have I, which is why I stareted a thread about him.