JSngry

In light of the direction all this has taken, that's just too funny!

To play devil's advocate, let me ask this - why should people stop and listen to another version of songs that many have heard literally all their lives? It's not like most people are going to hear "Night & Day" and say, "WOW! There's one I've been waiting to hear for the last 5 years!" Then again, if you played something they'd never heard before, I doubt the reaction would be any different. It might even be worse! I've been saying here for the last few weeks or so that the culture has changed irrevocably in terms of the role that all music plays for "most people". It's become entirely more functional now than it was just a few years ago, and that function has changed from social dancing/listening to "mobile lifestyle accessory/soundtrack". I'll not be convinced othersise. Whether or not "we" like it or think it's a "good" think is not the point. The point is that, yes, things have changed, and no, they aren't changing back anytime soon, if ever. Myself, I'm ok with that, even if it's rendering me in my current mode obsolete (whether or not I can/want to explore new avenues in music or be content to ride out the horse I've gotten this far on no matter where it leads - or doesn't - is something I've been giving some pretty serious thought to lately). Times change, and people's sense of "time" and "place" have been evolving since the advent of all the digital/portable technology for the last few decades. It's finally reached the "point of no return", and that's just how shit goes, dig? It's our fortune to be alive during what might be referred to by some as a "paradigm shift". Lucky us! I hope I don't have to say that none of the above is construed as a dis to the old types music or the people who still enjoy playing them. It's not, and I'm one of those who still does both ("freebop", my primary expressive medium of choice, is almost 50 years old now, so any thought that it's still "new" and/or "challenging" is so much bullshit). All I'm saying is that if we continue to play this music out of love, then we're doing it for the only reason that will continue to have any real relevancy, and that's going to be to ourselves. Good enough. But if we do it and seriously expect to make a connection to "the public" at any level beyond that of "charming curiosity" and/or the occasional true "music lover", hey - forget about it. Ain't gonna happen. And yes, all of the above holds true, imo, to all kinds of live music, although more current idioms might garner more of an immediately attentive short-term audience. Again - people's notions of time and place have changed once and for all, and with them the "role" that they want/need for music to play. C'est la'vie.

Thomas Dorsey Tommy Dorsey Dorcas

Nor can I, but I swear I remember seeing him on some three tenor date on that label from the early/mid 80s. It wasn't an "out" thing either, just three tenor players and a rhythm section playing tunes. Can't remember who the other two tenors were, but they were better-know than Cabell. Such a side exists! Maybe it was a different label...

Maybe how spiritually strong the music was and how great everybody was playing? Maybe you oughta drink more often!

WTF?????????????????????????????????????????????????????

IIRC, both Melvin Sparks & Leon Spencer came up through the Kashmere program in the 1960s. Also, it's my understanding that once the great Conrad Johnson retired (sometimes in the late 1970s, I beleive), that the program deteriorated rather rapidly, and the scholl now has just another "jazz band". The story here is not that a (then) all black Texas high school produced the greatest funk band ever, or some such rot, it's that a (then) all black Texas high school band under the direction of a savvy director with direct roots to the music of his community produced generation after generation of inspired musicians and music. This should be a role model for music educators worldwide into perpetuity, and it should be something that all parents and educators consider when evaluating their local schools and curriculum. After all, if the role of education and educators is to instill knowledge & confidence, inspire the imagination, fuel personal initiative, and create tangible skills that one can carry into adulthood, one need look no further than Conrad Johnson & Kashmere for a damn fine example of how to do it.

I swear that Cabell was on some multi-tenor Black Saint/Soul Note side but I can't remember what it was and can't find a reference to it. But I'll wager a good dollar or so that it's true. You know whose tone I hear in him on the Patton date? Bennie Maupin.

Some of it came out on a Mainstream LP called Yesterday or something like that.

I too saw them at Brownwood a few times. Definitely not a "pro" band by any realistic standard, but nevertheless an amazing outfit worthy of recognition. These cats came to play, and they brought their own light show and M.C. They were poised well beyond their years in terms of both musical ability and stage presence.

Hoppity Hooper Larry Hooper Joe Feeney

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence The Man I Shot In Reno Just To Watch Him Die Me, Whom It Wasn't Who Started That Old Crazy Asian War

You're welcome!

Marvin Cabell was young, raw, and sincere on this recording. I love what he plays and how he plays it, even if by "academic" standards it's flawed. Not my problem.

I've got one with the same contents but a different cover, w/photos instead of a "design". Maybe a different anniversary? I'll look it up when I get back home.

Dude - LTB & I have been to the brink more than once. Frighteningly close in fact, to the point where I was in tears huddled up in a puddle where nobody could see. Why & how we pulled back remains a mystery to me, so if you're looking for a "what could I have done differently?" kinda thing, I'm not the guy, and neither is she. What I can tell you with absolute certainty is that shit happens, and more often than not it hurts. There is no other explanation sometimes, and the only "advice" I can offer with any amount of self-respect is this - you know who you are, and you know what kind of a person you are. Never let life's nutkicks make you forget that, and never allow the things that go south in life become the things that you allow yourself to be defined by. I know you'd like some kind of "explanation", if for no other reason than to maybe gain some insight into how to keep the situation from repeating itself further on up the road. There may indeed be one that you're not getting, but then again, maybe not. Like I said, sometimes shit really does happen "just because". Ok, one more piece of advice from the heart - you don't have to forget, but you defiitely need to forgive at some point. Hanging on to pain and bitterness is a recipie for long-term emotional suicide. It ain't gonna happen all at once, obviously, but it does need to happen. I do know that the only reason that Brenda & I have managed to stay together after pulling back from the brink those times is that we've made concerted efforts to let go of the pain we've caused each other over the years. And yes, letting go is an ongoing process. One might even say that it's a life's work. But there it is. What I'm saying is that this unfortunate turn of events ain't gonna kill you unless you let it. But it ain't gonna make you stronger either unless you let it. I feel your pain, and wish that it wasn't happening. But since it is, all I can offer you is symapthy and the exhortation to keep your head to the sky, even if it means using a crowbar for support.

Rose Marie The Virgin Mary Virginia Dare

It's Clifford Scott on the original. Is Billy Butler still alive? You could ask him.

Didn't Jim Carey play Clark Cable?

Ima Hogg Porky Pig Carl (of Carl's Tasty Sausage in Whitwright, Tx)

Let me see if I got this straight - Sonny Stitt acted bad once, so his girlfriend threw him out and he had to live in a box for awhile, and now everybody's forgotten about it except Concord? That's one helluva story!

Somebody get me Jimmy Hamilton!

Euel Gibbons Joe Christmas Smokey Logg

Ella Guru Dinah Shore Big Joan

Exactly.