JSngry

Seriously man, I feel your pain. Felt it myself, and more than a few times. But finally I asked myself the same question - yeah, I'm up here playing as soulfully and honestly as I can, but why should anybody care? And the honest answer was that there's no intrinsic "reason" why they should stop their lives for a few minutes just to listen to some guy playing a tenor. No reason whatsoever. Not unless I'm telling them something that compels them to. And that means establishing some sort of primal connection. And that means "intruding" into their world with some kind of urgency that they can either be gripped by or repulsed by but can not ignore. Now - what does it take to do that, to butt into somebody's personal zone and make them recognize? Lots of things work, but very few of them appeal to me. And as the nature of the "general population" changes, even if I succeed, what kind of a message am I going to be able to offer them in terms that they can understand that's not full of hostility and angst stemming from the frustration that comes from seeing all the style-specific musical principles that I've held sacred my entire professional life becoming irrelevant to them at an increasingly exponential rate? "Pretty songs" more often than not ain't gonna get it. )You want people to feel warm and fuzzy, get them a puppy. Or a Nintendog. ) Not unless it's "pretty" in a way that they understand to be pretty. And that can be problematic for obvious reasons. Because people's basic means of perception, and therefore their basic concepts of expression/feeling are forever changing right before our eyes. If we choose to hold on to the "old way" for whatever reason(s) - some good, some not - then we better prepare ourselves to be met by increasing indifference and not be getting all pissed about it. Because life will continue to pass us by, and it won't be anything personal. The alternative is to, instead of trying to "remind them of something outside their eworld", actually get inside that world musically and talk to them there in those terms. I'm not at all opposed to doing that, it excites me, actually, but at 50, I have doubts as to how far and how organically I'd be able to do that. But somebody's gotta do it, because that's not the "world of the future", that's the world of today, and it ain't going away anytime soon, dig? And it's a world with its own pulse, rhythms, colors, dynamics, the whole deal. It may not seem real to us, but there it is anyway. And it's full of people. It's also full of music and ideas that could probably benefit all concerned by the influx of some truly human imagination and soul. I'm hearing lots of things that are really solid as far as they go (the superimposing and shifting of various hi-hat patterns in house music is truly amazing sometimes), but the problem is that they don't go very far, at least not in terms of what I already know (Sly's dictum that all we need is a drummer for people who only need a beat still holds true, but you'll notice that he didn't stop there...). So what do we do? Hell if I know. Hell if I know if it's even my job at this stage of my life to figure it out. But I do know that if I play a beautiful solo on Ipanema at a wedding (and frankly, I have, and more than once), and nobody notices, it's not their fault. Because A) it's a song that's been so damned overexposed that you can't blame anybody who tunes out after the first few notes; & B) it's a wedding, not a concert. People got other things on their mind, and they should. And those two things pretty much hold true across the board - people have already heard the songs too many times to expect them to come to a screeching halt in rapt anticipation of hearing anything "good", much less "profound", and people have too many other things to do to expect them to etc. I can understand this even if it kinda bums me out sometimes. Dude - we're relatively old, and the world is changing with or without us. Simple as that.

Ah, Homonyms vs Literality. Will peace ever be achieved? As for the Blue vs Clifford thing, if you talk to people over a certain age...

James Stewart Kim Novak Barbara Bel Geddes

That's even funnier!

Monday & Nikita promoting Routes: http://www.ongakudb.com/files/streaming/iv...60209monday.asx

The mind also reels at how Mr. Chinen's editor let such a blatant gaffe slip by. Please, please, please be so kind as to post the Times' correction!

Well, there you have it. Cajun music was fusion before fusion got fused!

Pebbles Ann Peebles Ann Landers

Nobody could find Jimmy Hamilton, so I came home.

Del Harris Del Frisco Cisco Kid

Wasn't Carlton in the same version of the Burton group that had Dick Haymes on drums?

Al Klink Hogan Sgt. Schultz

Damn...

Figuring that my buddy is already surrounded by enough of America Past The Point Of No Return, I did not want to corrupt my greeting by posting it from a Fazzoli's in Ironton, Ohio. Best wishes to a man who bought all the OJCs years ago, in anticipation of something like the Concord takeover. Now that's wisdom!

"Portrait Of Jenny"?

Belated Best Wishes to a good friend (to put it mildly...)

No. I definitely remember seeing this side, seeing "Marvin Cabell" and thinking "HOLY SHIT", coming back to the store an hour later with my checkbook, and finding it already gone (if that is in fact something one can find...). And yes, I was sober.

Well, it's kind of a sweeping "Grand Statement", but the more I hear....

Because it's good music? And it might lighten their load and think better thoughts or remind them they love someone or remind them of something outside their eworld? But seriously, why?

Which take, 5 or 9?

Well, you don't miss your well until it gets paved over by a parking lot with no water.

Well yeah, but I'd throw both of 'em out the second that Rachael Ray walked into the room. Now, if you can handle so-called "big women", I personally think that Ina Gartner might be the biggest freak of 'em all. Just a hunch...

Dude, you got it right here right now. Carpe diem!

Is it the Thornhill tune? If so, why not use that instead?

If the majority of your jazz listening conforms to the time frame of that of your pop/rock, you're not becoming a jazz snob, you're becoming an old fart. Not that there's a helluva lot of difference...