JSngry

It's been my experience that jazz had a larger following in the "blue-collar" African-American community then than it does today. Ammons, Stitt, Jimmy Smith, Blakey, Silver, a.o., these were all artists who definitelyhad an appeal beyond the "hardcore jazz fan". Not syaing that it was a broad appeal, but it certainly was more of one then than analaogus artists are today. Still might have been a "niche", but yes, I do believe that the niche was bigger then than it is today. Witness the steady decline of the number of jazz clubs and commercial stations airing jazz. Another thing is this - the audience and the music have both changed. The aforementioned "blue-collar" African-Americans are more likely to go for Smooth Jazz today. It's more relevant to them. The older forms of "straiaght-ahead", "modern" jazz are more likely to appeal to a (mostly) white, middle-aged audience, many of whom have only relatively recently discovered the music. The more "avant-garde" styles (including those that incorporate electonic(s)(a) are going to have a limited audience, if for no other reason than even pop music which stretches boudaries is a minority taste these days. And along with this, outside of the Smmoth & Jam scenes, how many jazz musicians really see it as a part of their mission/function/whatever to attempt to "relate" to anaudience beyond what they know already exists? Sure, everybody wants a piece of the pie, but how many people who consider theselves "serious" jazz musicians are contemplating that maybe instead of getting a bigger piece of the pie, they need to be trying to make that pie bigger by adding some different ingredients (not all of them musical, btw)? You do that, and you're in risk of losing your "jazz cred" among the powers-that-be. Either that, or the other powers-that-be get hold of you and don't turn you loose until you have lost said cred. So we end up with musicians who really don't know how to relax and just put it out there for the people in a genuine way, and we end up with audiences who aren't too much interested in hearing what the musicians are putting out there because they don't see any need to. And honestly, quite often I can see thier point. "Relevancy" to today's "average person" is often at best marginal. Which is not to say that it's the musicians' fault that there are so many people who don't get it, don't want to get it, and don't even want to want to get it. But ask yourself this - in 2006, what is the overriding compunction of a 26 year old of average or above intelligence to listen to, say, Hank Mobley, other than to feed an appreciation of fine music? Not much, really. Now, you take the same 26 year old of average or above intelligence in 1956, and he's got a helluva lot more reason to be checking out Hank. That shit was hip in several time-specific ways then that it's not now. It's still hip, but not for all of the same reasons, and not all of the same types of hip. Times have changed, and for better or worse, there ain't a damn thing nobody can do about that. So, what's hip today for people today who are "tuned-in", but who are not Pavlovian chasers of the latest media-fabricated "stars"? Well, lots of things, but how many jazz musicians would make the list? More importantly, how many jazz musicians would scoff at anything/everything that's on that list? For the few remaining Old Masters, that's really not that much of a concern. But for everybody else... Of course, hipness in and of itself is nowhere near being the be-all & end-all of ultimate worth (and no, I'm not going to try and define what that is ). But hipness does play to relevancy, of ultimate meaning to the world that anything exists in, and on that count, a lot, a helluva lot, of today's jazz falls woefully short. Didn't used to be that way.

In hell, no. In the real world, well, yeah, they still got a shot. Shit can happen. Injuries, collective loss of focus (again), multiple players on the Heat catching fire all at once for a prolonged, multi-game stretch, hey, shit does happen, which is why they play the games. But under normal circumstances, looking at everything objectively, you gotta think that this is still the Mavs series to lose, and that the events of Game 3 are not going to be a predictor of the rest of the series.

Depressing, yeah. But you get some John Gilmore, so, like so much in life, hey.

Well, not flaccid anyway.

Don/t know, don't have it yet. Don't know if it would be as good as the Jackson 5 thing. I mean, the Jackson 5 are one thing, but JB, man, that's a whole 'nother thing...

And all I need in order to fuck Jennifer Lopez is a 29 million dollars and a 15 inch dick.

I kid you not - this is some hip shit! What Shinichi Osawa does with "Never Can Say Goodbye" is worth the cost of admission alone. You could (mostly) do that arrangement live and fuck some people up. But there's more, much more. I only wish that more remix projects came out this well. Hey. the Jackson 5 were cool, and this is too. Temporarily out of stock at Da'Bastids: http://www.dustygroove.com/cgi-sys/cgiwrap...22&issearch=yes I'm just now discovering that Japan's got some hip shit going on in the remix department. And some not so hip. But the best of it is quite creative & musical. I'm in.

Plano's Jehovah's Witness are actually pretty cool. Ring your doorbell, offer to leave you a few magazines, take no for an answer the first time, wish you a good day, and split. Bim, bam, boom, no hassle. Certainly not the industry standard...

Rabbitts & robins.

Vanilla Fudge Carmine Appice Jeff Beck

The Beany pretty much sums up my sentiments about this one in his own unique way. Hey, it's a damn good side afaic. Yeah, the pianist and bassist are lacking, but hell, Philly Joe more than picks up that slack. Plus, the front line is in prime form throughout, and the tunes all kick ass. Works for me.

Wynona Carr Wycliffe Jean Wyatt Earp

Don't know that I'd feel good per se, but I sure as hell would be thinking that it's time to wrap this puppy up with all due haste as we know we can. That and how often are we going to lose a game (well, fail to extend it anyway) on a missed Dirk FT? Seldom and never, that's how often... Mavs just lost focus at a bad time. They do that occasionally, it's their one real weakness, really, and it's probably why Avery stays on their asses no matter how good they get. He knows that they can go off track for any given stretch. And when they do, games like last night's happen. But I do believe that this is not a team that's going to blow this series to a good but ultimately lesser team. The difference between this team and other Mavs team, besides depth of talent and better coaching, is their proven (so far) ability to fuck up and bounce back strong. And that's 100% mental. Last night, they fucked up. Let's see if that bounce is still there. Betcha that it is.

Kennedy Franklin Liberty

Sassy Britches Miss Thang Skeezer

Magil Lil Nancy

The Kennedy Inaugural The Kennedy Motorcade The Warren Comission

Sure, take the direct approach.

Hell, it's a Concerto Suite. Not too many of those around.

Again - Miami is liable to come out like a coked-up buzzsaw this evening. If they're going to win one, this is going to be it. Otoh, if they don't win this one, then, yeah, call Bobby Broom.

Einstein The Fool On The Hill Brian Wilson

The Rainbow Coalition The Bob Crewe Generation Girls

Pat Pat the Cat Catwoman

Johnny Ace BB King Alvin Queen