JSngry

Indeed! Hope they can find a moneyinthepocketful of unissued material to pad the sucker out. Side One of that LP is as strong a program of uncompromised soul-jazz as you can find. And Side Two ventures into some slightly "inside-out" territory that might raise a few eyebrows of those who think that the post-Mercy Capitol sides were devoid of any "serious"jazz. T'aint so, t'aint so, t'aint so! Now, if and when the reissue of Black Messiah is announced, I'm taking a day or five off work to throw a party!

Well, we're definitely into "matters of personal preference" here, but before anybody dismisses Lacy's solo output out of hand (and count me as among those who find it mesmerizingly brilliant), a listen should be had to Hocus-Pocus Like the Rollins album, it's essentially a "practice album". but the difference is that, whereas Rollins totally free-associates, Lacy plays a set of etudes that he composed to address specific musical/technical issues and then improvises on and off of them. His melodies/themes/motifs/etc are always to the fore (as they always are, imo), and the developement of each etude is really easy to follow. Seems that Lacy wrote a buttload of these type etudes, but this would appear to be the only recording specifically dedicated to them (if I'm wrong, please let me know). More's the pity. What else is a pity is that, although it's one of Lacy's most essential albums (imo), it's damn near impossible to find, and was from the git-go. But if you do find it, carpe diem.

The trumpet solo sounds like Michael Ray to me, but now that it's been mentioned, the tune itself does have an Ibrahim-ish flavor to the ensemble sound.

Cosimo Matassa Cosimo Bottegari Annie Haslam

My sentiments exactly. Henry Threadgill is a treasure.

Case in point:

Because he's an idiot?

Tell you what, I do think he's right about the type of jazz that he thinks he should be selling - it's not very exciting. But then again, it wasn't very exciting when he was excited about it. It's taken him this long to figure that out? What excites him - music or sales? Does he even know the difference? The guy's an idiot.

Whether or not he's right or wrong, I don't think that he's a guy who knows enough about what he thinks he's talking about to be talking about it. I've heard a few stories.... Besides, how can I take anybody seriously who has/had access to Monday Michiru's (yeah, her again...) Japanese Polydor output and doesn't jump all the hell over a chance to release it stateside? That man has to be a full-fledged idiot.

Two things happened today that are curious. First, I tried to uninstall ZA Pro, and it wouldn't let me. Said that the True Vector Service was in use. This after I had cancelled ZAP during the boot, where it keeps trying (unsuccessfully) to initiate. Second, while printing out my Contacts list from Outlook (no telling how long it's going to be before this machine becomes functional again, if ever), I got a message saying that my Virtual Memory was low, and that Windows was reconfiguring the space allotted for same. I've got close to 3 GB free HD space, and I haven't changed my VM settings since Day One. So why the trouble with that all of a sudden? Any chance that I got a memory issue going on? On the computer, that is... This is curious, but I have to admit, as long as I have access from home, trying to figure out what the problem is, with y'all's help, is not without a certain sense of adventure...

I don't necessarily trust the fuscia hairs to have much of a sense of "historical context", but I sure as hell trust them a lot more than the blue hairs to have a sense of what's happening right now. What's the midway point on the spectrum between blue and fuscia? That's what color hair I want to be.

Exactly!

Exactly, and to that end, the question of when "social significance" began to enter into the "bebop consciousness" would probably have to be "as soon as it started to be played as anything other than a wholly private music", which was pretty early on, since Monroe's & Minton's were only "semi-private". Now the form that that "social significance" took no doubt varied widely from person to person, but I ahve to think that it was there in some form in darn near everybody who was involved, even the white cats. Don't see how it couldn't be. That's what I think anyway.

Haven't heard that one. What's the story on it? Did you find it online or local? It looks like it'd be sorta acid/techno/whatever, which, based on the little of that aspect of her I've heard, she does really well. Yeah - if you hear her as anything other than a scatting soccer mom, I'd say you're in the club.

Maupin also had a great release not too terribly long ago on some obscure label I can't remember. It was a live date co-led(?) with Buster Williams, recorded live somewhere in SE Asia. The repertoire was mostly "straight-ahead modern" and the results were very satisfying.

No doubt, but I have a real problem with anybody who takes any AMG review as anything other than just one person's opinion, and not necessarily a "fully informed" one at that.

You got a label for this, or are you planning on doing it yourself? Sounds like it should be interesting, keep us posted!

Seems to me that any creative process is inextricably tied to the process of self-definition (have you read Graham Locke's Blutopia? His chapter on Ellington speaks directly to what we're talking about here. And I can't believe that Ellington had a level of racial/social awareness that was unique only to himself). So how can anybody but an idiot savant (of sorts) "define" themselves apart from a social context w/o being at least partially conscious of it? I don't see it... And along those same lines, the white musicians who participated in the early formation/codification of bop were surely aware at some level of what they were doing, which was, among other things, rejecting the notion of the jazz musician as "pure" entertainer. Which is not to say that they were trying to not be "entertaining", just that they were standing up to offer a music that demanded an engagement from the audience that went beyond the quick & easy spoonfeeding of the familiar. For a white cat, this notion of "artist" might well have come more "naturally", since the "European" concept of being an "artist" was already part of the "white mindset" to one degree or another. The image of Bird & Dizzy cribbing out of exercise and etude books between sets while with the Eckstine band certainly is that of a "purely musical" process. The image of performing this new music in public and having to deal with white agents, writers, club owners, etc. in order to "get over" certainly makes me think that even if the very first impulse to create this new music was totally without a racial/social element (and I don't ahve too much of a problem at all with believing that) , it didn't take very long for one to come out. And I do mean to come out, not to be created. Like I said, many layers at once, and the existence of one doen't rule out the existence of another one.

Well, yeah. It's essentially a record of a practice session. Invaluable documentation, not without significant "educational value" for those so inclined, but not something you would (or should) want to return to for repeated "listening pleasure", if you know what I mean. I think the negative reviews are more based on the premise that this was gioing to be (or should have been) a solo concert of Sonny playing tunes. That would have been great, but that's not what happened. Whether or not it should have is an altogether different argument that whether or not what it actually ended up being is lacking in value/merit/whatever.

I finally found a Monday Michiru album about which I can say that - Delicious Poison. It's a really, really good album of "retro" 70's-style funk a la Rufus, but for me it lacks that magic that the other Michiru sides I've heard have. A few songs hit the zone, and make no mistake it's very good, but on the whole, this album is "pleasant" rather than magic. And magic those other albums do indeed have. I've particularly been obsessing over a cut on Optimista called "Oasis" that's just freakin' nuts. It's sorta like what Zawinul & Shorter might've come up with in WR's prime if they had been 20 years younger (but with the same skills) and had been interested in creating pop music (I can hear the snickering from Whiethall already ). The chords are ultra hip, with some totally out-of-left field shifts in key centers; the melody's irresistible, totally "pop", which means that it sticks in your mind and tickles it relentlessly, yet it is a melody, emminently singable/hummable; the arrangement is fully sophiticated, with horn parts that only somebody with a jazzmind would think to create on a pop song; and the groove is strong - it doesn't beat you into submission, it seduces you by bypassing any and all "centers of resistance" and going straight to your nerve centers. It's a truly giddy experience, this song is, a source of one of the more undefinable musical pleasure I've had in quite a while. So yeah, Monday Michiru ain't flawless, nor am I so blinded by her beauty that I can't tell the merely pleasant from the truly great. But lordylordylordy, when she's great, she's damn great.

Yeah, I'm really starting to get sick (and tired!) of stuff getting dissed simply because of what it is. Not for how well is is or isn't what it is, but simply because it is what it is. Such presumptiveness to presume that there is only one (or just a few) ways to be "great" or "beautiful" or (even) "hip"! It's a big freakin' world, ya'know, and there's probably more beauty and happiness in it than we realize (a lot of it on the "small" side, sure, but a lot of smalls can add up to one big, if you let it...), simply because we're more concerned with trying to get appreciation than with showing it. That's a dead end street as far as I'm concerned, and it's really something I've been examining within myself lately. Easier said than done, I know, but that's just the way that shit goes...

External hard drive. I'm seeing the need now, and not just for backup.

If three wiseguys show up, I'd be leary of any lumberjacking going on nearby...

main-ee-AIR-ee? Commercial, yes, but tasty commercial. I think I prefer his "commercial" prodction work (like Carly simon's Torch and "fusion" playing (Steps Ahead in particular) to his "straight ahead" playing. If you find your voice, go where it leads you no matter what, dig?

Yeah, S&F has made a beliver out of me and LTB both. It was damn comfortable new (it's one of those "pillowtop" jobs, which I highly recommend) , and it still is damn comfortable. We used to have to replace mattresses every 5-7 years or so, but this bad boy looks like it's in it for the long haul. Gotta love that.