JSngry

How's this book?? I'm afraid I heard about it once, or else maybe saw the cover in a store (and I guess didn't have time to even pick it up and read the back cover). Maybe I saw "road manager" - and wrote it off, possibly too hastily?? Bought it, and found it to be mostly a waste. It's more about Murphy and the lifestyle "perks" of being on the road with Miles than it is anything else. The so-called "lost years" of Miles that the book would seem to be referring to do not get covered at all, since Murphy was not in Miles' employ during that time. We do get to read about the chicks he balled during those years though. Yippee. Miles actually comes off really well in Murphy's portrayal, a cool enough guy to work for (although Murphy, whether by design or delusion, paints a picture of him being really tight with Miles that is easily seen as the inflated ego trip that it is just by a reading of the circumstances setting up all the anecdotes). Cicely Tyson, otoh, comes of as a vain, manipulative bitch, which, who knows, maybe she was/is. The portrait of Miles as boss from a non-musical employee is the only redeeming value of the book afaic (that and a little bit of a look at Miles' "entorage"). The rest is totally an eo trip by the author. He was a road manager for crissakes, yet he gets indignant that Columbia wouldn't take his advice about how the band should be recorded. Etc... I've no doubt that Murphy did his job quite well, and I've no doubt that he was really fond of Miles, and that Miles truly appreciated his work. But overall, reading this book is like reading the memoirs of a bat boy. Not totally worthless, but way too far removed from the real action to be more than background music.

Here's "A Ditty For The Kitty": http://www.musicdesigner.com/gary/gbcd.htm

George Zimmer Joe Namath Chad Johnson

Fresh Sounds is a label that issues lots of bootlegged material, some of it from live "collector's material", some of it from legit studio material. As for the latter, they protesteth otherwise, but they've yet to make their case in a convincing manner, although maybe some of that stuff has legitimacy. Maybe. Anyway, these aren't really Lee dates at all, they're Blakey broadcasts. Given date is probably accurate. Besides Lee & Blakey, the band is Wayne, Timmons, & Merritt. The shit rocks.

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...&hl=Arnett+cobb

Rex Reed Ralph Reed Jimmy Reed

Irene Ryan Irene Dunne Huddy Ledbetter

I hear you, but I am still not sure that Columbia would have marketed Monk or Mingus to the same extent, to try to push them to #1 jazz icon. They filled other niches well -- the eccentric genius niche, for example, as well as the Angry Black musician (of course Miles had a piece of this too). Maybe I am attributing too much cleverness to the marketeers. Maybe they just gave Miles a bit of an extra push, but he spoke to a vast audience (everything up to Bitches Brew) and did the rest on his own and it became a self-perpetuating machine. It would be interesting to rerun history to see who the labels would have promoted in the absence of Miles and whether it would have worked, but I'm certainly glad we have his music. Well, Columbia did have Brubeck, and for a substantial number of people at the time, he was "the face of jazz". Which goes in a way to the point that Columbia in the 50s had a lot of "name brand" players under contract, including Blakey & Silver. But not all of them could deliver to the company the "total package" that I suspect the company was looking for, a package that surely included more than just good/great music. And that goes, I think, to the artists not only understanding what "the game" was/is, but also, again, to their willingness to play that game on its own terms. It involves, as I see it, a willingness to both create an image and also to simultaneously have one created for you, as well as a willingness to be "exploited" for the ends of then being able to exploit the system back, to turn the exploitation into power for yourself, all without turning into a helpless, disposable pawn. It's a game. It's defintely a game. Like I've said before, for most jazz musicians (hell, for most people) that's too much work, too much diversion from the real task at hand. But Miles seems to not only have been comfortable with it, he seemed to have actually thrived on it. People (most people anyway) are attracted to power. And power is definitely attracted to power, if only to see if one side can break the other. "Cruel" & "shallow" perhaps, but that's the way things seem to work in This World Of Ours. Miles had power, Miles enjoyed his power, and Miles enjoyed playing with his power. Ditto Columbia. It was a natural match, I think, and both sides got what they wanted/needed out of the other. A Business Love Affair, that's what I'd call it.

Can't find the forum. Got a link? I'd pay somebody $25 to ask him why he fired Tyrone Washington. In the middle of this page is a link: http://www.horacesilver.com/fanfeast/index.php (there are also two video performances under "video" - both look to be early 70s, I wonder if anyone can identify the other players?) Got it, thanks. Had to make a firewall adjustment.

Them's some big heads!

Pretty sure that Mingus & Monk are far closer to "general public icon" status than Blakey or Lee could ever dream of being, at least in terms of name recognition. That "unstable" quality being no small part of it. That's the part the "general public" is aware of! America loves its Eccentric Negros...

John Beresford Tipton Michael Anthony Regis Philbin

She certainly projected a quiet strength, beauty, and determination throughout her life, under even the most trying circumstances. If there was "another side" to her, you never heard about it, much less saw it on public display. She should be as much of a role model for all of us as her husband is.

It was the Cubans.

Can't find the forum. Got a link? I'd pay somebody $25 to ask him why he fired Tyrone Washington.

http://www.horacesilver.com/silverpages/index.php

I've heard a couple of Rich vocal tracks on the Singers & Standards channel of Music Choice (great way to get exposure to both, btw. Most all their programming is at least tangetally jazz-related), and I've been disappointed. "Metalic, masculine, and magnetic" sums it up pretty well, if slightly cryptically. Not a lot of fluidity in the voice or phrasing. The guy could carry a tune, though, so that's not the issue. There's just something too "straight-line" about Buddy's singing that is not what I'm looking for. Truthfully, Steve Lawrence's singing appeals to me more.

Que Viva la Musica!

Lynn Hope.

Harry Wismer Sonny Werblin Joe Namath

Yo - Mofo!

Sam Levinson Myron Cohen Myron Floren

I made it work for me. Well, that was a joke, obviously (I hope...), but there is something to be said for knowing your instrument well enough to know what you can't do (and more to the point, have no interest in ever doing) & then going about finding out how to work what you can to as expressively as possible. Then when you find something that you just can't express with what you have you can proceed to learn whatever it is you need to learn to do it. All this is predicated on a sound basic knowledge of both instrument and theory, mind you, and should not be taken as advocating sloppiness or laziness. But I do think that a problem arises when people accquire more chops than they know what to meaningfully do with. You get cats that are "all dressed up with noplace to go", as the old folks used to say. This was less of a problem when playing opportunities were available every 20 feet or so, but now that the main regular playing opportunities are in school for most folks, the possibility of knowledge outpacing wisdom is more real. And that's not a "problem", really, it's just something you gotta watch out for, I think. But if there's nobody arond to call you on it... Anyways...I'm both formally and self-taught. I can read and write (and can even cipher!), both fairly well, although there's certainly room for improvement in both areas. I was formally taught the correct way to play an instrument, as well as the proper rules of theory. Invaluable experience. I taught myself how to get sounds that didn't follow any of those rules. Ditto. But the most valuable learning came (and still comes) from playing with people who are on the same page as you esthetically and can kick your ass into challenging yourself. That's the real learning afaic, and that's neither "formal" nor "self" education. That's life!

The true artist learns how to incorporate their sucking into their style.