JSngry

I completely agree, but Diana Ross's soundtrack album to "Lady Sings the Blues" was a big seller. There's money to be made off of uninformed moviegoers. Jack, do you remember the Lennie Tristano letter to down beat (several years prior to "Lady Sings the Blues") where he proclaimed Diana Ross "the best jazz singer since Billie Holiday"?

Glenn Miller Otis Redding Ricky Nelson

You are. If there is in fact any real law about obtaining written permission prior to arranging a tune, it's not enforced on a "for kicks" level, and it's certainly not something that the Publishing Police are going to come out of the woodwork to bust you for. I think it's more relevant in the commercial arena.

And if they don't, ask them if they've got any free downloaded music or burned CDRs of in-print material.

Annette Kleinbard Marshall Lieb Phil Spector

That was good! But Charlie don't live there no more...

If I remember correctly (and that's a big if, considering...), we were taught in arranging class that you should always obtain written permission before arranging somebody else's tune. But nobody did, and nobody does, and nobody bitches. But if you want to have your ass covered "just in case"...

Joe Lovano with Al Green might be something I'd pay to hear, as would an encounter between Anita Baker & Cassandra Wilson backed by MM&W. I'm serious.

The Real Book is technically a violation of copyright of each song's composer(s)/publisher, so copying it is that kind of violation, not a violation against the Real Book itself. But dude, fake books have been around damn near forever. I've got one or two that are at least as old as I am, or close to it, and I'm 50. And I've seen them older! They're for "professional use only", and should be treated accordingly. They're not for "general use", if you know what I mean. If Little Billy wants to learn the head to "Four" because his band director thinks he should, then Little Billy should get a legit sheet music version from a legit dealer. If Wallopin' William needs to check the changes to "Here's That Rainy Day" becasue he's on a gig and the leader calls it and nobody in the rhythm section really knows it, then he should use the Real Book (or something similar) rather than hold up the gig trying to find a music store that's open. Shades of grey here, plenty of them, some more obvious than others, but all colored by intent, context, situation, and overall tendencies.

Betty was a "beast"? Well, the one time I saw her live, I was sitting at a 45-degree angle beind the bandstand and caught the looks whe was giving her drummer (Marvin Smith, iirc) all night to get him to move with her, so I think I have an inkling of what Cecil means. Hell, she had me scared! She worked a band like no other singer I've seen, and like none but a few horn players. Whether or not you like the results, there's no question that she was a true improvisor. Her cutting (done lovingly but nevertheless visciously) of Branford Marsalis on a version of "Tight" (great tune, btw) on the old Night Music show shows that she had a fearlessness that very few singers possessed. It was a fearlessness borne of knowing the inside of the music in a way that too many singers don't even think about. (sidenote - Sarah was another one like that, although she was usually more "proper" in the settngs in which she presented herself. But I saw a Boston Pops show w/her and Wynton from the early/mid 1980s where they were trading phrases on some pease of pleasantry, and Wynton got a little full of himself and rather cockily played a chromatic-ish fourth-y phrase. He was obviously pleased with himself until Sarah sung it right back to him turned inside out and everyway but loose, upon which he gave a little raised-eyebrow shurg and proceeded to meekly finish the piece. Betty's schooling of Branford was entirely rhythmic, she got him caught in a cat-and-mouse game of rhythmic feinting that K.O.-ed Branford before he even had a chance to throw a punch, but I really got off on the both of them taking on these youngsters on their terms and schooling them on the spot, with no consideration to "propriety". These women were tough!)

I've got a bass player friend who's a lawyer, but if you ask him a legal question, he's probably going to want to charge you for the answer.

The only way to truly be "self-taught" is to never listen to or play with anybody else.

Robert Cummings Gene Poole Jim Foetus

Gene Elston Harold M. Stratton Cole Porter

DG is also carrying Love Cry Want right now. A nice little slice of sunshine through the window pane, that one is.

Probably my two favorite Betty Carter performances come from the relative beginning and the relative end - "Social Call" from the Epic date, and the duet w/Geri Allen on the "Stardust/Memories Of You" medley from Droppin' Things. Totally different approaches on each performance, but the end result is the same - a deep intimacy that has you crawling up inside the song so far that you feel as if you ought to call and send it flowers the next day. Or something like that.

If you believe what he said in interviews, what he says in various lyrics , especially on "In Utero" tracks, and what friends said about him in interviews and via other sources, then Kurt Cobain of Nirvana qualifies for the above. Injecting 10x the lethal dose of smack for a hardcore addict into your vein and shortly thereafter blowing off half your head with a large guage shotgun is an indication of an extremely troubled psyche. Originally, Kurt was a guy who had learned how to be happy on $4 a day. Well, ok. But there are those who will tell you that death is the ultimate career move.

What I remember liking about this album at the time (and I actually asked for it - and got it - as a Christmas present) was how it was all about the mainstreaming of the 60s Miles Quintet trip. I figured since that was some important music that had never (yet) really entered the public consciousness, that by mainstreaming it the way that the Marsalis Bros. were doing, that the overall mainstream would be "moved ahead", which would in turn create an opening for the other important musics of the 60s that hadn't yet entered the public consciousness to move into, and eventually themselves get mainstreamed. Evolution at it's frustratingly slow but probably most natural pace. Well, that's kind of what's happened. But geez, it's been uglier than I had anticipated, and I'm not at all sure that all the various mainstreamings have gone the way that I had hoped (when Ornette & Ayler are bigger heroes to rock audiences than they are to jazz ones, you gotta wonder. At least I do...). But oh well. As they say, if the outcome was a foregone conclusion, there'd be no need to play the game. Seems that evolution is not always the untampered-with organic process that we'd like to think... As for how it would/will sound to me today, I don't know. I'll pull out the ol' Christmas Present From Rosalyn and give it a spin. Don't know that "objectivity" will be possible at this point in time, but I'll try my best.

Indeed there are, but in jazz, the great ones who achieve "market success" on the scale of Miles (and they are indeed few) are almost always those like Miles & Ellington (and even Cannonball) who came from, and more importantly accepted, a certain business/personal ethos that viewed "upward mobility" not as a sell-out but as a buy-in, or those, like Armstrong, who were so sure of their core identity that any (well, almost any) exploitation that was foisted upon them was treated like the proverbial water off the duck's back. As jazz and its musicians became more politically/culturally demonstrative, the tensions between "labor" and "management" became more intense, and the various balancing acts by all concerned became more difficult. I don't think that's any news. But I do think it's worth considering the skills required by somebody like Miles to continually walk that tightrope between the Personal Being and the Public Symbol. Lean even just a little too far in either direction and down you go. And it's precisely that skill that I attribute to Miles' (& Duke's, & Cannonball's) upbringing. To me, that's at the root of all of his success right there. Not of his talent(s), mind you, but of his abilities to successfully function in a system that was for all intents and purposes set up to use him until there was little or nothing left and then discard him, or at best let the little animals have a go at what the bigger ones didn't want anymore. The particulars he might have had to dealt with on the fly, but not so the nature of the game itself. He already knew what was up with that game, and he played it as an insider, which actually put him at a position of strength, for what I think are obvious reasons. Of course, none of this would be under discussion if Miles hadn't have been playing the game with the Royal Flush hand of gifts, tangible and intangible, that he was holding, but the point is this - he sat down at the table with some pretty savvy players at a very high stakes game and never (once he "cleaned up") allowed himself to be bluffed out of the game. That's not "luck", that's character, and not in quotes either. That's in no way saying that those who have allowed themselves to be bluffed out of the game (and Woody, with his truly tragically self-destructive bent eventually allowed this, as much as it pains me to say it) - or just flat-out got hoodwinked - lacked character. Far from it. It's just that Miles' character was, maybe not "tougher" than theirs, but definitely more suited to this particular game as it was (and still is) played. Most jazz musicians' character is better suited, for a variety of reasons, none but a few of them ignoble, for a different game. Not Miles'. Now, what about that other unquestionable icon of post-bop jazz, Coltrane? Easy - Trane came from a lineage of preachers, and preachers always find a way to get over!

I would suggests that this conviction of rightness extends far beyond the relatively simple confines of "one's art", but instead has everything to do with one's view of one's self as a human being and how one is able/willing to interact with/use the existing power structure in order to extract maximum gain (and not just financial) for one's self at minimal cost to one's true self. Not a job for the faint of heart, the reluctant soul, somebody hellbent on destruction (of either self or of said system) or otherwise not willing/able to play the game on its own terms as well as on one's own. A question - is there any icon in any area of Our Popular Culture, "deserving" or otherwise, who achieved iconic status entirely against their will?

Maybe, possibly, but I've got a hunch it would depend on where you did (or did not do) the counting.

Mister Roberts Ensign Pulver Captain Binghamton

Think it might've been Mingus' version of "A Foggy Day"?

Nearly bought a totally trashed United copy of this today at the Mesquite Half-Price. But $5.98 is too much for sizzling bacon... $2.98 I'd have gone for, though.

Thanks for the heads-up. I gotta get those!