JSngry

I do consider Woody Shaw an "innovator". Not for moving the music ahead per se, but for coming up with a trumpetistical "answer" to the harmonic challenges posed by Trane's early-60s music. It's not sufficient to say that he found a way to "play Trane on the trumpet", because he really did more than that - he really did forge a new language for the instrument, a language that Hubbard only hinted/flirted at. It's a type of innovation that perhaps is best appreciated by musicians and musically knowledgeable fans, but an innovation it is. It's a distinctive vocabulary, and one that didn't exist before he invented it. Based on Trane, certainly, but certainly not wholly imitative. So now we have different degrees of "innovation". Where does that leave us? Same place we always end up - listening to a bunch of different stuff and liking/disliking it for all sort of reasons, only some of which we can easily defend.

Oscar Schindler Elisha Otis Joseph Dart

Of what good are innovations if people don't try and catch up to them? And even if they don't/can't/whatever fully make a permanent leap, isn't the effort still useful in terms of moving the overall "mainstream" ahead? To use a tenor player as an example, I think that Harold Land is a perfect example of somebody who was perpetually "behind the curve", yet his distance behind the curve remained pretty much constant as the curve moved ahead (at least up to the Post-Ayler zone, which isn't so much a curve as it is a whole new world springing out of the old), and his playing remained organic as his vocabulary shifted. He was never an innovator, yet he continued to grow as a player. for every Hubbard, who experimented often (and sincerely) but ultimately reamined true to his original style, there's a Land, who moves ahead and never goes back, always behind "the curve" but still ahead of where they used to be. Well, maybe there's not a 1/1 equivalency, but you know what I mean... Innovation is not everybody's destiny. But surely the opportunity to grow is. Lots of wasted opportunities, retrenchment, etc. follow, sure, but that's life, for better or worse.

I've heard Black Cat and frankly think it's one of those "for deep fans only" type things. Certainly not "bad", but...

John Irving Julius Erving Booker Ervin

Uncle Sam W.K. Kellogg Max Kiss

Would've been better w/Rabbit on board.

James "Pookie" Hudson Joe Black Rosa Parks

Vijay Singh Vivian Carter Frankie Valle

If by "talent" we're talking pure instrumental/vocal performing skills, what did Jimmy Lunceford show us in these regards? Of course, he had a whole 'nother talent - that of organization and leadership - and it was nothing to take lightly.

Well, there's only one Wayne, of course, but I think you also gotta look at the fact that none of those players were functioning in an environment that they had had such a direct hand in creating as had Wayne. Which also points to the fact that Miles' post-BB bands were by no means a series of consistant "stylistic" entities. Those bands and their styles were constantly evolving, and it seems that most (if not all) of the evolution was spearheaded entirely by Miles. It's the one period of his career where the true collaborative nature of his other bands' discoveries, before and after, seems to have taken a backseat to Miles taking people to where he them wanted to go. Players came and went, and as they did, so did the style of the music. The difference between the Cellar Door band and the post On The Corner band isn't even two years, but it's not just totally different players, it's totally different music, and different from the ground up. The closest to anything "traditional" the you get is the last, electronically abstracted glimpses of the already abstract last days of The Lost Quintet that the Fillmore band(s) w/Grossman put out. From there on, all ties to the past, at least in terms of things overtly "stylistic", were gone. Wayne came into a set gig and morphed it into his own image (with, of course, help from his bandmates and assent/leadership from Miles). Pretty much everybody else came into a situation constantly in flux and were forced to figure out what the music needed. For a sax player, especially ones with the strong "regular jazz" backgrounds as the ones he used, it must've sometimes been a strange ride, to say the least...

Lamont Cranston?

Danny Thomas Marlo Thomas Phil Donahue

Soul Note was the later-starting label and was originally intended as a label for more "veteran" type players.

Just to clarify, Quartet Out is not "my" band. It's very much a co-operative "venture"... Otherwise, yeah, this should be a great day of music in support of a very worthy cause, Y'all come!

Suzy Creamcheese Jeannie Vassoir Vassar Clements

Eggs-ACT-ly!

No, it's some Michigan boy: http://www.joeygaydosjr.net/ Prepare to be amazed...

Hey - anybody who can make rape jokes, abortion jokes, and still take time out for the little people has GOT to be a faboolous babe who can do no wrong!

Marlowe Morris Greg Morris Bud Collier

Edmond Hall Monty Hall Carroll Merrill

Damn, my PM box IS full! I dig Sarah Silverman. Maybe it's just because she's just a TOTAL babe, and because when I laugh at her, I want her to see me laughing at her and think that anybody who can laugh at her jokes that hard has GOT to be fun in the sack and then...Well, you know the rest. I'm a pig. But I'm a FUN pig!

You've never herd Gerard play, have you...

Max Bialystock George Lucas Papo Lucca

Quique Lucca Kiki Dee Koko Taylor