JSngry

Much love and respect from here. Best wishes!

In My Youth made it to a Muse CD, but that that's it. as far as I know.

And some people drank the Kool-Aid...

Of what?

And here. If I'm to be expected to serve somebody's "agenda", then I expect to be compensated, by means other than a "good feeling", for doing it.

Ok, I've got that one on a Xanadu CD - Xanadu XCD 1231 - Love And Understanding No mention anywhere that it was originally on Muse, but now that you mention it...

I have another, later, Garnett Muse CD - Resurgence (Muse MCD 5544), recorded 1995, released 1996. Pretty good, but mining more, for lack of a better term, "mainstream" territory than Black Love. Agree w/you about The Gap Sealer (aka Jimmy. too. GREAT side, that one. Wasn't aware of a second, different, Muse/Cobblestone album, though. Details, please! 32Jazz did issue a Heath compilation, but I think it was taken from his 70s/80s Orrin Keepnews-produced sessions, including 1974's The Time and The Place, another one much in the vein of Gap Sealer. Heath really had a nice thing going with that afro/modal/post-bop/semi-electric/whatever bag, I think. Seemed/seems to me that the Heath Brothers thing was a step backward, some very nice arranging on Jimmy's part notwithstanding.

Such a life!

When Blue Note wrecked havoc with its Bulletin Board (long story, don't ask unless you really want to know ), Jim started this one. When BN finally shut their board down completely, after a long, gruesome period of atrophy, this one had already begun to thrive for us as a more than adequate replacement. Almost all (all?) of us initially came here because we were an established community looking for a new, friendly home. I suspect we stay as much because we dig the vibe - no heavy-handed overseer enforcing a "vision" on the board as because of the shared history. And hopefully it's that vibe that keeps people coming back once they discover this place. Now, as far as "shared history" goes, its being made every day. So if you're a relative newbie (as your post count suggests), don't be bashful about jumping on in and helping create some. In other words, welcome aboard!

I've never been impressed by Zwerin.

Don't we all!

Thanks, Michael. That may well be the most open interview with Rollins I've ever seen. One of the most open, for sure.

Damn straight it is! I also pulled out Night Passage a few months ago, and really dug it too. Yeah, it's (mostly) a blazing chop-fest, but if you listen to what those chops are blazing on, it's not just licks, patterns, and all the other things that killed fusion (and just in the nick of time!), it's pure music, and damn creative music it is at that. Dizzy Dean's classic quote about how it ain't braggin' if you can back it up definitely applies here. It at once tickles me and frustrates me when I hear younger/newer "jazz fans" get into a hissy-fit about synthesizers and such sounding "dated" and stuff like that. Whatever. A saxophone section sounds dated. A harpsichord sounds dated. A minuet sounds dated. Sonata-allegro form sounds dated. Hell - all music sounds, or will sound, dated. It's all sound, and all/any sound is living and valid if you make music with it, if you create, not re-create with it. Same with rhythms -there's no such thing as an intrinsically invalid rhythm in my book. Just make it live, don't strangle it to death. Like a wise ancestor once said - 'Tain't What You Do, It's the Way That You Do It. A (relatively) few duds and misfires notwithstanding, whatever Weather Report did, they did with creativity, elan, and, at times, outright gonzo gusto and sophistication. It's the element of gonzo sophistication that I think eludes some people. It's not an oxymoronic concept, although only a very limited number of individuals seem to be able to pull it off. And Joe Zawinul is definitely one who of 'em. I guess it's a sign of these post Reagan/Marsalis times that such things are now viewed as suspect by so many, but I'll take a mediocre Weather Report jam over another faux-"exciting" hard bop regurgitation any day of the week, and twice on Sunday. Better to try and fail at something of your own than to suceed at being somebody else.

Mark Turner was born in 1965, so he is turning forty this year. He frequently cites Wayne and Warne as his big influences. Personally, I think Turner, even though not so old, is a major influence on players of today. He was a direct influence on, just in what I've witnessed first hand, Ravi Coltrane, Myron Walden, Greg Tardy. These are people who spent many days practicing with him, besides performing with him. Some feel he was influential through his records on much of this generation. I recorded many hours of the original Omer Avital sextet, which featured Turner, Tardy, Walden, and Charles Owens. He was a source of a lot of ideas on the bandstand, and a major catalyst in that group. Luke ← Well, if we go Turner, can we give an asterisk to Warne Marsh?

I've let my $38.49 CDU order ride, and it still seems to be good for whenever this sucker gets released, even if it's in 2525 (if man is still alive). That's a good thing, I should think

The only thing wrong with this album is that it's too short.

It's that over-the-topness that cracks me up. If I thought for one second that the people who wrote this didn't do so completely tongue-in-cheek, I'd find it revolting and/or insulting. There's no healthy adult/mature intellectual/emotional element to this kind of thing except a very dry humor. Or wet, considering all the "blood" that gets spilled. Now, I know that there are some people who take this stuff very seriously, like it's some kind of "heavy" social commentary, but c'mon, get real. At face value, it's some fucked up shit in terms of violence, and emotionally, it's at the level of a really disturbed 11 year old - if you take it at face value. "Fantasy" or not, it's the humor that undisturbifies it. It's Tom & Jerry (the really violent ones that they don't show any more) mixed with Itchy & Scratchy and then amped up off the meter. Mix in an obvious mockery of cheap sentimetalism and male inadequacy/revenge fantasies, and I don't see how anybody can help but laugh, if they've got the stomach for the stuff in the first place. I mean, my wife was talking aabout how "disgusting" certainscenes were, but she was laughing right along with me! I think I'd kinda worry about anybody who didn't laugh, unless they were laughing for the wrong reasons, in which case, I think I'd extricate myself from their proximity with all due haste! Now, a little of this stuff goes a long way for me. I get enough laughs from the perverse absurdities of everyday reality, thank you, (and reality is crueler than anything in this genre, simply becaus it's real) but it's good every once in a while to take a break and let somebody else have a whack at it (pun intended?). This one oughta last me another 5-10 years, I think. But it was good for a quick few hours.

It was pretty funny, really. I think that was the point.

da da da da DEE daa da dop!

LTB did PPV on this this morning, and I came along for the ride. As a dark comedy, it was great. Like "Pulp Fiction" in any number of ways. As anything else, well, if I wanted to explore the depths of depravity to which humanity can sink, hell, I can review much of my own life, and those of many around me. Only, there was more really great female asses in the movie, and I only know one, two, maybe three non-professional guys who've killed anybody on purpose and gotten away with it. But hey - you've seen one or two really great asses up close and personal, and known a few killers on the lam, you pretty much get the idea. Not a lot of real variety there after a while. Don't know that I've known any pedophillic serial killers before, but oh well, some things just don't come your way. I'll live... But the movie sure looked great.

It ain't bad, actually. Kinda "local", but not in a bad way. Derivative but not imitative small-group jazz-funk w/o any glossy production (except for the last tune, a short outright disco thing on which I swear that Pepper is not the altoist). Some will call it "dated", and they will be right. But all music is (or becomes) "dated" in some form or fashion, so that's not a problem for me. Pepper, though, is definitely the selling point. He plays really well in this context, I think.

Imagine Art Pepper, in 1975, taking the role of Bennie Maupin in a local southern California original-material jazz/funk band (with vocals that are prominent at times, but never dominate) that based their style on the Herbie Hancock of Man-Child and slightly beyond. It's 1975, remember, a time when many jazz players viewed funk as (mostly) just another rhythm to play over, not a reason to change your entire way of playing. This is what Pepper does - plays as he played anything else at this time. Only this time, it was over supple funk beats, and he was part of a group, not the whole show. And oh yeah - Pete Robinson's the keyboardist. Go ahead, imagine it.... Now, if you're screaming in horror, laughing in derision, or otherwise refusing up-front to give the idea even a semblance of a chance for working, then stop here. Otherwise, check out this album. Simple as that!

Long story...

Yeah, it's all in the mind, if you know what I mean, and the mind(s) have been seriously clouded by a lot of various things over the years...