JSngry

to a grasshopper?

"Spotted Dick Is Pudding"

I like the Mizell brothers' pop work quite a bit. But their methods never worked in a jazz setting for me. Too static. Works fine for singers, imo. but for instrumentalists it's kinda like thinking you're getting on an escalator and discovering that you're actually on a treadmill.

More plaudits for Red Trumpet. Great, prompt service, no b.s. if you have any questions, and without a doubt the most amazing packing I've ever seen.

I'm also wondering how Randy Newman's taking all this.

I'm wondering how all the media are getting food, water, and functioning toilet facilities.

Hill Country Suite has been on CD. I got a copy a few mionths ago.

I once knew a singer who gave up because she couldn't find a left-handed voice.

I am indeed. I bought the 12-inch for "The Show", but I've kept if for the flipside. Pretty amazing shit.

I wonder if Sony "accidentally" set the price low in order to spur preorder numbers?

Mizell?

Carl Smith...

Sirs - It is obvious that this is an "act of god". Therefore, we can only conclude that god holds weapons of mass destruction, that he himself is a terrorist, and that, in order to protect future generations from similar acts of terror, his kingdom must be invaded and overthrown. It is time for the American government to devote its full resouces to such an end, and to not stop until permanent and lasting change has been effected. Yours truly, Lucifer B. Elzebub

The BN logo is what first caught my eye. Then the goofy-ass bird feather on homegirl's a-little-too-intense-for-comfort face. By then, the "kill" thing just seemed like icing on the cake.

Listened to all three discss last night, and wasn't offended by anything. Most of this is after my time, since I became less of an "active" follower of the genre somewhere in the mid-80s (no real reason other than that was when our first child was born and also when I began to seriously attempt to develop my own music (I stopped avidly following most of the new jazz releases around that same time as well)), but I did recognize, aside from those whose name was mentioned during the tracks, Slick Rick (an all-time favorite, and a truly creative cat) & the beasties (just some plain wack mofos, period). "The Dark Side" wasn't nearly as dark as I was expecting, btw, and for that, I guess I'm thankful, maybe. What I dug the most was the lack of obviously faux, cartoonish type gangstaisms. That shit just wears me out in nothing flat. Same for all the scream-rock that's out there today. I'm old, what can I say. And speaking of being old, after hearing all these bright, sharp, and perceptive young cats, the Bonus Disc, which theoretically should appeal more to somebody of my generation, was the most mixed bag of all for me. Sharp is sharp, jive is jive, and in this 3-fer, the hip-hoppers definitely get the nod for sharpness. But there's still some real gems in the old stuff. Definitely! Don't know that this collection will change anybody's mind about rap in general, but as somebody who already digs the genre in principle (and often enough in specific) and who was into it reasonably heavy in the early "breakout" years (I still got some Sugar Hill 12-inchers, and the Slick Rick flipside to Doug E. Fresh's "The Show" is something with which I will never part), it was a real treat to hear a lot of cuts with which I was not familiar. I would've liked to have heard some of the freestyle cats like the ones that Steve Coleman has used (now that's just pure poetry, and improvised at a very high creative level), but then again, who's comp is it anyway? Thanks, Jon. I dug it.

Although I sympathize completely with the first sentiment, the second post reveals a deeper issue. Namely, was Don Ellis' rhythmic/odd-meter "fixation" a gimmick or something deeper? I believe that it was the latter, and that to judge his music solely by the type of players he got to play it is selling it short. To have any kind of a ongoing working unit, you have to have players.And if your concept is as "out of sync" (irony intended) with the prevailing mainstream, as Ellis' certainly was, your worry shifts from "who can I get to play this music with all the nuance and sensitivity it deserves" to simply "who can I get to play this music". You wanna get guys to play a Basie or Herman type gig, hey, no problem - 4/4, swing, standard changes, blowing space for the soloists, get in line. You wanna get somebody to play in 35/16 or some such all night long, with "exotic" modes, electronics, and such, well, yeah, there's always going to be that special kind of frak who drools at the chance, god bless 'em, but a whole big band's worth? Not in this world... Ellis' "fatal flaw" may well have been his conviction/delusion/whatever that a big band was the best format for his ideas. The finances alone made it a daunting task (and no doubt led to some of the bizzare choices of direction/material), and the reality of finding players to fill the chairs no doubt often compromised his vision in all but it's most obvious points. But I for one don't question his sincerity, nor his vision, nor do I cast aspersion on the sheer guts it took to do what he did the way he did it. When he succeeded, he did so magnificiently, and when he failed, well, the old back-handed compliment of "I dig what you're trying to do" applies, and not necessarily always as a back-handed compliment. Was Don Ellis a "visionary"? No, I don't think so, at least not in the "messianic" sense of the word. But he was definitely way ahead of the curve (the "jazz" curve, anyway) in tems of things like odd-meters/world rhythms, microtones, electronics, and stuff like that, stuff that would come to the fore on a larger scale in years to come. Judge the work on its own merits, but do so with the realization that this was not a "poser" who pretended to know more than they did, nor was this somebody who, like Stan Kenton, depended on outside forces to create "his" vision. No - Don Ellis was "Don Ellis", for better or worse, in triumph and in failure. Me myself, I gotta respect the hell outta that.

Well, ok, but I have a hard time talking about Sonny Rollins.

Yeah, he was on the band in the final years of the original syndicated run. Skeets Herfert(sp?) came on as lead alto around the same time, and the band actually began to "swing" as much as a Lawrence Welk band could swing, if you know what I mean. I remember seeing a show around 1974 or so (my folks watched it every damn Saturday) where they played a combo version of "How High The Moon" and took it out with "Ornithology". I kid you not. To my knowledge, Paul Humphrey & Neil LaVang are the only two people to have recorded with both Lawrence Welk & Frank Zappa. God bless America.

No such thing as too much of THAT!

215 & 3/4...

Fine side. Go for it.

Who are you man, freakin' Bud Collier?

Never saw him looking like that on the Welk gig. I think this picture's a fake.

It's taken this long, but my first/worst gut-level feelings about that place have finally been confirmed.

There are Dallas audiences like that (as well as the dolts), mostly nin-white. I wouldn't take for them. My favorite is "TAKE your time!" You get somebody to say that, you know it's gettin' good to 'em.