JSngry

Perfectly acceptable afaic! What I kind of "objected" to was the notion put forth by some that Buddy Rich wasn't an "major" jazz drummer. In my world he's not, but in some parallel jazz worlds he is. And in the technical world of drummers, he's accorded been some pretty heavy respect by some/many of the people who are - Max, Philly, Elvin, etc. they all give props to his skills. Which is not to say that they bowed down to him as "better" than them or anything like that, just that they respected his accomplishments playing the same instrument. What we're talking about here is, I think, "shop talk" amongst musicians, which is always going to be a different beast than "music talk". The issues of taste and musicality, as Chuck noted, are major sticking points with me and many others when it comes to Buddy Rich. And I've heard many drummers give Buddy the "so what?" treatment when it comes to those things, drummers who will at the same time acknowledge a sense of awe at his technique (which encompasses more than just "speed", btw). It's not an "either/or" thing, ya' know? I really, really don't care for Buddy Rich's drumming as a rule. Go out of my way to avoid it, actually (except for when I'm in the mood for that kind of thing (in which case I like to get it over with as quickly as possible...). But damned if I'm going to say that he wasn't much of a drummer or some such. To me, that's just fundamentally wrong. If you're a musician and can't recognize virtuosity, then you're kinda fucked, afaic. Otoh, you're equally fucked if you get so blinded by it that you lose the powers of discernment and think that that's all there is to it. A musician has a personal duty to balance that perspective, and from both ends. Everybody else is duty-free, though! Now as far as Rich & Mosaic are concerned, back in the early days of Mosaic, when they were eagerly soliciting customer suggestions, I sent in a long list which included two "sure fire money makers", as I put it. One wass the Complete Thad & Mel Solid State, the other was the Complete Buddy Rich Pacific Jazz. Cuscuna's response was that the Thad/Mel thing was a good idea already under considration, but that the Rich stuff had a big enough audience to merit individual general releases, which is what happened (and they've all stayed in print). So, you look at the sidemen on these Verve small-group dates (a not unimpressive list...), and factor in the genuine "beyond the norm" appeal that Buddy Rich has in the overall jazz world, and I think that you got a set that's good business for Mosaic (do not underestimate the number of Buddy Rich fanatics, believe me!), and one that has solid "mainstream" jazz appeal for people who aren't as bugged by Rich's drumming as we are. In fact, I'd not be surprised if this one goes pretty quickly, which is money in the pocket for the company, right?

So friggin' what indeed. Except that when a list of The Strongest Men In The History Of The World is compiled, are you going to leave a cat off who can bench press 2000 lbs? I don't think so. Asteriskacise him as Most Annoying Man On The List, sure. But he makes the list.

You'd be surprised how many albums you can hear the odd vocies on when listening through headphones. Not conversations or anything, just the occasional utterances.

I'm thinking Don Knotts.

How come all the links go right back to the index page?

An interesting comparison, although not entirely accurate - Wynton's techniques is "merely" flawless, but Rich's was truly "superhuman". And Rich truly came up "inside" the music over decades (literally over half a centruy!), whereas Wynton caught a whiff of it and then went about trying to re-create it in his own image. But, yeah, those are two players about whom it's easy (too easy, imo) to let one's feelings about their music obscure an objective evaluation of their instrumental abilities. I've got no problem with saying that "they suck" at any given moment, but that doesn't mean that I think that they can't play, or that they are average-at-best players of their respective instruments. Far from it.

If you've heard that Moon (and other labels) live thing of the Rich small group w/Sonny Criss & Kenny Drew from Birdland(?), you'll get an idea of what the best of this set will sound like. Non bad at all, but it does wear me down after the first few tunes. "Relentless" is the word that comes to mind. But like I said, it's honest. totally. And taken a tune or two at a time, most energizing! Now, if you've heard the live set with Flip Phillips from Miami, you'll get an idea of what the worst of it will sound like. Or so I hope - anything beyond that should be confiscated as a Threat To Humankind....

I'd like to see Snoop play Donald Hollinger.

Une erreur est survenue au chargement : Bad address part in requested URL

Technically, Buddy was better than anybody. And everybody knew it (and freely admitted it). How could they not? You play an istrument, really play it, and you know who's got command and who doesn't. And Buddy Rich had more command of his instrument than anybody. Any and all disagreements about his musicality must acknowledge that if they are to be valid. At least they do in my opinion. Now, when it comes to things like "tastefulness" and such, there's plenty of room for disagreement. Buddy Rich is in no way at the top, near the top, or even on my list of "favorite" drummers. But having said that, I'll also say that I have heard things where his playing is both intense and tasteful, and those are the moments when you realize just what a staggering talent he really was, or could be. The Groove Merchant side he cut w/Lionel Hampton has some of those moments - listening to Rich behind Hampton is at times not at all dissimilar to listening to Tony behind Miles. I kid you not. And, I've heard him play brushes extremely tastefully. A blanket dismissal of him as "all chops all the time" is fallacious in specificity, even if it tends to be true overall. The thing I respect the hell out of about Rich is that he wasn't a "showboat", odd as that may sound. A maniac, yes, and definitely a freak, but very, very seldom do you hear him playing fireworks just for the sake of cheap effect. He was a driven soul, and his playing reflected that. "Intensity" is what always comes through, even in his quiter moments, but it is an intensity which has no choice but to be there. Anything else would be dishonest, and for all his faults, Buddy Rich was never dishonest in his music. Yawl can rag on the guy all you want. A lot of it is deserved. But don't ever ever think that there has been (or, probably, ever will be) a more commanding practitioner of the craft of trap set drumming than Buddy Rich. As an "artist", he often leaves much to be desired, at least for what I (and many of us here) like. But when it comes to playing the instrument as virtuostically as it could be played, there's Rich, and then there's everybody else. Period. I respect the hell out of that, every bit as deeply I remain generally indifferent to the results.

Firewall issue, that's what it was.

Yep, she's in Nacogdoches. http://www.ktre.com/global/story.asp?s=366...tType=Printable That's the Piney Woods of East Texas. SFA is a good enough "small college", but let's she how long THIS lasts....

WHOOPS! Looks like she's in Texas now? http://www.fwbusinesspress.com/display.php?id=206 That means she'll have to go through KNTU. Good luck Jazzy Chicken Lady!

Saw her win a hunnert grand on the Food Channel this evening doing a chicken cookoff contest. If she's a jazz fan, maybe Ghost could do a chicken show on Night Lights and she could start promoting jazz when she cooks. Win-win, dig? Here's the recipie what she done won all that big money with: http://www.indiana.edu/~radiotv/wtiu/weekl...al/chicken.html Eat that chicken!

Dammit.

Or not. The eclipse.net address bounced back.

Incoming!

Never been a problem before... Please, sir, may I have permission?

Neither of them links works for me.

It's in December, and if I'm lucky, I'll forget about it like I do about half the other stuff I'm supposed to remember.

Fitty? Oy!

When we reach a definitive answer to the original question, let me know. I've got a scratchy copy of Harold Alexander's Raw Root that wants to know.

How many more Oh Nita sets are left?

Call me crazy, but his last recordings - the Groove Merchant ones - are my favorites. There's a quality to them that I can readily neither describe nor find a parallel for.