JSngry

Music by Gil Melle too, quite often.

Received via e-mail: This summer (the end of July to be exact), SonyBmg, the third largest record company in the world, is releasing "BOB BROOKMEYER AND FRIENDS", which I produced for reissue. For the record, Bob hates the date because of Teo Macero's heavy hand. That said, it's still a wonderful recording, remixed from the original master tapes using DSD technology. I found three previously unreleased bonus tracks, including a wonderful version of Billy Strayhorn's "Daydream" sung by Tony Bennett, who approved of the release of this track out of respect for Brookmeyer. The personel is: Bob Brookmeyer, Stan Getz, Gary Burton (who wrote new notes), Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Elvin Jones. And Tony Bennett on one cut. Not bad. "Skylark", "Misty", "Who Cares", "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" and many Brookmeyer originals. Burton's notes are wonderful. The reason for this email is that at our last Legacy meeting they said that they were going to withdraw the release because 'retail only ordered 800 units'. Then they suggested that the tracks be offered online. But they have no online business. This is from a company that is worth 4 billion dollars and has 28% of the distributed market in a country of 290 million....800 copies? That's either lazy or lame. Or both. But the larger issues are the sqeeze on jazz as it crowds the limited 'retail' space. Yet they do nothing to push online because it's been balkanized and sent to 'new media', thirty-somethings that are brainwashed to think of music one track at a time. I call this CADD, or Corporate Attention Deficit Syndrome. Where will this lead? The elimination of the long form album concept and only tracks (selected by a handful of now-aged experts) available on compilations. For a large, multi-national company with a history of Albums to try to push jazz with compilations based on moods or songs is ludicrous in the age of iTunes. I protested and at the end of the day it was agreed to release it, to save face. Bob is to get an advance. For fun and to stick this 'jazz doesn't sell' mindset in the head can we spearhead an underground movement to get people to purchase (probably $12-15) this CD, online or in the stores. After all, if they only plan to sell 800 and if they get 2000 from Amazon because an effort was actually made....you get the picture. After all, even though Bob hates the recording he might enjoy the subtle subversion. If the CD could sell 2K then I could get the Times to do a story and further make the point.... "JAZZ DOESN'T SELL BECAUSE THE JAZZ BUSINESS IS THE REFUGE FOR THE INCOMPETENT AND MEDIOCRE" BUY BOB(brookmeyer)!!!!! What do you think? It's harmless. I'm going to make a form email and send it to all of my people and have them send it to others. Why not? bb I'm probably being played for a sucker, because I have the original LP, don't find it to be much better than "good", but hey, why not? If this really is what the coporate bozos are up to, I'll play along just to see what happens.

Yeah, sometimes I get lucky...

Gracias!

Confirmed! But I'm a little surprised - Track 11 has been a lot more common Track 6!

Where is Marvin Cabell now?

So the song has personal relevance to your life then, eh?

I also strongly disagree/disapprove with the notion that "newcomers" to jazz won't enjoy something like Atlantic-era Ornette. In my experiences, some will and some won't, and the proportion isn't really any different for this "style" of jazz as it is for any other. I mean, we've got people here who don't dig organ jazz, but do they stay away from the board? so the notion that "we're not going to play it because nobody will like it" strikes me as fundamentally wrong, both philosophically and realistically.. Some people will like it (And amongst younger people, perhaps more than some), and a station like KNTU can/should include it in their overall programming accordingly. What I really think is at work here is a fundamental conflict of purpose. I know from experience that the UNT JazzEd program is first and foremost about learning a skill, not about developing a peronal voice, nurturing the "creative spirit", or anything like that. Which is fine with me, that's what they do, they do it damn well, and many fine musicians (as well as a handful of great ones) have come out of that environment. But, geez, Ornette...you get people listening to him, thinking about his music and about how it's created and what it represents (on many different levels), and WHOA! Where does that leave a program that is so strongly oriented towards teaching mechanical skills (and judging merit accordingly)? You've got cats there who have spent a lifetime building careers on teaching a certain way of playing jazz, as well as on using the institutional powers at their disposal to reinforce the aura of the "correctness" of their approach. Where does Ornette leave them? The thing is, you can, (and should!) have the knowledge (a little, some, or all) that these guys teach to make relevant creative music. Knowledge never hurrt anybody! But accquiring the skills is just the first step, and it's one that a lot of significant artists pick up in different ways and at different paces along the way. A systematic approach works for some, doesn't work for others, and doens't make any difference one way or another for still others. What you can't teach is soul, feeling, and creativity, and by narrowing the parameters of what is "good" jazz as this (and, I'm sure, other) programs have done, you (intentionally or otherwise) create an environment in which "success" is easily obtained by merely following the rules (the harder you apply yourself to the following/application of thiose rules, the greater the degree of "success" awarded), which makes the students look/feel good, and defintely makes the teachers look like some bad mofos, since they turn out SO MANY "top-flight" players. It's a big ego-stroke for all concerned, which isn't necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, but still, the longer it gets propagated, the less tolerant of "alternatives" it becomes. Where that leads... So there's no room for Ornette in a place such as this. He challenges/exposes too much of the "home" philosophy. So it's best to mock him, to minimalize him, to stigmatize him, and it's even better to hide his CDs so they don't get played by "untrained" DJs who might let the cat out of the bag. Protect the kingdom at all costs! It's a situation that I know will never change, one that's been in place long before I got there and will still be in place long after I'm dead and gone. Usually, i file that world away with so many other "parallel universes", but this time I slipped up and allowed them in. My bad!

So this means that my planned personal fundraising offer to make CDRs of anything and everything in my collection for $29.99 each should probably be postponed for a little bit, eh?

You're welcome! Yes, much vinyl used, often because the material's not available otherwise! But also, I'm not a compulsive "upgrader" (I'll do it for bonus cuts or if my LP is totally ploughed, but otherwise, no...), nor a real stickler for a totally quiet surface on LPs. I mean, yeah, I prefer it, but if I can get a fairly quiet LP outta the used bins for $3.99, I'm all over it, ya' know? Especially if it's of an album that I'd rather use the CD price to buy something else with. Such is the case w/Track 4 - that cut and one other totally kick ass, but the rest of the album's not so hot. So I hold what I got. Now, replacing such an LP with a used CD, that's another matter altogether. I'm such a bottom-feeder... Now, as for Track 8, it might've been released on CD in Japan or Europe. But I have no knowledge of it having been. Would be nice if it has been! Oh, btw - you definitely know at least two of the players on Track 4!

Hymie Schertzer Wilbur Scwartz Skeets Herfurt

I'd like to leave the posting of responses up to the individual. If somebody already has the discs and finds their personal situation such that this weekend will be the only time in the foreseeable future that they can either post, or post as in-depth as they'd like, then I'm certainly ok with that. If, otoh, they'd prefer to wait a few days until most everybody's got the discs, I'm ok with that too. I just don't want to create a barrier to the fullest possible participation, that's all. Either way is fine with me. As for the altoist on #8, yes, recordings by him are scarce after a certain period. And I think he plays magnificently here, much more maturely, adventurously, and personally than on his earlier recordings. In fact, as you guessed, his presence and playing on this cut is the reason for its inclusion. But the album from which it is taken is one that I think is so far a "lost gem" as far as CD issue goes! As for #11, well, nothing that guy played surprises me any more!

Hell, I've got the US release, all I need is the 45. Need to find somebody to go jack that puppy. Where's Aric now that we really need him?

Oh yeah - on Track 8, it's not the singer's date, and the ID of the altoist sort of ties the whole track together, both on its own terms and in context of the album on which it appears. This album may very well be her only recording, and I think it's safe to say that the altoist is only slightly more familiar, although there are those here who will not be unfamiliar with him. She's definitely got more feel than chops but I dig her vibe.

Oh, you should've heard the first one I did. This one's homogenized by comparison! Really, I had narrowed down what tunes I was going to include to about 500 or so , but then when it came down to the actula moment of recording, ended up using only about 7 or 8 of them, I'm guessing. Why" Circumstances, I suppose, that and my natural improvisational nature. I began recording the discs at about 3:30 AM on a Sunday morning, when the house was dark and quiet, and when "marital relations" had me feeling calm and contented (too much information, I know). So most of the really "difficult" and possibly "controversial" stuff went forgotten as the vibe of the moment took over. There was, however, a fair amount of whimsy in the selections, as well as in the sequencing. How well that conveys itself, if indeed it does at all, remains to be seen and is, of course, highly subjective anway. I'm either "love" or "hate" with singers as a rule, but that one's easy - I dig singers, perhaps more than the average jazz fan. Maybe it's the musician in me, but I really dig hearing how singers deal with phrasing, nuances of enunciation, and interpretation of lyrics. Gives us horn playeers pause for consideration when we get to thinking about our music in purely technical terms, gives us "another way" to approach our instrumemts. Plus, a singer can be really successful at creating a mood, since they've got the advantage of the lyrics. What more direct way to "tell a story"? So, I guess you could say that I like these particular singers on these particular numbers for the vibe they create, which is a vibe that most instrumentalists can't create, not exactly (although they can certainly enhance it!). Not necessarily a "better" vibe, just a "different" one, and one which I dig. But that's just for certain singers. Others drive me from the room screaming and reaching for firearms!

MAMBO!

Seems odd that they've not hit the UK yet, although perhpas recent events might explain some of that.

That song "Tracy" was pretty sappy. Didn't know they did anything else.

Tito Jackson Marshall Tito Carrie Nation

Look! Up in the sky!

BOGGEY!

Who knows?!?!?!?!

Better the crap you know that the crap you don't know, apparently...

WELL deserved! Now, how much of a break on a WFIU coffee mug can ya' gimme?