JSngry

Just curious - how old is your sax teacher? Because if he's roughly my age (48 and going fast...), he's more than typical of the cats I went to school with. Never really developed a love for the guy, but I have come to develop a whole helluva lot of respect for him, mostly from a few personal encounters (educational, social, and playing) over the years. The guy's incredibly knowledgable and is into sharing his knowledge with anybody who really wants to learn. Along those lines, there was a book called Lookout Farm from the mid-70s that included Liebman providing virtually note-by-note analysis of his own solo transcriptions. That's at once totally cool and kind of disturbing. Cool because it's as detailed and personal a breakdown of the whats & whys of anybody's playing as you'll find, but disturbing because I don't know that that much self-awareness while playing is necessarily a good thing. But who am I to say? Liebman actually quit playing tenor for about a decade because he felt that he couldn't shake the Trane thing, and that was bugging him. He chose to focus on soprano to find his true voice. I respect the hell out of that. More Clonetranes should take that lesson to heart! Another thing he did while away from the tenor was to explore both his Jewish heritage and the music of Bartok in order to find that voice. Again, I respect the hell outta that, because it shows me that he's aware that, no matter how hard you try, and no matter how badly you want to, you can't duplicate Trane, especially if you're not from that chrono/cultural milieu. Again, a lesson that needs to be learned by many! Personally, I like him much better on soprano, where I think his quest for a truly personal voice has borne fruition. If I was to give a recommendation, it would be two somewhat obscure ones under Teo Macero's name: THE SPIRIT and THE BLACK KNIGHT.

Aric's on to someting, I think. The McDonald-era Doobies (which actually began w/TAKIN' IT TO THE STREETS and reached full maturity on MINUTE BY MINUTE, so I'm not sure that this one is THE album...) very much played into the whole L.A. rock/soul/jazz/studio/session players mix that was going on at the time. Besides them and Steely Dan (and too many others to mention), Joni Mitchell ca. MILES OF ISLES was perhaps the actual precursor/precipitator of all this stuff. Joni got over/through it and took it to the next phase before everybody else got hip to the trip. Viewed in this light, those very early 70s Crusaders albums, all of them L.A.-based and all of them bearing musical elements that would dissemenate/reverberate throught this whole scene, bear reconsideration for their imapct on pop as well as funk-jazz. This is an element in the mix that I think has gone under-recognized, if it's been recognized at all.

Watching ESPN News, the commentators unanimously say that Artest was justified in going into the stands. "Self-defense" they call it. This worries me...

Please verify. Please DON'T!

PERFECT for driving!

It's the collagen in my fingertips.

Better watch out for those Simpson kids...

Forgot about this one, what with Mr. Kart's outstanding tome occupying center stage right now in the ol' biblioteca del bano, but this should be great. Morgenstern's long been a favorite of mine. Factual knowledge out the wazzoo, a genuine enthusiasm for the music that he's not afraid to let come through in his writing, and a writing style that reads so easily it's almost like hearing a voice speak. If this is a collection of liner notes, essays, etc., I really hope the notes for the Prestige issue of the Gillespie big band's Salle Pleyel concert are included. I lost my LP about 20 years ago, and have since gotten the music on CD. But those liners still stay in my memory. Got the album when I was, like, 16 or 17, and that was when Prestige liners were more often than not freakin' ESSAYS. The combination of youthful spongelike enthusiasm, that great music, and those liner notes made a huge impression that still lingers. As did Morgenstern's Down Beat concert review of the Newport-In-New York Jam Session with Mingus and Buddy Tate and Charles McPherson and Milt Buckner and Cat Anderson and Alan Dawson and Jimmy Owens and Roland Hanna (and Morgenstern's little "editor's interruption" of the record's review when the reviewer didn't hear it like Dan had. Maybe you had to have "been there", but I tell you, it was cooler than shit!). When the record finally came out, it was like I already knew what it sounded like, FELT like, even, because of Morgenstern's review. I even "heard" the Mingus/Wein hug at the end of it, even though it wasn't actually on the record. That's how good a jazz writer Dan Morgenstern is. I mean, you GOTTA love the guy who (positively) described Albert Ayler's music as sounding like "a Salvation Army band on acid", right?

I'd much rather be part of a chicken wing conspiracy... Then you should move to Pittsburgh, Texas: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tips/getAtt...ractionNo==6516 (but beware - the locally made hot links are OUTSTANDING, and kick the chicken's scrawny little ass all the way back to, uh...Little Rock!)

Geez, Chuck, you're older than I thought!

Yo, David! Can I get that framed, or at least laminated?

To quote Paul Desmond, "That's the way the world ends - not with a whim, but a banker." Just rememember, if you're having half as much fun with this as I am, then I'm having twice as much fun as you. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Good night, and may gord bless.

Post #10,000.

Geez... Ok, here it is...

I smell a vast right-wing conspiracy.

Stop it.

Well, ok, but if I can't be famous right away, why bother? Seriously, what I'm curious about is this - Jon Hendricks did that great thing on "Joy Spring". Max played a very melodic solo on that one. Why didn't Hendricks go ahead and put some words to that as well? Think you can lick it? Get to the wicket. Buy you a ticket. GOOOOOO!

I was gonna say Von Freeman's version of "Blue Bossa", but then I remembered who wrote it... Aw hell, that's mine anyway!

Could you give me one while you're at it?

I got Little Rock, too. And Milwaukee. And Baton Rouge. And Hartford. And Chicago. And Philadelphia. And just about every city east of the Mississippi. Except New York, which is just as well. It's SO 20th century. They didn't ask questions about jazz, cable internet, or Mexican food, so fuck'em, they don't know shit about me. Which is why I'm moving to New Chikandelphorleans City. One of these days.

Still thinking about y'all in a prayerful manner.

Max Roach. On CHATAHOOCHIE RED. So I guess that the answer to the original question is "no"?

Damn, I didn't realize that I was that close! Hey, I gotta got to work myself. Manana, ok?

Sex obviously sells, Jim. All the dry humping apparently leads to higher ratings. I guess I don't care too much because I don't watch the stuff. It's apparently what the people want. Tell it to the late Sylvester Weaver, a.o. Sorry, but I personally find the "we're only giving the people waht they want" argument to be total bullshit. Giving people what you know will titillate them and hook'em is not the same as giving them what they want - it's removing options in favor of a sure thing, simple as that. Pretty cowardly, I say.

Well, half a "meeting point" is better than none, no? The alternative is to let the "wingnuts" have this show all to themselves, and then what do we do? Sit here and bitch about how "they're taking over"?