JSngry

BAD Kitty!

Now, her career's not the only thing that's toast!

Goodbye, kitty.

Hello, kitty.

Hello Kitty!

Did I do that? Sorry.

Re: the entire "harmonic node" method of improvisation, I can tell you that it's all grounded in conventional theory, the whole chord/scale bizness. Some schools actually teach people to play that way, viewing it as a high art. Myself, I think it's boring more often than not, not because of the harmonic "abstraction", but because of the lack of rhythmic (eighthnoteseighthnoteseighthnoteseighthnoteseighthnotes breath eighthnoteseighthnoteseighthnotes breath Rollins-esque stacatto figure(s) to prove you can "swing" eighthnoteseighthnoteseighthnoteseighthnoteseighthnoteseighthnoteseighthnotes; or as Pete Gallio so succinctly puts it, "phweedle phweedle phweedle") and tonal (tightly focused, metallic, and OH so sincere at all costs) variety it's usally delivered with. Sorry, but I want more out music than a master's thesis on harmony. Now, that's a litle harsh, no doubt, and not really fair overall, but in exaggeration, I hope I make the point. The players I know (and know of) who are heavily into this bag are more often than not totally enthralled by Trane ca. 63-65. But it goes without saying that there was more to Trane than his mathematics, which to be totally fair about, WERE a crucial element in WHAT he played. WHY and HOW he played it, well, that's another matter... I'm surprised that more hasn't been made of the connection/influence of the Trisatano bag on Joe Henderson. From how I hear it, a lot of his "permutations" are very inspired by Konitz, although his concurrent R&B interjections and "stronger" tone might distractone from hearing that. But Joe's on record more than once as having been strongly influenced by the whole Tristano school. Yet there's the whole honker element, refined and expanded though it was. Which, if I may be allowed a misty-eyed Jazz Fart moment, only proves the long shadow cast by both sides of Lester Young. Ready when you are, K.B !

Didn't the M.C. at some club used to introduce him as "The ONLIEST Monk"? That one I like!

Also recommended is the Hal Wilner produced Amarcord Nino Rota. Rota's themes have a "happy melancholy" that is not at all at odds with a "jazz esthetic". Good stuff to work with/from.

From what I can hear, live was a totally diferent animal. They stuck more to the raw materials. But that's a bit of an oversimplification, as they played "medleys" of the varying riffs and vamps, sometimes overlapping pieces. But there wasn't the "now you hear it, now you don't" element of the recordings. Apples and oranges, judging from the boots I've heard.

Halperin is a student of Mosca, and Mosca speaks quite highly of him in that Cadence interview. Sounds like somebody I need to check out.

As a bonus on that Trio CD, you also get Dexter Gordon's first date as leader, from 1944, when he was VERY much under the sway of Prez.

What about a Box Set?

I dunno, man. There's some kind of wierdness going on with LP reissues that may or may not be totally sanctioned (wink wink, nudge nudge). Seems like Dusty Groove (the bastards!) seems to offer all sorts of LP reissues that don't show up anywhere else, although I'm not exactly Mr. With It when it comes to the world of turntabledom. All I know is that you can get "new reissue" copies of some things on Muse and other labels there on LP. I got one of Jerome Richardson's GOING TO THE MOVIES from them, and all sonic indicators were that it had been dubbed from an original LP. So draw your own conclusions...

Well, Zorn used more than game pieces early on. He used actual cue cards with specific musical instructions, and his ensembles were functioning in somewhat of a "jazz" mode. Don't know if or how well this stuff got documented on recording though, I'm just going by what I read and heard from people who were checking it out at the time. Agreed, though, that it's a stretch to call that "jazz" overall, although he did garner a fair amount of noteriety in the less hidebound jazz press in those days. I'm talking early-mid 80s here, when it seemed that ANY improvisational music was being glommed onto as "jazz" by those who had a reflexive hatred of what was going on with the parallel machinations of Marsalis & Crouch. It was an ugly and confusing time in a lot of ways. Too much ideology and not enough music. On both sides... Al, the "best" Threadgill interview that I can recall off the top of my head was in, I think, MUSICIAN magazine. It's in my closet somewhere (EVERYTHING in my closet is "somewhere" ), and I don't have the date. But that was a good one. I'd like to see somebody do a really thourough interview with him though, because he's undoubtedly on of the freshest, freest, and just plain FUN creative voices of the last 25-30 years, totally devoid of ideological or other baggage in his music. To that end, for those who want to hear some slightly "different" Threadgill, a strong rec for the seemingly oft-overlooked SONG OUT OF MY TREES on Black Saint, an album that is in some twisted way the "sequel" to X-75 (and GOD, when is somebody going to get to the Arista/Novus catalog and do right by it?) in that it's not a "band" project, but instead is a collection of compositions for various ensembles with a rotating cast of players. Beautiful stuff.

Anybody know who's on it, and what year it was recorded?? (I don't know my Braith very well, beyond his work on BN.) It's a compilation of live stuff recorded at Braith's club over the years. One number has Sonny Rollins playing saxophone pads! (what he's really doing is fingering the horn w/o blowing, letting the snap of the keys make all the sound). Also present is Gil Coggins, a somewhat "shadowy" figure. Don't have it in front of me rihgt now, but I'd say it's a good buy for the "specialist", somebody who has a curiosity about life and music "away from the spotlight", if you know what I mean. I enjoy it. And then there's the Braith Family CD, featuring the Braith Family Singers. Now THAT'S some REALLY wack stuff. Again, "not for everybody", but it occupies a special place of fondness in my heart. Definitely "parallel universe" stuff!

It's on Muse, and that's a label that didn't smoothly survive the transition to CD, to put it mildly.

Does Matana Roberts appear on any recordings? Sounds like somebody I'd like to hear.

I guess one person's "mellow" is sometimes another's "uninspired". I lean towards the latter. To me, TARU is both "mellow" and "inspired". Just seems like Lee didn't really come to play for this one, was having a bad chops day, might have been feeling rough from the night before, whatever. Stuff happens. For sure, it comes from Lee's "evolutionary" period, when he was conciously paring down, but it just doesn't seem to me that there's any real inspiration happening anywhere, which is a pity, because there's some great tunes here. If I was to give a recommendation, it would be don't pay too much for it, and don't expect a "classic". It's a document, and has value as such, but more than that...

Looks like a great set! FWIW, some Ellington Cotton Club broadcasts have been released in the past. I've got one on Jazz Anthology/Musidisc that dates from 1938, and it is superb.

To my knowledge, Zorn was the first one to really use those elements in a "jazz" setting, at least as conspicuous elements, visable to the audience, and that came along a few years later. Certainly, though, they had been in use in "New Music", "classical", performances for quite some time, so you may be right. And sure, interpretive graphical notation had come into play in the work of people like Braxton and Cecil (not really graphical, but "cellular"), although that was a "private" matter between composer and performer. Roscoe Mitchell's NOONAH album reprints some of the score, and it's clearly evident that conventional notation, with clear demarcations of bars and such, had ceased to be relevant to this music. So yeah, I'd not rule out the possibility, not at all. I played on some "New Music" cat's senior composition recital back in the day, and one of the things he gave me was a picture of a tree. Nothing more. "Play the tree", was what he told me. O....K... Nice enough concept, but... I just can't help but feel a bit of whimsy is involved here, though. Threadgill's always been a bit of a card (pun only partially intended) in his song titles, and a phrase like "forthcoming on our next future recording" in the liners seems REALLY sly to me. A title like "The Jick" (street slang for cheap rotgut wine or liquor, if anybody doesn't know) also seems to betray that whimsy. And cards and card playing are part of the same "folk" environment as "jick" (an element that Threadgill drew upon again in "Don't Drink That Corner My Life Is In The Bush") But you never know - the roots of Air were, as previously noted, in a theatrical setting, and that's as good a venue as any to intrioduce the visual element of cards and such. Could be!

Chuck, would you be at liberty to say if that would have been Rufus Reid? Great player, but not the biggest stickler for "proper" intonation...

Not really relevant to the specific topic of this thread, but I have very mixed emotions about the "concert" setting for jazz in general. There's a layer of detatchment between performer and audience that doesn't always jibe with the communal nature of the music. I'm not too fond of the notion of going someplace where an audience is supposed to sit and recieve. Where's the interaction, the exchange of energies? Although nobody likes the boorish patron who blabbers on constantly, oblivious to the music, what's wrong with just hanging out in an environment where the music is part of the overall fiber of the environment? Doesn't bother me one bit. If anything, I prefer it. Sure, you can get a good vibe in a concert setting, but the notion that this is "Art" (note the capital "A"), and that the audience is supposed to be reverent and all that shit, well, that's just too much for me more often than not. That's why the outdoor setting seems to work so well so often - people are relaxed, coming out to have FUN, for crissakes, and there ain't a damn thing wrong with that. Sure, some musics demand a more intimate, quiet setting for full appreciation, but the way I look at it is, if that's what you do, accept the fact that you're going to have a comparatively limited audience, and proceed accordingly. No sense in trying to fit the square peg into the round hole, so to speak. Frustration is too often the result of unrealistic expectations. If Jane Bunnet's doing her Cuban thing in a venue that does not allow for people to get up and MOVE to the music, that's a fundamental misunderstanding right there. By whom, I can't say. But the notion that sitting and listening reverantly is somehow "better" than being involved in an overall "environment" is not as accurate as often as we might like to believe. If you want to attract a "broad" audience, don't present the music in a setting that requires specialized listening habits, simple as that.

Is "Solignac" French for "Nica's Pad"?

These aren't references to earlier work at the saw-mills?