JSngry

Where are they holding the Poutine Bowl this year?

Ernie Henry for the apple, Gigi Gryce for the orange. Gloria Henry or Henry Morgan?

RIP

Of course it's hard. Power surrenders nothing without a struggle. Nobody gives you anything. Etc. Etc. Etc. This never changes, whether you'd 25, 45, 65, hell, 85. That's why survival comes before anything else. And survival is not accidental, not in this world. A clear-eyed and sober approach to facts coupled with a focused work ethic, that's how you get shit done, that's how you fight your fight to win (or at least to not get taken in by all the sucker traps). This is work. Yeah, it's hard. That's how it is going to be. That's how it's always been. That's how it's always going to be. "Angels and Demons At Play" indeed.

I'll take some more Wayne, thanks.

And I'm sure you know plenty of people who barely have a first gear who keep playing in some form or fashion, just because they want to and don't self-destruct or otherwise just don't bother with finding a way to be anyplace other than where they already are. Is it a person's "fault" that they just flounder around in some half-realized state of...whatever? No, not if that's what they want. But, you know, that's on them. "Unlucky" is for people who really want, really try, and don't get what they want. And there's been plenty of that. But not as much as we might want to assume... I'm tired of "victims". This music is loving its victimhood way more than is good for itself. Fight back, dammit. And that means surviving or else making them kill you. Letting them kill you is so....20th century.

Any idea where that Ayler footage lives now, and how much of it there is?

Yes, it very much so matters . #1 - he had the internal focus to take gigs that would be good for him when they were offered to him. Getting the offer in the first place is half the battle. # 2 - that he kept trying to "sell out" is an indicator that he had enough sense to know that voluntary obscurity would get him even more nowhere. And whether or not he succeeded at it, I can tell you that there has never been one point during his time alive where I was not the only person alive who knew who "Sonny Sharrock" was. That's a huge advantage when you know you're going to have a limited audience to begin with, name recognition and visibility, at even a small level. And in the end - Space Ghost. They knew who he was, and they probably didn't have to look too hard to find him. Yes, they toiled in obscurity for years, and in Cecil's case, I've heard some pretty harrowing tales about how hard that was for him. But again - personal discipline and intense focus to keep that genius on track. We all know genius/"genius" type people who just can't keep it together...and only sometimes because of undiagnosed...illness/"illness". Not everybody is disciplined and not everybody really wants to be. And today, more than ever, imo, people need to be. Self-reliance is the only way to stand even half a chance. It's not even optional. Next time you see a sucker trying to get over in any other way, either get paid in cash up front, or else run like hell. Or even better, do both.

Yeah, Bubba's had a thing going there for a minute.

They also all either had or developed a sustainable way of surviving on a daily basis, be in through some type of co-op/communal network, an individual benefactor, getting a good break with some money that they used intelligently, so forth and so on. That takes personal discipline and clarity of vision. Long game. If not at first, then sooner or later. The older I get, the less sympathy I have for people who are hellbent determined to stay "out" in every way and then fall through the cracks as a result. At some point, "out" leads to a loss of gravity, and as a momentary experience, that's transformative, but as a permanent outcome...you don't make it, you be gone for good.

Different type of intensity. It certainly still holds my mental and physical attention, the way all good live music does. I leave feeling like I've had a personal interaction with somebody, not that I was just in a club with some guy playing background music.

Yeah, this weekend most likely, stay tuned!

He was in the New Heritage Keyboard Quartet that made that record for Blue Note. Sadly it does not quite meet expectations, misses by JUST that much...I don't know how, but it does. https://www.discogs.com/The-New-Heritage-Keyboard-Quartet-The-New-Heritage-Keyboard-Quartet/release/2014404

I have both of these and find them quite enjoyable!

I hope Lou doesn't go off on his "Wayne Shorter can't play changes" trip in his interview....

Sustainable energy requires planning. Planning requires both the will and the disciple to, uh....have a plan to begin with, and then to execute it. Jumping into the fire to keep it burning...is self-immolation really a survival strategy?

I always liked his cadence. RIP.

Only One Outthere

Stay strong.

Is this CD really an upgrade from the Arista/Freedom LP? I know not everybody is going to be able to know, but I've never bought a CD of this one...great album, but the LP is hardly a marvel of modern engineering, if you know what I mean...

I tell people all the time - don't sleep on Chico Hamilton. Every now and then, somebody pays attention and lets me know, aHA! NOW I see what you mean. If nothing else, every drummer who bothers to really tune their kit needs to listen to how Chico tuned his, and then how he was able to work with that tuning in combination with different attacks tools. Same thing with his cymbals. Even if one does not "like" his drumming, the "what" of how he played, surely one must recognize the severe musicality of how he played it. In that regard, the guy was a true master.

Our director was a gigging pianist for....forever, it seemed. He didn't go out of this way to teach us anything technical, but when he did, it was succinct. I asked him what "the bridge" of a song was, and I could see him trying to come up with a non-technical answer, and what he came up with was - the part in the middle that doesn't sound like the rest of the song. Let me give him credit tho - he did try to start a theory class for his "better" students during an otherwise study hall period. But it was a small town, small school, "band parent" politics, so...people/majorettes were in there who had no idea why they were in there, and...shit fell apart as far as an organized attempt to educate about theory. Every once in a while, he'd drop some science on us along the lines of "dammit, Jim, you can't do THAT, becuase..." but usually he just got a kick out of watching us propel ourselves on our own enthusiasm, probably because, you know, who from HERE is actually going to pursue this stuff for very long, right? Well...at least one, and as far as I know, two. Possible three! Plus, we had some of those old MMO records, the very first ones, so I could see what the changes were, even if I didn't have a clue that a Major or Minor chord were not determined by the black or white kets, you know, there were actual INTERVALS involved...learning that in, like, the first week of theory class was, like OH....NOW I SEE!!!! Like, ok, if a C Major chord is C-E-g, then a D Major chord is NOT D-F-A, even if they are all white keys, just like the C Major. WHO KNEW?!?!?!?!?

I dunno, I find that African-Americans always welcome White Folks telling them what they're doing wrong with their own culture. Because, you know, they obviously need us to do that for them.

Frisky! RIP

There was a quantum leap in both available repertoire between the time I started and you started. Kendor was publishing a lot of stuff, including Thad Jones charts, and that was just for starters. Plus the whole "jazz education" thing just grew exponentially, among both available teachers, enthusiastic students, and no-longer paranoid parents. I'm kinda glad that I was where I was when I was, because those of us who were into it (and believe it or not, there were about 10 of us total who were into at least some parts of it, and in a really small school like ours, it was a totally self-sufficient and self-justifying clique, ready to do battle with anybody and everybody who tried to throw shade on the band program at all. so we kinda went where we wanted to go with it, and the director was happy to stay out of our way while we did. OTOH...I graduated high school not having learned one bit of even rudimentary theory, and no real lessons on the horn. Sure, I could feel my way around shit, but as far as actually KNOWING what I was doing, that came in college, and the degree to which I was behind the really prepared people was not insignificant. All things considered, though, hey, it was a trip, one that I'm still on, and by now I couldn't do it any other way even if I wanted to. But hey - exponentially better version here than by Sammy Davis, Jr. And there were marching band arrangements too, Shaft was the first Crossover Hit of the Integration Era, at least where I lived, and that was no insignificant accomplishment. People today, they don't know what I'm talking about, I'm afraid...