JSngry

That would be down a half-step, so -16:15 = - (16/15)= -1.07%...am i doing that right?

'teaching to the test", yes, there was an issue with that even when my kids were in school....fortunately the school district where we were had teachers who worked around that. But it was a bit of a struggle, "Incentive-based outcomes" sound like a great thing, and for some things they are, but educating children is not one of them.

It's never too late! 18 is still a teenager! Also, testing for "learning disabilities" continues to evolve. Some kids don't like to read because of obstacles they don't know exist. I mean, a good story should interest everybody, right? Reading the way we used to read....maybe it is a thing of the past. But reading itself never goes out of style, or shouldn't. I don't trust anybody who tries to make it otherwise.

We started read to both of ours when they were babies, like, literally infnats. They got used to these things in front of them that had pictures and colors and those word-things. We let them touch them, and as soon as they were old enough to grasp, hold them, board books meant for babies, small things. Do they still make those type things? All through elementary school, our schools had mothly scholastic Book Club order, and we pretty much let them order what they wanted (as a few things we wanted them to have). Point being, we trained them to associate books with fun, sensory stimulation, and happy-parent voices. Not a guaranteed outcome, but I'm happy to say that, 30+ years later (has it been that long?!?!?!?!) although neither read books as a hobby anymore, they both do know how to read for comprehension and the presence of mind/intellect to apply logic to the propaganda they get from all over social media. Close enough for me for these days.

Pigs gonna pig, no mater the "political ideology". Pigs are gonna pig.

Maxine Roach's participation would be critical. I believe she has Max's archives/collections/whatever? Odean Pope and Billy Harper are both alive and cogent. And of course, sonny. But there's a lot here to be told, "extra-musical" things about race, politics, business, domestic life, and I don't know who all is willing to be 100% open about that at this time. And without that, you don't really have a biography...and if you wait too much longer, you'll be getting hearsay/2nd hand information, which may or may not be good. Max was HOT, both as a person (from what I understand) and as a musician (which is more than obvious). Maybe some distance is needed to get to all of that heat. But hardened lava is only the end of the true lava experience. No matter, Max Roach should not be lost to the shadows of history, about that I cannot feel more strongly about!

No, not at all. But time has allowed/beaten me into submission about separating the playing and the sound from the way it was recorded, and for that you can certainly blame both Creed Taylor and Rudy van Gelder. For "production" it was wonderful, at times magnificent, but for "regular music"...YIKES! and it seemed like it got to the point where no matter what the record was, whoever recorded it went with the production sound. Some unfortunate outcomes, there...

What would a true, maningful biography look like? We know all the records, etc. The meat would be in the person, who was by all accounts, a complicated guy. Who is left who could and would speak freely?

George Mraz....by that time, I was a Fred Hopkins guy. Mraz...rubber-bandy, probably not all his fault, just saying, I like that DEEP bass.

I'm finding that I'm more front-loaded to the first part of the decade as presented here. Tally Ho!

Like 'em both, although for totally different reasons. And the latter is not the greatest record ever, if you know what I mean.

https://youtu.be/8svJVhd47fM

Mess?

It was Bruce Lundvall who brought Blythe to Columbia... Dr Death had no such vision.

https://youtu.be/wCeJV8ZzGkQ

Have any of the Hugh Masakela MGM/Uni LPs made it to CD?

whoa....

What about Knowledge Of Self on Denon?

Soliday Houl? Solid Houlay?

Tell me more, please?

whoa...just made me order the Voxbox CD to contrast and compare...so much music in this music!

Miles usually had bands. Not groups, but bands. What was he going to do with Sonny Stitt in a band? Sonny Stitt was going to do Sonny Stitt, period, no matter what the gig was. He was never going to fall below nor rise above a certain level. Nothing wrong with Sonny Stitt, just...it happens before it happens, if you know what I mean. I think it maybe took Miles a little bit to decide that somebody else could put their name on that, but it wasn't going to be him. The funny thing is that Sonny Stitt had a GREAT band, that trio with Don Patterson, Billy James, and the Varitone as heard on that Left Bank record, oh Lord have mercy, that was a band!

The guy I heard make the comparison was a guitarist who was a few years younger than me, who came into jazz via fusion, from Duane Allman etc. He meant it as a compliment to Van Halen, and I took it as one. The guy was a good player with a natural curiosity about music, so...not where I was at, but that was what I liked about the college environment, exposure to a lot of different perspectives from a lot of different people. You had to respect anybody who could represent their POV with intelligence and not just hormonal fandom, hormoneless intellect, guts AND brains. As for Jan Hammer, I had a listen to Oh Yeah? The other day and had fun with it. Some for real playing going on.