robertoart

He played here in Australia a few months ago. I went. It was good. I saw him 20 years ago as well. I liked that better. Back then he played with an R&B band. The band backing him up recently had more of a rockabilly vibe. Can't believe he's still alive, let alone still honking. Bit like Lou Donaldson in that respect I suppose. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AP6QMuvPOU

Point of clarification: The George Benson performing is not the famous guitarist but a veteran Detroit saxophonist (in his 80s, a bebopper, day gig career as a mailman but always an important local player). I'm on a zillion deadlines so can't pull up my own stories about this year's Detroit line up but if I get a chance later, I'll post them. Sounds like the perfect guy for George Benson the guitar player to sit in with Should have formed a quartet with Bill Evans and Bill Evans. A new double quartet concept.

They weren't very successful. The dogs kept losing concentration when the owners had to stop and change sides.

Sorry to leave the heavenly beauty of Chaka behind, but this is the most amazing footage of Chuck Berry from Paris '65. Chuck turns into T Bone Walker during the Wee Small Hours and then shows himself to be the precursor of Blood Ulmer and Sonny Sharrock simultaneously during his Let It Rock solo. Also an amazing piano player who is unknown to me. Bonsoir http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3p298wkxyM&feature=related

Surely not Chuck Norris Well, there is a Chuck I love almost as much as the guitar man.

Chuck the great. What a guitar player! What a sound! Gotta love Chuck Berry. Brings a bunch of scrawny hippies he's probably never spoken to before to back him on Soul Train. It doesn't matter. Chucks guitar is all you need! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy-4Aa10A3Q&feature=fvst

Well here's Chuck and son. Not quite a duo, but still.

That's a bit of a trip actually. I wasn't expecting that. I dig it! RIP Mr Dunn.

I think this story is bullshit. I bet the old boy 'Sandwich' appropriated the snack from the English working poor or his servants. It was probably common practise amongst people who could only afford bread and drippin. Slap a bit of meat in there if you could scrape any up. Luxury.

Point of clarification: The George Benson performing is not the famous guitarist but a veteran Detroit saxophonist (in his 80s, a bebopper, day gig career as a mailman but always an important local player). I'm on a zillion deadlines so can't pull up my own stories about this year's Detroit line up but if I get a chance later, I'll post them. Sounds like the perfect guy for George Benson the guitar player to sit in with

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XiKK3qCgqI

It was a joy to see this for the first time. Garbo speaks! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLPeyBtmQAM&feature=g-vrec

Piss poor and miserable. Actually that sounds like a good name for a trio.

Gotta be better for ya than soft drink. If you plan to drink that much water however, make sure your always near a toilet. Nice work if you can get it.

Oh. So it's NPR that is responsible for these guys! I will be extra cautious when I am searching archived Marion McPartland shows and old Lou Donaldson interviews I thought the blogsphere was running it's course. Perhaps it will be middle aged wits that keep it propped up as the younger communities move towards newer social-media. Here is another blogger - turned author, who was a hit on the academic-talk circuit here in Australia a few years ago. Blog was called 'stuff White people like'. The link below was about Black music. My link #116 Black Music that Black People Don’t Listen to Anymore November 18, 2008 by clander All music genres go through a very similar life cycle: birth, growth, mainstream acceptance, decline, and finally obscurity. With black music, however, the final stage is never reached because white people are work tirelessly to keep it alive. Apparently, once a music has lost its relevance with its intended audience, it becomes MORE relevant to white people. Historically speaking, the music that white people have kept on life support for the longest period of time is Jazz. Thanks largely to public radio, bookstores, and coffee shops, Jazz has carved out a niche in white culture that is not yet ready to be replaced by Indie Rock. But the biggest role that Jazz plays in white culture is in the white fantasy of leisure. All white people believe that they prefer listening to jazz over watching television. This is not true. Every few a months, a white person will put on some Jazz and pour themselves a glass of wine or scotch and tell themselves how nice it is. Then they will get bored and watch television or write emails to other white people about how nice it was to listen to Jazz at home. “Last night, I poured myself a glass of Shiraz and put Charlie Parker on the Bose. It was so relaxing, I wish I had a fireplace.” Listing this activity as one of your favorites is a sure fire way to make progress towards a romantic relationship with a white person. Along with Jazz, white people have also taken quite a shine to The Blues, an art form that captured the pain of the black experience in America. Then, in the 1960s, a bunch of British bands started to play their own version of the music and white people have been loving it ever since. It makes sense considering that the British were the ones who created The Blues in the 17th Century. Today, white people keep The Blues going strong by taking vacations to Memphis, forming awkward bands, making documentaries, and organizing folk festivals. Blue and Jazz music appeal mostly to older white people and select few young ones who probably wear fedoras. But that doesn’t mean that young white people aren’t working hard to preserve music that has lost relevance. No, there are literally thousands of white people who are giving their all to keep old school Hip Hop alive. Even as you read this, white people are telling other white people about the golden age of Hip Hop that they experienced in a suburban high school or through a viewing of The Wackness. If you are good at concealing laughter and contempt, you should ask a white person about “Real Hip Hop.” They will quickly tell you about how they don’t listen to “Commercial Hip Hop” (aka music that black people actually enjoy), and that they much prefer “Classic Hip Hop.” “I don’t listen to that commercial stuff. I’m more into the Real Hip Hop, you know? KRS One, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, De La Soul, Wu Tang, you know, The Old School.” Calling this style of music ‘old school’ is considered an especially apt name since the majority of people who listen to it did so while attending old schools such as Dartmouth, Bard, and Williams College. What it all comes down to is that white people are convinced that if they were alive when this music was relevant that they would have been into it. They would have been Alan Lomax or Rick Rubin. Now the best they can hope for is to impress an older black person with their knowledge. Like 23 bloggers like this post.

I will only attend if there's music.

My copy of Grantstand has a stereo sticker. What's that? Late 61' early 62'?

I had been listening to my Jemeel Moondoc record for a number of years before I finally got to Jackie McLean.

That's patently absurd. One of the most visible musicians on the planet! And the context and quality of his discog is not up for critical discussion. Come on. But hey, I do get that you have connections and business to take care of. I don't. So I'm happy to run with the discourse surrounding a musician for the ages. I guess it's a bit like walking into an art gallery with a friend and passing comment to each other about what's on the wall. In this case it's Herbie Hancock. 'C'mon Herbie pull your finger out. Write some better tunes and ditch the warblers. Do it for the gipper'. Do you have any thoughts on Hancock's 'standards' project that you would be willing to share? ie his intent to elevate contemporary pop songs into the 'jazz cannon'? Was this as interesting as the Bad Plus? Or just different?

The point is not what I would want them to do, or good god, give 'them' advice. It's more about wider points like, what do 'they' want to do - or not do - because 'they' feel their current audience or standing in music wouldn't allow it. As this is a discussion board, I think it's a reasonable thing to debate - why late-career artists, who have been conceptual - and to varying degrees commercial leaders in their field, get subsumed into making records that seem generated by marketing - as much as muse. To personalise this kind of debate, as if you are talking about your next door neighbours, can come off sounding a bit feeble. Though I get your point to an extant. Sure, the greats have made the history, and therefore exercise their control and enjoyment in what public musical statements they choose to be bothered with, but what conditions have influenced those choices. I think it's a shame - that a genius and innovator of the music like Herbie Hancock, has what might be his last two records, as a collection of Joni Mitchell re-harmonisations (with some mediocre guest spots), and a sub-world music all-star production. In some ways, these albums are like films that have to exist first as attention grabbing trailers - before they can be expanded to fully realised musical statements. Do legendary music stars of other genres work within the conditions that they must find a marketing concept - and celebrity guest stars - before they can justify bothering with their 'projects'. After George Benson made the 'Tenderly' album with McCoy Tyner, he said that he could never make an album like that again - not because he did not want to make instrumental jazz albums - but because he said that his commercial audience began to stop coming to his concerts, because they thought he was no longer playing his hits. End of George Benson engaging in Jazz. In respect to this, I also think it's a shame that the digital-age Jazz legacy of one of the greatest and last surviving guitarists from the golden-age, will most likely be some bad hand-held mobile phone footage of Benson sitting in on a few standards and blues. Though I am reminded of Miles Davis's statement to Wynton Marsalis re-revisiting the past as something like 'what's wrong - didn't we make the music right in the first place'? Re- Allen Lowe perhaps it is ego to a point, but the constraints or pressure (or Herbie's desire) - to work with vocalists, might be a bigger factor. In the sense that he feels the need to use 'famous' singers to realise his vision, which may suggest ego again, stifling the true potential of the projects. If so it's a pity. Surely there are greater and more suitable vocalists to interpret such material. Also the commercial aspect of music in general, seems at odds with something like the Visual Arts - where ongoing creativity is seen as a lifelong thing. So I suppose your right in the sense that once a certain level of fame has been achieved, it's impossible to work in the mindset of 'just the art' and its social/cultural hopes. Although, after being re-directed by this thread and rediscovering some of the Herbie Hancock music I had either lost interest in - or wasn't that interested in anyway - and being reminded how powerful and urgent sounding much of it was back in the day, it really creates a sense of something else potentially great that has been lost to the contemporary moment. In other recognised arts languages - like the Visual Arts - it is often not always like this, as ongoing creativity is seen as a lifelong thing - to be expected and celebrated. Although there is a difference perhaps, in that the level of fame late-career Visual Artists have, is arguably not as visible or as subsumed into the 'entertainment industry' as much as most crossover jazz artists of the calibre of Hancock, Benson, Miles and even Metheny are. Pete C - with regard to 'On The Corner' - personally I would think of it more like mid-career Miles, with the post-comeback music being his later stuff. Also, I think of late-career (without wanting to ring the death knells), as being maybe the last decade or so of an artists output. It is possibly a term more associated with the Visual Arts perhaps, which has a greater tradition of creative leaders (and especially lesser recognised people), whose works open out and flower beyond logical expectations. Or more simply, others that just strengthen and solidify their original genuis (in jazz a la Ornette, Rollins). In jazz, it just seems that this kind of thing is rare, and is paralleled instead by mid career/middle age illogical and unexpected brilliance - ie Electric Miles and Ornette. Even film provides more radical late career brilliance in people like Clint Eastwood, though I'm sure film people would know more.

If anyone wants to uncover the 'real' story behind the title and lyrics of Lonnie Smith's 'Move Your Hand' album, the doctor reveals all in this good humoured and expansive interview from Australian radio, recorded only a few days ago. The interview starts at approximately 54.00 minutes into the audio file. Enjoy! My link