Big Wheel

Oh, come on. You gotta get your cheap movies the old-fashioned way--buying pirated copies in Southeast Asia and sneaking them in, of course!

I like cranberries, but have definitely run across some truly revolting examples of the quivering jellied variety usually served on Thanksgiving.

Went in again for yet another round yesterday and interviewed with the guy again. I hear Monday or Tuesday. At least I get to keep the CD.

Out of the percussion-heavy Blakey records I have heard The African Beat is far and away my favorite, but these are pretty solid also. Get them if you cannot have enough Blakey. If you are willing to wait for cheaper US releases, my guess is that they will be out in the next 18 months or so--they're about the only Blakey records that have not seen reissue in the US in at least the last decade (perhaps never).

Did you get Sangrey's Blindfold Test #4? That track from the album he did with Eddie Gladden on drums is nasty. Worth searching out...I think it was titled "Never Again."

Did you notice if he had started to stand up just before the slurring began? I think the change in blood flow can really exacerbate the effects of the booze. A friend of mine had a couple of glasses of wine when we were out to dinner once, and seemed fine until we got up to go. As soon as we left the place she started giggling and stumbling around, barely able to stand up.

One night about 8 years ago I heard a bum on the Miami Metrorail holler: "Can't give the kids Kool-Aid....they'll just put iodine in it." I've said some interesting things myself, but most of them are too lewd for a family audience.

You can find some obscure recent Liebman on a duo recording with my former teacher, Mike Gerber: http://www3.sympatico.ca/cactus.red/cactus/cactus.html

From the article:

Lesotho is completely enclosed by South Africa but isn't part of South Africa. There's an article on FastCompany.com that talks about Levi's making their new line of cheap jeans, to be sold exclusively at Wal-Mart, in some Third World country. I don't think it's any of the ones mentioned so far, though. Might have been China.

Seems like whenever there's a burnin' straight-ahead alto player on the radio and I can't figure out who it is, it's Harrison. Looking forward to checking this one out.

Here are the main ones I listen to: 1. Doc Severinsen 2. Arturo Sandoval 3. Chet Baker (personal favorite) 4. Dizzy 5. Louis 6. Harry James 7. Miles Davis Ok then. It looks like you generally are listening to people who focused on being brilliant trumpet players rather than producing different textures and grooves the way Miles attempted to do on Sketches of Spain and Bitches Brew. Obviously there are some exceptions to this generalization (Dizzy's Perceptions comes to mind for example) but in general the artists you are listening to didn't experiment in the same way Miles did. My recommendation, then, is to listen for different things in Miles's music. Don't dwell on whether or not his range is crappy, or he's cracking notes, or whether the music swings. This music does not swing in the same way most of the other things you are listening to does. Instead, listen for the emotion in the music--in the parts of Solea where the trumpet sounds like Miles is almost crying, or in the parts of "Bitches Brew" where the echoplexed trumpet makes him sound so vulnerable. Listen to the rest of the bands, too. Don't just focus your ear on Miles--these works are grand collaborations between musical geniuses, not just trumpet features. And if you feel like it, spend some cash on some 20th century classical music to get a better feel for where Miles is coming from on these. As well as some of the other '60s players--Don Cherry, Booker Little, Bill Dixon, and so on. And if you still don't get it, then listen to Bev's recommendation.

Aside from the fact that they're intelligent black guys and their rap is socially conscious, what's the difference. They still sample and the point of posting that link was to show a well-articulated argument on a very similar issue. That TNR article has absolutely nothing to do with the issues we're discussing here. Nobody is talking about the content of the Beastie Boys' lyrics.

Thank you! And by the way, I have nothing against sampling, I've heard some great things done with it but if you are going to use other peoples recordings you should pay for the priviledge. In a way you are using the sample instead of using musicians so there should be a budget for it as there are no musicians to pay As the article notes, they did pay the record label to use the tapes. They did not have to pay Newton for the use of the composition, but later offered to pay him anyway when he threatened to sue. Then Newton rejected their offer. I think some people are crying foul for reasons that don't have anything to do with the musical or legal realities here. If jazz were the genre selling like hotcakes and hip-hop the domain of a few fringe artists struggling to make a living, would we still be mad at the Beastie Boys if Newton threatened to sue for the use of his sample? Or would we be calling Newton the greedy bastard here? Read my first post. The record company owns that particular performance of that tune and you have to get permission from the record company to use that performance of the tune. James Newton owns the copyright to the tune and you have to get permission from him to use his tune. They didn't so Newton is well within his rights to sue. If the Beasties made an offer to James and he didn't think it was enough money, that's his right. Perhaps that makes him a bit of an asshole but it's his tune. He owns it. He decides what is done with it. One thing is unclear to me: is the sample from the head of the tune or from improvising on the tune? It might not matter in this case, but what about sampling a cover version? If I sampled a one second fragment from Nicholas Payton's solo on Cantaloupe Island, from a part of his improvised solo--a part that Herbie Hancock never wrote into the music, do I still have to pay Herbie for the use of his composition?

Which other trumpeters have you been listening to?

Thank you! And by the way, I have nothing against sampling, I've heard some great things done with it but if you are going to use other peoples recordings you should pay for the priviledge. In a way you are using the sample instead of using musicians so there should be a budget for it as there are no musicians to pay As the article notes, they did pay the record label to use the tapes. They did not have to pay Newton for the use of the composition, but later offered to pay him anyway when he threatened to sue. Then Newton rejected their offer. I think some people are crying foul for reasons that don't have anything to do with the musical or legal realities here. If jazz were the genre selling like hotcakes and hip-hop the domain of a few fringe artists struggling to make a living, would we still be mad at the Beastie Boys if Newton threatened to sue for the use of his sample? Or would we be calling Newton the greedy bastard here?

I think Jim's point is that it depends on the sample. This is three notes. It was used in a way that made it sound completely different from the original work. If they had taken the entire tune and rapped over it, that's a different story. It's not like it took a whole lot of skill for the Steely Dan bass player to do what he did, either. I don't play bass and I bet I could learn that line in an hour. You do the same thing three times in a row (a perfect fifth up and down) and then do one other thing (play one note). Almost anyone here could learn how to plunk that out on a synth in 10 minutes and make it sound ok. Now I guess the question is, where do you draw the line between a legitimate sample and a ripoff?

Is nothing sacred?

Do you have Chris Lightcap's "Bigmouth", on FSNT? That one features Malaby and McHenry together and is seriously tight.

"UR TOASTIE!!" pwned.

Nightmarish. Although I admit I didn't think Episode I was so horrible. It was so bad people were laughing at lines that were clearly not supposed to be funny, and laughing harder at the hecklers making fun of the lines. Hayden Christensen may have delivered the worst performance I have ever seen. For a film set a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, his diction sure sounded a lot like he was auditioning to be in a boy band on Earth, circa 1998.

Yeah, in general I think Booker's music used modern harmonies in a way that Miles wasn't so interested in. My familiarity with early '60s Miles is not what it should be but I get the sense that for Miles it wasn't "about" the tunes and how interesting you can make them--it was more about getting a great, punchy sound out of the group, and then later (post-1963 or so) he started playing with form without spending his time dealing with Booker's kind of harmony.

fwiw, Bossa Antigua is now on sale at Best Buy for $8.99. Just in case Vibes is reading this...any sweet deals coming down the pike in the future?

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