Guy Berger

My favorite all-time Onion article:

Maybe those guys had a bit of a problem with the Sibelius connection to the Germans? Wouldn't surprise me if that was part of it... but with Adorno, I think that's only a small part of the explanation. The guy had very strong opinions on what good music was. Guy

True enough, but do you think within their current political system, a Chinese Upton Sinclair will get a book published there??? I'm not an expert on China, but I do read news articles about it, and there is quite a bit of criticism of the national and local governments by Chinese media and NGOs. Protests on environmental issues are not unusual. Out of curiosity, what's your proposed plan of action? Guy

You haven't heard Infinite Search? Get thee to the record store, young man! I never picked up the original Universal Syncopations due to the reviews on this thread, and the upcoming sequel holds even less appeal. Guy

Charlotte resigned Gerald Wallace for a 6 year, $57M contract. I don't watch Charlotte (yet) -- does Wallace play defense? If so, they got a better player than Orlando for half the price! Guy

do you have a cd recommendation for the above works? I'm satisfied with Colin Davis and the Boston Symphony Orchestra's performance of all seven symphonies, plus the violin concerto and a few of the tone poems (incl "Tapiola"). It's on a pair of medium-price 2 CD sets released by Philips. I've only heard this one so there may be better ones out there. Guy

I love Sibelius's music -- not so much the early stuff, but Symphonies 4-7 and "Tapiola". Beautiful, timeless music. It's interesting to read the strong negative reaction to this guy's music from guys like Adorno and Thomson; perhaps that was inevitable, but it seems quite silly in retrospect. Guy

Whatever. MG made a statement that was in fact not true, and I pointed that out. Guy

Johnny's comment raises an interesting question. We often hear that heart/persona/intangibles/whatever are important in sports in a way not captured by "stats". Baseball is more susceptible to statistical analysis than most other sports; therefore you could potentially test the proposition that heart/persona/intangibles/whatever actually matter to winning games. The hard part would be measuring "heart" in a way that doesn't actually sneak "stats" through the back door. Guy

Bingo. Let's also keep in mind that there is an influential minority of hawkish politicians and political entrepeneurs who think that conflict with China is inevitable and want to "jump the gun". Guy

The Vince Carter effect. Guy

I thought this was the operative paragraph of the article...

I'll go on a limb here and predict that, barring another major addition of talent, this team will not make it past the 2nd round of the playoffs for the duration of Lewis's contract. Guy

Orlando got Rashard Lewis from Seattle via a sign-and-trade; the contract is more than $110M for 6 years. That's insane. Guy

Steve Lake posted the following on Jazz Corner: Too bad!

A complete tangent -- MG, where did you read/hear this story? I've never heard it mentioned before. It's generally stated that George Avakian signed Miles to Columbia after the latter's performance on "Round Midnight" (and the crowd response) at the 1955 Newport Festival. (Which also fits the timeline.) Guy In conversation with Bob Porter. MG Hmm... was Porter working for Prestige in 1955? Guy No - but I rather think that would have been a story he would have heard from an authoritative source when he did work for Prestige. I'm inclined to credit it. MG Well, without independent verification of Porter's claim (I believe you, not necessarily Porter), I'm somewhat more skeptical. But it's definitely plausible that Columbia became interested in Davis as a result of the 1955 Newport Festival, checked his sales at Prestige, and then signed him. Guy

A complete tangent -- MG, where did you read/hear this story? I've never heard it mentioned before. It's generally stated that George Avakian signed Miles to Columbia after the latter's performance on "Round Midnight" (and the crowd response) at the 1955 Newport Festival. (Which also fits the timeline.) Guy In conversation with Bob Porter. MG Hmm... was Porter working for Prestige in 1955? Guy

From Sony/Legacy's website:

That was awesome. Guy

A complete tangent -- MG, where did you read/hear this story? I've never heard it mentioned before. It's generally stated that George Avakian signed Miles to Columbia after the latter's performance on "Round Midnight" (and the crowd response) at the 1955 Newport Festival. (Which also fits the timeline.) Guy

how the fuck so, Guy & respectfully, how well do you really know the history of the American record biz? we can name a handful of exceptions-- Dylan's evolution on Columbia, the Ramones on Sire (which had been indie)... & what else? distribution deals do NOT count!!! Prince? fine, keep going. (& don't tell me Duke on Victor or any such hogwash... the assimilation of the record biz into greater pop cult machine is the worst godamn thing that ever happened, then & now. edc knows it, you should know it too. MG's original statement (which you deleted) said: This is quite clearly false. As you stated yourself, Dylan on Columbia and Duke on Victor (and Columbia) are major exceptions. Sticking to jazz, two of the most important jazz innovators in the past half century (perhaps THE MOST IMPORTANT) did much of their most important work for major labels -- John Coltrane on Impulse!, Miles Davis on Columbia. I'm sure we can come up with other, less significant innovative recordings by other artists for major labels. (Was Decca a major label when they recorded the Basie band?) If we're going to talk about rock, besides Dylan (already mentioned) we have the Byrds, the Beach Boys, Santana, the Band, the Velvet Underground, and Frank Zappa. I'm sure there are other examples. Guy Impulse wasn't a major label. In the sixties, the criterion for major label status was that the firm had to own its own distribution network. ABC didn't. 1) This article on wikipedia suggests they DID have a distribution network -- they distributed Dunhill Records. Maybe I'm not clear on these terms. 2) Even if Impulse! didn't have their own distribution network, calling a record label owned by a large media corporation an "independent label" certainly stretches the meaning of the term. As other people have pointed out, Davis did most of his major innovations while on Columbia. He also recorded The Birth of the Cool for Capitol. Again, from wikipedia: My earlier comments on ABC/Impulse apply to Verve/MGM as well. Well, I didn't see this qualification in your claim about "innovation comes only from the indies". That said, I think even with this qualification the claim is incorrect -- major innovations by artists involved in "black music" did happen on major labels. Debating is fun! Guy

Yup -- Free at Last. I think this one is in-print, at least in Europe. Guy

Steve Lake just posted the following at Jazzcorner:

A comment -- I hear Coltrane recording in that style before Ascension, on the sessions that produced "Transition" and the intense untitled tune that appeared Living Space. I haven't listened to Dear Old Stockholm (May 1965) in a while but I seem to recall elements of this Ayler-influenced style on one or two of those performances. And what about "Creation" on the Half Note tapes? Guy