Guy Berger

I was shocked when I read that about his FIRST appearance! I was at the Vanguard last night at the Trio 3 performance. At the outset, Cyrille announced that he and Workman had been at the Vanguard on many occasions with various luminaries, but that it was Lake's first appearance. He has probably made that announcement the entire week. The members of Trio 3 are all over 70, but like their AACM brethren, they are playing music with more vitality than most of the musicians who play the Vanguard on a regular basis. Saw them tonight. Great concert. Cyrille was even more amazing than usual.

Yes, this is an excellent record.

I thought ASD was outstanding, but I haven't read the book. Has anyone mentioned Children of Men? To be honest I haven't read the book, but when I went back and read the wikipedia plot summary after reading the movie, my first thought was "it seems like the filmmakers cut a lot of bad ideas out". Also, I wouldn't say the Lord of the Rings films were superior to the books, but I thought that was pretty close to the gold standard for an adaptation of top shelf material.

A lot of time "artistic validity" gets retconned onto this music decades later. i.e., music that was conceived of primarily as "fun entertainment" is, decades later, elevated into "high art" status. Anybody remember

It also doesn't seem to approximate the early history of jazz, when it was intended as entertainment, not "art". Right. Outstanding point. I hadn't even considered that particular angle. Music is supposed to be fun. Entertaining. Not some exercise in snottery like a bunch of old rich guys sitting around comparing their excruciatingly banal wine tasting notes. Only to look down their nose at others who simply drink wine without going through all the extremely silly ritualistic contortions before even taking a sip. Yes, what heathens... They'd rather simply drink wine and enjoy their company than sit around looking like a jackass staring at it from all angles, swirling it around in the glass, smelling corks... Jazz really lost its way when its fan base decided it had become a deified art form that had to be worshipped in ceremonial deference. Or that only those with I.Q.'s above 150 need apply. There's no more assured way to turn someone off to your product than to talk down to them as though they are ignorant children. Well, I don't know if I would take it that far. People can appreciate music in all sorts of ways, appreciating it as "art" is one of them, music for dancing is another. But the idea that jazz is dying because "young people today can't appreciate real art harrumph harrumph harrumph" seems to be highly revisionist of jazz's actual real world history.

Very true, John L. (Just the same here.) The only young people getting a taste for jazz nowadays are the tiny handful who learn about it on music education courses in colleges and universities. I think you are underestimating other sources of "inflow" into the jazz fanbase. There's NPR, and also reverse crossover (i.e. everything from semi-jazzy vocalists to smooth jazz to Thurston Moore endorsing free jazz). We have a winner It also doesn't seem to approximate the early history of jazz, when it was intended as entertainment, not "art".

Keep 'em coming! I've heard some of these, but I'm writing the rest down. Boo: SightSong is not on the MRA CamJazz box.

Listened to just 15 minutes of "The Chant" yesterday after it arrived - hopefully will get a chance to spin the whole thing sometime this week. But it sounded amazing.

...and you still don't need the Weathermen to know which way the wind blows! This is going to seem ridiculous. But the first time I encountered this song (sort of), I was 10 or 11, watching Murphy Brown, and two of the characters were reflecting on their idealistic youth during the 60s and kept reciting lyrics from this song. It wasn't until a few years later that I heard the actual song. - Steven Snell

50 years ago today, BD released "Subterranean Homesick Blues" as a single.

Great. I don't think I've ever seen him do a sub-standard gig.

I saw Steve with his quartet (Jonathan Finlayson, Anthony Tidd, Marcus Gilmore) at the Jazz Gallery. After the first set I went to get his autograph on my copy of Functional Arrythmias and mentioned the upcoming album. He seemed pleasantly surprised when I asked him about the upcoming album but grimaced a little when I referred to it as a "big band" - "it's a large ensemble".

I seem to recall it being particularly prominent during one portion of TONE PARALLEL TO HARLEM. Glad someone mentioned Bennie Maupin. He's great on BITCHES BREW, and also on THE JEWEL IN THE LOTUS.

Ok, Keepnews was obviously an important individual in some ways, but calling him a "towering figure" (side by side with Sonny Rollins!) is absurd. (GA, sorry about the harsh wording. No offense intended.)

RIP.

I was actually thinking of going to the Temple of Dendur concert on April 18.

I would place parts of "A Love Supreme" on my comp along with "My Favorite Things" and leave out "Giant Steps." Not sure what you mean. I was agreeing with your choices! A collection that focused on Ballads, Giant Steps and pre-Atlantic stuff would have probably bored me as a budding jazz listener. Most likelyiIf they don't like the Atlantic "My Favorite Things", they won't like jazz. It's about as universal as you can get. When I first heard MFT, I was quite indifferent to it. Whereas I was quickly sucked into A Love Supreme. Listeners have different entry points into this music.

RIP. Yesterday I had a fun time listening to his recording of "Both Sides Now", which is not very good*** yet seemed appropriate on such a day. ***But still better than Judy Collins's!

I think this is what made Sonny and Thelonious such a good pairing. A lot more than most bebop musicians of that period, they were interested in melodic/thematic improvisation, not just threading changes.

I definitely didn't interpret Iverson as denying humor exists in Monk's music, and I thought his point (as well as that rant) was generally well taken. Many jazz performers engage only superficially with Monk's material, including its humorous aspect.

I connected with A Love Supreme long before Giant Steps and My Favorite Things, despite acquiring all three around the same time.

ABSOLUTELY

SITTIN IN is great!

Two of the things I occasionally ponder re: Crouch/Murray... (A) Murray has mellowed out significantly over time and to some extent converged with the "young lion" aesthetic (B) judging by his collaborations with Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, etc Wynton has also mellowed out in his old age from the opposite direction

Nicely stated, Chuck.