Jump to content

Big Beat Steve

Members
  • Posts

    7,012
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Big Beat Steve

  1. Good points, Hot Ptah. VERY good points. Will NOT listen to Luther Allison's "LIfe Is A BItch" now.
  2. Well said. Do the writings (and, in fact, mindset) of Allen Lowe really need an introduction to long(ish)-time forumists here, of all places? It's not that everyone will agree with all of his opinions and evaluations of the histoiry of this music or put the emphasis where he does, but what he has to say (from all I have read) brings in fresh air in a field that is often bogged down IMO by too much "accepted wisdom" that does not question or challenge but confirm and comfort in a way that makes academic writings often appear like a self-centered echo chamber.
  3. Do they still use THAT bashful term TODAY to avoid turning red in the face by stating outright what it is? Vulgar? Obscene (maybe)? Back to the puritan Eisenhower era? Seriously?? As if the word "explicit" did not have enough other widespread and perfectly appropriate meanings in the English language ... My, my ...
  4. I do think Allen Lowe is one who is historically aware of all the stylistic cross-pollination that went on from the beginning of recorded music and has valid things to say about all the infuences that went BOTH ways without romanticizing things. And personally I don't think he will accuse anybody of anything from the "cultural appopriation" angle so much in vogue these days in certain quarters. So I dont' really know what you are getting at. Don't you realize that in your ranting you don't even see who your (purported) opponent is and who is not? I agree with your statement above and this is one reason why I find exploring all this history of cross-pollination (some might say "crossover" before there was the term) highly fascinating. And this is part of the muiscal history that is TOTALLY different from all the "cover version" and bowdlerized white POP versions too. But again - influences e.g. between black and white "niche" music (i.e NON-pop) pre-war and early post-war went BOTH ways in many, many directions. I have no idea what your exact musical tastes are but just as one little example, let's assume you are familiar with Wynonie Harris' hits "Bloodshot Eyes" and "Good Morning Judge". Would you know offhand too that NEITHER of the two was a Harris original (or one written specifically for him) but in fact Harris COVERS of COUNTRY songs recorded before? "Cultural appropriation"? Ha! I short, calm down and let the "cultural appropriation" agitators agitate as much as they like. After all, what was the saying about the caravan moving on again? What does it matter to those of us who are aware of BOTH sides of the (musical) coin and give credit where credit is due to the ORIGINATORS (which admittedly is something the covers churned out by Pat Boone and his ilk did not - but who wants Pat Boone anyway?). Did you check the track listings close enough, I wonder? THere are PLENTY of tunes by WHITE artists there, and as far as I can tell with my spotty knowledge of 20s music both black and white, I'd say this just shows EXACTLY this cross-pollination that went on even way back then.
  5. Was Prestige really that dependent on Miles Davis? Would they have gone under if they had not had Miles? Or isn't this just wishful thinking, given their overall catalog (many of their other acts were no slouches either, after all)? But what about James Brown and the KING label in the 60s??
  6. While I have no idea about ths one yet I know you'll be missing out on plenty of interesting insights. i found the booklets to "That Devilin' Tune" very intersting, and "God Didn't Like It" too. A rather different and certainly personal but definitely fascinating perspective on the subject. It cannot hurt or read about this kind of musical history from an angle that is off the beaten tracks of the usual writings. As for the title, I am not sure what the bone of contention is with many around here - but maybe that is because I am not from the US. I take it as a play on words (of sorts) but I am sure Allen is not one of those newbie P.C.-ish writers who find "cultural appropriation" the latest "in thing" in writing about music to blast any WHITE listener for how he DARE to deeply and genuinely embrace that music ("black" music, for example) and most everything that goes with it. If you want to avoid preconceived SJW agendas in writing about music from decades past (note that I am using SJW with a strictly neutral connotation here), steer clear of "Swing Shift" by Sheree Tucker and "Come In and Hear The Truth" by Patrick Burke, for example. (And these are just examples ... oh, and come to think of it, for all its interesting subject matter, Rashida K. Braggs' dissertation-turned-unrevised-book "Jazz Diasporas" can get grating at times too, at least the two thirds I have so far read).
  7. Say ... considering the flow of this discussion, do any of you Americans drive any GEN-YEW-INE U.S. cars anymore? Quite true. You can spend hours and hours experimenting not jsut with selecting the tracks in the first place but above all with the sequence of tracks, trying to find the optimum way of seguing one after another to keep up the flow and momentum of the music and its energy that gets to you without things getting monotonous and repetitive but rather taking you effortlessly along on your playlist.
  8. I've made countless mix tapes for my classic cars (of 1958 to 60 vintage) and for my previous hack vehicles and I still use some of them in the cassette players still fitted to these classics. But for a long time I did not do mix CD-Rs (there were more than enough CDs to be turned 1:1 into CD-Rs) but in recent years I have made quite a few for use for DJing (I don't DJ often but use both vinyl and CDs - and NO, sitting in front of a laptop and pretending to be a DJ spinning the platters just IS NOT IT!! NEVER! ) to save on having to carry dozens of CDs of which you'd spin only one or two tunes during the evening. These self-mixed CDs also come in handy if you have a tried-and-trusted sequence of 3 or 4 "dancefloor filler" tracks at your fingertips to give you a moment of relief during the evening. (With the inevitable result that I had to copy one or two of the mix CD-Rs for very good friends.) I know many DJs in our circles who spin CDs carry a stack of self-compiled mix CDs to their events - probably for the same reasons (though I know some of them privaely do use streaming services). And when a collector friend who is VERY much into hillbilly, western swing and related older country music I've compiled CD-Rs (at his request) of 30s to 50s Western Swing polkas for his "Western"-style birthday party. So there are situations when your own "V.A." discs come in handy.
  9. This is what i would do if I had to.
  10. You all are giving me the creeps. CDs are dwindling in value here too - yes, but seeing what my son (19) still manages to get when he thins out his Heavy Metal CD collection leaves me with hopes. In fact he said he has sound files of those CDs that matter to him and has decided to keep only those CDs that are either unavailable online or by obscure bands, so for him it is vinyl and online but much, much less CDs from now on (signs of the times?). So niche musics that have a focused subculture still do sell as CDs, even secondhand as it seems. I wonder in what way things are that different with jazz CDs? As for books, ho hum .... Tomorrow I will be setting up a stall at a local book fleamarket (including not just books but any printed matter in fact, and now expressly including records too, BTW, so my crate of duplicate jazz vinyl goes there too). So I hope you ALL are at least partially wrong. I have had a stall there for about half of the the past 18 years, noticed brisk business during the first few years until things slowed down (when of course my first-time-ever-to fleamarket antique books and magazines had gone) and then paused for a few years, and in recent years have attended again and found business across the field to be relatively good again. A lot of books will go at "impulse buy" clearout prices (trying to make space before I donate to "bring and take away" book exchanges again) but I still feel that there is a market either for truly antique books on specialized subjects of historical or "collectible" (focused hobby) interest. As Rooster said, encyclopedias and "general purpose" books are dead (I cannot bring myself to dump the 1965 Encyclopedia Britannica I inherited a long time ago nor the 20-volume German encyclopedia of 1935 we dug out when my father in law moved to a senior citizens home last fall). And you cannot shift a book of 1920 or 1930 dealing with the history of your country or with "notable works of art" or other generalist "cultured citizens" topics but you CAN INDEED get money for a book of 1920 or 1930 about the then state of the art of architecture or antique automotive books or even antique cookbooks, for example! So keep your fingers crossed for me, pleeze!
  11. Isn't the entire discussion about that "comeback" (if any) about sales of TANGIBLE, PHYSICAL music media? Isn't this where comparisons are to be made? Aren't downloads, streaming etc. a separate playing field altogether?
  12. See, there's a like mind. You were attracted to 60s rock in the 80s and I was attracted to 50s and some early 60s rock (and 30s/40s country; blues and R&B from that period being filed under jazz for the purposes of this forum) in the 70s.
  13. "MOST" - yes. I don't participate in this subforum much but there ARE others than the "mosts". I guess I am one. However, MY non-jazz listening (like my jazz listening incidentally) in most cases is definitely NOT related to my age either but rather to the styles of music I prefer, and these originally were recorded in the 1945-60 (or 65) period, and at 59 I certainly am not THAT old myself ... In fact except for a scant few exceptions I have never ever been moved by the "contemporary" rock music I was exposed to in the 70s. No regrets, regardless of whatever those who inevitabley will blurt out about "missed out" or whatever ... It just didn't do much for me (isolated exceptions - from all decades since - tending to confirm the rule) Actually rock from that period (50s plus a few years before and after) has always had its niche through the decades following the r'n'r era and there IS a subculture ("rockabilly" in the wider sense, though I have a hunch average US listeners not truly immersed in that subculture will interpet this not exactly the same way that "Yurpeens" will ) that does build on these styles and to this day adds new touches, variations and evolutions WITHIN the genre. There will inevitably be "prog" listeners out there to whom this is "old hat" or "rehashing" or whatever but who cares? It just is a matter of personal preferences. (And if you listen close enough, overall there is not more rehashing than in many other pop or rock fads that have come and gone since the 60s and up to now - didn't "Brit Pop" lean rather heavily on the sound patterns of certain species of late 60s pop, for example?). I wonder how many there are out there among the forumists who in their rock and pop listening have NOT been attracted from Day One by the current rock/pop of their formative youth years but by music from other periods which they have embraced with much more interest and pleasure than what was just "current" (regardless of whether it was chart fare or niche-y underground stuff)?
  14. For a time, before he moved to another "Ha-": Hannover (Germany) - where he lived for a long time up to his death.
  15. I'd venture a guess that over here the share of classical LPs was quite higher than that in the early days of LPs.
  16. IIRC most Japanese CDs have always had very short shelf (availability) lives so what's the deal overall? Just some more CDs going OOP too fast - yes, annonying. But not a new phenomenon in the COLLECTING market.
  17. You mean those who did emigrate ("go expat") and returned home later on? Red Mitchell (one who hasn't been named among the expats yet either, BTW). Bobby Burgess Rolf Ericson Inez Cavanaugh
  18. Re- my earlier post, i was just referring to what the thread starter explicitly said ...
  19. Many have been named but are all these AMERICANS who decided to live in EUROPE (as asked in the opening thread)? Sir Charles Thompson?? ... Some more who who DID move to Europe: Bobby Burgess Rhoda Scott Nancy Holloway (OK, she's on the fringe of jazz, but still ...) And here's one who went BOTH ways: Rolf Ericson
  20. I had first heard of her when I got myself a copy of the "Gal With a Horn" album a good 15 years ago in my quest to get the entire MODE LP series complete (minus 1 or 2 MOR-ish vocals album that I skipped). DB gave it 3 stars at the time but for all her talent on trumpet that would enable her "to hold her own" in many settings found her voice had "considerable intonation difficulties". It wasn't until several years later that I became aware of her later documentary acitivites when I bought the Central Avenue Sounds book. RIP
  21. A superb period piece. BTW, weren't there TWO "Zildjian" companies? No, not Sabian - long before that. I somehow remember ads to this effect in jazz magazines from the 50s.
  22. Tumblr! Oath! Illegible and inaccessible from Europe (or elsewhere?) unless you consent to cookies, log in with an "account" (what account?). And all this with the clear intention to spam the reader with (clearly unwanted) ads and "personalized" popups'n stuff, including from "partners " (what partners?). Neither useful nor customer-friendly.
  23. Assuming that the buyer of your house won't want to just tear it down and build something new on that site and regardless of what blueprint you want to frame as a keepsake, I guess that the buyers will be very keen to get all the construction paperwork, blueprints, etc. for that house. This will no doubt come in handy whenever they have refurbishing work done on it. So maybe get them a duplicate of what you want to keep (unless what you are keeping are duplicates anyway). I know I am glad I still have most of that for my own house (which my father - an architect too - designed and built in 1957). It came in handy to be able to give the contractors some plans for preparation when I had extensive work (including updated insulation) done on the roof several years ago.
×
×
  • Create New...