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jazzypaul

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Posts posted by jazzypaul

  2. 2006 MLB Thread

    in Miscellaneous - Non-Political

    Posted

    You really want to know?

    Yes, Dan, I do...please tell me.

    Its lingering resentment at

    -your obnoxious comments about the Cubs.

    Come be a baseball fan in Chicago for a couple of years, and then complain. Your darling Cubs get all of the media exposure because their park is in the beer and lifestyle neighborhood. No team has ever had to do less work for all of the adoration it gets, and frankly, it's sickening. And what kinds of names are Shawon, Heathcliffe and Ryne anyway?

    And, let's add to that the fact that such a comment means that you know nothing about Chicago baseball tradition. Cubs fans hate the Sox, we hate the Cubs. If you're a lifelong Wrigleyville-ian, multiply your Sox hatred by 10. If you're a Bridgeport or Beverly native, magnify your Cubs hatred by 100. That's just the way it is. They wear t-shirts with our modified logo saying "Sux" and we wear t-shirts with their modified logo saying "Chokers." Complaining about my "obnoxious" comments is like complaining after an afternoon drizzle once you've experienced a hurricane.

    -the ALDS sweep last year.

    It's not my fault that your team couldn't stack up. Neither is it the White Sox. Tell your boys in Boston to bring their A game, even if they're not genuflecting in front of the Yankees. Your venom is spewing in completely the wrong direction.

    -how sucky you were against the Yanks this month.

    Exactly as sucky as the Red Sox were against us last October.

    -the fact that every commentator at the ASB declared the White Sox would inevitably win the division crown when they've pathetically collapsed since then.

    Hey, even I was annoyed by that. At least let us be in first place before people start jinxing us!

    I'm shocked to see that you agree that they have deep problems. Now I hear that you may give up Brandon McCarthy for a two month rental of Soriano?

    I might be vision impaired by my love for the White Sox, but I'm not blinded. Bad pitching is still bad pitching.

    Just do everyone else a favor and hold off the Twins. The worst case scenario I can see right now would be the Red Sox winning the division and the Twins making the wild card. If that happens, the wild card plays the division winner with the second best record, and that would be in all likelihood the Red Sox, and there's no way I'd want to face Santana and Liriano for three games of a five game series, home field advantage or no. No, I'd much rather face the defending champs so we can return the favor and sweep them out of their title defense.

    Like we did last year, huh?

  3. Grant Green Club Mozambique UK release

    in Re-issues

    Posted

    My bias is towards blues based and straight ahead jazz material. I've tried to like Green's later material, but have been consistently disappointed despite giving it a chance and listening with an open mind.

    For me, there is less passion and emotion in Green's later playing, which relies too heavily on funky "pet licks" on top of boogaloo vamps and loses sight of his earlier highly emotive, blues-based sensibilities. There is plenty of organ jazz Green did in the early-mid 60s which smokes the Mozambique, Alive type 70s material.

    You know what I hate about this type of yammering? It's the fact that people consistently miss the point. It's hard to put this into words, but this is the best that I can do...

    Grant in his early days was a phenomenal guitarist. There's no denying that. His albums were great, all the way around. When he played with Baby Face Willette, it just sounded great. When he played with Big John Patton, it just felt great. When he played with Larry Young and Elvin Jones, well, damn. It was heaven. He locked up well with great backing bands and made great music, whether as a leader or a sideman.

    So far, I believe we're all in agreement.

    Here's what people forget though:

    His post-1969 was great stuff too! I'd have a hard time really calling it jazz, but it's great! It's great funk music. It's great dance music! It's infectious. It's driving. It's foot-tappin' feel good shake yo' ass music. And if ass shaking music was the point of Alive!, Green is Beautiful or Live at the Club Mozambique, then they accomplish their goals effortlessly.

    Which is to say that on some level, you're dealing with apples and oranges. When Scott Yanow's review of Alive! was still up on AMG, I thought it was one of the most insulting and ignorant reviews of a jazz album of all time. And when I got the chance to ask him about it, he said that it didn't hold up to Grant's earlier work (and on a technical level, maybe it doesn't). And my response to that (no matter who is saying it) is that you CAN'T compare The Sonny Clark Quartets with Alive! or Green Is Beautiful. It's simply pointless. The target audience was different, the groove was different, the feel was different. The concept was different.

    In other words, you're complaining that an album that was never meant to suit your tastes didn't suit your tastes. If you don't like vamps and boogaloos, I highly suggest not listening to Grant Green recorded after 1966.

    As for me, Grant's funky stuff was some of the first jazz that I really attatched to. Bitches Brew was first, and I dug it, but my friends wouldn't bitch when Alive or Green Is Beautiful was in the tape deck in the car. So I listened to those a lot more, and got really attatched to them. I heard Grant's "heavier" work later, and dug that too. Because, after all, believe it or not, sometimes, you can like more than one period of an artist's work.

    And I've heard Live at the Club Mozambique as of last night, and it is a B-A-A-A-A-A-A-D mutha. I like it. That version of Jan Jan is a monster.

  4. Coltrane: Sun Ship

    in Recommendations

    Posted

    According to AMG, this album went #186 on the Billboard pop charts, which is pretty mind-boggling.

    Guy

    Not really, if you think about it. It was an interesting time for music. Remember that A Love Supreme was a gold record, as was Bitches Brew. Considering that a huge seller (and a gold record back then was a BIG FREAKING DEAL) almost always means a few more big sellers, #186 for a week or two makes a bit of sense. Especially if you consider a rush of first week or first month sales. Hell, the first Bad Plus album made it to #11 on Amazon's sales list for a week, and that came out less than 5 years ago!

    Even the rock albums that were getting sales awards at that time were pretty amazing records: Live Dead and Skull & Roses by the Grateful Dead were both big sellers, as were records by Santana, CSN&Y (and Deja Vu wasn't exactly the easy listening that their first album was) and Jefferson Airplane.

    The really shocking one for me around that time is the fact that Loaded by The Velvet Underground never did better. Especially considering the fact that three of the tunes on that album have become bona fide rock classics. Still, I don't think that Loaded ever even cracked the Billboard top 200 chart.

  5. Recent Dave Douglas

    in Recommendations

    Posted

    Live Keystone? Oh shit! That's gotta be bad ass!

    I agree with the person who said Douglas' initial efforts with his groups tend to be his most satisfying (live discs not included). The Infinite was clearly one of the baddest CD's I had heard in a long time. Strange Liberation was great, but not nearly as awe-inspiring (for me, anyway). Meaning and Mystery is great, but it isn't on the same level as the other two. However, live at the bimhaus was AMAZING!

    All of that said, Douglas is by far my favorite trumpeter playing right now. Hell, he's one of my favorite bandleaders, period.

  6. Malachi Thompson Has Passed Away

    in Artists

    Posted

    I got to hang with Malachi twice. They were both interviews. They were both fascinating. The first was for a show with Billy Harper, and Malachi was passionate about his music beyond all belief. He was passionate about making it past cancer. He was passionate about hating smooth jazz. He was passionate about his latest musical endeavors and it was one of the greatest afternoons of my life. The next time, it was supposed to be an interview about 47th Street and instead, it turned into Malachi giving me the best history of Bronzeville that anyone has ever given in the history of oral histories. I would ask him a question about the CD, and he would turn it around, on its head and turn it into something about what the SCAI was doing. And it was so fascinating, and so moving and so inspiring to see someone with so much fire for what he was doing that it changed the way I thought about music, politics and how the two are related forever.

    He is one guy I am going to miss A LOT.

    R.I.P. Malachi.

  8. 2006 MLB Thread

    in Miscellaneous - Non-Political

    Posted

    How about you tell me why your team deserves the praise its gotten? Tell me why anyone should be afraid of your starting five? And there's talk that they are dangling two of those five to try to get bullpen help? :wacko:

    Newflash:

    The only thing that may keep the White Sox from pulling an Indians-size collapse is all of those veterans probably won't let it happen. Probably. But this is a fundamentally flawed team without a prayer of catching the Tigers.

    Ummm, no shit, sherlock. I'm thinking more than likely, we're the wild card. Are we the LUCKIEST team alive this season? absolutely. Trust me, I'll be the first to tell you that this isn't going to be the magic season of last year. But, considering that luck factor, you never can tell.

    Considering how much rage you've got dripping through your posts regarding my beloved White Sox, however, Dan, one has to get back to my original question. Maybe Ron Kittle gave you a wedgie. Or maybe you're just mad that Pudge likes us more than you guys these days.

  10. 2006 MLB Thread

    in Miscellaneous - Non-Political

    Posted

    Dan,

    I feel for you. One of the many reasons that I finally bailed on Satellite. I loved it for a while, but in Chicago, Comcast is the only game in town for baseball games (unless you buy something like Extra Innings...which is stupid when you're in the same town as your favorite team). When I was single, going to Jimbo's for games when I wasn't gigging was fine. But now that I'm married, (and living another 7 miles outside of Bridgeport), I can't justify that. So, comcast was the only option.

    Would going the cable route give you any more options?

  11. Check out this thread from JC

    in Miscellaneous - Non-Political

    Posted

    She [Lois] 's just taking her cues from AAJ's Mike Ricci. Actually, other than her fondness for the Grouch, Lois ain't that bad. Ricci, on the other hand, is a jerk.

    When you think about it, maybe Lois is trying to get a few of the "regulars" to leave. After all, a majority of them are not too kind to the style of Jazz her clientele play.

    Kevin

    A gratuitous post if ever I saw one. This thread has absolutely nothing to do with Mike Ricci, who is, indeed, a nice guy working hard to keep a vital board going. That was a cheap shot, Kevin.

    One of those rare occasions when I agree with Chris completely. Ricci was always really cool to me, and I feel kinda bad that I just kinda stopped feeling at home on a board where he went out of his way to welcome me and solicit my opinions.

  13. Wow! I'm married!

    in Miscellaneous - Non-Political

    Posted

    Thanks for all of the kind words. I never knew that a couple of days just sitting around the house could be so hectic. It's also been all sorts of great. The ceremony was really cool, and considering how far away it was from, well, everything and everyone, I was shocked that we actually saw a couple of hundred people make it to Warsaw, IN.

    I'm looking forward to all of it. The ups and the downs, because we'll be doing them all together, and I couldn't ask for anything more than that.

    With regards to the Brotzmann listening, she likes way further out stuff than I do. When she found out that I will be MC'ing a Fred Anderson appearance later this summer, she demanded that I take her with (yeah, really hard decision there...).

    As for us both being in the same state, ecstatic is one way to put it, Illinois is yet another. :P

  15. What the F*ck??

    in Miscellaneous - Non-Political

    Posted

    Reasons why anyone who sides with the plaintiff in this case is an absolute moron:

    1) Being robbed at gunpoint isn't just being robbed. It's a psychological mindfuck that leaves scars well past the actual event. I know this one from experience. These guys had to go to work every day, and it certainly isn't good for the mind to think that your workplace is so unsafe that you could get killed. For me, it happened right outside my front door. Same thing. If I'd had a gun, or the ability (or bravery) to grab his, that would have been one dead asshole.

    1a) if you haven't been robbed, you shouldn't be saying jack shit right now.

    2) If someone brandishes a gun, then the idea was to take your life. Plain and simple. If the perp didn't want to take someone's life, he would have robbed them with a banana. But, there's threat of life, and that doesn't deserve an ass beating long enough and hard enough to ensure that it doesn't happen again? Remind me never to go to Luxembourg!

    3) Jim already brought up this point, but if they allow him to flee unscathed, he might try to do this again to someone else. They did society a favor.

    4) What is this world coming to when someone who is robbing people at gunpoint has any rights beyond three meals a day in a 8x8 cell?

  17. Time to Boycott Baseball

    in Miscellaneous - Non-Political

    Posted

    Shouldn't this be in the politics forum? Religion, tax dollars, etc...

    That said, this is one thing I really hate about liberals, even as I see myself becoming more and more of one: animosity towards religion. Wait, strike that. Animosity towards Christianity. The tone of this article is flat out ridiculous. Brownian's claim that such a team would make him boycott baseball, even moreso.

    Simply said, there's no need for it. Yes, it's a ridiculous premise. The team's goal should be nothing short of winning. If you win with a bench full of Mickey Mantles, then you do so. As a White Sox fan, I could care less about the personal lives of the team members. Just win. That's all I ask.

    However, to call Christianity offensive IS offensive. Does Christianity call for a very specific way to live one's life? Absolutely. But, so does every other major religion. Judaism, Islam, (real) Buddhism, Hinduism, all of these expect its adherents to live life in a certain way. So, when I see this...

    Have the Colorado Rockies become a faith-based organization? This can be particularly problematic when the religion in question is one that makes exclusive claims and sometimes denigrates the validity of other belief systems."

    I have to think, "gee, does this guy know anything about religion at all?

    In other words, if The Nation was that concerned about the situation, then by all means, they should write an article. But it does not have to be an article that condescends and is offensive to me and my faith.

  24. Dave Douglas - Meaning and Mystery

    in New Releases

    Posted

    I've heard it.

    I agree with the thought that The Infinite was a masterpiece. That album is a bitch from first track to last.

    Strange Liberation wasn't as fiery, but it was quite cool, and "Seventeen" is a baaaaaad mutha.

    Meaning and Mystery is very cool. It's definitely a lot more esoteric than either of those two, and if you like that kind of thing, it's very hip.

    it gets a thumbs up from me.

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