jazzypaul

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.

I have a beautyrest, and it's great. The fiancee and I were doing some bed shopping, and we kept going right back to the beautyrest all over again. Certainly, for the money, there's not a better bed out there, that I've seen anyway.

1. There aren't any black people at jams shows. (well, maybe at a ratio of 10,000 to 1) 2. Look at albums sales. I would LOVE to believe that jam music is approaching mainstream, but its simply now where near being true. Take the biggest non-Dead jam band in the world, Phish. 50 Cent's last album sold more than their entire catalog. Jam is for white college kids, usually rich white college kids. 1. Whose fault is that? It's certainly not the fault of the jam bands in question. Check out the Disco Biscuits and get back to me. 2. Look at concert revenues. Phish played a show to 600,000 people with no one else on the bill. Insofar as the "jam is for white college kids..." bit, that's the most ethnocentric crap I've heard in a long time. I will do my best not to offend and just cut myself off right here...

Anyone who has ever heard Sam Bush would never accuse bluegrass of being "ignorant" music.

Good question. One might ask much the same about playing "on the beat." Not from a drummer's perspective they wouldn't. If you drag, it doesn't swing, groove or lay in the pocket. Rushing can be a different scenario. If you rush just a hair, it gives the music some momentum. But do it too much, and nothing locks up anymore. I have no idea who would want that.

well, then you should change that. www.wdcb.org

Lazaro, allow me to tell you what is wrong with your thinking: Instead of celebrating the full market signal station that broadcasts jazz between 16-20 hours per day in Chicago, you lament the station that played jazz less than 40 when it decided to drop jazz. Instead of looking forward to the point where jazz is being played on a radio station that WANTS TO PLAY JAZZ, you lament the station that very obviously had lost interest in the music. If you call yourself a champion of jazz music, then start acting and talking like it. Celebrate the music and the places willing to play it, and quit worrying about the places that are too chickenshit to devote their airtime to it. That said, I dig WBEZ's news and public affairs programming immensely. I just hope that they plan to do more locally produced material with their newfound time to kill.

four letters: WDCB. Jazz every day, 16 hours. Can't beat it.

No matter her faults, she still helped more people than you or I have.

two things wrong with this picture: 1) Cubs won't finish the season. Whiny north-siders will realize that expensive beer, inability to park anywhere between Division and Devon on game days and sports bars that play nothing but back to back Jon Mayer is a waste of time and will stop showing up. With only 6 real fans showing up to the games to watch them lose, the Tribune pulls the plug and the Cubs become a triple-A club by the All-Star break. 1a) wait, they're already a triple-A club. Rather, they'll start playing other triple-A teams so that they can win a few. 2) it won't be the Red Sox, it'll be the White Sox again, and they'll be so over-powering this season between Thome and Konerko that in a Duran like moment, the Cardinals will shout "no mas, no mas" going into the fourth game of the world series.

The truly funny part about this is that I'll have something to tell my bass player about tonight. Turns out Yanni did time in Chicago in the 70's and 80's, and my bass player, Bob Ferraris, played with Yanni a ton in those olden days in a cover band with Charlie Adams (also a Chicago native, who would end up being Yanni's drummer). ha ha ha ha ha...

Interesting thoughts there, Jim. First I'll respond to this, and then I'll gush about the new Potter record. electricity is cool when it's used well in context. I have yet to hear many situations where I thought that a synthesizer sounded good in context. I'm not really fond of guitar basses, but I think that actually has to do with how they're played. Because I don't mind hearing upright electric basses. But when guys play the pork chop, it rarely feels right, to my ears anyway. In the right context, however, it sounds hip. Hip when its a varitone, or whatever Seamus Blake uses, hip when its a Rhodes or a Wurlitzer, hip when its a guitar run through a myriad of effects a la Bill Frisell. I like the electricity when it's used tastefully, and sometimes, it actually is. As for the swing rhythms, Jim, I have to disagree. And I disagree for the same reason that I make all of my students learn jazz on the drumset first, and then teach them everything else: EVERYTHING, to some degree, is based on those swing rhythms. What is blues? Swing without the quarter notes to break up the dotted eigth/sixteenth note. What is funk? double time swing on the hi-hat or ride with a half time backbeat. What is rock? Swing syncopation switched to the bass drum and snare over a straight eigth feel. Let's face it, the best music of American stock (so exclude classical music and eastern music for a moment here) all swings at some level. And so to keep it in the repetoire and use it in different and hopefully interesting ways is VERY important. Now where I truly agree with you on the idea of "play your world, not your father's or grandfather's" is in song choice. Yes, we younger players (at 30, I think I can still call myself that, right?) should know the standards because it's the common language. But, if Miles can play Human Nature, Time After Time, You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman and other pop tunes throughout his time in the jazz world, younger jazz players SHOULD be playing Radiohead, Bjork, R.E.M., Coldplay and My Bloody Valentine tunes. With my band, that becomes Metallica, The Rolling Stones, Leslie Gore, Slayer and Led Zeppelin. And it bothers me a ton that people think its so cool that we do those tunes. No, really, it's not. It's just that we're expanding our repetoire to include tunes that we really love and have something to say on, as opposed to "There is no Greater Love." As for the Potter record, I dig the record, but I went absolutely apeshit over seeing that band live. The way this band has helped these tunes to grow on tour is light years beyond what's on the CD. I think his choice of tunes is great. I think his writing is pretty cool. I think that band's interplay on those tunes is fantastic. And as a drummer, Nate Smith blows me away every time I hear him. I recommend Underground quite enthusiastically.

The original Islam one was: If shit happens, take a hostage.

To me, jazz is the sound of Forward Motion.

I was there. It was a blast. Organissimo sounded like they were MADE for that room. Hopefully they'll bring you back. I'm just sorry I couldn't stay longer. Y'all should be VERY proud of yourselves.

amen. I should also apologize for putting more than my fair share of the "crap" that Claude speaks of on the board.

Well, I'd much rather find out where I'm wrong so I can right the course than continue to be wrong. A little effort never hurt anyone.

That's an interesting point. And maybe it's a point that proves that I need to get out more often. But being that my two day jobs involve music, I teach music and I play music, a LARGE portion of my life revolves around it. So, music about music doesn't seem to be that bad of an idea to me. And I'll agree to a large extent that Rosenwinkel and Turner are definitely musicians that seem more concerned about craft than anything else. And I would agree about Mehldau being in the same space, up until Day Is Done. For me, that was a revelatory listen for me. Musically, I heard what I'd been hearing in my head for the past year and couldn't get out. I heard a rhythm section really locking and booming, and I heard a piano player playing shit that made me scream out loud. I finally got a chance to go through what I went through the first time I heard Ornette's Change of The Century, Wayne's Speak No Evil (the album, not the tune), DKV's Trigonometry, Dolphy's Out To Lunch or Monk's Misterioso. So, forgive me if I'm a little biased on that one. If anything, I guess that it's a bit of "diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks." And, for another case of "while the jazz world was sleeping..." I present the Dan Cray trio. Their latest on Blujazz was another killer side that I thought really went out of its way to say something.

seriously, Chuck, who else is there to blame? If someone puts out an amazing recording, (take the aforementioned Kurt Rosenwinkel for example) and it gets ignored because people would rather listen to an old disc, whose fault is that? Is it the fault of the artist for making music that he or she thinks is important? Nope. Is it the fault of the record company for putting it out? Nope, at least they had the balls to do so. That's sadly a mistake that they won't be repeating in this age of downsizing. And they might as well downsize labels and make the bulk of their market re-issues, after all, that's all anyone will ever buy. Is it the fault of the radio stations who need to cling to listener support to stay alive, especially now that the government is barely supporting public radio? Not at all. They need to play music that they know will keep businesses and yoga instructors tuned in. That leaves only the listener that thinks that jazz stopped in 1965 or so, you know, with the exception of Wynton Marsalis. That leaves the listener that only wants to hear standards instead of something that means something to an artist. That leaves the listener who thinks that a honking saxophone is distracting instead of blissful. That leaves the listener who thinks that no record collection is complete without Kind of Blue, but only listens to it twice a year. And when the guy who convinced Bob Koester to unleash Anthony Braxton on us decides that new music isn't worth listening to, well, then God help us all...

Jazz hasn't been dead for a lack of trying. It's been dead because jazz's own listeners don't give a damn about the here and now. Kurt Rosenwinkel's The Next Step sold 1500 copies. I think Mark Turner's Dharma Days sold even less. To my ears, those were hands down two of the best albums of the new millenium, so far, regardless of genre. And to see those CD's get such a tepid response from the jazz arena at large is telling. It doesn't tell me that jazz is dead. The creativity is there, the energy is there and the restlesness is there. But the jazz fans aren't. It's not that jazz is dead, it's that its listeners aren't awake. We wonder why jazz labels keep cutting back. Look in the mirror. We wonder why jazz clubs close. Look in the mirror. I wonder why I just got an offer for my trio to play for $100 and dinner on a Thursday and I'm considering it. Fuck. Look in the mirror. When was the last time people actually asked each other about their music here? On a forum that's probably FILLED with musicians! WHY? Because we, as a whole, don't care about what's going on now. And why should we when even the critics don't care about the here and now? And why should we when the radio hosts don't care about the here and now? And when jazz musicians do come up with an album crackling with energy and buzzing with creativity, it's either mocked, or worse yet, ignored. If jazz is dead, or dying, look no further than the bloody dagger being held by jazz fans themselves.

That's an unfair statement, though. You're never going to do better than Diz and Bird or Trane and Monk. You can only do different, and maybe you'll be lucky enough to do different at their level. But, by definition, you can't do better than the best. And here is the real problem. Do you think Pops, Duke, Bird, Diz, Ornette, etc ever thought "You're never going to do it better? What you can do is "become the best"! If that is not your goal, I'll keep that in mind. To clarify, THIS is what I'm thinking: Dave Douglas, Brad Mehldau, and Katahdin's Edge each put out albums that could have redefined what jazz is in the past year. Greg Osby, Joe Lovano, Organissimo and Tierney Sutton all put out incredibly fine albums this year. And I don't think any of them got so much as a mention from any of these 10 best lists thus far. Why? Because a bunch of rediscoveries took all of the thunder away and made these guys and their great albums a moot point. We SHOULD be thrilled and surprised by new music from Bird and Monk. There's no arguing that point. But to not celebrate our artists that are making great music NOW is a slap in the face to everything that I thought jazz was supposed to be about in the first place. As for me, I do aspire to be the best I can be. By honing my technique and stealing from the best and recasting that which I've taken in new and interesting ways, I certainly hope to put myself one day in the drumming pantheon that includes Elvin, Tony, Max, Roy, Philly Joe, Papa Jo, Buddy Rich, Tain and Bill Stewart. But I can't ever get there if everyone's too busy listening to stuff recorded 40, 50 or 60 years ago to hear me in the first place.

That's an unfair statement, though. You're never going to do better than Diz and Bird or Trane and Monk. You can only do different, and maybe you'll be lucky enough to do different at their level. But, by definition, you can't do better than the best. But, because we'd rather celebrate the past (which we should) and IGNORE the present and future (which we shouldn't), the jazz world is at a point where we're chasing ghosts. And to chase a ghost when Mehldau, Douglas, Osby, Lovano, Keezer, Tardy, Rosenwinkel, Turner, Organissimo, and countless others are right here in our midst? What can be said about that? No wonder Jamie Cullum and Norah Jones are the acts being promoted by jazz labels. The jazz "fans" won't even support the real thing. And in the rare case where they will, there had damn well better be some 60 year old tunes on the CD, because, after all, who actually wants to hear an original thought? It's a crying shame is what it is.

What does it say about us as jazz listeners, aficianados, lovers and advocates when the majority of the ten best discs come from dead artists? Not to take away the importance of newly found material, but shouldn't these lists celebrate the new rather than rehash the old? No wonder it's so hard to find gigs these days. We're competing against corpses.

Well, one look at their record in the playoffs will tell you that it WASN'T all about their teams. And considering the starting rotation that we're going to have on our hands this time out, the whole AL better watch out. Now if only Kenny Williams would simply decide to spend the money on Manny, at which point, we'd have deadly offense AND pitching. Y'all would just have to bow before the greatness that is the Chicago White Sox.

Now, that's "Hot Stove League" talk at it's best. I've got it bad, I've got it bad, I've got it bad, I'm Hot Stove for Teacher?