medjuck

In the late '60s the Buffalo ABC station played a movie before the Cavett show so it didn't begin until 1:am. Nevertheless in Toronto (where all the US stations on cable were from Buffalo) we used to stay up late to see it . We forget how difficult it was to see counter-culture things on main-stream media in those days. One night Abbie Hoffman was supposed to be on and we all stayed up to watch it. But whenever he was on camera the screen went blank. In two-shots with Cavett half the screen would be blank. But at about 2am his arm broke in to Cavett's part of the screen and we all realized that he was wearing a flag shirt! Our phone started ringing off the hook with calls from friends who had figured out the same thing. The next day I had a class with Marshall Mcluhan. We had a geat time discussing it. I claimed it was the greatest thing ever shown on tv.

I can't tell whether your claim of enjoyment of poems about "knives twisting in the bellies of Jews" is meant to be ironic or not. And if you'd read all of the posts you'd know that the lyrics aren't by a black composer. AND am I not supposed to be offended by Mein Kampf just because it was written before even I was born? (Actually I've never read Mein Kampf so I don't really know if I'd be offended-- but if it talked about "knives twisting in the bellies of Jews" I would be.) And I don't think that it's any "shame" for Tranemonk as an African-American not to be where you are when it comes to what he percieves as racism.

Why did Berigan post this? What's it got to do with Muslims or France?

Whooooopie! I've been waiting for this one.

My admittedly not good memory is that the performance in the film matches your father's description.

Meanwhile the only African-American to post on this topic was offended. Seems like a lot of people want to invalidate his reaction.

The lyrics did offend me, but knowing that Clarence Williams wrote them sort of mitigates it. This issue is complex: I love the Will Bradley-Ray Mckinley version of "Down the Road Apiece" but am bothered that the singers seem to be doing a black-faced shuck and jive. But the Amos Milburn version is very similar-- right down to the mention of Freddy Slack (IIRC) and I guess I'm less bothered because he's Black. I'm pretty sure that the white guys recorded it first. I don't know the race of the song writer. As I said, I think the issue is fairly complex (or at least my emotions about it are). However I think there's nothing wrong with liner notes pointing it out and putting it in context. I remember when I taught film and showed Birth of a Nation without discussing its racism just because it seemed so obvious to me. Then some students (black and white) quite reasonably pointed out that I should have said something about it. Hoagy Carmichael and even Bing Crosby interest me in the same way. Are they imitating Blacks or just Southerners in general with some of their records. Did they refer to members of the Whiteman (just noticed the irony of the name) band as "boys"? The whole era is hard for me to get my head around. I'm old, but not that old.

We spend a lot of time complaining about how some sets are packaged (Hell we spend a lot of time complaining about everything-- jazz fans are a cranky bunch), but what kind of packaging do we like? I just pulled out the Ornette "Beauty is a Rare Thing" box and was struck by how much I liked the way it was packaged: Nice looking, easy to access and informative notes. Anyone else got favorites.

Yeah. I could have lived with just a single 'best of Johnny Mercer" disc. It's interesting comparing the live and studio versions on the Ellington disc. They each have their virtues but I admit I have the entire live 2 cd set and find it tiresome. I do like the Cohen et al sets. I think it's possible that Larry and Garth's aversion to them is because this kind of music and these players seemed ubiquitous at the time. I felt the same way about The Jazz Messengers and "funk" in general when I started listening to jazz in the early '60s. You start to like anything that breaks the mold (like the Jazz Workshop series). Now that no-one plays like that anymore (I know some try to, but where they gonna find a rhythm guitarist like Freddie Green?) this seems pretty fresh to me. As do a lot of Blakey recordings from the early '60s.

I've just purchased "Ornette Coleman Quintet-Complete Live at the Hillcrest Club" and I'm really liking it. Sound is ok (piano off mike a lot) and packaging nice. However what they call "Ramblin'" is not, though Rambin does appear titled "When Will the Blues Leave". So can anyone who's heard this tell me what is the song they call Ramblin? "When will the Blues Leave?" maybe? Also is there a good bio of Ornette? I've always thought that he played at the Hillcrest before recording for Contemporary but what I've found on-line makes me think he had already recorded before meeeting Paul Bley and the gang. Am I wrong? Certainly his first Contemporary recordings were made a few months before this recording from the Hillcrest.

I tried Safari for Win. What's the point? I'm happy with FireFox, I don't know why Mac even created a copy of Safari for Win. The latest Beta release is much more stable (no more crashing when accessing bookmarks, etc.) but it's still got major flaws (font display on Win, ...). No matter what, if you don't bloat it with extensions, it's the fastest rendering machine out there. I'm a Firefox user and have been ever since version 0.something, but I enjoy having Safari on board, simply because it allows me to test the rendering of web pages with that browser on my Win machine. So, for web developers, having Safari is a great thing. You guys are talking about using Safari on a Windows operating system right? I haven't had any of those problems on a Mac.,

And the original EKE still loves you madly!! Happy B'day.!

Shouldn't "After solos you like" be a choice? BTW Audiences get pleasure out of applauding. I've been at screenings of jazz films and seen the audience applaud after great solos.

I attended an Archie Shepp concert around the time of Mamma Too Tight and at a lull in one of the large ensemble's free blowing simultaneous improvisation numbers someone yelled out "one more time" as they left in a huff.

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 The story of Miles's signing with Columbia is one of the most documented events in Jazz history. Amongst many other places it can be found is in the liner notes to the Miles/Coltrane Columbia box set. BTW I once had an e-mail exchange with Avakian about the event. From listening to the music and announcements it seemed to me that Miles was the leader of the group rather than just a last minute addition. But Avakian assured me that I was wrong and that Miles's participation had not been announced in the program.

I feel the same way about the Trane photo used on Blue Trane. By the time I first saw it they were out of print. I found a poster with the uncropped picture on e-Bay, then bought a different shot from Mosaic that looked like it had been taken a few seconds later from a different angle.

I think I avoided all jazz recorded in the '70s ( except a couple of Gil Evans records). I had bought contemporary jazz in the '60s but by the '70s I as buying older jazz and contemporary rock.

I've been using it since I discovered it had spell check! (But that's the only advantage I've found with it. I find Safari faster and more stable. )

Definitely hard task to recognize. On some variations of "Topsy" it sounds like Monk, while on another occasion I believe it is Kersey. Kersey was hell of a pianist, anyway. Not standard bop by any means. You're right. The point I was trying to make is that Monk seemed to be able to play pretty well in a conventional manner back then. It's like when people claim that Picasso paints like a 14 year old they should see what he did paint when he was 14.

Funny you're choosing 26 as a milestone. I always joke that I didn't mind turning, 30, 40, 50 or 60 because I was over the hill at 26. I mean after that no-one every says "Isn't it amazing he's doing whatever and he's so young!". At at 23 I was teaching at a university , editing a magazine and doing commentary on radio and television. I think I had my mid-life crisis at 26. I read a Rolling Stone interview with Janis Joplin and she said that she was 26 and realised that this was real life. I thought, holy shit she's right! In every other way I've been chronologically retarded: Got into the film business at 37, married at 38, first child at 43 and probably not retiring until I'm 70 or dead (whichever comes first.) I do think back at my years in graduate school with great fondness. "There was music in the cafes at night/ And revolution in the air." Anyway, I like to think the best is yet to come.

I was about to place an order with Amazon and wanted to do it through the forum but can't find the link. Has it moved? Disappeared? Or am I as usual just missing something in front of me?

Isn't Monk's playing on his earliest recordings at Minton's pretty standard early bebop? So much so that there's some controversy as to whether it's Monk or Kenny Kersey on some numbers. (In fact are any of those recordings definitively Monk? If not, I guess it sort of invalidates my point. .

Trying to remember how to say Happy Birthday in Hebrew. By the time it comes to me it probably won't be your birthday anymore. Sooooo........ HAPPY B'DAY!

Nothing wrong with esoteric taste but I'd rather hear a better reason as to why I should listen to Mudhoney than just someone claiming that they (he? she?) are superior to Roy Orbison and that if you don't agree you're aesthetically (and maybe morally) inferior. Clem seems to think he's the only person on the board who ever read a book or heard a rare record. It's an attitude most people grow out of by the time they're 19. (And about that time the frisson of talking dirty usually wears off too.)

Why do you presume people don't know who Emmet Grogan was? And if you're old enough to remember him you should stop acting sophomoric.