freeform83

Chick Corea with the Foo Fighters at the Grammys, although it wasn't particularly impressive.

Amazingly, no one seems to have mentioned Alice Coltrane -- even in the posts that list a bunch of musicians. In any case, she is my favorite, with "Isis and Osiris" (from JOURNEY IN SATCHIDANANDA) in particular being one of my all-time favorite tracks.

I saw Chick Corea and Gary Burton at a classical musical festival recently in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. It was almost the polar opposite of the venue where I saw him in March 2006.

The early 70s recordings with Mulligan represent my favorite period of Brubeck. You must get WE'RE ALL TOGETHER AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME (it also features Desmond). Highlights include free-ish solos on "Truth" and a beautiful version of "Koto Song."

Does anyone know whether or not it would be possible to obtain either of these titles on CD without buying the Mosaic? Is there a source like Downtown Music Gallery (which does not have them) or a place where they can be downloaded on MP3?

Currently obsessed with the show Oz and have Seasons One-Three on DVD. There has been no mention of Oz in this thread.

Don't forget Bobby Hutcherson's Components.

Is there a mailing list for Grachan Moncur or was this a personal email? I tried to add him on MySpace, but he never responded.

Thanks, John. Anything that sounds like Sonny Sharrock is what I am looking for... And the reason I list "jazz" and "noise" (as in the classification that people give to Merzbow) is because I am interested in finding an area where they overlap. But more specifically, I am wondering if there is a specifically "Japanese" subgenre of avant-garde/free jazz, something unique to that nation and its culture. Japan seems to have a much stronger avant-garde tradition than any other Asian country, perhaps more akin to Europe.

Can anyone recommend some Japanese musicians who operate on the more experimental or avant-garde side of the spectrum? I am only aware of Merzbow and the percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani, but I feel like I a missing out on an entire world of stuff that I would like, particularly in the more jazz-based realm. What inspired me to ask was the thread about the Gary Peacock album with Japanese sidemen that were totally unfamiliar to me.

Does the Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington cover count? It's one of my favorite 50s covers (and albums).

Any fans of the Chick Corea/Herbie Hancock duets from 78?

LOL

It's amazing that this was ever broadcast on network television, and interesting how Allen adopted a much more socially conservative stance on free speech and censorship in light of his disappointment with the way things turned out.

AND notice how the people in the Chan films who mock him and make racist comments toward him are portrayed as the ignorant ones, as he ultimately proves by way of his own patience and intelligence. I watched Charlie Chan in Paris recently, and the guy who makes fun of his accent is clearly supposed to be a jack-ass. As for Number One Son, I can remember at least one -- Charlie Chan in Rio -- where a white woman talks about how he is cute and wants to get with him, and this is actually shown in a positive light. This seems like a big deal to me, although it is never mentioned. All of the sons and daughters speak like first-generation Americans, and the reason they are less patient or intelligent is because they are Americanized (although there are rare occasions when one of the sons actually figures something out and helps with a clue). I think there is a lot of truth in this and have never viewed the sons or Number One Daughter as being particularly negative.

Here are some letters sent to Fox Movie Channel during the summer 2003 debacle:

They need to make a compelling argument as to how Charlie Chan is a negative stereotype, and what entitles the National Asian-American Telecommunications Association to determine what classic movie fans may or may not watch. For the most part, I put a lot more stock into complaints from people of color than from white people who are offended on their behalf (but not small organizations speaking for millions of people who are never polled, i.e. NAATA). I consider myself an open-minded person. For what its worth, about 90% of the music I listen to is black music, and black American culture is one of my primary interests in life. I will refrain from attempting to list my "credentials" of racial sensitivity in some ridiculous effort to deflect further accusations of moral and social irresponsibility... But I still believe there are times when fear of racial offensiveness bleeds over into close-mindedness, and this is one of those times. All due respect, of course.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Bi6hoSCHfw0 I consider this the high point of American animation -- particularly the "St. James Infirmary Blues" sequence -- but wonder if it would be considered racist today. EDIT two hours later to make link work.

The "Rosebud" line is one of the coolest things I have ever seen in a classic cartoon. It amazes me that Citizen Kane would be referenced by Bob Clampett around the same time that it came out! I typically associate Citizen Kane references/parodies much more with later decades.

I share your disapointment with Laws' version. But I was initially excited over the prospect, and I still think that Rite of Spring has possibilities for a jazz improvization that is closer to Stravinsky in spirit. And I have a feeling that something along those lines is out there; I just don't know about it. I will add that the Laws' version of that famous Debussy flute piece from the same album comes off much better, albeit as a pretty straighforward classical reading. As a side topic, has anyone heard Alice Coltrane's version of the Firebird from the early 70s. I am interested in any commentary on this.

I wasn't asking in a sarcastic or elitist way, but out of genuine interest.

Is Rights of Swing considered a good album?

I did not state the Britney-Mercer observation very well. The main point was the difference in eras. The question of popularity is related to this, however, in that only a very limited group of people will know about Mercer and purchase the Mosaic. I would assume these people have a better understanding of American history than the average Britney fan, and thus in a better position to process potentially offensive lyrics. I felt the same way about the Charlie Chan movies because the average young person isn't going to be seeing them anyway, but rather a select group of classic movie fans who already know what to expect and are less likely to think that, "We are offended now, therefore we should ban this regardless of whether or not people were offended then." But the differing levels of popularity should not really be much of a consideration. It would be good if younger people were more knowledgeable about these things and were exposed to them, but I know this is not the case. Another concern here is that, to say nothing of whether these songs ("Ugly Chile," "Darktown Strutters' Ball," "Sleepytime Down South," et al) were written by black or white songwriters, they are very different expressions of racial attitudes than Birth of a Nation of your average Lothrop Stoddard text. Rather than actively attempting to perpetuate notions of white superiority over savage lower races, these songs are actually well-intentioned portrayals of black culture. Yes, they sound demeaning today, but in some cases a song like this represents the early-to-mid 20th c. equivalent of a more "liberal" attitude. At the very least, "Ugly Chile" lies at a different point on this racist continuum, but I think it's probably a more accurate assessment to say that it's on a different continuum altogether. And yet we lose these distinctions by simply lumping everything that may be offensive into the same "racist" bag. So far from gaining a keener insight into bygone cultural expressions, we are actually losing context. My only hope is that the liner notes would not fall into this trap, but as retarded as we are becoming, I can't say that I have a lot of faith. That's my perogative.

My problem with adding "context" is that Mosaic (or whatever company this applies to) will have to make a determination of which artistic products require it -- effectively being offended for us -- and then decide exactly what needs to be said in order to explain it. This in itself has a chilling effect on free speech, because something is adjudicated as being inherently "bad" right off the bat -- we are told what to think about it. I just don't understand where this ends. Maybe we should go back and add disclaimers to The French Connection because Gene Hackman's character is racist. And it's a short step from adding "context" to outright censorship -- in which case we (as a country even) lose any real context altogether. Before certain Bugs Bunny cartoons were pulled off Cartoon Network and all the Charlie Chan movies pulled from the Fox Movie Channel, the official plan was to precede each with either a disclaimer or panel discussion. I would have welcomed this at the time, but now I am increasingly weary of going down this road. If Britney Spears came out with a song that implicity compared black people to apes, then we would need to have a discussion. But this song is on a Johnny Mercer box set. The average American doesn't even know who Johnny Mercer is. And I cannot emphasize enough that anyone who buys it will already know that he worked largely before the Civil Rights Movement. Whose sensibilities are we trying to protect?

And "Racism!!! Racism!!!" is never used as a crude rhetorical ploy that attempts to automatically invalidate any legitimate concerns that have been raised? Now, back to this soing... I confess I have never heard "Ugly Chile," but I just looked up the lyrics. I fail to see how the absence of a disclaimer is going to set back the Civil Rights Movement.