blind-blake

Heard his Saxophone Concerto last night on the radio. What a cool piece of music!!!! Never appreciated him before.

Just heard a few bits of him on a web site, and the clips sounds pretty good. Anyone know anything about him?

Have a good one!

Angels and Demons (the sequel to the DaVinci Code). Hear it's coming out as a movie.

Always loved this line from John Prine's "Middle Man": She was leaning on the juke box And was lookin' real good Like Natalie Wood On a Pontiac hood

That's the one I used. I'm sending you a PM with contact information.

Jim, try this email address for the 55 Bar: 55@55bar.com

I have a good friend who is friends with the owners. I've just sent him an email. Worth a shot.

You might try the 55 Bar in NYC. They have great jazz but don't have a piano! (Piano players bring their electrics.) They might like an organ trio. I may have a connection there. Let me see and I'll get back to you.

Hope you had a good one!!!!!!!! Never been to an air show, but the picture looks way cool!!

Thanks for your valuable contributions to this forum! Have a good one!!!!!!

The guy who played Gruber was a friend of my dad's. (I'm not sure why I felt the need to say that. I'll shut up now.)

I think JSangry's point about individuality becoming harder to obtain as options run out is a good one.

Fasstrack, that was a very well reasoned reply. Thanks. Your points about Jaki Byard and other "individualists" having taught at schools, as well as about the bandstand challenges, the personalities, and that "education taken with empiral knowledge and self-awareness" is the way to go are right on. The ass-whupping point brought to mind a story that the librarian of the Louis Armstrong archives once told me. He said that when he first came to New York, he would go to some jam sessions, and then someone would call out something like "Giant Steps in A." Unfortunately, he learned it only in G and got blown off the stage. The thing about it was he was cool with that! He said that's how you learn (and how we remove the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, as someone remarked above).

not only do I doubt that a young Thelonious Monk would be attending a jazz school today, a part of me is convinced that he would not even be playing what today is called "jazz". He'd probably be doing so Mike Ladd-ish shit, or something like that, Or not. Like I said, it's just a part of me that is convinced of that. But it's a part that I believe more and more as the days go by. Interesting! Yes, I could see Thelonious Monk doing something very different, as well. I'll have to check out this Mike Ladd character!

I see what you mean. Yes, that makes perfect sense. Thanks!!

I hear what you're saying about the "commingling of social worlds that created the individuals?" But why do you think the kids want to come to school to sound just like everybody else? What's that all about? I wonder if there is some kind of peer pressure at work here. And I wonder how someone like a young Thelonious Monk would have fared at a jazz school today.

I hear what you're saying about jobs. But what about the actual sound or style of individual players? Why are there so few individual sounding jazz musicians? I don't think that has anything to do with mentoring or lack of support.

Perhaps this topic was broached before, but what the heck. I was recently contemplating the fact that there aren't as many unique jazz "stylists" as there used to be. (Are there any today?) I mean, there were so many players in previous decades for whom you only had to hear a few notes and you knew it was them. Coleman Hawkins, Lee Konitz, Johnny Hodges, Jaki Byard, Lennie Tristano, Art Tatum, Gerry Mulligan, Sidney Bechet, Lucky Thompson, Bud Powell, Monk (of course), Errol Garner, Wynton Kelly, Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner, Jackie McLean, Ornette Coleman, Horace Silver, Lou Donaldson, Larry Young, Frank Rosolino, Clifford Brown, Louis Armstrong, Eric Dolphy, Benny Carter, I mean the list is practically endless. Unfortunately, I have to struggle to think of players today who demonstrate the same kind of individuality. Could this be because the majority of professionals these days are graduates of formal jazz schools, where they are taught by the same people using the same curricula and therefore sound the same? Is it simply a lack a creativity? Any thoughts? Thanks. NOTE: Please forgive me if I have insulted any jazz educators or players out there. I just want to understand the music better.

Great site! Thanks! "Fidelity" WAS hysterical"! LOL, big time!!!! Gotta get my mom in on this. She knows more jokes than anybody on the planet!

I just saw this, too! Hang in there, man! If you need to talk, we're here.

We really can be terrible. Almost as if someone who wasn't pretty simply couldn't have a good singing voice. I saw the story on CBS news last night. The woman spent much of her adult life taking care of a sick Mother. And she's never been kissed! Think of that when you are having a bad day. I wish nothing but the best for her from now on..... Never been kissed! I hope this exposure at the very least changes that for her! Yeah, this does put things in perspective, doesn't it.

Thanks for sharing that!!! It's just so sad how unfair, prejudiced and narrow-minded people can be. It's also amazing the extent to which some people can overcome that!! Yeah, I got a little choked up, too.

If he really decides to stay away I will miss his very interesting and informative posts on music, but not his repetitive rants about some people and religious/political issues. My thoughts exactly. And for that reason, I'm especially disappointed he took his music posts with him. This site is an amazing source of information about music, and Chris' posts were/are a part of that.

Chuck really is the coolest guy on this board. He never seems to lose his head, and always seems to have the right thing to say to put things in perspective. I remember how his "stop defending the idiots" comment in one of our countless ME conflict threads just shut everybody up and got them to thinking. And of course, there are his cool stories about everyone from the AEC guys to Mike Bloomfield. Woh!