Tom Storer

I can't say I know the lyrics of either EOTH or Genesis off the top of my head, but I doubt that one is better than the other. But "jazz lyrics" are a tiny fraction of what gets song by jazz singers, compared to the Great American Songbook. The thing about all those songs from musicals is that they are, by and large, more sophisticated in terms of rhyme and rhythm, and also less pretentious. In my humble opinion. As for the "jazz is for sophisticates, rock is for the riff-raff" thing, I think the flaw in that is not seeing that one can be both. Personally, I might risk saying "jazz standard lyrics are for the sophisticate in us, rock lyrics are for the riff-raff in us" (with riff-raff meant in a good way). I think that's what I meant by "pretentious" above. Portentous meaning--I prefer trite lovey-dovey lyrics!

That'll teach you: no good deed goes unpunished!

What you put on the web is public. We should never forget that. Therefore, refrain from posting anything that is potentially embarassing, be it compromising photographs, foul-mouthed diatribes, admissions of extreme, illegal or unethical behavior, etc. If you're on Facebook, configure your privacy settings to allow only your "friends" to see what you post. A gray area is discussing your politics, religion, or sexuality, for example on a message board. Of course there will be times when a prospective employer, having googled you, will say, "This person is a conservative/liberal/monarchist/radical; a religious fanatic/one of those atheists/a religion I don't like; a homosexual/heterosexual/fetishist/prude. Therefore, I will reject this candidacy." Does that mean we should avoid talking on the web about these things? Or just be glad we don't end up working for people who are ready to reject us for such reasons?

What the - ?? What's the title of it?

How much prog rock was vocal-free? I've always considered that a big differentiator. With the exception of Chick Corea, fusion bands didn't do vocals. Even when Corea did have a vocalist, the lyrics weren't rock-like. Rock lyrics are usually topical, navel-gazing, or akin to poems in a teenager's journal, whereas jazz lyrics are usually romantic (in a sophisticated way, rather than with adolescent immediacy), linguistically clever or playful, or simply something of little intrinsic interest to drape notes over. Writing the above, I of course thought of counter-examples, but in general, I think that's a fair description.

I concur, but the drummer was Louie Bellson. In a similar timeframe, also on Pablo, with Roker and also with Brown and Pass, was "Dizzy Gillespie's Big 4." Beautiful, relaxed playing, even at the ridiculous tempo of "Bebop (Dizzy's Fingers)."

That sounds remarkably like a famous quote from American Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841-1935): "The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins."

I turned 16 in 1974, and under the influence of a musician friend of my older brother, began listening to records including Weather Report, Chick Corea's "Light As A Feather", and CTI albums. I quickly followed the thread back to Miles Davis and was soon listening to Bitches Brew, Big Fun, and Get Up With It. (That led back to Coltrane, and bebop, and following the Corea trail I also started in on Circle, then Braxton and the AACM in general, but that's not this thread's focus.) I remember that Rolling Stone had a big cover story in 1974 about "Jazz-Rock," with articles on Mahavishnu, Weather Report, Return to Forever, Herbie Hancock and more. That's what it was called at the beginning, jazz-rock or "jazz-rock fusion," which eventually morphed to just "fusion." What seemed exciting, and this was as much a real development as a marketing tool, was the sense that something new was happening, something energetic, liberating, fun and beautiful. That same feeling was there for lots of ECM's music at the time: Gary Burton, Steve Swallow, certain Corea albums and Keith Jarrett were there. The use of electric instruments, the "pastoral" lyricism to use Larry Kart's phrase, and the fact that you didn't have to pass a test on the bewildering world of "old jazz," all served to open doors for young people. I also agree with what someone said above, that "jazz rock" was a misnomer for most of the Miles-derived early bands like Weather Report, RTF and the Headhunters. The rhythms there were more funk than rock. During all this, I was completely unaware of "prog rock." Before plunging into jazz I had liked blues-rock with lengthy guitar solos--Hendrix, Clapton, Allman, etc. I switched allegiance completely to jazz, and things like King Crimson I considered just more rock, hence I wasn't interested. None of the English groups had any visibility at all, at least where I was. And to reply to one of the questions at the start of the thread, I would be surprised if many of the American "jazz-rock" musicians were influenced by prog rock. I could be wrong, of course.

This sounds like tension had been building, but between Chris and whomever else I don't know. "Little brother"? I'm bewildered. Bye, Chris. Sorry you're leaving.

That gets back to my question then - is it more ethical to link to a bootleg cd where the artists are not being paid royalties but someone is profiting (and these cds are often not budget priced) than to link to somewhere where you can download same recording for free. Note that I don't think that either is ethical particularly but I have some trouble with the logic. I think you have a point, DJ, but I guess something about bootleg CDs being physical objects offered for sale by actual (if shady) companies makes them grudgingly allowed as "discographical" whereas the exact same recordings transferred online are way off limits. They're every bit as illicit when downloaded, but unlike the bootleg CDs they are generating no unearned profit for anyone. It seems more logical to do it the other way around, BWTFDIK? As for copyright periods being longer in the US, that doesn't seem in itself like a good reason to shun certain European issues, such as the exemplary Classics or "Trésors du Jazz" series in France. After all, the board has an international membership. There are of course other issues that can come into play, such as reissues that steal other labels' recordings wholesale rather than doing their own mastering. But not all European reissues are by shoddy, unethical thieves.

She's so annoying, I'd be rude, too.

Listening to "The Scene" as I type. Sounds good so far! It's on eMusic.

I missed January and February, but made up for it in March with three concerts: Ari Hoenig (with Will Vinson, as; Danton Boller, b; Jonathan Kreisberg, g.) Baptiste Trotignon (with Thomas Bramerie, b; Franck Agulhon, d; Mark Turner, ts; Tom Harrell, flg) (see here) A double-header with Ron Carter's group (Stephen Scott, p; Payton Crossley, d; Rolando Morales-Matos, perc) and the Blue Note All Stars (Joe Lovano, ts; Stefano di Battista, as; Flavio Boltro, tpt; Jacky Terrasson, p; Ron Carter, b; Payton Crossley, d). In April I plan to see Kurt Rosenwinkel, with Aaron Parks, p; Ben Street, b; Ted Poor, d. In May, the Branford Marsalis Quartet.

I saw him at Lincoln Center with Paul Jeffrey on tenor, and it must have been the one here. It was part of the Newport in New York festival, so it was a summer concert. Early July would have been right. The concert was a triple bill: Oregon, Keith Jarrett with Redman, Haden, & Motian, and then Monk. I was excited to see Monk but my memories are more visual than anything. I was only 17 anyway.

Your local library needs your support! But seriously, why not simply move to a nice big city that has trouble-free Internet access? You can always move back a year later. Seems like a small price to pay for the opportunity to keep posting! Drop in when you can from the library or wherever. We'll be watching for you!

I have a Squeezebox but haven't managed to make it work. I had high hopes but it doesn't see my wireless connection. I think, and hope, that when I can find the time to devote to troubleshooting and workarounds, I'll be able to make it work. But I'm so annoyed that it doesn't "just work" that I am in a sort of long-term fit of spite about it and haven't really exerted myself to try to fix the problem. But anyway, Randy, the Squeezebox is supposed to allow you to play music either from Internet sources or from audio files stored on a hard disk and accessed through a wireless connection. On paper it looks marvelous, and I know that for many people it works fine, so take my own situation as an exception.

Got it. LTB it is, then.

Damn, sucks to be a NICU baby. Jim, remind me: what does LTB stand for?

I've been sleeping on this guy, despite having heard about him for several years. Bought "Kinsmen" yesterday, now I'm a believer! (cue Monkees) Great, great stuff. Now I'll have to get more.

So Brazilian Portuguese is closer to Portuguese Portuguese than Québec French is to French French?

I don't want to fart in church or anything, but a friend gave me the collected "Watchmen" to read before going to the movie. Not that I had had any intention of going to the movie, but he didn't know that. Anyway... it was a fun read. But, and here's the fart in church, although I am perfectly open to graphic novels, I just can't take costumed superheroes seriously. I mean, costumed superheroes? They're fine when you're 10 years old, but I really have trouble suspending my disbelief. It's sort of like science fiction but without the imaginative link with our real world that makes the best science fiction work. If you're going to produce something literary, something with nuanced characters and plot, themes of desire and ambition, memory and betrayal, solitude and society, violence, compromise and redemption... why not write a novel, or a graphic novel, without costumed superheroes? So that it's, you know, more real or something. I just don't get the fascination with costumed superheroes.

I don't know much about the details, but there are substantial differences in accent and vocabulary. I believe it's similar to the France/Québec divide in French. After all, the Portuguese started colonizing South America in what, the 15th century? So there's been a good long time for parallel development to occur.

There's nothing to be alarmed about, Larry. It's the same phenomenon as Elvis impersonators, only more middle-brow.

Thanks for that nice article, Mark! One of Flanagan's quips that I liked: he'd play a Charlie Parker tune, then look out at the audience and say, "That was bebop. You know bebop, right? It's the music from before the Beatles... and after the Beatles." A memorable concert I saw in Paris was a tribute to Coltrane, probably X years after his birth or death, don't remember... Flanagan, don't recall the bassist, Jimmy Cobb, and on tenor, George Coleman and James Moody. It was a fabulous concert, with Flanagan reminiscing about Coltrane in between tunes. ("That was John's tune 'Cousin Mary.' He named it after his cousin, Mary.") John Litwack and I used to go see him with his trio when they passed through Paris. Total class. I have a copy of "Sunset and the Mockingbird" signed by Flanagan, Washington and Nash!

Jim, check out http://www.dailymotion.com/redhotjazz. This Ken McPherson person has good stuff.