Tom Storer

The site doesn't cover Paris, but my neighborhood would have to be 100. If I didn't have to go to work in the morning (via metro station two minutes from my house) I wouldn't have to ever leave the neighborhood if I didn't want to.

Damn, if the critics' fears come true and the earth is swallowed up by tiny black holes, we'll never know who would have won the election!

Perez plays very conservatively compared to what he does in the outer-space Shorter quartet, certainly. But conservative doesn't mean uninteresting. He can't go too far afield from the strings or there wouldn't be any point playing with the strings to begin with. But I find his playing more interesting than the strings!

Boy, I totally disagree, GA. I hear the orchestra as being sonically in the background--kind of compressed and thin-sounding, not much relief, although very warm. Not acoustically realistic at all--it doesn't sound in any way as if the orchestra and the musicians were in the same space. I'm not surprised in the least to learn that they didn't record it together, it really sounds that way to me. I'd like to know, however, whether Perez and the rhythm section were listening to another recorded, perhaps synthesized version of the charts as they played. I'm no expert but it must be pretty hard to come up with string arrangements to put behind a jazz group after the fact, no? Personally, 95% of my enjoyment does come from Perez and his partners. The strings are a lush, warm pillow--more like an image of a pillow since as I said, there's not much depth to the sound--but not, to my ears, the main deal at all. Perez plays beautifully throughout, with a beautiful, contained lyricism. Nor do I think that McBride, Nash and Quintero were wasted. They play very well and I greatly enjoy Nash's discreetly swinging drums--a testament, IMO, to the way a great jazz drummer can make a big difference in a less-is-more style. Special mention also to Cassandra Wilson's absolutely gorgeous versions of "Lazy Afternoon" and "(All of a Sudden) My Heart Sings." As with much of her work these days, she sings relatively softly and close to the mike, as opposed to singing out. In this sumptuously recorded context it sounds great. Like you, I like it more with each listen.

Not in the least. I've had the same stereo and speakers for perhaps 15 years and off the top of my head I don't even know what brand they are. But they sound good to me. Not that I don't notice especially good or bad sound. A friend bought an expensive Bang and Olufsen setup a few years ago and I always thought it sounded terrible. It really bothered me. BWTFDIK? I once read a letter to the editor of a French classical music magazine. The magazine has separate reviews for the music and the audio quality of each CD, and the writer wondered why the same reviewer didn't do both. The magazine answered that the music reviewers mostly listened on their shitty old equipment and had no clue about audio quality.

Amazon has it.

I guess when you're reviewing thousands and thousands of CDs with a deadline staring you in the face, you must run out of things to say. In that case, a little quick and dirty armchair psychoanalysis can fill entire paragraphs! Best thing about it is that you can say any old thing that comes to mind without needing anything to support your hasty conclusions.

That's supply and demand for you. More demand, prices rise.

Often, women want to find solutions to problems that, to women's great frustration, men don't consider to be problems to begin with. If they are aware of them at all. My wife is a great nest-maker, to use Jim's metaphor, and living in a nice nest is really very good for one (studies show that the lifespan of married men is greater than that of single men). When my wife comes up with a suggestion for somehow rearranging the living quarters, once upon a time my reaction would be, "But it's nice the way it is!" By now I've learned that she doesn't make such suggestions unless she has analyzed the situation with razor-sharp reasoning, financial as well as aesthetic, thought about it for a long time, and come up with a solution (to the problem I hadn't noticed) that will make the nest even nicer: either better to look at, better in terms of practical arrangement, better in terms of possibilities offered, or all of the above. Absolutely. But if you listen, you can also contribute. They do go together. Lots of men have solutions that go like this: "Problem is X. Solution Y removes X. Let's do Y right now and put all this behind us so we can stop talking about it. Get out of my way, I'm going to do Y right this instant! What do you mean you don't want to do Y? You were just complaining about X! Sheesh!" Whereas a more unisex kind of approach is "Problem is X, huh? Yeah, I guess that's right. But why do we have X? X has some good things about it, too. What do you think? ... We could do Y. How does Y sound? You don't like Y? Why not? Oh, OK. I see your point. But let me try to convince you. Over a glass of wine, I'll pour." Brainstorming between spouses can be a pleasurable and fruitful experience--much better than "Oh hell, another dreary task coming from out of left field. These women and their constant demands." Vice-versa too, no? Taken care of? Yeah, but in the sense that couples are kind of supposed to take care of each other. In my experience women want not to be taken for granted. You have to keep paying attention to each other and adjusting to all the minor changes. If you're not paying attention, trouble will come. And when you pay attention, they like it, they like you--and pay attention back.

Jeez, you US residents... Amazon has them for only $19.98! Here in France it would be about the same figure in euros... I could order them from Amazon in the US, get them shipped here, and it would still be cheaper than going to the local store. I have no sympathy!

Funny--same thing happened to me yesterday. But when I uninstalled and reinstalled, it worked. Go figure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL9rvv_QFTs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMHwBoHaH2Q...feature=related

Damn.

Won't do any good in the women's showers. They'll all be showering under invisibility cloaks. Although, what with all the invisibility, you might end up bumping into each other. Could be interesting.

I mean, really, we cut music education funding in schools for a couple decades while at the same time creating technology which makes it possible for anybody to make music out of any combination of 1s & 0s they can get their hands on, and then when people start feeling the creative urge and use the tools they have at hand, the old guard freaks out. Well DUH, bitches, what the hell did you think was going to happen? That motherfuckers were going to save up and pay to play with those 1s & 0s? That they would forevermore suck your dicks instead of finding some nice, friendly place to put their own? These are people, remember, and people gonna do what people gonna do. Eventually. When they get able. And now, it seems, they are able. You'd think that a society built on/by centuries of superimposing itself over preexisting cultures on their land, with no particular regard for established ownerships and customs (and no, this is not a dis or anything, it's just a recognition of How The West Was Won, and I've been getting through 100 + degree days not all that upset about any of that, thank you), would recognize the inevitability of what is happening rather than being outraged at having its own essential impetus held up to itself as a sign of its self-created changing of the guard. Guess not. - JSngry, post #5 in Music Discussion > Miscellaneous Music > Stealing Is Believing, D.J. uses "fair use" concept to break the law, Aug-7th-2008, 04:03 PM GMT+1.

I met a guy once who, when he found out I was a jazz fan, told me had once seen an old pianist play in new York in the early 70's and got to talking to him. The pianist invited him to his hotel room with some other hangers-on and they hung around smoking pot and carrying on into the wee hours. "You must know this guy! He was amazing! His name was... Father something." "Uh... could it have been Earl 'Fatha' Hines?" "Yes! That's it! Father Hines! He was amazing!"

It's a bit of empty commercial pap, but I still enjoy hearing Hartman sing it (and if the audio quality wasn't so painful I'd like it even more). The corniness of it is very dated, but hell, they were just trying to make a buck. This is no worse than some of the funky commercial pap produced by jazz musicians trying to make a buck in the 70's, for example.

I guess you mean this one?

Oh, man, that's terrible news. The JAMFs are always with us, but Johnny Griffin is gone. R.I.P., Mr. Griffin. A friend and I were just reminiscing last night about seeing Griffin in concert with Ronnie Matthews. I saw him a lot with that quartet, with Kenny Washington on drums, and also a couple of times when he was touring as second tenor with Dexter's quartet. What a player he was, and what a personality!

Check out Stafford and Ella Fitzgerald together: Part 1 and Part 2.

Wish I was there!

I'm too far away to go myself, but who's he playing with?

You think??? And I thought I detected some Coltrane influence in the tenor solos!

Just got "Pendulum" a few days ago and I'm loving it. They were young, bristling with chops and energy, and just jamming, full speed ahead. They're cooking. Great stuff. The only reservation I might have is with the bass solos--they really massacred bass amplification in those days, sounds awful. The photographs are hilarious. God, the seventies. Bell bottoms, aviator glasses, tight shirts showing hairy chests, medallions. Can't tell if anyone was wearing platform shoes but I wouldn't be surprised.