Tom Storer

I saw him a couple of times with the quintet he co-led with Charlie Rouse. John Hicks on piano, I think Clint Houson and Victor Lewis but wouldn't swear by it. They were a mighty band.

Tolerated the vocals?? Mose has never been exactly bel canto, but his wry delivery of hip lyrics, his down-home accent, and his straight-faced irony are why he's great! I like his piano playing, too, of course. This was my introduction to Mose: I think his last two greatest records were "Ever Since the World Ended' ("Ever since the world ended/I don't get out as much"): and "Gimcracks and Gewgaws":

There's an obit by Ethan Iverson at Do the Math.

Come on, Bill, don't be so thin-skinned. Are you drunk? (JUST A JOKE!) You implied that you liked Hamilton when you said: "Or is my appreciation of Scott supposed to be diminished because how some critic feels he stacks up against the 100 year history of jazz?" Besides, mjzee said "an artist," not "Scott Hamilton." Note that you didn't just say you liked Warren Vaché, you explicitly said that you were upset because Larry disagreed with you about him: "I'm still bristling at some of the things I've read you say about Warren Vache"

Specifics, give us some specifics!

Sounds like an accurate description of this thread.

Why can't criticism of a specific artist include comparing him to other artists? It seems unavoidable. I don't mean to be flippant, but you listen to one, you listen to the other, and you compare your reactions. When somebody expresses an opinion confidently, that doesn't mean they're denying you the right to your own opinion. I mean, Larry could indignantly say, "Are you saying I have to go see Scott Hamilton because you like his records? Or is my appreciation of Scott supposed to be augmented because some critic feels he sounds great these days?"

I think Larry made that clear when he said "our ability" and "our desire." We all make aesthetic estimates. I look to critics to stimulate my thinking, to help me interpret not just music but my own reactions to music. A good critic doesn't sit in judgment, he honestly assesses and explores for the benefit of the larger community of listeners. And that's who "judges the judges," too. Music criticism necessarily entails value judgments--that's the point, or one of the points in any case. I'd rather read a critic with strong opinions say what he or she finds lacking in a musician I like than a critic who never leaves the realm of feel-good compliments because anything else would be "tearing the music apart." Larry isn't making personal attacks on anyone's character, he's talking about art. I have no reason to think Kenny G isn't a hell of a nice guy, but that doesn't mean I won't say what I think about the kind of music he makes.

I liked the Sopranos all the way through, but I have to agree that the Wire is more consistently excellent. I thought the finale was great. Wrapped everything up very nicely. Some bad guys come to a bad end, others triumph; some good guys come out OK, others decidedly do not. And the institutions remain--gangsterism, politics, police departments, the media, chewing people up and spitting them out, with the almighty dollar the winning faction wherever one looks. Some great scenes: Carcetti speechless with consternation in the opening scene; McNulty putting Templeton in his place; Marlo's palpable excitement at being back on the street, grabbing a corner with sheer personal aggression; Levy and Herc delightedly reviewing their sunny situation soon after Pearlman thought she had hamstrung Levy; Cheese enjoying his first big, chest-puffing, macho speech as the newest alpha male in the game when he is summarily euthanized; Michael's appearance as the latest Omar; and I'm sure there were others.

7/4 nailed it--people search for "Van Basten" or "marsipulami" and among the hits is the Organissimo profile. I don't know who Van Basten is, other than you, but Marsupilami is a well-established children's cartoon character in France.

Ireland?? Ireland is GMT just like England! Isn't it? I know when I telephone Ireland they're an hour behind Paris, same as when I telephone London.

What a brilliant idea! I want to join!

Weekdays, I get up at 6 AM, do the breakfast and shaving etc. thing, then hit the gym on the way to the office. I get home from work around 7:30 PM--sometimes earlier, sometimes later--and try to get to bed before 11. Not always successfully--if I get to bed at midnight or later, I get up at 6:30 or 7:00 AM and skip the morning gym, because I need my beauty sleep. Weekends, I get up around 8:30-ish. I can't fathom getting up at 4:30 AM. That's the middle of the night. Nor can I fathom going to the gym at 5:30. They don't open here until 7:30 anyway, so the question is moot.

Haynes played Paris on March 12, 2007, and when midnight arrived he announced that it was his 82nd birthday and commanded champagne for the entire band. It was brought on stage and they all stood around drinking champagne as Roy held forth with his stream-of-consciousness patter. They put on a hell of a show that night, too. I recently got the 3-CD+1-DVD box set and it's fantastic. Everybody knows what an extraordinary career he's had, but it's still startling to actually hear that range.

I guess it's possible that many live shows from those years have been Dimed, yes.

I hear all of Shorter's albums as being "personal." I can't think of anyone who has made less impersonal music.

John who?

I wasn't around at the time and was unaware that there had been a thread involving vulgar speculation as to Norah Jones' supposed promiscuity, complete with guffaws from the gallery. Let's face it, given the male-dominant context of the board, that was indeed an example of rank sexism. One can hardly be surprised that a bunch of corporate suits (with their wallets in their pockets) got a bad impression if they happened to chance upon that the one time they glanced at the board. First impressions are often the only ones. I guess the question, though, is what proportion of board traffic was represented by that thread. The board was unmoderated, so there is no way to prevent one fool from posting something offensive, nor others from guffawing. From what I know of this board in recent years--the inheritor of the Blue Note board--I do not believe it's a club of woman-haters by any means. But Bill, when you wrote the article, were you aware of that thread? If so, why not cite it as an example instead of falling back on an "expert" who can blandly report that "jazz communities feel threatened by females"? It's the absolute lack of nuance that I noticed, as well as the "experts report" method of lending credence to a generalization. I don't suppose you remember who the expert was? I wouldn't mind reading his or her research.

I feel for all of them, actually. No one has a happy choice there. The Wire does an excellent job of showing how everyone is interdependent and hence compromised in a complex system.

Hi, Bill. Pleased to meet you! I think it's interesting, and worthy of in-depth analysis and discussion, that almost all message boards I know of are predominantly male. I have no objection to pointing this out or to airing the grievances of women who feel there is an "old boys' club" atmosphere to many message boards that excludes them. However, your paragraph hastily tosses this out: "I talked to a psychiatrist who was an expert in the field of jazz and communities. He told me there is a strong male identity to jazz communities and they feel threatened by females." Some unidentified expert tells you that jazz communities feel threatened by females. OK, he told you that and you told the readers that he told you that. Fine, it's all very above board. But it's meaningless. With no evidence, no explanation, no history, it breezily implies that jazz boards specifically, and the Blue Note board in particular, are bastions of male chauvinism and that's why Norah Jones was greeted with skepticism. Cassandra Wilson is a woman on Blue Note who met with considerable success and wasn't booed or dismissed. Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Anita O'Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Sheila Jordan, Dinah Washington, and also Mary Lou Williams, Terri Lynn Carrington, Matana Roberts, Ingrid Jensen, Maria Schneider, Toshiko Akiyoki... not necessarily Blue Note, but all women whom even a male jazz audience would be unlikely not to take seriously. So I think the real problem, to the extent that there was one, is just that that your article included a big, unexamined generalization at the expense of the Blue Note board members. And it still rankles some of them, obviously! I didn't come along until after the fact so I'll now go back to sitting this one out. ;-)

She's not a rat, she's a responsible professional who doesn't accept that the end justifies the means! I mean, a little cutting corners is one thing, but falsifying evidence and wholescale deception is another. Was she going to slide down the slippery slope of self-deception and rationalization until she was willing to lie and cheat in order to set her own agenda, as McNulty did? The role that"chain of command" plays in the show is complicated. On the one hand, it allows people at the top to enforce their own corruption; on the other, it provides people in the middle and lower regions of the force with a standard by which to judge their own behavior in the sea of ethical ambiguity that surrounds them. How can McNulty credibly complain that the people on the top are liars and cheats if he does the same thing? Furthermore, his lying and cheating was itself criminal, and he's a cop. That's what Kima declared her allegiance to in reporting McNulty: the rule of law.

Actually only one track from BN. But more than one "similar"! Reading through the thread, I see that this is the BN track, and I have committed a grave sin against Blue Note orthodoxy!

Hell of an episode! Hard to see how they can realistically cover up McNulty's fake investigation, but enough is at stake that they might try to... It was Snoop's end that I thought was stunningly well acted. The final moment, when, knowing Michael is about to kill her, she catches sight of herself in the side mirror of the van, brushes her hand over her head almost coquettishly, and says with resignation, "How my hair look, Mike?" Meanwhile, we've learned that lawyer Levy has been selling courthouse documents to the gangsters, but who is the source? I think it's the judge. It's possible that all of Baltimore will end up behind bars in the final season!

They're public servants. They SERVE THE PUBLIC, of course!

Ah, different worlds... in France the government is the largest employer, accounting for over one-sixth of total employment.