Tom Storer

What are the Japan imports?

What happened after Trane would quite certainly not have happened the same way if Trane had remained on the scene. I often think the 80's and 90's would not have happened the same way if Mingus hadn't died. But people do die, and things go on without them, necessarily differently. It's interesting to fantasize, though. Personally I like to imagine the collaboration of Trane and the AACM crowd in Chicago. Imagine a group in 1969 with Trane, Muhal Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors, Steve McCall...

I think it comes down to what the Offering & Looking For forum is designed to do. As I understand it, it's not so much a discussion forum per se as a digital want-ads column. You put in what you're looking for and what you have for sale, then conduct negotiations and possibly sales off-line, between buyer and seller. If ads are subject to being criticized, sellers will not want to use it. The wider concern is that open discussion of the pricing of specific offers is an open door to manipulation. If someone makes an offer and someone in collusion with him comes in and says "What a great price! I wouldn't pass this up!" it can lead unsuspecting buyers to hurry to close a deal. If a trader wants to hurt a rival, he or she can post to say "Wow, this is pretty steep. I know it's on offer for a better price elsewhere." Bright Moments, I'm not accusing you of this, obviously. But in terms of policy, that, I think, is why buyers and sellers need to be able to carry out their dealings privately, without the gallery throwing in comments and advice that, at worst, could be unethical, and in any case are likely to be merely subjective.

Seems to me that J.A.W. was enforcing a reasonable policy and he did it politely. If the rule enforced is unspoken, well, now it should be understood. I think crying "censorship" in a case like this is exaggeration. On the one hand, there is nothing stopping a thread to discuss pricing in a general way, rather than one criticizing a particular seller; on the other, it doesn't seem like the deleted post was meant to be anything other than a one-off complaint to say, "I find this too expensive." I don't think anyone's freedom of speech is in danger at Organissimo.

I agree you should wash your kids before they wear clothes.

I'm a big fan of Woody Allen's movies--at this point in his career they're fairly predictable but I find them charming. And of course I love the soundtracks. I don't think this particular polemic has much to do with his movies per se, though.

"Appropriation" and "reparation" are strong terms. Personally, I think the issue only really comes up with a certain level of social impact. I suspect that Iverson's goat would not have been got except for the fact that great and unwarranted claims are made in the article re: Allen's unique ability to save the future of jazz, that and the fawning tone. If you're going to get publicity about what an important and influential jazz musician you are, and you are demonstrably lacking in virtually any connection to the music's history and practitioners other than your own record collection and supper-club band, then you're fair game for debunking. Personally, neither Allen nor the article make me angry, whereas Iverson seems rather vexed. But the points he makes are, I think, valid ones in evaluating the article and Allen's role in jazz.

The article says a few things that are incontestable: - Woody Allen plays music that he loves, New Orleans jazz. - He doesn't claim to be any good at it. - Lots of people go see him play because he is Woody Allen. - Some of them are unfamiliar with the music and find that they enjoy it. - "Allen is not jazz's savior—to say so would certainly mortify many people, most of all him." Despite qualifications, certain other things are ridiculous: As for the race thing, I note that whenever a white musician or commentator brings up race, not in defense of white contributions but to recognize the role of the "black community," the tendency is to dismiss it as expressing "racial guilt." I think that's a simplistic response and not necessarily true. I certainly don't think Iverson's article insults anyone's intelligence (although it might call for one to exercise it). It is perhaps true that Iverson, a working jazz pianist and sometime classical pianist who admires, works with, writes about and interviews white and black practitioners of both worlds, occasionally talks about race because he is alert to its implications, observing and experiencing them as he does on a frequent basis.

I remain skeptical. I mean, good for him for playing the music he likes, but the message of the article seems to be "What a rotten shame that jazz got all modern and difficult and stuff. Thank God Woody Allen is the keeper of the flame, single-handedly keeping New Orleans jazz from dying out entirely. Jazz owes him a great debt." I mean, puh-leeze. Ethan Iverson also has some issues with the article, expressed in a Do the Math post. Among other things, he notes, "If I was a curious young black person who stumbled across their piece in the Voice today, I'd run away from jazz as fast as I could."

I resisted, I think, until around 1986 or 1987. I deduce this because I have some vinyl from around then. I gave in when the local record store switched all wall displays to CDs and put the LPs off in their own little corner. But I have never collected either LPs or CDs. I just buy them and they accumulate.

Was Gerry Mulligan a junkie? I thought he was just a serious drinker.

Happy birthday, Jim! And many happy returns.

Good for a laugh: China to Stop Spying on its People; Will Use Facebook Instead

Here's a neat little tool that will check that your Facebook privacy settings don't expose your information to the whole world: http://www.reclaimprivacy.org

RIP, Hank. One of the must-have trios under his own name was "Oracle" w. Dave Holland and Billy Higgins. I'll be giving that a spin tonight.

I hope Hank pulls though whatever current health crisis he is in, but the end is in sight for anyone who is 92. I wish him a soft landing when the time comes.

Some questions... How do we know these people are really virgins? What's to keep a non-virgin from trying to cash in? (Now that I think of it, I could use some cash myself. Hmmm.) Is the bidding cash only? What if some bidder offers his or her hand in marriage? How would that be evaluated? Is it heterosexual only? Can gay virgins apply? If a young man virgin is bid on by both men and women, will his wishes be respected or does he just have to submit to the highest bidder? How do we know the virgins (assuming that's what they are) will actually be deflowered? Will the proceedings be filmed? Will the deflowerings take place right in the TV studio? In a hotel room? In a harem tent? What happens if the deflowering, for some reason, is not successful? Say a highest bidder proves to be impotent? Will the second-highest bidder be ushered in?

You can indeed delete your Facebook account, by following the instructions Bill Barton gave above. As for email requests, here's what happens: say you're on Facebook and you think, "say, I wonder if Chris Albertson is on Facebook? I'd like him to be my FACEBOOK FRIEND!" You search FB for Chris using an email address you have for him. If that address is not associated with a Facebook account, you get the option to send him an email to invite him to Facebook. That's all--it's just the same as, say, YouTube providing a form to let you share a YouTube link with someone by email. The only way to avoid that sort of thing is not to give your email address to anyone. The reason Facebook requests come frequently enough to annoy is simply that Facebook is very popular.

Actually, yes, they are very different. Ornette asks questions and thinks about what it is to be human, Jarrett congratulates himself on how special he is. Contrast this: "So if life and death are already understood, what are we doing?" with this: "Charlie and I are obsessed with beauty. An ecstatic moment in music is worth the lifetime of mastery that goes into it." That said, I loved the fact that this quote of Ornette sounds like he could be talking about Jarrett: "I think he’s singing pure spiritual,” he said. “He’s making the sound of what he’s experiencing as a human being, turning it into the quality of his voice, and what he’s singing to is what he’s singing about. We hear it as ‘how he’s singing.’ But he’s singing about something. I don’t know what it is, but it’s bad." I can't abide Jarrett's Standards Trio or his solo albums, but I'll definitely check out the duos with Haden.

He was a fine writer. As a reader who didn't know him personally, I would argue with him in my head if my opinions went against his, and as Doug Ramsey said, arguing with him was a valuable experience. "Singers and the Song" is a classic. R.I.P.

If any board member owns that collection, please come to the white courtesy phone.

I don't suppose there's any known source for that first American Pop collection? I didn't even find it on eBay.

The Iverson blog on Waldron is here, incidentally. It's a good article. I haven't commented in this thread because Waldron is one of my least favorite pianists, but Iverson manages both to pay homage to a musician he counts as a vital influence, and to describe all the things I don't like about him... I know Waldron speaks to many. With rare exceptions, I can't get with it, and the above quotes address many of my difficulties with him. That's my problem, but I'm glad, and pretty impressed, that Iverson can describe things so objectively that even when praising, his evidence helps understand the opposite viewpoint.

That shock of the web community after years of solitary train-spotting is probably not quite the same phenomenon for younger people who have grown up with web access, and whose trainspotting developed in that very context. But I was well into my thirties when the web started to explode and I discovered jazz message boards. For years I had been the one guy in my successive social circles with an obsessive interest in jazz; it was exciting when I had a single friend in the same city who shared the passion. Therefore, like Bev said, my tastes were rarely challenged and my authority was accepted as a matter of course. Comes the web and boom, I'm just another schmoe who doesn't know even a fraction of it all. After that first cold shower, though, what an amazing opportunity.

Hope you liked the 40 beers and didn't drive the truck into the lake. Heh heh. This reminded me of Dylan Thomas's blurb for a Flann O'Brien book--"This is just the book to give your sister – if she's a loud, dirty, boozy girl."