Brandon Burke

I feel exactly that way about Horace Silver (and Donald Byrd).

Can't believe Thornton hasn't chimed in on this yet. As I understand it, the closer you get to the definitively "modern"--this is to say: sound for sound's sake, tone for tone's sake, etc--the more you approach what folks call "high-modernism". And it's here where people really walk the line between modernism and the avant-garde. Take Morton Feldman for example. I doubt he would call himself an avant-garde composer but listeners who rely on things like theme and resolution probably would. The really tricky one is Cage becasue he was definitively "sound for sound's sake"; but almost to the point of being ironic, which would make him post-modern (again, by definition). I think it's safe to say that there is no straight answer to this. If there were then a lot of people would be out of jobs and considerably fewer books would be published..... B)

I hate to bring this back up but it's kind of bugging me. Has been for a while now. Seems to me that if you count "Row Row Row Your Boat" in 6 then you're actually counting in 16th notes. Not 8ths. If I'm hearing this right, you're counting at the pace of, say, the hi hats on Sly Stone "Hot Fun in the Summertime". And I hear those as 16ths. I'm not sure I follow you. It's been a while since I've heard Hot Fun, but I think, instead of hi hats, you meant to say the ride cymbal, then it's actually a triplet feel, not simply 8ths or 16ths. It would be 8th note triplets, right? Or did I totally misunderstand you? I think you heard me right and, come to think of it, I guess that was ride afetr all. Always though of those as closed hats but, like you, it's been a looooong time since I heard that song. I was tapping my forefinger on the table as I was counting this out last night and realized, "Hey, that sounds like Sly." That's really the only reason why I chose that tune. Regardless, I see what you're saying about triplets. That makes perfect sense. If there weren't any accents leading to the triplet feel they would indeed be 16th notes, though, right? And for the sake of this argument--we're talking about "Row Your Boat" remember--a count that fast is the only way to get a legitimate feel in 6. Follow me? And if that's the case then it wouldn't be 6/8 would it? Because the count is too fast. I hope that makes sense.

I know what you're talking about, Chuck -- but some of the material they play (and have arranged for string quartet), trumps and transcends their "heebie jeebie"-factor. For me, the Bill Evans disc is great, partly on the strength of the tunes themselves. I was going to say something about this too but they started talking about Kansas basketball on Sportscenter. Kronos is great in some settings but entirely inappropriate (if not comedically so) in others. I have absolutely no intetest in heraing them play "world" music of any sort. And the jazz stuff is not far behind. Basically, any medium that otherwise involves improvisation should be left to improvisers. On the other hand, I very much like their versions of Crumb's Black Angels and Feldman's Piano and String Quartet (w/ Aki Takahashi). I also enjoyed them with Philip Glass on that Dracula tour where they played along with the film in realtime. I'm not typically much of a Glass fan either but I did enjoy that score.

I hate to bring this back up but it's kind of bugging me. Has been for a while now. Seems to me that if you count "Row Row Row Your Boat" in 6 then you're actually counting in 16th notes. Not 8ths. If I'm hearing this right, you're counting at the pace of, say, the hi hats on Sly Stone "Hot Fun in the Summertime". And I hear those as 16ths.

I hear what you're saying (and it's an awfuly tempting thing to say this year), but if you payed attention to them every year you'd realize the error in that statement.

Yup. Brandon, you're the librarian -- can't you think of anything better?!? Hey man, you're welcome to look up all of those LC call numbers. Don't let me stop ya. Meanwhile, I'll be kicking back, enjoying our fine weather, and listening to "Five Spot After Dark". Lemme know when you're done........

Jezz guys .... It's hard enough with an unlimited amount of words. Now only one sentence?! Listen....using one language (verbal) to describe another (instrumental) is next to impossible. Rather like giving directions to the nearest gas station in heiroglyphics or explaining the "big bang" theory using signs from a first base coach. Let's get in the game people.....

They also do "Lonely Woman" on White Man Sleeps.

I should add that Primo is my boy but Guru gets on my nerves after a while. I'd rather hear Nas, Jeru, etc when I'm in a Premier mood.

You can always go back and get those Gang Starr and Quest records. They'll be in print for a while. I'm curious about Showbiz and AG because I completely blew them off way back when. Same with Lord Finesse.

I'll be damned..... I didn't know that. The InI record is good but I find the MCing pretty weak. Production is insane, however. "Think Twice" is one of my favorite procuctions of all time. That Special Ed track is a straight classic. One of the best 45 King productions ever! And this is to say nothing for that Diamond D record..... Current faves: Kurious "I'm Kurious", Positive K "Carhoppers", Groove B Chill Starting from Zero, Jemini the Gifted One "Funk Soul Sensation", Edo G "Sayin Somethin" and (embarassingly enough) a mash-up somebody did of Marvin Gaye "Sexual Healing" over the first couple bars of NWA "Express Yourself" (before the Watts 103rd sample kicks in). That one in particular is absolutely stupid. You need to get back on the bus, man. You're younger than me!

Me neither, but I ain't getting rid of it anytime soon.....

Yup.

Wrong.......but very close. (Good call, by the way!) To the best of my knowledge--and I'm pretty damned sure about this--they never actually pressed any InI LPs. It never even got to the point. Rather like the ill-fated Large Professor LP that was supposed to come out in 1995 on Geffen. They did press a 12" for "Fakin Jax", however, which I saw at Dusty Groove about two years ago for $40. The holy grail of Pete Rock records is definately the 12" for "The Creator" featuring the "Surfboard Remix". That thing goes for an insane amount of money. Usually over a $100. They didn't make very many.

If you ask me, this is largely because Windows Media Player stinks. They should have used Real Player. It sounds just as crappy as Real Player but crosses more platforms and has fewer bugs. Quicktime sounds better but.....then we get into Apple and that messes some people up. Not me.

My only completist track is (strangely enough) outside of the jazz realm. This is largely because--sorry guys but--CDs kind of take the fun out of really being a "completist". It's all about rekkids and trying to obtain every LP by any jazz artist is too rich for my blood. Especially with the dudes that I'm most into: Dolphy, Ayler, etc. Yikes! I am slowly but surely trying to get as many ESPs and Actuels as I can, though our own "clifford thornton" is way ahead of me as far as that's concerned. (Pun intended.) My personal and very active hunt is for any and all hip hop records produced by Pete Rock. If you're aren't familiar with Pete Rock then, first of all, that's probaly why you don't like rap music. Secondly, you should know that besides his own records he's produced scores of remixes over the last 15 years. It's really quite a daunting task, but awfuly fun. Unfortunately, some of his older 12"es now go for upwards of $75 so I'm basically back to the jazz thing again, huh.

I finally watched the X-Mas episodes last night. I can see why some might not like the way things resolved themselves but I thought it was great. The tension and [whetever happened at the end] between Tim and Dawn was tastefully done in my opinion. So was the unlikely turn of events affecting David Brent as things wound down. I watched both episodes back to back so it felt much more like a film than a television show. (I suppose, the surprising inclusion of the "F" word aided this feeling some.) All said, I was quite pleased.

I just noticed that Rivers, Taylor, and such. Weird. I have no idea what's going on. One would have to assume that Capitol and Mosaic (respectively) were contacted but if AMG does not plan on profitting from this service and if they keep their clips down below a certain amount of time then I believe that they can indeed claim "fair use". This is the only explanation I can think of for the inclusion OOP material. Again, I dunno......

No idea. I haven't been keeping up with AMG lately, to be quite honest. So the sound samples were news to me. I imagine that, since they all have to be licensed, they will stick largely to in-print material. Not sure why a label would grant access to material that they can no longer profit from. I'm not speaking to the grand scheme of ethics/art here ("fair use", etc.). Just being practical. Does Tower or Amazon provide sound clips of OOP titles? My gues is no but I don't really know because I seldom look at those sites. If they do my guess is that it is less a concious effort to provide that service to their use base and more a result of simply forgetting it's there. I mean, they're much more worried about new stuff.

...is displayed at the top of each page for a specific review or specific artist bio. You stumbled upon the contributors' version of AMG. In order to find out if someone has already "called dibs" on a title we (the writers) need to check here first and then submit a formal request to our respective editor if it appears to be as yet unclaimed. You shouldn't gain any more access to the site (save for whether or not a listing has been already assigned or not). Reviews that were wtitten years ago have this same tag. I began at AMG almost four years ago. They added this format in something like the winter of 2002. So it ain't nothing new.

Already voiced my vote for Roll Call and I agree that Freddie is great but nobody's mentioned Blakey. I mean gimme a break. He opens that LP like a damned typhoon!

This whole thing stinks. Edwards was/is an integral part of my morning routine. A very calm and comforting voice first thing in the morning.

Roll Call by a mile.....!

Barry and the Remains are great. Seek out a good comp. They're out there and they're great!