DTMX

"Your pirate name is: Dirty Morty Kidd" "You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr!" Well that's insulting. I'm going to take what's left of my dignity and go back to the porn name thread.

Yes, but "Bubbles" was a 400lb dancer from the 1930's and no amount of soapsuds was gonna make that movie worth watching.

Bootsy Hopewell. But that sounds kind of silly so I'll just stick with my given porn nickname, Girth Hardwood. B)

I've been on a string quartet binge lately and I wanted to know if anybody had some opinions on any of Milhaud's 18 string quartets. In particular the 14th and the 15th which can be played separately or can be played together as an octet. That sounds like a cool concept but like many works (John Cage in particular), the description of the music is more interesting than the music itself. The only recording I can find of the 14th, 15th, and 14th+15th is a big ol' box set and I'd like to get some opinions on the various quartets before I make a decision to splurge or purge. Thanks.

It's in the string quartets. No. 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 kick so much ass it's not even funny.

Some Sam Rivers' big band piece - I'm not sure which one. But it's not "Beatrice".

Thanks - I just wished I'd had a witness to hear it being played. A friend of mine who played in a band that was once signed to a small label (very little airplay) was driving across South Carolina in the middle of the night and he heard a song from their new release - and it was the only song he wrote and sang lead on. He said it was the coolest feeling ever. I remind myself of that everytime I see the 900 leftover CDs taking up a third of my CD racks.

I've won twice, the same contest, using the same method. 96 Rock in Atlanta used to do this thing called "The Perfect Album Side" where listeners would send in a list of 5 or 6 songs and they would get played (if the DJ liked them) and the winner would get a $50 gift medallion thingamabob for the local record chain. Some people went with themes, other just picked their favorite songs. But it helped to have some sort of angle to make your choices stand out. I got sent to a small town in Japan (my first plane trip ever) for about 5 weeks. The day before I left Japan I dropped a postcard - featuring sumo wrestlers - in the mail. The songs I picked all had a Japanese connection: "Turning Japanese" by the Vapors, "Tokyo Storm Warning" by Elvis Costello, "Discovering Japan" by Graham Parker and so on. About a week after I got back I got a call at home from the DJ saying that he was playing my perfect album side and he put me on the radio. I spent the $50 on Herb Ellis and Joe Pass CDs. On my next trip - about a year later - I got dropped in the same small town - all alone - for 7 weeks. Again, the day before I left I mailed a postcard to the station, this time with a theme of home/homesickness/being on the road with all songs performed by Georgian artists - some Allman Bros, ARS, etc... I won again - and bought more Herb Ellis and Joe Pass CDs. But the greatest contest I ever won - a contest that didn't even exist - was a few years ago. I recorded a CD of my own instrumental music, performed to the best of my own limited abilities, designed the film noir artwork, the whole magilla, and printed up a thousand copies. Mailed off to every college radio station I could find. Not a single response. Two years later, on a Monday, around 5AM, I was scanning the radio dials on my way to work when I heard something that sounded familiar. I thought "that is the worst sax I've ever heard". It took maybe 30 seconds to realize that it was me. WREK in Atlanta was playing one of my songs - followed by another one. And another one. They played my entire CD! The CD was an hour long and it only took 45 minutes to get to work so I drove around the office park waiting for the CD to finish so I could hear the DJ announce my recording. After the last song - silence. Dead air. As sometimes happens on college radio, the DJ either wandered off or fell asleep. After 15 minutes of hiss I had to give up and go into the office. Here's how it adds up: Avant Garde College Radio + 5AM + snoozing DJ = only one person in the world heard that broadcast - ME! What are the odds? Sorry for the length of the story - I just love telling it.

We used "Bad Booze Rots Our Young Guts But Vodka Goes Well, Get Some Now" to help memorize resistor color codes.

Brötzmann - lots of Brötzmann.

Nielsen's 5th Symphony is a very powerful and dynamic work. Lotsa percussion in the first movement (I think it's the first). His concertos are good too.

Yeah, Naxos has already released Piston's 2nd, 4th, and 6th Symphonies (probably from the Delos recordings). I can recommend Piston's Chamber Works and Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 also on Naxos. And while not orchestral, I've really been enjoying Naxos' recording of the piano trios of Lalo Schifrin, Gunther Schuller, and Gerald Mark Shapiro. Probably due to the walking bassline in the Schuller piece.

Naxos seems to have recently acquired the distribution rights to some of Delos Records catalog. Delos put out a number of recordings of symphonies and whatnot by American composers, usually performed by the Seattle Symphony conducted by Gerard Schwarz. So for a small amount of money you can get a large amount of music - which works great if you're just sampling. David Diamond's symphonies (any of them) are worth hearing. As well as his Violin Concerto and Kaddish for Cello and Orchestra (kind of defeating the "voice getting too dominant" concept). Post-Romantic modern music, generally written in the 1940's - 60's, and not harsh on sensitive ears. A few of these works are available on Naxos. Alan Hovhaness is greatly represented on a variety of labels. Although American, he incorporated many different elements reflecting his Armenian heritage and Asian studies into his music. A lot of his works are based on mountains and other natural entities and have a kind of beauty-of-nature feel to them. His symphonies (all 60 or so), concertos, Prelude and Quadruple Fugue, and And God Created Great Whales for orchestra and humpback whales are my favorite examples of his work. Quoting composer Bernard Rogers, "Hovhaness comes from a small planet where it is always Christmas and where there are no bad sounds."

I've always been a big fan of "Caravan" but I'd rather hear no version than a mediocre version of it. The most exciting version of "Caravan" that I've ever heard is on Brubeck's "Back Home" recording where Jerry Bergonzi rips through a completely berserk tenor solo. I played the recording for my sax teacher and he just looked at the ground and said, "Man, I gotta start practicing more."

D'oh! I forgot Steve Lacy's The Rent.

DKV Trio: Live in Wels & Chicago and Trigonometry Fred Anderson: Live at the Velvet Lounge with Peter Kowald/Hamid Drake and On the Run: Live at the Velvet Lounge with Hamid Drake/Tatsu Aoki Julius Hemphill: Raw Materials and Residuals and Live From the New Music Cafe (although Abdul Wadud is playing a cello rather than a bass)

The Line Between by Bob Kaufman/Bruce Gertz/Jerry Bergonzi Loose Cannon by Michael Formanek/Tim Berne/Jeff Hirshfield Any of the Open, Loose trio stuff with Mark Helias/Tom Rainey/Tony Malaby Night Bird Song by Thomas Chapin/Mario Pavone/Michael Sarin. And I completely agree with Pariah's Pariah.

A band that has played in Atlanta a great deal: Dick Delicious and the Tasty Testicles. A band I saw listed in a Dallas newspaper: Three Men and a Baby Jesus. And who could forget ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead?

I saw Berne's Bloodcount in Atlanta a few years ago and the second song of the set had this funky baritone-anchored groove - at least until the song mutated into something else. It turned out to be "Screwgun", which popped up on the "Saturation Point" CD. Berne's best riffs seem to always show up on baritone - like "Bro'ball" on "Unwound" or "Eye Are Us" on the "Discretion" CD. It was those performances that sent me to the music store to pick up a baritone for myself.

Previous to "Invocation", Harding recorded the aptly named "Freeflow" CD for CIMP also using a bari/bass/drum trio. And he steals the show on Ahmed Abdullah's "Actual Proof", also on CIMP. A very soulful free-jazzer.

Maybe I missed it, but has anyone mentioned the Three Baritone Saxophone Band (Cuber, Brignola & Smulyan with bassist Andy McKee and drummer Joe Farnsworth) and their recording "Plays Mulligan"? Great stuff - especially the title song from the noir classic, "I Want To Live".