clifford_thornton

sometimes you can have both. I think my ears are better attuned to the nuances in a lot of the music of my youth (and I'm talking high school or earlier) and I am able to hear and appreciate a lot more of what that music consists of as a result of spending countless hours with jazz, blues, free music, western composers, and so much more. So when I throw on some punk thing I played to death as a teenager, it now resonates with me both nostalgically and musically/culturally.

Early Def Leppard were pretty sweet. Though as a kid I became more aware of them from Hysteria, which I bought on cassette when it came out, The first few LPs are actually quite choice (and I still ride for the crazy studio production excesses of Hysteria). When Steve Clark died, even though I wasn't into their music anymore from a deep listening perspective, it was still a major bummer. the EVH loss is palpable for me on a similar level, though I suppose EVH is a more consummate musician if we're comparing the two. Still, while I haven't been invested in listening to Van Halen in decades, I have a lot of respect for his great accomplishments in the music. As I've gotten older it's become a lot easier for me to appreciate talented players/singers/producers/whatever across genres, even if on a given day my listening is more "weird" on the whole.

I only think of one ValerieB and she is, was, and always will be here!

I assume you mean the other Valerie B... not the one from this board.

I was gonna say when I saw this on instagram that they surely had to have played together before. Would have been nice had Wilen made it to Scandinavia to play with Tete a few years later as well...

Same.

Sad to report that saxophonist, composer, and visual artist Jon Gibson passed this weekend at 80 after a long illness. In addition to recordings he released on the Chatham Square label, he worked for many years in the Philip Glass Ensemble, was in the New Music Ensemble at UC Davis in the 60s, worked with Lucinda Childs and Robert Wilson, Arthur Russell, and Dickie Landry. He was the real deal and a fixture at Lower East Side bar Max Fish until late last year... may he rest in peace.

yeah, unimaginable weights that people shoulder. Being in a large city makes it seem "easy" but having grown up in a small town in Kansas, well, for a number of my peers it clearly wasn't. Respect and strength to anyone who's been put through the ringer as a result of wanting to be who they are.

Those FB posts are great. I'm not on FB anymore, so thanks for sharing them.

I was about to say! Not even close.

I didn't know that either. Sad news.

HA! Jackie is an old friend and a hell of a human being. Great to see this! She works really hard and has grown a lot as a musician and composer in the years that I've known her.

This concert is bananas: https://www.discogs.com/Van-Halen-Die-Laughing/release/4002271

Excellent musician and too young to go. RIP.

that's all I know as well -- would love to learn more. Shoulda asked Nels the last time I saw him.

The Large Ensemble set above is quite interesting indeed, gotta dig it out of the racks again sometime.

Re-upping this thread as it seemed like as good a place as any to ask: Do any of you have a scan of the Byard Lancaster interview in Cadence from March 1980? Would like to read it and I don't have a copy. This is for a research project and you'll certainly be thanked!

too bad they couldn't have lightened it up somewhat.

Just got the CD of Palo Alto. Good performance but jeez, my system is very light on the bass and this thing BOOMS -- almost too much, I'd say.

whoa. yours?

PoD isn't my favorite Hill by a long shot but it's the first one I heard -- it wasn't easy to find his albums in Kansas in the '90s, and that record impressed me. Hell, it's still impressive even if I reach for others instead. May have mentioned this elsewhere but the only time I saw him was at the Jazz Showcase leading a quartet with Greg Tardy, John Hébert, and Nasheet Waits. Really heavy gig!

same. I definitely want a copy when it comes out.

well... there was a late 70s Japanese pressing, which would have been available as an import at the time.