Dr. Rat

Good. I'm glad I'm not the only one. I was beginning to think I must have a brain tumor or something. --eric

To answer my own doubt, it looks as if its possible anyway: the tide comes a hellin' Currents over time in NY Harbor --eric

My question would be: if he jumped out near Liberty Island, how did his body get up to the East River against the flow of the river? I suppose the tide might have pushed it up, but it doesn't seem too likely. Map of NY Harbor here --eric

Whoops, wrong album-- I was thinking of How Passion Falls. Man I can't remember the name of anything lately, don't know what it is. --eric

Cast Iron Undergarment

This, byt he way, is a great thread. I only wish I'd seen it when Perkins passed. This would have added something to our memorial. Thanks to all you reminiscers (sp?) --eric

We had it in rotation when it was new, and it got a fair deal of play . . . people seemed to like it generally. It may have been the cover, which to me just seems drip frat-boy fantasy, but I thought there was something not quite fully done about the record, that Mayfield should have been doing something other than trying to do a suite, that a certain pretentiousness had slipped in which Mayfield wasn't capable of distinguishing from artistic seriousness. Mayfield's a work in progresss, though, which is cool. he's trying to negotiate a complex world both in terms of music and in terms of identity, and I respect his effort and the undoubted successes here. --eric

He adds just the needed dose of earthiness to many a West Coast recording.

I really like Bey a lot. There are other goog male singers out there, but not many that are as distinctive and as touching as Bey. Bey is what I call a bell ringer: almost every time I play him, the phone lights up with an inquiry (usually women). --eric

Now this is getting interesting: There's a fellow names Emil Breitenfield who wrote "The Last Long Mile" and "Sierra Sketches" as well as arranging Irving Wilson's "Indian Lullabye." He was in Company 17, 18th Provisional Training Regiment in Plattsburg, New York in 1917. "The Last Long Mile," apparently was part of a Kern musical, "Toot Toot." I think this may be Desmond's father, as that Emil was born in NYC (in 1888, making him 29 in 1917). --eric

Hey! Let's not tar everyone with the same brush now! Anyhow, one of my core beliefs about the world is that anything that has the power to do good has a pretty much equal power to do harm. So if jazz does really have a positive effect upon you, I'd expect some kind of music would have an equal and opposite effect. Commercial FM (not me!) is pretty much in the business of assuming that you are very stupid. That message comes through continuously. Even if you aren't insulted, it's a pretty depressing thought that people listen to and like the station that tells them "You're listening to K-Rock, you lemmings! You'll do what you're told!" 8 times an hour. Makes sense to me. --eric

Emil Aaron BREITENFELD (Desmond's father) was organist at the California Theater and chief arranger for Villa Moret More here Desmond's background with non-jazz stuff looks to be pretty considerable. Kind of reminds me of things I've read about Armstrong's musical landscape: jazz and Stroyville, but also opera and pop and cantorial singing. --eric

What did Desmond's dad do? Was he a musician or something -- I'm thinking there's something in Gioia about this, but I don't have my copy on hand. --eric

For those keeping score: the Paul Horn reference is one for Chris, as he gets a dig at me for a post defending getting names wrong on the radio in another thread. Now that's the sort of subtlety our disapproving posts lamentably lack! I think its certainly possible to not like Downbeat, and not to subscribe or buy or read it. And to think it ought to be something else and to be going in a different direction. But, for me there's a whole spectrum of feeling between approving of something and publicly calling it a "worthless rag" or whatever. --eric

Alternatively, they could neglect any artists whose names they were uncertain of. I manage about two dozen local volunteers who present jazz at this station--and let me tell you, such mistakes are a daily occurance here. I don't think it really matters that much. I've even got caught out myself on more than one occasion. One complainee (about my stupid habit of saying Rashan instead of Rahsan (I've reformed, btw)) ended up getting drafted into presenting himself. Now he gets to mispronounce all those world music artists. Nyah nyah! And, unfortunately, I haven't found a pronunciation guide that really helps matters, either. When I hear Serge on the radio I say "thank you." What the presenter makes of that Ch . . . that's all part of the adventure. One day, in heaven perhaps, we'll get it all straight. --eric

Personally, I think we ought to take a little of this attitude to heart before we go on slash and burn campaigns. Have a look at the descriptors in this thread: "tacky little mag," "bad joke" "clueless" "one big advertisement" "whores" etc. etc. Not that there haven't been valuable observations in the thread, but to me a lot of it seems to speak pretty poorly of US. Chris started this thread by mentioning that jazz media "don't get it," but I think what ought to be clear to anyone is that there isn't any singular IT out there to get. And for that reason we ought to develop a bit of tolerance for other folks' conception of IT and their ways of moving IT forward. I remember reading a characterization of the jazz world as a bunch of starving dogs tearing each other to pieces. That bit of description probably isn't right either, but maybe we can see a grain of truth in it? --eric

Peter Keepnews say:

Interview with Dave Brubeck by Paul Caulfield: PC: WHAT MADE HIS SOUND SO DIFFERENT AT THE TIME? DB: Well you know none of us are exactly without influence. I can hear early Konitz and hear Paul sometimes, but Pete Brown was Paul's big influence and I don't know Pete Brown's work that well ... to know what was there. But Paul always mentioned Pete Brown. PC: THE CRITICS HAVE OFTEN TALKED ABOUT LESTER YOUNG AS AN OBVIOUS INFLUENCE ON DESMOND, DO YOU KNOW IF THAT WAS TRUE? DB: It might have been, but I didn't hear him talk about Lester Young. I know he liked him, but eh if he mentioned anybody, it was always Pete Brown. --eric

I've read about the vaudville influence before--I think he's serious to some extent. --eric

Normally they work with cows, but they were moonlighting roping in unruly capybarae. If they could do capoera (sp?), they could subdue the capybara without the ropes and stuff. --eric

A-f*cking-MEN, brother! Can you say FOOD-F-ING-COMA??? Eric Much better to eat capybara! Full of omega fatty acids and all that good stuff. If you want some domestic procuct, there's always nutria. You'd be helping the environment, too. --eric

I emailed Woods' note to Downbeat's EIC, here's his response: Thanks for forwarding the note. I wish I could get pissed off at this, but Mr. Woods is spot on. In fact, the letter made me chuckle. If he weren't so good with the saxophone, he would have been one hell of a writer. In short, we surrender! That said, I winced at his description of DB. It pains me to think someone like Phil Woods would ever call us, "a tacky little mag." We put out a great magazine. We love the jazz education community. We work hard to promote that community. He's right, of course, Harvey Larose, and every teacher who ever helped a kid get excited about this music, should have their own Mount Rushmore. We were just thinking in a different direction for this issue. But Mr. Woods knocked us upside the head, and we've regained our senses. Absolutely, his comments on Larose will be a welcome, and fitting, addition to our July 70th anniversary issue. (Sorry, a shameless plug.) Best regards, Frank Alkyer

Oh, OK.

Everything you ever wanted to know about Capybara (or capibara), the world's largest rodent. --eric