Dr. Rat

That's right, Lon, I have that book, and I forgot that Gabler's interview is in there. Returning to the issues of Cafe Society and money, one of the reasons Barney Josephson had to shut it down in 1947 was the FBI's hounding of him... He was accused of getting money from CPUSA (the American Communist party) to finance it. Again, Chris may have some interesting insights/corrections/edifications to offer here. According to what I read in (I think) the Encyclopedia of New York City, it was Barney's brother, Leon, who was in real trouble with the McCarthy-ites, though if you can do guilt-by-association, guilt-by-blood-relation is easy, and Barney would be doubly damned. --eric

Damn! Glad I asked. I would give my left . . . front tire for a the Commodore set--it was gone before I got interested. stupid child I was. I do have a set of fine snowtires I would trade--all 4. I did pick up the Spirituals to Swing set, and had a chance to interview Josh White, Jr., which I think was what initially got me onto this. Anyhow, thanks a lot, as a make my way forward with this (it'll be slowly) I'll post updates. --eric

Newton could do a mean blues, too. Ever hear Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gave to me on Bluebird? Poetic! --eric

Thanks a lot, ghost. I had a particular question that I might post as a new thread: I am fascinated with the connections between some of the early independent labels (Blue Note, Commodore, American Music, etc.) and leftist politics. Cook mentions that the main money behind BN was a leftist, and then pretty much drops the issue. I was wondering if anyone has any information on leftists in the trad revival? --eric

I think it is impossible to separate the man from the music. More than with anybody else. The character traits that made him nasty show in his music, the contradictions. I suppose you are right. I am the last person to argue to the contrary in any absolute sense. But I would say that behaving in the world (being a bastard) and behaving through your trumpet are importantly different--the media may encourage very different sides of ones self. Certainly both manefestations (bastard, maker of trumpet noises) arise out of the same person and context, but I think they distinct enough to merit individual attention--they may in the end be very differnt looking facets of the same whole. --eric

I DID search the forum, but didn't find anything to lead me to beleive that this had been talked about before. But I am fairly certain thisnis due to a quirk--mine or the search software's. But anyhow if anyone has read Cook's book on Blue Note and can say anything about it, I'd appreciate it. Or if you can refer me to where I might look for an old discussion of same . . . --eric

I was wondering . . . this all got started focussing on Miles as a player, rather than as a bandleader or a public figure, What have we to say about Miles as a player, as an improvisor, as a direct maker of music? What make sus love him, hate him, or be indifferent to him in this capacity . . . or is that not what he's really about? --eric

From what I've heard . . . BUY IT. If you don't like it I'll take it off your hands with due consideration for tax & time & trouble. --eric

I've got the one on Stash, which wasn't really part of the Town Hall series, but pretty damn good, I think. and the Fats Waller Memorial set, also pretty damn good. I am of the opinoion that these concerts were a highlight in the history of radio: Condon's a great host, the musis is of a high caliber, and occasionally someting really remarakable happens. I'm buying more--I'll tell you when I run into a bad one. (Though I'd wish they'd track out the songs rather than giveing each show as one big chunk.) --eric

I've said it before in another coffee thread but if you want GREAT coffee you have to roast it yourself. Grinding your own is a good first step. The equipment is $75 +/- the beans are cheap and the taste is amazing. What about roasting your own? How much does this cost? (I can't for the love of god imagine myself doing this first thing in the morning!) --eric You don't roast in the morning. The beans need several hours to "gas-out", 24 hours after roasting is the perfect cup of coffee. Its actually less expensive to roast your own than to buy roasted coffee. Can you imagine anything more perfect: Its costs less to have better stuff! Check out Coffee Is My Drug Of Choice or Direct to the equipment Upright Bill, Paragon of Caffeinated Righteousness: You've used this particular machine and give it your blessing? --eric

Disclosure: I work for an unaffiliated public radio station--TAL runs on the competing station. Anyhow, I've had this feeling about TAL, that it's been, oh, I don't know, commodified. That it isn't as good as it was when it was a struggling little sideshow. This is a bit from an American Journalism Review piece on the show I've listened to the show on and off for a while. Lately when I hear the show it sounds kind of precious to me: I've gotten so used to Glass's rhythms, I can predict them. And he doesn't seem to alter them--the way he speaks, the way shows are paced, the technique: it sort of reminds me of watching the Ken Burns Jazz series--where you've become familiar with how this kind of story-telling technique works and it starts to get in the way of the story. The "offbeat" stories seem calculated to surprise me, and they (therefore?) don't surprise me. There seems to be something deeply self-congratulatory going on in the realtionship he's establishing with the listenership. So much of the show now seems so far from real. Like reality TV is so far from real. Of course, there are still good shows--great ones, as good as anything on the radio. But there seems to be some real ossification going on, too, to me. Though I might just be bitter and jealous, --eric

What happens if you put Cremora in your Autocrat? --eric

Not anymore. --eric

Autocrat? Get out! It rules you digestive tract with an iron fist! Make way!

My boss and I used to listen to Phil on the radio (WKCR). We'd make fun of his absolutely comprehensive style: And now we have a 32-second false start of "I Never Knew." This take started a brief time after Buddy Rich came back to the studio bringing pizza, and even in this very brief snippet you can hear, by his even-for-him-tentative attack, that Lester Young has burned the roof of his mouth, and Buddy apparently failed to wipe his hands, as one of his drumsticks can clearly be heard hitting the floor just 10 seconds into the take. [music] Let's hear that one again! --eric

Great cover, and a pretty good album, too. The pictured rat composed a couple of the tunes on the CD. --eric

I've said it before in another coffee thread but if you want GREAT coffee you have to roast it yourself. Grinding your own is a good first step. The equipment is $75 +/- the beans are cheap and the taste is amazing. What about roasting your own? How much does this cost? (I can't for the love of god imagine myself doing this first thing in the morning!) --eric

I'm from Philly, so, of course, I hate the Yankees, and I've always has a soft spot for Boston. But, I tell you, as someone who's watched him a lot: You gotta like any team with Schilling on it. If he has anything left, he'll bring a competitive attitude to that team. Might be real fun (though not as fun as the '93 Phillies). --eric

Coffee and Jameson is my night-out fuel. Nothing the wait staff likes better than a hyper, wide-awake drunk! (My IRA-supporting cousins would do me grave bodily harm if I were caught drinking Bushmills, so I play it safe even at a distance of 1000 miles.) I use half and half. Personally I think of black coffee and white as two distinct beverages. But milk products take so naturally to coffee, it looks & tastes so good, obviously god intended it this way, no? I recommend an extravagant expense to all you coffee lovers: a bit grinder. My gal bought me one a couple of years ago, and I am still in her thrall as a result (joi de vivre, still intact, by the way). Now I no longer have to be fully awake to grind my beans well, avoiding my former horrible dilemma (I can't be awake enough to grind well until I've had some coffee--and of course coffee ground the night before wouln't do.) But now I've got this wonderful little Italian maching that does me right every time--all I've got to do is keep count of my scoops. --eric

Any material for the furthernace of my rat-themed avatar project? --eric

My vote for Dan Morganstern, too, as a fellow Rutgers person. Brad Mehldau can be amusing, but I think he quickly gets in over his head with the philosophizing. Foucault would have whipped his ass for some of the stuff Mehldau has written about him! Anybody read the notes from Sex Mob's latest? --eric

I see what you mean. It's probably stupid to try to come up for metaphors for or to schematize artistic inspiration, but I've never let the stupidity of a project stop me before . . . I agree with you on the visceral response thing (at least to an extent), but From the perspective of thinking about music as an expression of this sort of life situation: Imagine that that a musical expression of that visceral reaction is pretty much readily available to you--it's on hand often, close to the surface of your consciousness. You don't need to get in contact with your feelings and translate them into music --to a large degree its there as music. The matter of expressing this then is a matter of contriving the music in such a way as it fits into the particular context in which you find yourself. If what you are creating/playing is an expression of who you are, how is that contrived? Maybe I'm misreading you but to me, music isn't "there." Someone has to pull it out of their head. It seems that when you pull something out of your head, it comes with a lot of your baggage attached to it. Martin Scorcese seems to be consumed about themes of damnation and redemption. It's in his movies and he talks about it a lot. It doesn't have a whiff of contrivance, for me anyway. If you are able to seprate out who you are from your art, that seems contrived to me. Or works for hire. I like to try to rescue words from their negative connotations, sometimes. "Contrived" is one of my projects I guess: By calling Davis "contrived" I meant to bring to mind definitions 1 and 2. "Contrived" now has a pretty strong connotation of "inauthentic" or "insincere," and I definitiely did not want to say that. As for the music being "there," I am referring to the fact that I often feel that Davis improvisiations are worked up from pre-existing melodic or rhythmic ideas--that he has a pretty well-formed idea of what he's going to play before he plays it in many of his solos--much of the composing work having already been done. The contrivance being adapting these ideas to an unpredictable musical context. Coltrane on the other hand sometimes seems to employ this method, but he seems more generally to apply techniques rather than motivic (?) ideas and in the process of improvisation to get in touch with some part of himself (or some element of the music) that will then direct or inspire the process as it continues. This written, of course, strictly from a listener's perspective. But I have a sense of different general ways one may improvise and contrive on the basis of having been an impromptu public speaker on sometimes complex topics for a while. I may be applying ideas that don't translate.

Not quite as bad as all that, but . . . Actually we're not doing at all bad up here: ask Randissimo. I am just easily amused. Lots of joi de vivre or something. --eric

I see what you mean. It's probably stupid to try to come up for metaphors for or to schematize artistic inspiration, but I've never let the stupidity of a project stop me before . . . I agree with you on the visceral response thing (at least to an extent), but From the perspective of thinking about music as an expression of this sort of life situation: Imagine that that a musical expression of that visceral reaction is pretty much readily available to you--it's on hand often, close to the surface of your consciousness. You don't need to get in contact with your feelings and translate them into music --to a large degree its there as music. The matter of expressing this then is a matter of contriving the music in such a way as it fits into the particular context in which you find yourself.