Dr. Rat

Not at all. I'm curious too, though my expectations aren't all that high. That said, I hope it's the best album of Marsalis' career. I'm pretty much in the same boat: interested, but not terribly hopeful based on the samples. But who knows? I must guiltily acknowledge that I really liked the Marciac Suite from a couple years ago. I thought it had a warmth his music generally hasn't had. --eric

That's too bad. I just mention MJT+3 in passing on another thread the other day. Discovering these guys was one of the great revelations of my tenure as Jazz MD: Why hadn't I ever heard of these guys?! It'll be fun doing the show on Perkins, though. Any recommendations on tracks we should definitely hit would be appreciated. --eric

A blogging site?

Who Plays Monk? --eric

Reading this now. It's kind of 50s-ish, but has lots of good things to say about small towns, art & music, and can be very funny. The small town thing being important for me having grown up and spent all my life in big cities and now living in a city that barely qualifies as such. Small town Canada circa 1952 bears a lot of similarities to my current home. --eric

I see now on my google toolbar there's an icon for blogging: there's an easy solution. --eric

Found this at ABC There's more: Leech story

Yes, I've heard this, but I haven't heard what they're being used for. Anyone know? --eric

Disgusting as maggots are, I hear from a doctor friend they are actually the very best way to get rid of putrified flesh. There is also a kind of beetle they use to clean bones for display. Apparently they are the very best at what they do, too. Insects aren't very smart (or pleasant), but they're persistent & thorough. --eric

Does anyone have any confirmation on Walter Perkins? I see someone even posted a service time & date on 52nd St. I'd like to do a show on him, but I'd like to clear up the details on this rumor first. --eric

Have you read any Robertson Davies (my favorite Canadian author)? He has a book about a guy who researches and writes "Lives of the Saints" sort of stuff--part of his Deptford triology which I recommend very highly. --eric

They definite like Verve and Verve-like stuff, too. --eric

Well, I'm not even going to touch the issue of whether the scope of the list is appropriate, but here's a few records I have that I think might well be replaced on this list with something as representative, but better: Sidney Bechet – Sidney Bechet & Friends – EmArcy Bobby Hackett – That Da Da Strain – Protrait Ray Charles – Greatest Hits – Rhino Duke Ellington – At Newport – Columbia Duke Ellington/Johnny Hodges – Side by Side – Verve Ella Fitzgerald/Louis Armstrong – Ella and Louis – Verve Ella Fitzgerald – Gershwin Songbook – Verve Thelonious Monk – The Composer – Columbia Charlie Parker – Confirmation: Best of Verve Years – Verve Tito Puente – Oye Como Va: Dance Collection – Concord

I find them quite dull, even the live concert I saw was very ordinary, especially when compared to say, Uri Caine's Trio, who I saw round about the same time. This was my first impression, too. And I'd have to agree with you vis-a-vis at elast soem of what Uri Caine has been doing, but what's funny about this band is that I put them into rotation at the radio for some reason--I figured it was good enough or I was short on new stuff, whatver--but hearing them on the radio, up against other stuff I found their refreshing and interesting--not at all the response I had when I listened to their cd straight through. The label people think of them in much the same way as they think of Bad Plus. --eric

Las Vegas Sun, January 16, 2004 Columnist Jerry Fink: Longtime jazz great Menza calls it quits Don Menza has retired. The 68-year-old genius of jazz, who splits his time between homes in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, says he is finished. He put away his famed saxophone following his last gig -- the annual Desert Big Band and Jazz Party last month in Palm Springs, Calif. "I got into music because it was fun. I enjoyed the challenge of being able to go out and create all this music," Menza said. "But the whole jazz culture suddenly is part of the pop culture. The record business is more concerned about how we look than how we sound. "Music has become part of the visual arts. They ask you, 'What kind of act do you do? What kind of show do you do?' " His has always been a class act, and his shows have been as diverse as the production revue "Splash" and "Jazz on the Strip," a Monday-night jazz showcase in the former Le Bistro Lounge at the Riviera. Menza says his decision to walk away from something that has been a part of his life for so long was not easy. "It was brought about by a series of events," he said. "I've been doing this for 53 years, but that's not the problem. My health is good -- I'm concerned about where music has gone. I'm not at all impressed by the pop/rock culture." He still loves music, but that isn't enough to keep him onstage. "Before I learn to hate music, I would like to go back and listen to it the rest of my life," Menza said. "If I feel the urge, I might play again." But he says that isn't likely. "At this point, I don't even want to play for pleasure," Menza said. And playing professionally part time is out of the question. He says if you're going to perform at all, you have to practice several hours every day "if you want to stay on top of it. You can't just play on a Saturday or a Tuesday." Menza, a native of Buffalo, N. Y., has been a serious musician since the age of 12, studying saxophone in high school and at the State University of Fredonia. While in the service and stationed in Germany, he played with the 7th Army Jazz Orchestra, a band that included such musical heavyweights as Don Ellis, Leo Wright, Eddie Harris, Cedar Walton and Lanny Morgan. In 1958 he returned to the United States, was discharged and -- for the first time -- quit playing. "In the two or three short years I was gone from this country, I was amazed at how the jazz scene had diminished," Menza said. But then he heard saxophonist Sonny Rollins play. "And I remembered why I wanted to play the saxophone," Menza said. He joined the Al Belletto sextet and then, in 1960, toured with Maynard Ferguson. He performed briefly with Stan Kenton, led a quintet in Buffalo for a couple of years and then, in 1963, moved back to Germany. A lifelong fondness for Europe had developed during his tour of duty with the military. Now that he's retired, he may spend even more time overseas. "It was the first time I was treated like an artist, with respect," Menza said. "It's a whole other lifestyle. The rest of the world looks at jazz as a true art form, but not in this country. "When I came back from a five-year stint in Europe in '68, I couldn't buy car insurance in this country because I was a jazz musician and jazz musicians were in a high-risk pool. It was insanity." After his return, he toured briefly with the Buddy Rich band and then settled in L. A. and became a musician with the three major television networks and several recording companies. He performed with productions in Las Vegas until he began to burn out on commercial gigs in the late '80s. A yearlong position as artist in residence at UNLV may have hastened the burn. It was in 1990. "It was a stretch for those people -- they don't want someone like me, someone who has been on the buses on the road, showing kids how it really was," Menza said. "I don't teach out of the book. "I told them how it is and how it was, but those people don't want to hear about that. I feel bad for kids going to school. They all come out sounding the same, like coming out of a Chevy plant -- the more I talk about it, the more I'm convinced I don't want to play anymore." It was about that time, more than 10 years ago, that he was with the orchestra in "Splash." "That was my last commercial gig," he said. "After that, I said no more. When that gig ended, I promised that would be the end of it -- from then on I would only do jazz gigs." For the most part, he has been true to his word. "I've survived 53 years in the business, most of the time calling my own shots," Menza said. "I wasn't an innovator or a trailblazer or world beater -- I was a traditional, mainstream player, sometimes high energy, sometimes not. "There are so many things I haven't done, like writing for an orchestra, but I'm tired and I don't want to do it now. I ran out of energy -- I wasted so much energy on bad gigs. We all did. If you are going to be conscientious about playing, you're going to spend a lot of time doing it -- it's hazardous to jazz playing." He says he isn't bitter about anything. "I just don't want to have to deal with it anymore," Menza said. "I have no regrets. It was wonderful. I gave a lot. I gave it willingly -- all the playing, all the writing, the teaching." Last week he came to Las Vegas for a few days from his home in Los Angeles. "For the first time, I didn't have my saxophone with me," Menza said. "It was like I had left a friend behind -- a good friend. But I didn't miss him."

Man, the Marsalis "cleaning house" is utterly blatant. There were some thoughtful less-than-stellar reviews there. --eric

I have djs who do their shows just so that they can three hours to listen to jazz without interruption or complaint. --eric

Yeah, I might cut & paste more of that Braxton interview! Seriously . . . Look, Chuck, I probably don't need to tell you this, but you don't need to read this and you can keep your irrational hostility to yourself, as well. If your cherished beliefs can't be exposed to even the least bit of skepticism, you'd better keep them better shielded: stop reading. On the other hand if your agenda is to shut up the infidel, well, come on out and say it. Now I don't know you, but I respect what you do off this board. If you don't like me, fine. You are free to dislike me even if you don't have any cause to. But I'd suggest we keep the personal bickering off the board henceforth, okay? --eric

I guess I am not a particularly reverent person. I conceive of everyone on more or less the same scale. Daft or not, my briefly patronizing him does Anthony Braxton no harm. As he is, indeed, in certain respects, way bigger than I am. Braxton no doubt is a more talented and accomplished man than I am. But the comparison is empty: no one cares about me. I suppose I am puzzled by the anger, --eric

Yeah. how did we get here, anyhow?

Un peu patronising. N'est ce pas? Simon Weil Oh, I wouln't say it in front of him. But, yes I have some serious misgivings about his whole schtick. Patronizing may be about the best I can manage at the moment: it won't last, I'll either be acknowledging his superiority or bitching at him like an equal soon enough. --eric

The exclamation point or the period? --eric you mean there was something AFTER the quote of conn500? You got some nose on you. --eric

The exclamation point or the period? --eric

Right, that seems to be true of everyone I've ever met. But "holy fool" isn't a box, it's a descriptor, meant to describe people, taking for granted that the label would be an inadequate replacement for the person. "Holy Fool" is my provisional and relatively charitable interpretation (I have a soft spot for holy fools) of a person I hope to get to know better. I am one of those folks with a great concern for certain distictions: between label and thing, for instance or between metaphor and actual situation. One of the great intellectual bad habits of our era: someone comes up with a revealing metaphor for something, and promptly forgets that the metaphor and the thing it describes are still two different things, no matter how good the metaphor is. e.g.: enthusiastic readers of Richard Dawkins

You're assuming that most people made it that far into the post. Give us more credit than that, will you? That's the sort of post one smells rather than reads. Kind of like when you pull some long forgotten weirdness out of your fridge. Soon as you open it, you know its something nasty. No need to find out what exactly, just make for the dumpster. --eric Looks like the rat/mouse in your avatar has found something nasty, Eric. It's Guinness! You better watch yourself! Some folks can be pretty protective of their favorite iconic beverage. It's like liquified 50s Blue Note vinyl. --eric