Dr. Rat

Coming late, but I have to agree with JSngry on the Miles=vulnerability thing. I used to dislike Davis pretty intensely. I used to scoff at his trumpet tone & command when played next to Gillespie or Clifford Brown, say -- I even did A/B listening with friends to "prove" my point. I thought of Davis as having a whimpering sort of tone and I just didn't have patience for it. Jump forward 8 or ten years, and I found myself liking him better and better. Now I am repulsed by a lot of Gillespie (though that may change, too). But I think a lot of my attitude toward Davis changed when I stopped thinking of him as being vulnerable or softer or more feminine than his contemporaries. My mental picture of him now is as one of the most contrived of jazz artists: this in a good way. I think Davis had a different way of improvising than most of his peers--he was not questing, he was not trying to find great music within himself. I think of him as listening intently to what was going on around him and adding his own to that. His tone I think was consistent with what his method: it was dry, it could have a percussive quality, it resonated in a distinctly limited and controllable way. Ten years on I have a lot more respect for these qualities than I did as a young man. These are very quick jottings, and I'm sure there are excpetions and hedges I should be making all over the place, but I think that between loving and hating Davis is an aesthetic divide about how improv can be done--between impresisonism and expressionism maybe?--rather than a conflict about Davis' individual merits as a player/artist. --eric

Oh yeah, I know and like Lee Wiley. I like Night in Manhattan, but also her songbooks (I think she was one of the first to do standards songbooks and her recordings with Condon). I drop one of her tunes in occasionally on the air, and it seems like half the time I'll get a call form someone who wants to know who that is. Of course she isn't, but she has a sound that's almost tentative, which is very winning.

I, being a moron, voted the wrong way: voted NO when I meant ot vote Yes. But anyhow, I don't think it's a big deal. It's actually kind of fun to watch the top competitors jockeying. Perhaps we should have a rundown of each weeks posting activity-- like a sports page. --eric

Got any putrid flesh on you? They won't eat the good stuff, you know. --eric

Big Wheel: Been there, too. I once had a band in a brief fistfight in my studio after they conflicted about a topic I got them onto. Two glorious words: live radio. Long may it continue to exist, even if on the margins. I admire the fact that you have the guts to do it. Live & learn. You, of course, aren't the cause of the conflict. I've often wondered about Los Hombres. Mayfield, as you say, is not quite the sort of musician the music would make you expect. Good for you, and if you get any real heat on it, say so here, I'd be glad to back you 100% in writing and all that, and I'm sure many people here who'd have more impact would be more than willing to do so as well. This is what public radio is supposed to be doing; these are the risks we are supposed to be taking; and this is the sort of revelatory stuff we are supposed to be dreaming of getting when we interview. Can't always have it of course, and if you always push for it you are just a big pain in the ass, but man, Thanks for the post, --eric --eric

Look what I find in my mailbox this morning:

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