fasstrack

Quite....

Thanks. Imagine how I feel....

I appreciate that. Greatly. It's too easy to take these kinds of things personally. I'm going to be bigger than that and keep moving. The fact is that times are changing and the few people with money have much more on their minds, plus are being seduced and hard-sold by people they've heard of. There are other ways.

Taking it down off indieagogo today. Bad timing in this economy and I have to compete online with people way more deserving of the little money around, like those trying to raise money for sick relatives, etc. On a personal level, frankly the more days no bread is raised, the more it embarrasses me. Better to quietly pull up the tent and split. Will figure something else out. Thanks anyway, anyone who even considered it.

It makes sense to buy CDs ans LPs, and make them, too. If you buy into the shrinking-attention-span and let's-push-a-button, etc. mentality served up by profiteers who then waste no time letting pablum proceed the 'new and improved' product out the door----they will win. Patience, the ability to sit still and listen to something conceived as an entity, not a sound-bite will lose. I've decided that the classics and basics will be here for those that want them. Just do our thing and don't notice the stupidity and 'sheepiness'. And every once in a while, especially if you 1. do excellent work and 2. aren't preachy to people who after all have no input in the world they are handed---you can influence a few.

No, you're supposed to be embarrassed for acting like a child. But I guess now you'll want the last word again.

I've been saying it for years. Glad someone's listening. Also something like shuffleboard. And my friend Flo who I didn't grow up with in Canarsie whips my ass at pool regularly. That's not saying much, though. Anyone could.

One of the champs. And still stretching out as a writer. He won't move backwards, or even stand still. Straight ahead is all he does.

One of the champs. And still stretching out as a writer. He won't move backwards, or even stand still. Straight ahead is all he does.

Does anyone know anything about Nat Leslie---who wrote Radio Rhythm for Fletcher's band? I asked some people like Dan Morgenstern, but was able to find out little. Maybe it's b/c little is known. But I thought I'd try again. That is a helluva piece.

This Friday, Feb. 24 Early 6-8:30 PM Fat Cat 75 Christopher St, NY, NY (212)675-6056 JOEL FASS, GUITAR RADAM SCHWARTZ, HAMMOND B3 ORGAN RUDOLPH PETSCHAUER, DRUMS Only $3 admission to stay all night! Pool, ping pong, chess. Cash bar SEE YOU THERE!

Well, you have a point. But gimme a break, too. I was just passing through a bookstore and took the time to read a chapter. I also said I had a lot of respect for the man. Maybe you'd have gotten that had you not, um, skimmed what I wrote. ---

Johnny O'Neal just played a really nice tribute, including The Greatest Love of All. Johnny's a MF and beautiful cat. Pot, meet kettle. Kettle, pot. Ha! Good one. Actually, I don't care that much. I just feel bad when someone like that goes before their time with so much left to give. It's just not nice for whoever to start in right away. And that's all I got to say. Pot, meet kettle. Kettle, pot. Ha! Good one. Actually, I don't care that much. I just feel bad when someone like that goes before their time with so much left to give. It's just not nice for whoever to start in right away. And that's all I got to say.

I'll have to check it out online. I spent some time with Randy in Oct., also read his autobiography, which was a revelation. Great man.

Anyone ever hear the trio record with Larry Young, Grant Green, and Elvin Jones: Into Something? Very nice. Quartet: some guy named Sam Rivers is on it as well. Is that right? Sorry. I only have the one memory of hearing it a few years back. You'd be surprised. Not everyone self-promotes or is being promoted. If you don't hear it it may as well not exist, in the opinions of some. Doesn't mean it's not there. Seek and ye shall find.

Also a good point. Better to be a phoenix than an ash..............or something.

I know a lot of guys, horn players, singers, everybody, who are getting solo gigs, just them and their tracks. I place the blame for most of these tracks being dull and unimaginative on the dull and imaginative person who created them (usually the player themself, who, surprise, surprise, is also dull and imaginative), not some innate flaw in the technology, not these days.Good point. Mediocre is mediocre, great great, etc. The tools are as good as their users. Even the point I made on putting in warnings against bad arranging practice in programs is to no avail if no one cares enough or has enough talent to heed them. And if your writing content sucks, forget the bells and whistles. As long as a person can hear it's your ass.

I heard Triglia a few times with Chuck Wayne at Gregory's. We never met, but he and Eddie Diehl called shit-faced 3 in the morning to say how much they dug a tape we had made. Woke my father up.... A guy named Dave Ellson rented a house in Bogota, NJ and Triglia apparently was a regular visitor. So, Ellson told me, a session was going on and the front door open. Triglia didn't want any of the young players getting self-conscious with him there, so he stayed in the front room out of sight on a sofa. Several hours later Ellson heard a loud snoring. He went into the foyer and was amazed to find Bill Triglia on his sofa, asleep.

Anyone ever read Ray Kurtzweil? I skimmed through his book Technologies with Souls (a paraphrase of the title) today. He was talking about how you can now (written in 1999) interact with machines creatively, like using a sort of wind channel that's supposed to be an update of a flute, but without the limited physical (sonic) qualities. It has multiple sound possibilities, which is kind of fascinating. But he lost my vote when went on to say that it's now possible for a young person to write a symphony and realize it sonically w/o leaving his bedroom. I think Kurtzweil quite a brilliant man, and was impressed with his synthesizers---but I think he slept late on this one. What about social interaction? What about experienced players straightening the kid out about his neophyte writing mistakes? Technologies are amazing tools, but I view them as stand-ins for real interaction. It's great for a composer to save untold time having Sibelius transpose and print out parts, or a Kurtzweil or other synth play back the music you fed it. But an arranger who's had a steady diet of this and doesn't know practicalities---knowing when a horn player needs a breath, ranges of instruments, etc.---will surely have black and blue marks on his or her ass trying to write something for real-life performance. Perhaps Kurtzweil or someone else could design a program that interrupts and corrects when such mistakes are made. They could hire an arranger versed in technology and pay a consulting fee. Also, I've yet to see a personal margin note or dog ears on a book stored on a Kindle. And books are portable, so the mobility argument won't wash here IMO. Later in the chapter he gives several examples of Haiku written on Kurtzweil computers fed data from love and other poems. The results: logical, yes. Also stiff and soul-dead, an interesting result published in a book with 'soul' in its title. C'mon Ray, you're way better than this....

Wow, are you stubborn. Ok, whatever....

Bump. I'm giving this a month and will decide then whether to pull it if the response stays poor. If anyone here does support it thanks in advance.

Indeed. He was my age, besides, thus it hits even closer to home. Also, I believe, he was a year or so younger than George Harrison, who died of the same illness.

Indeed. He was my age, besides, thus it hits even closer to home. Also, I believe, he was a year or so younger than George Harrison, who died of the same illness.

http://thereflectingmusician.blogspot.com/

The fluffs don't bug me. I make plenty myself. I think, as stated, that Grant had a great, classic, sound. It was bright and biting, and at one time I remember either copying or beiinfluenced by it. And his time is a MF. Those two things got him over. To me his limitations and repetiveness came from not studying or practicing enough. I can't prove that---never met the man---but it sounds like that to me when a cat, despite Grant's level of talent, just never seems to progress year to year. It just seems like he got stuck in a dead end and it didn't even seem to bother him.