Hardbopjazz

Sylvester Stallone Sylvester the cat Tweety bird.

I will pick it up when I have some extra cash. Their music is great. Most likely worth getting.

<<<Not long ago, Kenny G put out a recording where he <<<overdubbed himself on top of a 30+ year old Louis Armstrong <<<record, the track "What a Wonderful World". With this <<<single move, Kenny G became one of the few people on earth <<<I can say that I really can't use at all - as a man, for his <<<incredible arrogance to even consider such a thing, and as <<<a musician, for presuming to share the stage with the <<<single most important figure in our music. Question: Pat, could you tell us your opinion about Kenny G - it appears you were quoted as being less than enthusiastic about him and his music. I would say that most of the serious music listeners in the world would not find your opinion surprising or unlikely - but you were vocal about it for the first time. You are generally supportive of other musicians it seems. Pat's Answer: Kenny G is not a musician I really had much of an opinion about at all until recently. There was not much about the way he played that interested me one way or the other either live or on records. I first heard him a number of years ago playing as a sideman with Jeff Lorber when they opened a concert for my band. My impression was that he was someone who had spent a fair amount of time listening to the more pop oriented sax players of that time, like Grover Washington or David Sanborn, but was not really an advanced player, even in that style. He had major rhythmic problems and his harmonic and melodic vocabulary was extremely limited, mostly to pentatonic based and blues-lick derived patterns, and he basically exhibited only a rudimentary understanding of how to function as a professional soloist in an ensemble - Lorber was basically playing him off the bandstand in terms of actual music. But he did show a knack for connecting to the basest impulses of the large crowd by deploying his two or three most effective licks (holding long notes and playing fast runs - never mind that there were lots of harmonic clams in them) at the key moments to elicit a powerful crowd reaction (over and over again). The other main thing I noticed was that he also, as he does to this day, played horribly out of tune - consistently sharp. Of course, I am aware of what he has played since, the success it has had, and the controversy that has surrounded him among musicians and serious listeners. This controversy seems to be largely fueled by the fact that he sells an enormous amount of records while not being anywhere near a really great player in relation to the standards that have been set on his instrument over the past sixty or seventy years. And honestly, there is no small amount of envy involved from musicians who see one of their fellow players doing so well financially, especially when so many of them who are far superior as improvisors and musicians in general have trouble just making a living. There must be hundreds, if not thousands of sax players around the world who are simply better improvising musicians than Kenny G on his chosen instruments. It would really surprise me if even he disagreed with that statement. Having said that, it has gotten me to thinking lately why so many jazz musicians (myself included, given the right "bait" of a question, as I will explain later) and audiences have gone so far as to say that what he is playing is not even jazz at all. Stepping back for a minute, if we examine the way he plays, especially if one can remove the actual improvising from the often mundane background environment that it is delivered in, we see that his saxophone style is in fact clearly in the tradition of the kind of playing that most reasonably objective listeners WOULD normally quantify as being jazz. It's just that as jazz or even as music in a general sense, with these standards in mind, it is simply not up to the level of playing that we historically associate with professional improvising musicians. So, lately I have been advocating that we go ahead and just include it under the word jazz - since pretty much of the rest of the world OUTSIDE of the jazz community does anyway - and let the chips fall where they may. And after all, why he should be judged by any other standard , why he should be exempt from that that all other serious musicians on his instrument are judged by if they attempt to use their abilities in an improvisational context playing with a rhythm section as he does? He SHOULD be compared to John Coltrane or Wayne Shorter, for instance, on his abilities (or lack thereof) to play the soprano saxophone and his success (or lack thereof) at finding a way to deploy that instrument in an ensemble in order to accurately gauge his abilities and put them in the context of his instrument's legacy and potential. As a composer of even eighth note based music, he SHOULD be compared to Herbie Hancock, Horace Silver or even Grover Washington. Suffice it to say, on all above counts, at this point in his development, he wouldn't fare well. But, like I said at the top, this relatively benign view was all "until recently". Not long ago, Kenny G put out a recording where he overdubbed himself on top of a 30+ year old Louis Armstrong record, the track "What a Wonderful World". With this single move, Kenny G became one of the few people on earth I can say that I really can't use at all - as a man, for his incredible arrogance to even consider such a thing, and as a musician, for presuming to share the stage with the single most important figure in our music. This type of musical necrophilia - the technique of overdubbing on the preexisting tracks of already dead performers - was weird when Natalie Cole did it with her dad on "Unforgettable" a few years ago, but it was her dad. When Tony Bennett did it with Billie Holiday it was bizarre, but we are talking about two of the greatest singers of the 20th century who were on roughly the same level of artistic accomplishment. When Larry Coryell presumed to overdub himself on top of a Wes Montgomery track, I lost a lot of the respect that I ever had for him - and I have to seriously question the fact that I did have respect for someone who could turn out to have such unbelievably bad taste and be that disrespectful to one of my personal heroes. But when Kenny G decided that it was appropriate for him to defile the music of the man who is probably the greatest jazz musician that has ever lived by spewing his lame-ass, jive, pseudo bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, fuÇked up playing all over one of the great Louis's tracks (even one of his lesser ones), he did something that I would not have imagined possible. He, in one move, through his unbelievably pretentious and calloused musical decision to embark on this most cynical of musical paths, sh!t all over the graves of all the musicians past and present who have risked their lives by going out there on the road for years and years developing their own music inspired by the standards of grace that Louis Armstrong brought to every single note he played over an amazing lifetime as a musician. By disrespecting Louis, his legacy and by default , everyone who has ever tried to do something positive with improvised music and what it can be, Kenny G has created a new low point in modern culture - something that we all should be totally embarrassed about - and afraid of. We ignore this, "let it slide", at our own peril. His callous disregard for the larger issues of what this crass gesture implies is exacerbated by the fact that the only reason he possibly have for doing something this inherently wrong (on both human and musical terms) was for the record sales and the money it would bring. Since that record came out - in protest, as insignificant as it may be, I encourage everyone to boycott Kenny G recordings, concerts and anything he is associated with. If asked about Kenny G, I will diss him and his music with the same passion that is in evidence in this little essay. Normally, I feel that musicians all have a hard enough time, regardless of their level, just trying to play good and don't really benefit from public criticism, particularly from their fellow players. but, this is different. There ARE some things that are sacred - and amongst any musician that has ever attempted to address jazz at even the most basic of levels, Louis Armstrong and his music is hallowed ground. To ignore this trespass is to agree that NOTHING any musician has attempted to do with their life in music has any intrinsic value - and I refuse to do that. (I am also amazed that there HASN'T already been an outcry against this among music critics - where ARE they on this?????!?!?!?!, magazines, etc.). Everything I said here is exactly the same as what I would say to Gorelick if I ever saw him in person. and if I ever DO see him anywhere, at any function - he WILL get a piece of my mind and (maybe a guitar wrapped around his head.)

I've never seen him live, but at $75 to $100 I will most likely pass. Anyone going to see him at birdland this summer? OSCAR PETERSON Tuesday, August 22 through Sunday, August 27 - *Special show times 8 &11pm Music Charge: $75 General Admission; $100 VIP first two rows.

I guess is costs too much to have so many titles in a record company's catalog. Some titles have to meet the ax.

I can think of two 1. Henry Grimes 2. Teddy Charles Would Horace Silver fit into this? He is retired.

I am stuck at level 4. I can't manage to make it. http://www.winterrowd.com/maze1.swf

All the best man.

Well I ended up getting this anyway. I should have listen to the board members. The sound isn't too good. Oh well, live and learn.

I ordered some CD's 10 days ago, but they never arrived. I called them up today. The woman told me there is no way to track a USPS package only UPS. She checked and said I don't have those disc anymore but you can select different ones to replace them or you can select store credit. I selected new ones and they are on their way. If I was not honest, I could do this again at sometime. I could call and say my order never arrived. Maybe it was my voice that sounded so honest.

Maybe it did.

Sometimes pipes spring leaks and water gets out, and I guess somehow this session found it's way out of the pipes.

Anyone ever see the German anti smoking commercial where a whole office is out on a balcony smoking? One worker starts to walk towards the balcony to join the rest of his co-workers for a smoke. As he gets near the entrance to the balcony, it breaks loose from the building and falls a good 20 stories to the street.

That's what I was told the working title was.

I have the tracks from the Six Sense. Too bad the other tracks aren't any good.

Did we ever get a reason why this session was deemed rejected? I have fess to up and say, I got to hear this the other day. I listened to it twice, and in my judgement, it is good. I would rate it a 3 out of 5. It swings! I can't understand why it hasn't been issued. Too bad I couldn't get a copy.

Who's Kenny G? Man, I have to get out more.

I never lite one up in my whole life so I can't understand how hard it is to quit.

The rest of the world seems to be somking just as much. I've in Europe and Asia in 2002, 2003 and 2004 and there are a lot of smokers, but the below article, smoking seems to be on a decline in the states. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of cigarettes sold in the United States in 2005 fell to the lowest level in 55 years largely due to enforcement of marketing restrictions imposed on the tobacco industry, the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) said on Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT According to federal tobacco tax figures, cigarettes sales slid 4.2 percent from 2004 levels in the largest one-year percentage decrease since 1999, the group said in a statement. The attorneys general said 378 billion cigarettes were sold in the United States in 2005, the lowest number since 1951. The drop continues an eight-year decline in cigarette smoking since the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) between U.S. states and the tobacco industry that settled state lawsuits over the costs of treating smoking-related illnesses, the NAAG said. Overall, cigarette sales have plunged more than 21 percent since the agreement, which raised cigarette prices and severely restricted industry marketing practices, the organization said. "It is not a coincidence that cigarette sales are down and fewer people are smoking. The Master Settlement Agreement was designed to protect the public and reduce cigarette consumption -- and it does just that," said Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell. The major companies that signed the MSA are Philip Morris, a unit of Altria Group Inc.; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc.; British American Tobacco Plc's Brown & Williamson unit; and Lorillard, which trades as Carolina Group and is part of Loews Corp. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers cigarette smoking to be the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. About 440,000 people die each year from lung cancer and other diseases related to tobacco use.

HAs this session ever seen the light of day? It is listed in my Blue Note discpgraphy as unissued. I would love to hear some un-heard Lee Morgan.

It's off my list if it sound that bad.

All I have on this session is, Jazz View COD 028 google tells me that COD 28 is a Mingus disc (???) and that the only 1960 Booker Little on JazzView is the Time album in their jazz history series. Allmusic.com has the Booker Little as COD 28. They must have it listed wrong.

All I have on this session is, Jazz View COD 028

It is a wonderful CD.

I came across a live date of Booker Little. There is so little little out there. The CD is called "Live in NYC." April 1960. The label is Jazz View. Are they a legit record label?