Leeway

No doubt about it. He's been drinking all that health food and doing all those spiritual exercises from "United States..."

Well, if Dan won't disagree with you, I will. So waht if Lee "altered the conception of hard bop." I see an evolution of musical expression in Lee's dates as a leader, but I also see in that a consistency of musical thinking that produced many fine albums over many years, somewhat in the same way that Horace Silver continued to develop his blues and funk based work. Ditto Hutcherson (a good call BTW). Ditto Mclean too-- don't you think that Jackie really moved hard bop to a new place? Or are y'all saying that Hank, Art, Jackie, et al, simply made the same record over and over? Ironically, in another thread, someone accused Lee of doing that (which of course would make him "consistent" in that meaning of the word).

How does this compare with Gil Evans' "Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix"? Also, since we're on the topic, are there other noteworthy jazz treatments of Hendrix?

Allan, thanks for the interesting insights and account of your meeting with Art. I wanted to add a note about drug addiction. I used to think I knew about in the way I knew about baseball, or the history of World War II, or any other general topic, that is, as another subject of historical or social or academic interest, but recently I've come to know about it more intimately. The effects of addiction, especially heroin addiction, are profound --psychologically, emotionally and physically. It's true that heroin addicts prety much stop maturing at the time their addicition forms, so Art's adolescent mind-set is not surprising. If you really dig into the pathology of heroin addicition, and speak with drug addicts (and I know some of you have done so) it reveals another world that's hard for those outside the drug scene to fathom. Most if not all heroin addicts suffer from paranoia, depression, low self-esteem, deteriorated physical condition, powerful addictive impulses and a host of other ills that result from the drug's effects on teh central nervous system and brain. I think it was something of a miracle that Art managed to play as well as he did earlier in his career, and, more so, was able to make his comeback at all, as debilitated as he was through most of his life. I think his music put things together in a way that he could not do in his everyday life. I do believe Art was self-conscious when he returned to jazz after his last prison term and Synanon; only natural for anyone returning to a field of work where they once ecxelled but with which they had been out of touch. Especially as so many changes had occurred, including the advent of fusion, free and pos-bop jazz. As I noted, he went through a Coltrane period. But in the end, I think that the playing itsel was never self-conscious, especially as he got further into the second stage of his career. I think he was afraid of his distinctiveness (as something that would show he wasn't quit "with it" but later came to embrace it as the gift it was, a unique musical style or voice. I think Art is still somewhat outside the main currents of jazz history and contemporary commentary, although he has a lot of loyal fans. One reason might be that Art hearkens back to the swing era, rather than a herald of the post-bop period. His concerns were for individuality of style; the purity, clarity and simplicity (which is of course the hardest form of complexity to achieve) of tone and expression; the emphasis on "swing;" and honesty of expression.

One of our very own members was offering teh Andrew Hill here for about half that amount: Andrew Hill Mosaic in Offering Looking For

Maybe that's cuz he played alto? yeah, my bad, another brain fart. Funny too because I just listened to Carter's "Jazz Giant" and "Cosmopolite," posted about them over in the vinyl thread, and talked about his ALTO playing . Don't know where the tenor thing snuck in

Netflix made a tactical error by increasing their monthly price recently. I think that lasted for only a few months, until they realized what a bonehead move that was. That probably gave Blockbuster some acceleration. How does Blockbuster do in the foreign and classic film departments?

I decided to join up with www.yourmusic.com. Somewhat limited selection, but hard to beat the price. I'm taking a stab at the Mo-Fis, -- at least I hope they are! B-)

Happy Birthday Keep on DRUMMING:

Jim R, I appreciate your comments. I'm well aware that Pepper just doesn't connect with some people. I have no problem with that at all. Even among Pepper fans, some like his early work, others his later work. I happen to like them both . Lately, I've tried to listen more critically, and I know that Art's penchant for simply walking into a studio and making a session didn't always work in his favor; sometimes the results were sterling, as in "Art Pepper Meets the Rythym Section," and sometimes not. "Straight Life" suffers somewhat from that approach. Also, Art's playing depended a lot on who he played with, so if he wasn't "sympatico" with them, the session could and did fall flat. But when he had players with him whom he liked, the results were often fine. Despite these problems, the vast majority of Art's ealry work is wonderfully swinging, and in the later work, I still find his ballad playing superbly lyrical, and much of his playing has greater depth overall. Try "Living Legend" if you haven't already. I was actually going to pick this for AOW. I like Hampton Hawes on piano. I think Art did too. Also with Haden and Manne- great lineup. Larry Kart, I agree that Benny Carter was another identifiable influence on Art. Carter himself often gets overlooked in discussions of tenor (and trumpet too) players. Maybe that lyrical, clear, seemingly simple style is out of favor these days (?). Art also seemed to always have a real blues feeling to his work. Larry, I have the "Art Peper Companion." One aspect of the essays collected therein that struck me oddly were those that dealt with Art as some kind of "great white hope." I doubt Art felt that way, and I sure don't think of him like that. In fact, I thought some of the writing along that line rather embarrasing. I don't have the book at hand, but didn't Gary Giddins do a piece, "The Whiteness of the Wail" about Art? I think in a later piece Giddins distanced himself somewhat from that essay, but it showed a curious way of looking at Art's musicianship.

No buyers. Aside from this particular item, unlike book collectors, jazz fans don't seem to be too interested in autographed items. Has anyone ever seen a reliable guide to autograph values for jazz artists?

As leaders, Art Blakey & Horace Silver tied for first place, Lee Morgan, Jackie McLean, and Wayne Shorter in a respectable second.

Not trying to "convert" anyone, but Netflix does the same, with e-mail notification upon sending, receiving, etc. The turnaround is really fast. In a sense, every customer that Netflix has was "taken" from Blockbuster, as B. was the leader in the field, but they reacted too slowly to the DVD boom, and are now playing catch-up to Netflix.

Oh man, I once passed by an Italian couple having a nap on a bench in a train station, and the odour from their armpits could be smelled at a five feet distance ... so, if sleeping can be defined as some type of working ... They'd probably just had sex. "We're English, we don't have sex."

Oh man, I once passed by an Italian couple having a nap on a bench in a train station, and the odour from their armpits could be smelled at a five feet distance ... so, if sleeping can be defined as some type of working ... Is that Weil pronounced as in "vile"? Just checking.

From South of the Alps, a birthday greeting: Lake Como

Thought it might be a good time to throw out some questions about Art as an alto sax player. It seems to me that Art does have a fairly unique sound. I was wondering how others viewed Art's playing. Where does he fit (or not) into modern sax players? Are there others he influenced? As for influences on Art, he always struck me as someone who was influenced by Benny Goodman and Lester Young. I know he went through a Coltrane period at the midpoint of his career, but his later playing really doesn't show any substantial Coltrane influence. The Marsh album is interesting because Warne seems to me to have a similar sound on tenor. Is that generally true of Warne's playing? And, anyone have any thoughts on Art as a clarinet player?

Auction has been pulled. What was it?

I'm sure stacking the vinyl in a pile helps the value Even in the seller's photo, the stuff looks quite worn. How many warning flags does this send up? Ridiculous from start to finsih.

That's pretty much what Dizzy says in "To Be or Not to Bop." He was not afraid to use it either. What actually worried Diz was getting his lip busted, so that he wouldn't be able to play.

I think the primary reason for color vinyl is that it looked SO DAMN COOL Especially when "mood-enhanced." Anyway, one problem from a collector's point of view is that it is hard to spot defects and wear in the vinyl. But I get them anyway. I have some cool yellow ones, blue and red too, though don't think I have any green ones.

I'm a Netflix member, and I really like it. I mostly rent European films, like Godard, Truffaut, Antonioni, et al; these are impossible to get locally. I also rent a lot of older films, film noir, etc. In fact, Netflix has really got me going on movies again, as I can now easily obtain these sorts of films. I have no idea how they do with "blockbusters," and currently popular films, although I would think they are pretty good on that; however, that might be a factor in which service to pick, as Blockbuster has always been a, well, "blockbuster" type of supply house. Netflix service has been excellent. One of their distribution centers is near me, so returns take 1-2 days, and I get the next title in 2-3 days. My only limitation is time-- I wish I had more time to watch.

Liberty pressing. Hutcherson with Harold Land, Chick Corea, Reggie Johnson and Joe Chambers. This album really knocks me out. Should be a Conn or part of a Hutcherson Mosaic Select.

Well, if it's just too many beers, all is forgiven Bad grammar, of course, is unforgivable.

In his memoir, Dizzy talks a lot about carrying a knife, something he apparently did over his lifetime, and about the various scrapes, fights and brawls he got into; of course, these are told from his point of view. Even given the obvious bias towards putting everything in the best possible light, the recitation of these events in the memoirs begins to raise real doubts about Diz. In addition, Diz got hit with a number of paternity suits, and something of the attitude Val describes seeps through his account of these problems.