Leeway

These threads are like kudzu; they eventually kill off the more worthwhile music content and choke off musical discussion by burying it in a sea of trivia. It's similar to the page click crap you get on spam sites. It's empty content.

Fan Bing Bing Lang Lang Yang Yang

It's often the case with Clean Feed that musicians bring them completed sessions, and Clean Feed packages and distributes them. I don't think they originate too many themselves. So the release schedule is not so imposing as it first appears.

I've repeated;y seen people at concerts who fall asleep within minutes of the music starting. Not because it's boring, often the contrary, just seems to have an effect on their nervous system. I'll go even further in the direction of this study and say that the type of jazz we like is condition by receptors in our brains, and that the difference between, let's say Brotzmann and Eric Alexander, could very likely be mapped as appealing to different parts of our receptor systems. Does it make you healthier? Doubt it. But it does condition the brain in certain ways.

Flavor Flav Snoop Doggy Dogg Doug E. Doug

Yo Yo Ma Lisa Lisa Lulu

Major Major Boutros Boutros Ghali Lord Haw-Haw

Flash Gordon Jumpin Jack Flash The Flasher

One Too many Salty Swift and Not Goodbye Goodbye Pork Pie Hat Mad Hatter

Ward Cleaver The Beeve Wally

Haley's Comet Hayley Mills Haile Selassie

Cy Twombley Tomb Raiders Oakland Raiders

Stetson Levis Wellingtons

Giuseppe Borsalino Georgio Armani Allen Edmonds

La Cage Aux Folles Folies Bergere Ingmar Bergman

Keepers of the Faith Faith No More Roberto "No Mas" Duran The Blackhearts are the rock band. Unless Joan Jett is playing hockey these days. Oh yeah She did look a little banged up recently.

The story reminds me of the woman who painted those big-eyed children but whose husband had been taking credit (?) I believe there is a movie out about it now. The husband sued the wife when she sought to get the income from the paintings. The husband insisted he was the painter. The judge ordered two easels and canvases brought in to the courtroom and ordered the husband and wife to both paint one of the big-eyed figures. The husband could do nothing, and the wife won the case. When I first saw the topic, I thought the accordion had to be played as part of some sort of judicial punishment

Joan Jett & The Blackhawks The Eagles The Mighty Sparrow

Mel Brooks Rivers Cuomo Oliver Lake

Already have it, but that's a crazy good deal.

I loved Ekberg in La Dolce Vita. Get the new Blue Ray version if you get it.

Sister Ray Candy Darling Holly

At the risk of taking longer to write my report than actually experience the event, I'll move forward with my Saturday experiences. The night started with a high point, Myra Melford's Snowy Egret at Zinc, a small room; getting a seat in the crush was an achievement in itself. The band consisted of Myra, Tyshawn Sorey, Liberty Ellman, Stomu Takeishi, and guest appearance by Ben Goldberg on clarinet. IIRC, Myra said that Goldberg was filling in for trumpeter Ron Miles (??). In any event, I thought Goldberg's clarinet fit the group extremely well. Tyshawn was in top form, really bringing out the music. I love it when Tyshawn is on his game; perhaps oddly, he reminded me at times of Andrew Cyrille. For me, this was a superb set. I asked Myra when the album would be out, and she said April. I also asked her, on behalf of mjazzg, if she would be touring England with this group. She said that they planned to tour Europe in the fall, and she was trying to line up some gigs in England. She said she was thrilled to be asked that, and seemed extremely pleased about the interest. A very lovely person. I stuck with ZInc for the next set, Mark Turner Quartet, with Avishai Cohen, trumpet, Joseph Martin, bass, and Marcus Gilmore, drums. I've never seen Turner, and don't consider myself a fan, but wanted to get a better idea of him as a musician. Mostly I was impressed with his playing, and Cohen's too, but their penchant for unison playing took a lot of the conflict, hence, drama, out of the performance. It was like admiring a perfectly manicured lawn, with not a blade of grass out of place; one yearns for a plot of wild ground, or a gnarly tree, to enhance the view. What dynamism there was provided by drummer Gilmore. Turner seems awfully tight; not much apparent joy, although he was evidently pleased with the group and the audience. I stopped at The Cookers set, long enough to catch a couple of Billy Harper solos, but left after about 15 minutes, as the music didn't grab me. Harper though is exciting and looked great. Next was Tomas Fujiwara & The Hookup: Fujiwara (d), Brian Settles (ts), Jonathan Finlayson (tp), Mary Halvorson (g), and Michael Formanek (b). Overall the group came off very well, but Settle continues to underwhelm me, and Finlayson is suffering from the same tightness as Mark Turner. You would think they were waiting for a dental procedure. The real deal here was Halvorson and Formanek, who work really well together, and Halvorson and Fujiwara. There was a 2 or 3 minute duo between Halvorson and Fujiwara that dropped a lot of jaws in the audience and band. Worth the ticket price just for that. I wanted to catch a piece of the Mahanthappa set, but could not get into Minetta, so ended up at Players for Jen Shyo Solo Rites: Seven Breaths set. You might guess from the title that this is not my usual thing, but it was kind of interesting. Think Kabuki theatre meets Esalen therapy.Lots of ghosts, strange gestures, etc. Right in the middle of the performance, Jen Shyu calls out, "Whose knocking? Is there someone knocking?" Everyone figures this is just part of the performance. She asks people in the audience, and a few said they heard it. Jen Shyu calls out, "I see a face! Come in kind sir! Come in!" Turns out it was Tony Malaby! He got lost back stage, LOL. So Malaby comes in and sits in the audience. Malaby was there because the next set was Eivind Opsvik's Overseas, with Opsvik on bass, Malaby on tenor, Brandon Seanbrook (e/g), Jacob Sacks (p), and Kenny Wollessen (d). Now this was a group dedicated to having fun; no dental treatment, but a lot of smiles. I've liked Sacks every time I've seen him. Seabrook looked like Lyle Lovett and played like Pete Townshend. Wollessen made up for that dismal performance with Courvoisier Trio I saw back in the summer. And Malaby, perhaps benefiting from Jen Shyu's "seven breaths" played like he was on top of the world. This group could bang hard but also understood nuance. A fun way to wrap up my evening.

I was wondering about that!

Was Turner playing French horn? He went through a period of embouchure problems, and was playing piano for awhile. No, Turner was playing tenor sax in both his own set and in the improv session. He seemed not to be having any difficulties.