Leeway

Hey that's very cool. The only JSngry I had was that LP with Dennis Gonzalez. Thanks for sharing.

I hear ya, but if I fall, it's just off the curb, or maybe off the ladder screwing in lightbulbs. If Sonny falls, it's off the mountaintop. That's a sickening fall. That's a deadly fall. I don't know which came first, junk, then the fear of falling, or the fear of falling, then the junk. I mentioned it before, Coltrane seemed ready, and indeed was, ready to nudge or shove Sonny off that mountaintop, so Sonny retreated to the top of a bridge. Sonny superseded. Having been over that bridge, I know it takes something powerful to get me up there in the middle of the night, when the cold wind blows off the East River. When Sonny crossed that bridge, he crossed his own career. I know that's pop psychology but it makes some sense to me. It's like something out of Sophocles or Shakespeare. Resigning your kingdom to more powerful rivals. But, Sonny made his own little kingdom, filled with courtiers, enablers, yes-sayers. It's fine until one goes into the great outer world. Anyway, I don't feel betrayed by Sonny. I don't seek anything from Sonny. I've never deified him. I just listen to the better stuff, ignore the second-rate stuff, occasionally mull over his Sophoclean career. For me to rationalize it, exaggerate it, inflate it, would just make me another enabler.

I think Sonny was afraid of failure. A sort of Jazz Globetrotter, always knocking the hell out of the NY Generals.

Women in Love Woman in the Dunes Insect Woman

You mean like your post? Innuendo is a bitch. Oh yeah

The Creature Under My bed Bogeyman Sandman

Comte de Rochambeau Beau Brummel 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

A "People's Car" The "ultimate driving machine" (like Sonny I guess), had to be retired

Robert Burns The Flaming Lips Moe Asch

Make mine ART dammit, or don't make it at all. That's going on a bumper sticker on my car!

Re: Rollins +3: The title of this album obviously intends to hearken back to "Sonny Rollins Plus 4," with Sonny Rollins – tenor saxophone Clifford Brown – trumpet Max Roach – drums Richie Powell – piano George Morrow – bass Now, does anyone really want to compare that to "Plus 3"? Sonny Rollins: tenor saxophone Bob Cranshaw: electric bass Stephen Scott: piano (tracks 3 & 5) Jack DeJohnette: drums (tracks 3 & 5) Tommy Flanagan: piano (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6 & 7) Al Foster: drums (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6 & 7) I hope not. I don't rate that congerie of musicians very high. But even given the (isolated) accomplishment of "Plus 3" that is a sparse record for such a long period of time. Is that really the best Rollins can do?

Don't know if I give credence to the model that what's good for an individual as a person is ultimately less important than what is important for the industry in which they labor. I tend to see it as an art form. Well. ok. but an "art form" that entertains the wants of its consumers as well as its creators is a business, and a business that is about getting product to market eventually becomes an industry. So, if Sonny Rollins has failed to provide you with what you want/need, he has failed his industry, even though he might have served his own personal wants and needs just fine. I don't expect anybody to listen trough all the 40+ years of brilliances and thudbooms of misses and "worship". But hostility on the grounds that the man had a faulty personal agenda/business plan, that if he HAD done XYZ then everything would have been allright, that's supremely industrial in it evaluation. Sonny "failed" because he didn't have the right parts installed, something like that, like the only thing that effects a player is who's on the stand that night or in the studio that afternoon, just show up and execute. Get that model SR back into R&D and don't come out until all the glitches and bugs have been removed. Sorry, just not feeling that. If the guy wanted to play with David S. Ware, he would have. As it is, didn't they practice together for a while? That's where you'd really learn, one on one practice sessions. The whole "record/concert=reality" thing, that's basically industry glimmer to get in you eyes when the smoke clears. Now, sure, ther are plenty of peole who WANT to fo it like that, but not everybody does. One size does not fit all. It's art first, commerce second. I think Sonny failed his art after 1970 or so. Commerce has succeeded brilliantly in marketing him. Money has been made, so no complaints there. I give Sonny the respect of looking at him as an artist, a person, not a myth or a god. Serving one's own personal needs and wants doesn't necessarily translate into serving the art. It's just solipsism. Sonny's greatness came as much from other musicians as from himself; in other words, he fed off them, and they fed off him. When he began playing with sock puppets, there was nothing to feed off, except himself, and that's the sound of on hand clapping. End of discussion? really, I thought JSangrey was the moderator. Have you been deputized? I too have seen Sonny, with a microphone on his sax, and a sock puppet band behind him. Yes, he can still blow (with help), but it was an exhibition, not a performance.

Yes indeed, this would make a good movie, or maybe better yet, a perfect BBC-type multi-part series (and if you bend the events of the novel a little, a multi-year series, "Vicar of Dibley" style. In Mrs. Gamart, it has the perfect villain). On re-reading, it struck me how indebted Fitzgerald is to Muriel Spark: same slim narrative, same incisive characters, same implicit feminism. The big difference, to me, is that Spark is all steak knives and sharp edges, while Fitzgerald is all butter knives and round edges. Spark's heroines go for the glittering prizes, while Fitzgerald's learn resignation (albeit after a brief skirmish). At the end of the story, Florence "valued kindness above everything." Spark's women valued victory; they are more in line with Mr, Brundage's "Courage!" These are just differences, not necessarily superiorities on either side. Perhaps the Spark/Fitzgerald heroine differences spring from the differing personalities of their authors. Patently Spark did NOT value kindness above everything. I look forward with interest to reading Fitzgerald's biography; at the moment all I have to go on is her photo, which suggests a kindly woman: I did want to mention one other thing about The Bookshop, that is, its "hidden" Nabokov connection, and the fairly prominent role Lolita plays in the story. One is delighted to find the connection, but in the end, it doesn't play the sort of role one might have expected in the story. Maybe Hermione Lee has something on the Nabokov-Fitzgerald connection, if any. I can't find my copy of The Blue Flower, Fitzgerald's story of Novalis, but it's a good one.

I think I'll just stick with Old Wives' Tale for now, but perhaps some day... At any rate, it was a U Michigan professor* who still was championing Bennett in the 90s, so he still has some defenders. I'm sure the wheel will turn again, and Bennett will be back in fashion. OTOH, long fiction in general is not in fashion, and it might take a while before its particular pleasures are recognized. * I still feel bad that I just couldn't read this novel back when it was assigned, so I have committed to finishing it in the next couple of years. I'm almost certain I'll like it more than The Egoist, which I did manage to read. I was shifting the books about (that's as effective as I get) in my library and started looking into my Arnold Bennett shelf. I found a pamphlet, "Arnold Bennett Himself" by Rebecca West, and Margaret Drabble's bio of Bennett, two interesting connections that I think offer insights on both sides. I also looked through some of his miscellaneous writings like, "How to Live on 24 Hours a Day," and "Literary Taste and How to Form It." Most of this stuff seems to have sunk out of sight, but it is rather interesting. I guess I'll be reading some Bennett in 2015.

Don't know if I give credence to the model that what's good for an individual as a person is ultimately less important than what is important for the industry in which they labor. I tend to see it as an art form.

QUOTE: "At some point, an artist stops growing outward and grows inward." That is way too neat and clean, and I doubt anyway if it is even possible. The "Problem" with Sonny is that for the last several decades he had not been a factor in the development of jazz/improvisation. Choosing to play with musical props rather than formidable contemporaries has not allowed Sonny to grow inward or outward. Sonny has been treated like a Mayan temple: anyone who dared climb the steps was thrown down into the sacrificial pit. Easier than learning to deal with them. In my own cheesy psychologizing, Coltrane created a crisis of confidence in Rollins that was never resolved, bridge or no bridge. Rollins and his advisers (family and hired) figured the best way to deal with it, is to have Sonny play with sock puppets or really good pals who would not pose any difficulties, while he soloed like crazy, solipsistically, one-dimensionally, objectless. I see time and again on the Org Board a sort of Panglossian quietism that says whatever is, is right. Here it's whatever Sonny does, is right I don't believe that for a second. Maybe right for him, but not right for this music or this art. If it is, then we might as well throw everything out except for the divine works of Sonny Rollins, and worship. I fo one would have liked to have seen him play with David S. Ware, or....why not? Evan Parker, or Steve Lacy, or Cecil, or Ornette. Screw Branford. There were a lot of giants that walked the land when Sonny was active (and there still are), but he just acted like a tall person.

Yes indeed, this would make a good movie, or maybe better yet, a perfect BBC-type multi-part series (and if you bend the events of the novel a little, a multi-year series, "Vicar of Dibley" style. In Mrs. Gamart, it has the perfect villain). On re-reading, it struck me how indebted Fitzgerald is to Muriel Spark: same slim narrative, same incisive characters, same implicit feminism. The big difference, to me, is that Spark is all steak knives and sharp edges, while Fitzgerald is all butter knives and round edges. Spark's heroines go for the glittering prizes, while Fitzgerald's learn resignation (albeit after a brief skirmish). At the end of the story, Florence "valued kindness above everything." Spark's women valued victory; they are more in line with Mr, Brundage's "Courage!" These are just differences, not necessarily superiorities on either side.

Lady Godiva Lady Ga Ga Lady of the Lowlands

Warren Oates Oath Keepers Finders' Keepers

OLD EYES - Joe McPhee. One of the sterling McPhee LPs on Hat HUT. Wonderful group, monster rendition of "Django."

I like what Corbett vs Dempsey has done with some of the Joe McPhee titles. I hope they continue along that path. I'm quite impressed with how Martin Davidson is going full speed ahead with releases, even going out and buying rights to non-Emanem titles. Thank you MD! The encouraging thing is that even if Hat falters, there are those out there ready to step in.

Wilbur de Paris Goofy and Wilbur William Wilberforce

In another thread there was a mention of psi Records, Evan Parker's label, being "dormant." While looking around the Emanem site, I noticed this: "Emanem has bought the rights from hat Hut (referring to "School Days"), and has also bought some other rarities from that label that will appear over the next year." Hmmm. Was this already discussed here, or does anyone have information what these Hat rarities might be. A tantalizing promise.

I'll confess I'm both a George Eliot fan, as well as an Arnold Bennett fan (but to a lesser degree). I have enormous respect for Eliot, as a writer, thinker, critic. On most days of the week, I do think Middlemarch is her great work, but on other days I think it is Daniel Deronda, a flawed but great, neglected masterpiece. I had a Bennett binge once upon a time. Old Wives Tale is probably his best known work. I particularly liked Clayhanger, a coming of age story. Also, Anna of the Five Towns. Bennett also wrote a lot of odd miscellany, among which, Buried Alive, The Desperate Adventures of a Wise Man is amusing. Virginia Woolf pretty much smashed Bennett's critical reputation (at least in the US academic community), but he has his champions still.

NEW GRUB STREET - George Gissing - 1891. The title of this book probably comes up in a lot of literary chat, but I wonder how many have read it. I finally have got around to reading it myself and found it quite satisfying, in fact, surprisingly rich. Very basically, it is the story of how the literary marketplace sinks rewarding authors such as Edward Reardon (standing-in for Gissing), while literary hacks like Jasper Milvain thrive. Gissing skewers everything about the literary scene in late 19th-century England. The fact of the matter is that it is all still all very recognizable today, but maybe with the Internet the New New Grub Street. One of the things I wasn't expecting was that the other hot spot of the book was Gissing's intense feelings about marriage. In essence, he hated it. (His own marriages were not successful). The novel presents a number of portraits of marriages: failed, hostile, corrupt. Women, more particularly women's income, were treated as chattel. The wrong marriage would prove disastrous for a man's career. The fraud and back-stabbing of the literary marketplace are reflected int he fraud and back-stabbing of individual marriages. Gissing's attitude towards women struck me as ambivalent. He cited the recent passage of the Women's Property Act. which allowed women to keep money they earned or inherited for themselves rather than give it to their husbands or fathers . In some of the instances he describes, he notes, seemingly approvingly, how the women were able to stand up for themselves, to present a stronger, more independent posture. Yet Gissing also seems to resent that same sort of independence of wives in marriage. Gissing also shows women writing stories and miscellaneous pieces for the periodicals ("The English Girl" is one), benefiting from the separate income, but also feeding the commercial literary marketplace with insubstantial stuff. Gissing also takes a rather substantial interest in suicide, reflecting upon it in a number of places, and finally with one character enacting a beautifully staged suicide. I see this as part of Gissing's engaging, and sometimes startling, oddness and honesty. Lest this all sound too morose, the book is shot through with a 1,000 points of humor and satire. For example, Jasper's name. Jasper means "treasurer" in Persian, and Jasper is indeed obsessed with making money without regard to merit. "Milvain" suggests "vanity," maybe "Mil" indicating a huge abundance of vanity; it might also be taken as "Malvain,"for his vanity corrupts and harms. This is out of the Dickens' playbook of course, but Gissing doesn't play it for yucks. It's just one part of a satirical honeycomb. There is plenty of other grim and mordant humor, often catching one by surprise. Anyway, those are some first thoughts on this book: exceedingly well-crafted, socially engaged, unflinching honest, mordantly funny, terribly bitter.