Leeway

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Princess Casamassima Cassandra Wilson Cassie and Diddy

Nice one. Yes! I'm on the email list of Conundrum Music Hall, a tiny, but adventurous little venue in Columbia. Very much look forward to hearing your impressions of the band That's funny, because I had already decided to post a Steve Reynolds-style report. Conundrum is a tiny little hall, but it was packed - which means about 50 people. Frode's suitcase didn't make it onto his flight, so he was wearing a University of South Carolina t-shirt he had picked up. The band hit at full force; after about five minutes textures started evolving. "Full force" was very exciting; the phrase that occurred to me was that the music swung on the molecular level. I'm not sure that actually means anything, but that's what popped into my head. Gjerstad and the trio have great rapport, and Steve Swell did indeed fit in very well. Melodic leads changed hands, instrumentation and textures kept changing, and everyone listened and responded to each other at a high level. The difference between Gjerstad's alto playing and clarinet playing is interesting. On alto, he's abstract, but very melodic; on clarinet, he's even more abstract - he almost never played a "regular" note on clarinet. It was almost entirely multiphonics, overblown sounds, etc. And I have been to enough free jazz concerts that I thought I had seen it all in terms of bass technique, but Strom came up with some stuff I had never seen/heard before, like "bowing" with the palm of his hand. Frode had good things to say about Chuck, and is very pleased to be on the Nessa label. Anyway, it was great show. Sounds like it turned out to be worth the drive. Since you didn't mention him, what were your impressions of PNL drumming?

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Walter Savage Landor Ann Landers Mary Landrieu

That's likely, but I don't recall Matt Shipp's trios ever sounding like cocktail lounge music. Just grabbing at an example that immediately comes to mind. So it can be done. You might lay the cocktail lounge indictment at Evans' feet (or piano bench); he's had an adverse affect on too many other pianists.

I saw that Frode / PNL/ and Strom trio a couple of years ago in Baltimore, and they kicked ass. They also brought a ton of CDs and vinyl with them, so bring some cash.

Nice to learn there are more Brotzmann fans on the Board. Not sure why the LP format this time. Maybe "enhanced" cash flow? the venue is stll there but the jazz no more http://www.artsjournal.com/jazzbeyondjazz/2014/09/the-funeral-at-the-hideout-with-survival-unit-iii.html Bummer!

Bobby Flay B.F. Skinner Cutter & Buck

New Brotzman Vinyl: mollie's in the mood is the sequel to the peter brötzmann / jason adasiewicz 2012 tour-only cd going all fancy, & the third LP on brö since the label's 2003 revival. recorded in 'you are there' fidelity live at chicago's hideout, a favorite venue of both artists, on the duo's 2012 u.s.a. tour. this is what happens when the most original vibraphonist of his generation slams into a force of nature. vinyl cut at sterling by steve fallone & manufactured by RTI. hand pulled screen printed covers on heavyweight stoughton 'laserdisc' sleeves by alan sherry/siwa. one-time pressing in an edition of 600, VINYL ONLY. ships later november 2014 ($30). Yeah, pricey, but I think I have to have it.

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Clifford, I think I can accept that safety and risk are relative terms and are affected by where you are at a given time. However, the examples you give aren't persuasive to me. I think there is a difference between upsetting the tea cozy and blowing up the building.

NOJ, can you give me examples of "safe and unsafe"or at least safe? I'm trying to grasp what you mean by "safe art." I'm more of the opinion that you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs. I am interested in your comment about audience stratification. I would probably agree that audiences do stratify; however it seems to me that "the shock of the new" disrupts stratification, at least temporarily, and forces new alignments. In some cases, over time, audiences may migrate from one artistic base to another. Just a thought, haven't worked it through.

Cruella deVille Marquis de Sade Sacher-Masoch

My wife's recommendation for Rebecca West is The Fountain Overflows. (Regret to say I've never read any.) Thank you, I'll make a note of that. My reading of West, and indeed of H.G. Wells (her lover), has been sparse; it's a literary era I have not delved into much, so will try to do so.

I went through a major Bill Evans period years ago, and have a shelf full of LPs as a result. But I haven't been able to listen to them now in years. Every once in a while, will try, usually can't get past Side One. The reason is simply this: when he's not sliding into bathos, he's drowning in pathos. More hideous is when he occasionally forces a more upbeat attempt, comes off like one of those grinning "Dia de Muertos" dolls. My guess as to his popularity has to do with his music being a gateway into sentimentality.

NOJ, I agree with your first two sentences. Artists will always be ahead of general audience and critics. I think the argument here is whether indeed "The audience is hungry for the new." Seems a doubtful proposition. Indeed, that is the ground of the argument going on above. Is the 114th tribute to Monk, or something similar, a hunger for the new? Doubtful. More a hunger for what has been tried and true. More a grab at the knowable, and predictable, and SAFE. The avante-garde is always much tinier than the mainstream. As far as the audience deciding what is relevant, I don't agree, and it rather contradicts the premise that the artist is ahead of the audience. The greatest art has pissed people off, initially and even subsequently, or at least has puzzled, and upset, and shocked its audience. Art is inherently dangerous. Trying to make it safe is an attack on the principles of art. Art is not a polling strategy. This brings up the old arguments over high culture, mass culture, and market forces- which I will not go into here. And I will definitely leave Adorno out! In the end people follow their tastes, and I shan't argue with that, but statements that go beyond, "I like this" are subject to challenge.

THE RETURN OF THE SOLDIER - Rebecca West - (1918). Another Virago Modern Classic, another World War I novel, another "women's war novel" as they are usually (and somewhat incorrectly) called. This is the story of Chris Baldry, flower of English manhood and a fine specimen of the gentry, who has gone off to the war, leaving three women behind: Kitty, his brittle, superficial, materialistic and snobbish wife; Margaret, his first love, now a dowdy but generous matron, very "earth mother"; and, Jenny, his adoring cousin, who lives with Chris and Kitty, and narrates the story. We learn very little about the war, except that war has been hell on Chris, and so he is sent home to Baldry Court--minus the last 15 years of his memory, that is, the period of time he has been married to Kitty. Chris sets about reliving his love affair with Margaret, much to the anger and despair of Kitty and Jenny, who attempt to bring him back to the present. At the heart of this book is a ripping social critique of the gentry and upper classes, of puritanism, of class-consciousness, of materialism, although oddly, not of Chris himself. Jenny is probably one of the most unreliable narrators I've encountered recently, one minute ripping into Margaret, the next minute viciously attacking Kitty (even physically attacking her once). There is mordant humor here, although if West intended a comic effect, she plays it very subtly. The social polemic predominates. It has been suggested that West intended an attack on H.G Wells; and his menage, and although West denied it (what else could she do?) it makes sense to me. One does feel there is more than one agenda at play here. West has created her own "A Nest of the Gentry" or maybe, "A Nest of Vipers."

Ellis Bell Acton Bell Harold Acton

Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch Marquis de Sade Peeping Tom

IIRC, the Streets thing took up a lot of the allotted time, it may even have run over, and for me just came off as tedious after the initial buzz from his appearance. I thought it would be cool, but it turned out not so. At least we agree that the bass playing wasn't happening; unfortunately, it overshadowed much of that set. Glad you enjoyed it.

"Streets" rather bombed at last year's Vision Fest. Even an audience that feeds on weird was weirded out. Beyond that, it did nothing for the music, except make his bass playing even less palatable, since Streets seemed to have an affinity for the bass. It might be good psychodrama though; it seemed like anything might happen.

Came across this word, which sent me to the dictionary: OSSEOUS In the sentence, the character finds the current butler osseous, whereas the previous butler was rotund. The medical dictionary states: "of, relating to, or composed of bone." So, bony.

I'm not sure I get your reference to Mats Gustafsson, but after thinking about it, it seems to me that Mats and Gayle have more in common than they have differences. They are both renowned for their fiery playing, but they also like to change up their instrumentation and their sound, presenting different aspects of their music, from small to large ensembles. And yet, I've seen both in concert multiple times, and except for the ability to blow hard, I don't get any sense of a deeper similarity in how they actually sound or play. One has not recalled the other to my ears when I've heard them. Maybe that's something to listen for.

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