Simon Weil

I think frivolous is actually not a bad description of some of the stuff on these CDS. But then I'm a non-musician, so maybe I'm thinking of something different to Joe. "Silly" does seem to be an element of the AEC, at least in these early years. It is kind of expressive, in its way - Not being deadly serious all the time. Simon Weil

Yeah, definitely better examples. Glad people like the comparison. Simon Weil

Probably this is not very convincing, but there's something in the sound, a distinct vibe - to do with the spaciousness and, if you can call it that, its colour which has the quality of German Romantic painting. Even when the guys are blues related, the sound kind of sets the scenario. Something like this painting (but like I said probably not very convincing): Caspar David Friedrich Simon Weil

Crouch exhibits a number of problems. The first of these, for me, is that he's not honest. Whenever I read his stuff, listen to his style rather in the way one might listen to a musician's sound, I get the sense of a man who can't believe he's got away with it and always expects to be called. The there's the question of writing out an agenda. Crouch is probably the worst example of this in Jazz. Everything is tendencious. On top of that is his liking for the race card, which he plays with monotonous regularity. Apart from that, I don't like his politics, find his style obnoxious and overblown, dislike the way he picks fights and think he's a bully. He's also very full of himself, likes to go on about fake musicians who can't play their instrument when he himself was that. In general I think he's an intellectual thug. Simon Weil

Oh, I think there's definitely an ECM sound. It's related to European Romanticism - It does lack blues as a core element. Also there's an elevation of clarity and precision of the quality of that (romantic) sound that is part of the experience of listening to ECM records. It's kind of like the sound sets the scene for you to listen to the records. Simon Weil

Pssst...Wanna buy a grubby, slightly used copy of the Protocols...Psssst. Simon Weil

It's sounds a bit like an acid trip experience I once had...where I was in this car going up Kensington High Street (in London) and the next thing I knew, the scene had segued into the road outside Harrods - which is actually about 1 mile away. Like a cinematic fade or something. Mindfuck like that. In other words, it sounds like acid without the drug. Tough to do... Simon Weil

Hi there, Oh Infallible, Allknowing and Unrelenting...Leopards and spots... Simon Weil

I seem to remember reading something from the Reich/Gaines articles and being impressed. But the couple of reviews I've found aren't so great: Philadelphia Inquirer/Richard Sudhalter Mercury News And, here, Reich replies to Sudhalter: Blues reviewer had ax to grind The only worthy criticism is disinterested criticism. The Sun's review of Jelly's Blues: The Life, Music and Redemption of Jelly Roll Morton ("Jelly Roll Morton remains ever elusive, enigmatic," May 18) was penned by an author who is not disinterested. He has attacked me in letters to the editor at the Chicago Tribune and on Web sites because of criticisms I had made of his deeply flawed book, Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contributions to Jazz, 1915-1945. In one such diatribe, subsequently published on the Jazz Institute of Chicago's Web site, that reviewer, Richard M. Sudhalter, referred to me as "the Third Reich," a particularly ill-chosen attack, in that I am the son of Holocaust survivors. In failing to disclose his animosity toward me to readers and, presumably, to his editors, Mr. Sudhalter has offered a less than honest review of Jelly's Blues. Moreover, his assertion that the book has no footnotes is patently untrue (even the reviewer's copy of the book indicated "notes on sources"). And Mr. Sudhalter's assertion that neither author is "musically literate" is also incorrect. I hold a bachelor of music degree from Northwestern University, where I also did my graduate studies in music history and theory. Most reviews of Jelly's Blues have cited the exceptional clarity and persuasiveness of its music passages. The readers of The Sun deserve honest, disinterested criticism. Howard Reich Chicago http://www.google.com./search?q=cache:i1cF...&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 I have heard some uncomplimentary stuff about Reich. Simon Weil P.S. Interview with Reich

Nope, that happened with me also. Simon Weil Andrew Hill has reported that the "Jazz" series put him to sleep every night it aired. The series has lots of flaws for sure, though in places, it's not bad (enough to rouse me from my slumber for a few moments, especially some of the live performance clips). But the biggest mystery to me is how the series could take something as VITAL and INTERESTING as jazz and make it seem so DULL. Something got lost in the translation. Of course, with a few exceptions, jazz and TV have never meshed all that well. The apologists for the Burns series often say something like, well it's a good introduction to jazz for newcomers to the music. Personally, I doubt it. Can you imagine showing this series, as it is, video by video, to high school or college students? I may be wrong, but I think the converts to jazz from such an approach would be few and far between. I did actually spend quite a lot of time researching the series before it came on - This was possible because of the large scale media blitz Burns and his cohorts indulged in - And one remarkable thing was Burns wasn't interested in Jazz until he worked out that, as a subject, it could fit into his conception of documentaries that explain America to itself. For me there's a kind of worthiness, a "this is good for you" quality, to the films - and I suspect that comes, in part, from Burns' basic rather worthy conception of what documentaries are for. It's like the fun is squeezed out by the basic motivation. I think Wynton also suffers from "worthiness", but that's another story. Simon Weil

Nope, that happened with me also. Simon Weil

There's an excellent, educational piece posted by Nat Catchpole on June 2 in the: Conduction in Improvised Music thread What/How a free improviser does/thinks. Simon Weil

My favourite is 39 Steps, and after that The Lady Vanishes. I also have a soft spot for Family Plot. Of the films on the list The Birds is really scary, but my favourite is North by Northwest. He made so many good films it's hard to agree on a shortlist. Simon Weil

Ahhh, too much happy go lucky and you'll go nuts, Mny. On top of cancer.. Simon Weil

Yeah, I saw this trio in London a few years ago. Solal is a fantastic, fantastic player. Not being a musician I looked at it in different terms. It just felt to me like an amazingly wise old guy talking. Like you just wanted him to go on and on it was so engaging and full of stuff. I thought the trio worked well together. Simon Weil

See, I know you think that David (or are leaning that way) because you've said it (sort of) a few times. In the end the issue comes down, to me, on the valuation I place on the guys from the 60s. I think there is a grandeur and a reaching of extraordinary emotional places sufficiently often in those guys that I start looking at comparisons with people like Picasso and Kandinsky. This is not to say one can't find that in other Jazzers of other periods, just that my sensibility takes me in the 60s direction. The problem is "so what?". I mean I might feel that, that this stuff is wonderful and marvellous. But who's to say that's not complete bullshit, if whatever is so great can't be put into words so that others can get to see why it is so damn great. And ain't nobody done that. You see I think the stuff is there in Jazz. Simon Weil

So change the equation. Make them see it as art - and not just art, but some of the greatest and most substantial art of this era. Which is what it is. Then they'll be stuck. Simon Weil This reminds me of the old argument of the upper crust that aiming for an egalitarian society is ludicrous; we should be trying to raise the working classes into the upper crust. Yeah, they meant that too. The term 'Art' is a means of exclusion. Well look, Bev. Jazz was produced, invented by American blacks. About as lower class as you can get. You don't have to raise nothing to nothing. All you've got to do is demonstrate that the stuff produced by these people, and others who have followed in their wake, is just as good as stuff produced in other forms. If the word "art" sticks in your craw, don't use it. The 60s is when the current period for Visual Art begins (more or less). Jazz since the beginning of the 60s is much more interesting, profound etc than visual art. Just because a bunch of public school guys run the art council doesn't mean you can't beat them at their own game. Unless despair is in your system. Simon Weil

So change the equation. Make them see it as art - and not just art, but some of the greatest and most substantial art of this era. Which is what it is. Then they'll be stuck. Simon Weil

I think the question of women may be important for the future of Jazz. It is telling that so few women turn up on these internet boards/usenet discussion groups, whereas plenty seem to turn up to concerts. Evidently Jazz playing has been very much an activity for men and it remains rather difficult for women to make it to the top. To me this seems basically social , and I rather think the same obtains in these discussion groups and in Jazz collecting as well. Yet women do have an interest in Jazz, as evidenced by their appearance at concerts - and there is no real reason why, for example, a majority of leading figures in Jazz shouldn't be women. Simply in terms of numbers (there being as many women as there are men), you could look to a doubling of the Jazz CD buying audience if these social barriers were removed. And having key, central figures in Jazz who were women would doubtless also help. And there's the burst of energy you'd get from an influx of new people. Simon Weil

I've never heard it referred to like that in the UK. But, evidently, it used to be. For, amongst other things, a google search brought up this: That was written 1911. Maybe the loss (or impending loss) of Empire gave us a different perspective. Kipling was "an icon of Empire". It'd be interesting to know when the change took place. Simon Weil

rec.music.bluenote is a usenet/newsgroup discussion group, which is archived by google in its "groups" section. If you go to: Google advanced group search Type rec.music.bluenote into the newsgroup box and whatever else you're interested in into the other boxes... For example, I typed " Albert Ayler" in where it says "exact phrase" and got ...this..... Have fun. Simon Weil

I have an old copy of the Musichound Guide, which is what I use to for a first sketch. I do also have a whole bunch of other things, including various versions of the Penguin, which I do check things with. Plus there's things like the google archives of rec.music.bluenote, which is a source I use relatively frequently. I never did take to the allmusic guide - finding it lacking a distinctive voice which would enable me to judge its recommendations against - and, as I have said in different ways on other venues, I don't really trust the Penguin. The Musichound is not wonderful, but I feel at home with it. The rec.music.bluenote archives are a useful resource. Simon Weil

It's .....here..... Mny. Thanks... Simon

Yeah, I had my one of those a couple of years ago...AND I managed to mangle my computer by overdoing the deletion process. Not an experience I'm ever liable to forget. .. For about a year (starting some months after the above) I got emails with attachments to my alternate email address (associated with my website on Wagner's antisemitism). None of them came from addresses I recognised - and at least some were forged for sure. Maybe I got 50, I can't remember, a lot. I concluded very soon that someone was trying to mess me up. In a way it became amusing - because NO WAY was I going to open them after the experience I'd had before and someone was expending energy in sending me the damn things. The guy seems to have stopped now... Anyway, I definitely learn from this sort of thing...The hard way. Simon Weil

Well, Frisell has a particular sensibility which doesn't appeal to everybody. It didn't appeal to me for a long time (at least not on record. The first time I ever heard him was as featured soloist [i think] with the Mike Gibbs band [?late 70s] when he played scorchingly). There is something sideways and post-modern about his playing which put me off, until I decided I ought to listen anyway. And now I like it a lot. I read that Jazzwise review. I thought it was written on auto-pilot. Man, everyone thinks they have open ears (even me). Simon Weil