thedwork

those are my favorite recordings w/ Scofield as a leader as well. Time On My Hands, Meant To Be, and What We Do being my favorites. all classics in my opinion. but there is one record that, for me, is above all other others when it comes to Sco: for me, not only is this my favorite playing from Scofield - i think it's one the best jazz recordings period. ever. masterpiece.

i don't think it's his best either, but "bad"? nah. i can understand not digging the little bit of strings (totally unnecessary over-procuction), but they don't totally kill it for me. otherwise it seems like pretty straight ahead Cash to me (click on below to hear). What Is Truth? The old man turned off the radio Said, "Where did all of the old songs go Kids sure play funny music these days They play it in the strangest ways" Said, "it looks to me like they've all gone wild It was peaceful back when I was a child" Well, man, could it be that the girls and boys Are trying to be heard above your noise? And the lonely voice of youth cries "What is truth?" A little boy of three sittin' on the floor Looks up and says, "Daddy, what is war?" "son, that's when people fight and die" The little boy of three says "Daddy, why?" A young man of seventeen in Sunday school Being taught the golden rule And by the time another year has gone around It may be his turn to lay his life down Can you blame the voice of youth for asking "What is truth?" A young man sittin' on the witness stand The man with the book says "Raise your hand" "Repeat after me, I solemnly swear" The man looked down at his long hair And although the young man solemnly swore Nobody seems to hear anymore And it didn't really matter if the truth was there It was the cut of his clothes and the length of his hair And the lonely voice of youth cries "What is truth?" The young girl dancing to the latest beat Has found new ways to move her feet The young man speaking in the city square Is trying to tell somebody that he cares Yeah, the ones that you're calling wild Are going to be the leaders in a little while This old world's wakin' to a new born day And I solemnly swear that it'll be their way You better help the voice of youth find "What is truth?" as far as meditations on "truth" as relates to war, i'll take O'Brien's story "Good Form" from The Things They Carried over pretty much anything. but that doesn't mean i don't like this song. it's alright. for me, i try to see the whole picture, the whole spectrum before i actually say i think someone's work is "bad." To me, Britney Spears's "Whoops, I Did It Again" is bad. Cash's "What Is Truth," not so much. oh well...

sold my old guitar for a good price 'cuz i needed the money and bought two cheap guitars in case i feel like playing. one is a crappy acoustic (paid $40). the other is this: SX Vintage Series Ash (mine has a black pick guard). it's obviously a tele copy. ash body maple neck. it's lighter than the real tele i had many years ago and for me that's a bonus. i only paid $85 for it so i figure even if it's pretty lame it wasn't a waste of money 'cuz i'd be able to re-sell it for that without much effort. but so far from the little playing i've done on it, it seems kinda nice. and certainly well worth the price. wondering if anyone here has owned/played one and can give me some impressions or advice.

your calling chewy "fucking ignorant" as a jazz fan for not being up on his eastwood films was wildly rude and itself arrogantly ignorant in a much more broad and sad manner than what you were accusing chewy of being. you should just admit being wrong/rude, apologize to chewy and get over yourself. from reading your posts in our little exchange here it would seem your definition of ignorance is not having the same interests or experiences as you. someone who loves baseball is not "fucking ignorant" if they're not familiar w/ Sayles's Eight Men Out. a classical music lover isn't "fucking ignorant" if they're not familiar w/ Forman's Amadeus. a TV anchorman isn't "fucking ignorant" if he's not familiar w/ Brooks's Broadcast News. and a psychologist isn't "fucking ignorant" if they're not familiar w/ Forman's (that's a coincidence ) One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. anyone who actually believes it's ignorant to not know a piece of eastwood/jazz trivia such as this has a frighteningly narrow gaze and is living in a mighty small world. enjoy the view. it's posters like you that make these forums/boards such a drag and every once in a while i get tired of holding my tongue. but i guess it's my fault for coming. and if you think i'm "fucking ignorant" of Eastwood and jazz too, read my review below and point out all the ignorant parts, then request some of my links for reviews of jazz material. i'll be happy to PM some to you: Million Dollar Baby Clint Eastwood is a man of faith. He is an artist who is confident and experienced enough to have a deep faith in the audience he is trying to reach. He’s also a master of omission, of the left-out detail/line, trusting in his gut that his audience is willing to participate in his films by exercising their own imaginations; that they never want any aspect of the story to be ‘dumbed down’ for ready consumption. In fact, his trust in the audience to use their own minds to fill in gaps is like a gift of part ownership in the film. Million Dollar Baby is a beautiful gift, and a masterpiece of film making. Eastwood plays Frankie Dunn, an elder boxing coach, manager, and expert cut man who runs a gym and is learning Gaelic on the side. He’s a nice enough guy, but he can’t seem to shake the guilt from ghosts in his past. Some ghosts we’re in on, some not quite. His guilt/shame is a constant just beneath the surface and gives him something of a cold exterior, sometimes frozen. Yet, as played by Eastwood, you know Dunn’s aware of his own plight, but just doesn’t know how to melt the ice. Or more importantly, if he’s deserving of such a meltdown. Enter Maggie Fitzgerald (Swank). She’s a thirty-something trailer trash woman from southwest Missouri. An unlikely hero for sure. But for my money, Maggie is this generation’s Rocky Balboa. That may seem an easy, simplistic, and over-reaching comparison, but the parallels are deep, obvious, and myriad. Like many people, Maggie’s dream (being a professional boxer) is always just out of reach, yet she can’t give it up. She works as a waitress to make ends meet (or at least the ends are almost touching), but spends all her spare time training. Like Frankie, Maggie has her own ghosts haunting her, and through these ghosts they bond like a hard hat to an I-beam. The heart and hard work (incalculable amounts) that Swank put into becoming Maggie are unnoticeable. It may be an overused phrase but it’s like she was born to play this part. It fits like a glove. The real life parallel of her relationship to Eastwood no doubt played a part in her ability to connect with the character’s relationship to Dunn. Yet this in no way diminishes her accomplishment. She is brilliant. Morgan Freeman plays Dunn’s right-hand man (Scrape) at the gym, reprising a role similar to his Red in from Shawshank Redemption. He also voices the omniscient narration to the story, a la Red. Like Dunn and Maggie, he’s similarly bruised, but somehow less deeply. He’s there when both of them need support and helps to bring them together. There’s nobody acting in film today who can embody kindness and wisdom through friendship and support better than Freeman. He also serves to bring in another Eastwood trademark - ‘Banter.’ Even when themes are heavy, Eastwood’s sense of humor is never entirely absent and he and Freeman have a good time acting with each other, just as they did in Eastwood’s Unforgiven and just as Kevin Bacon and Laurence Fishburne enjoyed their banter in Eastwood’s Mystic River. These three characters - Frankie, Scrape, and Maggie - create a beautiful and true, albeit small, family unit. Eastwood’s lifelong themes and ‘blurring of lines’ are on full display: good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, the role of violence, redemption, guilt/shame over previous acts, even god and death. Never one for easy answers, his version of the truth lies in the shadows, quite literally. Cinematographer Tom Stern crafts characters in shadow, shifting in and out of light. There is a grey area between the light and the dark where something approaching truth lies waiting, and this is where Eastwood takes us, then leaves us there to ponder. Million Dollar Baby is a shadow play. As accomplished as Unforgiven and Mystic River, yet even more personal, this film is a triumph of tragic storytelling. As Bacon’s character says in Mystic River, “…and the hits just keep on comin’.”

couldn't agree more. brubeck at his finest. some of the shit he plays on those records is nasty! they're some of the first jazz records i listened to when i was younger. classics. thanks for posting about them. i'll have to try to find my "Sermon On The Mount." i remember that tune particularly turning me on as a kid.

Hey, it's that Dwork! My Taping Compendiums are right below my feet, which are propped up on what functions as a coffee table and there's a small pile of important reference works (Penguin Jazz, Historical Atlas, etc.) or otherwise heavy books in a compartment. Though I'm no longer in fever collecting mode you just never know when you might want to know if xx/xx/xx had a particularly beefy "Other One" and so on, hence why they're just a slight stretch away. i'm officially confused. am i having a flashback? Ah, my apologies! We got you confused with John R. Dwork, coauthor of The Deadhead's Taping Compenium. I blame J.H. Deeley for starting this! I see that you are John Dworkin. Sorry 'bout that. Like the site you contribute to and thanks for the head's up. wow. if anyone can come up w/ a more bizarre coincidence than the last four or five posts, you let me know. scary...

Hey, it's that Dwork! My Taping Compendiums are right below my feet, which are propped up on what functions as a coffee table and there's a small pile of important reference works (Penguin Jazz, Historical Atlas, etc.) or otherwise heavy books in a compartment. Though I'm no longer in fever collecting mode you just never know when you might want to know if xx/xx/xx had a particularly beefy "Other One" and so on, hence why they're just a slight stretch away. i'm officially confused. am i having a flashback?

i know that.

oh, ok. i wasn't aware that if you're a jazz fan but aren't up on your Clint Eastwood films, you're "fucking ignorant." my bad.

nice thread. The Grateful Dead were a great band. anybody check out this recent release from da capo?: my review of it can be found at blurt-online here: Growing Up Dead fun book

haven't thought about this person in a while but this thread brought her back to mind. in case anyone on the board lives in nyc and needs a trombonist, Sarah Hatler is an excellent player. i played in a very good college big band w/ her for a couple years a while back. looks like she's playing mostly classical now but she's way cool, reads like a motherfucker, has absolutely no attitude (ie: classical elitism) and can play jazz just fine thank you very much. p.s. - everything i just wrote above about Sarah can also be applied to her husband! how fucking cool is that...

You can't really be that fucking ignorant, can you? may i ask why you're calling chewy "fucking ignorant?" or are you making some kind of joke and i just don't get it?

that was easy: pretty cool...

okie doke (to be read as if spoken by Jim Ignatowski).

yup. all for mentioning satoko again. scary piano player. one of my earliest reviews (5 years ago) was of her Illusion Suite w/ Mark Dresser and Jim Black. if interested (please pardon my self-references - i've pretty much worked that out of my writing now ), see here: Illusion Suite

oh yeah! Nicki Parrott is a great, great bassist. i got to see her play every monday night for a year at the iridium backing up les paul. every night, and i mean every night, she outshone the material. great tone, feel, and always creative - even playing those same 15 tunes week after week after week. she should get some kind of award for that gig. not that they all aren't/weren't lucky to have it. i'm just sayin'. it was obvious from listening to her every week that she was one of the best bassist in the city and could play anything. way cool you guys know about her. whaddya know her from? as far as i know there's nothing recorded that shows half of what she's capable of.

haven't kept up w/ what she's doing for a while but i was definitely gonna list her as one of my favorite female jazz players. she's a fucking monster man! last i knew she was still playing regular w/ Kenny Barron, mike stern, and she had some big name touring gig w/ a pop artist - can't remeber who... ingrid jensen maria schneider geri allen susie ibarra emily remler!!!!!!!!!! and rebecca martin. she does singer/songwriter stuff too, but her jazz records are exceptional i think. the one she did w/ paul motian, and her earlier Middlehope is one of my favorite recordings ever. killer artist. a true storyteller w/ a real sweet quality to her voice, huge tone and great intonation, and big respect for the song and the moment.

hey van basten. i wanna try this but i'm obviously missing something very simple. what do i do when i get to that flickchart homepage? i've submitted my email address to 'join' (yesterday or the day before) but heard nothing further. is there something else i should be noticing there? i'm confused...

yup. the 'ultimate' remake: Van Sant's Psycho. totally ridiculous waste of time or interesting exercise? i thought it was a pretty cool idea myself. certainly an 'original' idea for a remake (where's the irony emoticon?).

what he said. i don't think this initial post in this thread is spam. this is mainly a jazz internet forum, right? this is the "artists" section of the forum, right? john scofield is a jazz artist, right? what's the problem? and as far as wanting this board to only be welcoming to "people who want to be part of the community long term" or some nonsense, gimme a break. it's the fucking internet. some people stay, some people float through. this person started a thread about a jazz musician on a jazz forum. nothing spammy about it.

yup. i got this quote from sarah silverman - who i believe to be a truly gifted comedian (don't know if she got the quote from somewhere else): "Deconstruction is the enemy of comedy." i think that's essentially sound. once you start trying to explain to someone why something is funny, even to yourself, forget it. it's over. not that i think it's a waste of time - just that laughing, and comedy in general, is very instinctual. you may be able to explain what the joke is to someone, and they might even understand it after you explain it. but if they didn't laugh the first time, i'll bet they won't laugh after an explanation. it reminds me of a woman i used to live with. we would watch tv or movies every once in a while. i would laugh, but she never would. she would occasionally say, "That's funny," but not actually laugh out loud. i always found that kinda sad. imagine going through life knowing something is funny (or at least funny to you) but never actually physically laugh. bummer. anyway, kaufman = brilliant. fucking unbelievable man.

sounds pretty good maressa. thanks for letting us know about that scofield track. also, i'm getting the feeling that if i was listening to this on a real speakers (ie: not my cheap computer speakers that came w/ the thing...) the drum sound on that track would be killer. sounds like they put some effort into that during the recording. and sco of course sounds great. not a scofield fan?

cool.

well... i just saw it. definitely completely avoidable. but for a freak like me who eats movies for breakfast and loves movies as much as i love music, it was worth seeing. a movie has to be a real offensive piece of shit for me to walk out. and this certainly was fun enough for me not to have been upset that i paid the price of the ticket. i knew what i was getting into. action, cliche, action, cliche, action, wisecrack, action, wisecrack, nyc cliche wisecrack, etc etc etc... i've really disliked much of travolta's stuff as of late (Broken Arrow, Swordfish, blech), but i thought he did a good enough job here. it was a johnny one note role but he was fine. as a matter of fact, all the roles were johnny one notes. but the actors involved are all so good that it held my attention. and it was fun for me to see Gandolfini working w/ Torturro after knowing they did Torturro's last film together (Romance And Cigarrettes!!!). what a complete 180 from that work. for me, the only complaint would be that Luiz Guzman, one of my favorire "character actors," was woefully under-utilized. and i could do without the over-the-top MTV Tony Scott crap - but that's him. oh well... bottom line, if you're totally jonesing to see a movie and you've seen everything else that's playing, this may still be worth it for ya'. as long as you know you're not seeing the next Hurlyburly.