pepe

I think it would be good for the environment if Columbus and Leiv Erikson never discovered America. Maybe we should give it back to the indians?

Thanks for putting me on the list. When will the omission of the political threads be active? They still come up when I enter Todays active...

That's not my reason for joining the ignore politics list.

b3-er, I told you (on another thread) to put me on the list, this apparently has'nt happened, so pls do it now.

Thanks, b3-er, I hereby ask you to add my name to the list of people not wanting to see the political threads.

I do most of my posts at AAJ, and think JC is OK too, but it's so slow I find myself spending less time there. Here, the dominance (almost) of political threads used to irritate me - now I think the balance is better - probably because the war in Iraq is (in a way) over and there still are some time to go before the US will vote for a new pres. What other people find the strength of this board (concentration of sixties/Blue Note-music) to me is a weekness - I think this board musically is more predictable than AAJ. I find AAJ more open. Someone said Org was like a community. That's not necessarily a good thing, small communities can be exclusive to people not fitting the pattern. On the other hand, this board has a few posters seldom appearing at AAJ who are worth following, like JSngry.

Go to thread "Two members banned" at allaboutjazz.com to get some balanced info on why Deep no longer can post there.

The great Swedish singer Monica Zetterlund sings Waltz for Debbie with a Swedish text , and Evans himself is at the piano. Well worth listening to.

Don Cherry lived in Scandinavia (Sweden) for some time, playing and recording with scandinavian musicians, and his free and "world music" approach obviously was an influence. Re Garbarek, he has told that listening to Coltrane on the radio made him discover jazz, and yes - Gato Barbieri also was an admitted influence, as was hearing Ravi Shankar at a concert in Oslo in the sixties. Very important also was being exposed to the music of George Russell at the Molde Festival in the sixties, an event that lead to Garbarek playing and recording with Russel in the years to come.

I've been told the complete group never was in studio together. So - I guess it's difficult to get "hot" sitting by yourself with headphones creating a solo over the music you hear.

Randissimo - re festivals - I'm not actively involved on a day to day basis any more, but I still follow the activities pretty close. I'm talking about European festivals, and problem with them is that no matter how good you are, you need to have a name and/or some management/agency/record company to put in some money and do some tour planning. I mean - even for this summer the festival I'm involved in as early as September last year signaled that we wanted to have Jason Moran and tried to interest other European festivals so that a European tour of a couple of weeks could be planned. OK, there are some Europe gigs for JM, but not the extensive tour he deserves, which only goes to show that many festival arrangers are not interested in building new names, they prefer to pay extensive fees for Jarrett, Rollins, Krall a.o., lamenting that Dizzy and Miles are gone instead of supporting a new generation. Re Jessica Williams, she was solo, and we could afford to bring her over only for our festival (no other festival we talked to was interested, many of them hardly knew her name) sharing the travel costs with a small jazz club in Britain. If you really are interested in Europe, I think it would be wise to start trying to promote yourself towards the North Sea Festival in Holland, they're the biggest European summer festival, they hire hundreds of US-groups every year, and they're part of a union of the major European festivals - getting in with them might give possibillities for openings elsewhere in Europe. It will mean hard work, however - but it might be worth it - the only way to "fame and fortune" is to get out there and play for the people. Sorry I can't be of more help. I guess you find details of major European festivals on the net, if not I can supply a number of them if neccessary.

I'm a big fan - I have quite a few of her (mostly) solo recordings, and I hired her for a festival I'm involved in in the early nineties. She gave a fantastic solo concert (no need to stare at the audience, the only sound they made were sounds of approval). After the concert I talked to a couple who had travelled more than 600 miles to see her and they would come back next year if JW was invited again. (She might have been, but some back problems temporarily kept her inactive).

The Geminis featuring Bergh is definitely worth checking out - and if you're into that kind of tenor I believe they still have a couple of selections featuring the great Bjarne Nerem. His "How long have this been going on" is a classic, of course, but also his other recordings are worth your money.

Yeah, Sidewalk Meeting is one of my favourites from the last few years. We tried to get this group to Europe, but it seems US-agencies just are working with household names and it's difficult to involve them in working out tours for more obscure groups.

There are two jazz singers who IMHO produce music just as worthwile as any instrumentalist: Billie Holiday and Sheila Jordan.

Well, I don't think the content on the boards in question differ that much - apart from the political threads being a bit more active here. What I do see, however, is that occasionally interesting threads at AAJ does'nt create the activity they deserve. At the moment the administrator of their record review section (Nils) has asked for feedback on how that department is doing - quite an interesting topic IMO - but just a couple of posters have so far stated their opinion. BTW, the latest new member at AAJ is the drummer of Organissimo.

What's wrong with AAJ? They have a thorough review section of new CD's, and certainly not only the major household names and the board is quite busy without being too busy - and with a good balance, I think - meaning that music is far more important than politics.

Most boards sooner or later will attract posters like that - we had them at the old BNBB as well. You really should'nt condemn the board because a couple of members out of almost a thousand never grew up.

As far as I know Jackie Mc Leans public performances during the last years sometimes have been quite satisfactory, sometimes below par, sometimes have not happened at all - and there are some health problems involved. But I can understand Tel Aviv wants him for their festival, when he's good, he's smoking. I too think Hardbop maybe will know more about this, so why don't you just go to the discussion forum on http://www.allaboutjazz.com and ask him, send him a PM or mail?

Even if there's not a line outside Ronnie Scott, you should check out Pizza Express Jazz Club just a couple of minutes walk from RS. (Dean Street). Nice room - actually one of the best jazz rooms I ever attended - good music (British and international) - and you don't have to eat pizza if you don't want to. Soho is crowded with good small and intimate restaurants - oriental, european - it's an entertaining task to check out a different one each night - you really should'nt go to the wellknown international ones, they're the same everywhere.

The trio is Beirach, Greg Huebner (violin) and George Mraz (bass, of course). I've only listened to the "Round about Monteverdi" record, which is the latest one issued of the three. They're all on Act. The trio does the music from different angles, in some cases playing the original theme straight and then improvising "in the spirit" of the original music, in other doing much freer interpretations. Some nice arranging, especially setting the violin (Huebner is quite good) against Mraz arco bass. Re Beirach, some inventive piano, but I think he is a little heavyhanded at times, some way his touch when not playing with a full rhythm section seems to lack some sensitivity. I think I've noticed the same in some of his solomusic. But that's just my humble opninion.

Olyakoo!

OK, maybe the political dominance on the board will die down. Anyway, my only political comment will be: Oop-bop-sad'dam, a-klook-a-mop.

There's been a recent discussion on Chu Berry at the AAJ board, with some good recommendations. Just go there and click Chu Berry on search.