johnagrandy

Exactly ! And Public Enemy and all those other OGs up till NWA were socially conscious rappers as well. And then The Man took the shit over and now it's 99% commercialized BS. Socially conscious rap lives on in the underground !

Michael Franti.

How do you guys have the time to absorb all this stuff? It took me a year to fully absorb "Bitches Brew". Same for "Pangea/Agartha" and "Fillmore East". The second great quintet ... it took me 5 years to absorb all the original releases. I don't see the point of buying a Miles album unless you listen 25x - 100x.

This hasn't hit even the scandal rags yet, but Prince will soon be changing his name to "Kurt Cobain". It's almost a done deal. Just a few minor legal detals to take care of ... attorneys and what not.

Are you serious man? You can't be serious. This can't be serious. No it's not serious. Ok, you had me for a minute. In the words of Leon Trotsky, "Something must be done." Is this the answer : http://www.thedeadkennygs.com I don't know. Does anyone have any better ideas ?

"90% of all jazz is half improvisation. The other half is the part people play while others are playing something they never played with anyone who played that part. So if you play the wrong part, its right. If you play the right part, it might be right if you play it wrong enough. But if you play it too right, it's wrong." -- Yogi Berra The first sentence is pure conjecture, so I ignored it. I actually have (possibly) figured out what Yogi means by the second sentence. The rest of it ... Perhaps he knew what he meant. Perhaps not.

I somehow was re-reading Todd's liner notes on the 1980 re-issue of this one. Very interesting what he says about the lack of mass popularity of jazz primarily being due to a lack of talented promoters (versus lack of appealing artists or potential fans, I assume). Of course, that was 1980 when straight ahead was getting slammed (Todd says Hank couldn't even afford a decent horn). But the statement probably has a high degree of truth today as well.

http://www.dailymotion.com/alternativa/video/53031

This is very good advice. When I'm driving and I see a xylophone I immediately stop and jump out. I've caused some severe auto accidents , but it's been well worth it.

"4 Walls of Freedom" is my favorite Joe Locke album. Happens to also be Bob Berg's last appearance on a studio sesssion

Who is he? #1 man with the mallets ... if you're askin' me.

Those are some hip threads Locke's got on. When your style grabs attention like that, you better know how to play.

Just found this: ------------------------ cleger09-01-2005, 04:17 PM Saw this on another site wrt Tim Green: Yes, we spoke tonight. He is at the point where he is accepting that he will probably never have the same life ever again, and that New Orleans will never be the same again. He is basically homeless, and his only possessions are his tenor sax, his briefcase, and the clothes on his body. he doesn't even know if he still has his house, his antique cars or his bass sax, which he plays so beautifully. He thinks his car in at the airport on higher ground, but he doesn't know anything for sure He's ready to start his new life. He'll fly into Dallas on Friday. It'll be good to see him. I can't imagine the bleakness of the outlook for people who call New Orleans home." ------------------------ Also read somewhere that when Tim escaped NO he went to SF. It's rather confusing finding info on Tim, because a few jazz musicians of note are named Tim Green. Tim Green the pianist : http://www.timgreenjazz.com/ Tim Green the alto saxophonist in NYC (now LA ?) , plays with drummer Kevin Kanner and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire (out of Berkeley High, one of my hopes to finally revive some real innovation on trumpet since Woody departed).

What's the address to send a check? The James Brothers address?

Says there's almost none left. Hope Dennis gets my e-mail before the dog eats them or the police seize them or Kenny G buys them all up or something.

He's absolutely killin' on Robert Walter's "Super Heavy Organ". I can not stop listening to that session. Addiction. The other stuff I have someone sent me in the mail and I don't even know what it is. But I've ordered some CDs .... so I'll let you know.

For those without time to read that interview , here's the short scoop: 1. first started playing at 19, gigging within 2 weeks 2. never recorded as a leader 3. sideman on at least 50 records 4. at time of interview, was playing with 20 bands (I have only heard of Cyril Neville, Russell Batiste, Johnny Vidacovich, but other bands include steel drums, Indian ragas, blues, avant garde, dance bands, 3 female vocalists and composers -- which I think is really cool, I want to see a lot more women make it in jazz) 5. extensively involved with helping the blind (a) managed a radio station for the blind (b) received Point Of Light from Bush his work (ironic post-Katrina that Bush once cared about N.O.) 6. has never drank or used any street drugs entire life 7. highly spiritual and religious 8. not originally from N.O. but considers it his destiny to be a New Orleanean 9. never stops practicing (like Trane and Gilmore) I hope Katrina didn't mess up Tim's life and work too much. Figuring that out is my next goal.

I'm just getting into Tim's music. Another New Orleans great I missed out on until now. Can anyone knowledgeable on Tim get this thread going, 'cause he deserves some serious discussion. All I can say is that as far as the soul-jazz, jazz-funk (whatever you want to call it) sessions I've heard him on, I've never heard anyone play that style as well as he does. What's amazing to me is that in a genre where staying cool and funky is elemental and virtuosity is incidental, Tim is as understated as he is ingenious. Sets the place on fire while remaining totally cool. This is a good read: http://www.tipitinas.com/features/Tim_Green/tim_green.htm

http://www.binkie.net/wrdisc/This%20Is%20This.html Now that's a great website. I never heard a single note from "This Is This", but, more indications that Wayne was bored sick with the whole thing: "Weather Report's fifteenth -- and final -- album is a feeble tribute to a group that reigned for more than a decade as the ultimate jazz-rock fusion band. Devoid of spirit or purpose, This Is This is such a halfhearted effort that one has to wonder if it was released merely to fulfill contractual obligations. (Evidence to support such a contention is provided by the horrendous black-and-white illustrations of past group members featured on this record's inner sleeve.)... Whatever the reasons, Weather Report's swan song is a sad one indeed, despite the generally solid supporting contributions by bassist Victor Bailey, drummer Peter Erskine and percussionist Mino Cinelu. Unfortunately, their efforts can't compensate for Shorter's virtual absence or the uninspired quality of the eight compositions presented, and not one song here comes close to the sterling quality of Weather Report's previous record, Sportin' Life." --George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, July 13, 1986 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Aside from special guest Carlos Santana's overheated guitar solos, the 15th Weather Report album is notable only for being the last. Barring a Joe Zawinul-Wayne Shorter reconciliation, it looks as though we'll have two state-of-the-art snoozers a year to look forward to instead of one." --Francis Davis, Philadelphia Inquirer, August 1, 1986 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "After 15 years and 15 albums, it's understandable that Weather Report's founders, Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter, would want to take a break. And considering the way Zawinul dominates This Is This, the band's last album, it's easy to see why Shorter might want to concentrate his efforts elsewhere." --J.D. Considine, Washington Post, September 5, 1986

I hadn't read that before. In an interview where Zawinul is probably speaking extemporaneously it's problematic to take literally stuff like "Let's say Weather Report is a hobby we can no longer afford to continuously just do" and "I think we finally can afford to do something we want to do". Does this indicate it's only the Columbia contract that's keeping the the band going? But he also says the band's better than ever and the new record is killin' ... Could that possibly be spin? Although that seems unlikely, it does makes one wonder. Sportin' Life was just about to be released. Do I just have an unusual sense of humour , or did anyone else start cracking up when they read "I'm going to have 5,000 pieces of music and Wayne might have 400 pages written" ... ? Too funny, man ! Poor Wayne. Just can't keep up the pace.

By "ultimately failed" I just meant that in the final years they didn't seem to be able to accomplish whatever they thought they could further accomplish by continuing on. It's a phenomenon very common in rock (but in rock can probably be closely correlated with need/lust for more money). Seems much less common to see this in jazz.

Well now we're getting into really whacky territory ... because MS bought Giant and released it as "MS Anti-Spyware" beta 1 ( the executable was still called GIANTAntiSpywareMain.exe ! ) .... and then for the beta 2 they changed the name to "Windows Defender" ... So, from what I hear, MS looks to be on track to have the best anti-spyware app for Windows, and yet, as you point out, they're delivering spyware bundled into Windows ! Not only that but, by default, the Windows Defender install tries to get you to join the "Microsoft SpyNet community", which means that all the anti-spyware actions you take on your machine are reported to MS. So MS is spying on your anti-spyware activities ! ... well, not exactly, because the (probably legitimate) justification is that it allows MS to improve the anti-spyware software, but nonetheless ... that's some weird ass shit.

Let's hope the .NET bomb won't blow up too soon... If I remember correctly, Hejlsberg left Borland for MS in 1996 -- what was the dot bomb's status at that time? Edit: typo. That's true. Anders wasn't the right example. But he is one of the biggest names who used to be on "the other side". I think the main dude behind the original Mac OS is at MS now too. Today the Mac OS kernel is quite different ... it's essentially BSD Unix.

I extrapolated off into a general statement based on a lot of anti-MS stuff I hear every day. It wasn't directed at you personally. Apologies for the confusion.

Yeah, that's correct Kevin. But you can turn all that stuff off in a second The Tools > Options > Privacy dialog gives you total control over settings related to relaying and/or acquiring any/all info to/from anyone over the web. I'm not a big Microsoft guy, but the anti-MS paranoia is kind of getting out of control. When the dot bomb blew up lot of the best software architects, developers, and designers in the valley went to MS because no on else had any money (Anders Hejlsberg among them -- Turbo Pascal and Delphi inventor). MS is putting out some amazing shit these days. Plus, in recent years Gates has been quietly donating vast amounts of his money to medical research and other projects to treat and cure massively deadly diseases in Africa such as sleeping sickness and malaria. We're talking about diseases that kill millions per year, many of them children. He's already donated something like $8 billion, and he says he's going all the way, and I believe him because I know people who know Gates and they tell me he's very serious about this ... so that's probably somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 billion that he will ultimately donate. That amount of money alone dwarfs the amount of money the World Health Organization (funded by the totally corrupt World Bank) provides (on a time-period-adjusted basis). Plus, Gates is not making a big publicity stunt out of it. It's all being done very quietly. It's a private matter, not related to MS. Additionally, Gates is donating the money in such a way that the researchers, doctors, etc. are held accountable for producing results -- or their funds are cut off. A lot of medical research money is totally mis-spent ... wasted, in my opinion. The accountability problem really needs a serious business style approach to be solved properly. At some point, you gotta give the guy some credit for giving it all back -- even if he's not your style of person.