DukeCity

Them's some yellow teeth!

I think the real question is staring us in the face: Who wins in the Greatest-Musical-Genius-Of-The-20th-Century-Smackdown, Kurt Cobain or Woody Shaw?

Buddy Tate Larry Tate Elizabeth Montgomery Agnes Moorhead Paul Lynde Marian Lorne

Clifford Brown James Dean Sam Kinison

For music teachers, it's much easier to teach a kid to see a black dot on a certain line, and push the corresponding button on the instrument, than it is to help the kid learn to hear what that dot represents. Then some of those students grow up and want to teach music, and ... We end up teaching kids how to "read" music without them having any basis for attaching musical meaning or context to the visual representation. Similarly, it's easier to get a jazz student to memorize the notes in chords and scales and modes than it is to get the student to 'hear' the chord changes, and have accurate internal concepts of the harmony and musical phrases. An analogy with language learning might be: A kid learns to hear, then speak his native language for years before he gets saddled with trying to read or write it. So when the kid is learning to read the words 'mouse' and 'house', those very similar looking and sounding words each have a very distinct meaning to the kid, because he (hopefully) already has some concept of the things that the written words represent.

I'm not sure about having to get pre-permission to do an arrangement, but I did hear a story about the basketball pep band at the college where I teach. Several years ago a student did an arrangement of "Chameleon". Wouldn't have been much of a problem, except there was a televised game, several seconds of the arrangement were heard over the airwaves (cable lines?), and someone on the Hancock team was listening. A fine of about $500 was levied, and the loser band director (no longer here) actually made the student pay the fine! Subsequently, the S.O.P. is for the director to get some sort of liscencing from Harry Fox for new arrangements of tunes. My guess is that the act of writing an arrangment is not a problem, but the minute you actually do anything with the arrangment (perform it publicly, sell it, record it etc.) the Man will start to take notice.

There's some research that points to the idea that our aptitude for music is basically set by the age of 9 or 10. After that, for the rest of our lives we are dealing with realizing the potential that our aptitude gives us. So each of us is a mix of aptitude and acheivement. We all know players who have to bust thier butts to make even small amount of progress as musicians (low aptitude/high achievement), and those who have incredible 'talent' or 'potential' but do little to cultivate it (high aptitude/low achievement) and everything in between. My own experience is that I had that curiosity that FreeForAll was talking about, so I had cobbled together lots of bits and pieces of musical knowledge before I got 'official' training. When I got to college, much of what was happening for me was gathering labels for things I could already hear, organizing musical materials, and developing those skills that FFA mentioned about learning how to learn.

James "Blood" Ulmer Plas Johnson Red Mitchell

OK, how about this: Let's say organissimo is doing a live show at a club in your town with, say, a $15 cover and no drink minimum (but the implicit understanding that most patrons would purchase something). In our hypothetical situation, let's also assume that you've somehow pissed off all three of the guys in the band so there's no way they're putting you on the guest list. Is it OK for you and your date to skirt the guy at the door, and stand by the bar and enjoy the show for free?

If you believe what he said in interviews, what he says in various lyrics , especially on "In Utero" tracks, and what friends said about him in interviews and via other sources, then Kurt Cobain of Nirvana qualifies for the above. Injecting 10x the lethal dose of smack for a hardcore addict into your vein and shortly thereafter blowing off half your head with a large guage shotgun is an indication of an extremely troubled psyche. Originally, Kurt was a guy who had learned how to be happy on $4 a day. Well, ok. But there are those who will tell you that death is the ultimate career move. I'm certainly no Cobain/Grunge scholar, but I can't even imagine that Cobain's icon status was entirely against his will, as per Jim's question. I guess one could assert that Cobain was a reluctant icon, or that he didn't dig it once he got there, but come on: He grew up in a world where he knew what popular music and musicians represent in our culture, and he made business decision after decision, signed agreement after agreement to push his career to where it ended up. He didn't have to make videos, and he did't have to play huge venues. He could have made a decent living playing regionally, or even nationally, in smaller concert venues and clubs and built a fan base, and expressed himself musically without becoming an icon. That his situation was made more complicated by his mental/emotional/chemical troubles is obvious. But he was still a business man, working in the music business.

Sturm und Drang Richard Wagner Lyle Wagonner Peter Matz Milton DeLugg Dick Stabile

Rowan & Martin Stiller & Miera Burns & Allen (I guess I just named six people)

I went to high school with a kid named Upper Manhattan Medical Group. I seem to recall that it was just a family name, and had nothing to do with the tune.

Hal Prince Hal Wallis

The way I have it organized in my little pea brain, when we're talking about an older pop song like Stardust, the first part is the verse, and the main part that one usually blows over is the refrain (the refrain consists of one or more 'choruses'). In more contemorary pop songs there is more of a scheme like: verse verse chorus verse chorus hook/chorus For example, the Bachman, Turner Overdrive classic "Takin' Care of Business" The verse is: They get up every morning from the alarm clock's warning Take the eight-fifteen into the city There's a whistle up above and people push and people shove And all the girls, who try to look pretty And if your train's on time you can get to work by nine And start your slaving job to get your pay If you ever get annoyed look at me I'm self-employed I love to work at nothing all day And the chorus (or possibly refrain) is: And I've been takin' care of business everyday Takin' care of business every way I've been takin' care of business it's all mine Takin' care of business and working overtime Workout But then, when you open it up for blowing on the wedding band gig, what part do you blow over? It's all so confusing...

Georgette Franklin Ted Baxter Murray Slaughter

What about Linda Brava? I always enjoyed her work on Baywatch.

I agree. They are uncredibly inmusical.

I can only imagine that the Basie Band would swing a lot harder with Trilok Girtu driving the bus.

HOLY SHIT, PHIL LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!!!! nice article. any suggestions for intial listening?

why all the mezzo forte?

So I'm wandering around on eBay, and I do a search for saxophone mouthpieces using the search terms "otto link" (a well known brand of mouthpieces). The search returns lots of overpriced 'vintage' mouthpieces, and this item: a pair of cufflinks used as props in the film "In Harm's Way" by Otto Preminger. Who saw that one coming? Anyone else stumble on unexpected results on an eBay search?

Thanks for the response, Jim. Be checking your inbox. It looks like your financial future is going to be pretty bright, my friend!

Anyone (Jim?) have a lead on how to get the Quartet Out CDs? I'd like to get both titles: Welcome to the Party, and Welcome to the Meathouse. (tried to PM Jim Sangrey, but the messages were non-deliverable) Thanks!

Yeah, but the puppet has more realistic hair...