king ubu

Sound indeed isn't perfect, but the music is very nice! Wilen is pretty much in a Coltrane mood, generally, no? About the credit card info: would you recommend to split up the number itself into several mails? I sent the number in one mail, and the cardholder and expiry info in another. Would have been better to break up the card-no. into two or three mails? Or even sending it from different mail addresses? I never did that before, and I did have a bit of a bad feeling. ubu

no real member of the ubu-family ever heard the term "good behaviour"! We miss you too, Tony! Where is that crying smiley when I need it? You have to accept this one, Tony: ubu

Actually, Verve France released five (or six?) LPs that had all - or nearly all - that was on the Mosaic box. They were released shortly before the Mosaic set. And me dumbass passed on the COMPLETE series of these LPs once!!! Unbelieveable! Never had another chance to get this music since, save for one Verve CD I found, an old one, from around 1990. ubu

Marcus, thanks a lot for this enjoyable disc! Again, apologies for not posting my guesses, but I'm simply too deep into the Basie work at the moment. (And then, I wouldn't have known any but the Schifrin, and maybe I would have gotten Golson right... after a few more listens...) ubu

Czeslaw Milosz, Poet and Nobelist Who Wrote of Modern Cruelties, Dies at 93 By RAYMOND H. ANDERSON Published: August 15, 2004 Czeslaw Milosz, the Polish émigré writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980, in part for a powerful pre-mortem dissection of Communism, in part for tragic, ironic poetry that set a standard for the world, died Saturday at his home in Krakow, his assistant, Agnieszka Kosinska, told The Associated Press. He was 93 An artist of extraordinary intellectual energy, Mr. Milosz was also an essayist, literary translator and scholar of the first rank. Many of his fellow poets were in awe of his skills. When another Nobel poet and exile from totalitarianism, the Russian Joseph Brodsky, presented Mr. Milosz with the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1978, he said, "I have no hesitation whatsoever in stating that Czeslaw Milosz in one of the greatest poets of our time, perhaps the greatest." Mr. Milosz was often described as a poet of memory and a poet of witness. Terrence Des Pres, writing in The Nation, said of him: "In exile from a world which no longer exists, a witness to the Nazi devastation of Poland and the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe, Milosz deals in his poetry with the central issues of our time: the impact of history upon moral being, the search for ways to survive spiritual ruin in a ruined world." In 1951, he was in Paris, on duty there as a Polish cultural attaché following elite assignments in the United States at the consulate in New York and the embassy in Washington. An urbane man fluent in Polish, Lithuanian, Russian, English and French, Mr. Milosz had established close associations with leading left-wing intellectuals in Paris. These diplomatic contacts were important to the Warsaw authorities, but Mr. Milosz, a skeptic about Marxist rule, was tipped off that he faced arrest and trial in the Stalinist purges then under way if he returned to Poland. So he denounced the Moscow-dominated system that was tightening its grip on his homeland and took political asylum in France. Formulating a New 'New Faith' In his youth, Mr. Milosz had been drawn to some of the idealized aspects of Marxism but he rejected dictatorship. In large measure, he defected, he explained later, because of damage he saw inflicted on spiritual values and intellect by Communist dogma, which he scorned as the "New Faith." For Mr. Milosz, faith was something else, as he made clear in a 1985 poem under that title: Faith is in you whenever you look At a dewdrop or a floating leaf And know that they are because they have to be. Even if you close your eyes and dream up things The world will remain as it has always been And the leaf will be carried by the waters of the river. Mr. Milosz detested Socialist Realism, the Soviet-contrived literary doctrine that distorted truth into propaganda to promote the political and ideological goals of the Communist Party. Two years after defecting, Czeslaw Milosz, (pronounced CHESS-wahf MEE-wosh) published "The Captive Mind," a searing analysis of Stalinist tactics and their numbing effect on intellectuals. "The Captive Mind" was translated and published in many countries, becoming itself a historical document. In it, Mr. Milosz wrote: "The philosophy of history emanating from Moscow is not just an abstract theory; it is a material force that uses guns, tanks, planes and all the machines of war and oppression. All the crushing might of an armed state is hurled against any man who refuses to accept the New Faith. "At the same time, Stalinism attacks him from within, saying his opposition is caused by his 'class consciousness,' just as psychoanalysts accuse their foes of wanting to preserve their complexes." "Still," he added, prophetically, "it is not hard to imagine the day when millions of obedient followers of the New Faith may suddenly turn against it." "The Captive Mind" was among a powerful group of books in the early 1950's that condemned Communist ideology and foreshadowed the downfall of Communist power. A similar book was "The New Class" by Milovan Djilas, the Yugoslav dissident, which deplored self-aggrandizement and moral rot in the Communist leadership. After his defection, Mr. Milosz explained in a speech: "I have rejected the New Faith because the practice of the lie is one of its principal commandments, and Socialist Realism is nothing more than a different name for a lie." In the same year "The Captive Mind" appeared, Mr. Milosz also published "The Seizure of Power," a fictionalized scrutiny of the relationship between Communism and intellectuals. By 1960, Mr. Milosz had tired of his life amid leftist intellectual squabbling in France. Years later he would speak with acerbity of those in Western Europe who continued to regard the Soviet Union as the hope of the future, particularly those "French intellectuals who considered that only a man who was insane could abandon his position of a writer in a people's democracy in order to choose the capitalistic, decadent West." He accepted a professorship in the Slavic Department at the University of California, Berkeley. He became an American citizen and lived in the Berkeley hills in a modest house with a stunning view of San Francisco Bay. He celebrated that vista in his poetry ("Views From San Francisco Bay" in 1972), but he also spoke of the alien remoteness of the California landscape. Mr. Milosz, with his bushy eyebrows, herringbone tweed jacket, wry humor and brilliant lectures was soon a popular figure on campus, especially in his seminars and lectures on Dostoyevsky. He continued to write verse, translated literary masterpieces into Polish and compiled a large volume, "History of Polish Literature," published in 1969. The hardships and dangers in Mr. Milosz's life, first under Nazi military terror and then under Communist oppression, followed by long years as an émigré in the West, clearly marked his writing. "In both an outward and inward sense he is an exile writer, a stranger for whom physical exile is really a reflection of a metaphysical - or even religious - spiritual exile applying to humanity in general," the Nobel Committee observed in 1980. "The world that Milosz depicts in his poetry, prose and essays is the world in which man lives after having been driven out of Paradise." A Multilingual Boyhood Czeslaw Milosz was born June 30, 1911, to a Polish-speaking family in Szetejnie, Lithuania, which together with Poland, Latvia and Estonia was part of the Russian empire at the time. The complex, multiethnic Baltic region was inhabited by communities of Poles, Lithuanians, Jews, Russians and others, all speaking their separate languages and living their own cultures. His family was not rich but it was distinguished and intellectual. He was only 3 when World War I broke out, and his father, a civil engineer, served in the czar's army, while his family was kept on the run from advancing German armies. From his childhood on, Mr. Milosz had a rich inner life, reading widely. He also had a challenging array of talents, interests and skills. As a schoolboy, he was fascinated by the scientific world of animals. But in the end, he enrolled in law school at the University of Vilnius, graduating at the age of 23. He worked several years in radio, and sometimes remarked in interviews that he felt guilty for having abandoned science. Mr. Milosz traced the distinctive imagery of his poetry to his boyhood experiences in the rural countryside of Lithuania; his childhood is evoked in an autobiographical novel published in the United States as "The Issa Valley" (1981) and in "Native Realm," an autobiography. In one of his essays he wrote: "If I were asked to say where my poetry comes from I would say that its roots are in my childhood in Christmas carols, in the liturgy of Marian and vesper offices, and in the Bible." The author Eva Hoffman, a native of Poland, said of him: "He has never been a provincial artist. His writing may bear the marks of his particular Lithuanian-Polish past, but the material of his own life is filtered through a fully cultivated intelligence and probed to those depths at which individual experience becomes universal." He attended high school in the city of Vilnius, which by then had been transferred from Lithuania to Poland, and later restored to Lithuania, and published his first poem at the age of 15, He studied Latin for seven years in school, and in his Nobel acceptance speech credited that underlying linguistic discipline and classroom translations of poems with helping him to develop his mastery. He also learned Hebrew and Greek well enough to later translate the Bible into Polish. Poetic Vision Born of War At the age of 22, while attending law school, Mr. Milosz published his first experimental verse, "Poem on Time Frozen." Favorable reaction helped him win a state scholarship to study literature in Paris after he was awarded a law degree in 1934. A relative there, Oscar Milosz, who worked in the Lithuanian legation and wrote poetry in French, helped broaden his world outlook and shape his poetic style. He returned to Vilnius after the publication of a second book of poems called "Three Winters" but was fired from his job at a local Polish radio station for being too liberal. Mr. Milosz was working in Warsaw for Polish Radio when the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939. During the Nazi occupation, he worked in the Warsaw University Library, wrote for the anti-Nazi underground, heard the screams and gunfire in 1943 as Germans killed or captured the remaining Jews in the walled Ghetto and witnessed the razing of nearly all Warsaw after the uprising in 1944. One of his most moving poems, "A Poor Christian Looks at the Ghetto" (1943), described the assault on the Jews: Bees build around red liver, Ants around black bone. It has begun: the tearing, the trampling on silks, It has begun: the breaking of glass, wood, copper, nickel, silver, foam Of gypsum, iron sheets, violin strings, trumpets, leaves, balls, crystals, Poof! Phosphorescent fire from yellow walls Engulfs animal and human hair. Bees build around the honeycomb of lungs, Ants build around white bone. Torn is paper, rubber, linen, leather, flax, Fiber, fabrics, cellulose, snakeskin, wire. The roof and the wall collapse in flame and heat seizes the foundations. Now there is only the earth, sandy, trodden down, With one leafless tree. Slowly, boring a tunnel, a guardian mole makes his way, With a small red lamp fastened to his forehead. He touches buried bodies, counts them, pushes on, He distinguishes human ashes by their luminous vapor, The ashes of each man by a different part of the spectrum. Bees build around a red trace. Ants build around the place left by my body. I am afraid, so afraid of the guardian mole. He has swollen eyelids, like a Patriarch Who has sat much in the light of candles Reading the great book of the species. What will I tell him, I, a Jew of the New Testament, Waiting two thousand years for the second coming of Jesus? My broken body will deliver me to his sight And he will count me among the helpers of death: The uncircumcised. After the war, a collection of poems called "Rescue," which showed the influence of T. S. Eliot, established him among Poland's pre-eminent writers. Although he was not a member of the Communist Party he was accepted into the diplomatic corps in 1946 and began the journey that ended with his defection in 1951 in Paris. Mr. Milosz chose throughout his life to compose his poetry in the complex but rich Polish language, even after he mastered French and English. Poetry can be true, he said, only if created in one's mother tongue. As his work won increasing attention and respect, Mr. Milosz developed close ties to many leading world intellectuals, writers, and political and religious leaders, especially to Pope John Paul II, his countryman and leader of his faith. When he consulted on his plan to break with Communism, it was with no less a figure than Albert Einstein, who advised him during a talk at Princeton University that he should go home to Poland, not defect to the West to join the sad fate of exiles. 'A Poet Remembers' Mr. Milosz also knew Lech Walesa, the electrician who led the anti-Communist Solidarity movement and went on to become president of Poland. Lines from a verse by Mr. Milosz were put on a memorial in Gdansk to honor Mr. Walesa's fellow shipyard workers who were shot by the police in the early 1970's: "You who harmed a simple man, do not feel secure: for a poet remembers." When Communism was smashed in Poland, Mr. Milosz returned to what he called "the country of my first immigration." Arriving in Warsaw after an absence of three decades, he received a hero's welcome. Mr. Milosz was regarded as one of the world's literary immortals. When he chose, he walked and talked with the great men of his time, but he remained humble. He also had a remarkable memory and could readily recall the names of his early teachers, companions and friends, and he remembered in vivid detail the first books he read, his adventures and mishaps. He demonstrated that acute memory in his 1968 book "Native Realm, A Search for Self-Definition," a compelling and mildly ironic account of his life, work and thoughts in the illuminating context of Baltic and family history. Mr. Milosz enjoyed pleasures of the body as well as of the mind, as he acknowledged in his 1985 poem, "A Confession," translated by himself and Robert Hass: My Lord, I loved strawberry jam And the dark sweetness of a woman's body. Also, well-chilled vodka, herring in olive oil, Scents, of cinnamon, of cloves. So what kind of prophet am I? Why should the spirit Have visited such a man? Many others Were justly called, and trustworthy. Who would have trusted me? For they saw How I empty glasses, throw myself on food, And glance greedily at the waitress's neck. Flawed and aware of it. Desiring greatness, Able to recognize greatness wherever it is, And yet not quite, only in part, clairvoyant, I know what was left for smaller men like me: A feast of brief hopes, a rally of the proud. A tournament of hunchbacks, literature. At times, Mr. Milosz fell into melancholy, but he firmly fended off any would-be therapists. His early poetry was in what was called the "Catastrophist" school of the 1930's, which foresaw the annihilation of the principal values of modern culture and a devastating war. His wartime ordeals tended in ways to bear out the forebodings. Mr. Milosz was a man of quiet manner but strong opinions and he expressed them, sometimes to the distress of his admirers. For example, in a PEN congress talk he reminded his fellow writers, "Innumerable millions of human beings were killed in this century in the name of utopia - either progressive or reactionary, and always there were writers who provided convincing justifications for massacre." Reacting to the atrocities in the struggle between Christians and Muslims in Bosnia in the 1990's, Mr. Milosz blamed intellectuals more than politicians and generals. "These people who had liberated themselves from Marxist doctrine very quickly became nationalists," he said in 1996. "And we see what happens now in Yugoslavia. In my opinion, intellectuals are responsible for the horrors in Bosnia, for they initiated the new nationalist tendencies there." Mr. Milosz was married twice. His first wife, Janina Dluska, shared his ordeals in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation and went into exile with him. She died in 1986. They had two sons, Anthony and John Peter, who survive him. In 1992, Mr. Milosz married Carol Thigpen, a historian. Ms. Thigpen died in 2003, The Associated Press said. After Mr. Milosz was awarded the Nobel, many of his books were translated into English and published in the United States. Ecco Press gathered a half-century of his work in "The Collected Poems 1931-1987." In it is a 1986 poem called "And Yet the Books," which contained these lines: I imagine the earth when I am no more: Nothing happens, no loss, it's still a strange pageant, Women's dresses, dewy lilacs, a song in the valley. Yet the books will be there on the shelves, well born, Derived from people, but also from radiance, heights. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/15/obituari...d=all&position= ubu

David, that was a pretty good description of Breuker's music, in my opinion! What may be interesting is that many of his sidemen, of the Kollektief, have been with him since the beginning, among them the rhythm players, and both trumpet players. Some others have joined in recently, as I understand to sort of "refresh the blood" a bit, among them Hermine Doerlo, who is quite good. Anyone here knows Fred van Hove's larger bands? I only heard a twenty minute excerpt of a concert he did at an earlier Taktlos festival in Zurich, with his nonet. Might fit in here, too, stylistically, though I would need to hear more of him! ubu

Yes, the largest one, but you won't see it - it's in the fourth dimension. But it is there. Right next to the India stuff, right? Madonna's got to be in there, too: Or you rather have her this way? ubu

Yup, Sinatra... sounds like our new friend would love "In the Wee Small Hours" (I love that one, too... second best performance of "I Get Along Without You Very Well," next to the one on this Sinatra album, is the one by Chet Baker, on "Best of Chet Baker Sings" - that's the same CD that has "My Funny Valentine") ubu

Uh, I don't care, I got a life Frankly, I didn't get a life, I'm just devoting most of my online and jazz time to the Basie site at the moment... as if THAT was a life ubu B-)

Had a listen to this one: Picked it up in a sale, last week (our Friend D.D. will get a copy as well, now that he has revealed to me the name of the Brötzel reed trio, and has EVEN listened to that disc...) Like it a lot! Portal is on tenor, soprano, clarinet and bass clarinet, Francioli and Favre provide fractured to groovy backgrounds. Anyone else here knows this one? I think it's the best Portal I've heard, except for some live stuff I have. His "Minneapolis" album is a very tired affair. I do like Sonny T and Michael B with Prince (check "Exodus" by the New Power Generation, Prince is there, too, as "Tora Tora" or something), but with Portal, they just don't make too much sense to my ears. ubu

Not at all your fault! I got a burn of that, since. ubu

you best start with that nice centennial box - that's what I did, yet - shame on me! - I haven't heard more than half of it... then there's the beautiful recent Columbia reissues, and once you get *really* started (I haven't yet, thank God!), you won't stop anymore until you die... ubu

H P P Y B I R T H D Y ubu

You know my friend, I really wonder what you're talking about...

Here's the cover of "Scattered Clouds" Have this and like it. It seems the other one on hatOLOGY is even better, though: Then I have another one, called "Ortega On Evidence," which is not so good. In fact, I burned it for D.D., and we both find it pretty boring. Has anyone heard this one? It's a quartet with Rémi Charmasson on guitar. ubu

You should know better! I remember we have met, right? It's a "véritable portrait de Monsieur Ubu". I saw the Grimes cheap (10 Franks), wouldn't have gotten it otherwise. Sorry to hear about your car, but have a look at the Coen's "Fargo" to see how car-dealers function, in the US, Switzerland, or anyplace else... they're all the same species, it seems. Ordering alphabetical: does that mean you get rid of ALL stylistical categories? (I have three: classical/"neue Musik", jazz (and the little bit of blues, r'n'b etc I own), and rock/pop/funk/soul etc. But then, I have maybe 200 non-jazz CDs, and the others would probably snugly fit into three and a half of those racks you ordered. Have a link? (I have no money, but I wonder how they look!) ubu

I love Henry Grimes' The Call. I don't find it boring at all! Of course music is a subjective matter. I beg you to give it another try though I will! I was actually waiting for someone to come up with such a post Any other opinions on this album? ubu

And if it has that metal spine, it should be the last one, as it's the one that completes the originally planned run of Miles Sony/Columbia boxes. The Cellar Door is not part of the series, and we still don't know if there is going to be a post-Jack Johnson studio box (I hope there will, but there has been no sign, so far, or at least none reached me). ubu

Now that's something I respect! One of the best things about America is Starbucks.... If only they could have stayed out of old Europe! I prefer Italian coffee... ubu

Probably a Ducal punishment Seems he was not the only one with this tactic - Basie applied it, too... One of the funniest Ellington moments is on ALL STAR ROAD BAND VOLUME 2, I think it is, where Hodges is most likely waaaaaay drunk. Duke calls on him to play these ballads, snd the poor guy is WOBBLY like a mofo. Not enough for the spectators to notice, but if you know Rabbit, you can hear that he's struggling just to stay between the lines, much less drive straight. Sounds funny! Is this one around? ubu

Please don't mention Ms. Ibarra or ubu might do one of those Funny Rat Babe Thread things again! Or worse yet, he'll add a large pic of Susie to his already bloated signature line!! Hey, bugger, I always kept my pants up! I AM NOT ARIC! And by the way I have stayed out of the babe thread for several months, now! SO: BUG OFF! Of course I can't resist, and I even found two I didn't post here, already, nor elsewhere: Susie playing: and Susie singing: I'm sure our good friend J.A.W. will be glad to know she happens to sing from time to time, so he can stay away from her concerts... ubu

Don't have the Satch plays Fats - I'm far from an Armstrong connoisseur, but that Handy disc is GREAT! (Look for the AotW thread, started by JSngry for some more information). ubu

Ray Draper's tuba playing is exactly the reason why I sold this album. Well, I guess Little on "Old Folks" alone makes me never sell it! I can understand having reservations against Draper, but then, the first disc I heard him on was that BN/Roulette one which had his whole album with Trane, as well as the four earliest Trane quartet tracks (I think it's called "Like Sonny", and goes as a Coltrane disc). There, he is extremely weak - I really feel tempted to ask why the hell did someone give him a record date? Just for the gimmick? A skinny small teenager with an old beat-up tuba on the cover... well, that was the other album, but...) This disc was my third encounter with Draper (he also is on "Deeds, Not Words" by Roach, right? Only listened to that once so far), and he is very much better than on that date of his with Trane. However, Hentoff quotes Roach in the liners, talking about how Draper "will" develop, and "will have to" build chops, all in future tense... ubu

Just read the enthusiastic thread on Atomic's "Boom Boom" disc - will definitely give "Feet Music" a spin again soon. Right now, I'm travelling back in time a bit with: I urge you all, my dearest friends, to get that disc yesterday, rather than today! What a great, warm, joyful album! ubu

Yes indeed! This is a very fine one! I think it's one of the Somethin' Else discs, right? ubu