jazzypaul

That band was from my adopted hometown (West Chicago) and the dad of the guitarist ran the shop that I took piano lessons from. They all lived in two apartments in an apartment complex on the other side of town. Tis indeed a small world after all.

Happy Birthday and thanks for the great sparring throughout the year. Hope everything is going well with the youngin'...

wow...thanks to everyone for the kind wishes! As for Brownie's good music wishes, I think I've done alright so far... started off with some Marty Ehrlich Drove to work with Jazz Advance by Cecil Taylor been digging on the latest Avishai Cohen at work so far so good! Thanks again!

Coulda caught the Oscars I guess, but I just found my box of drumming videos and DVD's, and went...ooooh, I wonder what's on that one...or that one...or that one... Steve Smith is a mutha. Dude can play John Bonham and Tony Williams with equal panache. And Bill Bruford. Nicest guy I ever met, and damn... So, I watched bad ass drummers show me tricks all night, and you saw the Oscars. We're all winners on this awards night.

It's quite ironic that you put this up, especially lately. I've been looking over a couple of sites that I stumbled onto that feed into this perfectly. absolutely whacked-out fundamentalist whackjob site #1 and absolutely whacked-out fundamentalist whackjob site #2 One of them claims that rock is the devil's music and claims that rock music's drumbeat is the polyrhythmic beat of ancient african rituals which brought forth demons. The other one goes further and essentially says that any music that has syncopation is evil, and that the only good music for God fearing people are classical music and marches. Anything with a backbeat is purely for carnal pleasure. The second site even has a broken (unfortunately) link that claims that black gospel music is evil because buddhists like it. Never has anything been so sad and so entertaining at the same time.

and I with my drumming skillz (or lack thereof). I miss playing with an organ player, and I dig Austin. Make it so, man...

I'll have some stuff listed in a day or two. can someone do a request for something?

I'm sorry, but Styx is a blight upon both music and the great city that I come from. I mean, when someone goes to do the complete family tree of Chicago musicians, we'll have Pops, Ahmad Jamal, Johnny Griffin, Von Freeman, Wilbur Ware, Herbie Hancock, Chicago, The Smashing Pumpkins, Cheap Trick, Nat King Cole, Ministry, Chris Foreman, Kurt Elling, Patricia Barber, Sun Ra, Robert Barry, Fred Anderson, Kahil El'Zabar, Ken Vandermark, Hamid Drake, Tony Williams, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and...Styx. Dude...that's a harsh way to end it.

My nomination for post of the week goes to... Dan Gould!!! Everybody, a big round of applause for Mr. Gould. I love this place.

Trick Tickler P. Jazz. uhhhhh, yeah...

Larry Young did a few organ and drums duets. It actually shocks me that this doesn't happen more often as it sounds absolutely natural. At least in Larry's hands it does. There's always Paul Motian's Trio with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano. You never even miss the bass.

don't say stuff like that. He'll get cocky.

did I mention that Michigan is seeming nicer and nicer everyday?

For me, it went like this: 1) Beastie Boys: Root Down. I knew it was a Jimmy Smith sample, and then I tracked down a copy of the record, and we all jammed out hard to that shit for a while. Then I found it CD (with bonus tracks, even!) 2) the two Jimmy and Wes records: I had dug Wes for a while, so when the Verve reissues of those CD's came out, I jumped on 'em. 3) the early 60's BN sides: you know, Back at the Chicken Shack, The Sermon, etc, etc, etc. 4) the 50's BN sides: this turned me from a fan into a fanatic. Hearing Jimmy go off for 13 minutes on some Bebop just spun my head around. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY can play that uptempo shit the way that Jimmy could. 5) being in an organ trio for a while, you have to start checking out what these drummers are doing when they play with an organist. How they approach their instrument, and what they do differently than when they play with a bass player. Jimmy and Donald Bailey was the obvious place to start. Jimmy just kinda owned me after that.

Jimmy was the master at all points in his career. Whether it was burnin' bebop and blues in the 50's, funkier slow jams in the early 60's, big band sides in the mid-60's or straight up funk in the 70's, Jimmy always brought it. He will be missed. Dearly.

You beat me to the punch. River's Edge was good. I always wondered what made Thek weed so special...

YES!!!!! MY WORD YES!!!! A THOUSAND TIMES YES!!! They're amazing. Mingus' tunes are already awesome and to hear them done in this setting really does them justice. I dig that band so much.

I have nothing to compare to the stories read here. I simply had my doors blown off by the Mingus Big Band. And to think that this was the stuff that people could hear any night of the week at some point. Man, I done missed out.

so when are you guys finally making it down to Chicago? I want to see you! I want to bring friends! I want to drink shitty beer and scream requests for Larry Young tunes! You must make it so, Jim.

I talked to one of the cats in the promotions department at ECM about a year ago about this, in regards to Times Square by Gary Burton, which is one of the most accesible and downright great ECM sides ever. The response I got back was that what they have out now is what they'll have out ever, that they care about promoting new music, not putting the past up for sale again. While a (semi) admirable thought, there are too many great ECM sides that I'll never own because of this somewhat myopic attitude.

Me too. I've been holding off on Big Beat, though... Judgement? Yep, I'll buy that! And my Fuego could stand the upgrade. But two years back I woulda flipped my wig! Edit: Who the hell am I kidding? My Think! could use an upgrade too. As usual, I'll probably buy 'em all... Maybe it's because I'm a drummer, or maybe it's because I'm a Wayne Shorter fanatic, but to me, The Big Beat is one of the GREAT Messengers albums. Lee's arrangement of It's Only A Paper Moon hit me like a truck the first time I heard it. I love that era of that band, and I love that side. I highly recommend picking this up, RVG'd or not.

my first thought is... HOLY SHIZNIT!!!!!! OBLIQUE IS FINALLY COMING OUT!!!!!!!!!!! I have a few scattered tunes here and there off of this and from I've heard thus far, I dig the hell out of it. Not to mention, Boss Horn and Symphony for Improvisors? WOOOOOOO!!!!!

Bonnaroo has been pretty cold to jazz in years past. I have heard (this isn't confirmed) that Nicholas Payton tried to get in with his Sonic Trance band (and that band would have been PERFECT for Bonnaroo) and they didn't even consider it. And, my friends, THAT is what is wrong with the jam band scene. Every last one of those bands wants to claim that they're "jazz influenced" but no one actually wants to hear the real thing. Best of luck, guys. These jam band kiddies need to hear what a REAL organ trio sounds like.

yeah, I can't stand Ornette Coleman, Sonny Clark, John Patton, Bill Frisell or Wayne Horovitz either... just givin' ya some grief...