jazzypaul

Yeah SS1, that line MAKES that song...

I'm sorry, but The Infinite was a damn cool record. Freak In left me a little cold, but from what I'm hearing of the new side, it's definitely an interesting record. Frisell's presence shapes this record, and it does go into some uncharted territory (for Frisell and Douglas). It's not as adventuresome as Freak In, it's not as fiery as the live Masada discs, and it's not as immediately accesible as The Infinite, but it's most certainly a cool little disc, upon first and second listenings.

Just because the guy that was the driving force behind this law is black still doesn't mean that this was what he had in mind for the law. This is completely ridiculous. And it should serve notice to kids white and black alike...keep your pants zipped up. Less trouble that way.

The Complete Get A Life (there's 8 episodes out right now, and they manage to miss all of my favorite episodes...) since there were only 30 episodes, it shouldn't be THAT hard to do. The Gong Show. Even a two or three hour best of. That was excellent stuff. Sort of an accidental precursor to Jackass...

My last ugly one was a few months ago... I'm driving to the local Guitar Center, and it's a six lane road at this point, but about 100 feet west of where I was at, the far right lanes merge back into a standard four lane format. Anyway, I'm trying to turn in, and traffic is stopped going westbound, and the people in the westbound lanes are waving me in. So, I go, only to find a girl in a mustang going way too fast on the shoulder. WHAM!!! So, in my little VW, I kind of grunt and wait for the worst. And then the worst came. She hits, of all things, my my front right wheel, head on at 35 m.p.h. Strangely, the side air bags didn't go off. I let my car roll into the parking lot, and she pulls in and starts screaming, "oh my god! this is my fourth accident in two months!!" Yay, great for me... So, they get my car to the body shop, and beyond all of the body and frame damage, it turns out, she smacked the axle clear into the transmission. So, I was without my car for two months. Now, for the upside...I get to the car rental place, and it turns out, that day, they were clean out of cars. All they had left was a Saturn (and I refuse to drive Saturns, they scare me...), a Tahoe and a Jaguar. Well, the Saturn's out of the question, and they want $45/day above what the insurance is paying out for the Tahoe. So I'm left going, "what am I gonna do about a car, man!!" They make a few phone calls and tell me they can give me the Jaguar for $6/day. I say, "uhhh, okay..." I fill out the paperwork, and I get the Jaguar for the next two months. Driving wise, the best two months of my life. I can't wait to earn enough money to get into one of those full time. What a ride. Strangely, two days after I returned the Jaguar, I got my Mercedes, which has served capably as a second car when the VW's in the shop (and it's ALWAYS in the shop). Alexander...glad to hear you're doing okay. I hate car accidents.

Greg "Baby Gisby" Gisbert and therafter just Baby Gisby??? is indeed correct, senor Deepster.

minor thing here...the nicknames. If you're going to use them, use them. Don't put quotations around them everytime. Trust me, when all of my friends call me Hippie (my nickname) they don't do the quotation thing every time, because a nick name is a name. Just like no one calls you "Danny." So, use nicknames the same way you'd use regular names. Does this make any sense?

As a drummer, there are only about 5 or 6, if that, play alongs that will help my cause. Therefore, the old drummerless piano-bass-guitar trio albums are what I use to get my play along time in. And yes, I think it's an invaluable resource to be able to play along on some great tunes with players who can really play.

Mothership Connection or the Soundtrack from Superfly, either one in their entirety.

Fusion guitar players all leave me wanting to slit my wrists. Almost all of 'em. Al DiMeola, Scott Henderson, Alan Holdsworth, the whole bunch, except for Hiram Bullock when I'm in the mood. Only tangentially a fusion guy, but a guy's whose music I've always dug: Wayne Horvitz. The Zony Mash albums are, as a whole, the most played CD's in my collection. And, if you think about it, Jaco would have been one of those pure fusion guys. His albums with Dennard and Bullock were pretty damned good.

Stewart was playing with Trey Anastasio from Phish and Les Claypool from Primus in a shortlived band called Oysterhead. They were fun in small doses, but it was a classic three bigger than life egos style collaboration...

(only half way joking here...) My 1972 Mercedes 280 SEL 4.5 is for sale...

Black Sam Bonney Like anyone confronted with the harshness of robbery on the high seas, you can be pessimistic at times. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

You think it's bad coming from customers? Up until recently, I kept getting that constantly from my own fucking band!!!!! These guys were self-taught, and therefore never took a music business class. This is why I consider the following to have been a blessing in disguise... About a month ago, we play a gig with a local rock band at an all-ages venue. Right off the bat, I'm leery of this proposition, as we'd be playing to a bunch of people that couldn't see us play anywhere else, and more than likely, wouldn't at all get what we're playing. But the other two kick and scream that we need this gig and besides, one of their friends from high school is in the other band. We're told that we'll get half of the door for the night, and once again, I'm not feeling good about this. Unless we're playing a place with A LOT of walk-in traffic, I have no yearning to play gigs for the door. So, we get there, and the other band asks us to play last. Okay, fair enough, we get to play for an extra half hour. That's fine. The other band tells us that they'll be bringing in about 100 people with them. Despite my best efforts, sure enough, everyone on our mailing list writes back to say, "what the hell, you're playing a place that doesn't serve alcohol? Hell no, I'm not coming!" By the time we start setting up, there are maybe 40 people in the place. By the middle of our second song, there are now 15 people there. Yeah, ummm, exposure. Right... So, we finish off the night, and I go to try to find the manager to go get paid. Lo and behold, he tells us that there's a contract, and the contract says that we'd get paid 80% of the door after 70 people pay admission. Can I see this contract? Nope, don't have one here. Who put out this contract? Oh...and he tells me the name that is more reviled than any on the Chicago music scene. I ask the kid who wanted us to play there why he didn't let us in on any of this. Oh, I didn't think it was important. WHAT!?!?!?! So, you had us play for 2 1/2 straight hours for free, because you didn't think it was important to let us know that the most crooked booking agent in town was booking a gig where we wouldn't see dime one until the club was 70% full? Ummm, when you say it like that it sounds a lot more important. No shit!!! Well, because our club manager has still yet to find a contract, I tell him he's got one minute to find the contract or I call the cops. All of the sudden, out comes this horrible, horrible contract which no one should ever, ever, agree to. Not only does the club not have to pay out until they get 70 people in the door, but on top of that, they don't have to provide food or drink for the band, and on top of that, for the privelege of getting to play under such shitty conditions, neither the club nor the promoter have to promote the show whatsoever. At first, the other two members of my beloved trio were like, "but dude, we got to play for some people that never heard us before!" At which point, I had to point out that those people simply got to ignore a band that they'd never gotten the pleasure of ignoring before (they were talking the entire time). "And what about the fact that we got to see Aaron (the nimrod from the other band) play?" Well, I would have much rather paid $5 to see him, not have to schlep my drums around on a Sunday night, and not have to deal with the fact that I just gave away my music to an ungrateful club owner and a bunch of ungrateful patrons who couldn't have given two shits that we were even there. I don't necessarily know what part or why that all sunk in with them, but since then, I've yet to hear them ask me about playing incredibly lame places for a cut of the door. However, next friday, we're playing at a pool hall...LOL...thankfully, the owner of said pool hall loves us and pays us out the wazoo, feeds us and lets us drink to our hearts content. However...this sunday...WE'RE PLAYING THE ELBO ROOM!!!! This is a huge room and an even more huge opportunity for us...wish me luck...

I didn't know muslims didn't agree with tombstones. I wonder what the thought is behind that one...

SGUD -- what's your take on downloading out of print or impossibly hard to find stuff?

I learned out of the Riley book, it's a damn good one.

Yes, Wes and Coltrane. Remember, the original John Coltrane group was supposedly supposed to be Wes, McCoy, Lee Morgan, insert your favorite bass player here and Billy Higgins. I guess Wes and Trane played together and Wes couldn't get with it, Lee cost too much and Trane just didn't like the way that him and Billy played together. Lucky for us.

I don't think that I ever consciously decide between forms of music. I'll end up on funk binges where there are a couple of weeks gone by where nothing has been in my CD player but P-Funk, James Brown, Curtis Mayfield Stevie Wonder and Tony Toni Tone, but even then, eventually, that'll turn into the Scorpion and Alive!, and then that turns into Search for the New Land and Night Dreamer, and then I come back home to The Shape of Jazz to Come and Crescent. I guess this is to say that I'm constantly changing it up, but never with an agenda...

I second the motion that johnny needs a hug. Desperately. As does Dan.

A few complaints... 1) All of Stevie's (Wonder, that is) 70's albums should have been in the top 20. No way are they less influential or less musically amazing than, umm, Nevermind, by Nirvana. 2) GregK: you were the one that asked why rap was included? My word, man...Let's face it, rap is part of the musical landscape, and let's face it, the best rappers throughout the years have put out some AMAZING music. If you can't hear it, that's YOUR problem, not mine. 3) Whoever bitched about Appetite for Destruction making the list? What are you smoking? Think about 1987 for a second. What else was out there? It was the bleakest of times musically. The only thing even close in the rock world was Bon Jovi. Then here comes this band out of L.A. that can actually rock the way a band is supposed to rock. Given when it came out, it was an incredibly important record. 4) I was happy just to see some jazz albums on the list. 5) No, anthologies should not have been on the list. That was cheating. 6) If I'm not mistaken, Marquee Moon by Television didn't make the list, but the fucking Ramones did. That's disgusting.

That incident convinced me that I really never need to shop at Wal-Mart again.

Don't you think the smartest thing Wal-Mart could have done would have been to give her a DVD player for all of her troubles? When you're so busy maintaining the bottom line that you can't even bring yourself to give merchandise to someone who was knocked unconscious in your store, you've got troubles...

I ran out and grabbed some Indian food before I came to work, so it was all about the Kingfisher with the Lamb Vindaloo. Oh yeah, Thanksgiving is not too bad at all...

Thank you sire... and thank you AB... and thank you Cat Shatner. My holidays are now complete.