Stompin at the Savoy

Back in the 80's I used to occasionally listen to a Tommy Vance program on the BBC. I forget what it was called but it was music "on the heavy side" as he would say. In my view it was kind of lightweight musically but these bands often put on an impressive display of electric guitar virtuosity which could be enjoyable in and of itself, the tunes and lyrics largely simplistic and barely audible. OK a lot of it was repetitive tricks and pentatonic cliches but it had a certain cocky majesty in its braggadoccio. I don't know if my tastes have changed over the last 40 years. I still find the occasional shredder exciting but when I went through several notable Black Sabbath tunes mentioned in the newspaper, and when I listened to the excerpts that Rick Beato played in the clip linked above, I was struck by how rudimentary, obvious, and unswinging it all is. The combination of third-hand blues mixed with English music hall and camp satanism, hyper-masculinity blended vaguely with an ethos hinting at drag-queens - not that there is anything wrong with that - does little for me.

Ozzy Osbourne did not become popular until my college years and that was the period I got into jazz, so I never really listened to him. I did not own a tv in the 70's or 80's so I never watched the show. I was reading one of the obits in one of the papers and it mentioned several of his supposedly seminal hits so I listened out of curiosity. I admit that a lot of stuff I liked as a kid in the 60's and 70's no longer appeals to me but gee whiz this is trashy stuff and not in a good way. I know Ozzie did not play guitar and I am not the greatest player but the playing on that stuff makes me look like a wildly imaginative and hip guitarist. Truly awful.

This is what they are saying on the site: So I guess end of July.

Because terms like broadcast tv, streaming and cable tv refer to the method of signal propagation, in other words OTA, internet, or using some sort of land cable. Not which channels are carried. Broadcast tv = OTA. I can see why you are thinking like that. When we were younger broadcast and cable were each synonymous with a set of channels. Network tv was broadcast and CNN, etc were cable. But now I receive channels that I used to think of as cable - but via OTA! I live in a rural part of Oregon. OTA tv signals are available here from a number of mountain top broadcast stations but they are all fairly far away, so my signal can be weak or intermittent. Lots of mountains here and line of sight often won't work - usually has to be a bounce. I use a signal amplifier, which is a small, inexpensive gadget that goes in between the antenna (a paper-thin sheet about a foot square) and the tv (or pc). Numerous good signals from several directions.

I used cable long ago but I've been using over the air broadcast tv since 2014. Back in those days Windows 7 and 8 had a program called Windows Media Center which, along with a usb stick tuner, allowed you to view and record OTA and other inputs on a PC, which I've been doing since then. Microsoft eventually discontinued support and stopped supplying tv schedules for the program but there is a cheap service ($25/yr) called Schedules Direct which works with WMC. I mainly watch PBS and am a member of Southern Oregon PBS so streaming with PBS Passport is taking over a lot of my viewing. But picking up an inexpensive and small antenna and trying OTA on your tv set is an option people should consider, depending on the availability of signals in your area. The resolution is superb and it's free.

Digital broadcast tv has probably accounted for some drift back to broadcast tv. You get high definition for free with an antenna.

It's a bit like the way Samuel Johnson described a dog walking on two legs. One is impressed not so much that he does it well but that he does it at all.

Broadcast TV refers to traditional radio frequency local broadcasts which bounce off the ionosphere and can be received by a dedicated TV receiver set. While you may receive a similar selection of channels via cable, the term refers to the method of broadcast, ie radio broadcast. This is sometimes referred to as OTA, over the air.

I think this is similar to the one Steve was referring to. Depending on how much you have already it can be a pretty good start.

Something about Eric Dolphy's flute playing freaks out my cat. He's not quite ready for Eric?

I bought this set on ebay last year for $30 more than this seller is asking. I have bought from Face of the Bass before - excellent transaction! Great set.

Might be a little beyond 10-15 years old.

Harlem Jazz Adventures: A European Baron's Memoir, 1934-1969. I've been eyeing this for a long time but the price has always been prohibitive. Today I noticed that the price for the kindle edition dropped from about $97 to about $41. I had some credits which brought it below the psychologically significant barrier of forty bux and went for it. Interesting book!

Great to hear that the series might continue. Having all this on spotify and youtube is a great resource. This set is great to listen to while reading Eddie Lambert's book, which covers the material in order.

You can listen or download here: https://archive.org/details/the-chronological-duke-ellington-1933

I am no great shakes as a guitarist but having played since '68 I can recognize when somebody has paid some dues. I think Lowe is his own worst enemy and wrong about Remmler as well as unkind to a person who can't reply but I will stop posting here if that's what it takes for him to return.

Now I get it: calling somebody who was a professional musician "not a good guitarist" is not slagging them. Moreover, suggesting the reason she was not a good guitarist because of drug use - not trashing her! Pointing out that she played "wrong notes" there, there and there is also just not slagging her! I'm sorry, if all that is not slagging her, what is? What would it take to slag her? And of course if you actually listen to her, she is actually a pretty great player. She was gifted; IMO Lowe is not in her league.

Hmmmmm... yeah. I guess I never did come down hard on him about slagging Emily Remmler. (Shrug)

So what actually happened with Allen Lowe? I seem to have missed the final controversy. Now I feel bad for coming down so hard on him for slagging Emily Remmler...

I had similar experiences listening to VOA, BBC, Radio Nederlands etc. over shortwave back in the 80's. Conover had a ponderous way of speaking, presumably going so slow so non-native speakers of English could follow. I also enjoyed his Standards program. I remember a very good interview he played with pianist Bill Evans. I was also thinking today it's a shame they are closing it all down because the VOA always had good programming: they would suck them in with jazz and rock and then give them the news and discuss democracy. AFRTS was good too.

I've had some issues with Jim over confusion of fact and opinion, his superior attitude, absolutism, certainty of being in the right, overbearing approach - in short what bothers me most about him is he reminds me an awful lot of myself!

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This is one of my most-played Mosaic sets.