"Bio-worthy" jazz musicians

[Lazaro Vega]

Yeah, I remember driving my first car through Grand Haven, Michigan, and happily listening to the radio until they said Roy Eldridge had died. That one really got to me. Maybe because Roy always brought the party.

[AllenLowe]

this is unfortunate. I remember seeing Don Byas on PBS in the late 1960s - likely that's gone, too -

[Cornelius]

"Have you seen any doctors since then?"

I don't get it.

[Chuck Nessa]

"Have you seen any doctors since then?"

I don't get it.

Why am I not surprised?

Let us all make the deaths of famous people "all about us". Geez.

I can't wait to post about my "really important" personal reactions to the the deaths of JFK and MLK.

[AllenLowe]

Hawkins was the man - always changing, always growing - another interesting quote from Barry Harris was that after working with Hawk he felt that he might have romanticized Bud Powell and Charlie Parker too much - because here was a musician who had gone on and listened and kept changing with the music and had produced brilliant work over 5 decades -

[Cornelius]

Chuck Nessa:

NOW you have to be joking. You're claiming that I'm too self-involved just because I shared my immediate personal reaction to learning of the death of one of my heroes. Another poster shared his own experience meeting Hawkins and some of the meaning he took from that experience with the impending death of the great man. I never met Hawkins, but I love his music deeply, so, in the spirit of the other poster's intimacy, I shared my own experience, be it ever so humble. I did not even hint that my personal response was more important than the man. On the contrary, I suggested that Hawkins was so great that I felt that at least a day of my own petty life was made meaningless by the loss of the man. Nor did I suggest that my reaction is more important than anyone elses's. It's a false inference, seemingly harbored by some other hostility, therefore, to claim that I am trying to make the death of Hawkins "all about me."

Two other posters spoke of their own reactions to deaths of great jazz musicians. I don't think that shows them to have a narcissistic personality disorder, or whatever it is your joke was supposed to insinuate. You know, I don't mind people having a jaundiced view, but it's sad that one cannot express the importance an artist has on one's own life without having that distorted into making it "all about me."

Edited February 11, 2005 by Cornelius

[Chuck Nessa]

it's sad that one cannot express the importance an artist has on one's own life without having that distorted into making it "all about me."

Went back to your post and did some counting. Didn't look for "me" or "my", but there are 5 mentions of Hawk and 10 "I"s.

Maybe I was wrong.

[Cornelius]

Your point is silly. The post was about my personal experience, so I would use personal pronouns several times. The post doesn't represent itself as being about Coleman Hawkins himself. I make plenty of posts about jazz subjects themselves including tributes (in which personal pronouns may not appear at all) to musicians and I make posts about my own feelings about jazz. Lots of people do that, and it's foolish of you to twist that into "it's all about me." For that matter, this post has instances of personal pronouns, since it is in response to YOU having made ME a subject of comment.

Edited February 11, 2005 by Cornelius

[Chuck Nessa]

[AllenLowe]

well, I tried to change the subject - did you hear the one about the rabbi, the priest, and the Al Quaida suspect?

[Cornelius]

By the way, your [Chuck Nessa's] next to last post has three instances of 'I' (two of them are tacit as you left yourself off as the subject of sentences in which you are the subject) and only one mention of Hawkins and one of me. So, by your logic, that post is all about you. And your last post is nothing but three pictures of yourself laughing. Again, by your logic, another post all about you.

Edited February 11, 2005 by Cornelius

[Christiern]

Guess the "I"s have it.

Yes, Allen, I think most of us heard that one, or a variation thereof--but wasn't that a defrocked priest? Or is this aging troll having another senior moment?

[Randy Twizzle]

[SNWOLF]

Message to those inclined towards the Universal Pedantic Jazzsnob Petulant Sandpit:

With or without personal pronouns, IOUs, petty grievances, or any other forms of self-involvement, subjectivity or rampant narcissism - who gives a fuck! Get over yourself and get on with the music..

Edited February 12, 2005 by SNWOLF

[couw]

don't you all just love dialectics

[JSngry]

Yeah, it kept Ed Blackwell alive longer than he would have lived otherwise.

[Jeffro]

I keep thinking RED RODNEY would be a great candidate for a biography/biopic. But if I write it, will anyone buy a copy?

[AllenLowe]

well, Chris, I've been having senior moments since I was about 12 - the Popeye joke had to do about where he stuck a certain appendage whenver it got rusty -

[marcello]

this is unfortunate. I remember seeing Don Byas on PBS in the late 1960s - likely that's gone, too -

Allen -

I have the Byas ( and a Dexter Gordon from the same show and peroid ) on audio tape. Rufus Reid is on bass, if I remember right.

[AllenLowe]

fantastic - it was quite interesting, Byas in his last period trying to play with less vibrato and more boppishly - oddly forced, but still fascinating music -