Grace Kelly

[CJ Shearn]

4 minutes ago, Brad said:

It seems to me that you used Grace Kelly to take a swipe at the people here and I just don’t agree with your characterization of this place or that it’s not representative of the jazz listening public. How do you know it’s not. If somebody asks me how it is representative, I couldn’t answer the question any more than you can. We simply don’t know, unless you have polling data to the contrary. 

As far as she goes, it’s a shtick but if that’s how she wishes to perform, who am I to question her choices.  It certainly holds no interest for me. We hope that her act will attract viewers to check out jazz but we don’t really know if that will happen, do we? They may just be interested in her and there may no pass through effect. We are left with a lot of questions. 

I hear what you are saying, Brad which is why I removed the article from here.   Yes, it was a bit snarky in the board characterization, but for people to get so heated about her thing is silly, just move on if you don't like it.  It's silly even in retrospect how I used to diss Herbie's disco and R&B stuff when I was younger and was so adamant that pre Sunlight Herbie was the real Herbie and vice versa.  When I bought that Columbia box I really listtened, even to the stuff I didn't like and my attitude changed.  I've noticed though that if there is something in jazz using a particular pop trend like Glasper, or Kamasi Washington, Kelly, it gets shot down by some here, and that's what I was trying to get at.  I don't dig Grace's stuff that much either and it's fun and she should do it if it makes her happy.  Clearly posting that here was a mistake, I admitted it and that's that, you know?  Hey, I got a close friend who loves GRP, I don't love it, but he kind of changed my perspective not to just automatically trash it.  I'm even more tolerant of smooth jazz than I used to be, doesn't mean I like it, but there is good smooth and bad smooth.

[Dan Gould]

To be perfectly clear my vitriol is aimed at the asshat bari player. His shtick is incredibly boring and worse than lame.  I imagine he probably started doing the dance moves "because I gotta dance when I play" but in all honesty I think the truth lies in his being such a shitty player he developed the dance thing to distract from that fact.

As for Ms. Kelly, I'm told she can play straightahead but I have absolutely no desire to check her playing out, and anyway judging from her videos, this is the way she's headed.  "You do you" as the kids say.

IMHO the chance of this *stuff* leading anyone to check out jazz is less than nil. 

[Dan Gould]

11 hours ago, jlhoots said:

Jeez Allen, I don't mean you. I mean Paul & Dan. I want to see their videos.

 

I'm not a professional musician, being paid to perform.

So, send me $200 (my minimum rate when I was voice over artist) and I'll send you a video, k?

[Scott Dolan]

It’s akin to saying you can’t critique a professional football player if you never played professional football. 

What an incredibly silly argument. 

[jlhoots]

2 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

I'm not a professional musician, being paid to perform.

So, send me $200 (my minimum rate when I was voice over artist) and I'll send you a video, k?

lol 

[Brad]

2 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

It’s akin to saying you can’t critique a professional football player if you never played professional football. 

What an incredibly silly argument. 

I’ve actually heard football players make that argument. Darrelle Reavis was in the middle of a heated interview several years ago with a local sports jock, Mike Francesa, and he made the comment before hanging up on him. 

[paul secor]

Reavis might well have been half brain dead when he made that comment.

[Scott Dolan]

Darrelle Reavis isn’t the bastion of intellectualism I’d be using to prop up my argument.  

I’ve been watching professional football longer than he’s been alive. I know good players from bad. 

[Peter Friedman]

The videos are definitely not my thing. But I have seen Grace Kelly live a couple of times playing with some top level jazz highly experienced musicians.

Not only did she hold her own, but sounded damn good. And it sure looked like the musicians she played with had a positive response to her playing.

[jlhoots]

3 minutes ago, Peter Friedman said:

The videos are definitely not my thing. But I have seen Grace Kelly live a couple of times playing with some top level jazz highly experienced musicians.

Not only did she hold her own, but sounded damn good. And it sure looked like the musicians she played with had a positive response to her playing.

Careful Peter. The jazz police here will get mad at you + misinterpret what you say.

[Scott Dolan]

Let’s not be melodramatic here. Nobody is saying she is talentless, they’re just commenting on what they’ve been presented, which hasn’t been terribly impressive. 

But she loves what she does and likes to make people smile. Those are some highly admirable qualities. 

[mjzee]

4 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

IMHO the chance of this *stuff* leading anyone to check out jazz is less than nil. 

I don't know about that.  My first exposure to "jazz" may have been hearing Shotgun by Jr. Walker on AM radio.  And I just learned that the sax solo on this was by King Curtis!:

 

[AllenLowe]

17 hours ago, CJ Shearn said:

Hey, that vid was good fun, and is harmless, it's nothing that's going to spark rage in me because it's only going to help expose more people to jazz.

I tried exposing myself to people for jazz, and it did not turn out well.

[Brad]

4 hours ago, AllenLowe said:

I tried exposing myself to people for jazz, and it did not turn out well.

I guess we will see you when they release you. Hopefully, the authorities don’t subject you to constant listening of Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. 

Edited July 4, 2018 by Brad

[CJ Shearn]

36 minutes ago, AllenLowe said:

I tried exposing myself to people for jazz, and it did not turn out well.

[Daniel A]

The impact of "lightweight" music should not be underestimated. My journey into jazz started with a Peter Nero album.

[Larry Kart]

1 hour ago, Daniel A said:

The impact of "lightweight" music should not be underestimated. My journey into jazz started with a Peter Nero album.

And where and how did it proceed? I'm just curious.

[Ted O'Reilly]

19 hours ago, Daniel A said:

The impact of "lightweight" music should not be underestimated. My journey into jazz started with a Peter Nero album.

Of course, Peter Nero was originally thought to be a jazz pianist.  Under his birth name (Bernie Nerow) he recorded a couple of times with Red Norvo  (aka Norville).

[Brad]

I remember him, vaguely, from my childhood as a stylish pianist.  I didn't necessarily think of him as a jazz pianist (not that I thought in those terms at the time).  

[JSngry]

He was on RCA, right there with Sonny Rollins!

[Big Beat Steve]

1 hour ago, Brad said:

I remember him, vaguely, from my childhood as a stylish pianist.  I didn't necessarily think of him as a jazz pianist (not that I thought in those terms at the time).  

Hey, his LP on MODE ain't that bad ...

[Brad]

It could be. I will have to see if I can find some cuts online. 

[Big Beat Steve]

8 minutes ago, Brad said:

It could be. I will have to see if I can find some cuts online. 

For your convenience:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTFEfbzc7dRX7O9xwRe_fPxS1CpZOTLJv

(Opening track - third-streamish - to start with, others clickable on the right)

Am just listening to my orig. copy (signed by The Man himself - "To Milt for a real happy 15 minutes" - BTW) and find it quite enjoyable for what it is.

 

 

Edited July 5, 2018 by Big Beat Steve

[Daniel A]

Well, in the home where I grew up there were a few jazz records (my father's). Not a large collection by any means, but a couple of important ones. Of course, before I started to buy records myself, those were more or less the only ones I listened to.

The first two jazz albums (in this context I am referring to the Peter Nero album as a "jazz album") i can remember hearing around the age of five were Peter Nero "In Person" and Ernie Wilkins' "Flutes and Reeds" (with Wilkins on sax and Frank Wess and Jerome Richardson on flutes). Listening to the Nero album today, the "improvisation" appears a bit stiff, but nevertheless it was my first taste of jazz.

 

The Wilkins album is another matter (and it includes Hank Jones and Kenny Clarke in the rhythm section). A bit traditional, even for 1955, but still very good.

22 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

And where and how did it proceed? I'm just curious.

 

 

22 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

 

After Nero, I tried to look for something similar and then took the perhaps obvious step to the "Oscar Peterson Plays Count Basie" album. I continued to search for jazz pianists among my father's records and happened to find a Red Garland EP, "Manteca". I also tried Coltrane's "Soul Train" because it had Garland on it, but I was not ready for it yet. However, I bought my first own jazz albums, two Red Garland Prestige albums.

There was a Louis Armstrong LP (can't remember which one), but somehow it sounded too "old" for me. But he was blowing a trumpet on the cover, so I assumed there could be other jazz trumpeters as well. The two albums I found were important steps in my jazz education; "Study in Brown" and Miles' "Blue Haze". 

After that, one thing led to another, and they still do I suppose.

Edited July 5, 2018 by Daniel A

[Larry Kart]

20 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

Well, in the home where I grew up there were a few jazz records (my father's). Not a large collection by any means, but a couple of important ones. Of course, before I started to buy records myself, those were more or less the only ones I listened to.

The first two jazz albums (in this context I am referring to the Peter Nero album as a "jazz album") i can remember hearing around the age of five were Peter Nero "In Person" and Ernie Wilkins' "Flutes and Reeds" (with Wilkins on sax and Frank Wess and Jerome Richardson on flutes). Listening to the Nero album today, the "improvisation" appears a bit stiff, but nevertheless it was my first taste of jazz.

 

The Wilkins album is another matter (and it includes Hank Jones and Kenny Clarke in the rhythm section). A bit traditional, even for 1955, but still very good.

 

 

After Nero, I tried to look for something similar and then took the perhaps obvious step to the "Oscar Peterson Plays Count Basie" album. I continued to search for jazz pianists among my father's records and happened to find a Red Garland EP, "Manteca". I also tried Coltrane's "Soul Train" because it had Garland on it, but I was not ready for it yet. However, I bought my first own jazz albums, two Red Garland Prestige albums.

There was a Louis Armstrong LP (can't remember which one), but somehow it sounded too "old" for me. But he was blowing a trumpet on the cover, so I assumed there could be other jazz trumpeters as well. The two albums I found were important steps in my jazz education; "Study in Brown" and Miles' "Blue Haze". 

After that, one thing led to another, and they still do I suppose.

Thanks -- a natural evolution.