(no subject)

[kamomil]

Well I went to a lady from work's birthday thingie, on the weekend. It was held north of Dundalk. Wayy out in the country. I peed in the woods, and the mosquitos took full advantage, and I now have bug bites all over my ankles. I'm just glad I didn't brush up against any poison ivy. I am most certainly glad that I didn't get sunburnt. I think if I ever end up with skin cancer, the first place it will hit is the tops of my shoulders; they are so flat under the sun, and they don't make an appearance all the time, and so are unprepared when they do get sun exposure.

I bought Ah Um, by Charlie Mingus. I listened to it on the way to Dundalk. It is pretty good. I like it. It is pretty standard type jazz, nothing shockingly dissonant, yet it is not boring either. I can't get used to the original version of Pork Pie Hat, I have listened to the Uzeb one for almost 20 years, and the timing is pretty different - the Uzeb one is draaawwwwwnnn out.

I bought Bitches Brew by Miles Davis, I have yet to crack it open cause I'm not sure about it.

I have been googling jazz people, and reading up on which "must have" CDs to have. I got the Mingus one I really wanted, but I wanted On the Corner by Miles and didn't see it in the store. Jazz is so well-documented, it was fairly easy to get reviews of several artists' material, and figure out for myself which ones I would enjoy. However for the jazz fusion stuff, I might be on my own; people tend to like older jazz stuff. I will be hunting for Thelonious Monk & Emmylou Harris next. I am told that her Daniel Lanois stuff is not to be missed.

I am *this* much closer to buying a PC. I know, Mac, but my Nokia phone only communicates with PC. Besides, I'm so used to the ones form work that I want a loverly one for my very own. I have become very proficient with DOS FTP on the work PCs, as they have no floppy or CD drives.

Heh I am at work, and I am clone-tooling out subtitles so I can use the graphic for something else. I was working on a graphic of a traffic jam, and accidentally clone-tooled out a truck along with some subtitle characters. LOL

Comments

[kamomil.livejournal.com]

I heard "mac" and "intel" on the news together but didn't know the whole story.

Maybe when they get Windows PCs to run on Mac OS's that would be awesome too. no more blue screens of death?!? But I like XP because I use it at work, it seems pretty stable.

I might go to this place, lakeshore just west of kipling, I prefer the idea of a bricks-n-mortar place to get a computer so that I can bring it back for repairs someday. Otherwise I would check out Dell further. With my crazy work hours it might make things complex for them to repair stuff, do they come to your house???

[bloobert.livejournal.com]

The being out in the country thing sounds fun, excepting the bug bites.

I'm not sure if Norah Jones and Diana Krall are considered 'real' jazz or not, but I like them. In my layman's mind, I think of jazz as two things: The smooth, relaxing stuff you can have on in the background, and the crazy, mildly distracting trumpety stuff, which I don't care for.

[jeffkahl.livejournal.com]

Don't mention Norah Jones or Diana Krall to an actual jazz fan. That's like saying light beer tastes like real beer.

hehe...

[enid007.livejournal.com]

Avoid Krall-ing back home to keep up with the Jones's and try new Jazz-lite! Only 50% Jazz and zero carbs!

Re: hehe...

[bloobert.livejournal.com]

Hm, think I'll keep my musical prefs to myself in the future =)

Re: hehe...

[jeffkahl.livejournal.com]

no I actually enjoy both artists quite a lot. but i got the dirtiest of looks from a "legit" jazz fan (read: snob) when i mentioned that i liked the new norah jones tune (when sunlight came out). they also proceeded to say that diana krall is the scourge of the jazz scene. i was not impressed and realized i should've just kept my big yap shut!

[kamomil.livejournal.com]

I like the mildly distracting trumpety stuff, which is certainly like what this Mingus album is. You forgot to mention the extremely confusing waily moany stuff! And the breakneck speed noodly-noodly guitar fusion!

I don't like when I have to know the original tune to enjoy the one I am hearing. It should just stand on its own merits.

[jeffkahl.livejournal.com]

You forgot to mention the extremely confusing waily moany stuff! And the breakneck speed noodly-noodly guitar fusion!

I'm assuming you're talking about later Coltrane and Thelonius Monk stuff? Yeah that can be a little much at times (even for me who digs some of the more out there stuff). Guitar fusion is the equivalent to comparison grading certain body parts (pardon the lack of a better expression): it serves no purpose other than to show off someone's chops and how many notes one can blow in a meaure. When music becomes a competitive sport then it's time to reassess why one got into music in the first place.

[kamomil.livejournal.com]

Well, certainly some fusion is just guitarwankery, Joe Satriani kind of comes to mind.

However I do like some fusion quite a bit; for all intents and purposes it is jazz, with all its chords & solos etc., it just doesn't have that old musty smell about it. It doesn't have that cache, which is not always bad. Not every wine has to be a cranky old red; there are some cool girly-drink and zimfandel jazz outfits out there.

Miles Davis apparently got pretty fusiony in his later years, I'm interested in checking out some stuff like that but I have a feeling most voices on the internet will recommend his more classic sounding albums.

I love Uzeb and Alain Caron, certainly there is some how-many-notes-can-we-jam-in to it, but their live stuff is pretty tight, therefore impressive. For me, it is jazz for the attention-span-impaired, which I certainly am. Even my acoustic guitar interests tend toward more high energy music, like what BNL did with Lovers In A Dangerous Time.

Scofield's Uberjam and Medeski Martin & Wood are fusion without all the wankery. They actually remind me of maybe hippie pot-induced jazz fusion. And I like what I have heard of the Allman Brothers.

As for the confusing waily moany stuff, I'm not sure who I'm referring to... sometimes when I turn on the radio and it's jazz, I think one of two things: a) geez that's old sounding, like in an old movie, that's just a showtune dolled up with 7th chords, or b)wow, how can you make any kind of progression or anything out of that music? How is it enjoyable at all?

I am going to take an orderly pathway through the second type of jazz, to see if I can make any sense of it. However I think that some of that kind of jazz is only comprehensible if you know the original standard, because they have extrapolated it out into some far corner of the universe. I think there is something wrong with any type of art, if you need a degree to get any appreciation of it. Why not just sit down and write a research paper instead? Ha ha. It's like designing a car that doesn't actually go anywhere. Or clothes that you can't wear in public... wait, they do that. hmph.

I am going to get a Thelonious Monk CD, Criss Cross is what I have figured might be good... we shall see. If I find it in Music World or the library or wherever. I am interested in wacky music; jazz, sure, but fusion is even better.

Anyone want me to post a Uzeb MP3? Anyone actually download the Scofield Chicken Dog? :P

[bloobert.livejournal.com]

Anyone actually download the Scofield Chicken Dog? :P

I'm listening to it now.... Hmmm.... I've not listened to much of this kind of music really. I wonder if it's an acquired taste?

Bibbity bibbity wakka wakka womp! =)

[kamomil.livejournal.com]

Yes, bibbity bibbity wakka womp, to be sure, but:

daaah dutda daaah dutda daaah dutda daaah dutda!

it's kinda funky, no?

lemme see if I have any more stuff that is different by him.... when I heard live Uberjam stuff on the car radio, my eyes widened and I was like, wow, what IS that? whoa!

mebbe try listening to the whole thing, I like his solos, to me it's like someone telling a good story. I like when he uses weird scales in his solos, it's like watching a movie that you can't predict the plot for.

[bloobert.livejournal.com]

I'm curious, is your reaction to his music more of an emotional one, or one of appreciation for the technical skill / variety? Not being a musician, I suppose I don't have a sense of scales and so on. But yes, I'd like to hear more of it. I'm listening to that Ron Sexsmith stuff at the moment. I really like Hard Bargain, a lot.

[kamomil.livejournal.com]

well I guess part of it is the musiciany part of my brain, that appreciates the technical skill. the scales? For me, the movie analogy again applies: I don't like things that I can predict, ie the key change in every Celine Dion ballad, or for that matter, every sappy R&B ballad, or plots in movies. I like foreign movies, cause probably there is a cultural barrier preventing me from predicting the plot, so I am a little more on the edge of my seat. The same thing applies with jazz like that, wacky scales=unpredictability.

the emotional part is that it is FAST! I am pretty sure that I have attention deficit disorder, at the very least when it applies to listening to music. So it's not only the skill I am appreciating, it is the energy; part of the energy is because these are live recordings too.

Ron Sexsmith indeed rules.

[kamomil.livejournal.com]

Well I have:

-a disco-y 80s fusion sounding Miles Davis + John Scofield MP3
-a breakbeaty Uberjam MP3
-possibly a Uzeb batoutofhell 80s fusion track to make into an MP3

I'll see if I can get them loaded up & get a link to them.

[bloobert.livejournal.com]

I've not heard Uzeb before....

[kamomil.livejournal.com]

Oh ho ho ho. I am so glad this little conversation ensued without my knowledge because I am such a jazz hater.

I like stuff that is described of as in the Wikipedia entry about Frank Zappa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zappa), as having "jazz forms, voicings and structures". I think if it has chords like a duck, if it has solos like a duck, then chances are it is a duck, ie jazz.

Jazz snobbism has kept me away from "jazz" for so long, I am finally starting to like actual jazz. I love Uzeb, which I guess is fusion.

Anyone who acts snobby about your tastes in music should just shut up. People should just like whatever music they like without having to make excuses. If you run into a jazz snob again, just satisfy yourself with the thought that they are stuck in a particular era, and they can't get out of it. Nod'n'smile.

[jeffkahl.livejournal.com]

As much as I find Zappa to be a little much sometimes he really did have some groundbreaking stuff going on with some serious compositional merit. I'd even go as far as saying that Zappa was more neo-classical in that as much as you'd think (in the rock idiom) there was improv going on in the solos and such Zappa had a tight rein and most (if not all) of his band were reading charts note for note.

Anyone who acts snobby about your tastes in music should just shut up. People should just like whatever music they like without having to make excuses. If you run into a jazz snob again, just satisfy yourself with the thought that they are stuck in a particular era, and they can't get out of it. Nod'n'smile.

Definite food for thought and very good advice. I have such an eclectic taste in music (ranging from country and western ["there are only two types of music" ] to jazz to blues to heavy rock) so it's never been a problem for me. My problem is people who have both closed minds and closed ears.

[kamomil.livejournal.com]

The only Zappa album I have is Sheik Yerbouti, and I like the one song where he has taken a drum track from one live show, and married it to the rest of a song from a separate song & session - ha hah. In the liner notes, he says "all of the sensitive interplay between the bass and drums... never happened" ha ha! If you have different ideas about how music should go, if the end result is intriguing, well, nothing wrong with that.

I didn't know Zappa wrote charts for his band, but it makes sense. I think Uzeb, don't know if they read charts, but the end result, they sometimes play an extended melody line that sounds like a solo, but the whole band is playing the same melody, all hitting the same rhythm points dead on. It is NOT improvised, however the composition sounds like it might have stemmed from an improv session. They are using all kinds of crazy modes, not in a contrived way, and not just defaulting to the blues scale.

I went to York U for visual art, and when I did run into jazz program dudes, they were pretty snobby. I don't know if the students are reflective of the values of the music program faculty, I think Humber might be a more well-rounded music school. I am going to the jazz fest in Montreal this summer (!) and I am looking forward to it, I think that Montreal is more progressive than Toronto in terms of jazz development.

I think it's asinine to hold up a particular bunch of decades of music and say that they're the best decade of all.

Music reflects the culture of the people; going back and playing some crusty old standard the same way someone else has, is like when the medieval people copied illustrations from other books, they were somehow above trying to paint from actual real plants and people.

It's all context; what sounds too new-fangled for one person's ears, might be possibly be held up as the next generation's anthem. Kurt Cobain & Nirvana are a good case in point. They kind of went under my radar, but people 5-6 years younger consider it a pivotal point in their music. *old school jazzers take note!!*

[jeffkahl.livejournal.com]

Yeah Zappa used to audition his drummers by having them sight read something in like 15/8 or something like that and then they'd have to sightread the solo from "The Black Page" which is like drumming insanity.

[jeffkahl.livejournal.com]

I went to York U for visual art, and when I did run into jazz program dudes, they were pretty snobby. I don't know if the students are reflective of the values of the music program faculty, I think Humber might be a more well-rounded music school.

I think snobbery can exist in any school and in any faculty. I noticed when I auditioned for Humber they tended to look at anyone that isn't nothing but a seasoned chopsmeister who cut their teeth on Ted Reed's "Syncopation" and Gary Chester's "New Breed" drum instructional books like they have four heads.

I also knew someone who just recently graduated from the U of T Music Faculty with a major in jazz vocal performance. She said there was a real sense of community even amongst the earlier years. There's competition certianly but not to the point where it becomes "dog eat dog"

I am going to the jazz fest in Montreal this summer (!) and I am looking forward to it, I think that Montreal is more progressive than Toronto in terms of jazz development.

I've never been there for the Festival Du Jazz but I've heard nothing but good things about it. My favorite performances I've seen on Bravo (from previous festivals) have been Oscar Peterson from the late 70's/early 80's with Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen, Buddy Rich's big band, Jean Luc Ponty with Jack DeJohnette and Keith Jarrett. I also heard they had the Funk Bros (the Motown house band that played on all of the classic Motown tunes) two years ago.