One of my great heroes had a great turn of phrase. I’m reading Paul Tingen’s excellent Miles Beyond. The Electric Explorations of Miles Davis, 1967-1991; he turns up this gem:
“If you learn any of that old shit, you’re fired.”
Miles to bassist Michael Henderson.
Priceless!
Why is that Rahsaan Roland Kirk album called Does your house have lions? (Mine certainly doesn’t).
They’re playing a track on the Avant Garde station on Radio@Netscape Plus. I’m flipping between Avant Garde and African today, as one gets too extreme or the other gets too sweet and poppy.
It’s 21 years since I last went to the Glastonbury Festival. It was one of those years when Eavis’ farm turned into the Somme, and it was a bit of a grim experience.
So now I’m watching the BBC’s coverage from the comfort of my living room. Primal Scream were good, Morcheeba also; David Gray inexcusable (I really have a complete block about that man and his music); REM OK.
I suspect my TV watching hours are going to be way up this weekend.
The BBC puts a whole album up for our enjoyment most weeks. This week, it’s Keith Jarrett’s new one.
Unfortunately, it’s yet another collection of standards after he did some fantastic new stuff over the last couple of CDs.
Give the cd a listen, and tell me what you think. You’ve got until next Monday before they take it down.
Trumpeter Dave Douglas is a polite man, and an astounding player. Quite the most riveting trumpeter I’ve seen in many a long year.
I just came back from a gig by his Freak In septet at the Brighton Festival, a gig that was good in parts.
The main problem was boring soloing while most of the band laid out. Ironic, really, when Douglas was talking on BBC Radio 3 about rejecting the forms established by people like Coltrane.
The parts of the gig that really worked were the loud ensemble pieces, which sounded like Miles Davis’ On the Corner, from 30 years ago.
So, worth the price of admission, and glad to have finally caught Douglas, but lacking the promised Freakin’.
I’ve just been reading my friends’ RSS feeds (sorry Matt, RSS+ENT feeds) and noticed Matt Mower picked up on my posting about Bill Frisell and John Zorn.
Now this is strange. We’ve met face to face, and talk most weeks over IM. But I don’t ever recall having talked with him about the outer reaches of New York jazz.
It’s taken a blog posting to open that up. Or is he being ironic? 
I don’t quite understand this. Normally, I’d be the last to listen to this kind of stuff, but I’m really enjoying some performances off the BBCi site.
Just as well I’ve found the right soundtrack for the day, as I have a squillion things on my to-do list.
I think they’re well worth a listen.
For us who’ve enjoyed the occasional blast of Zorn’s band Naked City and the post Ornette freedoms of Masada, Masada Guitars is an intriguing prospect.
Mark Saleski’s review makes the album sound gentler than I’d have anticipated.
Sad, sad news. Nina Simone died at age 70.
I’ve started playing the CDs now. So should you.
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