Metheny's no Kenny G; he's a serious player.

Metheny's comments on Kenny G.

ETA: If that link doesn't work, try this.

Heh. First a very fair assessment of Kenny G's actual music merits or defaults, a thoughtful outreach to be inclusive, and then he gets to Kenny G. overdubbing himself on a classic Louis Armstrong track. Go Pat!

but when kenny g decided that it was appropriate for him to defile the music of the man who is probably the greatest jazz musician that has ever lived by spewing his lame-ass, jive, pseudo bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, fucked up playing all over one of the great louis’s tracks (even one of his lesser ones), he did something that i would not have imagined possible. he, in one move, through his unbelievably pretentious and calloused musical decision to embark on this most cynical of musical paths, shit all over the graves of all the musicians past and present who have risked their lives by going out there on the road for years and years developing their own music inspired by the standards of grace that louis armstrong brought to every single note he played over an amazing lifetime as a musician. by disrespecting louis, his legacy and by default, everyone who has ever tried to do something positive with improvised music and what it can be, kenny g has created a new low point in modern culture - something that we all should be totally embarrassed about - and afraid of. we ignore this, “let it slide”, at our own peril.

G.G. Allin wouldn't take a shit in there.

But Dino would walk around naked. Fortunately it was Merle with whom my old housemate had a brief fling. The Murder Junkies were surprisingly polite. Not to ruin their rep or anything.

DeJohnette & Haden are the Song X rhythm section. Metheny & Haden are very close. The former was best man at Haden's last wedding.

You know, it is just fun to contemplate the classic Ornette quartet. They must've seeemed like the biggest Fuck You in the history of jazz to date when they came along. Ornette was playing on a white plastic saxophone! Cherry was playing a pocket trumpet! They've got a white guy (Haden) who grew up playing in country bands on bass!

It's kind of ironic that Ornette's first major supporter was John Lewis Modern Jazz Quartet leader. (The irony is in the disparity between the MJQ's conservative rep & Lewis's big ears, not that he was really conservative but dug the weirdos from L.A.) I think Lewis was the one who pitched Ornette to Nesuhi Ertegun & got him signed to Atlantic.

I'll don the asbestos suit and defend Kenny G's "Songbird" as a single. When it came out, it was something a little different for Top 40 radio and made a nice change of pace. If he were a one-hit wonder, I'd remember him rather fondly.

But he caught on. And his shtick got old fast. One new-agey song, rather nice. VH-1 staple, ick.

And I claim no jazz cred for anything created after about 1945.

Quote from Patrick Berkery, drummer for The Bigger Lovers, after leaving Bernie's men's room:

"G.G. Allen wouldn't take a shit in there."

1. Where's Bernie's?

2. Patrick is a great guy. I met him when the Bigger Lovers played live on my radio show a couple of years ago. A total music geek and a writer as well (I think he writes for some Phillie paper?). More recently, he's also been drumming for the Pernice Brothers.

3. I was just reading about Ornette yesterday. I was trying to remember the name of the drummer on those early Sandy Bull albums (Billy Higgins). And if you've never heard the early Sandy Bull stuff, it's definitely worth seeking out. Proto-world-folk-music with a droney yet jazzy edge. The first three albums each had a side-long piece called Blend, Blend II, and Electric Blend (respectively) that were outstanding.

I was trying to remember the name of the drummer on those early Sandy Bull albums (Billy Higgins).

Joe's favorite drummer, no? Or is it Max Roach?

If I had to pick a favorite I'd probably go with Max or Tony Williams, but I'm terrible at choices & prefer to look at it as a buffet: so much good stuff & I can enjoy it all! I was fortunate enough to see & hear Billy Higgins not long before he died. You wouldn't have known he was sick to look at him. He was very thin, but he was beaming & very energetic. (Jackie McLean, on the other hand, didn't look so good. Try Jackie's 1963 Let Freedom Ring for one of the summits of each man's career.) I've never seen another musician who looked as if he were enjoying himself so much. Sounded great, too.

Anyone, huh? Count me in, if you're offering. Ya'll have peaked my interest.

OK, SA. DO you want them in MP3, or individual CDs? If MP3, I can throw in some other stuff, too . . . .