Early Jazz Weekend - Playlist - Saturday

Song, Artist, Album

Iko Iko, Donald Harrison, Heroes
Switchback, Scott Burns, Passages
Mambo Influenciado, John Hicks, Sweet Love of Mine
Peaceful Flame, Don Aliquo, Jazz Folk
Caravan, Oscar Peterson with Dizzy Gillespie, Perfect Peterson
Rain Check, Billy Strayhorn, Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life
Naima, McBride/Jackson/Cobb/Walton, New York Time
Anthropology, Ari Hoenig, Inversations
Rejoicing, Matt Wilson's Arts & Crafts, The Scenic Route
Just A Riff, Randy Weston (with Ahmed Abdul-Malik), Jazz A La Bohemia
Rhythm-a-Ning, Thelonius Monk (with Ahmed Abdul-Malik), Thelonius in Action
Star Eyes, Cannonball Adderly, The Quintet Plus
Bass Blues, John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio, Traneing In
Valse Hot, Sonny Rollins, Plus Four
Sweet Pea, Miles Davis, Miles Smiles
Blues by Five, Miles Davis, Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet
All Blues, Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
The Things That I Used To Do, Guitar Slim, Martin Scorsese Presents. . .
How Do You Sleep at Night?, Coco Montoya, Dirty Deal
Ain't Nobody's Business, Part 1, Jimmy Witherspoon, Martin Scorsese Presents. . .
Gone Too Long, Charlie Musselwhite, Delta Hardware
Roll 'Em Pete, Joe Turner & Pete Johnson, Martin Scorsese Presents. . .
Too Many Drivers, Big Pete Pearson, I'm Here, Baby

The Anti-Finger

Broadcast 2/2/2007

Perhaps you will remember last year when Miami was named the rudest city in which to drive. Yes, Miami drivers speed, cut each other off, fail to signal, run red lights and roll through stop signs. Having done these things, drivers are prone to make the usual rude gestures. The most common gesture made while driving, of course, can be described simply: a single finger – the third finger, digitus tertius -- extended into the air, defiant and hostile. This is sometimes called “the bird,” “flipping the bird,” or “flipping someone off.”

President Bush is known for having popularized the term “one-fingered victory salute” in a now infamous video of him that began appearing on the Internet in 2004. In Canada, this gesture is known as the “Trudeau salute,” after the former Prime Minister was known to wield it occasionally in his public life – including before the Canadian House of Commons. The list of famous fingers flippers is long: Nelson Rockerfeller, Eminem, Keanu Reeves in a couple of movies, Johnny Cash, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Michael Vick, and even the Miami Dolphin’s own Larry Csonka.

Now, I’m not a bad driver. By that, I mean I can handle a car and I usually follow the rules of the road. I don’t often talk on my phone while driving, I signal when turning, obey signs and lights – all that stuff. I do know for some of you out there, driving is a competitive sport like ice hockey or jiu-jitsu or cockfighting – but I just feel safer in the car if I’m taking it easy. Even so, sometimes another driver will be in my blind spot, or I might be in an unfamiliar part of town – and OOP, there it is. I have drawn the Wrath of the Finger.

So, here’s the problem. I made a mistake; the other driver is upset because of something I did on the road. If some sort of close encounter were to happen on the sidewalk or in a store, most people would apologize and smile and get on with their business. But when cars are involved, territorial instincts are activated, and any further wrong move on my part can trigger road rage. Thing is, I want to be able to apologize. Having been given the finger – that rudest of gestures – I need a countervailing gesture. I need The Anti-Finger.

Sadly, there is no Anti-Finger I can think of that really works. The thumbs-up, the friendly wave, the shrug and sheepish grin, the peace “V,” blowing kisses – those are too likely to be seen as sarcasm. More elaborate combinations – some illustrative sign language of the road – take too long to perform and, more dangerously, involve removing both hands from the wheel. Smacking your own forehead or shooting yourself with a finger gun could be taken as a threat. How can you say: “I’m a loser!” from behind the wheel? I look pretty dumb with my finger and my thumb in the shape of an L on my forehead.

I think the best Anti-Finger is simply to point at yourself and nod: “You’re right, my bad.” A one-handed gesture, the index finger delineates the source of the problem. Better yet, don’t use the index finger at all. Take that digitus tertius, and carefully, carefully extend it and point the finger of blame at yourself. “Yep, that was me, and I am sorry. Allow me to help you out: I give myself the bird.”

This Week

As you can see below, I've posted a few (not necessarily golden) nuggets – including the usual Groundhog Day piece. Remember: Baby needs a new pair of shoes: You know what to do!

On Friday, I'll be dropping in on Jim Norton and Taylor Carik, the hosts of Flak Radio, to discuss the imminent event of Superbowl XLI in South Florida. Streaming audio or download of the podcast is available at http://www.flakmag.com/podcast/radio.html. To tell you the ingenious technical rigging Jim and I had to do to pull this off -- well, you'd simply never believe it. You'll just have to listen. Add Flak Radio to your RSS feed or iTunes download and you'll never be lonely again.

Passing Notes this Friday evening at 7:06 pm on 88.9 FM Serious Jazz (www.seriousjazz.org) is a look at the significance and use of the middle finger (AKA "The Bird"), as well as an honest attempt to find a countervailing gesture – The Anti-Finger, so to speak. For Gregg: AKA "The Sign of the Bird" a la Miami Lucha.

Saturday's Early Jazz Weekend from 6 to 9 am will roll out with the customary Big Six Blues set, as well as a tribute to bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik and a healthy (or perhaps unhealthy) dose of fusion.

Sunday's EJW means blues, funk, and a final hour of birthday boys Roy Eldridge, Stan Getz, and Sonny Stitt. Playlists for both music shows will be posted on the blog, as usual.

My Superbowl Pick – no great risks taken here: Colts by seven.

Peace,

Mark

Groundhog Day

Broadcast in previous years on the very day in question.

February 2 is known in the United States as Groundhog Day. According to tradition, in the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the groundhog – a midsized burrowing rodent named Phil – comes out of his burrow, looks around, and if he happens to see his shadow, it means there will be six more weeks of winter. He doesn’t see a shadow, it means an early spring. If you’d like to learn more about Groundhog Day and the official festival in Punxsutawney, you can check out the website www.groundhog.org.

The joke, of course, as far as meteorological prognostication is concerned, is that--shadow or not, in wintry parts of the world-- there are likely to be six more weeks of cold weather no matter what Phil the Groundhog sees. Six weeks from February 2 takes you to mid-March, about the time the first day of spring arrives anyway.

I grew up in the Northeast, and as a little kid I put great faith in Punxsutawney Phil – I didn’t get the joke. It doesn’t matter if spring is early or not – it’s still going to be absurdly cold; we might as well have a big party and laugh in winter’s face. Now I think it the holiday is just a bunch of Yankees finding a way to have their own ironic, one-day, understated version of Mardi Gras.

The absurdist joke of Groundhog Day was not lost on a guy named Danny Rubin, who wrote a screenplay, a script that, in 1993, was made into a movie directed by Harold Ramis and starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. You likely know the plot: A cynical weatherman is forced to live exact the same day of his life, February 2 in Punxsutawney, over and over again. He’s the only one aware of what’s going on, and although he can change his actions day-to-day, everything and everyone else is exactly the same. Each morning, February the Second unfolds just as it did before.

Bill Murray’s character, stuck in this time loop for decades, maybe centuries – we don’t really know how long – works through his arrogance, his insensitivity, his appetites, his hopelessness, and eventually figures out that the key to his happiness is simply accepting what he’s been given. Having done that, Murray’s character is able to transform himself from being a jerk to a genuinely good person. Bill Murray is likely the only actor with the ability to pull off the strange combination of detachment, sarcasm, and vulnerability needed for the movie to work. Groundhog Day has always seemed to me to be one of the overlooked great films of the 1990s, and is a very rare creature indeed – an existential comedy with a theological heart.

After all, despite our worries and hopes about the future and our guilt and pride in the past, all we really have is the present moment. This is the day that we are given – and for me, even though there are some variations in my routines, most of the time most things manage to stay the same. Really, I’m the one who makes the biggest difference in what sort of day I have – for better and for worse. I think that’s true for most people. And, day upon day, week upon week, month upon month, that’s how you build a life. You get to spring whether Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow or not. The joke is on you, every day – so you might as well lighten up and enjoy the moment. Right now. We have a long way to go.

Why Kenny G Sucks

I recently came across this piece on why Kenny G stinks -- comments apparently from Pat Metheny. I have always felt that the G-Man was an absolute hack, but I had never read Metheny's remarks until today. I post the link so that others may see the light as I have had it revealed to me.

NOTE from September 2010
With Passing Notes up and running full time this past summer, I've been surprised to see that the most visited post in four years of on-and-off work has been this one, "Why Kenny G Sucks."  And the new blogging statistics that are available shows how most people come to this page by running the search string "kenny + g + sucks."  Clearly, we've hit upon something here.  I have, however, changed some of my thinking about popular music lately -- I'm trying to be less of a snob about matters.  If you'd care to know where I was coming from at the time, you might check out this podcast from a while ago, which was my attempt to address the tension between commercialism and authenticity in music.

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When in Rome

Adapted from a broadcast of February 2006

Sometime real soon, so I hear, the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears will be playing each other in the big game in South Florida – One Game, One Dream – the Superbowl. The question on everyone’s mind: Will Chicago’s number one defense be able to restrain Peyton Manning’s Colts and – restrain the Colts -- and the Colts. . .

Er.

You know, I have no idea what I’m talking about. I don’t really follow professional football, and I know nothing about college football whatsoever.

What I really want to talk about is this continued obsession that the NFL has with using Roman numerals to indicate the sequence of Superbowls. The argument could made that Roman numerals lend an air of class and dignity to numbered things, like ships (The Queen Elizabeth II), or movies (The Godfather II) or offspring (Thurston Howell III). And if any spectacle badly needed an air of class and dignity, the Superbowl is it. But no mere antique numbering system can cover the smell of money that oozes from every nook and cranny of the Big Game.

What is now known as Superbowl 1 – or I – was played on January 15 of 1967. I’m not much for football, but I do have an obsession with baseball history, and, of course, when you’re talking years in baseball championships, you always refer to the year of the World Series – for instance, the 2004 champion Boston Red Sox. Most sports follow this convention, but not the NFL. There’s something arcane and esoteric about the NFL championship dating with its Roman numerals – who but the biggest football geek can remember the difference between Superbowl XIV and Superbowl XVI? Anyone?

It says a great deal about the hype and hyperbole in the NFL that it persists with this confusing system. It’s sort of like this insular culture with its own special calendar. For most of us using the mainstream Gregorian calendar, of course, it’s 2007 – and soon, I’ll start writing that on my checks. But, by contrast, according to the Jewish calendar, it’s 5759. For Muslims, it’s 1427. For the Chinese, it’s 4704. I mean, I might be off by a year on those other calendars, but it's close enough when you're working with these kinds of numbers. It's all very subjective.

If you’re a SuperFan of the National Football League, I suppose it’s Year 40, A.L. – after Lombardi, that is. And, according to the Lombardian calendar, the new year is celebrated on Superbowl Sunday – which of course moves from year to year according to the whims of the league, the television networks, and the shenanigans of the various metro areas around the nation in their attempts to draw the Big Game to their communities.

But to get back to the Roman numerals. Might I point out that there is no Roman empire any more? Yes, there are Romans, but they all speak Italian, not Latin, and they use good old 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 rather than I V X L C and M. I attribute the fall of the Roman empire not to barbarian hordes but because the Romans had no zero, and hence had a great deal of trouble with math. I imagine some Roman general struck trying to figure out how many horses and men he needed in battle and getting whacked on the head by a visigoth, who had no need for calculation at all but had a very large club. Replace the Romans with the NFL and the barbarians with NASCAR and you can see where I’m going with this. The Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600 – nope, NASCAR has no fear of zeroes whatsoever. The future belongs to the sport that knows how to do math.

Not that I’ll be watching automobile racing any time soon -- or any football aside from the NFL playoffs. Me, I’m fine with baseball. It was around long before both the NFL and NASCAR, and I have a feeling it’ll still be here when the X’s and O’s are all added up.

Straight, No Chaser - January 27 Picks

Straight, No Chaser - The New Music Hour
with Ed Blanco and Mark Hayes
every other Saturday from 8:00-9:00 am
on 88.9 FM in Miami
and www.seriousjazz.org

Song, Album, Artist

Marmelada,” The Bias Project, Rodrigo Ferrari-Nunes
The debut album of Brazilian-born bassist Rodrigo Ferrari-Nunes is dedicated to the music of Mingus, Coltrane, Parker, Evans, Hubbard and Brazilian composer Hermeto Pascoal. A burner of a CD with no samba here. (Ed's pick)

“Al Dar Gazelli,” Finn Peters, Su-Ling
Saxophonist and flutist Finn Peters brings a diverse mix of musicians and styles to this release. Steeped in both Brazilian sounds and DJ culture, Peters has appeared on scores of records for other musicians before releasing this, his second album. In 1999, Peters won London Young Jazz musician award, and his eclectic approach and experience comes through. (Mark's pick)

“Lisa,” Second Helping, Luther Hughes & the Cannonball-Coltrane Project
A scorcher of an album from West coast bassist Luther Hughes and his Cannonball-Coltrane Project which includes tenor man Glenn Cashman, Bruce Babad on the alto, pianist Ed Czach and Paul Kreibich on the drums, paying homage to the music of John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly. (Ed's pick)

“Paths Unknown,” Vector Trio, Paths Unknown
Drums, trumpet, and fretless bass – along with electronic loops and a thoughtful, restrained use of digital effects – combine for uniquely spacey and funky sound that is full of surprises and fascinating textures and tones. An innovative group of experienced musicians who know what they're doing. (Mark's pick)

“Fools Rush In,” My Take, Chuck Bergeron
the latest release from Miami’s own bassist extraordinaire Chuck Bergeron featuring the great baritone vocals of Kevin Mahogany with pianist Phil Strange and New York sideman and member of the Maria Schnieder Big Band, saxophonist Charlie Pillow. (Ed's pick)

“The Fundamentals,” Theo Croker, The Fundamentals
While still in his early 20s, Croker has demonstrated his ability as a trumpeter, composer, and bandleader on this recording debut. Though he might still have some development to make as a player, all the elements of a fine musical intelligence are evident from the first note. (Mark's pick)

“Shangri-La.” Once In A Lifetime, The German HR Big Band
This release captures a lively recording session of the German hr Big Band featuring drummer Jeff Hamilton (Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra) and the Hammond B3 wizardry of Joey DeFrancesco who takes center stage on this disc. (Ed's pick)

“Hydroplaining,” Rodolfo Zuniga Quintet, Premonitions
Drummer and bandleader Zuniga has assembled a group of young players with a confident, distinctive sound. Based in Miami but quickly building a reputation in the US and in Central America, tenor, trombone, guitar and bass join the drummer in creating a blend of stylish, intelligent jazz. (Mark's pick)

Next show on February 10

Visit Ed Blanco's page on All About Jazz

Early Jazz Weekend - Playlist - Sunday

Song, Artist, Album

Offspring, John Scofield, Uberjam
Chubb Sub, Medeski Martin and Wood, Friday Afternoon in the Universe
Dusty McNugget, Brad Mehldau, Largo
Swiss Cheese D, Ben Allison & Medicine Wheel, Riding the Nuclear Tiger
Where's the Moment?, Action Figure Party, Action Figure Party
Big Eater, The Bad Plus, These Are the Vistas
Summer Pudding, Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet, Husky
Big'Uns Get the Ball Rolling, Stanton Moore, III
Temporary Enrollment, Rodolfo Zuniga Quintet, Premonitions
Annie Laurie, Jimmy Forrest with Shirley Scott, Heart of the Forrest
Bolo Blues, Jimmy Forrest, Out of the Forrest
Dance of the Octopus, Gary Burton, For Hamp, Red, Bags, and Cal
Portsmouth Figurations, Gary Burton Quartet, Duster
A Few Good Notes, Bob Mintzer Quartet, Quality Time
Runferyerlife, Bob Mintzer Big Band, Old School: New Lessons
Felonius Thunk, Bob Moses, Time Stood Still
Bright Size Life, Pat Metheny, Bright Size Life
He Said What?, Russell Malone, Live at the Jazz Standard, Volume 1
Blue in Green, Bill Evans, Portrait in Jazz
Blues for the Orient, Yusef Lateef, Eastern Sounds
Bessie's Blues, John Coltrane Quartet, Crescent
House Arrest Blues, Willie Pooch, Funk-n-Blues
Dying Crapshooter Blues, Blind Willie McTell, Original Blues Classics (Bluesville)
One Steady Roll, Bob Brozman, Blues Reflex
Fara, Ali Farka Toure, Savane
Mercy On My Soul, Earl Gaines, Don't Take My Kindness for a Weakness
Get It Right, Joe Louis Walker, Blues of the Month Club
The Torch of the Blues, Ronnie Baker Brooks, The Torch

Early Jazz Weekend - Playlist - Saturday

Song, Artist, Album

Stablemates, Jeff Antoniuk and the Jazz Update, Here Today
Series of One, Dominique Eade & Jed Wilson, Open
'Round Midnight, Charles Tolliver Big Band, With Love
Manoir Des Mes Reves, Django Reinhardt, The Best of. . . (Blue Note)
Corcovado, Sarah Vaughan, The Antonio Carlos Jobim Songbook
Night and Day, Stephane Grappelli, Live at the Blue Note
Django's Tiger, Django Reinhardt, The Best of. . . (Blue Note)
How Insensitive, Wes Montgomery, The Antonio Carlos Jobim Songbook
Air Mail Special, Jay Hoggard, Swing 'Em Gates
I'm Tore Down, Freddie King, The Very Best of. . . (Collectibles)
Woke Up This Morning, Big Time Sarah & The BTS Express, Blues in the Year One-D-One
Red House, Jimi Hendrix, Kiss the Sky
It's The Truth, Oscar Jordan, Mr. Bad Luck
Catfish Blues, Robert Petway, Martin Scorsese Presents. . .
Five Long Years, Carey & Lurie Bell, Second Nature
Gonna Ball Tonight, Mighty Lester, We Are Mighty Lester
Gristle, Carol Fran & Clarence Hollimon, Soul Sensation
Farther Up The Road, Bobby Blue Bland, Greatest Hits V1 - The Duke Recordings
Henry's Shuffle, Canned Heat, The Very Best of. . . (Capitol)
Stand Alone, Kelly Richey Band, Speechless
A Little Meat on the Side, Katie Webster, No Foolin!
Where Is She?, The Beat Daddys, Five Moons

This Week. . .

The blog here has been rolling along nicely -- I try to post reviews or commentary or playlists there at least five times a week. Be sure to check for fresh content or set up your feed. There's a link for Feedburner here.

This week's feature (Friday at 7:06 pm on 88.9 FM or www.seriousjazz.org) is a rebroadcast of "Recovery from Oil Addiction - The 12-Step Program." Some of you might have read this commentary already, but that last time it was broadcast, we had a lot of response. In light of the State of the Union address this week, we're going to run it again. Fresh PN next week!

On Saturday's Early Jazz Weekend (6 to 9 am) we'll be starting off with the Big Six Blues, followed by a little love to this week's birthday boys Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grapelli, and Antonio Carlos Jobim. At 8:00, Ed Blanco will join me for the latest installment of Straight, No Chaser. We'll be listening to new jazz from around the country and around the world.

On Sunday, EJW will have the usual blues set (but in a more mellow mode), followed by tunes from Gary Burton, Jimmy Forrest, Bob Mintzer, and Bob Moses. This should be an eclectic show, and we'll finish up the last half hour with some funk.

Next week, I'll be appearing on Flak Radio (http://www.flakmag.com/podcast/radio.html) to talk about the Superbowl's coming to South Florida. Flak Radio is a regular podcast you can get from iTunes. I have no idea what I'm going to say -- it should be fun to have the guys at Flak tear me apart!

Peace,

Mark H

Understanding Jazz: Ways To Listen

Broadcast November 2005

Although relatively young as national cultural institutions are concerned, Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, under the direction of Wynton Marsalis, has become the major force in the promotion of and education about the art of jazz. Whether it’s the Center’s the weekly radio program, or its PBS specials, or the regular recordings by its groups, or the innovative compositions it underwrites, or the many concerts and events it hosts up there in its home at Columbus Circle in Manhattan, JALC commands a vast array of cultural and financial resources for a non-profit arts organization.

It is not surprising, then, that the Center has produced a new book about the music, entitled Understanding Jazz: Ways To Listen, is a fine introduction for non-musicians as to how to understand some of what jazz musicians are doing in the midst of a live performance. Beginning with the sometimes paradoxical relationship of the individual soloist to the group – which Piazza explains as the relationship between foreground and background – the reader is taken through the basics, so to speak, of how to listen. Piazza clearly explains, for the lay listener, how the blues and other song forms are structured, as well as how musicians improvise in relationship to those forms and tell a story.

Piazza is most effective in his discussion of rhythm, of time, and of that elusive element known as swing:

“Picture the arc of a common playground swing,” he writes. “Once you get into a regular rhythm on the swing, the amount of time it takes to get from one end of the arc and then back will be the same each time. But your actual speed as you traverse the arc is not constant; in fact, there is a curve of acceleration and deceleration – a speeding-up on the downward motion and a slowing on the upward part.... In a jazz performance,” Piazza continues, "while every bar of music should take the same amount of ‘clock time’ – fill the same period – within those bars and groups of bars there is a constant sense of respiration, of infinitesimal accelerations and decelerations in the actual playing, even though the background pulse, the tempo, remains constant. A large part of the music’s meaning comes from playing with time, this sense of being able to operate flexibly, accurately, and freely within the implied lockstep of chronology—an affirmation, in fact, of the living body against the dead abstraction of time.”

This is all interesting and useful explanation, made all the more interesting and useful because the musical explanations in the book refer often to a companion CD that features seven distinctive jazz tracks. Artists on the CD include King Oliver, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Lester Young, Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt, and Stan Getz – among others. As the discussions in each chapter develop, Piazza very easily slips in specific musical references to Rollins’s “Mack the Knife” or Davis’s “Footprints” to help you hear what he’s writing about. Understanding Jazz is a book you read with the CD player remote never far from your hand. The book would be even better to read with the tracks burned onto a portable MP3 player.

At the end of each chapter on each particular music topic, Piazza also includes a rather haphazard discography, a feature which novices might find useful but will likely distract and annoy more expert listeners. These sections can hardly be called discographies at all -- they're really just rambling lists of stuff to listen to.

Still, all in all, Understanding Jazz is an excellent way for the beginning fan of jazz to make significant steps forward in learning how to listen more carefully to this often complex music and with a more intelligent ear.

Recovery from Oil Addiction - The 12-Step Program

Adapted from a broadcast from June 2006

Around the country this summer, everyone had pretty much gotten used to playing about three dollars a gallon for gasoline. When or if the price would up or down, nobody could say, apparently. But while the price of gas was high, it wasn't high enough to get people to seriously change their habits of energy consumption. We are still in denial about the problems of the coming energy crises.

And so we look for leadership and vision to help us out of our overindulgences. President Bush, of course, who admits, in a previous life, to indulging in the unhealthy consumption of liquid refreshment, called it like he saw it in his 2006 State of the Union address:

“Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best way to break this addiction is through technology.”

Hmm: The best way to break addiction is through technology. It seems to me that, when the president uses the addiction metaphor, he’s actually steering the argument away from technology. People, like the president – credit to him – who decide to quit drinking often do so without any outside help, professional counseling, or support group meetings. That’s 70 percent of those who quit. No technology involved. So the problem of addiction is as much a psychological, or emotional, or spiritual problem as a material one.

Following the President’s cue, but forgetting his idea of technology, let’s borrow from the literature of addiction to craft a national policy of recovery – recovery from our oil addiction. This recovery program involves, as you might have guessed, 12 steps:

1. We, the people of the United States of America, admitted we were powerless over cheap and plentiful fossil fuels - that our lives had become unsustainable. Price spikes after hurricanes, wars in the Middle East, traffic, pollution, rolling brownouts -- need I say more?

2. Came to believe that an energy policy greater than ourselves could restore us to balance. Bigger than our individual wants, bigger than our consumer society, bigger than our might making it right, we need an approach to energy that shows humility and concern for other nations.

3. Made a decision to turn our future and our economy over to the care of the Earth as science understands things like global warming, population growth, and planetary resources. So let’s get the politics out of science and admit that global warming is happening, and other things that 95 percent of real scientists agree upon.

4. Made a searching and fearless economic and ethical inventory of our energy use. Which means: Do you really need that Hummer for the weekend? Is “one person, one car” a viable transportation model for everybody?

5. Admitted to the Earth, to ourselves, and to every human being on the planet the exact nature of our wrongs. Time to fess up, America. Twenty percent of the resources consumed, five percent of the population. I think that qualifies as gluttony, right?

6. Were entirely ready to elect a government and change our habits to remove these defects of character. This is the tricky part – finding the right person or group of people who can tell the truth in the right way, an offer a vision of a solution that everyone can get behind.

7. Humbly asked each other for the patience to remove our shortcomings. It will take most Americans a long time to get used to riding on buses and trains with each other.

8. Made a list of all the people, nations, and systems on the planet we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. Where to begin?

9. Made direct amends to such people and places wherever possible, except when to do so would cause more damage. So, Iraq – sorry about that whole invasion thing. We’re just going to get out of here and turn things over to the UN.

10. Continued to take an energy inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it. Hey, maybe ethanol wasn’t such a good idea. Nuclear energy, other the other hand, isn’t quite as bad an idea as we thought.

11. Sought though scientific inquiry and social reform to improve our relationship with the planet and with each other, looking for accurate knowledge of how things really work and how we might sustain a balanced relationship with the planet and with each other. Which is to say – let’s not allow this to happen again.

12. Having had an economic and social awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other oil-addicted nations and to practice these principles in all our affairs. China, you’re next.

So I offer this program as a means to get us closer to the root of the problem: that we as a nation are a bunch of lousy oil addicts and we’ll do almost anything to get another week, another month, another year of those sweet sweet cheap fossil fuels. Burn baby burn.

If you ask me, it’s time for an intervention.

Postscript – 1/23/2007

As to President Bush’s 2007 State of the Union goal of having Americans reduce their gasoline use by increasing their consumption of ethanol by billions of barrels per year – well, that seems beside the point. Overall, shouldn’t we be reducing our consumption, not shifting it to another fuel? Is the nation really capable of "capping" its overall fuel usage as it shifts to an alternative fuel?

We can look at the history of other sectors of the economy for example of this supply substitution. I just finished reading Greg Critser’s Fatland: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World. He makes the argument that, faced with rising food prices in the 1970s, the Department of Agriculture – of which the Food and Drug Administration is a part – paved the way for “cheaper” substitutions such as this ethanol-for-gasoline switch. Corn syrup took the place of cane sugar. Corn starch took the place of wheat flour. Fatty palm oil took the place of cooking oils far lower in saturated fats. Who knows what the conversion to an “ethanol economy” will create? And, more importantly, will everything eventually be made of corn?

Here’s one thing for sure: The price of tortillas in Mexico is on the rise, and it appears that our own developing energy needs are part of the problem.

The Future of Music

Broadcast 1/19/2007

Listen to this piece at 88.9 FM Serious Jazz Radio Rewind -- scroll down when you get there, please. Available up to one week after broadcast.

When you buy a compact disc from your favorite music performer, chances are that performer earns a royalty of about eight percent. If the artist wrote some of the music or had a producer credit, then the cut might be a somewhat larger. But, generally speaking, if you spend $12.50 for a CD, the artist makes a buck. The other $11.50 cents go to retailers, wholesalers, distributors, marketers, manufacturers, manager, and recording industry middlemen. If you’re in the recording business – that is, the right place somewhere in the middle – without playing or singing a note, you stand to make an awful lot of money. But the full feeding trough is going to be emptier in the years to come.

We are moving, after all, into the digital age – in text, in audio, and in video. In the age of digital content, some providers will adapt, and some will wither away and die. The recent string of lawsuits and increasingly extreme tactics from the Recording Industry Association of America are sure signs of an industry that refuses to change in the face of current trends of how people prefer to find and listen to music. Some business models just don’t work any more. Everybody remember Tower Records?

Maybe you listen to music like I do. I have a portable MP3 player and I legally download music, but mostly I have a real-world CD collection several hundred strong that sits on several shelves in the living room. If you’re old fashioned, by degrees, you might just have the CDs, or some combination of CDs, cassettes, and records. We won’t, however, dwell on the 8-track cartridges. But although I am new member of the old school – or maybe an old member of the new school – I am a music listener of the past.

All these things and more were made much more clear to me after reading The Future of Music by Dave Kusek and Gerd Leonhard, published in 2005. Actually, I listened to this book after downloading it to my iPod.

The future of music lies in the hands of its future listeners. When I talk to people under the age of 18 – from all kinds of backgrounds -- about how they listen to music, many things are clear. First of all, the laws go out the window. As far as digital music is concerned, it’s finders keepers. And it’s not like, in many areas, the laws make that much sense or are even fair.

As to the listeners of the future, they believe they are asked to pay too much for music. Even at 10 dollars for a CD, or a dollar for a song, the prices are too high -- especially if most of the money doesn’t go to the artist.

They do not have a problem with downloading music for free over file sharing networks.

They do not make an issue with ripping music from friends’ CDs, with burning disks for friends. Sharing and trading music is just what you do.

They rarely own more than a dozen CDs. Pretty much everything is stored on a computer or portable player.

More importantly, they listen to far more and a far more diverse range of music than I did at their age. They have collections of between 1000 and 3000 songs – and they are always looking for new and unusual music. The homogeneous mix on commercial terrestrial radio and even satellite radio doesn’t interest them.

As far as I can see, this musical curiosity is where public radio and podcasting can play a role – in guiding and informing their developing taste far from the influence of commerce or profit. In the end, it’s always just about the music.

The future of music lies in listeners and artists connecting with each other, with as little interference as possible. Musicians upload, listeners download. The technology and the law will work themselves out sooner or later.

I need only point to the legendary tenor Sonny Rollins and his latest release, Sonny, Please. In the material world, it goes on sale January 23, but it’s been officially downloadable from sonnyrollins.com since November 21 of last year. I downloaded the whole album – plus a bonus track – for $10 on September 1.

I have the tracks on my laptop, on my iPod, and burned onto a disc I listen to in the car. And while it’s been great to know that I had the music before almost anybody else, it’s even better to know that my man Sonny got most of my money.

Playlist - Early Jazz Weekend - Sunday

Song, Artist, Album

Tell It Like It Is, Charles Earland, I Ain't Jivin' I'm Jammin'
Brother with the Mint Green Vine, Cyrus Chestnut, Soul Food
Whap!, Jack McDuff, The Honeydripper
Opus Funk, Sweets Edison & Lockjaw Davis, Simply Sweets
Blues in Bebop, Kenny Dorham, Kenny Dorham: Blues in Bebop
The Jitney Man, Billie Eckstine and His Orchestra, Kenny Dorham: Blues in Bebop
Bremond's Blues, Cedar Walton, The Promise Land
The Vision, Cedar Walton, Latin Tinge
Cedar Walton, One Flight Down, One Flight Down
Jitterbug Waltz, Greg Osby, The Invisible Hand
Mr. JJ, Jeff ''Tain'' Watts, Bar Talk
The Impaler, Jeff ''Tain'' Watts, Megawatts
Like This, Roy Haynes & Fountain of Youth Band, Whereas
Sweet George Brown, The Columbus Jazz Orchestra, The Colors of Jazz
Bolero at the Savoy, Anita O'Day with Gene Krupa, Let Me Off Uptown!
Boogie Blues, Anita O'Day with Gene Krupa, Let Me Off Uptown!
Until I Met You, Count Basie & Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie & Sarah Vaughan
Like A Son, The Jimmy Heath Band, Turn Up the Heath
Just Won't Burn, Susan Tedeschi, Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues
Boom Boom, John Lee Hooker, Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues
It's My Own Tears, Coco Montoya, Dirty Deal
What's It Gonna Take, Charlie Wood, Lucky
Crawlin' Kingsnake, Buddy Guy, Can't Quit the Blues
Priviledged Life, Eddie Turner, Pride
You're Going to Need Somebody On Yr Bond, Eric Bibb, Spirit and the Blues
River of Jordan, Creighton Lindsay, Round by Round
False Friend Blues, Ruth Brown, R + B = Ruth Brown
A Fool Never Learns, Johnny Jones, Blues is in the House
Memphis, Lonnie Mack, Memphis Wham!
I'm Looking for a Miracle, Phantom Blues, IndieFeed Blues download

Playlist - Early Jazz Weekend - Saturday

Song, Artist, Album

Come On Baby, Jimmy Smith, Home Cookin'
Milestones, MB3, Jazz Hits Volume 1
Tricky Dick, Ben Allison, Cowboy Justice
Hey-Hee-Hi-Ho, Medeski Martin and Wood, Combustication
Old Funky Gene's, Gene Harris Quartet, Funky Gene's
Express Yourself, Idris Muhammad, Black Rhythm Revolution!
Song For Bad, Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet, Husky
Anthropology, Ari Hoenig, Inversations
On Green Dolphin Street, Eric Dolphy Quintet, Outward Bound
Fingerprints, The Chick Corea New Trio, Past, Present, and Futures
Blue Nile, Alice Coltrane, Translinear Light
Journey in Satchidananda, Alice Coltrane, Journey in Satchidananda
Offering, John Coltrane, Expression
Love for Sale, Dexter Gordon, Go!
Ernie Banks, McNeely/Sill/Spencer, Boneyard
Newest Blues, McBride/Jackson/Cobb/Walton, New York Time
Mystery Train, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Tin Pan Alley, Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble, In the Beginning
Evalina, Son Lewis, Snake
Ships on the Ocean, Junior Wells, Hoodoo Man Blues
Heartless, Michael Burks, Make It Rain
Diamonds At Your Feet, Muddy Waters, His Best, 1956-1964 (Chess)
When Your Memory Fades Away, The Twisters, IndieFeed Blues download
Tamp 'Em Up Solid, Ry Cooder, Paradise and Lunch
I'm Single, The Billy Gibson Band, Southern Living
Laundromat Blues, Albert King, The Very Best of. . . (Rhino)
Tighten Up the Springs, Michelle Malone, Sugarfoot

This Week. . .

Superbowl in South Florida? What Superbowl?

Anyway, tomorrow's Passing Notes (Friday @ 7:06 pm on 88.9 FM Serious Jazz) concerns the future of music, so to speak. I like to think it's timely in light of recent activities by the Recording Industry Artists of America and similar organizations. Check a sampling of the following news items:

"The RIAA May Send A SWAT Team To Bust Down Your Door"

"Senators aim to restrict Net, satellite radio recording"

"Music industry threatens ISPs over piracy"

"Ailing music biz set to relax digital restrictions"

On Saturday's Early Jazz Weekend Session, we have the Big Six Blues Set from, of course, 6:00 to 7:00 am. Sometime before I finish the show at 9:00 we'll have a set in tribute to Alice Coltrane.

On Sunday's EJW, we'll have sets to say thank you to some of the birthday boys of the week -- Gene Krupa, Jeff "Tain" Watts, and Cedar Walton.

The House That Trane Built by Ashley Kahn

Broadcast 9/7/2006

The leading jazz label of the 60s and 70s, Impulse Records, receives a fitting -- if slick -- history.

Ashley Kahn has already written two books about jazz: Kind of Blue – The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece and A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane’s Signature Album. In his latest disc history, Kahn turns his attention to one of the most famous jazz labels of all time in the excellent The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records.

At the beginning of the 1960s, the entertainment company ABC-Paramount was starting to get into the music business, and jazz, in those days, was still considered as having the commercial potential to be widespread pop music. And so the idea for a new jazz label was cooked up -- featuring a high-end product with carefully chosen artists, well-conceived album ideas, well-financed recording sessions, and slick package design: A black and orange spine, full-color gatefold covers, and a clever trademark: a distinctive i followed by an exclamation point.

The record label was called Impulse, and producer Taylor Creed was its guide during its formative years. Creed made a fine start. In addition to crafting a distinctively sellable package for Impulse, he did very well with his actual recordings.

Impulse’s first half dozen releases featured Kai Winding, JJ Johnson, Ray Charles, and Gil Evans – along with Oliver Nelson’s classic The Blues and The Abstract Truth and John Coltrane’s Africa/Brass –this last album a hint of things to come from the musician who would be the definitive artist of the Impulse label. Although Creed left after a few years, he turned over a strong business to producer Bob Thiele, who developed the label into the high-minded imprint it ultimately became. His method was simple and fairly old school: hire great musicians, put them in the right circumstances, and let them do their thing.

Thiele, originally a fan of swing music, began his jazz re-education largely under the guidance of Coltrane, a musical partnership that led to release of albums by Yusef Lateef, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler, Chico Hamilton, Gabor Szabo, and Pharoh Sanders.

Thiele also had the good sense to let Coltrane follow his own rapid course of development, most notably in the production of Trane’s A Love Supreme in 1964, a pivotal point in the saxophonist’s creative trajectory. And it is Coltrane’s bold, passionate, and intelligent artistic sensibility which left a most lasting imprint on the label, even after Trane’s death in 1967 and Thiele’s departure. For the most part, even as ABC Records began to pressure Impulse for more profits, its later mainstream, avant-garde, world, and fusion projects still maintained a balance of originality, energy, brains, and even political awareness in the work of Shepp and Sanders, as well as Amhad Jamal, Alice Coltrane, Sun-Ra, John Klemmer, Gato Barbieri, Sam Rivers, Dewey Redman, Marion Brown, and Keith Jarett.

Nevertheless, by 1977, the original Impulse Records stopped releasing new material and essentially became a back-catalogue label, with Coltrane’s classics leading the way. But what a run it was, and Kahn’s detailed and carefully-paced book tells the story exceptionally well, with generous helpings of interviews and photographs. And, better yet, the book is interspersed with fascinating mini-profiles of the production of almost 40 of the most famous albums ever released by Impulse.

At its best, Impulse Records was a thought, an idea: Give jazz and jazz artists the respect and support the music deserves, and recognition will follow, as well as profits, however modest.

Kahn puts it best in his closing chapter, a tribute the musician who stood for that idea as much as the label did.

He writes, “John Coltrane claimed on the cover of A Love Supreme that ‘one thought can produce millions of vibrations.’ Time has proven him correct: his own ideas and recordings have vibrated in that very quality. The House That Trane Built – as a record label, a musical approach, and a more inclusive way of hearing the world—continues to stand.”

Gators Attack! (And Other Monstrosities)

Broadcast 7/21/2006

Posted here in consideration of MLK Day.

In one of Aesop’s fables, a scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream. The scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, "How do I know you won't sting me?" The scorpion says, "Because if I do, I will die too." The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream, suddenly, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown, but he has just enough time to gasp to the scorpion "Why did you sting me?" “Hey,” replies the scorpion: "I’m a scorpion. It’s my nature.”

You might remember one of the regional media’s recent wrongheaded endeavors, the alligator attack stories of few months ago. While, sadly, a number of people were killed in encounters with alligators, there was very little good reporting done on the set of stories, most of which instead seemed to vaguely suggest that the gators were attacking because they were monsters or were evil or had suddenly acquired a taste for human flesh.

No, few reporters – especially the usual local TV Bubbleheads – bothered to venture too far from the safety of the news van to do any real reporting. A reporter asks questions beyond the reach of, “Are you upset that your sister was just eaten by an alligator?” But a Bubblehead drops that bomb into the front yard of the grieving relative and lets the cameras roll. We needed real questions, such as: Was it mating season for the alligators? Did the unusually dry winter have anything to do with gators being so far afield? Could suburban encroachment on gator habitat be putting more people in harm’s way? These obvious questions were usually ignored for the sake of the sexy and terrifying tale of -- GATORS ATTACK! Lock up the kids and pass the ammo, Martha!

Such is the state of the news – especially local television news and 24-hour cable news – increasingly soaked in sensationalism and sentimentality and lacking the patience, courage, and wit to know an important story when it sees one.

Take, for instance – and far less trivially -- the death of 9 year old Sherdavia Jenkins, killed by a stray bullet while playing outside her home in Liberty City on July 1. Or 14 year old Markese Wiggan or 18 month old Zykarious Cadillion, two other South Florida children killed in the last three months in apparently random shootings. For too many people, these stories simply go in one ear and out the other, or the eyes glaze over. Sadly, because of the neighborhoods these children belong to, their deaths don’t count as much as does the violence done to children living in other places. Worse yet, the long-standing and specific problems that create something as shocking as a deadly stray bullet are not the problems that count as much in other South Florida communities – especially in most of the local news media. A stray bullet, after all, is a journalistic cliche for a bullet about which most people don’t care to know the circumstances of its particular velocity or vector.

Oh yes, the moment of violence is sensationalized and the day of grieving is sentimentalized by the Bubbleheads, but at the end of the broadcast day the cameras are turned off and most reporters are on to the next story. Few will stick around and ask more questions, the first being: What sort of factors produce a neighborhood where stray bullets can kill children? Not to point out the obvious here, but further investigation is in order about police presence, about playgrounds and activity centers, about overcrowding and affordable housing, about the displacement caused by gentrification, about guns and violence, about community expectations, and about Miami’s reverse-NIMBYism. Reverse-NIMBYism is that attitude of, “If it’s not it my back yard, it’s not my problem.”

But it is your problem – it is Miami’s problem. If we as a citywide community do not care enough about the killings of children like Sherdavia Jenkins by stray bullets, then what kind of place are we, really? Miami becomes then not the Magic City but the City of Scorpions, stinging and hard, certain to let others go down to doom in the depths that would take us as well.

Let us not be subject to our baser instincts – selfish, narrow, and cold. Let us come back to the painful story of Sherdavia Jenkins and ask the questions that properly address the complicated circumstances of her sad death. Let us, for once, not change the channel or turn the page and move on. Let us stay for more than a moment and be human -- as is our better nature.

Playlist - 88 Jazz Place - Monday

I don't want people to get the idea that all I do here on the PN blog is post playlists. It's just that this weekend I had a very busy time musically -- four out of five days I was on the air, and on Saturday we started with Straight, No Chaser. There will be more reviews and interviews, as well as podcasts, available here in the weeks and months to come. I've only just now gotten started on what the blog is supposed to be -- a place to find cool sounds and words first.

On another note, it certainly was fine to be playing jazz and blues on MLK Day. I felt just a little more connected to the issues and history of what Dr. King stood, fought, and died for -- civil rights, peace, equality, and social justice. I did my best to play a few songs here and there that recognize the tradition of struggle. Have a peaceful day, everyone. Me, I'm spending time with my family.

Song, Album, Artist
The Impaler, Michael Brecker, Two Blocks from the Edge
Early Autumn, Miami Saxophone Quartet, Midnight Rhumba
High Clouds and a Good Chance of Wayne, Wayne Bergeron, Plays Well With Others
Lotus Blossum, Various Artists, Lush Life: Story of Billy Strayhorn
52nd Street Theme, Dizzy Gillespie, The Very Best of. . . (Legacy)
How Many More Years, Howlin' Wolf, His Best (Chess)
How Happy I Am, Rev. Gary Davis, Heroes of the Blues (Shout)
Counting My Tears, Charles Brown, Trouble Blues
Leaving Trunk, Taj Mahal, The Best of. . . (Columbia/Legacy)
Don't Cry Baby, Etta James, Her Best (Chess)
Basehead, Corey Harris, Greens from the Garden
Blues for Miles (Hip-Hop Bop), Freddy Hubbard, Blues for Miles
Slings and Arrows, Michael Brecker, Tales from the Hudson
The Dark Keys, Branford Marsalis, The Dark Keys
To Be Young Gifted and Black, Nina Simone, The Essential Nina Simone
Park Palace Parade, Sonny Rollins, Sonny, Please
City Beat, Wynton Marsalis Septet, Citi Movement
Thandiwa, Steve Turre, Keep Searchin'
Rhythm-A-Ning, Ben Riley's Monk Legacy Septet, Memories of T
Psychedelic Sally, Horace Silver, Serenade to a Soul Sister
God Bless the Child, Billie Holiday, Lady Day: The Best of. . .(Columbia)
Sunset and the Mockingbird, Tommy Flanagan, The Brithday Concert
Lighthearted Intelligence, Cyrus Chestnut, You Are My Sunshine
Impressions, John Coltrane, The House That Trane Built
Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Nat King Cole Trio, Transcriptions
New Rhumba, Miles Davis, Miles Ahead
A Child is Born, Jones/McBride/Cobb, West of 5th
La Ronde Suite, Modern Jazz Quartet, Django
Mama Too Tight, Archie Shepp, Mama Too Tight
Fables of Faubus, Charles Mingus, Mingus Ah Um
Someone to Watch Over Me, Ben Webster, See You At The Fair
Stars Fell on Alabama, Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong: An American Icon
Bourbon Street Parade, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Songs of New Orleans
Amazing Grace, Cyrus Chestnut, Blessed Quietness
Portrait of Wellman Braud, Stephon Harris, African Tarantella

Playlist - Early Jazz Weekend - Sunday

Song, Album, Artist

Song for Bilbao, Michael Brecker, Tales from the Hudson
The Morning of This Night, Michael Brecker, Time is Of the Essence
Ezz-thetic, George Russell, Ezz-thetics
Calypso Blues, Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Sextet, Calypso Blues
Four, Conte Candoli, Powerhouse Trumpet
Honeysuckle Rose, Benny Carter, Further Definitions
Stop and Go, Wynton Marsalis Septet, Citi Movement
Four Brothers, Terry Gibbs, Findin' the Groove
The Rich and the Poor, Keith Jarrett, Treasure Island
You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To, Royce Campbell, Trioing
Lookear, Craig Buhler, Capistrano Sessions
Fi Fi Goes To Heaven, Joanne Brackeen, Fi Fi Goes To Heaven
He Who Hops Around, Marc Cary, Cary On
Alternate Route, Ron Carter, New York Slick
Come Together, Lynne Arriale Trio, Live
T 'n' A Blues, McCoy Tyner, The House That Trane Built
Black Coffee, Vanessa Rubin, Vanessa Rubin Sings
Alligator Strut, Anton Schwartz, Radiant Blue
Montono Blues, Kenny Burrell with Coleman Hawkins, Bluesy Burrell
I Want A Little Sugar in My Bowl, Nina Simone, Nina Sings the Blues
Came So Far, Guitar Gabriel, Deep in the South
Roller Coaster, Little Walter, His Best (Chess)
Back To New Orleans, Lightning Hopkins, The Best Of. . . (Bluesville/Prestige)
Vertigo Blues, Sue Foley, Where The Action Is
Black Water, Charlie Musselwhite, Delta Hardware