From: owner-exotica-digest@lists.xmission.com (exotica-digest) To: exotica-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: exotica-digest V2 #647 Reply-To: exotica-digest Sender: owner-exotica-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-exotica-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk X-No-Archive: yes exotica-digest Friday, March 10 2000 Volume 02 : Number 647 In This Digest: Re: (exotica) What is Jazz? (was Exotica issues) Re: Re: (exotica) Is Jazz What Re: Re: (exotica) Re: Exotica Kindergarten Re: (exotica) What is Jazz? (was Exotica issues) Re: (exotica) What is Jazz? (was Exotica issues) Re: (exotica) What is Jazz? (was Exotica issues) Re: (exotica) What is Jazz? (was Exotica issues) Re: (exotica) Cribbed Record Covers Re: (exotica) Cribbed Record Covers Re: (exotica) Cribbed Record Covers Re: (exotica) Jazz What Is Re: (exotica) What Is Exotica Re: (exotica) I'll Drink to That! Re: (exotica) What is Jazz? (was Exotica issues) Re: (exotica) I'll Drink to That! (exotica) Jazz What Is Re: (exotica) Is Jazz What Re: (exotica) Cribbed Record Covers Re: (exotica) Is Jazz What (exotica) Re: Pandora's Box (Boston) (exotica) Re: Pandora's Box (Boston) (exotica) [obits] Homar Hernandez,Robert Borlek Re: (exotica) hybrids (exotica) what is jazz - quotes RE: (exotica) Cribbed Record Covers Re: (exotica) What is Jazz? (was Exotica issues) (exotica) Re: arrriva la bomba (exotica) Ridin' in tiki style Re: (exotica) What is Jazz? (shut up already!) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 9 Mar 00 21:45:29 -0800 From: "B.J. Major" Subject: Re: (exotica) What is Jazz? (was Exotica issues) >Actualy there was quite a lot of thought put into that response. That bit of >parody perfectly sums up the zero thought of using a definition of jazz as >heard in "Mr. Holland's Opus" to make a point!! Sorry, but you misunderstood what I initially said in a BIG way. I NEVER quoted a definition of jazz from "Mr. Holland's Opus". I *only* quoted the phrase "notes on a page". [For those reading this who are not familiar with the movie, there is a scene where Mr. Holland tries to get across to a student that music is about more than just playing "notes on a page". It was not about jazz per se, but still fit the meaning of what I was trying to say]. >So "jazz has nothing to do with printed notation"??? I guess that means that >no place on earth is there sheet music available of jazz compoositions??? As far as I'm aware, improvised solos are composed as one goes along, and no, they are generally not written down. Once music is written down for someone else to perform it ceases to be improvisation. Sheet music that is available of "jazz compositions" does not of itself define what the essence of jazz is unless it includes SOME improvisation by one or more instruments. >I >guess Walter Wanderly was not a jazz artist because he used pre-set >arrangements. Walter Wanderley was a jazz artist because he was capable of improvising fluently within the pre-set arrangements--and I have the recordings to prove it. Regards, - --bj The Walter Wanderley Pictorial Discography: http://members.xoom.com/bjbear71/Wanderley/main.html http://bjbear3.freeservers.com/Wanderley/main.html # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 00:55:52 EST From: DJJimmyBee@aol.com Subject: Re: Re: (exotica) Is Jazz What In a message dated 3/9/0 9:01:00 PM, bjbear71@mindspring.com wrote: >Whether they were written yesterday or 30 yrs. ago, the basic definition >of jazz would not change because jazz has existed for many decades before >I was in college! Relax kid..Can't you see that "college" may be unhealthful for your musical identity? A little less pontification and dogma would serve you well. Please feel less of a need to prove yourself 'cause nobody's buying it in these parts. After all, time will tell...... >I won't say more than that because this whole debate is getting very >tiresome (for me). But wasn't it U who started it all with your insistence on definitions of "jazz"? >For anyone on this list with a sincere interest in having the "What is >Jazz?" question answered, I found an excellent website written by pros >that provides enough basic answers to get you started on your journey: What makes you think we are just starting to travel? You just jumped on the bus! Get to know your fellow passengers before making inflammatory statements like that ...JB # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 00:59:27 EST From: DJJimmyBee@aol.com Subject: Re: Re: (exotica) Re: Exotica Kindergarten In a message dated 3/9/0 11:58:52 PM, bumpy@megsinet.net wrote: >"Daddy...What's a Back Door Boy?" Sorry to excite you Mr. Bump!..its actually a Back Street Boy revamped for an imaginary Mad Magazine...I just can't help being a product of the Sexties...JB # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 03:05:56 -0500 From: Nat Kone Subject: Re: (exotica) What is Jazz? (was Exotica issues) At 09:45 PM 3/9/00 -0800, B.J. Major wrote: > >Walter Wanderley was a jazz artist because he was capable of improvising >fluently within the pre-set arrangements--and I have the recordings to >prove it. Why didn't you just say that in the first place? Now we have a working definition of jazz. It's music performed by someone who is capable of improvising. Nat # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 03:20:57 -0500 From: "Br. Cleve" Subject: Re: (exotica) What is Jazz? (was Exotica issues) At 12:45 AM -0500 3/10/00, B.J. Major wrote: >As far as I'm aware, improvised solos are composed as one goes along, and >no, they are generally not written down. Once music is written down for >someone else to perform it ceases to be improvisation. But one must listen to the current availability of so many 'alternate takes' on so many jazz reissues over the last few years to realize that the solos are all pretty much the same - most players have a few set licks that they play in a solo setting (within an individual song, that is) and take it from there. There seems to be only a slight variance here and there within the solos. Touring musicians, playing to different audiences in different cities every night, learn quickly what works within a musical setting and what doesn't, and repeat these one time improvisations so often that they might as well be written down. Except that there are slight variations to them nightly - usually in the middle bars. But when you get a good open and close, you stick with them. br cleve, touring the globe for a quarter century # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 10:02:52 +0000 From: Subject: Re: (exotica) What is Jazz? (was Exotica issues) Jazz also suffers from being recorded. Given that it is an improvised and spontaneous form of music, it primarily exists as a live performance rather than a recording. Once recorded, a single piece of music is fixed - to be played again and again, analysed and pored over, possibly promoting long-winded disussions about solos, improvisation and debates about what jazz is or isn't. Didn't be-bop players do their utmost to make their music as inaccessible as possible? Inaccessible, that is, until the man recorded it and stated getting into it. If any Londoners fancy hearing some cool and very professional jazz from some very talented musicians (who work over every style imaginable from James Brown to drum and bass and from reggae to rare groove) the place to go is the Notting Hill Arts Club, opposite KFC in Notting Hill, just near the tube on a Tuesday night. The band leader is Nathan Hanes (flute, clarinet, etc.) and they generally have a keyboard player, guitarist, bass and drummer. Unfortunately, they have recently got some drum and bass DJs in to spin tunes between sets - Goldie and LTJ Bukem coming along and thinking they own the place. These people! Charlie +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | This message may contain confidential and/or privileged | | information. If you are not the addressee or authorized to | | receive this for the addressee, you must not use, copy, | | disclose or take any action based on this message or any | | information herein. If you have received this message in | | error, please advise the sender immediately by reply e-mail | | and delete this message. Thank you for your cooperation. | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 10:12:04 +0000 From: Michael Jemmeson Subject: Re: (exotica) What is Jazz? (was Exotica issues) Charles_Moseley%MCKINSEY-EXTERNAL@mckinsey.com wrote: > > Jazz also suffers from being recorded. Given that it is an improvised and > spontaneous form of music, it primarily exists as a live performance rather > than a recording. Once recorded, a single piece of music is fixed - to be > played again and again, analysed and pored over, possibly promoting > long-winded disussions about solos, improvisation and debates about what > jazz is or isn't. But plenty of jazz was deliberately scored for records... Live performance is only one aspect of any music - i dislike the idea that live performance is always inherently better than records. # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 04:07:54 -0800 (PST) From: Peter Risser Subject: Re: (exotica) Cribbed Record Covers > Herb Alpert's "Whipped Cream" has been "referenced" > a number of times. I can only think of two. One is the Pat Cooper record, Spaghetti Sauce and Other Delights, where he's in a mound of spaghetti. The other is a punkish band (for some reason, I want to say Soul Asylum, but I don't think that's right) who do a parody called Clam Dip and Other Delights. That album mirrors the TJB album on both sides, with the comments on the back in the same format and everything. That's all I can think of... Peter __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 08:21:03 -0500 From: Nat Kone Subject: Re: (exotica) Cribbed Record Covers At 04:07 AM 3/10/00 -0800, Peter Risser wrote: > > > >> Herb Alpert's "Whipped Cream" has been "referenced" >> a number of times. > >I can only think of two. One is the Pat Cooper >record, Spaghetti Sauce and Other Delights, where he's >in a mound of spaghetti. The other is a punkish band >(for some reason, I want to say Soul Asylum, I have another one. I'm not going to go look for it but it has a black woman in the same basic pose. Of course the whipped cream stands out better on her skin. Nat # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 08:30:12 -0500 From: Brian Phillips Subject: Re: (exotica) Cribbed Record Covers Threre is also Sour Cream & Other Delights by the Frivolous Five, which features older, rounder people on it. "We're Only In It for the Money" by the Mothers of Invention is a direct stab at "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by the Beatles Somerset is a crib of darned near everyone, it seems! # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 14:38:57 +0100 From: Moritz R Subject: Re: (exotica) Jazz What Is Keith E. Lo Bue wrote: > Written language cannot fully define an inherently different and independent > means of expression, which is what that quote drives at. You'll fail every > time, if you try anything more exact than mere suggestion. One can't take > these books and come away with the blinders they create...the world is too > liquid for that, and boundaries blur more every day. Odds are these texts > were written a while ago? So why do you write at all? So, writing about music is like dancing about architecture... Hm, hm. Subsequently writing about architecture is like dancing about music. Sounds easy, but you don't dance 'about' music, you dance 'to' music. Subsequently dancing to music is like writing to architecture. So if writing to architecture is OK, why not writing *to* music? Instead of 'about'. I want this to be changed in the Exotica FAQ and in the statutes of info@exotica! It will free us once and for all times from the burdon of responsibility created by the philosophical dilemma of a connection between language and reality. Mo # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 14:39:53 +0100 From: Moritz R Subject: Re: (exotica) What Is Exotica Peter Risser wrote: > Okay, here's my take on Exotica, which I just > scribbled down for a FAQ I'm creating: > > How can you define exotica? It=92s a broad reaching term > for a music that primarily consisted of South Seas > influenced 50=92s instrumental pop, like Martin Denny, > Arthur Lyman and Les Baxter. Except there was no term 'pop' at the time and people most likely would h= ave called it Jazz. > In its broader > sensibility it represents any sort of backwater thrift > finds in the instrumental pop category from say, the > early fifties to the mid seventies, though naturally > there=92s stuff worth discussing before and after that > period. In this sense it=92s also known as Space Age > Bachelor Pad Music, Hi-Fi music, Lounge music and so > on. Some genres that fall under the general banner of > Exotica are: exotica, soft pop, now sounds, hi-fi > recordings, organ music, sixties soundtracks, > percussion explorations, moog showcases, brass > projects, production music, blaxploitation, > psychsploitation, prepared piano, spoken word, > industrial promotions, and anything general wacky or > off-key. I don't know... I'd rather say that Exotica together with all these wacky genres falls under the general banner of Incredible Strange Music... beca= use: Ronald Reagan =3D Exotica??? Mo # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 08:55:31 -0500 From: "Nathan Miner" Subject: Re: (exotica) I'll Drink to That! Oh, oh I know one! There's this wild/wacky song called "Wine Wine Wine" done by a 60's = garage/surf band. The tune can be found on the "Surfin' in the Midwest" = comp. "Wine wine drinkin' wine all the time......" - - Nate # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 08:37:52 -0500 From: Brian Phillips Subject: Re: (exotica) What is Jazz? (was Exotica issues) At 10:02 AM 3/10/00 +0000, you wrote: >Jazz also suffers from being recorded. Quite a lot of music does. Nothing beats live performance! Comedy can suffer from recording, too. Many of the vaudevillians never changed their act and if they got to record or be on the radio, it killed that material that was their bread and butter. Brian Phillips # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 09:03:53 -0500 From: Brian Phillips Subject: Re: (exotica) I'll Drink to That! >There's this wild/wacky song called "Wine Wine Wine" done by a 60's garage/surf band. The tune can be found on the "Surfin' in the Midwest" comp. There was the Renegades V - Wine Wine Wine Also, the Bobby Fuller Four recorded a song by the same name. # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 15:11:12 +0100 From: "Marco \\\"Kallie\\\" Kalnenek" Subject: (exotica) Jazz What Is > >I want this to be > > changed in the Exotica FAQ and in the statutes of info@exotica! It will > free us > > once and for all times from the burdon of responsibility created by the > > philosophical dilemma of a connection between language and reality. > Is Ludwig Wittgenstein still a member of this list? If not, can somebody please invite him to join us? What, he's dead? philosophycally yours, Marco > # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 06:53:02 PST From: "Robert McKenna" Subject: Re: (exotica) Is Jazz What >From: "Keith E. Lo Bue" >>excellent quote by Frank Zappa: > >"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." i can't think of a more fitting subject for dance than architecture. imagine a ballet about gehry's buildings? zappa said this because he wasn't anywhere near as smart as he liked to make out. check his lyrics. great musician. smartarse. no quality control. i agree with pretty much everything you said after that though. i also really like jimmybee's comment on the nature of failure and exotica. a seemless blend is not really exotica, it is the disruption of expectations which drives me to this music. much of this music is manufactured for market segments, through this we get to hear the background hum of culture through the decades. this music is meaningful in that it is a discontinuity in the smooth flow of marketing and consumption to our ears which allows us to interrogate culture and production. this is perhaps why a lot of people got turned on to exotica by industrial music and why a lot of people on this list have genuinely extreme tastes in music and musical provenance. as for the categorisation a la moritz and nat, it is the essence of the enlightenment project and empiricism. if you believe the use of people's intellects can enable us to understand the world better or make the world a better place to live in, de facto you believe in categorisation. categorisation is the scheme we use to assist us in dealing with the ineffable. excuse the lengthy wordy post rob ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 10:13:17 -0500 (EST) From: Bruce Lenkei Subject: Re: (exotica) Cribbed Record Covers I recently discovered, by way of an inner sleeve ad, that the first Beastie Boys album (the one with the tail of a jet on the cover) was a crib from, of all things, a Chipmunks album called "Around the world with the Chipmunks". The ad was pretty small, but it still looked like that was the source, as far as I could tell. ++++++++++++++++++++ Lenkei Design Graphic Design www.lenkeidesign.com ++++++++++++++++++++ # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 10:22:03 -0500 From: "Nathan Miner" Subject: Re: (exotica) Is Jazz What <> I just hafta "weigh in" here and state that I highly disagree with this = statement. - - Nate # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 10:33:52 -0500 (EST) From: djvinny@ix.netcom.com Subject: (exotica) Re: Pandora's Box (Boston) ******PANDORA's BOX******* "60's Euro & Exotica club" Sunday nights starting March 19th at the Lava Bar, 575 Commonwealth ave,Boston (617)267-7707 Top floor penthouse suite w/a 360 degree view of the Boston skyline 60's euro sexploitation flicks & 60's french music vids GoGo performances by Suzie Solitaire & Carrie Nation Chill out booths & large dancefloor Hosts: DjVinny (GoGo Empire) & Sir Richard (Phase4) Dj's spinning 60's euro soundtracks,Frenchie yeye,loungecore,& more! check out our cool flyer at: www.project3.com/pandora.htm # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 10:36:00 -0500 (EST) From: djvinny@ix.netcom.com Subject: (exotica) Re: Pandora's Box (Boston) ******PANDORA's BOX******* "60's Euro & Exotica club" Sunday nights starting March 19th at the Lava Bar, 575 Commonwealth ave,Boston (617)267-7707 Top floor penthouse suite w/a 360 degree view of the Boston skyline 60's euro sexploitation flicks & 60's french music vids GoGo performances by Suzie Solitaire & Carrie Nation Chill out booths & large dancefloor Hosts: DjVinny (GoGo Empire) & Sir Richard (Phase4) Dj's spinning 60's euro soundtracks,Frenchie yeye,loungecore,& more! check out our cool flyer at: www.project3.com/pandora.htm # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 10:58:02 -0500 From: nytab@pipeline.com Subject: (exotica) [obits] Homar Hernandez,Robert Borlek *Homar Hernandez SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Homar Hernandez, a songwriter who was to have been inducted into the Tejano Music Awards Hall of Fame, died Saturday of a heart attack. He was 57. He couldn't read music or play an instrument, but Hernandez composed 144 songs, 88 of which were published and recorded by some of Tejano's most famous stars in the 1980s and early 1990s. Among his compositions was the romantic polka ``Rosas para una Rosa'' (Roses for a Rose), which became a hit in 1985 for singer Ramiro ``Ram'' Herrera. Emilio Navaira, Shelly Lares, Laura Canales and Johnny Hernandez at Aztlan also recorded Hernandez's songs. - ------- ACTOR ROBERT BORLEK, 75, ASTRONAUT ON 1950S TV By Maura Kelly Chicago Tribune Staff Writer March 9, 2000 In the late 1950s, when Americans were focusing their fascination with outer space and the mysteries it held, Robert H. Borlek fed their children's imaginations by portraying a dashing, masked astronaut intent on saving the world. As Commander 5, Mr. Borlek played the lead role in the local children's television show of the same name that was set inside a fictional rocket ship. The show, which ran for five years on NBC in Chicago, featured Commander 5 as the hero whose sidekicks were a puppet named Max the Martian and another astronaut, Stubby, who provided comic relief. Mr. Borlek, 75, died Tuesday, March 7, after a long illness following a stroke. He had theatrical roots, with his aunts playing in vaudeville and the Ziegfeld Follies and an uncle who was a television star in Canada. In 1960, he co-hosted the Mental Health Ball in Chicago with Joan Crawford. # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 11:18:30 -0500 From: James McDonald Subject: Re: (exotica) hybrids Hi Nat, You hit the right button to stop me from lurking and bring me out into the flow of the discussion. Yes, I know Ernest Ranglin's "Below the Baseline". It's great stuff. Ernest is arguably one of Jamaica's best known Jazz (guitar) players. He started playing Ska and was involved in a lot of the early Jamaican jazz bands who eventually invented Ska music. Just recently I heard he put out a record together with Senegalese singer Baaba Maal, but I haven't managed to get a copy yet. If you dig Ernest and want to hear more Caribbean Jazz, you should also check out: Jazz Jamaica (from England but both records are out in the States on Rykodisk) Michael "Bammie" Rose (hard to find Japanese release called "Reggae Be Bop" but well worth it) Yardbeat (from Jamaica, but the album is available on Beatville records here in the States) Jump With Joey (I think Joey Altruda should probably be know to this list) Eastern Standard Time (ok, I've gotta put my pitch in for my own band... ) BTW, has anyone ever commented on this list before about Exotica songs being covered by Jamaican bands? James http://www.easternstandardtime.com At 07:12 PM 03/09/2000 -0500, Nat Kone wrote: >Speaking of jazz hybrids, are you folks familiar with the Ernest Ranglin CD >"Below the Bassline"? I guess they call it "reggae jazz". But I think >it's a great record and somehow I was reminded of it by our recent discussion. # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 11:32:36 -0500 From: nytab@pipeline.com Subject: (exotica) what is jazz - quotes The further jazz moves away from the stark blue continuum and the collective realities of Afro-American and American life, the more it moves into academic concert-hall lifelessness, which can be replicated by any middle class showing off its music lessons. Imamu Amiri Baraka [Leroi Jones] (b. 1934), U.S. poet, playwright. Daggers and Javelins, "Jazz: Speech At Black Film Festival" (1984). - ------ I've come close to matching the feeling of that night in 1944 in music, when I first heard Diz and Bird, but I've never got there. . . . I'm always looking for it, listening and feeling for it, though, trying to always feel it in and through the music I play everyday. Miles Davis (1926-91), U.S. jazz musician. Miles: The Autobiography, Prologue (1989). - ------- It seems to me monstrous that anyone should believe that the jazz rhythm expresses America. Jazz rhythm expresses the primitive savage. Isadora Duncan (1878-1927), U.S. dancer. My Life, ch. 30 (1927). - ------ Playing "bop" is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing. Duke Ellington (1899-1974), U.S. jazz musician. Look (New York, 10 Aug. 1954). - ----- Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy's playing blues like we play, he's in high school. When he starts playing jazz it's like going on to college, to a school of higher learning. B. B. King (b. 1925), U.S. blues guitarist. Sunday Times (London, 4 Nov. 1984). - ------ There's more bad music in jazz than any other form. Maybe that's because the audience doesn't really know what's happening. Pat Metheny (b. 1954), U.S. jazz guitarist. International Herald Tribune (Paris, 7 July 1992). - ------ Jazz music is an intensified feeling of nonchalance. Françoise Sagan (b. 1935), French novelist. Dominique, in A Certain Smile, pt. 1, ch. 7 (1956). - ----- Today he plays jazz; tomorrow he betrays his country. Stanlinist Slogan in the Soviet Union (1920s). - ----- Something was still there, that something that distinguishes an artist from a performer: the revealing of self. Here I be. Not for long, but here I be. In sensing her mortality, we sensed our own. Studs Terkel (b. 1912), U.S. author, broadcaster. Talking to Myself, bk. 4, ch. 4 (1977), on seeing Billie Holiday perform in Chicago, 1956. - ---- I can't stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession, let alone two years or ten years. If you can, then it ain't music, it's close-order drill or exercise or yodeling or something, not music. Billie Holiday (1915-59), U.S. blues singer. Lady Sings the Blues, ch. 4 (1956; written with William Dufty; rev. 1975). - ------ All quotes lifted from: The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, licensed from Columbia University Press. Copyright © 1993, 1995 by Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. - ----- Check this page to find tons o' quotations on tons o' topics: http://www.startingpage.com/html/quotations.html For instance: A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges. ~~ Benny Green ~ (Here's one for you, Vern!): Jazz will endure just as long people hear it through their feet instead of their brains. ~~ John Philip Sousa ~ Jazz came to America three hundred years ago in chains. ~~ Paul Whiteman ~ # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 08:21:13 -0800 From: Erik Hoel Subject: RE: (exotica) Cribbed Record Covers Actually, one of the members of this list (King Kini - I recall him posting here before) has a very cool website that does have a nice cover page containing some of these separated at birth/cribbed record covers. Goto: http://www.tamboo.com/clubvelvet/lp/ and scroll to the bottom. The Mills Brothers and Martin Denny?!! Too freaky... Erik - -- Erik Hoel mailto:ehoel@esri.com Environmental Systems Research Institute http://www.esri.com 380 New York Street 909-793-2853 (x1-1548) tel Redlands, CA 92373-8100 909-307-3067 fax # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 00 08:44:33 -0800 From: "B.J. Major" Subject: Re: (exotica) What is Jazz? (was Exotica issues) >At 09:45 PM 3/9/00 -0800, B.J. Major wrote: >> >>Walter Wanderley was a jazz artist because he was capable of improvising >>fluently within the pre-set arrangements--and I have the recordings to >>prove it. > >Why didn't you just say that in the first place? Because we were not talking about specific artists, initially. > Now we have a working >definition of jazz. It's music performed by someone who is capable of >improvising. The "capability" of improvising was one of the first things mentioned in the discussion (in the "soul vs. chops" argument)... Regards, - --bj The Walter Wanderley Pictorial Discography: http://members.xoom.com/bjbear71/Wanderley/main.html http://bjbear3.freeservers.com/Wanderley/main.html # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 14:28:29 +0100 From: Johan Dada Vis Subject: (exotica) Re: arrriva la bomba i know Jill & Chuck loved it, but i found it the most disappointing Irma "lounge" compilation to date. This is nothing else but Italian cover versions of late 60's pop, soul and R&B songs. Johan ----- # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 13:40:46 -0500 From: nytab@pipeline.com Subject: (exotica) Ridin' in tiki style Dig this von Franco Taboo Tiki Dyno Cruiser!: http://page.auctions.yahoo.com/auction/19503162 (Not my auction - I just love the way that thing looks!) - -Lou lousmith@pipeline.com http://metropolismag.com/new/content/inddes/au99joy.htm http://www.ksmc.com/collective/francobyesup.html http://www.lakecountrybike.com/dynocruse.htm # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 13:40:26 -0500 From: mimim@texas.net (Mimi Mayer) Subject: Re: (exotica) What is Jazz? (shut up already!) Hi y'all. I'm going fucking nuts with a crazed project that keep reincarnating back into lurid life as soon as I think I've finished it....BUT here's something I drafted yesterday about jazz. It's got that dance architecture quote going. Not attributed to Zappa --I thought that was said by a German intellectual--I mean beside Mo. (teasing you, honey) Mo wrote >There it is again, the old fear of categorization, of "defining" things. So= , >this entire thread was completely worthless, right? ...Is making >categories a crime? Does it limit me? ... Categorization is not a crime--I do think it's quixotic and difficult and fun...as long as the discussion is about playful exploration. Not winning. "My definitions and categories are the best!!!" That's when the categorization game limits me. It can twist my attention away from actually listening to music if I get too caught up in slotting-to-win. I forget that, for me, music is pure pleasure. Physical, emotional, or cerebral pleasure. So here's how some big-brainers define "jazz": A kind of music that emerged in the southern United states, particularly the city of New Orleans, around the end of the 19th century. The term itself, the origins of which are obscure, gained currency around 1915 and has since been applied to diverse and continually changing styles. Among the progenitors of these styles were Gospel singing, spirituals, and other types of singing current among black slaves, the music of brass bands, strong bands, and minstral shows, and probably rhythms of African drumming brought to the US by slaves. Throughout the history of jazz, its tonal language has been essentially that of Western Europe, combined, however, with characteristic inflections of pitch [see under Blues]. Other characteristics of much jazz are steady though often syncopated rhythms, established by a "rhythm section" most often consisting of drums, double bass (played pizzicato), or tuba, and piano; improvisation by soloists and groups within the framework of harmonic pattern, often that of popular song; and effects of timbre and intonation different from those employed in the tradition of Western concert music. The first two prominent substyles of jazz (antedating the term itself) were ragtime and blues. Others, in approximate chronological order, have been Dixieland (or New Orleans style), swing, bebop, progressive jazz, and most recently, free jazz (in which the use of steady rhythms and fixed harmonic patterns is largely abandoned). Music that attempts to combine the traditions of jazz with those of concert music is given the name "third stream." Don Michael Randel, ed. Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music. Belnap Press, 1978. The book IDs Randel as a professor of music at Cornell University. Entries are not credited to specific authors; the preface states he draw heavily from previous editions of The Harvard Dictionary of Music in compiling and editing the book. OK, the definition's got the improv stuff. It's got the "cries of an oppressed people" stuff. I suggest we also include something about syncopated rhythms in a general definition of jazz...which opens the door for lots of exotic percussion music to fit kinda into jazz. Uh-oh, mess alert! There's lots of stuff overlooked in this stiff little definition of jazz. =46or me one of the key attributes of jazz is what Brian talked about: it's music rooted in the body, not neceesarily the mind--it is f**k music in the same way rockabilly and not too hostile punk or hip hop and a boatload of other musics can be, including sexy exotica. Some jazz strikes me as cerebral--Ornette Coleman's *recorded* harmolodic music, fer instance. Heard live, though, harmolodic music goes right to the body, or through the plastic sax from Ornette's gut, heart, and groin directly to mine. And I thank him for the music itself and for the chance to live inside his imagination and connect to his livin' breathin' self. A livin' breathin' self expressed though pure sound and pitch and rhythm. What a fabulous gift to have! Someone said rather famously, Writing about music is like dancing about architecture. I don't entirely agree with that. But it does point out that writing about music is hard. I've stay with eXotica to read what other people have to say about music as much as anything else. And occasionally I'll stick my neck out and venture an opinion about music...but reluctantly. I'm a fan, not a musician or composer and I don't have the vocabulary to write about music eloquently, let alone with smarts. I end up using metaphors, analogies, etc. Bossaish indeed. Quoting Mo again: >The MORE I go into the deep of a subject, the freer my mind becomes, questioning the categories to = a degree where they are pushed beyond their own limits. So, please talk on. Find some other definitions of jazz here: A glossary of jazz terminology http://www.guitarmain.com/index_gl.html Marc Sabatella's jazz fundamentals http://www.outsideshore.com/primer/primer/ms-primer-3.html Evolution, Linearity, and Closure in Jazz History--more Sabatella http://www.outsideshore.com/cadenza/history.htm Etymology of the word 'jazz" from "So This is Jazz" by Henry O Osgood--for language buffs http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~nick/e309k/texts/osgood/osgood.html And tonight, I relax with my new girly cocktail, Sunrise Over Rancho Deluxe, (raspberry lemonade and much vodka, with a lime wedge) and a listen to Denny's Exotica I, listening specifically for "Jazz." I think I'll hear more "Jazz" listening to Lyman. Mimi # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ End of exotica-digest V2 #647 *****************************