Blown Up Too Many Differences

This final shot from the series was brightened by the negative colors coming forward . My intention was to brighten and make it CD sized and then after seeing the results I decided to blow it up again larger than it originally was made . It seemed like I needed a vacation from my usual post here in my blog . The picture here seems small in the presentation , smaller than I intended , infact back to near the size of the CD cover which will have dark print overlay with my recording information . It can be blown up by clicking the pic to see my intended effect and the subtleties of the painting .

I Want To Talk About You

I posted the link somewhere on this page on Facebook to a version of Coltrane playing "I Want To Talk About You". (I have had trouble posting this link so I am just printing it directly.) https://youtu.be/ADPm-3JMbwo I guess I will have to find it again to illustrate my catalyst of this idea I am writing which came from looking at that video . It was taken in Stockholm in 1962 . I don't remember if I saw it before or not . I did get a Cd from my public library recently that featured two separate performances by Trane and it well might have been one of them . The link I posted from Youtube had recording marks on it and gave it the illusion that it was filmed at the original site and concert . I don't really know right now about the history of the video but after watching the entire cut , I did have this question spinning around my head of "What happened to America , to music , and to us to send us to the current point we are in history ." Coltrane played that night so relaxed and not like he would play the same song several years later after he was affected by Albert Ayler , his own continued experiments , and the way the music world was turning till he passed . He played the melody with small embellishments and then showed his variations on the theme . His variations could have been played yesterday by one of our friends who had the benefit of hearing and being influenced by Coltrane . His solo was that timeless though the recording was before Kennedy was assassinated . There was another recording a year later that was just days before that terrible event ,one at The Newport Festival and later on Oct. 8th ,1993 live at Birdland .Indeed the tune developed it's own soul and identity over the last years of John's life . The sixty two version with the illusion of a bootleg from Youtube had a relaxed quality about it and I didn't want to hear McCoy play a solo and he didn't , Trane carried the entire vehicle and didn't extend the ending with a cadenza but simply said what he had to say in that simpler time before assignations , betrayals , and the changing of the American identity to a darker character . As I wrote a comment in Facebook , it just slipped off my fingers as I typed but I knew I would have to go back and re-think the enormity of the question ,"What happened to us ?" Jazz had taken a turn with Ornette and classical music began to accept the fringe elements like "Music Concrete" and electronic composers like Stockhausen were opening ears up to other possibilities by 1959 . Trane was finishing up his tour with Miles , sobered from heroin by 1958 and by 1961 or 62' his quartet was taken the form that makes their music together seem timeless . Perhaps the Youtube version I posted was of the young quartet . By the mid-sixties ,Nam was raging , Kennedy was dead , Johnson was losing support , King was achieving recognition , and an entire generation was involved in revolution against the status quo which featured the continued separation of the races and the subjugation of women . When Johnson abdicated his political position and didn't run for office in 1968 , the democrats tried to run the party line down the throats of a nation that wasn't buying it . The separation , the corruption ,and the misuse of power resulted in the breakdown of the democratic Party and a major loss to Nixon in one of the closest elections ever in this country . This split across the country was more than just the anti-war movement because the anti-war movement already had mostly Democrats . Johnson was demoralized , the Democrats were defeated and Nixon claimed the rewards and settled down to running another corrupt Republican administration . By 1972 , McGovern didn't really have a chance but Nixon still employed "Dirty Tricks" to put the icing on the cake which was hidden behind the curtain of "Executive Privilege". In the flurry of those years , Coltrane's death in 1967 became just another name in a long list of tragic endings that went on and on till the Kent State Massacre which proved that the government wasn't afraid to lower it's guns against it's own constituents . Is it any wonder that the seventies brought nothing but coke and disco , money and the lack of aesthetic value . Elvis shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone , just another name in a flow of names like Hendrix and Joplin that had already succumb to self indulgence on the public music trail . The finish of the Teddy Kennedy run for presidency was an ugly murderous deal with undertones of sex and alcohol and the last hope of bringing back that "Camelot" went down the toilet .Perhaps the only great joy of the seventies was "Saturday Night Live" which promised a laugh at the entirety of it though it was a participant in the entirety . If music , art, painting , plays , and even current television shows are a reflection of our times , then perhaps there are no real surprises except we don't really see actual art anymore . Art became what sells instead of art being in demand because it is art .What is art ? Well , art isn't Motown groups being taught to dance like the other groups ;it isn't bands learning cover records or synthetic groups produced by large companies to capitalize on the current moment . It isn't a dance that talks about their music as if they created their music . It isn't the "Standard Contract" or ASCAP or BMI or the loss of the copyright or the publishing on original work to people who are little more than identity thieves. We have elevated the "Crook" and raised our glasses to the connivers , the covetous , the flim flam men who have finally come to live in Washington DC ,growing tired of the naked artist who had such a poor fight , anyway . It is hard to continue to write about the downers of modern history to illustrate a question of "What happened?" Dwelling upon this idea might let my guard down , as if I could do anything about what has happened in the past or what is happening right now . This illusion of democracy should be seen as an illusion . The flag waving should stop for a while so we can find out what is wrong here .In the sixties and seventies there was a bad deal where you gave a guy twenty dollars and he told you to wait in the hallway till he got back with the pot . The would be dealer never comes back and it doesn't take you long to realise that he won't be back but that doesn't change the way you feel or the fact that the money is gone . Last September the Bush administration hurried a deal brought forth by an unelected official, Paulson , which ended up costing 750 billion dollars in the waning moments of that administration . This year the Obama administration brought about and continued the same deal . Same deal , different faces , same hallway , the same foolish feeling , the same irate stupid way you feel when you lose money the same way you lost it once before . The government has lost it's checks and balances . ....But it is hard to continue to focus backward . The Trane piece is still vibrant and valid . It shows a simpler time , a more relaxed time . It is a reflection of our time . What happened to out time ? I can't find it all or I can't focus , or I refuse to dwell upon this negative presentation any longer . The current news on television and in blogs involves the resurgence of the "Taliban" with the same kind of abuses of women in the name of Allah as they brought forth in 1996 before the invasion of Afghanistan . The news will bring forth pictures of protesters , many against the war , some against abortion called "Right to Life" or against the right of a woman to control her own body . These two images are not much different than 1962 except we didn't care about what was happening in Afghanistan in 1962 . The current word "Creationism" is yet another word that brings up the arguments decided in the "Scopes" trial well over a hundred years ago . While we continue to look backward philosophically as human beings , the music has been altered and the mood is changed . It won't come back . The relaxed quality of Trane in 1962 was gone before he died in 1967 . Our music shows us the corruption of the "Sacred Cow" capitalism has affected us all . The sophistication of popular music in it's mixes and the production line of singers coming off the press shows us exactly how much the big wheels that are producing , promoting , and profiting from this vehicle have improved since they were taking the publishing rights as producers in the nineteen fifties . It is amazing that such beautiful , sophisticated women who sing in tune and speak clearly represent what is now called "Country Music" which used to be rock and roll . The twang still exist in the men who wear cowboy hats inside the buildings of the city as if insecure that people won't recognise them without their name tag . The rock and roll groups are head bangers wearing make up , cartoons of characters once in comic books much as the "Rappers" are comic book villains , cursing and sneering ,pretending to be a threat to the society they are exploiting . People who continue to play the music of the soul groups of the sixties can't bring back the mood and can't turn the world around with nostalgia , the world can't go backward . Trane once played and some people knew he was valuable and wanted more but the world changed and so did Trane reflect that change as it changed . Looking at a picture , a video of the illusion , an illusion of a video shot ,catching un-posed reality , a concert from over forty years ago in another country , another world , makes me long for simpler times . The advancements over these forty years are magnificent and those complicated turns in events also can't be put back in the bottle . What happened to us ? Tomorrow came . What else is there but today and tomorrow ? Yesterday can't be changed anymore than the video of Trane .It is a painting of time , a few brush strokes with selected colors ,stuck in itself . Enjoy it like an aged wine . I was happy to find the video of Coltrane and hear his painting , from another genii , another bottle that can't be forgotten or re-stopped , the richness of the computer and the interaction and sharing of the Internet . This link to the video which can't be embedded is from Nov 19, 1962 , he just lays it out here . What happened after then ? Gee, I mean from Kennedy on to the current 750 billion dollar plus - drug deal gone wrong . Maybe Trane saw the bad train coming and got off the boat but was screaming about it before he left . Boy , the hits keep on coming.

Book Burning and the Public Library

The public library used to be a place where reference books and other material was stored . You might find obscure ideas there as well as opinion and directions on ideas one wouldn't necessarily have in you own home . Here in Maryland I was fortunate to be able to check out vinyl records from my library by the late fifties . The jazz and classical sides that I wasn't spending money on unless I thought I just had to have a copy were another luxury item taken for granted especially by me , a denizen of the library. Today my public library has "Pop" Cds , videos,as well as expensive comic books .While they still have reference books , in fact a reference section , they tend to become more and more generic instead of introspective into the diverse subjects of the world .I have spoken with the buyers for the systems of two local counties and the reasoning behind this trend and the general answer is that "Circulation" brings more funds to buy and support the library system . The quick circulation of popular music CDs brings attention to the entire system even though the circulation drops off and dies as that CD loses popularity to another "Pop" side . This ,unfortunately, has gone the same way with printed matter .

In the early eighties I bumped into a book by an obscure archaeologist , Barbara Thiering , called "The Qumran Origins of the early Christian Church" . After reading her book and having it out for the limit , I went to a drug store and copied it page for page because I was so impressed and books published in Australia weren't found on the shelves of the mall unless it involved Olivia Newton John . I tried to get more books by "Thiering" as years went by and she produced more and they were available for a while through the library system . It wasn't long before her books became "Reference" material and then I had to send away to specific library systems available across the United States . Her books ,ironically, could still be found in seminaries and Christian Colleges ,for instance "Oral Roberts University " had copies for a while but eventually they became totally unavailable through the system .

I knew that Barbara Thiering now had a London publisher and had ,what might seem , a greater world wide accessible product . In today's world of "Amazon" and the Internet , in fact , her books are buy-able but not available to kids coming into the library anymore . I have joked about it being in the "Book Burning" section but I am afraid that joke is very close to where it actually is hidden . I have been fortunate to have found Barbara Thiering online and have had some correspondence with her and have been flippant enough to suggest that if she published a book as fiction , she might get better response . I also suggested this wise crack to another brilliant writer I met here in Cyberspace , Ahmed Osman , whose books "Stranger in the Valley of the Kings" and "Moses , Pharaoh of Egypt" also used to be on the local library shelves .

The fact is that we really aren't too far away from "Book Burning" as a human race . When John Lennon remarked that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus the response to some people was to have a Beatles record burning . In recent years controversy about Samuel Clemens has come to fore in the attempt of changing the language of an era , our history found between the lines in fiction like "Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn". It is ironic that Clemens might be controversial today for the use of the word "Nigger"when , at the time, it might have been controversial in the suggestion that all men in America should be and free .I don't think that Clemens will achieve "Book Burning" status (except in a few towns). I now appears that the "Taliban" are coming back to power and in fact the United States is willing to bargain with them right now .The Taliban are supposedly the lesser of the two evils in Afghanistan . "Taliban" over "Al Caeda" and Bin Laden in spite of their history of the abuse of women in the name and guise of Allah . It's almost as if we forgot about the football fields of Afghanistan where women were shot in the back of the head for not wearing a "Burka". It is unbelievable .

Diplomacy might cover a multitude of sins yet we , as a democratic people , still are looking back at Roe Vs. Wade and are willing to debate an idea like the right of a woman to abort an unwanted child . This right to life or right of choice would seem without question except for the fact that we also seem to equivocate around the "Scopes" trial and "Darwinism". Religious mythology versus science takes too much attention in a government that was supposedly designed to separate religion from government because of what the founding founders learned from their own closer history with the "Church of England". Can we not remember anything ?

It was last year that the question arose in this country about weather "Torture" should be used on prisoners . I thought that the "Spanish Inquisition" had proven than people will confess or say anything to get out of torture . People said that they could fly and implicated their neighbors to be killed instead of them . It is incredible that we can go backward and forget so easily . "Book burning" is a lot gentler than "People burning" so you might say ,"Don't complain!" That is don't complain till they start burning you .

I miss the library of old though not too long ago . America once was a country that was open to ideas and theories beyond the conservative line . The word "Liberal" has become a dirty word in popular radio . The demonetization of the media as "The Liberal Press" is meant to discredit politically and is an opinion and is obviously not a reality in every case ,for instance "Fox News" or the stations that support Rush Limbaugh and his broadcast. The free press is missing in the library , at least the pressing ideas and theories that are contrary to the religious mythology that is prevalent in this country . I wish I could believe that this is a place of religious freedom but I am afraid that when you scratch the surface of America you come out with a "Theocracy" founded in Judaism . It is ironic to me that Judaism might be founded in a Theocracy that was invented in Egypt by a Pharaoh who attempted to dictate monotheism to a country that all ready had freedom of religion . "Thou Shalt Have No Other God Before ME" , the first commandment of Akhnaton , the self professed son of Aten , whom you can only access through him , certainly seems familiar somehow . I wish I could find out more about him but a lot of the theories are in the "Book Burning" section and no longer available because Brittany Spears has a new CD out this month and the funding has been cut in favor of circulation .

Theatrics

I had a vision , a theatrical vision of a presentation as it might be presented . Thinking about this idea I realized that the occurrence had already happened without the theatrics . In 1972 the New York Free Jazz Festival had "Happenings" at all the major parks where there might be sixty men on the central stage playing at once . The free idea and cacophony were there but there was no direction . As a bassist in the sixties at jazz sessions with tunes that went on for days it seemed , I thought to myself , "These horn players are coming out of the woodwork ," as my fingers bled on the strings and my hands got cramps . Horns are really wonderful instruments that represent each individual clearly yet they often stand or sit in a row , moving together in big bands , moving rhythmically in soul or pop bands . In the free atmosphere I can see horn players draped across the stage , standing on a spiral staircase stage right , hanging one foot off the stage ,stage center , sitting at a stool at a bar ,stage left , hanging around the drum set and the bassist near the center backstage and all playing different ,floating free parts .

The Coltrane recording called "Ascension" is a similar sound , also the Ornette piece "Free Jazz" has that feeling yet both also have a desperate quality to them that isn't necessary . Players can play free without screaming to get attention and they should be directed theatrically in a presentation instead of being fenced in to positions that inhibit instead of freeing their minds and attitudes. The picture of the tenor player blowing upward in an approximation of response to his own music is theatrical as is the trumpet player playing with his horn raised into the air . In this day of extensive miking and amplification , the projection of the sound isn't necessary yet the theatrics get passed over except by the front man who actually gets more attention because of his theatrics .

The "air guitar" has actually become a modern computer game . People are perfecting their theatrics without even learning how to play the instrument at all . This does say something about the importance of theatrical presentation and how much attention it demands . Chuck Berry managed to play his blues and still "Duck-walk" and this was a stage act that brought him more attention . The continuation of guitar theatrics with Peter Townsend and his eventual theatrical destruction of his instrument brought excitement to the audience almost like a wrestling event . Jimi Hendrix also capitalized on "Real" guitar theatrics with his sensational burning of his instrument and even masturbatory movements . The current game abut rock guitar ,using a simulated instrument uses the choreography of these actual performers to bring the illusion of performance to an amateur gamer.

Louis Jordan used his horn to amplify points during his show . Louis Armstrong also used his own version of theatrics to cover his loose improvisational skills . Sam Butera had a classic line for his solos with the "Louis Prima Show". The point of bringing up all these "Louies" is that theatrics are missing in most serious jazz presentations . Free jazz ,generally, isn't given any direction at all .

The vision I had was of cyber friends , at a distance , contributing to my own free music . Recently , playing loose and leaving space , I could imagine everyone adding parts by recording with one of my cuts and sending me a MP3 to mix into the whole . The more I thought of it , the more I could see Noah Howard hanging a foot offstage , John Desalm . leaning against a wall with his horn up , Marshall Keys blowing center , right stage ,looking directly at the audience , Pete Barembregge leaning on a bar stool ,stage left , Doc Holbert playing his trumpet ,looking toward the second row center , Vince McCool playing with his horn down next to the drummer and bass player . Larry Guggenheim is playing his guitar next to his amp looking toward the drums .The vision is of music being played separately yet together , freely , yet choreographed for this production . I know that the individual calling of the musicians , some big band , some soul bands, some free jazz , and some rock , are diverse yet I still insist that they play together freely , whatever comes will be . The picture of the event is also part of the event much as noise can be part of modern music . There is no life without airplanes , trains, cars , and the cacophony of people talking , one man whistling a different tune than you , a radio in a car going by , the sound of wheels traveling from one direction to the next in the rain covered surface of the road . This is modern sound and music , the fuzz tone guitar with a phase shifter is a jet going by high above .

The cacophony of noise , of different musics are the music of free jazz , of ears opened to the possibilities of the future sounds and what the future will bring . I still would like to bring forth an event of this nature yet , in a way , I am afraid to present the idea . I know that in this machine there are different worlds in every person . The aesthetic idea is hard to present in a serious context to other serious musicians who are involved in their own worlds . We must remember that once there was a time when we all were inspired with music and not in our little boxes that became "Jobs" . Perhaps this is also the state of modern man , that is isolation in the face of such intense communications . Cell phones , computers , telephone answering machines , and music yet this takes us apart as well as much as it brings us together . The irony of the music of our times , not "Theo-phony" as in hurricanes , earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions ,but "Theo-Funny" as God laughs at our futile attempts to find reason in all this . Musical ideas can only be written about for so long because it has to be played and listened and experienced . The painting is still in my minds eye waiting to be brought to fruition .

Strange Bedfellows of Memory

This year I was given a comedy CD called "Teen Comedy Party" which included a cut that I was involved with by singing the part of the character "Tony Rosatoni" in a commercial about his appearance in the econolodge behind the airport . It featured clips from some of his "big tunes" , almost as if it were a commercial that was selling a CD. Listening this morning I remembered playing a place on Long Island called "Foxes and Hounds" where I sold Sinatra songs . It seemed I was thrust into this character back then in 1972. I have often said that I don't "play by ear" but "for fear" and this is an example of one of those occasions where I was trying to continue to support myself by singing though I wasn't really the character I was portraying . The "Foxes and Hounds" was a trip in itself which brings memories of sounds and taste , the taste of the bacon cheeseburgers I couldn't pass up as I drove across the bridge out of Manhattan's upper East Side toward Long Island and a town called "Rockville Center" , another recurring name for me . I drove a lot of the days of the week out there ,including Sunday when I had a weekly afternoon job during that time playing at the "Village Vanguard" with Noah Howard and his band . The contrast of the two identities from the piano might have brought about a deep schizophrenia in other , more susceptible pianist but I played by fear , anyway . I would drive to Long Island after playing the Village gig many times already spent by the music played there .

Noah has been consistent as recognisable a free jazz alto sax player . His work on ESP Records in the mid-sixties is still a classic representation of that era and genre . The construct of the tunes were quite loose and brought about a creativity that is still exciting when you listen to the live recording that was eventually done from the location . It is hard to believe that I would pull in the reins and sing on Long Island after playing such abstract music that was outside the box . One of the drummers that played the Long Island job with me was Joe Gallavan , another free jazz , outside player in his day gig . Driving back from that job I was pulled over by the police who went through all things in search of drugs that weren't found . He said that the reason he pulled me over was that I was speeding away fro the light though the car really didn't have much power with the organ and amps in it . It was a 1964 Dodge Dart with that push button transmission . It was painted brown by hand with a brush and not very attractive like the police car which happened to be a brand new Cadillac with no markings . I had Pennsylvania tags which got me around the exorbitant price of insurance in New York City and that was probably what really got the Long Island cop's attention at three in the morning .

From 1972 on I seemed to have a different band every night . I couldn't keep men together but did get work from agents and by knocking on doors . I had a lot of "Rock" work as well playing top forty or pop songs . I tried to keep the same drummers as long as I could but the world kept on turning and there was no solid ground for me for several years of this madness . Playing in Teaneck New Jersey where there were trees reminded me of Silver Spring Maryland and I eventually moved down here only to find that the Silver Spring in my memory didn't exist any more . Silver Spring reminded me of Teaneck and I am sure that Teaneck has gone the same way as Silver Spring .

I don't remember when I did the initial recording of the "Tony Rosatoni" character for Dave Nuttycomb but it was quite a while ago . It might have been as far back as the late eighties while the CD itself was released in 2000 which included material written by Dave and his witty friends . There are forty cuts on the side and "Tony" is only one of the characters . I really wasn't aware that there was a CD made and there was a lot of water over the dam since then . This was also the case with Noah Howard , in a way . I knew when the recording was originally made at the "Village Vanguard" and heard the playback that night which was supposed to be released someday but I never saw it in record form . In about 1998 my friend ,Len Cohen ,who was a web master among his many talents , contacted Noah Howard in Brussels . Noah was friendly and eventually came to New York to play the " Knitting Factory ", a Free jazz television show , among his gigs in the US . He promised to burn me a CD copy of the record and left the copy with a friend of his in NY but I never got a copy . The CD of "Noah Howard Live at the Village Vanguard" was made and released in end of 2004 by a fellow in Chicago who sent me a copy and I was able to hear it after thirty years or so . The recording did hit the spot though I had remembered it a little different . The listing has one drummer , Rashid Ali , while I thought we had two drummers , the other guy being the guy who was with us week after week , Bobo something ... sorry , I can't remember his name anymore at all even though it was unusual . I also remember a third horn ,Benny Maupin , playing the bass clarinet with Noah Howard on alto and Frank Wright on tenor . I wondered if the CD had been edited to exclude Maupin but I keep forgetting to ask Noah . The music is out of print again and just more baggage to worry with if you dwell upon the incidentals .

In the last ten years I have gotten involved with a computer and found out more about communications online .I am happy to be in touch with Noah again as well as Dave Nuttycomb . Perhaps some of the blanks will be filled in and perhaps it is better to look forward and not backward . Len Cohen died in March 2003 but he initiated me into the Internet . When I play "My Man's Gone Now" sometimes I think of Len but today I realised that sometimes I am thinking of myself ,looking back . My grandmother told me not to look back too much because I would probably bump or trip over something as I was walking forward in life. Memories are not what they appear . Impressions of the past can be better or worse than they really were at the time .Things aren't what the seem to be right under your nose day to day . Whatever happens , you have to take one step at a time to go forward.

Tripping

It is funny to me when I hear the phrase "I'm trippin'" and the people aren't trippin' at all , in fact they are really straight guys using drug codes . It is amazing to me how so much drug and jail vernacular has infiltrated the every day language of the straight folks , the hard workin' Christian folks , as if the rest of the world is just sitting on their thumbs . The politicians have played this phrase so often so, bitterly often , almost like the phrase "The silent majority" which represented the people supposedly backing the Viet Nam War ,or whatever the the Nixon administration was pushing . we have gotten so used to spin that we , as a people , can't see what anything means anymore . But " I'm Trippin' " . Yea right !

I looked around Facebook and didn't see any music from the musicians so I deleted my posts , my links , my music . It is nice that I feel rich enough to give away my efforts but , gee, if I am a sore thumb , why stick out ? No, I am withdrawing . I remember having a friend . My friend said, "Don't betray yourself ." He also told me not to apologise for being human and exposing my tears as well as my joy . He was the one who said , "Don't be let down by the lack of response on the Internet ,most people just don't have anything to say ." I know that some people hunt and peck but , then again , I know that some people have no problem typing , they just really don't have anything to say . It is a mystery to me when I look in the mirror as I am driving and there is a car five feet behind me with a driver who is rapt in conversation on the cell phone . I have to wonder , "Is this one of the people with something to say ?" "Why does he have to be so close behind me ?" It is like Moby Dick driving behind me and beckoning in a way from my mirror at sixty miles an hour . With all the tools , the Internet , the cell phone , and the familiar vernacular from jail and drugs , I am fooled into thinking that there are other people who understand something about anything other than the party line and I forget that I am in Washington DC , another version of Hollywood . Is there anything real here at all ?

Last week I remembered a joy of singing , of playing , of being alive . My expression of the recognition fell on the pavement like an executive in the crash of 1929 . Maybe the garage bands still have some semblance of joy , maybe not . A lot of the bands really were just copying what was already done , performing in public the material of other bands . A lot of the bands just did the same show night after night even though the show was original . I mean playing the same tune over and over again and all it became was money , a job . Some people think this was adulthood . How many times have I heard the phrase , "Well, I used to play but , you know , I have a family ..." Was this an excuse or and explanation for the lack of commitment or the lack of joy , or the lack of actual ability ? I don't know . I do know that when I send a message and get no response to the message , it reminds me of my friends warning and the "Adult" nature of what became of the musicians , the pseudo artist who went into work , hammering away , with all the tools and no soul . I don't mean soul in the sense of "Soul music" or the vernacular where now only black people can use the word , another jailhouse , drug phrase that is watered down , I mean " Where is the beef?" Where is the essence of the craft of Bach , of Stravinsky , of Charlie Parker , Dizzy Gillespie , and the call that brought the modern musicians into playing in the first place ?

We are faced with irony . Wynton Marsalis is Mr. Jazz and the guy doesn't even swing . He is the darling trumpet player in the same tradition of Chet Baker , Miles Davis , and Freddy Hubbard , used by Columbia and eventually set aside for another darling . Marsalis can spout lies and bigotry and be respected in the world of spin . After all he is Black , that makes it all OK , right ? He does play classical trumpet too, doesn't he ? Wait a minute ! The guy doesn't swing ! The emperor has no clothes ! Marsalis is just the tip of the iceberg. It is like blaming the entire economic crisis on "AIG" . "AIG" is only part of the whole . We , as a people have sanctioned the entire climate that brought about a decline . We have accepted "Spin" ,lies as a way of life.

I saw a comment on "Youtube" yesterday as I visited an old video of Frank Sinatra singing . The comment below the video included "Sinatra was the most over-rated singer ...." . This smug remark might be an opinion or it might be someone trying to be accepted in a climate where it has become fashionable to criticize ,Ala MTV ,and not recognise.Seeing this remark reminded me of Sinatra with the Tommy Dorsey band traveling the country in one night stands , a way of life that wasn't easy. Musicians used to make a living in this country . We moved from town to town and not just the big acts . It occurred to me that while Sinatra's singing might have changed , especially at the end of his life , he still was a character that was interesting to a generation because he was among those who were subjected to public scrutiny ,living his life in the camera , revealing his talents and flaws . Still it seemed easier to criticize Sinatra than Marsalis . Marsalis has defenders who spout the party line like a Jehovah's Witness at the door , like ditto heads for Limbaugh . Where is the beef? What happened to the essence of American music ? Where is the soul ?

We have accepted music as a contest on television , a contest that has commercials , a corrupt contest that smugly says "This poetry is not as good as that poetry because it doesn't sell soap as well ." So the sacred cow of capitalism is now running the entire show . A singer can't be a singer and sing the melody written by the composer , the singer must add the current appoggiatura , sometimes entire phrases that are not the melody . The current Southern Baptist Church cliches were fun when Ray Charles introduced them into popular music 1956 but now they are monsters , evil monsters , embellishments added and endorsed by capitalism and not art . Art was never a contest like football . A contest with all the people singing loud ,emotional high notes doesn't show a culture that is aware of the the variations necessary to create art . Music is soft and loud , joy and sadness as is life . It can be a painting , a depiction of the experience of the artist . It isn't going through the motions , showing up for work , using the current appoggiatura, or what the sponsor directs . Art exist because it has to exist not because it is told to exist or because an audience is directed to recognise that it exist . The sacred cow is naked . Capitalism has brought us to the current lack of charm , the current economic crisis , and the illusion of popular art . Greed wasn't the catalyst of the troubadours yet the troubadour brought changes in society like the idea of choosing ones own mate or marrying for love . This concept wasn't a universal quest . The poetry brought forth the question of the possibility to an entire world . The church may have supported organist and composers but it never supported questions . The current church of Capitalism also doesn't support questions in fact what it endorses and supports is conformity and acceptance in favor of the product .

The Emperor is naked ! Doesn't he know? He might be busy on the cell or texting a message even though he really doesn't have anything to say . Maybe he's just "Trippin" .

The Facebook Conspiracy

Recently , I joined "Facebook" . I did apply in August of this year but found that they wanted my license picture or some form of identification and backed out . Last week I decided to take a pic of me holding my license from my camcorder . It came out blurry but they accepted it so I could upload some of my music if I wanted . I did upload music and photos of paintings much as I have on other sites I have built that have no social interaction . In under a week I build a rather complicated set of pages , some of which I actually couldn't seem to navigate myself . I was happy to connect with quite a few people , some of whom I haven't seen in a long time . Generally , the "Facebook" thing was coming along till last night when , out of the corner of my eye, I saw the CBS News saying something about "Facebook".

I was happy that the article came fairly quickly in the program as it seems when I tune in to find out something about the morning weather , I always catch the weather person saying , "When we come back , we'll talk about the coming blizzard.." , or something of that sort . The "Facebook" story was about the fact that "Facebook" claims ownership of everything that is uploaded to their site . In the television article there were family pictures and a mother saying something about how she didn't want those pictures to be used in the future by "Facebook" . I thought to myself ," Who would want photos of that ugly baby ?" It also occurred to me that my mug shots would sure not be sought out by the local pedophiles or father rapers or who ever the threat is coming from , anyway . The doctored photo shown here of me and "Beka of Atenbrook farm" or Akhnaton's sister who married her her own father Ammonophis III about three thousand or so years ago, also seem to be not exactly what would be sought after in "Facebook". What did make me delete most of my uploaded photos and music was after I went into the terms and conditions of "Facebook" and found exactly what the CBS News was reporting , namely that "Facebook" claimed ownership of all things published on their sites for perpetuity . Gee , "Perpetuity" is a long time . I probably won't last till the time comes , if it ever comes . There are groups of "Facebook" participants joined together in class action suits to test the legality of the terms and conditions set forth by "Facebook" . I wonder if I will live to see the outcome of that , oh , I probably will . I never thought I would live this long and even last week I wondered if I would live to see my birthday a few days ago . I made it !

Those things coming out of the corner of the eye can be informative as well as erroneous . I mean , sometimes you merely get an impression . If you see a car coming at you out of the corner of your eye , you tend to move . it isn't that one doesn't occasionally see things or imagine things and jump when there is nothing . Some things are more obvious than others like the weather . Bob Dylan once wrote ,"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows ," yet it would be nice if the weatherman could tell you if there is an accumulation of snow expected in the morning . Sometimes I think that the local weather people are more involved with maintaining their expensive suits than predicting actual weather events . They seem to just fill air time with promises of predicting what will be when they never say anything at all . This is a lot like the football commentators who always say something like "You have to move the ball down the field ." Football fans , in general , already have the gist of the goals of football . I mean , you end up having to get up in the morning to find out what is happening instead of watching it on the news the previous night . It might not be the actual report or the way it is reported but the way you think about it . You can't always believe what you think .

I saw a self help program , again out of the corner of my eye , where they gave many points about positive thought and movement and changing your life , most of which I forgot as soon as it was mentioned . The one point I did remember was ,"Don't always believe what you think ." Every moment we all are imagining many ideas , they come and go , some stick to the mind , and some don't , just like the dreams we have when we are asleep . Sometimes thoughts of jealousy or of devious conspiracies that would be seen as schizophrenic proof to phychoanalyst , come and go with the rest of the thoughts . This doesn't mean that your wife or husband is cheating or that your friend at work is trying to get your job , in fact , they are just fleeting thoughts without substance . You can't really believe everything that comes to mind . The thoughts of murder and suicide come and go yet most people don't act on these thoughts except for those who really do have schizophrenic symptoms , imagining and believing things that have no substance , acting on their dreams . Those father rapers sure are a strange group . What could they be thinking ? Oh well , they probably just don't get the credit they deserve or something like that ...

All this has made my "Facebook" site come to a clean start . I will probably be more careful what I am posting but I will bring back some of the music and a few paintings . I might even go out searching for ugly babies that I can store in my photo album . My blog might be still be harmless enough for "Facebook" . It is like the idea of the government looking in and reading the Email of the American people . What dummy has that job ? This is just another example of military intelligence . In passing , for that poor FBI or "Homeland Security" agent ,I might as well put the word "Taliban" just to get on the national weather map .