Lazz

Oh my goodness! I have a fan club?

Cool. Great going Finn.

Sweet. Thanks a bundle. Looks like an interview with my corrupt self is impending. Stevie the P is hurling questions across the ether at me right now. That'll teach you.

Get strung out and don't fret the small stuff.

Hardly a hobby. More essential survival.

Whenever I get any spare time, I go to sleep. And I do kind of "like" the law. When I finally took myself back to school as what was laughingly called a "mature" student there was a huge amount of crap I didn't know so I set about filling holes by stuffing my Part I studies with Law and Economic & Social History and Statistics (!). There's still a huge amount of crap I don't know but I dig finding out. Plus I found myself having to negotiate and haggle over a few contracts with music companies. Some you win, some you lose. Everytime, you learn. And I can read as well as the next guy. (Spell too.) Sometimes better. So I'm able to save a little scarce cash that might otherwise have to go on legal fees. Seems a tad ignominious to start one's own fan club. Wanna job?

I knew there was something familiar about you. (Can I have my lubricant back now, please?) Good advice - tough to achieve. Especially when they offer you money. Seriously - most people just give it up - "well, everyone else does". Glad you like the article, guys. Thanks for your comments. I was beginning to think I was being ignored to death again. (And I hate that - 'though I should be used to it by now.) This series has been getting to be a bit of a laugh to write, you know, trying to make some basically very dry legal shit kinda fun, easy to understand and entertaining to read. And it's important, too.

Don't know enough to make recommendations for you. Sorry. What I do know is that her mum, Martha, was one of the Clara Ward Singers, an early gospel group that toured with Aretha's dad when he was preaching on a circuit. Fontella started playing piano for 'em when she was nine until the age of sixteen (I would have been around ten at the time she stopped doing that and just getting into discovering music). So that helps explain the solid roots background and musical upbringing. Later on she played piano for Little Milton's band. And then the first time she impinged on my life was in 1965 with the release first of "Don't Mess Up A Good Thing", a duet with Bobby McLure, and a few months later with her big hit "Rescue Me" and it's driving signature bass figure. Her M.D. at that time was Joseph Bowie, whose brother Lester she married. Heven't heard much from her since, except the occasional parasitic sampling of her big hit for dance re-mixes. She had kids to raise in the meantime. I even missed her time with the Art Ensemble in Paris and the album she made with 'em. Didn't even know about it 'til I googled for her in response to this thread. Always knew about her family connections somehow, though. Don't think you could go wrong checking out her early R&B stuff. Still that recognisable deep dark rich velvet sound. I want to find the later work now. She's 65, by the way. Amazing. Yeah - this is great.

Wow. Cinematic Orchestra very cool, very hip, and very groovy. Thanks for the introduction. A definite "must-have". But it has f*ck-all to do with hip-hop, n'est-ce pas? And the only thing "jazz" about it is the players and their taste and technique. Fontella Bass still in great voice, she has to be in her 60s by now, big musical family she comes from, lucky woman. Yes, the good doctor, Lester Bowie, is a famous jazzer. Also a very amusing cat, great to hang out with. Did great work for black US culture.

Help me. I want to try and understand. I can see that pop isn't necessarily rock. But isn't rock pop anyway? What does it all mean? And why am I so insignificant?

I thought it was a very "pro" article in that it provokes some controversy - which is regarded as a sign of journalistic success. The length didn't bug me - always tough to be concise, often impossible, especially dealing with any topic that has depths - and I like to read. I found it amusing in style and content. But it's true the content is wildly off-beam and the central plank of their platform is unerringly free of context. In other words, it's almost complete bollocks. The big money boys have considerable and increasing interest now vested in the international regime governing the ownership of intellectual property. While this state of affairs continues (and I see no likelihood of change) there is no chance the future will ever involve "the end of copyright". There are developments and changes taking place, of course, especially to do with evolving accomodations with the spread of new media technologies. They occupy the fringes of copyright rather than its core, however, like considerations of exactly what it is that can constutute a "fair use" of otherwise copyright material. The other thing I have found interesting is the way a number of recent actions for breach - i.e. the pursuit of illegal down-loaders and file-sharers - which have foundered in face of other laws and principles that have been framed to protect privacy and individual rights. But then it's probably only wierdo-s like me who find that stuff remotely interesting.

Thanks, Didier. I think this article, with a few minor changes of detail, could have been written five years ago.

Thanks, John. Nice of you to let us know. I had dropped the old bastid a note. The absence of response was causing me concern.

Hi Gerry, Overwhelming bunch of stuff on your page. Well done. There's a great deal of offensively youthful vitality around here seems to mix with the old fogie quotient quite gracefully. I'm from the latter contingent, myself, and there may be more, for all I know. Age does not appear to matter. Like you, I have visited other boards. This is the only plave where I've felt easy about offering contribitions. Good people - but I do miss Rudi. I think he may be fogieish. And possibly abducted. Oh...... and Welcome!

Me too...

Gee. Feels like I've been getting a lot of compliments around here lately. Thanks, Steve. Sometimes It seems an enormous struggle to make any sense at all, so I try and limit communication to when I have something to say. I must admit, an earlier sentiment of yours regarding the lovely and talented Tracey Emin was not far from my mind when tossing in that reference to nihilism. (And it's good that if I think you are reading I can feel more confident about the lack of irony emoticons at my disposal.) Ah, John... Soundclick didn't respond well to me, so I didn't get to remind myself of that song of yours. But I did get to read the lyrics again. And it seems to me they are also the product of care and attention. Different from rage per se. Even though your rage is what it's about. Plus, without wanting to come across as too w*nkily pretentious, I was trying to reference "the art of music" - accumulated centuries of profound work and tradition from serious heavyweight artistic giants as opposed to the disposable culture of Billboard's Top 100. There is a difference. Rage has a purpose and a message and a consequence, alright, but that don't make it art. Has to have passion. Has to have meaning. Got to have love in it. For me, see, art is all. Ok. So it is w*nkily pretentious But I don't see a point otherwise. Personally.

I know exactly what you're talking about, John. Dig it: I loved the Sex Pistols and punk as a whole in all its brief blossoming; It had a power and honesty; It had a huge "f*ck-you" quality that was just right for the times; It was the authentic expression of broad popular alienation; Revolutionary aspects (however short-lived and impotent) were made more refreshing for it; It had an enormous impact on the broader areas of comunications arts; It was culturally significant. Where we probably differ is that I cannot stand listening to it. I sincerely dig it being there and having happened, as a genuine and valid art-movement in and of its time and place - but I see no reason for subjecting my ears and tender sensitivities to the actual sonic experience. Early 20th century Dadaism had a ferocious energy about it, too, just like punk. The other profound similarity from where I'm standing, is that the destructive motivations of nihilism at its core, just like punk, means essentially that it can never leave behind any artifacts of beauty. Its value and impact issue from the making of the statement pure and simple and not from the making of anything concrete of any intrinsic merit. The intent and the shock is all there is. And the rest is empty. I mean, I love the fact that some Italian dada guy used to exhibit and sell "Merde D'Artiste" - but there's no way I'm really interested in actually owning a matchbox size package of the man's poop. Like punk, it'a one of the great triumphs of concept and over content. Alienation and anger make strong statements alright - but for me, rage has zip! to do with the art of music. Now - nobody wanted to hear any of that, did they?

I wholeheartedly concur with the mentions of Nat Cole, Ray Charles and Aretha. Each an epitome of taste and style and tone. They carry a stamp of unique identity and artistry that's able to convert even the weakest material into something special and uniquely their own. Alistair - My newly re-discovered daughter brought some Eva Cassidy with her when we met. Hadn't heard her before. One CD I found pretty ho-hum, very "white" sound, with no perticular identity or focus to speak of, but the other live recording showed she really has what it takes - totally on top of her material, very happening performaner, powerful swing and drive, powerfully authentic and soulful. Happy I heard her. I'm a believer. Just for what he could invent vocally and make perfect musical sense with the sweetest swinginest sound, I have to put in another huge plug here for the totally unrecognised late and great Richard Boone. Among the most admirable contenders today for my money are a few characters with supremely stunning chops and technical ability, yet with the discimination and good taste not to let that interfere unnecessarily with the sheer guts and integrity of live performance.... Will Downing - great soul singer even better when he sticks to jazz. Rachelle Ferrell - so good she's frightening. Out of the guys in the U.K., there's the excellent Ian Shaw. Kurt Elling who makes his style of perfection seem so easy. And Bobby McFerrin, of course - what other singer could sustain a couple of hours pure sole? - just one voice - doesn't even need a band. Wow. Also need to add Tania Hancheroff - the woman who demo'd some of our tunes so brilliantly. And the even more unknown Ann Schaefer - with whom I hope to be working in the near future and who I could describe as vaguely like a Norah Jones or a Joni Mitchell, only much much hipper. No, wait.... there are more... I better stop now.

Nonetheless, it's a worthy addition to the growing library. Thanks GGE

Alistair - I've been collecting, and contributing to, the World's Shortest poems for several years. I occasionally get to use them for a nifty diversionary performance piece. Otherwise, it's generally a lonely road, being archivist for a collection hard-pressed to fill a half-page. But the hours are good. And the more scholarly responsibilities unfortunately qualify me uniquely to expound at some length about your chosen topic. The stunning couplet you quoted is the famous (to us archivists) "On The Antiquitiy Of Microbes" by the equally famous Ogden Nash. But it is not the shortest. Oh no. In terms of syllabic length, the darkly existential musings of some other academic scientist geezer (so famous that his name escapes me right now - must get the archive filing system under better control) are a better bet: "I. Why?" Which in turn inspired yours truly, my good self, to pen the paranoid's riposte: "You! Who?" While a perhaps more eloquently inclusive improvisation came from Mohamed Ali while addressing an audience at Harvard: "Me - We" The dialect poet, Allen Jameson, formulated his "I, aye." in 2003, but the leading contenders had already long been known by that time. Way ahead is Don Paterson, whose triumphantly koanic masterpiece, called "On Going to Meet a Zen Master in the Kyushu Mountains and not finding him", goes like this: " " Sweet. But now I, Colin Lazzerini Esquire, have finally jostled ahead with the equally enigmatic "Notes For The Insciption On My Gravestone". Here it is: .

And, sadly, there is also a bad side to the business.

Another oxymoron? Now you've asked, I must confess to uncertainty. But it was the British he was struggling with, not "the West". Besides, I've never been one to spoil a good story merely for the sake of truth and objectivity. (Nice bow-tie, H.)

That reminds me of Ghandi's famous reply to the question of what he thought of British Civilisation... "I think it would be a very good idea."

Cool.

The "spit and sneer" observation was meant to be a good thing from my end as a reader. Not meant to be a diss in any way. It was the tone and attitude adopted by the voice in my head as I read it to myself. And I thought it was a strong posture in the language and made effective for it. No ambiguity about my liking it. No, John. In truth I have no real idea whatsoever. I can try and imagine but have so little to go on - just what I know of you from Songstuff. I'd be interested to understand more, though. Especially as it (the lyric itself and maybe your reply to my response) seems so passionate. So, yeah, I have had both the misfortune and privilege to deal with some gated communities. Tell me about yours. Metaphorically(?) - and I presumed this was intentional - one of the resonances I couldn't back away from was how far the entire US of A is a gated community, or the entire "free" world for that matter. Maybe it's the result of too many irony tablets. Geezer - I liked it.