Vietnam remembered

I noticed something earlier today. Today is the 35th anniversary of the fact of the Vietnam War ending. It (that war) had a gigantic impact on our American culture. I remember hearing friends talking about Khe Sanh and some of the other battles. The powerful passion that is Vietnam permeates so many layers of our cultural infrastructure. Films like, 'The Deer Hunter' had so much meaning for me. Indeed, Christopher Walken and Robert DeNiro were overwhelming in that great movie.

The Robust Tenor Sax of 'Lockjaw' Davis

Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis is one of my favorite powerhouse tenor saxophone people. The man has music with so much muscle and also his material packs a tremendous sense of swing. Today, I got back into his music and his sound was so fresh and robust. His backup guys were the master, Oscar Peterson on piano, The profound Ray Brown on bass and a good and feisty Jimmie Smith on the drums. My favorite tunes in this particular set were, 'This Can't Be Love' and a clever number, 'I wished on the Moon.' Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis and the incredible Oscar Peterson on the piano....man, what marvelous music!

Cannonball Adderley produces great jazz art

Cannonball Adderley is a strong man of the alto saxophone. Lord, yes. His classic tunes like the mighty, 'Work Song' and the wily 'Mercy, Mercy, Mercy' are two of my great favorites. The heavy dash of blues style that reaches out to you from that great alto sax of his is so intense. The composition, 'Work Song' (written by Cannonball Adderley's brother Nat, a fine cornet man) sends me into total delight. As a southern man like me might say, the tune has plenty of get up and get. A jazz workout by the Adderley men sends me up into a great musical groove as the sixties characters might put it. I figure digging Cannonball Adderley and Nat Adderley is a little bit like viewing a fine set of performances by two dramatic giants like Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. Really profound performances can be very fulfilling. DeNiro and Pacino are clever and "hip" and so are the good Adderley brothers.

Terence Blanchard: Musical Cleverist!

Acerbic, beguiling and somewhat clever. The attributes are a part of the appeal of jazz trumpeter, Terence Blanchard. His sound is distinct and rather unique in its crafty modernism. His album, "Wandering Moon' has several fun compositions that snare one and allow one good intense listening fun. Two tunes ...'Sweet's Dream' and 'I Thought about You' are especially interesting. Also, in this set his group is strong. I love the smart, remarkable work of Branford Marsalis on tenor saxophone. Another individual with a sharp performance in this time out is Dave Holland on the bass. His rock-solid work helps cement the total jazz experience. I feel this cornucopia of fresh sounds reminds one of reading the action hero stuff that maybe we read as a kid. Like what happened to me when I used to read the goings-on of the DC comics and the Marvel comics bunch. The gleeful times of enjoying the brash art and words of DC and Marvel...well that's fun for sure. Clever trumpet jazz is the thing that puts a big, choice smile on my face.

McCoy Tyner, Charles Mingus: Feisty Jazz!

McCoy Tyner is such an always bright shiny gentleman of the jazz piano veterans. He has so much modernism in his improv solos. The guy is a giant delight. I listened to him today and felt so refreshed. Also, I got into real focused listening to the incredible big band sounds of the magnificent Charles Mingus, the master impresario on the bass. I feel McCoy Tyner and Charles Mingus are so strong, yes full of artistic impact on the musical world around them. What a powerful joy it is to listen to Tyner and Mingus.

Kate Gosselin, Erin Andrews: A Unique Duo

Kate Gosselin is a happening thing now in our pop culture. The single mom has done a good job on 'Dancing With The Stars' and it is fine how she is trying hard to provide for her children. It is interesting how the fan base for Kate Gosselin is quite large. It is also of interest that tv shows like Entertainment Tonight have her on their show, also. I find it unique that Erin Andrews is becoming a major culture woman, as well. Our American culture gets more intricate all the time with these new variables that are happening. Kate Gosselin is a unique person and of course Erin Andrews certainly is also. Enjoy our very clever popular culture everyone.

'The Notebook' and the good man, N. Sparks

'The Notebook' is one of my favorite books. The author, Nicholas Sparks, knows how to put together a real good story. Some people think the prose of Nicholas Sparks is entirely too romantic. I don't agree because the fact is that his books are full of the intense "realness" that is a firm part of all our lives. I like his other books also. Especially, 'The Last Song' and 'Dear John.' Some thinkers feel it is not "cool" to like writers who have gained huge success. That's a lot of bull. There's nothing wrong with having a good time with a satisfying read like the marvelous Nicholas Sparks creates. I always enjoy a good John Grisham, too. And it amuses me that some sophisticates want to put down John Grisham and Nicholas Sparks. But let's all remember Sparks and Grisham know the fine formula for putting a good novel together. And that's wonderful. Let's think on Miley Cyrus, a good entertainment business person. Miley Cyrus and other people of the film world appreciate the stories of Nicholas Sparks and John Grisham. It always amazes me when I go into book stores how many women especially go looking for the latest Nicholas Sparks books. That's "cool." I know that it brings a lot of happiness into people's lives, especially getting a good cry from a well-done story like 'The Notebook.'

Smooth Jazz, Les Paul....Great Fun Today!

Smooth jazz can be so healing. Like So Elegant! Soothes the brain, so perfectly. I got into listening again to a marvelously inventive guitarist today, the great Les Paul. His style is so delightful in the sense he uses looping linear lines that slip effortlessly into the structures of so-clever jazz chromatic improvisational breakthroughs. He wows me with the great way he makes superb guitar innovation sound so smooth and easy. What a listener's delight. Today, I also got into sleek, good work from the clever guitar style fine-fellas, Russell Malone and Grant Green. It was so marvelous this afternoon with those grand guitar sounds bringing the healing magic of Smooth Jazz to life. Topped off the fun with sleek, listening happiness brought to me by the marvelous vocal tones of the magnificent, Diana Krall. What a wonderful Wednesday this is!

Ah, the engaging joys of cultural happiness!

Culture slams us with a clever shock to the system. If you are like me you go rolling along with all the errands and the minuscule stuff and then you get up and read some Gustave Flaubert or A. Rimbaud or perhaps Arthur Miller or the crafty Henry Miller. And Whap, Bam, POW!!! Like a wild one in a graphic novel, the old brain of yours is nailed down strong by the slashing energy of a profoundly profane and yes delightful cultural maelstrom. I enjoy the shrewd literary achievement that is so prevalent in all the "furniture" of the works of the French master, Gustave Flaubert. And the bright, perplexing and delicious provocative joy that is inherent in the poetic, virile angst of A. Rimbaud is also a remarkable sense of joyful, heh, heh, brain food. One friend used to kid me when he learned I listened to Mahler to relax. He figured I was way intense. Well, Lord I am intense but that is why I enjoy and so passionately appreciate the intense souls of good culture I have come across in my reading. When you read Henry Miller and his merry 'Tropic' tomes and of course when you read the bright and brash, soulful plays of the wild playwright master, Arthur Miller....Then you know your brain has gone on into a new sphere and you have gained some wondrous nirvana that is so tremendously satisfying to one's appetite much like the incredible films of the great Japanese film maker, Akira Kurosawa. I confess when I first saw the intense, highly complex film of Akira Kurosawa -- 'Rashomon'-- it indeed blew me away with its multi-layered vistas of deep cinematic meaning. Also, when I enjoyed the modern film take of Kurosawa, the one called 'Yojimbo' it got me really going intellectually for it was loaded with so many definitive dimensions of vivid power. I am trying to say that the cumulative impact of multi-dimensional culture is a remarkable ingredient in a soul-driven recipe to energize our lives.

Rauschenberg's art filled with 60s' fire, ice!

Robert Rauschenberg is a remarkable artist that I have rediscovered all over again. He is linked into the bizarre mechanism that was the 1960s experience. If you study the complexity of Rauschenberg's art you find evidence of a tremendously educated man, indeed a person who was able to ride the cultural wave and dig deep into displaying the wild nuances that were an integral part of the 60s experience. Perhaps a key in Robert Rauschenberg's arcane thinking was the fact he somehow drew a different batch of art enthusiasts into the coterie of his followers. He had a vivid palette of all kinds of clever people who got in on the ground floor with the wise Mr.R. Socialites, unionists, groupies...yes many sorts of souls learned to enjoy the feisty art of Robert Rauschenberg. In many ways he and another chic man, the famed Andy Warhol were able to bring on a dramatic and fresh futuristic, neo-modernism that engulfs the viewer sort of sending the art person off into a new sphere sort of tricky, glorious territory out way past the crafty and also enchanting arena of one Salvador Dali. Some pseudo-folks figured out the travail of Rauschenberg was the fact the man had too much popular success. That must have been a bitter pill. It is so odd that the nihilist pseudo-intellectuals among us always have to put down a great artist with vivid vision. Why can't these grand souls have the Holy Grail, in other words popular success. I feel that the exciting aspect of Robert Rauschenberg's achievement is the fact he was able to move unafraid on past the people of the forties and fifties. He set up a new art mechanism for the brain that because of its brash cleverness is a superlative achievement, indeed. Rauschenberg and Warhol gave us new art vistas that literally hum with new philosophical chords that are tremendously exciting in their own way.

This Is A Truly Fantastic, Great Easter!

This day has been so beautiful. Went to my son's house in Midtown Atlanta and had a marvelous Easter lunch. I love Easter because I'm so thankful for all the fine things that have come my way. I figure this Easter is the best one of all because I got some good medical reports and wow that made me glad. I enjoyed my church's music today. There were two guest trumpet players. One man is a trumpet mainstay with the Chicago Symphony and the other man is with the Boston Symphony. The trumpet music was very remarkable. It has been a great one this beautiful day in Metro Atlanta. Hope all of you out there had a wonderful day, too. Happy Easter, Everyone!

Art Pepper's Saxophone Spices Up Saturday

Listened to some great jazz on this Saturday before the beautiful day that is Easter. I enjoyed the great, inspiring saxophone work of the fine performer, Art Pepper. The man can coax some splendid sounds out of the alto saxophone. This set that I dug was the exciting 'Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section.' On this group of selections Pepper was joined by Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on the bass and the feisty Philly Joe Jones on drums. Plenty of good compositions in this batch but my favorite was a smokin' tune called 'Red Pepper Blues' which the guys really swung hard. I find the clever, bit edgy style of Art Pepper so satisfying. Also, there are very few folks who vamp it up real good like the masterful Red Garland on piano. Potent jazz sounds can be so refreshing and they also can rejuvenate one from head to toe. What a great day this has been in the beautiful world that is metro Atlanta.