No more cussin’, spittin’, or smokin’

Fucking sports parents are THE worst (not all). You see it time and time again. Hockey, baseball, soccer, football…you name the sport and you can bet your bippy there are crazed, lunatic parents, arguing/spouting off explitives and obscenities at the coaches, officials, other parents, the oppposing players and even their own kid, sometimes, to the point of beligerence and, in some cases, physical violence. No one enjoys hearing or seeing it, especially the kids. Or you get the parents that put all this undue pressure on their child to get out there and WIN WIN WIN! Making them feel inadequate or useless when they lose. They’re kids, dammit. This is supposed to be fun for them and teaching them the power of team spirit, fellowship and active living. There is nothing wrong with being competitive UNTIL they are taught that it’s the only reason for playing. It’s disgusting and these parents should be embarassed and ashamed of themselves. What kind of example are you setting for your kids?

i have always hated chil model. dren’s sports and other shit with preteens. why do fucking people get so nuts at them. they are only fucking children, and you parents going on like fucksticks set a good role model. i hope those kids grow up to hate these fucking fool parents.

OP, hand out smokes to those parents….promote their lung cancer. Eventually they’ll be so cancer-ridden they won’t be able to attend the games and will choke on a sunflower seed.

http://www.id-wall.com/canvases/1280/monty…

MMan anyone?
Lol’d.

Weetabix!

ALL THAT JAZZ- rebuttal from the Underclass

Of Jazz, MontrealMan opines that:
—–
 It is, at base, without structure and without structure, any “music” is little more than noise and its listeners little more than passive and mindless automatons
—–

1- At the heart of Jazz music is improvisation, group and individual.
What is improvisation? 
It isn’t(as has been incorrectly stated by know-nothings and jazz students) “playing off the top of your head”.
Improvisation is mostly the spontaneous rearrangement of material already inside the player’s arsenel of melodic and harmonic ideas. 
Individually it may include, but not be limited to scales, “riffs”, “motifs”, melodic material from other songs(as Sonny Rollins quoting other bits of melody during an improvised solo. 
Group improvisation adds more layers, as instruments tend to step out of their “traditional roles” and make them akin to active participants in a creativr discussion, and not just in a supporting role(As in the first “great” trio of American pianist Bill Evans. Bassist Scott La Faro and drummer Paul Motian raised their instruments truly from traditional roles as support, to true equal conributors in the creative conversation with Evans. This trio changed the jazz group immediately and forever. Though they have only 3 recording sessions as a group and were together for only a few years, they arre as timeless as ever).

At it’s highest form improvisation ignores idiomatic cliche and involves what the Buddhist’s call “mindfullness”. Halifax’s own Jerry Granelli is a great proponent of this music.

THE ROOTS: Pre Jazz
Jazz has it’s basis in African and European roots. While some of the European elements, like specific instrumentation(the guitar, trumpet etc, etc), and harmonic structures are evident, the uses of microtonal tuning, certain instruments(specific percussion instruments, banjo etc), the blues form and others, come out of the African or African-American experience.

THE BLUES
The roots of the blues(a “simple” musical structure from which ALL jazz, the majority of popular, rock, funk etc music cones from) has it’s roots in the fields and farms of slavery-era America.
As the slaves worked, often one worker would lead the other workers in what has been called a “call and response” performance. It serves a purpose for work, rather than as a musical performance in the traditional sense in this case.

Two major developments in the form were:
1- “call and response”: one musician or vocalist makes a statement, which is repeated by the congregation(as in church), the group(a jazz band or combo), or even repeated by the singer/musician themselves. Specifically I am speaking of a verse in a traditional blues song.
Please observe as a line is stated, repeated several times, then “released” with a new line:

“Went down to the crossroads, fell down on my knees
 Went down to the crossroads, fell down on my knees
 Asked the Lord above for mercy, Take me if you please”
(from “Crossroads Blues”, Robert Johnson)

The specific lyric structure is used to effect, then “broken”, or As I prefer to say, released with a different line.

2- The Blues As Song Structure: the original “field hollars” were harmonically, mostly, static, or non-resolving.
Even the “simple” 12 bar blues of a hundred years ago(and still be used and explored today) is an audible game of tension and release, like Bach, Chuck Berry, photography/painting/visual arts with the “rules of thirds/Golden Mean” etc.

In European classical music the 5th scale degree(the “dominant”) wants to “resolve” to “home”, that is, the key, or first scale degree. So, in the key of C, G7 is the fifth. The third and seventh scale degrees of the G7(B/F, respectively) want to resolve down a semi tone each, to once again “become” C maj7(the western ear having long ago chosen a Major7 chord as “home”.
When we examine the simple 12 bar blues we see this:

1 / 1 / 1 / 1 /
4 / 4 / 1 / 1 /
5 / 4 / 1 / 5 /

In line 1 we have, diatonically, a reflection of the repeated lyric: four bars of one chord.
Line two (bar 5) starts with “light tension”, as the lyric is repeated, then harmonically in bars seven/eight we return “home”.
For the “release lyric”(I say “release” because the lyric coincides with the most harmonic tension and serves to release it before going home in bar eleven, before a short dominant slingshots us back(harmonically) to the top of the form.

Form is a word for structure. Are you seeing a point here?
Okay. Here’s more.

ALL THAT JAZZ- rebuttal from the Underclass

PART 3

BEBOP

In the late 30s, early 40s a group of young jazz musicians who grew up on sweing era jazz longed to push the limits of Jazz music.

Harmonically they sought to add more chords.
Melodically they wanted to expand the melodic “language”.

Taking a “simple blues”(see part 1), alto saxophonist Charlie “Bird” Parker took the same twelve bars with three different chords and created a very sophisticated form(“structure”) to play a solo over.
Here is the chord structure to a bebop standard song, “Vlues For Alice”:

Fmaj7/ Emin7b5 A7/ Dmin7 G7/ Cmin7 F7/
Bbmaj7/ Bbmin7 Eb7/ Amin7 D7/ Abmin7 Db7/
Gmin7/ C7/ Fmaj7 Dmin7/ Gmin7 C7/

Melodically the bebopped expanded their melodic “colours”.
Following the formula of using every second scale degree to spell a chord(Cmaj7= C E G B), they continued up.
Cmaj7= C E G B D F A
D, F and A, instead of being called the second, fourth and sixth scale degrees, become(in jazz language) the 9th, 11th, and the 13th. Play a root position Cmaj triad and experiment with the “extensions”(as the new notes are called). You will at first find your ear challenged, but these are very common jazz sounds. They may even be flattened or raised a semi tone for different effect.

Personally, I find the sax solos of Charlie Parker similar in contour to a Bach line: it is eighth-note/16th note based, and plays with the harmony, modulates in and out of key etc in a very similar way.
Of note: Charlie Parker and other beboppers loved conposers like Igor Stravinsky and studied their scores for uses of these chord/scale tones, their application, and for melodic and harmonic inspiration.

There is a small fraction of “form and structure” present in jazz, MMan. All “off the top of my head”, as it were. Having studied the music, but more importantly played it and enjoyed it, I can assure you of it’s depth and structure.
A saying about a horse and water comes to mind…

It’s okay for you to not like it, even for you to not understand it(it seems to take a literate ear and sense of openess to be able to listen to much of it), but it does have structure. As much as any other music. The problem(to me) is that crusty old farts and joyless nabobs have been making jazz into a Conservatory Art, where it’s main function is to be taught. Like classical music.
Jazz is meant to be a living and breathing art. It is also about the process first, the content second, which may be hard for you to adjust to.
I may write more, but I believe I’ve gone in depth enough for tonight.

I look forward to you shooting it down and dismissing it with one sentence!
Lols
Weetabix!

——-
“At the heart of jazz music is improvization, group and individual,” (9:55PM) and “There is a small fraction of ‘form and structure’ present in Jazz, MMan.” (9:55PM)
——-
I’m sorry you were unable to understand what I was doing.
You claimed your dislike for this music was it’s “lack of structure”.
I demonstrated, from pre-jazz up to 1960 the evolution of jazz music, via structure.
And I apologize, when I said “There is a small fraction of “form and structure” etc, I neglescted to include the word “in”.
As in, “there(et voila!) is a small fraction of the “form and structure” *in* ” etc.

So you would like me to describe why I like jazz music instead, now?

http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-sn…

Me thinks the only chicken wings that he has come in contact with were on his Coq au Vin, (which, funny enough, is made with wine), and even then, were most likely discarded as table scraps

——-
I thought it might be best if I raised the level of the discussion from simple matters of taste to the level of philosopy. More specifically, I want to introduce the concept of the “cognitive core” and reflect whether it might work to resolve the present
——-

Yes. You feel free to do that.
Alone.
I would love to tell you why I love jazz(in fact, *all* music), but I refuse to be distated the way in which I will do so, especially with a “language” I don’t understand. The only thing I would be doing is obeying your “kind request” for the Process, while ignoring the Content.

Also, it figures that you would only enjoy “traditional represrntative” art, as you are “given” what it is, dictated what to see and feel. Analysis of a Charlie Parker alto sax solo would reveal form and function very similar to the melody of Bach(as I said), but you appear to be lumping an infinitely wide genre of music(Jazz) into one tiny cup of definition(abstract).

You must be “putting me on”, since, in my experience, the very intelligent are also able to appreciate such things.
Oh well, not my concern any more. Jazz music, and I, the Happy Bassist will rndure without you.

Weetabix!
Wp

WHY PAUL LOVES JAZZ(more impirtantly, *all* music)

Mssr,
I have been extremely fortunate to have had experiemce with many diverse genres of music.
My father was(and still occassionally is) a country guitar player. As a baby I would sit on the floor near the drums and bass amp. When I was asked, in elementary school how a song went, I often sang the bass part. Though I started drums at 7, I was introduced to my true love, the bass, when I was 12(1980).

Where I grew up, in Cole Harbour/Westphal, all of my same-age peers were interested in AC/DC, Van Halen, Iron Maiden, and much of what is called “Classic Rock” by the radio marketting machine. My older brother(3 1/2 years older) often gave me great cassettes or LPs for Christmas or my birthday. I remember several specific titles: bassist Stanley Clarke’s “Journey To Love”, tenor saxophonist John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”, and trumpet player Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blues”. Each of these albums are classics, both in the timeless nature of the music on them, and that they broke new ground in some way.

I have always felt “moved” by music. It always felt my destiny to play it, though I do not believe in Destiny, in a religious sense. Bass, and music specifically has got me through every difficult part of my life. Durimg recovery from my injury, where I endured almost 40 surgeries, and a year and ten months in hospital(with a great deal of pain), I didn’t physically play, though I listened all the time.

Now. Why do I love jazz music.

When I was in high school I was given a copy of the Bach cello suites. I have pwned my photo copied version since 1983. I have played parts of the Suites enough to say I know them as well as any song I have learned. My “inner experience” of Bach, which begannwhen I was 15, was of beautiful melody, with “twists and turns” that elicit surprise, and then delight, when resolved.
In my Jazz Studies(privately, and through St FX and U of Toronto jazz programs) I have become intimately familiar with the bebop solos of alto sax player Charlie Parker. Without getting into music theory, I am able to say that many of the motif contours(shape without specific pitch, per se) in Charlie Parker are present in Bach. For the layman, a melody which is following the notes of the chord-of-the-moment has the appearance of leaving this harmony briefly, which causes “tension”(in the artistic sense) and is subsequently “released” by returning to what the ear/mind expect.
One technique Bach and jazz musicians use to play with this tension/release is to anticipate or delay the melody reflect the preset harmony. In the bar before a chord changes, the soloist may begin using melodic material from the next bar a few beats early. Another technique is to use the melodic material(such as a scale) from a different chord(for example, a semitone above or below, called “sidestepping” in jazz).
Now, this is pure academic hornswoggle when used without skill or taste. Calling this “playing music” gives us a clue.
The soloist is playing with the band, in a literal way, but he is also playing with the use of tension and release and it’s effect on the listener.

This use of tension and release, and the feelings of surprise and resolution give my ear and mind a great sense of pleasure. I get the same sensation when I look at a well-composed photograph or painting. The Golden Mean/Rule of Thirds has been used for thousads of years in everything from architecture to photos and paintings, to put the audience through a sensory journey.
When I compose a photograph, I derive a great deal of pleasure looking through the viewfinder, reducing the world to a little rectangle, and playing with all the features of the image.
When I play jazz, I derive endless joy and pleasure from “playing” with and rearranging all the elements at my disposal. I am constantly surprised and impressed at my reactions, as we play, to my bandmates, and their reactions to what I am playing. I love the feeling of taking a big musical chance, and either having it succeed as I thought, or having it succeed in a different way because of the reactiin/contribution of the other musician.

Modifying the more “standard” chord forms(the Blues, modal jazz, “standards”/show tunes etc) the composer works a similar effect, but with the form of the song. One example of this is the jazz blues song “Freddie Freeloader” from Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue”. Instead of the standard “turnaround, or last couple bars of the song that sets up the return to the beginning of the form once more, the last two bars are of a chord which is “non resolving”. The effect on the ear is of a fresh song form, though it is just a blues with one difderent chord.

As Mozart was known to compose and improvise his own reharmonizations and modifications, so do jazz musicians.
Being a jazz musician raises every member of the group into a composer- a spontaneous composer. The members of a classical orchestra are merely *interpreters* of the notes already written on the page.
I love playing in a group where we have the harmony and melody(as written by the composer), but we *compose the performance*. There are general roles for the musicians in a jazz combo. The drummer, bassist, guitar player, the pianist, the horns- all have a hundred years of precedent and custom to draw from, but may(depending on the genre of jazz music) choose to step out of these roles to create something new and unique to that performance.
Here are a few personal examples of this, and how I, as a bassist get to participate in this.
In typical bebop/hardbop music, the bassist might play(based on precedent), what is called a “two feel”(half time) over the melody, then walk “4 to the bar” under the soloists, take his solo, then play another “2 feel” over the closing melody.
I could choose to follow the lead of bassist Scott LaFaro, who began a much more “conversational” bass style, to risefrom mere accompanist, to full participant in te musical conversation with the (in this case, Bill Evans) pianist and drummer.
To play in this more conversational style one must become more mindful and rely on instinct instead of reaction(by the time you react, the moment is gone), truly making on a real-time composer. To be able to do this with musicians I trust and respect gives me a feeling of great fulfillment, even love. I have an analogy that I came up with after a particularly productive gig thos summer: the three of us on stage are holding onto a golden rope. This is our creative conversation. I find it spiritual, though not in a strictly God-centred way. The audience, because they are not directly contributing to the creative conversation, are holding onto golden string that attach to the rope. They are able to feel what is happening as observers, and te musicians do as participants that may change te direction at any time.

I love in jazz that I have never “arrived”. I’ve been playing for 30 years. I will be experimenting with and playing with and exploring these harmonies and melodies my whole life. I love that jazz is a Process. Some will maintain it is only Content(“Bebop is the only Real Jazz”, “Dixieland”, whatevs). Jazz is the process of exploring the limits of the music and of improvising as a musical conversation. To me this is a beautiful Art.

I also love that Jazz often borrows from other genres to write new jazz.
One example: Bassist/composer Charles Mingus was inspired by several things. He loved Duke Ellington and the way Duke wrote for the specific musicians in his group atthe time. Mingus loved African-American religious music and spirituals. He loves European classical music.
There are examples of these three influemces in the Mingus body of work. I will speak of one: Better Get It In Your Soul.
From Mingus’ “Mingus, Ah Um” album, Better Get It is basically a gospel sing in 3/4 times(more accurately, 6/8). He uses several devices, includimg call and response, vocal shouts, and stop time to evoke a church meeting, and there are saxophone solos over it. And at the end is an “A-men” resolution. To me, he csptures the emotion and spirituality of a black church. Mingus is a huge hero of mine. He’s one of a million guys who shows me that all genres of music are material over which we can build a group improvisation.

So a large part of why I love this music is it is always pushing in surprising directions. It has established roles that may be broken, it involves spontaneous group improvisation/composition, and it will be a life-long process of exploring the boundries of the music and the musician.

And just as the continuum of classical music is infinite, so it jazz. It has been said that by naming and defining something, we limit it. I prefer to play the music, and only label it jazz when it’s for a poster for a gig or for stocking a CD on a shelf.

Weetabix!

WB