JACkory's Listening Room

HEY! I'm BACK!!!!!

Hard to believe it's been over a year and a half since I abandoned this blog after only 3 posts.
How's that for tenacity?
But seriously, I don't know why I gave it up. Probably had to do with all the posting I was doing at RollingStone.com at the time. There's a lot to be said about the gratification that comes from knowing that at least one person is reading what I write...
But the Stone's boards are gone (they say it's temporary, but they also said they would be back up "in the summer" and here it is the middle of August...) and I have become so frustrated with my failed attempts to erect a Geocities website that I've decided to return to the safe haven of Blogger.
Actually, I'm surprised that this blog still exists. The last time I set one up and left it to rot...well, it disappeared on me, I figured this one would be gone, too.
Apparently much has changed with the Blogger system, so I'll just have to get used to it as I go along.
So, you ask, what have I been listening to in the last year and a half?
Music. Every single day of the year. More than is probably good for me, and enough to have burned out less passionate ears.
Classical...jazz...rock...country...opera...electronic...contemporary Christian...choral...folk...you name it and I've probably listened to a decent representation of it in the last year and 1/2.
But not quite as loudly as I once did, having learned from an audiologist that I have severe nerve damage in both ears causing irrepairable hearing loss. Blame it on all the times I played in bands without hearing protection...Or you could blame it on all the times I passed out with the headphones blaring...Probably several culprits. I don't care to cast blame, I just wish the ringing would stop...
At any rate, lately I've been on a bit of a jazz kick. I recently procured CDs by the Dave Holland Quintet, Roy Haynes, Sonny Rollins, Chuck Mangione, Maynard Ferguson, Larry Carlton, Michael Brecker and John Klemmer. I dig all of them, but the Klemmer, Ferguson and Mangione albums are the ones that are taking me back in my memory to my late teens, when I was just discovering the genre.
I also picked up a disc by one of John McLaughlin's projects, Remember Shakti, called Saturday Night In Bombay, which is an intoxicating blend of jazz and classical Indian musics. That's to be expected from "Mahavishnu" McLaughlin, no doubt, but it's still a very unique and captivating set.
Currently listening to Tuatara's Breaking The Ethers CD from 1997, which doesn't exactly qualify for my "jazz kick", but is pretty doggone unconventional in it's own right. I admit I bought this CD back when I was still into REM on the strength of Peter Buck being in the group. But these days I think I'd rather listen to this than practically anything by REM...ya see, I'm seriously burned out on the stuff of theirs that I always liked, can't bring myself to re-investigate the stuff I was unimpressed with and definately don't want to give the loathesome Reveal yet another chance to make an impression...They really lost me with that one.
So Tuatara it is...No sign of that annoying Stipe dude, and that's what it's all about these days, as far as I'm concerned.
Random opinion:
Bruce Springsteen performing in "Vote For Change" rallies...Ah, Boss...say it ain't so. I was appalled to hear "No Surrender" played during John Kerry's introduction at the DNC, but I figured it was just a fluke. After all, Bruce made such a fuss about Reagan using "Born In The USA" back in the '80's I didn't think any politicians would even "go there" again. Alas, I'm hoping future hearings of "No Surrender" will not be tarnished by the association with the Flip-Flop King.
Anyhoo, correspondence is welcome at jackory69@yahoo.com. Notice that this is a different addy than the one I used last go 'round. So hey, shoot me an e-mail and let me know what you think. I can take it...