A Small Complaint About Keith Jarrett's Signature Hootin' & Howlin'

It's got to be noted...
Keith Jarrett is a phenomenal master of the jazz piano. His improvisations are playful bursts of fresh inspiration. Even when playing behind a soloist Jarrett's inventiveness refuses to be harnassed. His ivory-tickling is some of the tastiest in the genre.
But for all that it must also be said that Keith Jarrett makes some of the goofiest noises you're likely to hear as he's busting off the sweet riffage, to the point where it's almost impossible not to laugh. I'm not sure if that's a reaction he appreciates, but he should at least expect it.
His vocal ejaculations put me in mind of many things, few of which are the least bit pleasant.
For instance, immediately after twinkling a couple of ingenous trills over a mid-tempo groove he is likely to belt out an outcry remeniscent of an inebriated geriatric falling out of her wheelchair, moderately frightened (and frightening) but still happy as a clam as long as the tunes carry on.
I wonder if he makes these noises as some kind of test...like maybe he thinks his music is so damned good that noone's even gonna notice the gruntin'. On this point Mr. Jarrett would be in error.
I've also envisioned a crack smoking chimpanzee as I've listened to the squeals that emit from Jarrett's mouth as he becomes enraptured by the glory of it all.
One might wish to defend Jarrett's odd vocal mannerisms by pointing out that he is not the only globally recognized pianist with a mild case of Tourette's Syndrome---Glenn Gould also was quite inventive in the strangeness of his Bach-inspired glossolalia.
But that's just it, see?
When Gould grunted and groaned he sounded genuinely bizarre. It's an absurd experience hearing those weird sounds floating amidst the backdrop of the Goldberg Variations. Uncanny, I tell you, and not a little bit surreal.
But when Jarrett blurts his incomprehensible jibberish it sounds more like a clown with a head full of helium pointing at animals mating behinds cages in a zoo. Or maybe like a giant chicken walking across a hot stretch of asphalt pavement trying to get to the other side because that's just what chickens are paid to do.
The bottom line is that you simply cannot justify Keith Jarrett's annoyance factor by comparing it to the great Glenn Gould's similar proclivities.
Which all boils down to this one point:
Keith Jarrett would be well-served to put a muzzle on it. Yes, his virtuosity is astounding, but who notices talent when there's a sonic freak show trying to cut in?


Gotta love the Scottish bagpipe jig...gotta love the drone, like a cat with it's tongue frozen to an iced-over pole, makes you wanna throw on a skirt, get out in the middle of the floor and do a little hoe-down dance. You know, the kind that Jed and Granny Clampett used to do when Flatt and Scruggs came over for a visit and busted out a few bluegrass chesnuts.
You might as well.
You're alone. No need to get emberassed...
But somehow it's a sad truth that a bagpipe jig sounds woefully out of place without a pub full of friends to celebrate it with you.




This is ME when I was 11...
Okay, so it's NOT me, it's my son...
But it might as well be me.
He's got the look and the same taste in music...
Which is only partially true. Though he does share my fondness for the Beatles and classical music, he doesn't listen to much else yet. I'm sure he will. He's just now picking up the saxophone and I can help him learn to play that instrument, so I get a feeling he'll be getting into jazz.
Right now his current musical obsession is Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. You don't have to believe me. Just check this out:
Tonight he stars in his 5th grade school musical in the lead role of Floyd, the "Phantom of the School Room" or something like that. It's a Phantom of the Opera knock-off, so he couldn't be happier. This is the third year in a row he's had leading parts in his school plays. He is a little ham, though.
The part this year required that he learn to play a few pieces on piano, chief of which is Beethoven's "Fur Elise", which he has quite mastered. He makes up his own melodies and songs and also likes to write short stories about his NeoPets. Quite a remarkably talented kid if I must say so myself.

"Ariel Besieged" from Bipolar Confessional

You'd be surprised at how much traffic this board actually gets...
Unfortunately an extraordinary amount of visits I get here are people looking for a photo of Alison Angel that I once posted while in a daring, cavalier mood... a mood that was not to last long, and the photo has been long gone.
Still, the matrix tells the folks who are looking for this particular shot of Angel through the Google search engine that it can be found here. I'm sure the vast majority, when they realize that no pics of the lovely Alison are forthcoming, leave this blog without reading anything.
I don't blame 'em... I mean, have you seen Alison Angel?
But no, guys, you won't find 'em here anymore. Sorry. Don't know what I was thinking.

I just finished reading a book called A Layman's Guide to Protestant Theology that I found immensely enjoyable and thought-provoking. I was especially intrigued with the theology of Karl Barth, Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich and Dietrich Bonhoeffer (whose The Cost of Discipleship I read and enjoyed some months ago). I would like to read up on those guys... it's too bad the library in this small town is so chincy. They have Benny Henn but nothing by Niebuhr or Barth. Sad, I know.

Anyhoo, here's a poem that I wrote a few hours ago and just published in the Bipolar Confessional...figured I'd share it here as well. Perhaps one of Ms. Angel's fans might find in it some consolation at not getting the photo:


Ariel Beseiged

Speak to me from the ground
O Ariel, beseiged
You have been brought low
By the hand of the One
You once called "Beloved"
Speak, Ariel
Your voice ghostlike
Whispering out of the dust
His strategy was impenetrable
His siege works,
Year to year,
Crushed.

I hear thunder, loud clashes that echo in the stillness of this muggy, humid night, thirsty for rain, soon quenched, the hammer of Thor strikes like the flogging of a condemned man, back broken, beseiged
The earth cannot hold back it'e excitement at my coming...it shakes and quakes and re-arranges itself giving no consideration to the masses displaced on a whim, Behold, it's EARTHQUAKES I prophecy.
Great noise awesome ear-blistering cacophony the likes of which have not been heard since the advent of My Bloody Valentine's Loveless album, loud and bottom heavy, windstorm and tempest.
Let's re-cap: Thunder. Earthquake. Great noise...and to crown it all with glory:
Flames of devouring fire.
Imagine your destiny being as one condemned to the custody of flames of devouring fire.
I am NOT making light of this.
These flames and their intensity
Demand to be taken seriously
And so shall it be, amen, Selah and Shalom
These flames, this whole Apocalypse Now set-up
It's for all those you call "enemy"
Ariel
It's for all those who call you "enemy"
Ariel, but woe to you
I have already crushed them into fine dust
Like chaff blown by the wind
(But no answer there, my friend)
The ruthless hordes have scattered.
And the word came down:
Those who fight against my altar hearth
Stunned, amazed
Sightless, you will blind yourselves
Drunk and staggering
But the wine and beer aren't to be blamed
This euphoria is straight from the one called Yahweh
Who has now sealed the eyes of the prophets
And covered the heads of the seers.

May 17 2006 on Isaiah 29

FreakyTrigger...and MORE! (but not MUCH more)

FreakyTrigger - Wasting Time Since 1999
'Nuff said.

I'm so depressed...one of my favorite blogs, The Taco Jockey, is no more.
What happened, Taco Jockey?
I know you quit working at Taco Bell and found a job at another fast food joint...but I have no idea where or even IF you're blogging about it.
:(

Graveyard shift has me worn out most of the time. This explains my scant blogging of late.
Sleep deprivation hallucinations have me in their sway.

Movie Review: Stay

Click HERE for an excellent review of one of the best films I've seen in a long time, Marc Forster's Stay.

Curtis Haynes, Rest In Peace, my Brother

Curtis Haynes 1957-2006

I first met Curtis Haynes back in 1981 when I was attending Seminole Junior College. If memory serves, he was working at the local Pizza Hut. Somehow I struck up a conversation with him and was delighted to learn that he was a huge fan of what we used to refer to as "underground music" (punk, late 70's new wave, early 80's alternative). He had a passion for this music that I could really relate to and our conversations were always centered around this common interest.
Curtis was a Christian. We shared this in common as well, and he was one of a very few acquaintances of mine who was just as enthusiastic about the latest Resurrection Band album as he was for a fresh release by Husker Du.
I visited Curtis in his home several times and considered him a friend. We drifted apart but it seemed like every few years we'd run into each other. Curtis had a contagious smile and his eyes would light up when the conversation would return to music. I can still hear his laugh.
Just such a great guy.
I was shocked and stunned to see his name in the obituaries of my hometown newspaper. At first I thought it couldn't be THE Curtis Haynes that I remembered. I read the obit, looking for touchstones, and my heart sank when I recognized the names of his wife and brother listed as "survivors". Even then I couldn't fathom that it could be my old friend, after all, he was only 48 (and to be honest, I'd always thought he was even younger than that...he certainly had a youthful exuberrance about him).
My fears were confirmed, however, when I visited the funeral home website and saw his picture there, the Joey Ramone t-shirt being all it took to drive it home that yes, this was THE Curtis Haynes.
I wish we had been closer, but I feel very blessed to have known this brother in Christ. And I am saddened that our serendipitous meetings sprinkled across the years have come to an end in this life.
And finally, I look forward to our next "serendipitous meeting"...
Goodbye, old friend.

Overdose

Mirko Aretini has produced a rather unique conceptual video, "Overdose", utilyzing the music of Sigur Ros ("Sven-G-Englar").

Genesis - Midnight Special 1973

Oh, yeah!
The internet as Time Machine!
For whatever reason I have had no luck with YouTube, a website that offers videos uploaded from it's users...don't know what's been wrong, probably on my end, but lo and behold today it seems to be all cleared up and I have just revisited my ancient past viewing Genesis' Midnight Special performance of 1973!!!
How it takes me back!
Just a wee lad of eleven years, I was, and why I was allowed to stay up until after midnight on Fridays is something you'd have to take up with my parents. But I remember it like it was only yesterday, sitting in my father's recliner with all the lights out, transfixed and hypnotized by the spooky visage on the screen...
That would be Peter Gabriel, in full face make-up and bat-wing costume intoning the lyrics to "Watcher of the Skies" after Tony Banks eerie Hammond B-3 organ introduction. I sat in silent wonder, in awe of this new combination of rock music and theatrics. I became a Genesis fan there and then, and to this day I remain one.
The video on YouTube is the entire performance they did on that night in September of 1973 and also features a rousing (if slightly truncated) rendition of what may well be my all-time favorite Genesis number, "The Musical Box".
But don't take my word for it...check it out for yourself:

I Draw You

I have received lots of encouragement for my other blogs from a guy named Brock, who somehow stumbled upon one of them and left nice compliments. I was very flattered because when I checked out his work it proved to be exceptionally good.
Brock is currently working on a project called I Draw You, and the concept is that the reader sends a link to a photo of himself/herself and then Brock will convert it into a drawing in his own unique style. The results thus far have been nothing short of amazing.
The waiting list is a bit long, but I went ahead and sent a photo anyway...
We'll see what comes of it, but I have no doubt it will be interesting and impressive.

Poetry Jukebox

Thought I was gone forever, didn't ya?
So did I.
But I'm back long enough to throw out this link to the Poetry Jukebox, a clever little site, I must say.
A few new poems on my own Bipolar Confessional, as well, but things don't look good for Nausea & Bliss...sorry, Charles, but the time has come for me to hit the ole Delete button on that one...and I will...
...soon.

Correction

Alas, my brain wasn't functioning at it's optimum capability when I posted yesterday's bit about the changes at XM. For some reason I had it in my mind that The Torch was getting completely booted from XM, but having re-visited XM's website I found that it was still going to be available as an Online-Only feature.
That still sucks, cuz i rarely listen to XM Online, but it's better than no Torch at all.