[JPL] Want to P.D. at XM?

[Doug Crane]

I'll try and clean up the mess I innocently created and hopefully we 
can leave it at that.

First off, "Cardinal sin" may have been the wrong term to use 
regarding 2 blues tunes in a row.  "Pet peeve" would have been more accurate.

I wrote my reply to Lazaro's message at a time when I should have 
been in bed.  Most of my message talked about what I heard on XM last 
week.  It was my first exposure to it.  And I think most of my 
observations were positive about the programming itself.  What I said 
about the 2 blues tunes that were played back to back I still think 
rings true.  In style, tempo, instrumentation, etc. they were far too 
similar.  Even the unacquainted could have thought they were hearing 
the same tune. Clearly the programming software needs a bit more tweaking.

Yes, I could have articulated my message more clearly.  I wasn't 
trying to start any sort of fight.  I think some of the posters to 
this thread basically understood what I was saying despite it being 
worded so poorly.  And you can thank sleep deprivation for that.

And context IS everything.  A few years back when Thad & Mel's 
"Consummation" was re-released, I thought it would be interesting for 
my listeners to demonstrate how the changes to "I've Got Rhythm" had 
evolved through the years in jazz.  I started with a straight reading 
by Dick Hyman, segued into Ellington's original recording of 
"Cottontail" from 1940 and finished up with "Fingers" from the Thad & 
Mel's 1970 recording.  I could have thrown in countless other 
examples but those 3 selections illustrated the point that I was 
trying to make: the progression of "I've Got Rhythm" from straight 
swing (Hyman), to proto-bebop (Ellington) concluding with the chord 
changes being constructed and de-constructed about as far as they 
could be while still operating within their framework (Thad & 
Mel).  I kind of did the same sort of thing with Jelly Roll Morton's 
"King Porter Stomp" once upon a time too.  Can't recall what I used 
for a straight reading.  I used a Benny Goodman recording of it 
followed by two recordings by Gil Evans, the first from the Pacific 
Jazz date featuring Cannonball Adderley from the late 1950's, the 
second from the 1973 Atlantic recording "Svengali" featuring David 
Sanborn.  So there you have it: multiple versions of the same tune 
(or chord changes if you prefer) but totally dissimilar.

And then there are blues melodies that are so strong in and of 
themselves that one forgets that they are blues tunes.  Ellington was 
a master at this.  Horace Silver's "Opus de Funk" is another that I 
can think of off the top of my head.  And there's Bill Evans' "Re: 
Person I Knew".  It's not a traditional 12-bar blues but it is very 
much blues-based.

So if I'm guilty of anything, it is presenting my argument against 
two blues tunes in a row in the narrow and simplistic way that I 
did.  It's still a pet peeve of mine and it will remain so.  But if 
you insist on playing two or three or however many in a row, can 
you  consider changing at least one of the following: style, tempo, 
key (higher, lower, major, minor), instrumentation or anything else 
that I've failed to think of?  (You never know when I may be listening!)

To some of you I may have seemed as tone-deaf as MGM's executive 
producer Irving Thalberg was back in the 1930's.  As brilliant as he 
was, he knew nothing about music.  During a preview screening of one 
film, he was distressed by the music he was hearing.  He asked what 
was wrong with it.  One of his staff, knowing of Thalberg's total 
lack of musical knowledge, told him the problem was the use of minor 
chords.  The very next day he issued a decree to MGM's staff 
composers stating "From the above date, onward, no music in an MGM 
film is to contain a minor chord".  That memo was still hanging on 
the wall in the 1950's during Andre Previn's tenure there.  "No Minor 
Chords" was the title Previn chose for his autobiography in the early 
1990's.  I'd suggest making a plaque for me that says "No More Blues" 
but I think that title's already been taken.

As for the "Spanish Inquisition" reference I made in my reply to 
Eric, I was referring to an old Monty Python sketch.

Enuf sed, I am off to bed.  And let's hope the same can be said of 
this discussion.

Doug Crane
dcrane at comcast.net
KUVO Denver 89.3 FM
Wednesdays 7-9 PM