A New Approach

New Grass

Notes on Sleeve Notes (Lessons to Learn and Apply to Creative Practice) #2

"In terms of the trade, this is soul music ... or rhythm and blues ... or rock. Then again, maybe it's gospel music ... or jazz. But none of these terms mean anything to the younger creative musicians of the last five or ten years. To them it's all music, and the important thing is a commitment to it as a way of life."

"Many people who have heard and liked a James Brown or an Otis Redding have balked at the playing of the New Thing as being "too far out". Only a few, perhaps, have realized that musicians such as Ayler have moved back in musical time on a quest for fundamentals."

"I suppose that those who worry about such things will call this "jazz-rock". But whatever it's called, it signals the barriers of music are down, and (to echo Martin Luther King's favourite spiritual) things are free at last."

Don't Worry

Virgo Vibes

I found it! Thank you, Spin It! Records of Hull. You never fail to get me giddy after an afternoon's crate-digging. I've been doing a fair bit of writing on jazz record liner notes these past few weeks, trying to write my own as if I had brought out a vibes records. The liner notes for this record only confirm that vibes are an apt metaphor to play around with. I love how you could read it wrong and be forgiven for thinking Ayers is a guy whose profession is being cool and bringing the good vibes.

"The scarcity of genuine virtuosi on the vibes during the evolution of modern jazz can be ascribed to two principal factors First there is the practical problem of its expense and lack of accessibility to young musicians; second, the technical demands it places on the artist, coupled with the scarcity of teachers.

Roy ayers, one of the few performers to have surmounted these difficulties, has established himself firmly, among musicians who have known and worked with him, as one of the most gifted and fastest-rising vibes soloists. 

Just before graduating high school, in 1958, Roy was exposed to the music of Milt Jackson and Cal Tjader. He promptly decided to take up vibes..."

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

SUCHMUCH

Automatically Sunshine - Installation Video

'Vibes' Preview Mix

I have a couple of little projects in the pipeline for the summer about flowers and jazz and vibes, vibraphones and vibrations. This mix is a bunch of tracks that are influencing those projects and some that I'm predicting will be on heavy rotation this summer. Think of it as a preview of sorts for the next mix CD projects.

Ogle Goggle 3

Green

Ogle Goggle 2

Doin' the Damien