Friday, May 11, 2007

Jazz Giants and Reggae Across the River Styx

I want this. It's Jazz, Giants and Journeys: The Photography of Herman Leonard . As a Billie Holiday fan, I must say that I'm eager to see some different images. There are cerrtainly some great shots of her out there, but we really tend to see the same ones over and over.

And Miles Davis... the guy probably never took an un-interesting photo.

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"Hotel California" = reggae. Really. Just listen.

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And I never liked reggae much. Oh, I gave it a shot, I did. Bob Marley was pretty great, but all the folks I explored after diggin' on Legend for a while were pretty lacking. I thought Steel Pulse might do it, but nah. Ditto for Burning Spear.

I did have a brief time when I listened to UB40 a lot, but I was drinking Southern Comfort at that point in my life, and frankly, everything sounded good when I drank Southern Comfort.

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I've had a nice little myspace message exchange with Todd Sucherman lately.

Who?, you may ask.

Sucherman is the drummer for Styx these days. I grew up loving, LOVING The Grand Illusion. I owned it on eight-track, cassette, and album. No CD, which I guess I oughta rectify.

But you know, listen to some of their stuff and think about how complicated the drumming is. It's complex stuff, and I've heard some of the current Styx's playing--the drumming is super.

So I was on Andy Sturmer's myspace page recently and saw a comment from Sucherman, praising Sturmer's work with Jellyfish, including his drumming.

And something about one pro drummer--a good one--complimenting another in a public forum like that, it just struck me as classy.

I sent Sucherman a note telling him so. He wrote back, said he's a big Jellyfish fan, and saw them live in '93. And he said thanks.

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At some point I'm going to write at length about Sturmer, but I haven't the heart at the moment.

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Looks like Hood and I are going to take a trip to Chicago in August to see the Cubs/Cards. I'm looking forward to that.

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The windows are open and a cool breeze is wafting through the house. MOBB is semi-conscious in the recliner, and the kids are in the bedroom, watching a DVD.

Unfortunately, the Rangers are losing to the Angels at the moment.

But otherwise it's a pretty perfect evening. I think I'll go get some ice cream.

Have a good weekend.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I always thought Styx was rather enjoyable all the way up to theie "Paradise Theater" record. "Pieces of Eight" was always my favorite record by them.

I find a lot of AOR still enjoyable. I listen to Kansas at least once a week ("Point of Know Return" is the record that truly got me into music and it remains one of my favorite records). I loved Journey when Gregg Rolie was with them. Foreigner's first three records were excellent. Although they were never big, I have been playing a few CD's by The Babys that I love.

Bruiser