A comedian takes the stage, and looks out.
"It took bill cosby and michael jackson to make me realize that r. kelly...not so bad. I mean, come on, who among us has never peed on a teenager? Tell the truth. TELL THE TRUTH."
The audience laughs. Well, maybe.
That thought popped into my brain recently. Making oneself laugh is surely one of the keys to sanity in an insane world. I considered doing the bit at an open mic, but then i realized that by lumping these people together, i had possibly, unintentionally defined them by their skin color. So i thought of substituting woody allen. But that didn't feel as funny - i have a harder time being outraged by woody.
Just now, should i have said "woody and soon yi", to avoid denying her an active role in her own life? If i just say "woody", am i contributing to the message that something bad happened, and the accountability lies with him? Would that be victimizing a womyn who rejects her "victimization"?
The comedy sprang from some poetry that had been gestating in me, something like "eldridge cleaver is raping white wimyn, and flipper committed suicide" (flipper, or kathy, possibly killed herself due to captivity-induced depression).
But the comedy doesn't feel right, because of the accidental racial overtones. One shies away from expressing outrage over any actions of people of color, because one feels one should only be outraged at white folk...and also because you might be accused of having a racist agenda. Racial concerns have a tendency to impose themselves. Which, we must remind ourselves, is mostly a good thing. All political correctness stems from a place of good and necessary intent. Awareness grows, and change follows. But it can be so hard to speak openly without risking being misunderstood, and not just over race. Feminism, ethnic sensitivity, gay & binary awareness, speciesism, fighting an obesity epidemic without looking like a body-shamer...as tina fey said (approximately),"Just opening your mouth these days is playing landmine hopscotch".
It's strange to realize that i myself am capable of saying the wrong thing, or something that appears wrong. I know i'm much closer to being gender- and color-blind than most (let's assume that's a good thing). As one example, i just started watching "A Handmaid's Tale", and a housemate railed against it as feminist claptrap. I got his point, but it had never occurred to me that anyone might perceive the show as feminist, because i didn't perceive the hero as female. I just saw her as a person.
Another example, one in which i was suddenly on the wrong side of the moral argument even though i think i was on the CORRECT side (or more correct, perhaps...there can be layered, even contrary, levels of correctness). I recently heard a poem, in which the author excoriated her ex for not wanting to be identified by his skin color. She was outraged that he would deny his racial heritage. The PC crowd clapped their affirmations.
But...wait! Not defining yourself by skin/ethnicity/gender...isn't that a GOOD thing? Great, even?
Going back to my standup, the original words in my head were "Who among us has never peed on a teenage girl?" Those who appreciate the perverse dysfunction of our society, may have an initial laugh response to those words, though it probably takes only a couple seconds to cringe. But when you're creating comedy or art, you have to be able to go all the way to the edge...that's the only way you'll discover what's too far. Fifty years ago, maybe one artist in a hundred was capable of going to the edge. These days...one in a thousand? Just a thought.
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
"Batman"
1966-1968
-created by lorenzo semple jr and william dozier
Quick! Name a late 60s TV classic that ran for three seasons, spawned a TV/movie franchise that thrives to this day, and had two stars who became three?
No, not Star Trek. Batman!
A pop paragon and camp classic that became the hippest TV happening of the 60s, for kids and adults alike. Who can forget those cliffhangers, batrope-climbs...and tights! Plus gorshin, meredith, romero...and a sexual tension between adam west and julie newmar that was more palpable (and poignant) than you remember. Batman himself was generally progressive (no one is evil at heart), but sometimes fascist too (damned parole system!). Don't trash eartha kitt - without the no-win comparison to newmar, she'd have been purr-fect. As for season 3, you'll never see another show get so simultaneously better (batgirl) and worse (more infantile writing). The series' chauvinist caucasianism make it a no-go for impressionable youth today, but if you're looking for a giggle ride down memory lane, you won't do better.
BATMAN'S BEST
-Not Yet, He Ain't (1)
The extended country chase with dynamic duo on batbike pursuing penguin and goons in the stolen batmobile is beyond priceless.
-BATMAN: THE MOVIE
The big screen release that came out after season 1. An evil alliance of the "big four" (and in retrospect, the producers couldn't have known riddler/joker/penguin/catwoman were the big four, this early on) aboard a submarine...here come the batboat, batcopter, and the United Nations, all wrapped in sly, ironic humor. Even with a bland lee meriwether as catwoman, this one's a rollicking ride. Plus the greatest shark attack in the history of cinema. Dive!
-The Dead Ringers (2)
This middling episode is elevated by liberace in a dual performance as a world-famous maestro and his ne'er-do-well brother...and also by some of the most ridiculous BATMAN writing ever. How they escape player-piano death and meditate their way to detectively deduction, simply must be seen to be believed. And burt ward's attempt to follow batman's musical instruction is beyond hilarious. He may have been a martial arts/speed-reading boy wonder in real life, but he was clearly also bona fide tone-deaf.
-The Penguin Declines (2)
Burgess meredith stretches his chops, playing a suave seducer...whose chief henchperson is a baby-faced rob reiner (ALL IN THE FAMILY, THIS IS SPINAL TAP)!
-Scat! Darn Catwoman (2)
Batman falls under a love spell. Adam west's groovy acting would do austin powers proud.
-Pop Goes the Joker/Flop Goes the Joker (2)
The greatest turn for Gotham's greatest villain. This spoof of high art (and high artists) is pop culture classic. In a madcap climax, the joker (cesar romero - THE GAY CABALLERO, JULIA) is loose in Wayne Manor, and accidentally discovers the batpoles. Alfred outfences him, then traps him on a pole going up and down. Also fun for seeing adam take on goons by robin's side, as bruce.
-Enter Batgirl, Exit Penguin (3)
The biggest laugh-out-loud chuckler of the series features the debut of batgirl (yvonne craig - GIDGET, IN LIKE FLINT) and a looser touch in the writing and directing. No more impending-doom cliffhangers alas, but this one's non-stop fun. Having alfred be the only who knows barbara gordon's secret? A lovely touch.
-Surf's Up! Joker's Under! (3)
This one has it all - humor, gnarly action, a show tune, and yvonne in a mesh swimsuit. Joker steals the talent of the beach's best surfer, and batman is the only one to challenge him for supremacy of the waves. More bat anti-shark repellent? You betcha, daddy-o. Also the high comedy point for gordon and o'hara, as undercover beach bums buzzy and duke.
-The Entrancing Dr. Cassandra (3)
The show's penultimate episode should have been its climax, for what more glorious way to go out than having the terrific trio face off against all arch-villains at once? Never mind that the camera shots are a soundstage away, to conceal the fact that none of the correct actors are here...it's still too silly to resist. All of this is arranged by an alchemistic villain and her hep hangdog husband, who hold up their end, entertainment-wise.
NOTABLE
-Batman's Anniversary (2)
A riddler episode minus frank gorshin. Fascinating but flaccid, as john astin (THE ADDAMS FAMILY, OPERATION PETTICOAT) is a pale shadow of gorshin's manic glee. Plus the series' greatest fight scene, amidst fake underwater madness.
-A Piece of the Action/Batman's Satisfaction (2)
A titillating hodgepodge, with crossover appearances by the cast of THE GREEN HORNET, including bruce lee, who shows stunning moves while fighting pal burt ward. STAR TREK fans get a two-fer, with roger c. carmel (BREEZY, THAT'S LIFE) and angelique pettyjohn (REPO MAN, STALAG 69). Plus seymour cassel (DICK TRACY, RUSHMORE) and alex rocco (THE GODFATHER, THE GEORGE CARLIN SHOW) as goons.
-Batman's Waterloo (2)
WOW...wha' hoppen?? Until now we've been watching a banal kid's show, then suddenly...a burst of raw sexual politics. Bruce is romancing an heiress (lee meriwether - BATMAN: THE MOVIE, THE TIME TUNNEL), until he finds out that her father doesn't consider him a catch (her FATHER, mind you). Then he tells her he's not looking for marriage, so she shouldn't invite him up to her place. She offers non-marital sex. With a smarmy look at the camera, he tells the viewer...well, who wouldn't? Her character actually comes off well in terms of empowerment, but bruce is just cringeingly crass and petulant. Plus grace lee whitney (STAR TREK, IRMA LA DOUCE)!
-The Joker's Provokers (2)
The best actor on the show? I'll place my marker on silent film star alan napier. His appearances wearing the bat costume are too cool for school, and here he's at his multi-faceted best, playing alfred and his blue-collar cousin egbert. Brilliant!
APPALLATHON
-An Egg Grows in Gotham (2)
In this otherwise delightful entry starring vincent price, the chief plot patsy is chief screaming chicken. Do i have to actually say more? Perhaps the most stunningly offensive portrayal of a native ever (and that's a distinction with no shortage of contenders...although i haven't seen the very same actor as an F TROOP character named roaring chicken). Why not just go all the way and make him a foster brooks drunk? You'll never fully understand the extent to which america made normative the most racist, demeaning attitudes toward peoples we blithely genocided, without seeing a program or two like this. OF COURSE they're semi-humyns who deserved what they got!
-Nora Clavicle and the Ladies' Crime Club (3)
The spark that triggered the 70s feminist movement? Sadly, nothing so glamorous...just some appalling 60s business-as-usual. A wimyn's rights activist gets herself underhandedly installed as commissioner, replaces the entire police force with wimyn, and the city falls apart. Every derogatory female stereotype is puked up onto the screen. Batgirl, who might know about being a womyn in a man's world, reacts instead as the obedient eye candy the writer (stanford sherman) wanted her to be. The vitriolic nature of this attack passing itself off as good fun, is almost too much to be believed. Grownups actually wrote this, and children actually watched. For an addendum, see "The Great Escape/The Great Train Robbery", for an object lesson in the value we placed on old/ugly and young/pretty wimyn. Notice how i optimistically used the past tense there?
-The Joke's On Catwoman (3)
Speaking of feminism (and racism, for that matter)...this one's a corker, both blatantly and subtly. Blatantly, let's observe a Gotham jury of your peers (that is, if you happen to be pink-skinned with an X chromosome). More subtly (and amusingly), catwoman and joker team up, yet in this partnership she provides the goons, hideout, and wheels. He just coasts along like an entitled ponce, probably not even contributing gas money to the kittymobile. I'm sure there are no wimyn out there who can relate...
-created by lorenzo semple jr and william dozier
Quick! Name a late 60s TV classic that ran for three seasons, spawned a TV/movie franchise that thrives to this day, and had two stars who became three?
No, not Star Trek. Batman!
A pop paragon and camp classic that became the hippest TV happening of the 60s, for kids and adults alike. Who can forget those cliffhangers, batrope-climbs...and tights! Plus gorshin, meredith, romero...and a sexual tension between adam west and julie newmar that was more palpable (and poignant) than you remember. Batman himself was generally progressive (no one is evil at heart), but sometimes fascist too (damned parole system!). Don't trash eartha kitt - without the no-win comparison to newmar, she'd have been purr-fect. As for season 3, you'll never see another show get so simultaneously better (batgirl) and worse (more infantile writing). The series' chauvinist caucasianism make it a no-go for impressionable youth today, but if you're looking for a giggle ride down memory lane, you won't do better.
BATMAN'S BEST
-Not Yet, He Ain't (1)
The extended country chase with dynamic duo on batbike pursuing penguin and goons in the stolen batmobile is beyond priceless.
-BATMAN: THE MOVIE
The big screen release that came out after season 1. An evil alliance of the "big four" (and in retrospect, the producers couldn't have known riddler/joker/penguin/catwoman were the big four, this early on) aboard a submarine...here come the batboat, batcopter, and the United Nations, all wrapped in sly, ironic humor. Even with a bland lee meriwether as catwoman, this one's a rollicking ride. Plus the greatest shark attack in the history of cinema. Dive!
-The Dead Ringers (2)
This middling episode is elevated by liberace in a dual performance as a world-famous maestro and his ne'er-do-well brother...and also by some of the most ridiculous BATMAN writing ever. How they escape player-piano death and meditate their way to detectively deduction, simply must be seen to be believed. And burt ward's attempt to follow batman's musical instruction is beyond hilarious. He may have been a martial arts/speed-reading boy wonder in real life, but he was clearly also bona fide tone-deaf.
-The Penguin Declines (2)
Burgess meredith stretches his chops, playing a suave seducer...whose chief henchperson is a baby-faced rob reiner (ALL IN THE FAMILY, THIS IS SPINAL TAP)!
-Scat! Darn Catwoman (2)
Batman falls under a love spell. Adam west's groovy acting would do austin powers proud.
-Pop Goes the Joker/Flop Goes the Joker (2)
The greatest turn for Gotham's greatest villain. This spoof of high art (and high artists) is pop culture classic. In a madcap climax, the joker (cesar romero - THE GAY CABALLERO, JULIA) is loose in Wayne Manor, and accidentally discovers the batpoles. Alfred outfences him, then traps him on a pole going up and down. Also fun for seeing adam take on goons by robin's side, as bruce.
-Enter Batgirl, Exit Penguin (3)
The biggest laugh-out-loud chuckler of the series features the debut of batgirl (yvonne craig - GIDGET, IN LIKE FLINT) and a looser touch in the writing and directing. No more impending-doom cliffhangers alas, but this one's non-stop fun. Having alfred be the only who knows barbara gordon's secret? A lovely touch.
-Surf's Up! Joker's Under! (3)
This one has it all - humor, gnarly action, a show tune, and yvonne in a mesh swimsuit. Joker steals the talent of the beach's best surfer, and batman is the only one to challenge him for supremacy of the waves. More bat anti-shark repellent? You betcha, daddy-o. Also the high comedy point for gordon and o'hara, as undercover beach bums buzzy and duke.
-The Entrancing Dr. Cassandra (3)
The show's penultimate episode should have been its climax, for what more glorious way to go out than having the terrific trio face off against all arch-villains at once? Never mind that the camera shots are a soundstage away, to conceal the fact that none of the correct actors are here...it's still too silly to resist. All of this is arranged by an alchemistic villain and her hep hangdog husband, who hold up their end, entertainment-wise.
NOTABLE
-Batman's Anniversary (2)
A riddler episode minus frank gorshin. Fascinating but flaccid, as john astin (THE ADDAMS FAMILY, OPERATION PETTICOAT) is a pale shadow of gorshin's manic glee. Plus the series' greatest fight scene, amidst fake underwater madness.
-A Piece of the Action/Batman's Satisfaction (2)
A titillating hodgepodge, with crossover appearances by the cast of THE GREEN HORNET, including bruce lee, who shows stunning moves while fighting pal burt ward. STAR TREK fans get a two-fer, with roger c. carmel (BREEZY, THAT'S LIFE) and angelique pettyjohn (REPO MAN, STALAG 69). Plus seymour cassel (DICK TRACY, RUSHMORE) and alex rocco (THE GODFATHER, THE GEORGE CARLIN SHOW) as goons.
-Batman's Waterloo (2)
WOW...wha' hoppen?? Until now we've been watching a banal kid's show, then suddenly...a burst of raw sexual politics. Bruce is romancing an heiress (lee meriwether - BATMAN: THE MOVIE, THE TIME TUNNEL), until he finds out that her father doesn't consider him a catch (her FATHER, mind you). Then he tells her he's not looking for marriage, so she shouldn't invite him up to her place. She offers non-marital sex. With a smarmy look at the camera, he tells the viewer...well, who wouldn't? Her character actually comes off well in terms of empowerment, but bruce is just cringeingly crass and petulant. Plus grace lee whitney (STAR TREK, IRMA LA DOUCE)!
-The Joker's Provokers (2)
The best actor on the show? I'll place my marker on silent film star alan napier. His appearances wearing the bat costume are too cool for school, and here he's at his multi-faceted best, playing alfred and his blue-collar cousin egbert. Brilliant!
APPALLATHON
-An Egg Grows in Gotham (2)
In this otherwise delightful entry starring vincent price, the chief plot patsy is chief screaming chicken. Do i have to actually say more? Perhaps the most stunningly offensive portrayal of a native ever (and that's a distinction with no shortage of contenders...although i haven't seen the very same actor as an F TROOP character named roaring chicken). Why not just go all the way and make him a foster brooks drunk? You'll never fully understand the extent to which america made normative the most racist, demeaning attitudes toward peoples we blithely genocided, without seeing a program or two like this. OF COURSE they're semi-humyns who deserved what they got!
-Nora Clavicle and the Ladies' Crime Club (3)
The spark that triggered the 70s feminist movement? Sadly, nothing so glamorous...just some appalling 60s business-as-usual. A wimyn's rights activist gets herself underhandedly installed as commissioner, replaces the entire police force with wimyn, and the city falls apart. Every derogatory female stereotype is puked up onto the screen. Batgirl, who might know about being a womyn in a man's world, reacts instead as the obedient eye candy the writer (stanford sherman) wanted her to be. The vitriolic nature of this attack passing itself off as good fun, is almost too much to be believed. Grownups actually wrote this, and children actually watched. For an addendum, see "The Great Escape/The Great Train Robbery", for an object lesson in the value we placed on old/ugly and young/pretty wimyn. Notice how i optimistically used the past tense there?
-The Joke's On Catwoman (3)
Speaking of feminism (and racism, for that matter)...this one's a corker, both blatantly and subtly. Blatantly, let's observe a Gotham jury of your peers (that is, if you happen to be pink-skinned with an X chromosome). More subtly (and amusingly), catwoman and joker team up, yet in this partnership she provides the goons, hideout, and wheels. He just coasts along like an entitled ponce, probably not even contributing gas money to the kittymobile. I'm sure there are no wimyn out there who can relate...
Friday, June 14, 2019
Riptide 4
What do you do when you've come to an open mic to do some thoughtful originals, but the local sports club just won a championship game on the bar's big screen, and the boozy crowd won't settle down? You do this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc6ygjGSsPE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc6ygjGSsPE
Monday, June 10, 2019
mj epilogue
I just finished listening to "Unity: The Latin Tribute to Michael Jackson".
It's brimming with joy!
A bit much with the percussion to my western ear, but...
So joyous. Michael touched that in us...tapping the need we have to lose our minds in communal celebration...infectious marriages of rhythm and melody and lyric in songs of joy or longing...did anyone ever do that better?
Of course, in retrospect (and fullish possession of the truth), it's easy to see his life as driven by demons almost none of us might comprehend. A child abuse survivor, revisiting his horrors on other innocents. How early in his life must he have been aware that one day there might be a reckoning...and how relentlessly did that knowledge drive him to keep creating music of hope and love...insinuating himself into all our lives, trying to buffer himself against the hatred that might one day be his only reward?
"Beware the overachievers". If that isn't a truism, it should be.
But oh how we wanted that joy, michael! You delivered. You gave, we took, then turned it back out into the world in so many ways...the bursting enthusiasm of the performers on the album i just heard...convicts doing the Thriller dance in a prison yard, and...
Once, i was on a moving crew, waiting for an abominably slow elevator. One of us, probably me, started singing the bass line to "I Want You Back". Someone picked up the guitar line, then someone the vocal, until all five of us were singing and smiling. Our little group was black, and brown, and white...and none of that mattered, because that moment belonged to us all.
There is an inevitable amount of back-turning, of course. This past year, i taught myself a ukulele version of "The Way You Make Me Feel". I improved the lyrics. It was perfectly silly and joyous. And now, i can't imagine i'll ever play it again. At what point does the bad someone did, erase all the good?
Do i forgive him?
Gulp.
Bloody underwear.
Yes.
I must, for he is one of us. He is all of us.
I don't imagine that he's resting in peace. I don't imagine he's anything but dead.
We failed him. And he failed others in turn.
Even though my mj cds are gone, i don't think i'll ever erase the joy of his music in my heart.
It's brimming with joy!
A bit much with the percussion to my western ear, but...
So joyous. Michael touched that in us...tapping the need we have to lose our minds in communal celebration...infectious marriages of rhythm and melody and lyric in songs of joy or longing...did anyone ever do that better?
Of course, in retrospect (and fullish possession of the truth), it's easy to see his life as driven by demons almost none of us might comprehend. A child abuse survivor, revisiting his horrors on other innocents. How early in his life must he have been aware that one day there might be a reckoning...and how relentlessly did that knowledge drive him to keep creating music of hope and love...insinuating himself into all our lives, trying to buffer himself against the hatred that might one day be his only reward?
"Beware the overachievers". If that isn't a truism, it should be.
But oh how we wanted that joy, michael! You delivered. You gave, we took, then turned it back out into the world in so many ways...the bursting enthusiasm of the performers on the album i just heard...convicts doing the Thriller dance in a prison yard, and...
Once, i was on a moving crew, waiting for an abominably slow elevator. One of us, probably me, started singing the bass line to "I Want You Back". Someone picked up the guitar line, then someone the vocal, until all five of us were singing and smiling. Our little group was black, and brown, and white...and none of that mattered, because that moment belonged to us all.
There is an inevitable amount of back-turning, of course. This past year, i taught myself a ukulele version of "The Way You Make Me Feel". I improved the lyrics. It was perfectly silly and joyous. And now, i can't imagine i'll ever play it again. At what point does the bad someone did, erase all the good?
Do i forgive him?
Gulp.
Bloody underwear.
Yes.
I must, for he is one of us. He is all of us.
I don't imagine that he's resting in peace. I don't imagine he's anything but dead.
We failed him. And he failed others in turn.
Even though my mj cds are gone, i don't think i'll ever erase the joy of his music in my heart.
Friday, June 7, 2019
coltrane
It took a long time for me to come around to john coltrane's music, despite the fact that he was the most famous sideperson on perhaps the greatest album ever. I resisted in large part because of john's non-secular inclinations, but when i finally heard an entire album (which by chance was GIANT STEPS), i was blown away. I'd never heard music so clearly wrestle with its own possibilities.
Are you surprised by the absence of trane's "masterpiece", A LOVE SUPREME, on the following list? I initially dismissed miles' veiled dismissal of that work, as motivated by the typical competitive jealousies of bonded alphas. But davis was right...it's a simplistic appeal to god-oriented longing, and looked at objectively, it treads no musical ground trane hadn't trod before...and arguably not as brilliantly. It's truer to say that ASCENSION is the one trane "religious experience", transcending the boundaries of convention...though as fascinating as that album is, it doesn't measure up musically. Here's the masterpiece, and the others that come close.
JOHN COLTRANE'S GREATEST ALBUMS
-GIANT STEPS (1960)
Has there ever been a more appropriate title? You can almost literally feel the sound of metaphorical elbows pushing hither and yon.
-AFRICA/BRASS (1961)
Somehow both laid-back and grand. Most of the album never strays from the key of F, yet it's utterly enthralling.
-OLE' (1962)
More entrancing than its likely inspiration, SKETCHES OF SPAIN.
-THE JOHN COLTRANE QUARTET PLAYS (1965)
"Chim Chim Cheree" elicits an initial groan, sounding like yet another pandering cover...but before long, your eyes might pop as you wonder whether you've ever heard a more perfect sax solo. Just impossibly muscular and graceful. "Brazilia" is mesmerizing, "Nature Boy" features a bed of dissonant strings underscoring a magisterial solo, and "Song of Praise" is a drum/sax dialogue that feels like being inside a desert wind.
-INTERSTELLAR SPACE (1967)
I didn't imagine any of his "free jazz" entries would make this list...but this album-length duet with drummer/percussionist rashied ali is breathtaking. Even with a smattering of blats and shrieks, it's mind-blowing. Take away chords and scales, and focus on one musical voice flying free, like a mythological bird taking bites out of the ether. Ali's drumming is relentless and unself-concsious.
STRAY GEMS
"After the Rain"
"My Little Brown Book"
"Alabama"
"Wise One"
Are you surprised by the absence of trane's "masterpiece", A LOVE SUPREME, on the following list? I initially dismissed miles' veiled dismissal of that work, as motivated by the typical competitive jealousies of bonded alphas. But davis was right...it's a simplistic appeal to god-oriented longing, and looked at objectively, it treads no musical ground trane hadn't trod before...and arguably not as brilliantly. It's truer to say that ASCENSION is the one trane "religious experience", transcending the boundaries of convention...though as fascinating as that album is, it doesn't measure up musically. Here's the masterpiece, and the others that come close.
JOHN COLTRANE'S GREATEST ALBUMS
-GIANT STEPS (1960)
Has there ever been a more appropriate title? You can almost literally feel the sound of metaphorical elbows pushing hither and yon.
-AFRICA/BRASS (1961)
Somehow both laid-back and grand. Most of the album never strays from the key of F, yet it's utterly enthralling.
-OLE' (1962)
More entrancing than its likely inspiration, SKETCHES OF SPAIN.
-THE JOHN COLTRANE QUARTET PLAYS (1965)
"Chim Chim Cheree" elicits an initial groan, sounding like yet another pandering cover...but before long, your eyes might pop as you wonder whether you've ever heard a more perfect sax solo. Just impossibly muscular and graceful. "Brazilia" is mesmerizing, "Nature Boy" features a bed of dissonant strings underscoring a magisterial solo, and "Song of Praise" is a drum/sax dialogue that feels like being inside a desert wind.
-INTERSTELLAR SPACE (1967)
I didn't imagine any of his "free jazz" entries would make this list...but this album-length duet with drummer/percussionist rashied ali is breathtaking. Even with a smattering of blats and shrieks, it's mind-blowing. Take away chords and scales, and focus on one musical voice flying free, like a mythological bird taking bites out of the ether. Ali's drumming is relentless and unself-concsious.
STRAY GEMS
"After the Rain"
"My Little Brown Book"
"Alabama"
"Wise One"
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