Talking Loud and Saying Nothing

A friend of mine sent me a link to this interview with Police drummer Stewart Copeland in which he discusses his distaste for the entire genre known as jazz, puts down "A Love Supreme" and says most of Miles Davis' output is crap. I still can't decide if he was being inflammatory for the sake of it, if he's ignorant, or if he's bitter and has issues with his Dad who apparently was a jazz musician. In any case, although I enjoy their music, I've never been a huge Police fan so it doesn't really bother me on any visceral level.

For another take on the Jazz establishment and creative music practices, take a look at this interview with Roscoe Mitchell, one of my favorite musicians and composers. I have to pick up his latest RogueArt release, the trio 2 CD set No Side Effects, soon - I really dug the other release on the label, Turn.

In a related interview, check out what Lester Bowie has to say about music and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, one of my favorite groups.

Sorry for the lack of substance in this post and the last one. I'll get down to some nitty gritty original thinking and writing, as well as some previously promised CD reviews, as soon as things slow down a bit on the work front.

In honor of Valentine's Day, here's Charles Mingus doing Flowers for a Lady with some incendiary playing from George Adams on tenor, Hamiett Bluiett on bari, Don Pullen on piano, Dannie Richmond on the drums, and of course Mr. Mingus on bass.