"...even if it's Arbor Mist Cranberry Twist White Merlot. He's definitely not sitting there silently judging you." nope. don't care a lick. but if you wake up the next day w/ a raging headache, just don't go blaming it on 'sulfites' or some such nonsense.

Hi Barry, Sorry it's taken me so long to respond. "Bone" is a book and CD released under the auspices of a jazz club called Afkikker located in Gent, Belgium. If you google them, you can find a website written in what I believe is Dutch. But I found my copy at this beautifully dangerous store called the Jazz Record Center located on West 26th St. in Manhattan. Again you can google them and find their website. A casual perusal didn't reveal any more copies of "Bone," but you could always call them or e-mail them to see if they have any copies. I haven't heard of any plans to release the CD separately, but I'm not really an expert on the European CD business. The book was good, but only something I'd recommend to a die-hard Lacyphile. good luck!

"Of course, given Josh's previous post and recent blogosphere/Twittersphere comments about dissonance and chromaticism, the use of the White Note Piece as a learning tool suddenly feels rather controversial!" Actually, that sounds like a really great assignment: see if you can write an atonal melody using only the white notes of the piano. Certainly would be a good workout for the ears. btw, I think generating dissonance is a lot easier to do harmonically rather than melodically. So to a certain extent, diatonicism is besides the point.

"Spike Hill isn't primarily a jazz venue, so it's a natural thing for them to feature multi-band bills on their jazz series." O.K., but still they do it. And there are other people following 'truer' versions of multiple-band bills like Ryan Snow in Bushwick, the folks at I-Beam in Park Slope, Mike Pride's Body Without Organs series, the gentlemen running NOWT records and their monthly series, Lily Maase's Monduna shows and Bethany Ryker at Barbes. The point is, this stuff is starting to happen already. What's not happening is audience support for these things. And that starts with musicians. I can't remember the last time a musician talked excitedly about the other bands they were sharing a bill with. Nor can I remember too many occasions when musicians playing on the same bill showed up/stayed to hear each other. It's simple: if we musicians stick around to listen to each other, non-musicians are going to wonder what the crowds are all about and they in turn will stick around. People stick around and Voila! You've got an event that people will return to.

Hi Darcy, "...there's the simple fact that jazz and classical shows virtually never include opening acts." I agree with you regarding touring acts, but what about local shows? Specifically, multi-band bills. Things ranging from what you yourself produced at the Bell House a few weeks ago to what happens at Spike Hill in Williamsburg on Sunday night, or Small's on most nights of the week (or even the shows I've been programming here). How really different are these from opening act/main attraction type shows? On almost any night of the week in New York you can hear a new or different band just by going to one of these types of events. Multi-band bills are much more the norm in jazz now (at least at the entry level stage of things) and sure, it's not a night at the Vanguard or the Jazz Standard, but it's usually a lot cheaper, looser and generally speaking, more fun. Maybe instead of looking for the guaranteed "star" attraction every night, people can once a week, or even once a month go and check out the completely random, unknown band playing around the corner from them.

What's truly infuriating about all this is the White House's insane response. And yes, it's an insane response. No press conference, no addressing the issue or talking to the public about it. A talking head for the 'silent majority' (are they really a majority?) accuses an aide of soliciting propaganda? Fine, we'll just fire the aide. Between this and the gradual dissolution of any meaningful health-care reform, I'm starting to lose any faith I had in this administration. Does anyone know anything about the artist who recorded this conference call and sent it to Glenn Beck? Who is this guy? Who does stuff like that?

Re: the Socrates quote "The children now love luxury...". I think Darcy quotes this not because of what it says about students as much as what it says about teachers' perception of students. Sure, college students can be little snots, but hell, anyone can be a little snot. The larger issue is that just as music-students walk into a classroom with expectations ("they're going to love me, and make me a star, blah, blah, blah") so do the teachers ("these students should care about the same music I care about and demonstrate that love in the same way, blah, blah, blah"). Neither mind-sets are constructive, but the teacher hopefully has enough practical experience in the classroom to recognize when these preconceptions are interfering. That being said, it most certainly does suck when people don't care about what you're saying and doing with them. But again, students aren't the only ones guilty of that annoyance. That's a human thing. btw, I personally believe this distinction being made between "school"-trained musicians and "street"-trained musicians is nonexistent. Every musician outside of school creates their own school and every musician in school is still living in the world at large.

Hi Darcy, I was taking the word "generations" a bit too literally I guess. I was thinking of the 30-year definition of it. Yes, students can be full of shit because they're human and humans are notorious for being full of such things. And it's fine to remind folks of this, but I'm a fan of nuance, and it would've been nice for Branford to balance his statements with something about how some students (even if it's a minority of them) DO work hard and more importantly, WANT TO IMPROVE. I'd be willing to lay odds that for every three students that want only praise from Branford, there's one student who wants real information (no matter how it's delivered). Rather than concentrate on the students that piss him off, why not give a balance of time to the students he has fun with? I would imagine Branford doesn't need the money from a teaching job (but who knows?), so given this luxury, why not concentrate on ALL the students, not just the annoying ones. And that thinly veiled 'those-who-can't-do,-teach' comment from the '07 interview? That's serious bullshit. If he isn't old or grumpy, then he's just a mean sonofabitch. That being said, I'm glad he's still playing. He is one of the most serious and important saxophonists of the past 20 years.

Excellent! Another grumpy old man is born. Sounds like Branford should take some time off from the classroom. By the way, what on earth did he mean with that "And like the generation before them..." comment? So Branford's peers are spoiled children also? I don't understand.

Yes, putting seemingly disparate bands on the same bill will require changed expectations on both sides of the concert hall. But I think those changes are a good thing. No, I take that back, they're a great thing. Jazz-trained musicians playing in unfamiliar venues will come to grips first hand with the fact that audience attention/approval is not a given but is earned. And likewise, audiences will learn that just because someone's not singing or playing an amplified instrument doesn't mean the music's boring or pointless (or sucks). If there are two bands on a bill and one plays with lots of dynamic contrasts while the other is rock-out-loud the whole time, that's probably not going to be a good fit. But I''m sure everyone reading can think of bands that would be a good fit. Both non-stop-loud jazz bands and quiet, intimate rock bands. I'm just saying let's not talk ourselves out of presenting these possibilities before they've happened. Putting together these bills would be one strategy among many to create "something more bottom-up and locally sustainable. "

"...it seems to me like it might be more productive to talk about the stuff people are actually doing..." To that end, I have a question that I'd like to throw out to the blogosphere at large: Are any jazz musicians actively seeking gigs at non-jazz music venues? It seems like one of Vijay's main concerns is whether or not there's enough exposure for this music. One answer to the dilemma would be creating more venues, but another might be making room at existing venues. So has anyone out there tried getting a show at a rock club? a hip-hop club? a country-music club? And as a larger question, has anyone tried splitting a bill at one of these establishments with a non-jazz group? Maybe if we start presenting our music alongside our personal favorite music (irregardless of genre) it'll start to build the audience we're each looking for.