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the new Elvis Costello album (Momofuku)

I'll definitely check it out but I hope the album isn't named after that noodle bar in the East Village...

Also get a copy of Matt's new DVD/CD combo, bargain, sounds fantstic, LIVE as live can get!!!!! www.mattoree.com Matt Oree LIVE Video was done with 3 HD cameras, though video is not Blu-Ray, but widescreen pro mix, excellent music, video.

This subject reminded me of a recent entry that I posted on my blog which dealt with both Dynamic Compression and Elvis Costello, coincidentally enough.

The most damaging change to recorded music currently being perpetrated by the record industry is dynamic range compression. Dynamic compression is the reduction of the volume difference between the softest and the loudest passages on a recording. Record companies feel that an album or song that is consistently louder than others will

I like the phrase "dynamically challenged". Is this an original?

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Plus, he married Diana Krall

Greatly increasing her credibility.

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Plus, he married Diana Krall

Greatly increasing her credibility.

25,000 or even 25,000,000 times zero is still ZERO!

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I beg to differ, but a guy who thinks Free Jazz is music would be hard to argue with... She only won a couple grammy's...I guess that's not enough for some guys who are too cool.

Why do I get the impression she get's less respect because she sings and plays the classics, and is beautiful along with it? Your guy's attitudes are exactly why jazz fans in popular culture are depicted as lp obsessed geeks who are too good for everyone else.

A couple of corrections and comments.

Free jazz is not just music, it's GREAT music!

Everybody who sells a few thousand CDs wins a Grammy. The Grammy's are one of the most laughable awards going. They even make the Academy Awards appear worthwhile and that's not an easy thing to do.

For some good mainstream jazz vocals check out Karrin Allyson.

I'm not LP obsessed, I'm music server obsessed. But you are kind of right, there a plenty of jazz fans obsessed with Blue Note LPs, I just don't happen to be one of them.

All that being said, it's not such a bad thing that Diana Krall is married to the 53 year old Elvis Costello since she's been too busy having his babies to record or tour. Thank god for small favors.

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I beg to differ, but a guy who thinks Free Jazz is music would be hard to argue with... She only won a couple grammy's...I guess that's not enough for some guys who are too cool.

Why do I get the impression she get's less respect because she sings and plays the classics, and is beautiful along with it? Your guy's attitudes are exactly why jazz fans in popular culture are depicted as lp obsessed geeks who are too good for everyone else.

The problem not with the folks who like real Jazz, they can shake their butts about and dance naked in their living rooms. Very decent well adjusted humanity skills.

However, there is a group of very prominent 'wanna-be' jazz fans who's ass very much squeaks when they walk.

The same kind of folks who screw their faces up when attempting to listen to audio equipment, to discern the 'components' of the sound. They tend to be the ones who listen to the 'shite' jazz that any decently realistic and well mentally put together soul would never soil their turntables with. Those squeeky assed folks wouldn't know a ass kicking tune if it came to them and hit them in the face.

Since it is the same illiteracy in a different crew that seeks them out and puts these folks (who want to be there to legitimize themselves) in front of a camera or microphone, we end up hearing abut idiots---from idiots.

But only the idiots are reading and listening--so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Sheesh...Norah Jones one three Grammys in 2005, definitive proof that the Grammys are not about talent nor musical goodness.

I have no problem with a combination of good looks and talent - consider Anna Netrebko.

Diana Krall was somewhat fun for the first couple of albums. Then commercial demands took over even more. Consider her album The Look of Love: it was clearly about the "look" and not the music.

I do not criticize her for taking the "success" route. It was the correct decision; pablum sells.

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I have no problem with a combination of good looks and talent - consider Anna Netrebko.

Meow... schwing! Yes please. Funny you should mention her, Elk... yesterday, I picked up her La Traviata DVD, can't wait to watch it.

That said, I must agree with dbowker here. I think Krall is vastly underrated. It's true that her commercial aspect gets in the way of "real" jazz aficionados taking her seriously. But who says one can't appreciate Eric Dolphy and singers like Krall together? I admit I am also guilty of the street-cred mentality when it comes to listening to music, too, and I make a concerted effort not to get too judgmental.

Another good recommendation of a good pop-jazz singer: Stacy Kent. Writer Kazuo Ishiguro - one of the best contemporary novelists - wrote the lyrics to a suite of songs for the album. I love her voice. Makes me want to go ice skating or something. After drinking heavily.

By the way, I didn't mean to help in the hijacking of this thread into a Diana Krall love/hate series of exchanges. Sorry about that.

So to help put things back on track:

For the record, along with my love of most types of jazz, including free jazz, I am also a long time (since around 1977 or 1978) and die hard Elvis Costello fan. I've seen him many, many times in concert but I regret having missed the tour with Allen Toussaint, who I am also a long time and big fan of. Luckily there is an excellent DVD of a concert from the Costello/Toussaint tour called "Hot as a Pistol, Keen as a Blade". It features excellent new Allen Toussaint horn arrangements of many Costello classics along with most of the material from "A River In Reverse". And if you know anything about Allen Toussaint, then you know what a good arranger he is. Highly recommended.

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Anna Netrebko.... yesterday, I picked up her La Traviata DVD, can't wait to watch it.

Excellent!

It is spectacular. She was made for this role.

I have a fondness for this opera. It is one of the first that I saw as a wee elkin, at perhaps 10 years old.

This and Die Meistersinger von N

Was your brother Frasier Crane?

Sorry but some one was going to say it.

Very good!

There are certainly some similarities.

I was lucky. My parents took us to the Met, rock concerts, ballet, jazz, the symphony, art museums, etc. We had a great deal of wonderful cultural exposure.

OTOH, I know next to nothing about baseball, football, basketball, etc., a cultural lacking. My experience racing bikes and E-scows (a fast 28 foot inland sailing race boat)simply do not translate well.

Hey db, I previously alluded the Costello/Krall tryst in the rock thread and was mildly rebuked, so don't feel like the Lone Ranger. I was lucky enough to see him in '76 with my new wife on the This Year's Model tour, which was a quantuum evolution from My Aim Is True in it's political anger. What a fucking concert! After Nick Lowe warmed up the crowd with a great set, EC and the Attractions came out and hooked up to an extremely small equipment array that looked more suited to a small club, not the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. The trap set was like three pieces. No huge stacks of Marshalls. Didn't matter. They launched into their new album with the intense ferocity of demons possessed and didn't let up until we were all physically and emotonally wrung out. It was a concert for the times and the ages. Right up there with Zappa, Traffic and Marley. He has my greatest respect.