crikey
i just snuck into a gig down the road from me
featuring pure bollox polar bear

heck
wot mediocrity

i mean they drivel on for eternity
but none of them have a thing to say

not an ounce of creative expression

the trip hop drumming kept the kids dancing though
yes the kids were actually dancing

I'm sure it likes you too.

no way andy d

how is that possible?

what do you like??

oh dear, u mght b rght mr i

unlike mr i, I don't have a problem with beats so much - I quite like the nihilistic quality of much of the heavier, murkier forms of modern dance music, drum/drill n bass, etc, anticipated in the brick wall headbang of miles davis' 'rated x' - and I think that their inclusion doesn't necessarily mean the music suffers - but when they're just their to provide a nice foottapping/dancing backdrop to some inane solos, it all adds up to a glutinous generic hodgepodge which pulls bits out of genres and loses the best of both worlds. this is also what i think about the godawful neil cowley trio, and suchlike bands. Having been listening to a lot of miles davis' 70s output recently, the generic boundaries are transcended - by contrast, polar bear etc take from miles example the cross generic fertilisation and think, 'well, we'll just through in a bit of this a bit of that into the melting pot - we're so eclectic - to show that we're not boring old jazzfarts and we're adventurous'. that's not adventurous, that's opportunistic and shows a misunderstanding of what miles was doing, and actually ends up REENFORCING the generic divisions, by having such an awkward mix. something like zorn's naked city is much more knowing in its generic mashup, and is trying to do something different yet again.

well that's partly  the thing, isn't it - they get presented as 'proper jazzers' and get to open for cecil taylor and anthony braxton! It's a bit like one of the 'revered' pops acts - say, radiohead - being opened for by the cheeky girls (lembit opik in tow, no doubt). i remember once that john fordham, on one of those end of year jon3 roundups, was comparing david s. ware (live in the world, a superb 3disc set) with acoustic ladyland (pete wareham's sax). absolutely absurd. just because a bland plays 'loud' and 'wacky' and even a bit 'out' doesn't give them the same kudos or intention as a free jazzer. hence the ridiculous guardian article by marcus o' dair ('death jazz') which sought to equate soil and pimp (who I quite like, but are little more than a goodtime band, with lots of energy - bebop on speed), acoustic ladyland, etc, with weasel walter.

the more 'avant garde' side of things in pete wareham's playing does seem to indicate that Polar BeAR are reaching for something else though, if only briefly so as not to get in the way of balloon 'solos'.

polar bear seem to be having a corrupting influence too
i noted with some scepticism that the gig last night
[in a rock venue] was put on by a local musician
who plays trumpet with a band called the blessing
who are a local band who used to play the music of ornette coleman
amongst some quirky self penned ornetteish material
and they were a proper jazz drawing on the ornette style

but i notice they've been appearing in london lately
very much on the same bill as pure bollox polar bear
and this local band the blessing have taken in 2 pop muscusions
into their fold and they no longer play jazz
instead favouring this rock/fusion type emptiness as modelled by palor bore

never seek out a live audience would be my tip
to any artist starting out in the life

How's your side-job ('How I Lost 35 Pounds Fast) going these days, Kenny?