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By Walter Price
Several readers have inquired about my nicknames, glosses, or
monikers for the names of Jazz artists or jazz related material. I thought I'd
soak up some bandwidth and give everyone a sampling of the Price Vocabulary
Guide to the Jazz World. Keep this list in mind for future articles. Pay
attention, you never know when AAJ is going get that nationally syndicated
radio program called Jazz Talk! Many of you have your own, but these are my
personal favorites!
Periodicals
- JazzAds = JazzTimes: Somebody told me in their latest issue there was an article
on Duke Ellington. After two weeks I found it!
- Jazzizn't = Jazziz: See JazzAds
- DownJazz = Downbeat: Or you can call it UpBlues&Beyond, although lately they
have become a pretty good mag, nice format and layout, decent
articles.
The Artists
- "Louis Marsalis": Wynton Marsalis, two reasons #1. Named after the Louis XIV ,
"I am Jazz", #2. For trying so hard to be the metaphysical reincarnation of
Pops!
- "The artist formerly known as Keith Jarrett", an enormous talent with the
ivory keys with an equally enormous arrogance.
- "Wallace Allen", Wallace Roney, after listening to The Gathering by Geri, I
thought Wallace needed the name change.
- "Brendan Fraser": Harry Connick Jr., this guy plays in George of the Jungle,
plays the piano, and even sings!
- "Linc Hayes": Billy Taylor, Billy you are the intelligentsia of jazz, but cut
the fro!
- "ForePlay", band has become an infinite tease that never leads to any exciting
music.
- "Medeski, Martin, and Wood, Evans and Lowe": The only jazz law firm I know.
- "Dick Clark", "Dorian Gray": Herbie Hancock, almost 60 and still looking like
he just played for Miles yesterday!
- "Methuselah": Lionel Hampton, is this guy still touring after he jumped out the
window in that high rise to escape a fire! (Warning: all facts to this story
may not be straight!)
- "Duck": Chick Corea, self explanatory.
- "Diana Crawl": Diana Krall, saw her in concert and I'm kept waiting for
something exciting, well you get the picture.
- "Larry Bird": Steve Swallow, how many New Age adjectives ("effortless
elegance", "simplicity that belie an aerodynamic complexity", "Brancusi
sculptures") can you use to describe his bass playing to justify winning all
those DownJazz polls. "He is not only a great electric bass player, but his
thinking on the bass player is unsurpassed!" I wonder if he puts down his
bass for one year-will he still win-probably!
Record Labels
- WalMart = Verve: Megalomania gone mad, diluting the product.
- Green Note = Blue Note: "We're always thinking of the jazz fan who wants to pay
15.99!"
- Buy it Again! = Impulse!: "We reissued the same music 20 times in the past 20
minutes."
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