random thoughts and thoroughbred selections

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Blech�

I�m not a snob. Really, I�m not.

Well, okay� there are a few things towards which I may gravitate towards the snobbish.

Take coffee, for instance. Every morning I drink two 16oz cups, and all that I ask is that my coffee be palatable. I can�t bring myself to drink the shit they brew in the office, and god forbid I get stuck somewhere where the only option is a big can of pre-ground name brand stuff. That crap is swill, and I can�t believe people can�t taste the difference.

I want my coffee to be strong. Not necessarily in the �dark and muddy� sense, but strong as in �flavorful.� And please for the love of god don�t brew �S�Mores� or �Snickerdoodles� coffee. That �flavored� stuff is horrible. Just give me real coffee. Strong, black coffee from good beans.

My last two days have been maddening as a result of this snobbery, as I get my coffee via mail order now, and haven�t yet figured out the kinks in the system. So I used the last of my good beans on Sunday morning, and bought a quarter pound of grocery store beans as a buffer.

And they make fucking terrible coffee. I should be getting the good stuff today or tomorrow. Two pots of this stuff I�ve drank the last two mornings is two pots too many.

I�ve also grown too snobby to use the grated cheese in the green can as much as I used to. If you�re a Kraft Parmesan user, do yourself a favor. Go out and buy a wedge of Parmagiano-Reggiano cheese, and shave it over your spaghetti or pizza next time instead. It�s gotta be the �P-R� stuff, and not a wedge of �Parmesan.� Totally different things. Even at $14.99 a pound, once you�ve moved to the Parmagiano-Reggiano, you just can�t go back.

Honestly, I use the green can cheese to top my dog�s food every night now. He seems to like it.

I think my worst bit of high-mindedness comes when talking about music. Specifically jazz. Considering I only really like the stuff recorded from (roughly) 1955-1970, let me give you a quick list of some artists that I believe are overrated, and you tell me if there�s a common connection here: Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey, Buddy Rich, Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz, Zoot Sims. Yeah, that�s right. All white guys.

Now, that�s not to say that all white guys suck as jazz musicians. I mean, were I to make a list (hmm�) of my twenty favorite jazz albums of all time, Bill Evans would be on probably three of them, including one of his own albums*. What I am saying is that I don�t believe Dorsey or Goodman are in the same league as Basie and Ellington. Excusing the pun, which is fully intended, Dorsey and Goodman are pale imitations of those big band leaders. Swing music was big band jazz for white people. Plain and simple. Getz was a decent player, but gets more credit in jazz history than a guy like Hank Mobley, who was a pretty great player in his own right. Chet Baker was �lyrical,� which is a polite way of saying �pretty boy who maybe couldn�t play as well technically as Dizzy or Miles.� Lennie Tristano gets far too much ink for his �cool jazz� from the West Coast in the 50s, when it was a watered down version of what Miles had done a few years earlier.

*(Is this the musical equivalent of saying, �I�m not a racist� I have a black friend?�)

I�m not discounting the fact that these guys made some pretty decent records, and were obviously talented enough to make a living in the music. What I am saying is that for every white musician that people pay/paid attention to, there were a few black musicians of equal or greater talent that were largely overlooked.

Booker Ervin, Sonny Fortune, Wynton Kelly, Booker Little, Andrew Hill, Oliver Nelson, and Ahmad Jamal are a few of these guys. To me, it�s sad that their music remains largely undiscovered or underappreciated.

Of course, not that everyone out there is tripping over themselves to go buy classic Chet Baker albums. I�m just saying�

[>>]posted at 5:50 PM by BG - click to email
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