School . . .

 . . . of jazz


Jazz originated in the late nineteenth century in the Southern United States combining some European harmony and forms with African musical elements such as blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms and syncopation.

As it spread many distinctive styles evolved such as  New Orleans jazz dating from the early 1910s, big band swing, Kansas City jazz and Gypsy jazz from the 1930s and 1940s, bebop from the mid-1940s, Afro-Cuban jazz, West Coast jazz, ska jazz, cool jazz, Indo jazz, avant-garde jazz, soul jazz, modal jazz, chamber jazz, free jazz, Latin jazz, smooth jazz, jazz fusion and jazz rock, jazz funk, loft jazz, punk jazz, acid jazz, ethno jazz, jazz rap, cyber jazz, M-Base and nu jazz.

Louis Armstrong said to Bing Crosby on the latter's radio show, "Ah, swing, well, we used to call it syncopation, then they called it ragtime, then blues, then jazz. Now, it's swing.  Armstrong also said, "If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know. In a 1988 interview, jazz musician J. J. Johnson said, "Jazz is restless. It won't stay put and it never will".  Ellington said, "By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with."

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OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
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New Consciousness. . .

(from "Reclaiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World" by John Shelby Spong,
 ©2011 John Shelby Spong)
". . . As post-Darwinians we now know that there never was a perfect creation.  All life has evolved from a single cell into our present self-conscious, enormously complex human life, which is, for the time being at least, at the top of the evolutionary ladder.  Since there was no perfect creation, then there could not have been a "fall" from perfection.  One cannot fall from a status one has never possessed.  If we have not fallen from perfection, we do not need to be saved, redeemed or rescued.  So the way Jesus has traditionally been interpreted vanishes into irrelevance.  One can artificially resuscitate a dying form only as long as the presuppositions undergirding that form are still believable.  The human experience, however, still cries out for some other explanation of this experience.  What is it?

We are self-conscious creatures.  All living things are survival-oriented.  Plants stretch to receive the light of the sun in order to live.  Animals fight for life or flee danger in order to survive.  Neither plant life nor animal life, however, is aware of its survival drive.  Human beings are.  When self-conscious creatures make their own survival their highest goal, they then organize their world around that need.

Paul's experience of human life was correct.  His explanation was wrong.  His experience of Christ as life-giving love was correct.  His explanation of how that love was manifested in Jesus' life was wrong. 

Can one find salvation by being rescued from this fatal flaw in our humanity, as Paul seemed to believe?  I do not think so.  We can, however, find wholeness in the experience of being lifted beyond these boundaries.  I am now convinced that this experience of being lifted into a new consciousness was the heart of what the Jesus experience was and it is this experience alone to which Christians must witness. . . "

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Mental cobwebs, misspellings and regeneration. . .

Granted, I did and DO love playing music. Make no mistake. And the band REFLECTION did, as does any living, growing thing, EVOLVE. First our guitarist Keith moved to another band, an earthshaking experience for the drummer Bruce and myself at the time. We were just getting musically comfortable with ourselves as a unit and finding a fair amount of work. I don't now for the life of me remember how did it, but our drummer Bruce and I connected with Eddie (saxophones and flute), Rick (trumpet) and Rick H. (guitar). Since one out of two Ricks and Eddie were music students at the local university, our approach to music became a bit more academic with the use of arrangements, charts, some jazz inflections and the addition of some newer, current songs; even one or two by Chicago- one of my favorites. I was doubling as an occasional substitute in Keith's new band and working on arrangements and trying to secure gigs with REFLECTION at the same time. (It's good to be in demand!)

Again, mental cobwebs prevent my accurate recollection, but it seems that Bruce, Keith and I reunited and the academic incarnation of REFLECTION complete with horn section came to an end. After utilizing the services of various reedmen, including Bruce's brother Charles, we expanded our original trio into a quartet with the addition of a permanent saxophonist/vocalist named Greg, with newly revitalized energy. At this time we thought our regeneration would be more thorough with a name changed and finally settled upon the catchy moniker FUL TREATMENT (yes, ONE 'L') which accurately captured our ability to navigate the crosscurrents of musical genre and essentially play ANYTHING that ANYBODY wanted. This gloriously selfless intention was more true in theory than in practice, but our intentions were sincere, particularly at the start, although that facet of our existence did deteriorate somewhat in time.




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With all due respect. . .

. . . and in all honesty, very little respect is really due to those who make little to no use of the grey matter between their ears which has evolved (yes, conservative Virginia- EVOLVED) into the formidable organ it is today. . .

anyone who took Mr. Harold Camping seriously will SURELY know better than to even listen to his latest apologetic (or is it a non-apologetic). . . look here. . .

(from Buzzflash.com)
Unlike a Rained Out Ball Game, Harold Camping Offers No Refunds to Rapture Contributors

"On Monday evening, May 23 -- two days after Judgment Day failed to materialize -- Harold Camping stepped up to Family Radio's "Open Forum" mic and basically declared "Mission Accomplished." Coming only a day after he admitted to being "flabbergasted" by events, Camping's rambling and discombobulated statement maintained that the end of the world had been postponed until October 21, because "God is a loving and merciful God" he would not allow "long term suffering for anyone."

On October 21, the world will end quickly, Camping said, without any build up."

(PUH - LEEEEEEEEZZZZE!!!!!)

A very wise man (Christopher Hitchens) once said. . .

"Exceptional claims demand exceptional evidence."

"Our belief is not a belief. Our principles are not a faith. We do not rely soley upon science and reason, because these are necessary rather than sufficient factors, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason. We may differ on many things, but what we respect is free inquiry, openmindedness, and the pursuit of ideas for their own sake."

Time to go back to ( or check into) the home, Harold. About 50% of those older than 85 years of age suffer from some form of dimentia. It cannot be ignored. It certainly should NOT be pandered to. WHAT DO YOU THINK??

Gotta leave you with a little music. . .




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Walk Like an Egyptian. . .

This was going to be my next post, although I knew that something could happen at any moment. . . and IT DID!!!!

"Shouldn't the citizens of a nation have a say in their government? Have we not evolved enough to appreciate
the simple truth in such a prospect?

What part of this does Mubarak (and his cronies, and the 'analysts', and other Arab leaders) not understand?
Does the Egyptian population have to paint him a picture?

Michael Scheuer (author and former CIA employee) says we (the U.S.) have intervened in the Middle East over the past 50 years consistently to support tyranny because it supported our interest. Supported tyranny and fascism. The best thing we can do is 'keep our mouth shut.'

Need I say more?"

Well, so much for being timely.

(hear my music at http://www.rayjozwiak.com/)