In the ’80s, Kenny Garrett was part of a group of young, talented musicians known as The Young Lions and were heralded as the “saviors” of “classic” jazz. The Young Lions returned to the foundations of jazz, playing bebop and music from the Great American Songbook, classic swing in some cases, and even melding swing with modern styles to invigorate dance forms from the big band era. The music was coined as neo-bop, post-bop and even neoclassical jazz. The essential aspects of the music were rooted in the early parts of jazz language. Since then, Kenny has also dabbled in hip-hop and world music, which sometimes (not always), at least to my ears, leaves much to be desired. But that's just my personal taste.
Kenny has an impressive professional resume, starting with the Duke Ellington Orchestra (under the leadership of Mercer Ellington), Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Woody Shaw, Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, and many others. Kenny started leading his own groups in 1984.
For the freeload tell us what's your favorite fictional world or place (from a book, movie, or video game).
Fabulous False Memory Foam© Island
ReplyDeleteThat's what I was going to say!
DeleteSo I'll go with my second favorite, Shangri-La from James Hilton's book 'Lost Horizon'. The book was (I think) the first non children's book I read.
I bought the Criterion extended dvd of Lost Horizon (1937). Where they crammed every section of the film that had been cut out over the years back in. I'd seen the film on TV before it was restored. Thought it a cool place to live. Should I read the book?
DeleteThe book is fantastic. A perfect novel - short, utterly original, emotionally moving, and thought-provoking. We're all born with a ticket to Shangri-La, but most of us lose it.
DeleteI'll give it a try. Wonder if my library card is still good? Thanks Farq.
DeleteOK I ordered Shangri-La from the library. I wonder if I should Reread the Alice books. Time will tell.
Delete"Should I read the book?"
DeleteAlways read the book.
Books require us to imagine the world and characters for ourselves, instead of the imaginations of the scriptwriter, producer, and art director.
According to the American Academy of Neurology, reading books make us feel calmer, brighter, more focused, and improve memory and concentration.
TRUTH, what Babs says above. Always read the book. Your personal imagination of the written word is bound to differ from others, at least a bit. Books give you the general idea, subject to your own interpretation. Feel free to discuss. Thanks Babs
DeleteEither the OASIS from 'Ready Player One' or Planet Risa from Star Trek
ReplyDeleteI did like Ready Player One. Both the book & the movie.
DeleteI may change my mind later. About 10 years ago I read all the Oz books written by L Frank Baum and thought Oz was a pretty cool place to be. Then read whatever Edgar Rice Burroughs the library had. The John Carter on Mars attracted me. But for now I would choose Jules Verne's Journey To The Center of The Earth.
ReplyDeleteWonderland, as in Alice.
ReplyDeleteThis occurred to me. The Alice books have been constant companions ever since they scared the shit out of me as a wee bairn. But I see that world differently now - not as any kind of wonderland, but a terrible view of people as they really are, sleeping through Bedlam.
DeleteThat's the great thing about those works. At various stages in your life, they can represent so many things.
DeleteAll of Graham Greene's tropical hellholes in Latin America and Africa still resonate loudly in my memory, though I don't think I've read him in the last couple of decades. Their oppressive, corrupt atmosphere made actual life seem more tolerable for a reader like me.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Dunwich.
ReplyDeleteBat
Link
ReplyDeletehttps://we.tl/t-8eicAPzcJp
Inspired from a previous conversation, Toontown.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of us have visited Toontown.
Delete(Amazing to think that movie was made without computers.)
Fictional places are sometimes more real than "real" ones. Present day Oxford is a place all about "being Oxford" - the cultural self-consciousness has totally destroyed the real old town, now painted in a weird copy of itself. It's not alone - TikTok-ing selfie-obsessed phonies use the whole world as a backdrop, a setting for themselves. Seeing the world as it is - without them posing in front of it - has become an impossibility.
ReplyDeleteJack Vance's Dying Earth
ReplyDelete