The Guitar of Bola Sete
It seems that within the last five to ten years, fans of Brazilian music have become a sizable population in the states.
Beginning with a flush of Os Mutantes re-issues, interest in that nations cultural heritage and musical output has ballooned. I bet even a couple of you reading this want to learn how to speak Portuguese.
All of that aside, before any of these recent reissues, there was a guitarist who made an indelible mark on jazz in the US and abroad. Bola Sete isn’t a name as commonly known as Grant Green – but that’s alright, his style is much less tied to American music than Green’s.
Starting his career before he turned 18, Bola Sete began playing professionally and touring –not internationally as of yet, he was still a minor. But by the 1950s, Sete had seen Italy, a great deal of Europe and moved to New York City.
As a result of a chance encounter while playing at a hotel, Sete worked, recorded and toured with Dizzy Gillespie, who is often credited with incorporating rhythms from other cultures into jazz before anyone else thought to do so.
In the period of about fifteen years, Sete had become a rather well known and sought after player. It wasn’t until 1966 and his performance at the Monterey Jazz festival with his group made up of other Brazilian players that Sete achieved a wide spread audience. That performance was collected for the LP Bola Sete at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
If not for the Verve Record company releasing that disc and it then inexplicably ending up in the used bin at a local record shop, I wouldn’t know any of this.
It's Your Birthday
It’s a guitarists’ birthday today –and not enough people know it.
During the ‘70s, music moved away from the dramatic optimism oft associated with the ‘60s counter-culture revolution. Upon realizing that not too much had actually changed as a result of mass protests and the like, attitudes soon shifted away from rainbows and happiness. The entire decade of the ‘70s wasn’t given to bleakness, but there was a renewed sense of realism to the proceedings. That’s where punk comes in.
To call Television a punk band would be wholly incorrect – but they did come out of the same CBGB’s scene that the Ramones and Blondie emerged from. Even if one were to ignore that fact, the guitar playing of Tom Verlaine would easily distance his group from the Dictators and other bands playing around the same time.
They may not have amassed a great following during their career, but the Damned wrote a song about ‘em.
Verlaine and Television (which originally included Richard Hell on bass) only released two studio albums during their short career, but much in the same way that the Velvet Underground influenced legions of bands in the aftermath of their existence, so too did Television.
The fluid nature and elongated, flowing solos of Verlaine seemed distant from the raucous and senseless abandon of punk. But to play alongside these aforementioned bands serves to illustrate the fact that the underground New York rock scene during the ‘70s was something that most probably won’t ever happen again.
Either way, happy 59th birthday to Tom Verlaine. We’re all still waiting for the reunion. Let us know.
400 Years of Milton
Milton was born 400 years ago this month, specifically, on December 9. In terms of English literature, Milton is generally considered one of the "big three," the other two being Shakespeare, of course, and Chaucer. There have been times in the not-too-distant past when Milton surpassed Shakespeare in the minds of many. Indeed, just a couple months ago, in May, Princeton professor and Miltonist Nigel Smith published a book entitled is Milton Better than Shakespeare? Smith's answer is a resounding "yes,"— he asserts that "Milton's interrogations of free will, liberty, and the threat to it are more riveting" than Shakespeare. You can, if you're curious, explore the argument yourself by reading the introduction to Smith's Harvard University press book here.
Another recent Milton book, even more controversial than Smith's, is Dennis Danielson's Paradise Lost: Parallel Prose Edition, just out in November from Regent College Publishing. The book is exactly what it sounds like; Milton's text of Paradise Lost, generally considered his best, most important work, is presented on one page, with a prose "translation," or paraphrase, on the facing page.
It's not as outrageous an idea as it might at first seem; Milton is extremely difficult, and Paradise Lost is arguably not only Milton's most difficult poem, it is one of the most difficult poems in the English language. Milton in fact wanted to make the poem not only be worthy of long contemplative study, he wanted it to require it, on the grounds that worthwhile knowledge, particularly in a Christian context, is by its nature difficult. Stanley Fish, literary critic, theorist, and Miltonist blogged about Danielson's book in the New York Times. Fish is himself not sure that Danielson's translation is the right approach, since Danielson must pick one of the several possible meanings for a given passage. Fish notes, however, that
[Danielson] knows as well as anyone how Milton's poetry works, but it is his judgment (following Wesley and Bloom) that many modern readers will not take their Milton straight and require some unraveling of the knots before embarking on the journey.
Fish concludes that whether or not Danielson succeeds in terms of literary merit, his translation is a boon to pedagogy in that it opens Milton's poem to questions regarding the nature of literary meaning and translation, and notes that while Milton's original text is preserved, there are no glosses or notes or other editorial additions, making it more of an adjunct to an edition of the poem, than a stand alone work. Interestingly, most of Fish's readers are firmly opposed to the idea of a translation, as you can see from the comments.
Danielson is not alone in his desire to make Milton's Paradise Lost understood by modern readers; screenwriters Philip de Blasi and Byron Willinger reduced Milton's poem to a screen play. Eventually, independent producer Vincent Newman bought the screenplay. After some rewrite requests (less Eden, more about the war in Heaven), Newman arranged for financing from Legendary Pictures, distribution from Warner Brothers, and direction by Scott Derrickson. Paradise Lost is scheduled for release in 2009. On the other hand, you may be interested in Joseph Lanzara's Paradise Lost: The Novel, based on Milton's work.
Aaron Heilman and Jeremy Guthrie
Good-sized RHP, big in the upper body, large frame. Threw 92-94 with great command, or 96 on a challenge pitch. Drafted between the 18th and 22nd slots of the 1st round of the amateur draft, out of college. Bounced around organized baseball, disappointing on his potential... Until given a chance to start when nearing the age of 30.It's not a given that Heilman, of course, will pull a Jeremy Guthrie and suddenly become one of the most effective starting pitchers in the league. But it's also possible, and it's feasible. The parallels between the two go right down to the mid-late first round draft position. Same template, same family of pitchers, same talent level, similar career arcs. What are the chances, that Heilman will find the level of command that made Guthrie such a beast? Hmmm... ................. Heilman is averaging a good hard 93 mph with his fastball, and his splitter is supposed to be a plus-plus pitch by any standard. See where a 93 average puts you among the game's hardest throwers. Heilman is about 1 mph behind Lincecum, and he's even with Oswalt, Cabrera and Cain, ahead of DiceK, Peavy, and Padilla. (Granted that it was in the pen - with Heilman nobody's worried about velo dropoff in the rotation.) Hey, the fact is, the guy has averaged 7.9 strikeouts per ballgame for his career, so obviously he isn't throwing Miguel Batista stuff up there. Throwing the slider for a strike wasn't the key to Guthrie's explosion; adding plus command was the key to Guthrie's explosion. .... Tom Seaver didn't throw a lot of offspeed pitches when he was 92-94 on the black and 96 up the ladder. Neither did Curt Schilling. Improved command -- the kind that MIGHT simply evolve with time -- is ONE OF Heilman's routes to TOR status. ...Mixing in a 3rd pitch, in John Smiley 30-30-30 mode, is ANOTHER ONE OF Heilman's routes. There are a lot of roads to 30-something TOR Rome. .................. Here is an argument that we ran across on FanGraphs, that posits that Heilman is good when using two pitches, and bad when using three -- so he should relieve. This argument is extremely valuable in that it points out an important pattern -- that Heilman was unaccustomed to throwing the slider in 2008, and that this was undoubtedly the source of his retrogression. What is less clear, is why this argument doesn't attend to the idea of, "Well, if he spent 2008 learning to throw the slider, doesn't that suggest that in 2009 somebody's going to get to eat the cake that the Mets baked?" You make a positive change in your golf swing, sure, your score is going to get worse for a little while -- and then it's going to get better than it was originally. Heilman was obviously preparing himself to start at the very moment that the Mets were telling him he never would. If Heilman was getting the feel on his slider for the purpose of being more effective in the rotation, then give him a chance to develop it. It is certainly *possible* that Heilman is best suited for relief. As with Morrow, I believe that you first rule out the possibility of his being Rich Harden, and then, after that, you put him in the bullpen. As with Morrow, I don't think that the first 50 or 100 or so innings of non-Hardenage is the end of the discussion. ................... Heilman is very insistent about starting. I looooov eeeet. When an NBA player accepts his 7th-man role, that's when you get worried... No doubt we have an either-or with Morrow/Heilman here. That allows the Mariners to let things shake out and accept the better of two alternate dimensions... .................. As it is, Aaron Heilman has a career K/BB/HR of 7.9 /3.7 /0.9. If he didn't improve at all, that would be a Daisuke Matsuzaka profile (8.6 /4.2 /0.9) -- in other words, a whale of a lot better than Carlos Silva's. 6.8 / 2.5 / 0.7, Heilman's pre-2008 profile, also would be rather better than Miguel Batista's. Heilman might find his command, or might start throwing his slider for surprise strikes, or might do a lot of things, and step up to Rich Harden territory. But even if he doesn't, he's a Carlson Palmer's throw better than the three $10M men we had last year. Cheers, jemanji ............... image: http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r138/mred142/aaron.jpg
Michelle Obama, First Lady and Fashion Guru
Zoink builds a Ballclub to suit himself
but I like what Ive seen from Jack in terms of building the roster. Outfield defense (in Safeco) is important to him, lefty bats are important to him, lefty power bats with OBP skills are important to him, power arms and speed are important to him..Absolutely. Remember James talking about how some GM had succeeded, in some city, not really bringing in any spectacular new pieces, just sort of shuffling 60-cent players in, and shuffling 60-cent players out, and the ballclub was fighting for the pennant shortly. James assessed that the GM had realized, quote, "Hey, at some point here we've got to mold this collection of pieces into a BALLCLUB." Pat Gillick his ownself does the same: he's just got a very fine feel for where relievers are needed and where they're not, where defense is needed and where it's not, etc etc. Saberdogs :- ) with their 2-D acetate overlayer sheets just read each swapout in a simplistic VORP comparison, but I am quite positive that a Pat Gillick can read the intuitive factors going on: whether a CF really is costing you huge runs or saving you huge runs, and stuff like that. Many of those factors can never be "captured" by math, because too interdependent on variables. WHY did Randy Winn run very high RF's in CF in Safeco? Nobody's quite sure. There are times when you need a human being -- not a spreadsheet -- to make an intuitive judgment, to know when to change lanes on the freeway. Machines can't capture real life, and I doubt that they ever will. "We do not have near-perfect measurements of baseball players. It is foolish to assume that we do." - James, recently. Mr. Z is, without any doubt whatsoever, making his statement that his club needs outfield defense, and it needs to get more lefthanded, and I find his assessment interesting. That's not so as to say that it's right. ........... Paul Covert
What I like about this deal (in combination with the Branyan signing) is what it tells us about Jack Z’s long-term strategic principles for building a team in Seattle: (1) The value of LH power in Safeco (Branyan, Carp). (Previous management acknowledged the principle but never did much about it.) (2) The value of outfield defense in Safeco (Gutierrez, Chavez). (3) Confidence in his and his staff’s ability to identify and develop young talent (Carp, Cleto, Carrera, Vargas, plus willingness to let Ibanez go for draft picks). (4) Confidence in his ability to build an successful bullpen with non-big-name players (willingness to let Putz and Green go, plus getting a couple of guys in Rule 5).As we've mentioned a time or four, Bill James is the ultimate baseball intuit. He would resist that characterization, but he is the one who has wallowed in baseball history for 30 years -- and from a mathematical bent. As we've mentioned a time or four, James believes that the New York Yankees must -- M-U-S-T -- have a very lefthanded team to win the pennant. "There was never a Yankee team that won a pennant that didn't have lefthanded power, and a lot of it." The Yankees, of course, play in a park that has a lot in common with Safeco. I wonder whether Bill, as GM of the Mariners, would put similar hyper-priority on LH power (and pitching) in Safeco Field. I wonder whether it is nearly a Given, that the first Safeco pennantwinner will have serious LH power. ............. Tailoring a team to fit your park has benefits far beyond the mathematical advantage. Sure, you might say, Russ Branyan has a 115 OPS anywhere else, but it'll be 135 in Safeco because the other players sink while he maintains his level. (Raul Ibanez, of course, did this.) But players are conditioned by their parks. Hitters in Texas, and pitchers in Texas, get particular results, and then they take that positive or negative reinforcement and they carry it into the rest of their season. Mike Cameron, when his fly balls are caught day after day in Safeco, gets depressed, and he starts pressing on the road. A Ken Griffey Jr (or Russ Branyan), after a few fly balls land in the bleachers to win games, get all amp'ed up and then play well on the road. Sabermetrics has never touched the hem of the garment of this question: why does a ballplayer have an up or a down year? Why does a clubhouse full of players have down years, or up years, together? Tailoring your team to your ballpark isn't just about getting a few extra bases. It's about creating positive reinforcement and momentum. ............. Do you guys figure that OF defense is part of that "magic sparkle dust" in Safeco? Just in CF, or in LF and RF too? Cheers, jemanji