antoniodeste

Let's be clear, Uxo, Mays' work is certainly not a masterpiece, and you are a sensitive, intelligent person and also a good listener. I apologize if the tones may have seemed disproportionate to the actual value of the topic at hand. There's no reason for you to feel embarrassed, really. You know that in other instances I have appreciated (and not a little) your contributions (on Metheny-related matters, perhaps). In this case, maybe some over- or underestimation and/or misunderstanding may have created some difficulty, but nothing serious, of course. My esteem remains unchanged. I wish you a satisfying re-listening.

If I were to watch Paris Texas again right now, I would need to stock up on more tissues than usual. Nastassja has torn me apart more than once. That's enough for now, at least for the next three or four years. Quick note: the new Cooder is coming out; title "My Name is Buddy"; in the meantime, I've picked up "Mambo Sinuendo." Fun and a bit in line with Chavez Ravine. Saludos.

But uxo, I mean, sorry, are you joking? The entire first part of the suite "Street Dreams" is set to a rhythm typically Latin American (that doesn't mean like Santana or the orchestras of Tito Puente or Machito!!!) and regarding Jazz, I'd like to understand if you grasp the historical concept of improvisation on certain harmonic parameters and precise rhythmic patterns from bebop through hard, cool, and what followed. If there is no historical understanding and knowledge of jazz aesthetics over the last 40 years, I believe it might be difficult to distinguish what can be considered jazz (or has derivations of this type) from what is not or does not have the characteristics to be so. Jazz had and still has, to some extent, a fairly precise and unmistakable language in terms of structure and aesthetics; it finds its sublimation in the improvisation of individual performers who, by doing so, freely interpret in a certain language and in real time what they are playing. Now, to get back to our topic, Mr. Mays, in the midst of the complex rhythmic score (written) of "Street Dreams," delivers an extraordinary solo that, in terms of style, aesthetics, technique, and expression, is JAZZ. Frankly, it feels a bit strange to have to approach the matter from a distance, but since some essential elements for the "decoding" of the style were missing, I thought it appropriate to try to identify them for greater clarity. Or at least I hope so; if for you purple is... amethyst or yellow can also be orange, that's no problem; we just need to agree on conventions or the meaning of things. But to come and say that Mays doesn’t play here (as elsewhere) with a “jazz matrix” is quite a bold statement. That canonical Jazz with a capital J might express itself on other levels or with different tenors is absolutely admissible. Whether it is “really something else” (like, for example?) as you say, is possible, but one thing does not exclude the other and is still subordinated, as you will understand, to subjective judgment.

....instead, he made up for it with the "children of the stars"......

A clarification hobbit: In "Almost Cut My Hair," the voice is that of David Crosby, not Stills.....

...well, a misstep should always be forgivable (and McLaughlin should know something about that). Let's truly hope it's just a moment of failure. After all, he is a "big elder" now too...

"but according to my parameters, jazz is truly something else": and who ever said that this work is or has to be necessarily jazz? If you don't sense the "conjunction" between Latin rhythms and jazz improvisation in the composition Street Dreams (at least in its most substantial central part), that really leaves me perplexed. And even if some parts could be suitable as a theme for a sketch or similar, I wonder: what's wrong with that?

Great album. When I attended the live performance of "Gates Of Delirium" 4 or 5 years ago, I got chills (...also with "Close To The Edge," though.....). Not their best, but still Yes.

After the first, remarkable solo performance, Mays ventured into these contrasting terrains in an album that revealed diverse and uncommon directions, tastes, and capabilities in creation and arrangement. The jazz matrix was still present, as was, ultimately, the Metheny stamp, but what made "Street Dreams" a particularly unique album was undoubtedly the title suite. It is a long, complex intertwining of harmonic and rhythmic perspectives, where excellently articulated brass sections and piano parts rendered in a remarkably virtuosic manner interweave. Despite the good result of a subsequent, more subdued album with a traditional layout, Mays would only find a way to express himself at these levels much later in an album of improvisations for solo piano (and some synth used for color). The suite "Street Dreams" represents a meeting point between Latin American rhythms, exquisite late-century jazz sensitivity at its highest levels, and the ability for authentic fusion of styles and trends.

I forgot to note that Mr. Winter was (I believe) the only white guitarist to play at Muddy Waters' court. Moreover, comparisons with Gallagher (albeit extraordinary) who is Irish, or SR Vaughan (another gem), who was much younger, don't seem particularly appropriate to me. The styles, by the way, are quite different.