Gary......really! As Chas pointed out 1-2 weeks ago, no one ever gets a thumbs down on this site. All I ever see is an endless parade of "clapping hands." I think if someone recorded a waiter dropping a tray of dishes, and named it something like Moonlight Waters, you'd see another set of "clapping hands" appear!

So you are saying in this case you wouldn't have posted your disapproval? Then that would mean you are part of the problem wouldn't it?

Well said! Remember we are all Lucky2BHere, thank you Nigel.

Abacus your post brought a big smile – I try to simplify by using a ball as an example and you talk about changing the ball. aaaaaaah!

But yes I do agree with some of the things you said.
John C.

posted by mistake......ignore

No Nigel, I don't consider myself part of the problem. I wouldn’t post my disapproval because I find it more practical to just stay out of giving ANY comments. You don't get in trouble that way and you don't alienate others either. I'm aware I'm not part of the "inner circle" in this group......why ostracize myself further? I'm sure you noticed that no one, not in the Synthzone, not anywhere, wants to hear criticism if it's not accolades upon accolades about how wonderful they are. That's one of the anomalies of life, isn't it?

I learned my lesson when I critiqued one of Rico's videos a while back. I said absolutely nothing hurtful. I opened up my post with praise for what I liked about the performance and then proceeded to offer suggestions on how I thought it could be improved. Never even got a "thank you" reply back from Rico for my rather lengthy list of suggestions. I admire Rico's playing ability but it seems he (and others) only want to hear the compliments, the good stuff. The ego is a delicate piece of real estate in each of us.

A good musician will sometimes put out a bad product. I’ve been there many times. What’s the big deal about telling that to someone…….“your performance of song A was not up to snuff this time around.” I can guarantee we’d have a heck of a lot more quality musicians if they could learn to humble themselves and take the bad reviews with the good ones. And maybe the byproduct of that would be that arranger sales start to improve as musicians start to improve.

In my book, there are no bad musicians. Everyone has something to offer. But the ones I respect the most are those (both amateur and professional) who are always looking to improve. Do you think people like Liberace or Victor Borge got that big by ignoring negative remarks and just languishing in a pool of false praise?

In 1964, when asked what he thought of [John] Coltrane, [Sonny] Rollins, and [Miles] Davis, Tristano answered, "All emotion, no feeling." He replied to "How do you distinguish between the two?" with: "Well, say I believe there is no real hysteria or hostility in jazz, their stuff is the expression of the ego. I want jazz to flow out of the id. Putting it another way, real jazz is what you can play before you are all screwed up; the other happens after you're screwed up."

In all fairness, anybody know what Miles or Coltrane or Rollins thought of Lennie? When you intellectualize something (as opposed to just enjoying it), you have to realize that it's just your opinion - not necessarily the gospel. Although I can't really picture Donny being an avid fan of Lennie Tristano, I DO know that we tend to rely too much on the opinions of people we admire. I seriously doubt if Lennie's opinion will do much to tarnish the image of these jazz stalwarts. Just MY opinion.

chas