Another Night

Albums from another night of listening....

• 
  Duke Ellington, Such Sweet Thunder (Columbia, 1957)
  This is Duke's Shakespeare suite, and it is a really fantastic album. It's a relatively small version of the Ellington orchestra, and they are in great form here. Mono only, unfortunately, though, timbrally speaking, it is a great recording. I'm privileged to own a white label promo that is in terrific condition.
• 
  Gary Burton and Chick Corea, Crystal Silence (ECM, 1973)
  I am a big fan of Gary Burton. I am not a huge fan of Chick Corea, though there are albums of his that I love, and this is one of them. (Circle is another.) There is something amazing about the combination of piano and vibes here, all the more so because of how these two play off each other.
  I always think of this album as quiet and meditative, and there are times it is like that, but not always. Still, I needed this album on this day, when my uncle was dying of Covid. I'm glad it was there for me.
• 
  Oregon, Winter Light (Vanguard, 1974)
  I thought I'd posted about this album before, because I'd listened to it a while back. Anyway, I had to have another listen because I got an original pressing, whereas the other one was a later re-issue in Vanguard's "MidLine" series. This one sounds a lot better, probably (as usual) because of tape degradation. But what matters here is the music, and it is fantastic. If you were only ever to listen to one album by these guys, this might be the one.
• 
  Collin Walcott, Don Cherry, and Nana Vasconcelos, Codona 2 (ECM, 1981) and Codona 3 (ECM, 1983)
  I listened to these two albums while hacking on LyX, so I don't have as much to say about them as I might otherwise. But they're terrific albums. Walcott really shines here, when given the chance to be more of the focal point (as he is not always with Oregon).
  
  

New Paper: Does Pornography Presuppose Rape Myths?

Abstract:

Rae Langton and Caroline West have argued that pornography silences women by presupposing misogynistic attitudes, such as that women enjoy being raped. More precisely, they claim that a somewhat infamous pictorial, “Dirty Pool”, makes such presuppositions. I argue for four claims. (i) Langton and West's account of how pornography silences women is empirically dubious. (ii) There is no evidence that very much pornography makes the sorts of presuppositions they require. (iii) Even "Dirty Pool", for all its other problems, does not make the presuppositions that Langton and West claim it does. (iv) Langton and West misread “Dirty Pool” because they do not take proper account of the fact that pornography traffics in sexual fantasy.

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Happy 80th, Herbie

The other day, I listened to Herbie Hancock's first solo album, Takin' Off, and later was googling for more info about it, and realized that he is going to be 80 years old today, 12 April 2020! Happy birthday, Herbie!! So, of course, tonight had to involve some Herbie.

Monday Evening Tunes

• 
  Jan Garbarek, Egberto Gismonti, and Charlie Haden, Folk Songs (ECM, 1981)
  A very nice album, but not breathtaking in the way that Magico was. It has its moments, but it lacks the lyrical flow of that album. Still, these are three amazing musicians, and there are some wonderful moments.
  As I mentioned, I think, with Magico, this album sounds especially wonderful on the new speakers, because they do such a great job with Haden's bass. It is deep and powerful, and just big, the way it should be.
• 
  Herbie Hancock, Takin' Off (Blue Note, 1962)
  This was Herbie's first album as a leader, at the ripe age of 22. With Dexter Gordon and Freddie Hubbard, and a rhythm section of Butch Warren and Billy Higgins. It's a nice record, but for the most part it's also a pretty typical one for the label and the era. The slow ballad, "Alone and I", that closes the album is probably my favorite.
  Here's something kind of scary: This coming Sunday, 12 April 2020, is Herbie's 80th birthday.
  My copy is a 1970s "black b" pressing, and not an RVG master. So it's a touch dark, though it still sounds pretty good.
• 
  Duke Ellington, Jazz Party in Stereo (Columbia, 1959)
  What a fun record! The liner notes claim that Duke was just back from Florida, so they wanted to get a few tunes recorded, but then a whole bunch of people showed up to say hello, including Dizzy Gillespie and Jimmy Rushing, and it turned into a party. Including, at one point, two vibraphones, two xylophones, a glockenspiel, and nine tympanis, plus more conventional percussion. Great music and a great performance, including yet another long rip from Paul Gonsalves (though nothing approximating what is on Ellington at Newport).
  My copy is an original 6-eye pressing. It is far, far superior to the Classic re-issue, and probably cheaper.
  For audiophiles: This is a great recording, timbrally, and it has a ridiculously wide soundstage at times.
• 
  Collin Walcott, Don Cherry, and Naná Vasconcelos, Codona (ECM, 1978)
  I am guessing that this must have been one of the "Let's throw three amazing musicians together and see what happens" albums that ECM seemed to make from time to time. It's an interesting collection of folks: Walcott, from Oregon, on sitar, tablas, and dulcimer; Cherry, best known for his early work with Ornette Coleman, but by then well-established in his own right, who plays trumpet (as usual), a variety of flutes, and dousn'gouni; and Naná Vasconcelos, a Brazilian percussionist who, at that point, had recorded two albums for ECM with Egberto Gismonti. (He would later record one of my favorite albums, As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls, with Pat Metheny and the late Lyle Mays.)
  This is a very weird album, as you might expect. It doesn't always work, but when it does it's really magical. The highlight, to me, is "Mumakata", though the other song on side 2, "New Light", is also wonderful.
  PS: CO (Collin), DO (Don), NA (Naná). (Kind of like NiRoPe, if you're from southeastern New England.)

New Paper: How Not To Watch Feminist Pornography

Abstract:

This paper has three goals. The first is to defend Tristan Taromino and Erika Lust (or some of their films) from criticisms that Rebecca Whisnant and Hans Maes make of them. Toward that end, I will be arguing against the narrow conceptions that Whisnant and Maes have of what `feminist' pornography must be like. More generally, I hope to show by example why it is important to take pornographic films seriously as films if we're to understand their potential to shape, or mis-shape, socio-sexual norms.

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