Pribek

I think that the effects that we created in those days were much more real. Everything today, with electronics is synthetic. You turn a button here, you get it a half step higher, turn a button there you get it half a step lower, or you stretch it out. But they’re not doing it correctly. I don’t think they’re doing it the right way- there are no highs and no lows. There’s just a bunch of noises. We always had direction. When we were doing it, there was always a pivot point and then you moved on from that and then created these sounds. And that brought them back to simplicity again. Now everybody gets out there and they want to play that stuff ,I do it myself, but after fifteen minutes your mind starts to wander and the players start to wander and there’s no definition. I mean music has to have lines, has to have dynamics, has to have emotion, all the elements that make it in music. But today, with the synthetic stuff, you got a gimmick here and a gimmick there, that’s still not going to make it.

I woke up at 5:30 this morning and the sky looked ominous. It’s been warm though, spring-like. I had all of the windows open for a while yesterday when I was setting up for a session.

Bill Dees and Gerry Wass came in last night and laid down demos of three songs they have been writing. They have some nice stuff going on and I hope they pursue it further.

A lot of studio work going on currently, Sam’s coming in this afternoon and I’m working with Lou on Bill’s record Monday and Tuesday. I like having these dates one after another like that. If there is too much time in between, I can sometimes think too much. Paul Simon has a good song called “Maybe I Think Too Much” on the “Hearts and Bones” record.

I like to listen to some music when I’m setting up for a session. Yesterday I listened to Thelonious Monk’s “Monks Dream”, great record. There is a solo version of “Body and Soul” on here that is extraordinary. There is a quote from Thelonius in the liner notes

“I say, play your own way. Don’t play what the public want-you play what you want and let the public pick up on what you (sic) doing-even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years.”

I admire that kind of attitude.

Teo Macero produced this record. It was recorded in 1962 and I don’t see how it could sound any better if it were recorded with all of today’s technology.

The Boston Red Sox are going to pay Daisuke Matsuzaka, who has never played in the U.S., 52 million dollars to pitch a baseball. I hear a lot of people say that athletes are getting paid too much and I think that criticism is misdirected. They are getting paid what the market will bear and therefore, what they are worth. The Red Sox have agreed to pay 51.11 million to Matsuzuka’s current team the Seibu Lions just for the rights to negotiate the deal. I would like to hear what Mark Cuban’s thoughts are on that. In the end the fans foot the bill but I pretty sure you will not see empty seats in Fenway Park next season.