Russell Carlson      John Corbett      Julian Cowley      Stefan Gijssels      Walter Horn      Hugh Jarrid      Chris Kelsey      Budd Kopman      Jon Morgan      Harvey Pekar      Alexandre Pierrepont      Massimo Ricci      Derek Taylor      Dan Warburton      Kevin Whitehead     

publications   Swingin’ Thing Magazine, Jazz Times

personal contacts   Back when I was a young musician in Chicago and he was a mediocre drummer who had to pay real players out of his own pocket just to get a sideman gig — he claimed that I stole his girlfriend. I only borrowed her for a few days, but I guess he figures he owes me one anyway.

reviewed   Song Songs Song, From the Diary of Dog Drexel, 96 Gestures, this that, Mamet, Beckett, Bitter Love Songs

bias   Likes finger snappin’and toe tappin’

reviewership   Error filled, flacid, over-alliterated copy. Zero upturned noses.

musicianship   Unspeakable drummer. Couldn’t count to four if you spotted him one, two, and three. Zero upturned noses.

aggregate rating   zero upturned noses.

from 96 Gestures   On 96 Gestures West-coast composer and guitarist Scott Fields resurfaces with another of his much ballyhooed “modular compositions” for improvising chamber ensemble. This one meanders over an eyelid-drooping three hours and eighteen minutes. A test of endurance for even the most seasoned critic, I must admit that mid-way through the third disc I started to doze off and at one point actually drove off the road.

Fields—or his gullible label CRI—attempts to justify this dangerous length through the suspicion-raising claim that each of the three discs represents a complete, unique performance of this so-called “composition.” Common sense, or simple human decency, dictates that the composer, or conductor, or label A-and-R man, make some attempt to condense this test of one reviewer’s patience.