who is it

i don't really like talking on the phone, and am notorious for not answering a call that doesn't come up as a registered contact in my caller id.  i get paralyzed when i look down at my phone and see a number, not a name, flash across the top. i instantly hit ignore, for fear that whomever is calling me is the bearer of bad news.  send yo ass to voicemail.  

i was flabbergasted a few days ago when i called my folks. they are old school, man.  just got internet, have kept the old answering machine going, and roll with one cordless phone (in the garage) to their two corded phones in the house.

i told my mom, in an earlier conversation that day, that i would call back around 7:00 that evening.  i kept my promise, and jingled her.  she answered my call with "well hello guy smiley", her nickname for me from back in the day.  i laughed and said "mom, how did you know it was me?"  she said that she knew i was planning to call around then and figured i would hold up my end of the bargain.  i can't believe she had the guts to answer the phone just on a hunch, without caller id!!!

i think it is relatively easy to recognize a particular singer from a recording.  the brain quickly sifts through the files of voice type and character in a vocalist's sound, coming up with a perfect match.  some are identified more quickly than others.  tom waits, nat cole, louis armstrong, frank sinatra, willie nelson, stevie wonder, axl rose - all unique vocalists.

do singers want that instant recognition?  does the listener feel more at ease when they know who is crooning?  do singers work to have a unique-unto-them sound, or are they trying to tap into that legacy of an artist whose similar voice type has already laid the groundwork?  hello, michael buble.

i find it much more difficult for me to pick out horn players from recordings, based strictly upon their tone quality.  i call upon more information (the tune, approach to improvising, cliche licks, accompanying personnel) to make this determination.  my success rate with blind identification is significantly diminished.  do horn players strive for unique tone qualities, or are they victims of what they have listened to and admired through the years?

i was blown away when i read a downbeat magazine blindfold test with joey baron from a few years back.  he listened to a track and then quickly noted that the drummer was jack dejohnette, but jack wasn't using his own drums on this particular recording.  woah...

i'm an alto player, but do i need a tone like bird or hodges? should tenor players chase coltrane or dex?  guitar players fiddle around with various settings to get a particular sound. aspiring musicians buy gear that is either endorsed by or played exclusively by certain artists.  is this in hopes of replicating their sound?  anthony braxton talked about restructuralists and stylists in the graham lock book forces in motion.  on which side of that fence do you find yourself?

current ingredients in my tone concept:  the urgency of eric dolphy, the raw of bjork, the angularity of dave king, the circus of django bates, the joy of ornette coleman, the warmth of jaco pastorius, the ease of keith underwood, the tightrope of joan sutherland, the precision of martha argerich, the bluster of ben webster.  what about you?