Maybe it comes down to language. Efren's dismissal of Dave's new work as "clumsy", "unnatural" "so worn" and words like "he does" and "this is" undercut any implication that he's speaking about his own personal taste, and instead is making a pronouncement as if to Dave's current abilities as an artist. And his remarks make almost no reference to anything subjective, ie "this is not the DD record for me". We get something a lot less objective from someone who I believe dismissed KIND OF BLUE, if I remember correctly. Not liking things is one thing. Dismissing them -- especially in such terms -- is another. If you're gonna not like something, fine. If you're gonna dismiss, do it better. As for doing it better than Dave Douglas, good luck. I've heard very little on his general level of craft in the last decade, and the products of his commitment to creativity are wonderful to hear. His conceptual imagination is widely informed and deeply felt, and his execution is spotless. If you're smart, you don't speak dismissively of someone like that. You chalk it up to what he wants to play/write is different from what you're enjoying, and you move on (spoken as a true fan of earlier Frisell and someone who hasn't much enjoyed anything post Joey/Kermit he's done). As for Patrice not liking any of the records I recommend, I don't imagine he would. His ideas of "imagination" (his word, hence the quotes) and "a lot to say" (his phrase) do not exactly hold a world in common with mine. He doesn't strike me as someone who knows how to pony like Boney Maronie, so to speak. As to whether he should see a doctor, I think that anybody who doesn't like "Speedo" by the Cadillacs probably should. Then again, I never went to college, don't really have a lot of philosophy books, and I play music in bars, not performance spaces, so what is my opinion worth? -- skip h http://www.skipheller.com