johnblitweiler

an enjoyable show last night, David

After my apartment burned down last winter, the building manager threw all my LPs, CDs, books into a landfill someplace without giving me the opportunity to try to rescue them. I did manage to save about 300 CDs and a neighbor found boxes of taped interviews with musicians, along with 2 unsold cartons of Mojo Snake Minuet. So by now I have mixed emotions about that big time record collector's options; less responsiblity but also less choice of music. (Thanks to some kind jazz people, including Organissimo friends, and the public library, I'm replacing some CDs.)

After sleeping on Philip Roth forever, I finally read The Plot Against America and I Married A Communist. His characters' dilemmas are moral and complex and subtle. They may have been his last 2 novels - especially his utter seriousness, his indignation are engrossing. After those 2 explosions I can see why he gave up writing.

Elroy Face Michael Foot Wade Legge

We listen to music for how it changes us. That's why some old Greek classified modes and their effects on listeners and why Plato only approved of music that inspired men to fight wars. Or why some churchmen, or popes, banned certain keys as being the devil's domain. Or why Bill Russo's textbook on arranging gets specific about how to convey various emotions. What you choose to practice during the day is what's likely to appear amidst the immediacy of your improvising at night. I think the most important part of a critic's job is to verbalize what the music communicates and the value of that communication - the life of the music - is it serious or trivial, fresh, personal, coherent, clever (or merely clever), and so on. I almost said "honest," but in the heat of improvisation a player can't be anything but honest. Obviously I'm drastically over-simplifying what a critic writes. My point is, a critic has reasons for his opinions, it's not the jerking of his knees. (And as Bernard Shaw once said, I'll find out if I liked it when I write my review.) Back to Jack Cooke. His extensive Jazz Monthly survey of Eric Dolphy's recordings, written shortly after Dolphy's death, had such thoughtful detail and analysis that it, more than anything else, convinced me that writing about music could be a worthwhile occupation.

Land of Nod Land of Oobladee Land of Jazz

Luciana Souza Little Caesar Suzy-Q

Spike played straight drums, no smiles, while accompanying Hoagy Carmichael on recordings from 70-odd years ago. Some are in the Indiana Hoagy boxed set.

what institution was at 81st and Broadway?

Sandy Evans Sandy Williams San Diego Padres

I have no memory of the few non-sf novels by H.G. Wells that I read many decades ago. Except that his snobbery in "The Research Magnificent" was so repulsive that I never read another of his writings.

Happy birthday - and to help you celebrate:

a bird in the bush a bird on a wire a fly in my soup

Hells Angels Hall Overton Hal Russell

Just bought the Kindle version. Congratulations, Joe.

Thanks for the clip. I like their energy. The alto player is an interesting bunch of guys.

Jonathan Horwich William Hardy Pete Welding

Charlie My Boy My Boy Lollipop Boy Raaymakers

Best of my knowledge Ree- boʊ (to use IPA Thanks

The title "Quintessential Fall Music" suggests the decline and fall of mankind. The note-for-note remake of "Kind Of Blue" might be just right.

Monk and Rollins and there ain't enough

Extraordinary sustained intensity and creativity - it would be unbelievable, except here it is, you can hear it. Tyler almost always tore like a tyger into themes (and he burned bright). One of the most distinctive jazz sounds ever was Sun Ra's Arkestra when he had 2 baritonists, Pat Patrick and Charles Davis. Later, in the eras of free jazz, Patrick alone lent a wonderful and crucial weight to Ra's various Arkestras.

I used to know The Girl From Greenland when she was a nurse in Chicago. Her ancestry was Eskimo and in her younger days she lived with Littman's family in Boston (exchange student, I believe, from Denmark).

How is Ribot pronounced? (as in Marc Ribot)