johnblitweiler

keep having more birthdays

Hatfields McCoys Harlem Hamfats

Bob Locker Bobbettes John Bobbit

I was there yesterday. The sale and the end of the JRM could happen in a matter of days. Above and beyond my working there (a season before JRM hired Chuck Nessa) and my buying records there, the JRM was enormously important in my life. We're enormously indebted to Bob Koester, a great guy to learn from.

Thomas More The least of these The lesser of two evils

At least in World Series I kind of like things the way they are now, DH in AL parks, pinch hitters in NL parks. In principle the DH is a good idea but last year it seemed like there was a general mediocrity of DHs.

Googie Rene Bugsy Segal Muggsy Spanier

Johnny Appleseed Leif Ericson Billy Branch

Brother John Sellers Billy Byers Pee Wee Market

What happened to the Politics forum? I need to vent my righteous anger.

If the Ayler/Cherry radio recordings CD is the same Ayler/Cherry music that was in the Revenant Ayler box, that is some absolutely wonderful music. A must-hear.

For that matter, a lot of good music that was on the 2-LP Savoy reissues that Bob Porter produced in the 1980s doesn't seem to have reappeared on CD. Especially anthologies like "The Trombone Album," "Black California" with Patricia Willard's great liner notes, '40s-'50s swing and r-&-b, etc. Or a hot Mutt Carey NY band from about 1947.

Monty Wooley Little Willie Li'l Wally

Harvey Haddix Harvey Pekar Harvey

doesn't Jacques Tati make you laugh?

Speaking of wasting time, I recently read about half of "Timescape" by Kurt Vonnegut with a sense that the author had become awfully smug and trivial in his old age. Too bad.

The Man The Beast The Fly

Eric Burdon Paul Whiteman Oom Paul Kruger

Night Train Lane Dusty Rhodes Dirty Bill

Cleveland Eaton Steve Swallow Sir Toby Belch

Thanks, Jim, for all the pleasure and engagement. The check goes in the mail tonight.

Jim, this is a gem. As Michael Rock of WHPK would say: Anyone who can't dig this must have been born without a shovel.

Unfortunately, Hal Russell's NRG Ensemble never made a Christmas album. But the NRG players plus some fellow Chicagoans formed Witches And Devils to do Christmas concerts. The next is next Sunday, it's called Mars Williams Presents An Ayler Christmas. Imagine the maniacal Gene Ammons-Tom Archia "Swingin for Christmas" turned even wilder and faster. Wish they'd make an album of it.

Thanks for the review, Larry. That's it, exactly! That's his feelings, that's how he tells his stories. And yes, he should have been from Texas.

That Columbia collection of Ruggles is now on CD. http://www.discogs.com/Carl-Ruggles-The-Complete-Music-Of-Carl-Ruggles/release/4369640