Larry Kart

After many years of respectfully (if that's the right word) trying to get into Bruckner at a (so to speak) gut level -- one where I really feel the "why" and "how" of his music without having to engage (or try to engage) in e.g. willful retention of themes over longer gaps in time than my memory can handle -- I finally got it, listening to Skrowaczewki's Saarbrucken Radio Symphony 7th (Oehms) twice in a row, the second time at a significantly higher (and for me just right) volume level than the first time. What I heard/what happened I don't quite have all the words for yet, but one thing I can say for sure -- the more sotto voce episodes (and there are some) blossomed like flowers, and once I inhaled their perfume, everything else began to fall into place; or rather, I began to feel where all the other places in the work are, why they are where they are, and why they are the ways that they are (notably, to my surprise, now nothing sounded bombastic), all this without engaging in games of thematic retention that are beyond my mental capacity.

I love Ruby and Pee Wee in general but don't think "Hi-Fi Salute to Bunny" gets off the ground. The great Ruby mid-sized ensemble record from that time is "Braff!!" (Epic), the portion of that album with Coleman Hawkins, Lawrence Brown, Ernie Caceres et al. Indeed that whole album is solid gold, including the cover photo of Ruby with his mother.

Excellent performances; the price is well nigh unbelievable. https://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Piano-Sonatas-Bagatelles-9CD/dp/B0714GDHFM/ref=sr_1_1?crid=37JYKVJYANS4G&keywords=beethoven+kovacevich&qid=1563159800&s=music&sprefix=beethoven+kovace%2Caps%2C149&sr=1-1

Quite vividly recorded, which helps.

Arno's warm-toned swinging style was instantly recognizable and very satisfying. I'm looking forward to the Mosaic Herman Mars set. R.I.P.

Picked this up yesterday for a song at Half-Price, curious about the Fischer-Dieskau/Murray Dickie/Kletzki Das Lied. Never much of a F-D fan, in terms both of the voice per se and his interpretive style (all that lecture/demonstration underlining/barking for emphasis), but he's in mellifluous/passionate form on this 1959 recording, total unforced identification with the texts. Dickie is just fine, I very much like Kletzki's way with the score, and the Philharmonia is in superb form -- those horns and the winds! They play as if they've just encountered the work for the first time and are astonished by what they find there. The Baker/Barbirolli performances I already know, the Tennstedt Knaben Wunderhorn selection will be new to me when I get around to it. I like/imprinted on the old Wyn Morris Knaben Wunderhorn.

JR?

The two Watson compilations I have now -- one early material, one funk tracks from the '70s -- have me laughing and scratching. There's a basic joyousness to his music that's irresistible.

Johnny "Guitar" Watson "Ruben"!!!

at Saturday's Sox-Cubs game: https://twitter.com/dawhite670/status/1147703487251263488/video/1?fbclid=IwAR3gVZ3SsN5g64lm1Dtbvm6b5b4iIQRDzdFX4x3sMSpTsg5UEDLH0cFg4Sw Stick around until they try to put cuffs on one combatant and she starts beating on the security guard. By most accounts these women were Cubs fans who were loaded before they got to the ballpark.

Which somebody?

Jerome, I believe, was pretty much a frontman/chameleon. A parallel from a bit later on might be trumpeter Larry Sonn, who "led" several swinging Coral big band albums in the '50s with the likes of Al Cohn and Phil Woods and then vanished into the woods, so to speak. Earlier on, Sonn IIRC led Latin-style bands in Mexico. https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/larrysonn

Two Watson albums are on the way to me. Many thanks.

As someone who has mixed feelings about latter-day Evans, I think he plays very well here, as does Toots.

One the book's mysteries (probably) solved. On p. 400 Miles refers to the "brilliant British composer Hernspach, who often wrote in minor modes." Almost certainly an error on the part of the inept transcriber of the interview, and an error that Troupe didn't catch, but who is "Hernspach"? Almost certainly, Miles was referring to the Swiss-American (not British) composer Ernest Bloch. Bloch was one of Gil Evans favorites; Gil even said that Schelomo was his favorite 20th Century work.