BeBop

A loss today. A loss for a long time to come. RIP

Yes, I saw him too. Really weird, he was often over near the Wharf, and sometimes down near the old Embarcadero Freeway. It was a cool time to be in the City. As I recall, Keystone Korner survived into the early 80s.

Happy Birthday, Sonny Simmons. 1983-87, I worked at Market and (New) Montgomery in San Francisco. He used to play outside my window, sound echoing off the buildings. Such a treat. We talked briefly a few times. Back then, I was a guy in a suit; tough to convince anyone I was sincere. So glad he's had a musically productive life.

I've never really looked at contrafacts as 'pure' or 'sacred' things. But, in my experience, even Rose Room or Blue Moon, original head, gets a bunch of harmonic substitutions almost baked in over time. Or maybe it's just the people I play with. Heck, Rose Room was written in the 1910s. Jazz and popular music evolved into some 'more advanced" harmonies over the next few decades. Then there are the contrafacts (can't recall at the moment) with a different bridge. As for "Whispering", it was one of my father's favorite songs. He played it often.

I can't remember the last time I heard "Whispering". "Groovin' High" I hear often. "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" i hear once in a blue moon. 'Rose Room" or "In a Mellow Tone"? Perhaps just my musical preferences, but "Donna Lee" hits my ears more often thank "Back Home Again in Indiana", though I hear the latter pretty often. "I Got Rhythm"? You?

Plenty of Tower Records bricks and mortar and glass and steel in Japan, sometimes 10 stories-worth! But yeah, I know what you mean.

Yes, bookstores. I'm viewing the retailers of my life much like the grocery stores. I'll suit-up (mask and gloves), shop, then decontaminate. If I buy something, it gets decontaminated too. I have no home, so mail order isn't an option.

I work in the non-WEIRD* world where squat toilets are de rigueur. No toilet paper, just a bucket of water to splash. Oh, you might find a commode in a Western Hotel, airport, touristy spot, but squat toilets are the better choice than open-field defecation. (Big push to end this in India under Modi.) See also : Elephant Foot Toilets * Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic.

I don't think there are tenor solos by anyone on any track. I'm sure I would have included it on my "complete solos" compilation.

Five months without music, I've recently been binge listening to all my twenty-or-so complete Black Saint and Soul Note sets. Paul Motian at the moment. Any music is great; these have the edge of being easy to get to in my collection.

Maybe you know him from Jazz Masters of the 20s, or his Louis Armstrong interview, maybe from KCSM or KJAZ. 92 years old and he keeps on keepin' on. https://www.berkeleyside.com/2020/05/21/give-it-up-for-92-year-old-jazz-master-richard-hadlock?utm_source=Berkeleyside+and+Oakland+email+newsletters&utm_campaign=3e31051bdc-RSS_EMAIL_DAILY_BRIEFING&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_aad4b5ee64-3e31051bdc-333265469&goal=0_aad4b5ee64-3e31051bdc-333265469

Happy Birthday +1.

Richie was a ubiquitous presence in the Bay Area when I was living, working, playing and attending several concerts a week there, late 1970s into the 80s. His playing was one thing - sometimes worked okay for me; sometimes less-so - but his shows could be, as advertised, Madness. I think we only talked at any length twice, but he was always quick to recognize me with a "hey, how ya doin'?" RIP Richie Cole

I was living in the People's Republic of China in January, when the coronavirus outbreak became news. (Excuse the vague "became news". Remember, I was getting my news from the PRC government, so I don't really know about dissemination/perception outside.) I've been through three quarantines of varying length, to leave PRC, in Hong Kong SAR, and in the United States. None have been a big deal to me, especially in the latter two, where some corner of the internet was available to me, some relatively unfiltered news. There is, though, a sense of deja vu to it all. In China, the business started closing, the parks, the libraries...then in Hong Kong, when I was there...and the Houston Rodeo is closed now, same experience, two months on. As it seems PRC seems to be making progress against the virus, it has been easier to accept each subsequent isolation, loss of access to people and businesses, resources.