T.D.

Used CDs from a brick/mortar shop yesterday:

I just pre-ordered on Monday, very generous offer via the link.

+1

Thanks, interesting story. I occasionally drive by the Iron Mountain facility in Rosendale, NY (Sony archives per story). But of course they'd never let me in to peruse the vaults.

Just noticed that Valerij put this up on eBay, so went for it.

"Woodstock 50" looking increasingly shaky: Troubled Woodstock 50 festival will need a new location

https://www.saratoga.com/summer/jazz-festival/ Heard a radio commercial and was unimpressed, but there are some interesting performers. Couldn't help noticing "Django Festival All-Stars with special guests Edmar Castañeda & Grace Kelly" and "Allison Miller Boom Tic Boom", a couple of preferred acts on this forum.

There's always Sorabji, about whom opinions vary widely but whose music I've enjoyed in limited hearings. Strongly agreed on Hindemith. Nancarrow's Three Canons for Ursula (for regular piano) is interesting. Rodion Shchedrin is an excellent pianist as well as composer; he wrote a Polyphonic Notebook and a set of 24 Preludes and Fugues. I like his music but some dislike his politics (rather cozy with the Kremlin in the USSR era). In the composer/pianist category, is Busoni's Fantasia contrappuntistica too old to count? Busoni's music definitely deserves attention. Funny thing about the Shostakovich P&F: I enjoy them, but in the old days when I used to read rec.music.classical.recordings, a number of the Usenet savants regarded them as practically pianistic doggerel. But I suspect many of said savants also waxed enthusiastic about Joyce Hatto's pianism (I'd given up Usenet by the time that hoax was exposed).

https://www.liveatthefalcon.com/190623

Thanks for the comments! A while back, I read an article (forget where) that discussed The Man Without Qualities and thought I might enjoy the novel. Then I perused a used copy of Vol. 1 in a bookshop and held off because it looked like very tough sledding. Will definitely skip it now.

Listening to late quartets after the Vegh Qt. recordings of same.

This Chessbase story (with many pics) mentions Dizzy Gillespie and Ray Charles. Here (different source) is Diz vs. Gene Lees: I've gotta believe trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson is a chess player. He has a band called "Sicilian Defence" and recorded a number of tunes with chess titles.[Added] Indeed he is: https://jazztimes.com/features/profiles/jonathan-finlayson-the-chess-player/