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The Friday set was fine but seemed like a warm up; Saturday was much better.

THURSDAY, MARCH 19 8pm-10pm Tom McDermott and Aurora Nealand

It’s been 14 years in my case since I’ve seen The Bandwagon in person. Way too long.

Bombino, Live in Amsterdam (Partisan)

Miroslav Vitous, First Meeting (ECM) Laurindo Almeida, The New World of Guitar (Capitol)

A fabulous set by the Bandwagon tonight. Heavy on the Monk and Fats Waller.

Jazz Odyssey, Volume 1, The Sound of New Orleans, 1917-1947 (Columbia)

No, but that band (or a very similar one) played in Fort Worth in the early-mid/1980s. A set was broadcast on the local NPR station, But I missed the actual performances because I had the flu. Curses.

Sunnyside Releases Recordings from the Archives of Joe Castro (Nov. 20th)! It is the chance events that occur over a lifetime that make life worth living. For some, the choice to pursue certain paths leads them on unpredictable journeys. Sometimes these paths are incredible. Pianist, bandleader and composer Joseph Armand Castro led an extraordinary life. He was a son of first generation Mexican-Americans, born in an Arizona mining town, who happened to be raised in surroundings where jazz music became his greatest inspiration, the highly trafficked Bay Area of California. As a teenager, Castro was able to learn the rudiments of the genre from attending many concerts, jamming regularly, and constant practice. Against the odds, Castro was able to co-lead a successful combo - 3 Bees and a Queen - that played a mixture of jazz and popular tunes. It was on the group’s first tour of Hawaii that Castro met and subsequently fell in love with the richest woman in the world, Doris Duke. Castro and Duke’s romantic relationship had its ups and downs, but it provided many opportunities that the pianist wouldn’t have been able to gain on his own, though there were some disadvantages, like Castro being constantly underrated, envied and thought to have everything and, therefore, in need of nothing. Castro was able to travel the world, lived in wonderful homes that were furnished with performance spaces where he and his musician friends would jam and record and, finally, Duke financed a recording label put under Castro’s control, Clover Records. The legacy of Joe Castro was passed down in hours of invaluable recordings of interviews and his music, including jam sessions with some of the leading musicians of his generation and long lost, never released recordings from Clover. Sunnyside Records has collaborated with the Castro estate to have the musical recordings mastered and compiled for release on the new boxset Lush Life – A Musical Journey. The recordings provide an intriguing view of Castro’s eclectic musical world and that of the musicians he befriended along the way. Listeners will hear the tremendous contributions of legendary musicians, like Stan Getz, Chico Hamilton, Teddy Edwards, Zoot Sims, Oscar Pettiford, Lucky Thompson, Leroy Vinnegar, Paul Motian and Billy Higgins. There are recordings of casual jam sessions that were held at either of Doris Duke’s residences, Falcon Lair in Beverly Hills, California or Duke Farms in New Jersey. There are also studio sessions from small groups and large ensembles led by Castro and Teddy Edwards that were initially recorded for release on Clover. The project was taken on under the lead of Castro himself from his Nevada home. After he passed in 2009, researcher Daniel Richard and Castro’s son James worked closely together to find photos, gather reminiscences and mix the audio material, mostly left on analog tape. Further in depth research by Richard at Duke Libraries at Duke University and regular trips to New York and Nevada have uncovered a remarkable treasure trove of unique and unheard material, most presented here for the first time. This box set is Sunnyside’s initial release of material from Joe Castro’s discography. Included are six discs of diverse musical settings from different periods in Castro’s life. There will be subsequent releases with more gems from his catalog to look forward to. There is also an interactive website that contains a full biography and discography, expertly researched by Daniel Richard and James Castro. It can be found at www.joecastrojazz.com. Disc 1: Joe Castro’s Jam Sessions: Abstract Candy – Jam sessions recorded at Duke’s Falcon Lair home which feature trumpeter John Anderson, woodwind expert Buddy Collette, drummer Chico Hamilton and bassists Buddy Woodson and Bob Bertaux. Disc 2: Joe Castro’s Friends: Falcon Blues – Teddy Wilson’s Jam Sessions – Three sessions, two from July 1955 and one from January 1956 at Falcon Lair, that feature the great Teddy Wilson on piano and feature saxophonists Stan Getz and Zoot Sims. Disc 3: Joe Castro’s Jam Sessions: Just Joe – Two sessions from February 1956 provide a look at Castro’s own playing with the illustrious lineup of trombonist Sonny Truitt, saxophonists Zoot Sims and Lucky Thompson, bassist Oscar Pettiford and drummer Ron Jefferson. Disc 4: Joe Castro: Feeling the Blues – The Quartet Sessions – Castro leads his tremendous working quartet of saxophonist Teddy Edwards, bassist Leroy Vinnegar and drummer Billy Higgins at Falcon Lair in January 1959. Disc 5: Joe Castro Big Band – Reflection – Initially recorded for Castro’s own Clover label but never released, the Joe Castro Big Band’s music was the leader’s most ambitious project. The Band performs pieces by Castro and friends Leroy Vinnegar and Teddy Edwards with aplomb and features some of the West Coast’s most legendary musicians, including Al Porcino, Conte Candoli, Frank Rosolino, Bob Cooper and Stan Levey. Disc 6: Teddy Edwards Tentet – Angel City – Another project that went unreleased on Clover sees the great saxophonist Teddy Edwards leading his own midsized ensemble of Los Angeles based greats.

The recording captures Johnny Coles' sound very well.

Agreed, six eye pressings sound uniformly great, though for me the real qualify drop off is post-two eye pressings. Duke Ellington, The Ellington Era 1927-1940, Volume 2 (Columbia, two eye)

Actually, in these parts you can still get lucky at Half Priced Books. This was $7 about a year ago.

Six eye.

Billie Holiday, The Golden Years (Columbia) Charlie Parker, Jazz at Midnite (Blue Note)

The Iron Woman of LiveStreaming... Jackie Venson I'm off for the rest of November because *drumroll* I will be streaming every night to TikTok, Facebook, and Reddit for the entire month of December, including the holidays! Much love squad and thank y'all, see you next month. Let's end this crazy year right. At the Village Vanguard: JASON MORAN AND THE BANDWAGON NOVEMBER 27 ‑ NOVEMBER 28 Jason Moran – Piano Taurus Mateen – Bass Nasheet Waits – Drums At the Jazz Gallery: Special end-of-year Livestream Concert with The Jazz Gallery All-Stars Miguel Zenon -saxophone Morgan Guerin -saxophone Orrin Evans -piano Joel Ross -vibraphone Charles Altura -guitar Ben Williams -bass Kendrick Scott -drums plus Special Guest Vocalist Renee Neufville Sets at 7.30pm + 9.30pm EDT $15/$5 members LEARN MORE & TICKETS Dec 17, 2020

The Smithsonian Ellington collections.

The Prestige and Riverside books depicted above, despite being partly in Japanese, are very useful to have, particularly if you buy LPs.

Freddie Hubbard, The Hub of Hubbard (MPS/BASF) Gary Burton Quartet, Paesengers (ECM)

Jonah Jones, Swingin' On Broadway (Capitol) Dave Pell, I Remember John Kirby (Capitol) Jonah Jones, I Dig Chicks (Capitol) June Christy and Stan Kenton, Duet (Capitol)

This album is really excellent. Most of it is more inside than I expected.

Starting this evening from 7 p.m. EST for 24 hours, Ragas Live Festival livestream. Ragas Live Festival 2020 SATURDAY, NOV 21-22, 2020 7PM-7PM FULL LINEUP AND PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE TO BE ANNOUNCED. PLEASE REGISTER TO STAY TUNED. ARTISTS 7PM RAGA MAQAM: AMIR ELSAFFAR & BROOKLYN RAGA MASSIVE 8PM DHUN DHORA (FEATURING THE DHOL DRUMMERS OF RAJASTHAN) 9PM ANDY STATMAN 10PM ZAKIR HUSSAIN 11PM BETSAYDA MACHADO Y PARRANDA EL CLAVO MIDNIGHT ALAM KHAN 1AM SWAPAN CHAUDHURI & AACM TABLA ENSEMBLE 2AM KRISHNA BHATT 3AM PARVATHY BAUL 4AM ANANTHA KRISHNAN AND CHARUMATHI RAGHURAM 5AM FLUTE SHASHANK 6AM GAURAV MAZUMDAR 7AM WOMANLY VOICES (OF JODHPUR RIFF) 8AM ROOPA MAHADEVAN 9AM ASK HAFIZ 10AM ABHIK MUKHERJEE & SAMARTH NAGARKAR 11AM MYSORE NAGARAJ & KARTHIK NAGARAJ NOON 3G FEAT T.H. VIKKU VINAYAKRAM & SELVAGANESH 1PM PRINCE NEPALI 2PM TOKO TELO 3PM DEREK GRIPPER & TOUMANI DIABATE 4PM JAY GANDHI & ARUN RAMAMURTHY 5PM BROOKLYN RAGA MASSIVE: IN D 6PM TERRY RILEY FULL LINEUP Register Buy Merch Ragas Live Festival is an epic 24-hour, 24-set celebration of what The New York Times calls “the Raga Renaissance, flowering in Brooklyn.” Now in its ninth year, the immersive experience has expanded to include 70 artists from 13 cities, including the major torchbearers and creators of new genres such as Terry Riley, Toumani Diabate, Zakir Hussain, and Betsayda Machado. The event is rooted in Indian Classical Music and its unique time cycle in which specific musical modes are performed at specific times of day. Listeners and viewers will journey from Japan to Nepal to Madagascar as the musical offerings flow between traditional presentations and cross-cultural, genre-blurring collaborations. Born in 2012 when 50 musicians volunteered to create an FM-Broadcast with the theme of “Community, Unity, and Harmony,” the festival graduated to become a popular live event at Pioneer Works. For the first time, Ragas Live Festival will be live-streamed and broadcast from and around the world, a musical collaboration at an unprecedented scale, and a testament to the transcendent power of music. During the penultimate set of the festival Brooklyn Raga Massive will perform a raga based homage to Terry Riley called In “D.” An original composition, performed by 24 musicians, this, like last year’s Ragmala, will be released as an album concurrently with the Ragas Live Festival. Presented by Pioneer Works, Brooklyn Raga Massive, NYC Radio Live and the Rubin Museum of Art.

Hooked on Tone Poets. See above. J.A.T.P in Tokyo 1953 (Pablo) San Remo Jazz Festival (Verve)

Bringing the Hallelujah (Kidd Jordan Film) Arts of Art (NYC organization behind the annual Vision Festival) honor New Orleans' own Kidd Jordan with a preview of their film production. Click here toRegister, Watch, and Donate. "We are happy to share a pre-release of "Bringing on the Hallelujah: A Kidd Jordan Biopic." We wanted to share an exclusive viewing opportunity of this upcoming AFA production on the tenor saxophonist, educator and New Orleans native, Edward "Kidd" Jordan. The film includes interviews with Mr. Jordan, his family, students, and artists with whom he has collaborated over the years, as well as live performance footage from the archives. On November 22 at 3pm [Eastern Standard Time] we will premiere an early cut of this ongoing film, edited and filmed by Michael Lucio Sternbach, with additional archival footage. It will be available through Tuesday November 24 at 5pm. In conjunction with this special preview, AFA will host a public Zoom chat with Kidd Jordan, William Parker, Hamid Drake, Marshall Allen, and Joel Futterman on Sunday at 3:30pm. Donations are Important The funds raised will benefit The Kidd Jordan Music Education Fund for AFA's Music is Mine program. It will also help with much needed funds to complete work on this important Kidd Jordan documentary."

Rudy G. is looking for you. Beware the brown facial drip.

Alan Braufman, The Fire Still Burns