riddlemay

I too am sad to hear Larry's story. I once saw Roy handle a situation with amazing grace. They were booked into the ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago in the nineties, which at the time was trying to make it as a music venue. The opener was a sixteen-piece big band, then J & R. In that huge ballroom, two tables were occupied--ours, and the one next to ours, both in the front row. A total of eight people. The show went on. Jackie & Roy came out and went right into their first number. Then Roy addressed the eight of us. Facing the situation head-on, and sidestepping the fact that he and Jackie were humiliated, he expressed concern for us instead. "Don't be embarrassed or uncomfortable," he said. "Pretend that Jackie and I have had you all over to our house for dinner, we've had a wonderful meal, and now we're in living room, where Jackie and I go to our piano and entertain you for a while."

I sympathize, but one thing to keep in mind is that Dusty Groove has no way of knowing that one item is the one you really want and that the other four are an afterthought. Only you know that. All they know, without being able to read your mind, is that you ordered five items. It would be reasonable for them to proceed as if all five were wanted equally--there's even the possibility, for all they can tell from your order, that one of the non-Clooney items is the one you prize the most!--on the supposition that you'll be delighted to receive the ones they're able to ship.

If you'll forgive the tangent...Hefti wrote another tune for Harlow that is just as marvelous as Girl Talk, and sounds just as much like it could be a song (it's clearly structured as one), but which has never had a lyric. It's a shame that Mercer or someone like him never got to it. (For some reason I hear Mercer more than Troup here.)

Ringo Lorne Greene Marian Lorne

A Basie album on Verve that's missing from that list is Basie Picks the Winners. A Byers-arranged album that I like a lot. For some reason, the CD reissue (Japanese import) was in mono, even though the album is definitely from the stereo era. And the version of the album that's on iTunes is also mono. And so are various YouTubes of the album's contents. (Like the one below.) Did the stereo master get thrown out by mistake a long time ago? I wonder. I would be interested in the Verve set you're imagining, especially if it included the stereo mix of this album.

Rosemary Woods Cynthia Nixon Robert Moog

Lord Mountbatten Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon Leon Thomas

Heywood Broun The Brown Bomber Louis CK

I agree with you right down the line, Larry, and add that (unless I missed something, which is possible) some of the basic storytelling was incompetent. I have in mind the scene near the end when Ron Stallworth tears off in his car after Connie Kendrickson--who we know is about to plant a bomb, which Stallworth has no way of knowing. What motivates him to do this? If the essential information about her purpose was at any point communicated to him, I didn't see it.

Hank Jones' solo, which starts at about 2:25:

I'm certain that I've never heard Armstrong before without any trace of "performance" or shtick. Of course he talked like a regular person and serious artist in real life--I just never heard it. This was great.

I'm enjoying the discussion/evisceration. 1959 is a bit too late to be considered mid-fifties, but FWIW, Sinatra's Come Dance With Me included several songs from roughly contemporaneous Broadway shows: "Just in Time," "Baubles, Bangles and Beads," "Too Close for Comfort," and "I Could Have Danced All Night." (One can suppose the selection was quite conscious, that Sinatra, or somebody, said, "Hey, why don't we do some of the newer Broadway stuff for a change?")

Answering honestly (and not as I wish I could answer), I'm 100% comfort zone. The jazz I choose to put on is the music that excited me when I first discovered it as a pre-teen and teen in the sixties: Monk, Thad Jones-Mel Lewis, Silver, Basie, Miles, Golson, and on and on. (The on-and-on part is what keeps it from getting old; the list includes dozens more.) And then, of course, all the great singers, with Sinatra as my home base. The singer-songwriters of my twenties (in the seventies) are my other touchstone. Along with the Broadway cast albums I discovered as a child and then through all the decades of Sondheim. I'd admire myself more if I were more open to new music, but it is what it is.

A desert island album (for me) is this one. Great West Coast big band jazz. Inspired by Mancini, no doubt, but its own thing. And more consistently great from beginning to end than Mancini's albums.

Cool. Thanks.