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Greetings! I've been a little quiet the last couple of months; other projects have kept things a bit underground lately. Hopefully there will be more to share on a couple of those very soon. However, in gig-land, things are continuing apace and I wanted to let you know about the 31st installment of the "So, What Do You Think?" series landing at Tubby's in beautiful Midtown Kingston, NY on Sunday, June 7.   Doors at 7pm, show starts at 8. $20 at the door or in advance.     poster design by d.norsen after America 6111    Saxophonist Michael Foster will be returning with the latest variation on his trio The Ghost, featuring bassist Zach Rowden (Tongue Depressor) and drummer Joey Sullivan (Bark Culture, Florry). Last time around (2024) they were joined by Joe McPhee and that was an absolute blast. The core trio will be equally invigorating, as Foster and his collaborators have continued to develop their collective language. As he puts it, "The Ghost is Michael Foster’s long standing trio that excavates the queer feelings within free jazz and noise. Mixing compositional structures with extensive improvisation, and electro-acoustic elements, The Ghost approaches free jazz with a distinct yearning, melancholy, and rage."   Opening will be the duo of percussionist Sarah Hennies and bassist Tristan Kasten-Krause; their LP The Quiet Sun was released last year on Dinzu Artifacts to great acclaim. Hennies is an internationally renowned composer whose work explores trans identity and slow temporal processes, areas in which Kasten-Krause, as an extremely deft and open-minded contrabassist, can gamely occupy.   We look forward to seeing you there & if you can't make it, feel free to forward to a friend.

Of course they didn't need to. But considering how many of them literally drooled over Robert Johnson as the messiah of blues it now strikes me as funny that most (or maybe all) of them at least in this case never heard what the people back in the 30s ACTUALLY listened to. Yes, I'm being a bit sarcastic here about that "messiah thing" - this simply is colored now by what I learnt about their "reception" of the blues in my young record buying and collecting days in the 70s - and honestly, once I had heard the Robert Johnson "Crossroads" (Take 2) on that CBS LP (that I bought during a stay in London at age 16 in 1976) I found it harder to connect it to the "boogied-up" version by Cream that was one of those records that cemented the Robert Johnson legend in late 60s and 70s rock circles.  Funnily this is quite similar to other niches of rock (such as among the rockabillies) where certain 50s tunes have acquired cult status and were covered by numerous younger groups although the original recording had remained unreleased in the 50s and did not see the light of the turntables until the 70s or 80s when it cropped up on a Charly or Ace LP (or the like).  Which almost inevitably led to comments by some nitpickers along the lines of "what you pick up from the 50s wasn't even heard in the 50s ... " Much the same thing with the 60s blues rock men, then, after all ... 

I couldn't agree more. When I was speaking to Roberta, his ex-wife but still manager, she talked about how Ronnie had dreamed of getting to record on Milestone. I loved all of his Steeplechase albums (some more than others), but there was a period where he was on labels that didn't do him justice, during which I enjoyed his sideman appearances more. Xanadu was gone, and Milestone was one of the classic American labels with a storied tradition still in operation. Is "Scene" slick? Unquestionably, but Ronnie still plays wonderfully, and I have always been a fan of Keezer. Needless to say he has matured in both musicianship and personality, but he's unquestionably a magnificent pianist. Ronnie's Airplay was my introduction to Keezer, and I was blown away. Ronnie played with a lot of pianists, but I particularly liked those albums with Keezer, Kenny Drew Jr., and George Colligan.

Several places online say that a box set will appear in September; I've seen no mention of how many discs within the set. Here's one site: https://wikijazz.substack.com/p/the-tiberi-tapes-the-recording-the

A long-time favorite: