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I’m seeing 80 degrees with a chance of improvisation. I’m still on a jazz cruise. 😀 I’m hearing that our area is getting close to two feet. I’ll have a lot of snow to clear when I get home.

Foot +. We're buried and it's still snowing. School's got cancelled, so at least that.

January 26 Ulrich Gumpert - 1945

Can't watch in the US for legal reasons.

Artwork kind've has this vibe NP

On a slightly more somber subject, some time ago I noticed a "miscellaneous news" item in a 50s jazz magazine that showed the following tongue-in-cheek practical use of this jive lingo: A recently-deceased cool cat had had the following words engraved on his gravesite marker prior to his passing: "DON'T DIG ME, CATS - I'M GONE!"

Thanks for mentioning Dan Burley's Jive. I managed to find a copy just now that wasn't too dear. Also thank you Steve for the link to the Calloway pdf. Fun!

I suspect that's the answer but is that the term for all of this music from the 1920s to present day? I'm trying to find out whether there's a snappier term for the era that "pre-salsa musica tropicale in conjunto or big band format that isn't from New York or Cuba". It is so clearly a historical/aesthetic singular moment.

This is great stuff. Genuinely valuable.

Thanks for the link to the article on Dan Burley. I knew about the reprint of the Dan Burley Jive handbook but for some reason never bought it. Maybe it was because I regretted they had needlessly changed the cover (not for the better). Does your reprint at least look like the "inside" is an actual reprint that reproduces the 40s layout? The contents of the Cab Calloway "Cat-ologue" dictionaries must be online out there. About 20 years ago I found (on two different websites) and printed out lists of the Calloway dictionary that were described as the "Revised 1939 Edition" and a somewhat expanded list that seems to correspond to his "New Hepster's Dictionary" of 1944. The introduction to the "Revised 1939 edition" describes the glossary taken from the original booklet as "containing about two hundred words and expressions employed by the hep cats when they talk their jive, as Harlemese is called on Lenox Avenune. This is nearly twice the number of words included in the original glossary." So this is an indicator of the scope of the dictionary. I have no idea if these are still online on the same sites. But there are others. I just found this one that reproduces the 1944 version of the Hepster's Dictionary: https://dancesafari.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/The-Hepster’s-Dictionary.pdf This article (that I just discovered after googling) also is interesting as it provides a peek into the actual booklet and shows what the 1939 edition really looks like: https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2021/03/04/a-hepsters-dictionary/ I wonder what they paid for their "acquisition" that they describe there. Googling shows there are couple of original copies for sale on various bookseller platforms. But the prices range from $1,000+ to some $3,000!

Yes, worth watching and listening to any time. Particularly since she has also been graced with excellent reissues (and in some cases first-time discoveries) in recent years.

Greg Osby at SFJAZZ next Sunday. Don't know who's playing with him yet.

Late night TMC ( I have a hard time falling asleep) has introduced me to a number of movies from the seventies I never even knew existed, eg, this one, starring Harvey Keitel and Robert DeNiro. Don't follow what the big problem was, except a small debt that wasn't paid and two hours was "paid" explaining that, and a loophole ending, but otherwise, an under-the-radar movie I never heard of beforehand.

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, Cold as Weiss

Grew up in West Palm Beach, Boca specifically, and we would say, 'sup.

Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell Blues Before Sunrise (Columbia)

Gastr Del Sol – "We Have Dozens Of Titles"

A marvelous 2025 production on Jutta Hipp. Very nice. German : Being Hipp - First Lady of European Jazz - Die ganze Doku | ARTE French: Being Hipp : la première dame du jazz européen - Regarder le documentaire complet | ARTE

It must have been a foot or more over here. But things have been cleaned up fairly well. I was out on the roads once. I've seen people playing in the snow! Plenty of school and college closings on Monday.

Wife requested it

Sometimes keeping your "fingers off" is a worthy contribution.

👍Totally agree.

Cannot recommend. These are the daily strips from the 2020-2021 Covid lockdown, and most of them aren't funny. *****