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Dave McKenna - Solo Piano (Chiaroscuro, 1973)

I have never heard a live version by the Classic Quartet performing this great piece. It may be may be my favorite Coltrane piece ever, and that's saying something. As most of you know, on the studio version Roy Haynes was the drummer--and his performance IMO is perfect. I am wondering how Elvin would have handled it, or did handle it. Elvin does play drums on the album After the Rain by John McLaughlin, including the title piece as the final number. One can say it is vintage Elvin, but it does seem a bit heavy for this particular piece. Anyway, I'm just a bit curious.

Nicholas Payton, Bob Belden, Sam Yahel, John Hart, Billy Drummond, Mysterious Shorter (Chesky)

what the tariff on imports from France will be in about a month, I wouldn't dare to predict... but I would expect that amazon finds ways of delivering stuff even if the local postal services don't do it... for instance, as far as I know, UPS is still available... but, yes, of course, it could happen that they cancel a preorder if the delivery option you chose ceases to exist...

Ran Blake: That Certain Feeling. Guests: Ricky Ford & Steve Lacy. hat ART CD 6077 [Switzerland 1991]

Anyone know how this would affect an order from Amazon France? (I’m eyeing a new release David Bowie box that ships in about a month, which seems to be dramatically cheaper from Amazon France specifically for some odd reason.)

Fall may be on the horizon, it was a beautiful clear cool night last night, I slept well and, for me, late. Starting off with this bootleg of rehearsals, I love hearing Jerry here. BOB DYLAN & THE GRATEFUL DEAD “COME DOWN TO THAT OLD JAIL CELL” disc 3

August 25 Günter 'Baby' Sommer - 1943

👍 - as re-issued LP by Fresh Sound Records on my shelf ...

i know you people buy alot of stuff from europe. https://apnews.com/article/us-tariffs-goods-services-suspension-85c7b36b9e92c0e640dfe2ac418cd907 ... On Saturday, postal services around Europe announced that they are suspending the shipment of many packages to the United States amid confusion over new import duties. Postal services in Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Italy said they will stop shipping most merchandise to the U.S. effective immediately. France and Austria will follow on Monday. The U.K.'s Royal Mail said it would halt shipments to the U.S. on Tuesday to allow time for those packages to arrive before duties kick in. ...

Episode 45 https://artpepper.bandcamp.com/track/straight-life-episode-forty-five-2

Mike Clark Delivers A Multifaceted But Always Groove-Anchored Array on "Itai Doshin," Releasing October 3 on Wide Hive Records Album Is a Collection of Standards, Covers, Clark Originals, & A Collective Improvisation Performed by a Select Quintet Featuring Eddie Henderson, Craig Handy, Patrice Rushen, Henry Franklin CD Release Shows at SFJAZZ, San Francisco, 10/4-5, & Kuumbwa Jazz, Santa Cruz, 10/6   August 21, 2025 As ever, drummer Mike Clark refuses to conform to anyone’s expectations on Itai Doshin, set to release October 3—the leader’s 79th birthday—on Wide Hive Records. The celebrated Californian’s second Wide Hive album is a searing set of (mostly) straightahead jazz that keeps listeners guessing even as it never wavers from Clark’s solid, unerring sense of swing. Joining Clark for the festivities is a true all-star quintet that includes trumpeter and NEA Jazz Master Eddie Henderson, tenor saxophonist Craig Handy, pianist Patrice Rushen, and bassist Henry “The Skipper” Franklin. The title of Itai Doshin translates from Japanese to “many in body, one in mind”: a state in which a group of people share a mental and spiritual unity. Technically it’s a concept in Nichiren Buddhism, but it’s very much like what jazz musicians call “in the pocket.” Regardless of what you call it, Clark and the band are unquestionably in that state on the album, converging on a shared groove that they pass back and forth amongst each other in their improvised solos. That’s no accident. All of the players are not only virtuosos in their own rights, but seasoned veterans whom Clark has known and worked with for years. “Itai Doshin accurately and honestly captures where I am as a jazz artist at this point,” says Clark. “The artists I have chosen to play on this date, along with the arrangements of Towner Galaher, brought my musical vision to life. I have played jazz with Eddie Henderson most of my life. I first recorded with Patrice at the beginning of my recording career, at the Hyde Street Studio where we also recorded Itai Doshin. She always brings her ‘A’ game! Craig Handy, also a Herbie Hancock alumnus, is one of my brothers from Oakland who like myself is a New York transplant. He is one of our greatest voices on tenor! Henry ‘The Skipper’ Franklin, a legend who I have made many gigs with, was my first choice on bass. As a Buddhist bandleader, I can say that this band delivers Actual Proof!” Produced by Wide Hive’s Gregory Howe, arranged by drummer Towner Galaher, and bookended by two hard-driving takes on Thelonious Monk’s “Epistrophy” (an unofficial theme song for Clark), the album is full of the kind of surprises that will keep even the most jaded listener on their toes. From a rare and tender ballad rendition of Ray Noble’s “Cherokee” (with a gorgeous Franklin solo) to a Fender Rhodes-driven, deep-fried soul treatment of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” to Clark’s own jump-blues swinger “Yakini’s Dance” that’s highlighted by rollicking Henderson and Rushen lines, Itai Doshin consistently shows that Clark and his cohorts can take the music anywhere and everywhere, achieving highly successful results every time. That even includes a free-jazz workout, “Savant Clark”: an unheralded bit of abstraction that strays from expectations for a dyed-in-the-wool groover like Clark. But of course, any jazz musician worth his salt has to be ready for anything, especially if that musician came up through a band as hip, shapeshifting, and unpredictable as Herbie Hancock’s electro-funk outfit Headhunters, as Clark did. Moreover, the piece has a rhythmic propulsion of its own, riding on snare-drum waves that the leader pushes forward with kicks and cymbals. Clark is game for anything on Itai Doshin—and the album makes listeners game for anything too. Mike Clark was born October 3, 1946 in the postwar boomtown of Sacramento, California. His father, George, was a railroad switchman and union representative who was also a jazz drummer. The elder Clark bought a kit for his son and was stunned when he heard the four-year-old play a perfect Gene Krupa lick. Before he attended school, Clark was sitting in with bands around Sacramento—and then in Texas, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and New Orleans as he accompanied his father on job assignments. By the time he graduated high school and moved to Oakland, where he lived with bassist and best friend Paul Jackson, Clark was working seven nights a week. He and Jackson were something of a house rhythm section at San Francisco’s Both/And Club, and Clark made his first recordings with Bay Area pianist Vince Guaraldi. However, the turning point in his career came in 1973, when Jackson won the bass chair in keyboard star Herbie Hancock’s funk-fusion ensemble Headhunters—and original drummer Harvey Mason left shortly thereafter. Clark took over behind the kit, traveling the world with the Headhunters and with Hancock as a solo artist, earning his credentials as a hard-edged funk drummer (with no shortage of swing, R&B, and freeform improvisation inserted into the mix). But Clark was never content in so wide-ranging a box. He spent the nearly 50 years after the Headhunters’ heyday freelancing with a panoply of jazz and adjacent musicians, including Tony Bennett, Eddie Henderson, Dave Liebman, Babatunde Olatunji, Chet Baker, Julius Hemphill, Andrew Hill, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Christian McBride, among countless others. He recorded his own debut as a leader, Give the Drummer Some, in 1989, going on to record nearly two dozen more times as a leader or co-leader and receiving near-universal acclaim for his work. CD release shows with the Itai Doshin band (with Essiet Essiet subbing for Franklin) are planned at SFJAZZ, San Francisco, Sat. 10/4 and Sun. 10/5, and at Kuumbwa Jazz, Santa Cruz, Mon. 10/6. Band photo, l. to r.: Eddie Henderson, Henry Franklin, Mike Clark, Patrice Rushen (by Gregory Howe).      Mike Clark Website  

I suppose every baseball fan here has already read this at least once.

Original LP

As much as I like Andrew’s music — if I’m being honest, it’s really probably more that I really love rediscovering Andrew’s recordings — WHICH, nearly every time I listen to them (whether it’s been a couple of months, or a year since I’ve listened to a particular album), it’s almost like hearing most of them for the very first time. Not exactly, and less so for Black Fire (which I’ve probably heard the most often) — but for practically all of the rest Andrew’s catalog, it’s a little almost like don’t know these recordings, no matter how many times I’ve heard them before. They’re (almost) always ‘new’ to me — or hearing them is more like hearing them for the first time, to a degree unlike nearly anything else in the entire Blue Note catalog. I might (almost) love most of Andrew’s BN output — but what I really love is how they’ve kept me guessing with their unpredictability, for 30 years this year. I got the Hill Mosaic big-box in 1995, my second-only Mosaic purchase, which I really only got because of all the sidemen on it — and I’d only ever heard Point of Departure before that, and didn’t really know what to make of it, neither loving nor hating it back then. And it also took me a solid 5 years(!) to even half-digest the Hill big box. All that said, I also don’t see him as some monumental jazz ‘auteur’. Every musician I’ve ever talked to who played with Hill for any length of time has described some experience similar to having questions (lots of questions) for Hill about what to do here, or the meaning of vague charts (to put it charitably) — nearly every time, Hill’s reply was a quiet/tepid “what do you think? He seemed like the LEAST assertive ‘leader’ in all of jazz. And yet, one could perhaps argue Hill’s actual approach wasn’t all that different than Miles — hire great and creative sidemen, and leverage their strengths. (And Hill probably did arguably ‘write’ more in his process, than Miles did in his.) Anyway, I love Hill’s Hill’s BN’s — but largely because of the way they seem to almost force “continual rediscovery” — at least in my case.

Original LP

The weekend bottle was: Feudi del Duca, Fiano, Puglia, Italy 2022

Now spinning: Milt Jackson - Second Nature: The Savoy Sessions (Savoy/Arista, 2 LPs, rec. 1956) with Lucky Thompson

In the afternoon: ...and now:

👍

I wish there was a like button, there's so much goodness in this thread.