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It's that time of year ... anyone? Bueller? I have a couple that are definitely do-able. 1. I may be down 90 pounds in 18 months but the progress stopped dead, more or less, for the last six months. Very frustrating because the waist size is not yet acceptable and I would like to reach the point where I feel I can slack off occasionally and not sweat eating things I like again. I'll be happy to get to 175, happier at 170 with a ceiling of 175. So 10-15 pounds. 2. Percy France - more regular uploads, update the website, and most importantly, write and get published a profile. Hot House and The Syncopated Times have expressed interest. I may ask Jazz Times too. Now to put together all the info including bits and pieces from different interviews that Phil Schaap gifted the world. And more generally: More time for reading, less time for TV unless it's catching up on some DVDs that sit on the shelves. How's about you?

Thanks for sharing the stories behind these choices!

I've been working with Claude Code for the past several weeks and feel it's improved markedly from earlier iterations. My task today (yes I've been up since 3am) was to improve the UI/UX of an HR tracking spreadsheet. It did amazingly well once I provided a list of skills that it needs to follow. Skills are a set of instructions or rules that AI needs for context. The output is a nice file that is easy to maintain over time. There are instructions, dimension tables to help populate cells, error warnings, color coding, lookup features and more. The final output is in a format that can easily be ingested into Power BI (a report building tool) with little transformation and simple DAX. My next task for AI is for it to build out the Power BI report using images for the visual layout. AI will create the DAX measures, implement appropriate visuals that align to the layout and format user interactions. Wish me luck, I hope to have a working version before Monday. I am not a developer but to pull this off AI used python, panda, and VBA to create the spreadsheet. Vibe coding with iterations has arrived.

I think those records he did with Bola Sete could be better known. Even Guaraldi fans rarely seem to speak about them. The first is particularly strong.

Georghe, I confess I know NOTHING of clubs and the night life. . .35 years ago I quit smoking, and as a result had to at least temporarily stop drinking alcohol and going out at night after marrying and ceasing playing drums in bands. It worked really well, and I just continued these "bans" and they became habit, and the money I would have spent on cigarettes and alcohol and going out I spent on audio and musical instrument and equipment, and recordings. So. . . it seems that this would be a good example of a record to use, but I just don't know the audience and environment. As for Monk, he was under contract with Riverside at the time of this release and then Columbia shortly after, and I think that European tours were more lucrative for Monk (and thus the label) than work in the US available to him at the time, and so it was pursued year after year. Many were broadcast, and as there were both radio station tapes and audience recorded tapes they made the rounds of collectors and often became bootlegged. What we have been seeing in the recent past are that especially the radio station tapes or tapes being made in clubs somewhat professionally are being released on LP and cd, mostly "authorized." So now there are better quality recordings of some long bootlegged items.

Just an incredible record, from jacket to the music, still blows me away.

Fantastic! Huge Peanuts fan, and Vince Guaraldi defined my upbringing, even though my parents didn't get it at the time. One of my all time favorites:

I want to start the new year with Duke: Excellent!!

Teo Macero With The Prestige Jazz Quartet: Teo. Original Jazz Classics Limited Edition Series OJCCD-1715-2 [US 1992]

👍

Weird, think it's a statue, but maybe his wife, Moci, but not to get to weird about it, she was white, so I don't know. Nenah did say this in the chapter about her dad, where she thought this album sleeve embodied everything about jazz to her; she really dug her dad in shades in this picture...I do too:

Wow. For reals, cool as fluffin' fluf, that record especially you show there, cost an arm and maybe a leg! Meanwhile, I totally forgot I owned this! Like I forgot!?!

Yeah!

It’s a great record Gheorghe. Highly recommended. The band with Harper, Bridgewater and Workman captured live in a very powerful performance.

I dig. 😁 NP: 'cause Christmas ain't over here yet.

I had no idea he recorded that much for the Peanuts gang.

1 – “Ordinary Joe” by Terry Callier, from the album ‘Occasional Rain’, Cadet Records, 1972. Callier and this song became legends on the British Northern soul circuit, and were widely championed by Beth Orton when she had her breakthrough in the late 90’s. Great production by Charles Stepney. For years I’ve wanted to start one of my BFT’s with this cut’s opening lyrics, and 2025 seemed utterly appropriate for that: “And for my opening line I might try to indicate my state of mind”. 2 – “Sunrise Sunset” by the Bob Thiele Collective, from the album “Sunrise Sunset”, Red Baron Records, 1991. I run hot and cold on Murray, who does too many ill-conceived projects, but he shines when in a quartet setting with John Hicks, and Cecil McBee and Andrew Cyrille are a great way to finish out the ensemble. And I’ve always loved the song, from ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ one of the two best musical scores IMO (the other is West Side Story). 3 – “Prayer for Peace” by Stanley Cowell, from the album ‘Musa: Ancestral Streams’, Strata-East Records, 1974. One of the greatest solo piano albums, reissued in 2025 by Mack Avenue. And be sure to buy the downloads of the excellent outtakes (not available on the physical releases, which in the case of the CD is egregious). 4 – “Make No Mistake” by John Martyn, from the album ‘Live at Leeds’, Island Records, 1975. Amazing bass playing by Danny Thompson. Martyn is an acquired taste, but at his best is stunning if you “get” him. 5 – “Singing Winds, Crying Beasts” by Santana, from the album ‘Abraxas’, 1970, Columbia records. This is the opening cut to the album, leads beautifully into the classic “Black Magic Womam/Gypsy Queen”. This album topped the USA pop album charts for six weeks - we lived in a different musical world then. Cut shows the group’s instrumental chops, and that Carlos was far from being the whole show. 6 – “Bumpin’ on Sunset” by Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express, from the album ‘Live at the Baked Potato’, 2005, Ghostown Records. Brian Auger on keyboards (it’s a live album, only one keyboard player), Auger’s daughter Savannah Grace on vocals and his son Karma on drums and vocals. This track was generally not well-received on the BFT, but I listen to it frequently while cleaning up the kitchen, it sets a mood for me. 7 – “Strauss” by the Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble, from the album “Le-Le”. 1987, Silk Skin Records. Long-running local Philadelphia group (I saw them live post-Covid) led by bassist Warren Oree. They are authentic, honest musicians spreading the love. 8 – “Little Sunflower” by Johnny Lyte, from the album ‘Happy Ground’, Muse Records, 1991. A nice take on the beautiful Freddie Hubbard composition. Houston Person and Melvin Sparks are along for the ride. 9 – “Soul Brother” by Hannibal Marvin Peterson from the album ‘Hannibal’. MPS Records, 1975. Amazing energy by Peterson, with Diedre Murray on cello and a fabulous rhythm section of Michael Cochrane, Stafford James, and Michael Carvin. Many people really enjoyed this cut. 10 – “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” by Horace Parlan, from the album ‘Blue Parlan’, Steeplechase Records, 1979. Lovely take on the Mingus classic, with Dannie Richmond on drums and the undersung Wilbur Little on bass. Parlan was the pianist and Richmond the drummer on the original recording of this on 1959’s incredible ‘Mingus Ah Um’, so Parlan had lived with the composition for two decades when this was recorded, and you can hear that intimacy. 11 – “Someday We’ll All Be Free” by Alicia Keys, from the album “America: A Tribute to Heroes’, 2001, Interscope Records. The beloved Donny Hathaway song. Keys was 20 when she recorded this, fresh off her first album, just her alone at the piano in a sequestered studio, in a concert being broadcast to 50,000,000+ people, ten days after 9/11, reaching out to a still-stunned nation. It was an amazing, healing night in many ways. In an event that included Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Tom Petty, and Neil Young among many others, the artists who shockingly moved me the most were Keys, Faith Hill, and Bon Jovi, and I would tell you that otherwise I don’t care for any of those three, but they were somehow transcendent that night. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8l2OO6xxIc&list=RDp8l2OO6xxIc&start_radio=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xp6ZrilmNk&list=RD-Xp6ZrilmNk&start_radio=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5Xyl3lxJv0&list=RDr5Xyl3lxJv0&start_radio=1 Thanks to all who participated in BFT 261, and have a blessed 2026.

This is excellent. This is weirder but I like it.

Usually I don´t buy straight ahead jazz any more, I mean the old bop stuff I´m thru with that, BUT one exception was Dizzy´s Sonny Side Up" since I saw a Deluxe Edition of it at the only record shop we have left in my neighbourhood, and since someone had said once that it sounds good, I bought it.

Me too 🤣Freedom Jazz Dance and Gingerbread Boy *lol* But I think I can remember I once played in a funk band and they did "Freedom Jazz Dance" in their way. I loved to play with them and loved to play this tune.

Gee that´s a good idea THANK YOU FOR MENTIONING IT !!! My sister has a small jazz club, and always needs some records that is good, when there is not live music. And for late nights those ole hard bop records are good. I recommended to her "Mobley Soul Station", and Jimmy Smith "Sermon" .....so this Kenny Burrell at Five Spot might fit in that club, what´s your opinion ? Interesting, I never saw that record. I think I have only one record from Keystone Korner and it is a Blakey record. I love Monk with Rouse but it´s hard to identify the records I think there was a lot of live records but some I think was bootleg. I don´´t know what label he was under contract, but it´s strange there are Monk records from almost every European Country and all of then in that narrow interval of the 60´s . Same with Mingus. I think there are dozens of records of the same tunes, but one let´s say in Germany, one lets say in Italy or France.....that´s hard to choose any of them

I never did see that thread. Someone mentioned "Willisau" I remember that Festival ! Did this label or any other label record Mingus´ performance in Willisau ? It might have been in the second half of the 70´s, I still didn´t have a driving licence, was maybe 16 years old and some older hippies took me there that´s how I went to see foreign festivals. Now, did that Label Hat Hut record that ? I think it would be a milestone in jazz history