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Trees.

Christmas and car tires. A natural partnership! 😛

The 1982 Art Blakey gig (at "Seventh Avenue South") that was filmed for VHS—with Messengers Wynton, Branford, Bill Pierce, Donald Brown, and Charles Fambrough—contains Branford solos (on alto) that really show (in my interpretation) he'd been listening to the Plugged Nickel recordings. A Wayne influence in Branford's playing here? Agree or disagree! 😁 Walter Davis was in the audience!

I’ve had a very emotional time of late and have been staying away from Mingus, whose music seems to communicate emotion to me–that instinctively seems it would be too much for me now. But maybe not, I saw this on the shelf and wanted to revisit it. This was a powerful period for Mingus music! Charles Mingus “Cornell 1964” Blue Note 2 cd set, disc 1

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I shared the FOMO acronym with a fellow attendee this year and he suggested it should be GOMO. Not fear of missing out but guarantee of missing out. seeing Wild Up perform Julius Eastman's Femenine means missing Ches Smith with Mary Halvorson seeing Pat Metheny means missing William Hooker with Charles Burnham. seeing both means only seeing half of Tyshawn Sorey. Tim Berne or Masada? Marilyn Crispell, Petra Haden or Ned Rothenberg? Jeff Parker, Marc Ribot or Caroline Shaw? Mary Halvorson or Richard Thompson? Dave Dougles with James Brandon Lewis or Chicago Underground Duo? As usual, missed second choices would be a pretty good festival by themselves.

Is it conventional wisdom that Haydn is the progenitor of the string quartet? I know both Mozart and Beethoven admired his writing for quartet. I have scattered recordings of Haydn's string quartets: the Amadeus, Quatuor Mosaïques, Tokyo String Quartet, Keller, and maybe a few others. What recordings are you fond of? I'm particularly interested in checking out Haydn's (seemingly neglected) Op. 50 quartets, which include the quartet nicknamed "The Frog." (I also love the "Seven Last Words" arrangement for quartet.) I don't care whether the instruments are HIP or modern. Recommend away!

Goodyear had a series too

That's interesting, thanks for sharing. It's among my favorite Shorter as well.

I bought this box set a few days before Christmas in 1999. As a result, I weirdly associate the Plugged Nickel recordings with the holiday season. I need to get it out again and re-listen. There's always something new to discover. When I met Branford Marsalis (once after a concert) in 1991, he mentioned that these recordings contained his favorite Wayne Shorter.

I think that there was a film about Bro that included some footage of these sessions, and not just playing?

Agreed. You can really hear when they're responding to what the other is playing. I'll have to keep an eye out for Vol. 2.

I dig this photo of Beirach looking with admiration at Bill Evans.

I just read through the liner notes, and there's no designated listing of personnel. That said, certain players are mentioned. They are: Richard Evans: arranger Cleveland Eaton: cello (!) Dorothy Ashby: harp Phil Upchurch: guitar Bobby Christian: vibes Lenard Druss: flute, English horn Ron Steele: sitar "Uncredited": drums & conga (Note: Druss does spell his first name "Lenard" as opposed to the more common "Leonard.") Full album Claude Thornhill's "Snowfall" is covered.👌 Me too (from those I've heard). My favorite track was Jack Jones on "This Is That Time of The Year," which (if I'm not mistaken) was written expressly for the Firestone release.

When I was a kid, my parents played Mitch Miller & the Gang's "Holiday Sing Along With Mitch" quite a bit. I remember singing along with my family, although singing might not be the right word... more like screaming along with Mitch.

On first listen, I loved it. It was recorded in 2014 and just recently released.

Is there any info about the rhythm section? Cleveland Eaton on bass? Henry Gibson on congas? It is really very nice, but copies go for high prices.

That is Helen Folasade Adu, known as "Sade" in the musical world. One lovely human, English and Nigerian, with quite a voice and great phrasing. (I'm a big fan).

who is the lady ? I like her eyebrows, that´s perfect form, that´s how I have mine also styled.....

I understand that Brubeck was a really nice guy, so it wouldn’t be a surprise at all if he’d taken the gig for fun (too bad she hung up so hastily).

Probably my favorite piece in the set.

The Go Fund Me to help Richie is still live if you feel like helping him: https://www.gofundme.com/f/coming-together-for-the-great-jazz-pianist-richie-beirach