Justin V

Aa Tyler Blanton - Sense of Place, with Jon Cowherd, Drew Gress and Johnathan Blake.

Phil Wright - Feeling Wright: A thread about Buster Cooper and Thurman Green's wonderful E-bone-ix led me to pull it out for a couple of spins and order this album by the date's pianist. The seller's description said that the booklet had writing that said 'My Husband and Gloria Hearry?' on it. Upon receiving it, a Google search revealed that the signature was that of Bond girl Gloria Hendry, Wright's wife! Pretty cool.

This reminded me to listen to John Tchicai's last recording by this Garrison Fewell group. With Roy Campbell, Jr., Steve Swell, Dmitry Ishenko and Reggie Nicholson rounding out the band, it's an album many here would enjoy. I was part of the Kickstarter for it and have a notecard signed by the band (minus Campbell). When the official release date got pushed back, Fewell made a nice CD-R edition to send Kickstarter backers. He and Campbell left us not too long after Tchicai passed away.

I confess that I never can decide whether your Organissimo persona is an elaborately crafted, consistently in-character troll job or this is really how you are. At any rate, please keep your goofy conspiracy BS to yourself.

What is the point of asking about Chinese restaurants in particular? Are they useful in gauging the overall health of the restaurant industry? Or, are you interested in whether the harassment of Asian Americans because of the virus is affecting Chinese restaurants? There was a disturbing NYT article recently about the disgusting trend. We ate at a vegan Asian place two weeks ago when we didn't want to face the crowd of hoarders during the dinner rush at the grocery store. We rarely eat out, though. The restaurant announced the next day that they'd be doing takeout only before deciding to sell out of their current stock and temporarily (I hope!) close. My favorite coffee shop/roaster appears to still be open. I was last there two weeks ago and they were handling the dispensing of milk as well as simple syrup for cold drinks. For hot drinks, they were handing out paper cups with sugar and telling people to throw out what they didn't use. I had already cut down from weekly trips to a trip every 6 weeks or so when I would grab a bag of beans. I'll now be drinking a coffee I order from Amazon until the dust settles, whenever that is.

The Smokin' at the Half Note tracks. I've been thinking about Jimmy Cobb since the fundraiser for him launched. I picked this up for the long alternate take of 'Four on Six' that is not on the Verve Master Edition. Surprisingly, it is also not on the complete Verve box. It is sobering to think that Wes died at 45, Wynton Kelly at 39 and Paul Chambers at 33.

I've been worried about older jazz musicians during the pandemic. I have a couple of his instructional books and dealt with him once during my AAJ tenure. Rest in peace, Mr. Longo.

Disc 1: I ripped this yesterday after having not listened to it for years.

I was lucky enough to have seen McCoy Tyner twice. The first time was with Savion Glover appearing alongside Tyner's trio of Gerald Cannon and Francisco Mela. The second time was with Terence Blanchard guesting with the same trio. Although Tyner appeared frail and was forgetful, he played with such power and joy. To hear him play 'Walk Spirit, Talk Spirit' live was something else. I missed two other opportunities to see him. Once was with Roy Haynes, Ron Carter and Wallace Roney due to a family engagement. The other was with Gary Bartz in the band because of a reason I can't remember. I'll always wish that I could've attended both concerts. I haven't spent as much time with Tyner's leader dates as I should have, so I've been listening to some during the last couple of weeks. Having once seen a Tyner tribute by a pianist who confused volume for power, it made me think of how driving and intense Tyner could play without going overboard. Thank you for the music, Mr. Tyner, and rest in peace.

Disc 2: This is a set that I hadn't spent much time with until last year when I picked up the Pres Verve box and the old Basie Decca box (finally!). It us becoming one of my favorite Mosaics. 'I Left My Baby' is desert-island material.

From the bonus material, to the liner notes, to the remastering, Smithsonian Folkways hit this reissue out of the park.

Kicking off the Saturday with this hard-swinging gem.

Disc 3

Freddie Redd - Everybody Loves a Winner: This is the album that kicked off a Redd spree last year. The alto player, Curtis Peagler, was new to me and is joined in the potent horn section by Teddy Edwards and Phil Ranelin. Trombone instead of trumpet to round out the sextet was an inspired choice, especially when Ranelin is the trombonist.

I went on a bit of a Freddie Redd kick last year and will be spinning some more of his albums soon. I'm not sure what he is up to these days, but I hope he is doing well.

Disc 2: I'm working on ripping my Mosaics to FLAC. Many have at least been ripped to mp3 and uploaded to my Google Play library, but this one hadn't. Considering most of my listening consists of streaming with Google Play, I'll be able to listen to this and other sets more often.

I heartily recommend Bass by Pettiford/Burke. It was a smart decision by someone to pair those two sessions together for reissue. Otherwise, that Burke session might have been unjustly forgotten. The Burke session sounds ahead of its time. I also enjoy The Swinging Guitar of Tal Farlow.

Disc 1

Disc 1: One of my favorite Mosaics.

Disc 1: I bought this 5 years ago for a whopping $7.74 because the box was dented. It has since gone OOP. I don't think I ever made it through the whole set, so I am starting from scratch.

Okay, so we had several pages of worthwhile, rule-abiding discussion on the COVID-19 thread. Along came some posters to derail it with overtly political discussion. Why close the thread when the more sensible solution would have been to delete the offending posts and warn the offending posters? Having been a forum moderator for years, I understand that it is a thankless task. However, the broader community shouldn't be deprived of an opportunity to discuss their experiences because of a few errant posts.