BillF

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/feb/22/dust-and-grooves-eilon-paz-vinyl-record-collectors

The Swingshift Big Band featuring Pete Cater on drums at Wigan Jazz Club this afternoon.

I certainly can speak for the Harriott biog. Just a few weeks till this: http://www.equinoxpub.com/home/long-shadow-little-giant-life-work-legacy-tubby-hayes-simon-spillett/ And Clark Tracey told me he's writing a biog of his Dad!

Happy Birthday, Hans!

Muriel Spark Flash Gordon Brenda Short

Will o' the Wisp Will O'Patten China Boy

Robert Graves The Bury Jazz Society Inter Milan

Also in the Jazz Masters series, Martin Williams' "Jazz Masters of New Orleans" and Richard Hadlock's "Jazz Masters of the Twenties." Could it be that the "Jazz Masters of the 40s" volume by Ira Gitler is being given short shrift here? Why? I may be biased because this was the first I read from that series (haven't read all of them yet anyway) and this was in my "formative years" so it had an impact but at any rate I Iike to revisit it from time to time, even though some of its findings may not reflect the latest state of the art anymore.B Jazz Masters of the Forties has a hallowed place on my bookshelf, as to to a lesser extent, does ...of the Fifties. As you say, they do date from my "formative years".

Lady Bird Our Delight The Squirrel

Happy Birthday, John and good listening!

Also in the Jazz Masters series, Martin Williams' "Jazz Masters of New Orleans" and Richard Hadlock's "Jazz Masters of the Twenties." For all its virtues, there are some significant problems with Gunther's "The Swing Era." For one thing, he doesn't get Tatum. For another, too often he pretends to an omniscience that he doesn't possess. Yes, no one does when dealing with that much material, but Gunther either doesn't know or won't admit that he doesn't know some things. And don't forget Martin Williams' "The Jazz Tradition," Brian Priestley's "Mingus," John Litweiler's heroic "The Freedom Principle," and "The Otis Ferguson Reader" (if you can find a copy). About Kelley's Monk book, it was conscientious about factual detail, but I seldom if ever had the feeling that Kelley had much sense of what made Monk's music special. A witty and wise autobiography for anyone who is interested in British jazz is Bruce Turner's "Hot Air, Cool Music." Also excellent on British jazz (with lots of American connections) is:

Beefy Botham Porky Freeman Corky Hale

Andromache Marvin the Paranoid Android Starvin' Marvin

A third vote for that one!

I ended up not liking this very much. I did like the first "The Present" section but that was about it. It's hard to pinpoint exactly the problem, but really much ado about a fairly pedestrian affair and a number of high-strung characters that didn't seem particularly believable. Anyway, I am starting Elizabeth Taylor's A Game of Hide and Seek today. Both my wife and I foundered somewhere after the first section of The House in Paris. The good news is that I found A Game of Hide and Seek moving and memorable.

As this has now turned into a recommended books thread, I'll put forward this fairly recent item, although the subtitle should perhaps have been "The Man Who Used Jazz to Make Money" :-)

Satin Doll Silkwood Queen's Counsel

The Adderleys E I Addio Michael Winner

Veteran British bassist Len Skeat at Wilmslow this evening.

Damn! Branson and Boris passed over! http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/feb/16/five-britons-among-100-would-be-astronauts-shortlisted-for-mars-mission

Dick Oatts Peetie Wheatstraw Roger B Chaffee

Dick Hampton Robert Holmes a Court Maisie

Grange Rutan's Death of a Bebop Wife was in many ways a frustrating read, as I'd expected a properly conceived biography of Al Haig. It is, in fact, several hundred pages of undigested verbatim reminiscences and published comments on Haig arranged in scores of separate sections. Rutan, a former Haig wife, spent years assembling this data, but in my view never manged to make a book of it. That said, I was interested enough in Haig to plough through all of it.