BillF

Al Capone Andy Capp Chuck Berry

Harris's book must have been really ancient history by the time you got to it! I read it in 1957 at the age of 17 and spent a few months as a "jazz purist". His extraordinary message seemed to be that if a band hadn't got a banjo in it, it was no longer jazz and that Ellington ceased to play jazz when he added saxophones in the late 20s!!! Fortunately, Bird, Diz, Monk and Miles blasted me out of that way of thinking when I was 18. I think Charlie Parker got about half a paragraph in that book. Fortunately, I cottoned onto the omission pretty quickly. I now realise we were at cross purposes. The book I read was Harris's Jazz (1952) which got nowhere near Charlie Parker, limiting as it did the description "jazz" to New Orleans/traditional/dixieland. I think you must have read his Enjoying Jazz (1960), by which time he'd hopefully mellowed a little.

Mouse Randolph The Mouse That Roared Maus Mickey Rooney Wayne Rooney

But can you find things when you look along the shelves? I find the labelled "spines" of the jewel cases indispensable. I have a number of CD-Rs in slimline cases without visible titles on the spines and tend to pass these by when I should be aware of them. However, I speak as someone with fewer than 1,000 items.

Harris's book must have been really ancient history by the time you got to it! I read it in 1957 at the age of 17 and spent a few months as a "jazz purist". His extraordinary message seemed to be that if a band hadn't got a banjo in it, it was no longer jazz and that Ellington ceased to play jazz when he added saxophones in the late 20s!!! Fortunately, Bird, Diz, Monk and Miles blasted me out of that way of thinking when I was 18.

Lady Heavy Bottom Carel Weight Prunella Scales

Happy Birthday!

Dustin Hoffman Powell and Pressburger

Many years ago I heard a Mahalia Jackson live recording where someone shouts, "Sing it 'Halia, sing it now!" My recollections of this are vague. Perhaps someone knows the record?

Mick Pyne Gabriel Oak Doug Sandle

Cue Porter Snooker Young Tommy Potter

IMHO Maiden Voyage is a classic and one of Blue Note's very best albums. I bought it on its release and heard the tune played live when Freddie Hubbard toured here with the Ronnie Scott Quartet not long after the recording. I saw Herbie play it at the time of his mass popular appeal when I went to see him with what seemed like a rock group. Fortunately, his massive barrage of speakers failed and to my delight and the obvious disappointment of his youthful fans he filled in with a very extended version of "Maiden Voyage" on solo electric piano!

John Fedchock NY Sextet at Small's on February 27th 2009 John Fedchock (tbn) Tom Christiansen (tnr) Scott Wendholt (tpt) Allen Farnham (pno) Ugonna Okegwo (bs) Dave Ratajczak (dms) http://www.smallsjazzclub.com/index.cfm?eventId=1376

Ken Colyer Trudy Pitts John Shaft

Or "Ah, Mr Jelly!" from Morton in his piano solo break in "Smokehouse Blues"

Let's not forget the Eddie Condon wit. At the beginning of the recording of "Jam Session Blues/Ole Miss" he gives instructions to "those of you who don't read at sight", producing chortles in the ranks, addresses the all-male band as "girls" and says "let's try to make this as respectable as possible". Somewhere on the same album, when the recording engineer calls the number of the take, he instantly replies, "Wrong number, call back later!"

Daniel Cohn-Bendit Fanny Blankers-Koen Lee Konitz

Ireland long continued as a priest-ridden culture, as was shown in this classic film documentary from 1967: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Road_to_Dublin_(film)

There's so much of this sort on the Van Gelder recordings of Miles in the 50s. You'll be able to tell me where these are from: "Man, I don't know where to come in" "Where's the beer opener?" "Block chords, Red" "Hey Rudy, leave this on the record - all of it!"

I saw this band around the time of this recording at Sweet Basil in NYC and they were great. I recall that we went because one of my wife's friends, a female ophthalmologist, knowing that I'm into jazz asked me a few days before the gig if I "ever heard of Art Blakey". As I educated her as to Blakey's importance, she told me that Blakey had just that week come to her office for an eye checkup and he told her what he did for a living when she inquired that of him. So I then suggested that we double that coming weekend and check him out at Sweet Basil. Between sets, Blakey stopped at our table for some brief pleasantries when he recognized the ophthalmologist he had recently visited. Needless to say, she was thrilled particularly as there was so much "electricity" in the club that evening in terms of the audience responsiveness to the music, and I must confess I was somewhat thrilled as well, jaded as I am. Nice memory. Nice story!

UMIST http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMIST U Thant You

Donna Tartt Cake Walking Babies Junior Cookie

On Jimmy Yancey's "Death Letter Blues", just before he begins to sing with his solo piano he mutters, "Wrong key I'm in"

More tragic is the cry of "Go!" behind the stricken Bird as he fails to get it together on "Bebop" from the 1946 "Lover Man" session. (Good thread, Jeff)