Debra

Jim, That sounds like fun, having some drinks and letting you play Rambling DJ. What do you mean that you stray freely, gladly and wildly? I am probably picturing it not the way that you mean.

I have it. It is rather minimal as to the amount of sound being produced. It is not a rousing, rollicking good timey album, to be sure.

I have listened to a fair amount of both group's recordings, and saw both of them live. I don't see the connection. I wonder if it is wishful thinking.

I agree with Thom about your post, Mr. Sangry. I also wanted to say that since I first started on Organissimo, I have read as many of your posts as possible. I did not know that there was such a well-informed, insightful writer on jazz active today.

Has the Grammys show ever been worth watching? Even once, ever?

There are three sellers on ebay selling it for under $20.

It's good.

Cold cover artwork Some albums very boring Leads to mixed rep now

Another cliche which I find tiresome is to include a list of the band leaders with whom the musician has played in the past, instead of any information about the music actually played by the musician. Here is a made up example: "Joe Doakes, one of today's most exciting jazz ocarina players, delighted a crowd of nearly 20 delirious listeners at the Poplar Room Saturday night. Joe, who has played with Clark Terry, Benny Golson, Ahmad Jamal, Sonny Stitt, Sarah Vaughan, Frank Sinatra, Archie Shepp, Stan Getz, Gary Burton, Al DiMeola, Mel Torme, Jane Monheit and Wynton Marsalis, was joined on piano by the legendary Art Plutkin. Art, who has played with Art Pepper, Hubert Laws, Maynard Ferguson, Max Roach, Betty Carter, Frank Zappa and Stanley Clarke, was featured on acoustic piano and slide whistle. Following the set, Joe credited his tasty, swinging, accessible, Mobleyesque ocarina stylings to the training he received in his high school jazz band, led by the legendary Colonel Walter Frimpett (whose bands over the years at North South High have included Earl Hines, Coleman Hawkins, Gene Ammons, Wilbur Ware, Tommy Turrentine and George Duke). 'Colonel Frimpett, he told us to never lose sight of the melody, never take your eye off of the tune. I have kept his words in my heart all these years,' said Doakes with a beaming smile."

I had mentioned in an earlier post that we are fortunate to have B.B. King's earlier albums reissued by Ace. If you had to pick one to start, this is the one I would recommend: If you have not heard B.B. King as a young man, I suspect that this CD will be something of a revelation.

I thought of a more recent album: "Blues Come Home To Roost", by Super Chikan (James Johnson). I find the material to be very strong and engaging. Also, Son Seals' "Midnight Son" is one I should have originally mentioned.

I have an excellent compilation on CD of Reed's Vee Jay recordings, released on the Charly label, but it is out of print. You are right, Jimmy Reed should be mentioned. I don't know what is in print and a good starting point.

I intend to get familiar with it as soon as possible, after reading the artists and songs on the cover!

If you can't dance, and everyone is going to be looking at you dance, any extremely slow romantic song will do. You want to be able to just stand there, shuffle your feet a tiny bit, and gaze into your partner's eyes with rapture. That will be acceptable to everyone. The slower the song, the better. Wikipedia under "Dirges" might be a source.

Great list. Buddy Guy's "D.J. Play My Blues" is an inspired choice. Earl Hooker is someone who I just forgot when I made my list. I enjoyed a recent magazine interview with Charlie Musselwhite in which he explained that when he was a young, up and coming blues musician in Chicago, he was very impressed with a great guitar player known to the other Chicago blues greats as Zeb. Years passed before he learned that Zeb was Earl Hooker. In a similar way, he thought that a guy known to the other musicians as Shakey was a great harmonica player. At some point he learned that Shakey was Big Walter Horton, who became his good friend and mentor.

Third, except that I'd hesitate to list the Otis Rush Cobra recordings as highly. Iirc, he kept rehashing the same music with different lyrics, and I believe there are a few alternates as well. I mean, I love his music but its not a little repetitive after a while. To each their own. This is all a matter of taste. To me the Otis Rush Cobra recordings are seminal electric blues recordings. He revived and rehashed those songs many times in later years, not always with inspired results. I selected the two Otis Rush albums I put on the list with some care, for that reason.

Great suggestions. I have the T Bone Walker Mosaic box set. I do not know if there is a good smaller collection of his earlier work. His "T Bone Blues" album on Atlantic, from the late 1950s, is another one I should have put on my list. The B.B. King Ace reissues are fantastic. We are lucky that they are in print now. You can't go wrong there. I have not been able to figure out how to get a really great John Lee Hooker collection in just a few discs. His career was so long, and he recorded so much good stuff at various junctures. I have a lot of his LPs and CDs, which do not help a beginner. Does anyone have any suggestions there? Johnny Guitar Watson's "Three Hours Past Midnight", a collection of his 1950s work, is another one I should have put on my list.

Hopefully I am not violating some board protocol by recommending that you visit the Blindman's Blues Forum board. There are many knowledgeable blues lovers there and many excellent recommendations. Here are some obvious choices which come to my mind: Muddy Waters--Chess box Howlin' Wolf--Chess box Willie Dixon--Chess box Otis Rush--So Many Roads Otis Rush--Essential Collection: The Classic Cobra Recordings Albert King--King of the Blues Guitar, or Born Under A Bad Sign (both albums have many of the same recordings) Freddy King--Very Best of Vols. 1, 2 and 3; or if you want to start with just one CD, Hide Away: The Best of Freddy King Elmore James--The Sky is Crying: A History of Elmore James Albert Collins--Ice Pickin' Johnny Copeland--Copeland Special Magic Sam--West Side Soul, Black Magic Buddy Guy--The Vanguard albums. A Man and His Blues, and Hold That Plane, are my favorites. Robert Johnson--Complete Recordings Mississippi John Hurt--1928 Recordings, Today! Lonnie Johnson--Steppin' On The Blues Little Walter--The Essential

I found this online and like it: How to Be a Jazz Critic By Bill Anschell Thinking about a career in Jazz Journalism? Jazz writing is a lot like jazz playing: You’ll need to be talented, hard-working, passionate, self-absorbed, and disdainful of material reward. If those are your gifts, we’re here to ease your burden. Just memorize the handy phrases below, and plug them into your stories as needed. You’ll save years of training, and write just like the real, professional jazz critics! Be sure all your reviews include plenty of references to yourself; readers need to be reminded who they’re really reading about. Sound good? Now repeat after me: Their music is so much more than the sum of its parts. They are team players: they think as one, phrase as one, play as one. Their music is an intimate conversation, a shared secret. They are joined at the hip, they are of a mind; telepathic. They don’t hit you over the head, they have nothing to prove. They can turn on a dime. Three cheers! America’s indigenous artform, America’s classical music, our national treasure. The sound of surprise, bright moments. It’s a gourmet meal in a McDonald’s culture. It’s a fine wine, a literary masterpiece, gumbo. It’s the blues, gospel, sadness and joy. It’s unacknowledged, tragic, disowned, downplayed, suppressed. An ugly stepsister, bastard child, shoeless orphan. It dies poor, no health insurance, alone in a Brooklyn apartment. The greedy record company releases a compilation of embarrassing out-takes. Touche! The leader is a double threat, a triple threat, a quadruple threat, multi-talented, multi-faceted, a musician’s musician, an unsung hero. His songs are tomorrow’s standards. Here is the next Gershwin, Porter, Kern. He has that rare gift of melody. His eponymous debut release shows surprising maturity. He continues to improve. He is at the peak of his form. He’s had a long and storied career. Bravo! Don’t be fooled. Don’t think you already know, have already heard. Don’t be too quick to. Don’t be surprised if. Ignore the skeptics. You have to consider, you need to check out, you owe it to yourself. Listen! His harmon mute brings to mind; he has the lyricism of; he’s athletic, muscular, agile, facile, always lands on his feet. He effortlessly spins out melodies, sheets of sound. He sings through his horn. His fingers dance on the keys. His voice-like quality, his stylings. His gargantuan chops. He pounds out, hammers, articulates, coaxes, crafts. This titan, this speed demon, this racehorse, freight train, Olympic hurdler. Bird lives! In this era of Nora Jones, Diana Krall, Jane Monheit. In this era of Kenny G. In this era of racial division. In this era of marketing hype. In this era of eroding CD sales. Label support. Radio support. Audience support. Where is the black audience? Where are the students, the Gen-exers? Where is the next Trane, Duke, Miles? What can we, how can we, when will we? Young lions, seasoned veterans, a cross-generational assemblage. Hearkening back to the tradition. Drawing from a long line of, the latest incarnation of, bringing back to life. Long live…! I used to play this music, that instrument. For my girlfriend, in my apartment, low-rent, ill-lit, among stacks of records lovingly collected, carefully filed. I was this, that. I heard this group before they. I was the first to. I knew them when no one else. I was having a bad day until. Just when I thought I’d never find anything like. My initial reaction was. Normally, I’m not one to, but. I kicked back with a glass of. I sat on my favorite, listened with all my. I was never a fan of. But this, until I heard this, I have to admit. Now I’m. It’s records like this that make me. I want, I hope, I have to, I never; I, always. I. copyright 2004, Bill Anschell

---esque, as in "the pianist's solo showed some ----esque influences" or "the tenor saxophonist treated the crowd to some tasty ---esque passages in his solo." Examples: Silveresque Tyneresque Coltranesque Blakeyesque

I have this set and very much recommend it. First, it has about the coolest packaging of all time. Decades from now, it will be viewed as a highly desirable product of the "over the top CD box set packaging" era. The music includes the early, seminal recordings of Professor Longhair, and fine recordings by Jay McShann, Jimmy Witherspoon, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Helen Humes, Albert Ammons. There are sides which are more straightforward swing music, by Cootie Williams, Rex Stewart, Mary Lou Williams, and Buddy Rich. I have always found this to be a really fun set to listen to.

Who in all the world is so seriously ill? More information, please! No one is ill. What I meant was that the Roberts' project is not motivated by someone being ill. I was thinking that Miles Davis performed some concerts just before he died with some of his former sidemen, and with the Q. Jones big band at Montreux, as he knew that he was very ill and apparently wanted to revisit his past. But there is nothing like that going on with the Marcus Roberts album revival, so why is Marcus Roberts bothering with it? That was my point.

This was my thought exactly. Why revive Deep in the Shed? It's not as if the album featured a group of great musicians, some of whom are seriously ill and will never be able to play together again. The album wasn't that great to begin with, to deserve the revival treatment. Just to pick one random example--it would have seemed odd if Jaki Byard had announced that he was devoting a weekend to replaying one of his mid-1960s Prestige albums song by song, eighteen years after it was released. This Roberts project seems even more odd to me. Mr. Ratliff calls it "one of the greatest cultural artifacts" that owes its existence to Jazz at Lincoln Center. I would call it one of those decent, but not especially memorable, albums that few people would have taken note of at all, if not for Roberts' connection to Jazz at Lincoln Center.

I was thinking of two shows in particular. In one, the entire family is going to go out to a jazz club together. The children complain to each other about having to do it, and one of them says to the others that it will be old time music, with no words, like going to a museum. In another show, some of the adults are in the basement playing an old jazz LP on a 1950s style small portable record player. I think that one of the men puts a coin on the tone arm to balance it. They all fondly recall the days of listening to jazz on record players like that. I also think that virtually every jazz artist who appeared on the show was over 60 years old. There was no presentation of young jazz artists, of younger people carrying on with the music and being someone closer in age to the children. I do recall some of the nice jazz moments in other shows which you are talking about.

Christiern, Do you know how the jazz musicians who appeared on the Cosby Show in the 1980s were treated? I always thought that the presentation of jazz musicians on that show was a mixed blessing. Jazz was presented as Dr. Cliff Huxtable's strange hobby, his eccentricity, and as something from the past, a museum art.