Stereojack

I found the film highly entertaining, but as Chris has said, the film relies too much on the foggy recollections of Chan, and plays very loosely with the facts. Furthermore, while I think Whitaker is a fine actor, he's miscast in this film. Of course I didn't know Bird, but my impression is that he was an outgoing and gregarious person, not the brooding and morose character as portrayed by Whitaker. The overdubbing of Bird's solos is controversial, but I believe that had Eastwood used original Bird recordings without overdubbing, the low-fi nature of the recordings would not have matched the film sonically. Apparently the owners of Bird's studio recordings were unwilling to allow them to be overdubbed, so he got some live recordings and overdubbed them to suit the film's needs. Within the context of the film, the overdubbing is hardly noticeable, although it's really obvious (and annoying) on the soundtrack album. Frankly, the only alternative would have been to hire a studio musician to imitate Bird, and that would have been worse, in my opinion. Actually, I believe they did get Charles McPherson for a few passages, if I'm not mistaken. My one gripe about the film is that Bird's brilliance and innovations are not empahsized enough, and the film focuses a little too much on the personal details, and not enough on why the film was made in the first place.

Mal Evans Evan Hunter Hunter Thompson

Great session. Four great tenor players blowin'. What more do you need to know? Pick it up. How does it compare to "Tenor Conclave"? Well, the front line is the same instrumentation, so there are some similarities there, but the orientation of TC is a little more boppish, where VS has much more bluesy, swingy feel, due in part to the inclinations of the four (older) tenor players and the presence of Shirley Scott on organ. The blowing on both is top notch.

Los Angeles Times July 1, 2006 Saturday Ross Tompkins, 68; Longtime Pianist for 'Tonight Show' Band Ross Tompkins, 68, a pianist who played with Doc Severinsen's "Tonight Show" band for more than 20 years, died of lung cancer Thursday in St. Augustine, Fla., according to his partner and friend trumpeter/vocalist Jack Sheldon. A native of Detroit, Tompkins also played with a long list of noted jazz musicians including Zoot Sims, Wes Montgomery, Herb Ellis and Eric Dolphy. In recent years Tompkins and Sheldon performed in clubs in Southern California.

Theodore Walter Rollins Theodore Navarro Theodore Charles Cohen

Billy Butler Budd Johnson Herman Melville

Phil Woods Call Cobbs Lins, Ivan

Catherine the Great Jude the Obscure Mott the Hoople

I have a standard 8 1/2 x 11 scanner. I scan the LP cover in two parts & paste them together in Photoshop. Since the scanner only will scan 11.7 inches of a 12" cover, I usually have to sacrifice 3 tenths of an inch. Before scanning, I decide which 3 tenths I can live without. This rarely presents a problem. Occasionally, especially when there is type along all four borders, I have to make four scans to get it all, but this is rare.

Hawk Spencer Susan Silverman

Rod Serling Dick Van Dyke Peter Sellers

Franz von Suppe Dennis Franz Andy Sipowicz

January 19/29/31, 1963, San Francisco & LA

Pierce Brosnan James Bond Carrie Jacobs Bond

Little Beaver Robert Blake Bonnie Bakley

Bill O'Reilly Sean Hannity Rush Limbaugh

Big Tiny Little Little Jack Little John Litel

Alida Valli Meadow Soprano Sally Field

Artur Rubinstein Helena Rubinstein Max Factor

What if? Hey man, I worked eight hours today, now I'm relaxin'.

It's good but not great, IMHO. On the plus side there's a track where Lloyd takes a long inside-outside solo -- some of the best 60s playing I've heard from him. Guy I think it's pretty strong - certainly well worth owning, if a tad mellower than the others.

Edward Heath Harold Wilson Anthony Eden

In the 1936 reunion, they rerecorded a number of the original tunes, and also, more interestingly, made a number of big band sides featuring contemporary swing arrangements. I'm glad that these are finally being made available again, probably for the first time all in one place.

"Chico Hamilton Special" is the last of the records that Chico made featuring the instrumentation of saxophone, cello, guitar, bass, drums, and it is one of the first with Charles Lloyd. It was preceded by another forgettable album of tunes from Bye Bye Birdie & Irma La Douce, both albums recorded at the same sessions in November, 1960. Chico had recorded with this instrumentation for Warner Bros, although Eric Dolphy was the saxophonist. "Special" was reissued in the 1970's on Columbia Special Products, which was CBS's custom label, not distributed through CBS's regular network, but sold through cutout houses and via special promotions with companies such as Firestone, Goodyear, etc. I agree that the "chamber jazz" format had gotten old & tired by this time, and so did Chico, I guess, because in the next year he revamped the band, retaining Lloyd, and adding Garnett Brown (tbn), Gabor Szabo (gtr), Albert Stinson (bass). The next record, "Drumfusion", recorded in February, 1962, reflected this new "harder, tougher style" (as Chico called it), and signaled a rebirth for Chico. A series of fine albums with (basically) this band followed: Passin' Thru (Impulse) A Different Journey (Reprise) Man From Two Worlds (Impulse) These four albums are well worth seeking out.

Johnny "Rabbit" Hodges Major "Mule" Holley Al "Dr. Horse" Pittman