Jim R

There are people who want to be taught to play a TROMBONE? Are you sure this isn't some kind of gag? Congrats, Paul, and best of luck with the new adventure.

I liked Jim's idea of calming the fuck down, btw. To me, it's one of life's simple pleasures... a guy comes up on my ass, and I slow down to 10 or 15 mph below the speed limit for awhile (and with the traffic around here most of the time, the guy has no way to pass me) and just enjoy the hell out of it. Half the time, I end up passing these people later, after they've been forced to move into the slow lane to prepare for an exit. Always an opportunity for a friendly grin.

One of the reasons I'm philosophically opposed to shooting at tailgaters is that it's a waste of precious firepower that could be better used to pick off cell phone abusers in cars, buses, trains and in the street. You didn't mention bookstores, libraries, in the row behind you at movies... (shall I continue?).

Quincy, that is some interesting stuff. You seem to have a natural way with describing wildlife in action. Late, no, I didn't take that photo, but I really like it. I looked at quite a few online, and so many of them don't capture the beautiful blue-green color on the head and back; and if they did, they didn't show the distinctive thin white plume on the back of the head. I guess these aren't generally quite as large as a great blue, but they're pretty big- especially when they stretch out their necks. The "camp robber" reference reminded me of the thousands of Steller's Jay's I saw in the Sierra (and no doubt the Cascades) on Summer trips when I was younger. I hadn't seen one for years, but encountered a pair of them (in an outdoor cafe, of course ) last Summer when we stopped for lunch in Big Sur on our way home from a SoCal trip.

Thought I'd share an image of the Black-crowned Night Heron, for those who may not be familiar with it (like me, until relatively recently): Almost seems too beautiful to be hanging around in such a major metropolitan area...

What Brownie said. 'Swingin' Easy' is the greatest jazz vocal album ever released... ...Mr. Kelly's is good, but her voice was already taking on a different quality at that point. Uh... "At Mister Kelly's" was recorded the same year as half the tracks on "Swingin' Easy" (1957). At any rate, I love the late 50's to early 60's, with my personal favorite probably being the Tivoli performances. Live, with a trio in general is the way to go, imo (even up to the 1973 recordings in Japan). Yeah, but the rest of 'Swingin' Easy' was recorded in '54, and is magic. And the '57 cuts were recorded much earlier in the year than the Mr. Kelly's stuff, and under very different circumstances. WTF? So, what happened to her voice between February and August of '57? I mean, I know the recording circumstances were different, but I think you went way out on a limb with the earlier comment, that's all. And I'm not buying that her voice changed that much between '54 and '57. I didn't realize we were talking about what her best "voice period" was. I was trying to focus on my favorite albums/CD's, period. Anyway, I know that her voice underwent some major changes over the course of her career. I suppose anyone who is seriously interested should check out at least a little bit from each decade. It's all good (if not great).

I'm kind of a casual birder (rarely take out the binoculars, but I do keep my eyes open for unusual birds). Around our house, we have house finches; mourning doves; robins; blue jays; mockingbirds; cedar waxswings; the occasional red tailed hawk; and a very annoying gang of crows. At certain times of the year, we're visited by a few downy woodpeckers (that's when I get out the binoculars). I've seen a few other interesting birds on occasion, but I usually have a hard time figuring out what I saw. It's been years, but I remember occasionally seeing spectacular examples of the western tanager; and the bullock's oriole. When I take my bike out to the creek trail and up to the nearest reservoir, I regularly see snowy egrets, great blue herons, and a new favorite- the black crowned night heron. Saw a belted kingfisher not long ago as well. Btw, Late, my brother up in Lebanon is always sending me photos of the wonderful variety of birds that visit the feeders on his deck.

I have to agree that the session with Brownie has always been somewhat disappointing. Generally, I'd rather listen to Sarah when she's THE star of the session (and like I said, she's dynamite on stage). I'm practically a completeist, but there's an awful lot of stuff (mostly orchestral) that I never take off the shelves anymore.

I was up there a few times in the 80's and early 90's. Great shop. I picked up a couple of discogs there too, iirc. I remember his outstanding collection of photographs as an added highlight of being there.

What Brownie said. 'Swingin' Easy' is the greatest jazz vocal album ever released... ...Mr. Kelly's is good, but her voice was already taking on a different quality at that point. Uh... "At Mister Kelly's" was recorded the same year as half the tracks on "Swingin' Easy" (1957). At any rate, I love the late 50's to early 60's, with my personal favorite probably being the Tivoli performances. Live, with a trio in general is the way to go, imo (even up to the 1973 recordings in Japan).

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Word. Somebody wake me up when there's some actual news from those people. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz..... -_-

I wouldn't say that there was really much direct copying of Raney in Grant's playing, just the general approach of playing the guitar like a horn (not often playing chords except when comping). To me, the only guitarist that really sounds much like Jimmy (even including his direct descendants who were contemporaries, such as Rene Thomas) is his son, Doug. At any rate, I don't think it's widely known outside jazz guitar circles, but Grant did specifically acknowledge Raney as an important influence on his playing. brownie, thanks for the heads up. That looks intriguing. I wonder if that's a typo in the personnel: "Eric" Diehl? I would have thought Eddie... I always thought the guitar player that was most influenced by Jimmy Raney was Jimmy Gourley. Gourley spent most of his career in Paris, but can be heard on quite a few recordings. I'm not sure how we would go about determining exactly who was most influenced, but in terms of the way the influence comes out in their playing, I'll say this- although Gourley was most certainly influenced to a great degree by Raney, I think style-wise, Rene Thomas sounds a lot closer to Raney. Gourley has a different attack/sound and control of the instrument, which I've always thought of as somewhat sloppier. Personally, I love Thomas, and really don't care much for Gourley.

The former University of Kansas staff member who administered the Wright collection is a member here, and of the Blue Note board before that, iirc. Brandon Burke. He used to post occasionally about his experience at K.U., but has of course moved on to other things, and hasn't posted as often lately. At any rate, that's interesting... my memory is foggy regarding the developments that occured there. I'm not sure I ever got the full story.

Cliff, for the images I just used Google's image search, a couple of favorite guitar sites, and browsed www.gbase.com I think Gibsons generally hold their value quite well, but I guess you never know with a new guitar. Maybe you'll come across a vintage beauty at a nice price.

The more I think about it, the axe in question is a Gibson, and it's red... Get it!! For your viewing pleasure, a gallery of gorgeous (red) Gibsons... '65 Super 400CES '58 L5-CT (aka "George Gobel" model) '59 Gobel w/ a Bigsby 2002 L5CES 2002 L4CES

Wallace Roney The folks at Soney Andrew Toney

Jesus... 1957!? I don't think we had one until like 1971. Looks like the remote was almost as big as the screen, though. That's a pretty amazing ad, though... they were even hip to muting commercials back then? "Don't get up"...

On the one hand, you'd think that the rarest of the rare would turn up for sale far less frequently than other LP's, however, because rarity tends to be a (though not the only) factor that drives up the price of a record, rare LP's may turn up more often than one would think, because people are trying to capitalize on their value. Maybe that was too obvious, but I thought it was worth mentioning. I think that trying to figure out what's really rare based on watching the current market is fairly tricky. There are probably a lot of relatively common records that you don't see for sale that often, because they wouldn't command much $, but it would be a mistake to assume that they're rare. In my experience (and I'll admit that I haven't been involved in the LP trade for about 15 years), it was always subjective when it came to people (dealers and such) giving opinions about which LP's were the hardest to find. So much about personal experience, which varies from year to year and from place to place. I suppose the really experienced dealers (Cohen, Leavitt, etc) might have a decent handle on which things are truly rare... maybe the best approach is to ask them. As we all know, people who really don't know much tend to abuse the term "rare", often for their own personal advantage. Just some random thoughts.

Chu Chu Valdez Cha Cha Muldowney Chi Chi Rodriguez

Eddie Davis & Johnny Griffin Kenny Dorham & Joe Henderson Kenny Burrell & Jimmy Smith Chet Baker & Russ Freeman George Shearing, N.H.O.P., & Louis Stewart Django & Grappelli Joe Williams & Count Basie Kelly/Chambers/Cobb Art Farmer & Benny Golson Stan Getz & Lou Levy Paul Desmond & Ed Bickert Joao Gilberto & his guitar

Nah, as I said, they were apparently written 11 years apart. Yeah, that's pretty much how I remember it. The theme/chorus for "Daybreak" is pretty simple, short, straightforward, so it made for a good intro. JH really caressed it... Chet's statement of the theme was a bit more trite, imo (but still nice). That was on Pacific Jazz, btw, as well as the title track of one of his Steeplechase albums.

That's... good. My comments were pretty much just relating to the Brazilian music they've offered over the years.

I wouldn't say that there was really much direct copying of Raney in Grant's playing, just the general approach of playing the guitar like a horn (not often playing chords except when comping). To me, the only guitarist that really sounds much like Jimmy (even including his direct descendants who were contemporaries, such as Rene Thomas) is his son, Doug. At any rate, I don't think it's widely known outside jazz guitar circles, but Grant did specifically acknowledge Raney as an important influence on his playing. brownie, thanks for the heads up. That looks intriguing. I wonder if that's a typo in the personnel: "Eric" Diehl? I would have thought Eddie...

Right- as I said in my opening post, my google search revealed that "On The Trail" was a track on the LP, but there was no mention of "Daybreak", and I couldn't find a Hendricks album anywhere with "Daybreak" on it. Thus my question as to whether it was a medley, with "Daybreak" (and Adamson) uncredited.