jeffcrom

I'll take B.C. and 25.

You've got me curious, Chuck - I want to hear the story.

Yes - that was my first iPod. I got a recall notice; they sent me a box and I sent mine in. They're supposedly sending me a new one.

I was totally unaware of this release until a few hours ago, when I found it in a used CD store. This is major! I'm really excited by this one - it's nice to come across some new Satchmo material that's not just another All-Stars show with the usual playlist.

Please Come Home for Christmas (Charles Brown) Please Please Me (The Beatles) Baby Please Don't Go (Big Joe Williams) Please, Mr. Postman (The Marvelettes) Please Send Me Someone to Love (Percy Mayfield) Next up: TUNE

Up with price drops.

I should add that I think Michael's playing on the Anthony Braxton compositions from the Dona Lee (sic) album is absolutely perfect for Braxton's pieces. His playing on the standards on that album, on the other hand....

A sad day.

I think Michael was the best pianist Lacy ever had in terms of getting to the meat of Steve's compositions. I used to have that album and didn't keep it. You know Michael's music better than I do, Jeff, but I'm curious to hear your opinion. Always thought Mal was kind of the "perfect foil" but then again, he's also the pianist I've heard with Lacy the most. Others being Smith, Satoh, Cecil, Perez, and of course that "Five Facings" duets CD on FMP (which wasn't all that great IMO) with Crispell, Van Hove, Gumpert, Mengelberg, and Vladimir Miller. Let me clarify: Michael was not the best pianist Lacy ever had, but he was the best in terms of interpreting Lacy's music. He seemed to grasp Lacy's compositions and complement them perfectly. (Bobby Few also came close to this level of empathy with Steve's music.) When Waldron or Mengelberg (to pick two obvious examples) played with Lacy, their strong personalities changed things so that so that it was no longer "Lacy's music" - it was Lacy-with-Waldron, or Lacy-with-Mengelberg. Michael, on the other hand, seemed to completely give himself over to Lacy's vision. I love the Lacy/Waldron duets, and you're right - Waldron is a great foil for Lacy. But it's a completely different experience than listening to a "Steve Lacy" performance. Does that make sense? I like Five Facings more than you do, by the way. (Edited to correct spelling.)

The Songs of Alec Wilder (JJA mono). A promotional LP in a plain white cover put out by Wilder or one of his publishers. Most of the performances seem to be drawn from Wilder's American Popular Song NPR series. The songs (and performances) vary in quality, but the best of them are outstanding: "'S Gonna Be a Cold, Cold Day" by Johnny Hartman, "The Winter of My Discontent" by Marlene VerPlanck, "When Yesterday I Loved You" by Mark Murphy, "Baggage Room Blues" by Woody Herman, "The Lady Sings the Blues" by Tony Bennett. This is an LP I'm glad to have.

I seem to have started one of my periodic Alec Wilder jags: Bob Brookmeyer - 7 x Wilder (Verve stereo)

I think Michael was the best pianist Lacy ever had in terms of getting to the meat of Steve's compositions.

James Moody - Last Train From Overbrook (Argo gold label stereo)

It's Too Late (Carole King) (That's Curtis Amy on soprano sax, for those who didn't know.) Late in the Evening (Paul Simon) Late Late (Buster Smith) The Late Late Blues (Milt Jackson/John Coltrane) It's Late (Ricky Nelson) Next word: HOUSE

Alec Wilder - Octets (Mercury 10")

And all blues and gospel answer: Mystery Train (Junior Parker) Death's Little Black Train is Coming (Rev. J.M. Gates) Move Along Train (Staple Singers) Train Time (Forrest City Joe) This Train is a Clean Train (Elder Roma Wilson) Next up: PICTURE

It's a sad night in Georgia. Word has just come that Larry Munson, the longtime football play-by-play broadcaster for the University of Georgia Bulldogs, has died at the age of 89. Munson (who gigged on piano with Tommy Dorsey as a high school senior) called the games for 40 years (he retired in 2008), and made no pretense of being objective - he loved the Bulldogs, and got incredibly excited when they won. He was famous for his pessimism - if the Dogs took the lead with only 45 seconds to go, Larry would say, "There's an eternity left on the clock!" My first wife was such an intense Bulldogs fan that I had to leave the house when the Dogs fell behind in the 1980 Georgia-Florida game - she was just too unpleasant to be around. So I was driving around in my car, listening to the game, and got to hear Munson's most famous call ever when receiver Lindsay Scott outran the Florida defense and ran most of the length of the field for the winning touchdown: "Run, Lindsay! Lindsay Scott! Lindsay Scott!" Later, when he had calmed down a little, he revealed that he had broken his chair ("It was a metal, steel chair.") and explained his lack of objectivity: "I didn't mean to beg Lindsay to run, but I had to." Listening to Georgia football has not been as fun and idiosyncratic for the past couple of years, and now it will never be the same. So long, Munson.

Well, going back to a previous point, I've decided to go ahead and declare JSngry and myself to be geniuses, saving subsequent generations the trouble of deciding for themselves.

I dunno, Moms. In your world, all musicians are either geniuses or hacks. That's not a world I recognize. It's hard to argue with JSngry's brief assessment of Rouse's strengths and weaknesses. (Except maybe the Ben Riley part). The fact is that from 1959 on, Rouse was the saxophonist Monk had. I'm not willing to limit my Monk listening to before 1959 and after 1970 just because Rouse wasn't Coltrane or Sonny Rollins. That being said, I've never really had any desire to explore Rouse beyond the confines of Monk's music - although the Rouse/Steve Lacy duet version of "Ask Me Now" is a beautiful thing.

The 4th Ward Afro-Klezmer Orchestra is recording tomorrow, including a tune of mine that starts with a clarinet doina (a slow improvised cadenza, more or less), so I'm trying to get in the mood: Naftule Brandwein - A Hore Mit Tzibeles/Bulgar ala Naftule (Columbia). An early 40's pressing of 1925 recordings. One side sounds great, the other not so much. I wonder if Columbia had lost the master for side 2 and had to dub from a record. Dave Tarras - Rumenishe Doina/A Rumenisher Nigun (English Columbia, 1927). This record has been around - recorded in New York, pressed in England, sold in Tel Aviv (the dealer's sticker is on the label), and frequently played in Atlanta. Dave Tarras - Kosatchok/Komarinska (Savoy, 1946). A scarce one - Dave's klezmer swing band. Abe Schwartz Orchestra (as Jewish Orchestra or Yiddish Orchestra) - eight sides from 1917/18 (Columbia). I didn't realize I had this many records by the great Abe Schwartz band. I won't list all the titles. And for good measure, I played a couple of theater songs by Gus Goldstein and Kalman Juvelier that were on the back of two of the Abe Schwartz sides, and ended with a Columbia record by Cantor Gershon Sirota, recorded in 1908 and pressed around 1920.

Work (Thelonious Monk) Work Song (Adderley Brothers) Do Some War Work, Baby (Cootie Williams) We Can Work It Out (Beatles) Nice Work If You Can Get It (Sarah's version is my favorite) Next up: POLYMORPHISM. No, there I go again. I meant: Next up: TOGETHER

Sorry folks - I didn't realize that was such a bad idea. I'll try: Dancing on the Ceiling (Sinatra and many others) Dancing on the Ceiling (Lionel Ritchie) One Man's Ceiling is Another Man's Floor (Paul Simon) Walking the Ceiling (Hound Dog Taylor) Ceiling in my Room (The Monkees) My intention was to pick a slightly unusual word, but not to shut the game down. Again, apologies! Next up, something easier: CALL

Don Cherry and the Jazz Composer's Orchestra - Relativity Suite (JCOA)

Disc 4 tonight. Some fabulous material on this disc, in spite of the Dan Grissom vocals.

I would certainly be interested in hearing about the specifics of what Gushee thinks Marquis got wrong. I would have to see some pretty solid evidence before accepting the "lack of reliabilty" charge. There are just too many hoops of plausibility to jump through to believe that Marquis made stuff up. Not only would he have to make the stuff up, he would have to make up a bunch of fake sources, since almost everything is cited. And he would have to hope that no other researchers would check and find that the sources were false. And in the 34 years since it was published, I can't find that anyone has published anything refuting it. Marquis does talk about the white/black/Creole and downtown/uptown aspects of New Orleans music and how that affected Bolden, although not in great detail. Even if you accept Gushee and McCusker's judgement of Marquis as naive in these matters (and I'm willing to), I don't see that as a fatal flaw in a book like this. A simplified way to view the book is that it's a work of reporting, rather than interpretation. When I reread the book this week, I tried to be as critical as I could. And I did find a few weaknesses, but nothing major. I don't know Gushee, but I admire his work, too, and am sorry he's not well. But like I said, in the absence of solid evidence of errors or worse - fabrication - I don't see any reason to discount Marquis' work. The book is specific about its sources, and everything you've said so far has been pretty vague, so my judgement is still with Marquis. And Allen, your opinion of the Bolden book seems so influenced by Gushee's opinion that I'm curious about whether you ever admired the book. Had you read it before knowing Gushee's view of it? What did you think? And don't worry about causing a ruckus. This place is full of ruckuses, and this is a pretty interesting one - it's about jazz scholarship, not about personality. Like you said, we don't have to agree on everything. You can probably tell from my post #19 that you pushed my buttons on this topic, but I don't take it personally, and I hope you don't.