jeffcrom

No, but George Lewis has recorded with track 4's bandleader/composer. (I guess I'm already giving hints, since there hasn't been much activity yet.)

I just picked up (for a dollar apiece) someone's little record collection from 105 years ago - nine one-sided 78s from 1904 and 1905. They're in surprisingly good condition - all play well. There's no jazz, of course, or even ragtime - there are several sentimental "Dixie" songs and several comedy routines. But there is a Will Marion Cook song sung by Billy Murray, and one of the comedy routines, "The Robin" by Burt Shepard, is actually quite funny - it's a three-minute introduction to a bird imitation that never actually happens. Nothing earth-shattering here, but it's a fascinating glimpse of American recording history.

Sorry to hear this. I keep the two volumes of the 4th edition of Jazz Records by my chair in my music room - not a week goes by that I don't refer to them at least once.

Really? I've never met anyone who espouses this concept.

Right now I'm listening to my LP, on Ewing Nunn's Audiophile label, of The Olympia Brass Band of New Orleans. This has got to be one of the best recorded performances by the sometimes maddening Olympia - they could be really trite and "touristy" at times, but this is one of the best New Orleans brass band sets I've ever heard. And it's one of the best-sounding records in my collection. It's been reissued on CD, paired with another session. It probably sounds good on CD, but it couldn't possibly sound better than this LP, which makes my hair stand up. Edited to say that when it's been awhile since I've spun this record, I wonder if it's really as amazing, musically and sonically, as I remembered. It always is.

This concert was issued, I assume legitimately, on the Coltrane Jazz Icons DVD.

Almost more than any other artist, I have to separate Miles the person from Miles the creator of incredible music. From what I've read and heard from musicians, "creep" doesn't begin to cover it. My theory is that everything that was good in Miles came out in his music, and apparently nowhere else.

Just to throw in my two cents - when I first heard Bitches Brew (about five years after it was issued), I knew that there was something there, but I didn't know what it was. There were bits I liked, but only pieces. Over the years, I picked up more and more of what was going on. It only took me 15 or 20 years to come around to my current opinion, which is that it's brilliant. I can totally understand how some listeners don't care for it. But if you hear anything there, keep listening.

I got a Kindle - unexpected and unasked-for. I've been enjoying it, for what it is. I've downloaded a bunch of free stuff, and have read Wodehouse, Kipling, and Samuel Johnson on it so far. I've uploaded several PDF books and documents to it, including Allen Lowe's e-booklet from the Really the Blues? set. It's nice not to be tied to the computer screen to read that. My one attempt at downloading and reading poetry on the Kindle was a disappointment - I downloaded Housman's A Shropshire Lad, but the layout and line breaks don't match what Housman wrote. I can see this as my literary version of my iPod. It won't be my primary method of reading, just as my iPod is not my primary method of listening to music. But it's pretty cool to be able to put so much stuff into one device that fits into my coat pocket. It's got its place.

The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions box set.

Glad you're enjoying it. Looking forward to your comments, informed or otherwise!

I know that I bought some BN cut-outs around that time.

HB, ND!

I started buying CDs pretty early on - I think it was 1984. I know that I got a CD player as soon as prices under $200 became common. My first three CDs (I don't remember the order), were Frederick Fennell and the Cleveland Symphonic Winds playing the Holst band suites on Telarc, a Japanese Moanin' by Blakey, and a German Sweet Rain by Stan Getz. I know that I was early enough in the CD boom that it was hard to find CDs that I wanted to buy. And I never did any wholesale disposal of my LPs, thank goodness. And pardon me if I've told this story before. That first CD player served me well, but after several years it became somewhat unreliable, and would stop playing partway through a disc. I thought I would keep it until it totally died, which led to a minor disaster. I was playing disc two of the Complete Charlie Parker on Verve when the CD player stopped playing again. I cursed a little and went about my business. But a few minutes later, I smelled something burning, and realized that the smell was coming from the CD player. I ran over, hit eject, and found to my horror that, while the motor had died, the laser had continued to work. So disc two of this expensive box set now had a hole burned through it. The happy ending is that Polygram sent me a new disc at no charge.

Oh, my god! Run! Save yourself! This is truly awful. Look away!

Rev. James Cleveland and the Salem Inspirational Choir of Omaha, Nebraska - I Don't Feel Noways Tired (Savoy)

The first two jazz performances I attended were by the Gary Burton Quartet and McCoy Tyner's band, both around 1976; I'm no longer sure which was the first. Fambrough and Eric Gravatt were Tyner's rhythm section, and I still remember how strong and intense they were. RIP.

Just sent you the links. Sorry about the Huskers. It was a sad day in my house. (I married a Crete, NE girl.)

New American Music, Volume 1 (Folkways). The jazz album of this four-record series, with tracks by Gil Evans, Milford Graves, Mary Lou Williams, Sam Rivers, and Sunny Murray. I finally got a "real" copy to replace the cassette I made from a library copy 30 years ago.

It's interesting you mention that one. I had no guesses, so I didn't write anything about it, but I'm really curious about the trombone, and I quite like the tuba and violin. The percussion isn't my thing--more classic New Orleans would be more up my alley. Trumpet is fine, but I like that tuba best. You don't hear enough tuba breaks these days! (In all fairness, you probably never heard enough tuba breaks.) It sounds modern, too, so maybe these guys actually play in New Orleans or thereabouts in the present. O.K., so maybe I have a guess: it sounds contemporary! (Edit: Oh, and that's Muskrat Ramble, of course. Just so you don't think I'm completely clueless.) It is indeed a bunch of New Orleans guys in a recent recording of "Muskrat Ramble." The tuba playing killed me the first time I heard this, and other aspects of the performance (the Caribbean rhythm and the overall "busyness") have grown on me. I am sorta digging 8, too, perhaps surprisingly. Again, nothing I can possibly say about it. It sounds like an early blues singer playing the saxophone to me--that pained, strangled onset of certain tones and yet that power and clarity. Maybe that makes no sense to anyone else. It sounded good in my head before I wrote it down. I like your comments on this track. It's an odd one.... Finally, I'm curious about 15. As modern things go, it's not that horrible. I wish the melodic ideas flowed more--it's all so choppy. But I think I could probably end up liking something like this, if not exactly this. There are recordings by this artist you would probably like more than this one. On the other hand, there are recordings by him you would hate as much as #4! Thanks again for listening and responding - I'm enjoying your comments.

I was going to mention the Banana Slugs if they weren't included. I have attended games by the minor league baseball team the Savannah Sand Gnats. And Macon, Georgia used to have a minor league hockey team called the Macon Whoopees.

I spun some classical discs today, starting in the acoustic era: George Barrere (flute) - Dance of the Blessed Spirits from Orpheus (Gluck)/Minuet from L'Arlesienne Suite #2 (Bizet); Columbia, 1913 Arnold Foldesy (cello) - Nocturne in E Flat, op. 9, #2 (Chopin)/Serenade (Popper); Odeon, early 1920's Stokowski/Philadelphia Symphony - Hungarian Dance No. 5 (Brahms); Victrola one-sided, 1917 - Stokowski's first record. Stokowski/Philadelphia Symphony - Anitra's Dance from Peer Gynt Suite #1 (Grieg); Victrola one-sided, 1917 Stokowski/Philadelphia Symphony - Dance of the Blessed Spirits from Orpheus (Gluck); Victrola 12" one-sided, 1917 Then a couple of Stokowsi electrics: Stokowski/Philadelphia Symphony - March of the Caucasian Chief (Ippolitov-Ivanov)/Dance Orientale (Glazounov) (Victrola, 1927) Stokowski/Philadelphia Symphony - Pastoral Symphony from Messiah (Handel)/Prelude in B Minor from WTC, part 1) (Victrola, 1929/39) Barrere was a great flute player, but his instrument didn't record well acoustically. The Foldesy record is gorgeous; I haven't been able to pin down the year with much accuracy. The Stokowski records are something else. He was the first conductor to understand and manipulate the recording process; he was his own producer, in effect. The one-sided acoustics sound remarkably good for 1917, but the electric recordings are phenomenal. They sound as good as anything I've heard from the late 1920's - as good as the Victor records of Duke Ellington and Paul Whiteman, two other conductors who understood recording and how to make great-sounding records.

The sense of self importance some critics get from ridiculing what is widely enjoyed ('Only I truly understand!'), perhaps? Speaking only for myself, "fake" would be too strong, but Moran (in the view of some) initially was a melange of shrewdly selected influences. I kind of liked the melange at first, because I like the same players Moran did (Byard, Andrew Hill, Muhal, et al.), but I've heard little growth since then. I just picked up Moran's Ten about 48 hours ago, but based on my one playing, it strikes me as his most mature and assured work (and his most emotionally communicative work, which is more to the point) so far. Not totally sure if that's what you mean by "growth." I certainly think he has made some misteps along the way, but I think that comes from an exploratory outlook. And I'm really enjoying this discussion; I'm dreading the moment (which is coming soon) when it dissolves into an explosion of F-words and unthinking absolutes.

Enrico Rava - The Pilgrim and the Stars (ECM)