Alexander

I agree with Lon. I think their CD is fantastic. Acoustic jazz trio with a rock attitude. And they can play. What's wrong with liking the Police? You can't play at the Vanguard unless you only listen to jazz?

I'm an ISFJ. The Protector. Interesting that teaching was mentioned as one of the careers ISFJs are suited to, since I am enrolled in a teaching program even now!

Agreed. The sound on this disc is really horrible. Sounds like it was recorded on a minidisc player from the third row.

I knew it! Jim is really Dogbert!

How about the fact that Moran himself is not miked? You can't hear a word he says when he talks to the audience.

I love the music on this disc, but the recording quality is from hunger. In fact, both this disc AND Joe Lovano's "On This Day" (both recorded at the Vanguard) have the worst sound I've EVER heard on a live album (outside of Dean Benedetti Bird recordings). What's up with that? Did they get these recordings off of some guy's bootleg or what? But the music, as I said, is another story entirely. Moran is in excellent form on this disc, and the two foreign language tracks are indeed mindblowing.

I recently found out that I have a deviated septum, which is the reason that I snore. My wife hates my snoring, and is begging me to get the necessary surgery to correct it. But that surgery requires that my nose be broken and reset! I don't want a broken nose! Am I selfish because I'm putting myself before my wife's comfort? As for my sleep requirements, I really don't have many. I like a cool room (I'll sometimes turn up the AC before I retire), I prefer less light if possible, and I like a little noise. My wife's chief sleep requirement is that I go to bed soon after her, because my snoring is less likely to wake her if we're in the same general sleep cycle. But if I come to bed a few hours after she goes to sleep, my snoring will wake her and she has a hard time falling back asleep after that.

Agreed. Woody Shaw is the best thing on it, I think.

Just a completeist purchase, in my opninion. I have it, and it is FAR from being my favorite Mobley recording. A very minor entry in the discography, I think.

Yeah, one version I'd heard was the "Jazz" (as a colloqualism for sex) came from the jasmine perfume worn by the prositutes in Storyville, and that the music became associated with the word "Jazz" (or "Jass") because it was often played in bordellos. A lot of musicans (Armstrong and Ellington among them) didn't like "Jazz" associated with the music they played (Armstrong perfered to call it "hot music"). I remember reading a tijunana bible (an eight page porno comic book from the 20s and 30s) that used the word "jazz" for sex.

I've never gotten with the whole "guilty pleasure" thing. You likes what you likes. As Moose said, a lot of stuff I like (Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Tony Bennett) would strike a lot of people as totally square. Do I care? Not a bit. That said, I do have a SLIGHT weakness for some pop confection. I little while back, I experimented BRIEFLY with downloading MP3s off Kazaa. I stopped for ethical reasons, and also because there was nothing I really wanted to download. But I do have folder on my desktop marked "Guilty Pleasures" that contains "Work It Out" by Beyonce Knowles, "Supa Dupa Fly" by Missy Elliot, a couple of songs by Pink ("Get The Party Started" and "Don't Let Me Get Me"), "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne, "No Such Thing" by John Mayer, a couple of recent Santana hits ("Smooth" and "The Game of Love"), "Without Me" by Eminem, and the Moulin Rouge version of "Lady Marmalade" (the one with L'il Kim, Christina Agulara, Pink, and Maya). I'm horribly embarassed, but at least I didn't pay for them!

I caught it. Very well done, I thought. Having suffered throughout my life with mental illness (although not to Harrell's degree), I think I have a glimpse of what Harrell goes through. I admire the hell out of him for continuing to play and for his brilliance.

I like vocalese, and when it's done well, it can be wonderful. I'm surprised that no one has singled out King Pleasure's recording of "Moody's Mood for Love" with Blossom Dearie, probably one of the best vocalese records ever. And it doesn't bother me to listen to James Moody doing "I'm in the Mood For Love" and hearing the words in my head. It usually makes me want to sing along (same thing with Bob Dorough's version of "Yardbird Suite"). "There I go, there I go, there I go, there...I...go..." You want to talk about breakneck speed, listen to LHR doing "Cloudburst"!

I can't wait to see this!

I find that a lot of people I talk to have this very linear view of history. "This led to that, which led to the other thing, etc." So some people I talk to are surprised to hear that jazz is anything more than "revival" music. They thought that jazz (or swing, which is the same thing to many people) DID turn into R&B, which then turned into Rock n' Roll. So they assume that any jazz played today is just an imitation of earlier styles (which, of course, it is in some cases). Of course, the music industry encourages this to a certain extent. If you look at the history of Rock n' Roll, it's pretty obvious that Rock was dead by 1960. By that point, Buddy Holly, Richie Valence, The Big Bopper, and Eddie Cochrane were all dead, Elvis was in the army, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis were both in disgrace, and Little Richard had returned to the church. What was left was a smooth pop IMITATION of Rock n' Roll. It wasn't until the British Invasion (which was itself a Chuck Berry revival) that what we've come to call ROCK was born. Of course, both the Blues and R&B continued on their own paths well after the birth of R&R. Life isn't as simple as some people would like to believe...

This is probably VERY politically incorrect, but I thought this was kind of a funny juxtoposition.

At about 4:15 the power dimmed at my workplace, but didn't go out completely. After about five minutes, the power came back up. We had power, but the rest of the city didn't. By the time I got home from work (about 8:30 last night) the power was back on. I slept in air conditioned comfort all night! Ah! Much better than I had expected!

I voted for the first one. I only saw that and "European Vacation" (saw maybe ten minutes of "Vegas Vacation" on TV while vacationing, ironically, in Las Vegas last year), so I can't speak to the others. The first one was a classic, though. The little girl who said "Daddy says I'm the best" at french kissing was none other than Jane Krakowski, who played Elaine on "Ally McBeal." I can't help it. There's something about her. I think she's kinda hot!

I'm very sorry to hear this. Hines was the only exponent of tap for an entire generation. I seriously doubt that we'd have Savion Glover without Hines's example. Hines did make a lot of silly movies, but that was because Hollywood didn't know what to do with him. After all, he was doing tap at a time when there were very few movie musicals. He would have been more successful, I think, if he'd been a contemporary of Gene Kelly's (although then he'd have problems because he was black). A great artist who seldom had a real chance to shine, but when he did, Hines was without peer.

If it makes you feel any better, Van hated that song too. "Brown Eyed Girl" was the brainchild of producer Bert Berns, who co-wrote "Twist and Shout" and Them's "Here Comes The Night." Since Van had worked with him before, Berns signed Van to his NYC based Bang records in 1967. It was an unhappy alliance, for the most part. Berns had this idea that songs written in a latin tempo (A la "La Bamba") would be hits, so he made Van record several more songs in that vein ("Spanish Rose" and "Chick-a-Boom" are two). Van got in his licks, though. The same sessions that produced "Brown Eyed Girl" also produced the astonishing "T.B. Sheets," (which you would dig because it has some VERY tasty organ), "Who Drove the Red Sports Car," and some very interesting versions of two songs that would later surface as part of Astral Weeks, "Madame George" and "Beside You." Van had a contract with Berns that went beyond the numbers he recorded for them (available on a number of compliations), so he recorded a reel of some of the least commercial music ever produced. Most of it is just silly variations on "Twist and Shout," but some of them (like "Ringworm" and "A Blow in Your Nose") are hilarious. Berns let Van out of his contract, and Van signed with Warner Brothers. "Brown Eyed Girl" was the only hit from the Bang sessions (it was Van's only top ten hit, period), and you can see in Van's face how much he hated it when he was obliged to pimp it on television. On at least one television appearence, Van refuses to look into the camera and mimes the words so badly, you know he was doing it on purpose. It has been so overplayed that it is an easy song to dislike.

I would agree with the above statement. I tend to prefer Redman as a sideman, although the albums mentioned are all quite good. Let me put in another plug for Roy Haynes' "Love Letters." Redman doesn't play on the whole album, but the tracks he's on are fantastic. Truely, some of his best playing ever. The rest of the album (which features the likes of John Scofield, Dave Holland, Dave Kikoski, Kenny Barron, and Christian McBride) is excellent as well.

I like the Corea Powell tribute a lot, and Redman plays quite well, although he is, for me, by no means the highlight of that disc. I think that Kenny Garrett plays a lot better.

At the moment, I think "Fred Brown" is one of my favorite tracks. It sounds like an outtake from "Filles De Kilimanjaro." And I mean that as a compliment!

For those who have heard very little Van... You MUST have "Astral Weeks" and "Moondance." Those two are a given. I also recommend "St. Dominic's Preview," "Veedon Fleece," and "His Band and Street Choir." All of Van's work from 1966 to 1980 is nearly flawless, but these are the cream as far as I'm concerned. Also, the live double album "It's Too Late To Stop Now" is AMAZING. No Van live album since then has touched it. Check out the 11 minute long version of "Caravan" on the second disc. Electrifiying!

I love all of Van's work, from his days with Them to 1980s "Common One." After that, it gets sketchy. His last few releases, however, (such as 1999's "Back on Top" and last year's "Down The Road") have been VERY good. Not quite the Van of old, but much better than some of the stuff he put out in the 80s. So I'm looking forward to his first Blue Note release. Terence Blanchard's debut for the lable, "Bounce," was excellent.