Kalo

I sold wine to Saul Bellow (also Tatyana Ali, Ross McElwee, Peter Wolf, and Ran Blake). When my band was busking in Harvard Square, Cornel West put a fiver in our hat after listening to me sing Prince's "Kiss." I was a pall-bearer alongside Rafer Johnson at my uncle's funeral.

I was in Boston's Logan airport a number of years ago and saw a guy who looked just like Ray Charles. He was sitting by himself, so I figured it couldn't be him. Then he pulls out this phone-book size braille magazine and starts reading it with his fingers. Then his entourage came over to join him and I realized it was Ray. The magazine he was reading? Playboy.

When I interviewed Matt Wilson earlier this year, he said that one of the things he'll miss most about Dewey was hearing him warm up before a gig.

How about every single one of the "Jazz in Paris" covers?

First one I thought of, since I have it framed on my wall. Second one I thought of.

hip, always tasteful and classy, and very very moving at times. not sure if i can blame him for that, or the music. his 2 sets of archives are among the great treasures of the internet. I have checked out the archives since my previous post, but nowhere near as much as I should! Thanks for the reminder.

I can also recommend this book. One of the best jazz books I've read. Almost every page made me want to pull out the records. Yes! Yes, indeed!

Maybe a magic act.

Hey, that's the guy I interviewed for this show. He teaches here at IU; quite a jazz fan. Wow, I'm liking this guy more all the time. I just finished his The Magic World of Orson Welles, which is excellent, despite the off-putting title, which was foisted on him by the publisher.

That's for sure. Two of my all time favorite musicians.

Thanks for the pix. These guys are super. And nice, too. I interviewed both Dawkins and Berry last year when they played in Boston. Their show was excellent. Tons of energy! Even though their music is "avant-garde" I think that any Blakey fan would dig them, too. Check out that chi-creates.tv site above for confirmation.

My favorite song from a very nice album.

If you're referring to the 5-disc "Self Portrait" box, the latest True Blue catalog lists it at a painful $79.98. I bet Amazon would have some available used or new if it's OOP. I scored a copy during the Tower records meltdown, after lusting after it for years, but haven't gotten around to listening to it more than once.

This first appeared in Thomas Frank's Chicago-based journal The Baffler. It's in the Baffler anthology "Commodify Your Dissent," which was published in 1997, so it was written some time before that.

That Bill Holman looks good. They also have a Bud Shank big band CD that Shank was very proud of when I interviewed him last summer, his first as the leader of a big band. I haven't heard it, though. Shank was amazing when he played in Boston last summer. Unbelievable force, fire, fluidity, and invention for a man of any age, let alone an octagenarian!

Nice observation!

Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX), King of Thailand, also a musician himself. He was born in Cambridge, Massachussetts, where there's a square named after him that is the location of the Regattabar, Cambridge's premier jazz club.

Good one! Maybe a project for Trilobite Records?

Bingo! Most Americans don't like anything challenging or different, whether its music, literature, films, art, food, beer, wine... Land of the bland.

Not a lot I can add to the above. I love this album. Like the classic Wilson/Holiday sides, this is great jazz, not just great vocal jazz.

Don McLean's "American Pie, " to me, exactly marks the day upon which "the music" died. At which date it was already hanging by its fingernails at best...

Well worth seeking out, for fans of the era...

Glad I've got it. AFAIC.

Great news. Congratulations!

"Mental-Lee" would be a good title for an apeshit, free jazz piece featuring Konitz...