Kalo

Why does that picture make me think of Roddy McDowell?

Sounds good. My goal for this summer is to grill more fish.

Last week I made octopus for my wine/book group meeting (at which the background music of choice is inevitably hard bop). Stewed the hell out of it and it ended up real tender. Even the guy who said he didn't like octopus cleaned his plate. Next time I make octopus I'm going to grill it.

Last night: pan-sauteed tenderloin steak, braised Swiss Chard, a baked potato, and a Wolaver's IPA.

I guess the title "Journeypeople of Jazz" didn't focus-group too well.

I wish I'd taken up the bass at your age. It's the glue of the ensemble, holding everything else together, especially in the smaller R&B and rock groups. Imagine the Beatles without McCartney(who began as a guitarist, BTW), or The Who without Entwistle. And James Jamerson was the man. Period. Love the bass. Acoustic or electric. Some of my favorite jazz musicians ever, regardless of instrument: Jimmy Blanton, Oscar Pettiford, Paul Chambers, Charles Mingus.

One of my favorite Tristanoites. 90 years! That's like 160 in jazz musician years!

I recall that Phillip Larkin accused Charlie Parker of frequently resorting to the Woody Woodpecker laughing phrase (or a close cousin) in his solos. Of course, Larkin pretty much hated anything in jazz after swing.

When I interviewed Charlap last year he was very excited about this project. I look forward to hearing it.

Just finished Philip Roth's The Human Stain. Really masterful work. Previously I'd only read his more, shall we say, self-obsessed works. This one presents a wide imaginative embrace of a number of very different characters of different races, sexes, and social classes. Impressive. Now I'll have to read his American Pastoral and I Married a Communist.

indeed!

Guess I'm not up to speed on my "SunRa-ology." (Though I've certainly listened to a lot of his music.) Still, he strikes me as more of the Shaman type than scientist. To me simple dichotomies are always false. But I guess there's two types of people: those who divide everyone into two types and those who don't.

When I think of the word "scientist" it immediately brings to mind such figures as Albert Ayler, Charlie Patton, and Dock Boggs. Shouldn't it have been something more like "chord scientists" vs. "tone shamans"? At least that's an opposition of sorts, even if I don't quite get his point. And Ribot, for instance, can play the "chord nerd" quite well when he chooses. (He started out playing with organists BTW.) I think those mingy word limits at The Voice are getting to Francis. Or maybe he's covertly trying to goad Organissimites?

On the other hand the stage fell on Curtis Mayfield.

I remember seeing Patti Smith wearing a neck brace on the Mike Douglas Show (or was it Merv?) shortly after this happened. Saxophone Colossus is a must-see documentary (especially for Francis Davis fans ). I may just have to get me that DVD.

I agree, the JSP graphics are pretty much uniformly awful. The John R.T. Davies masterings, however, always sound great. Did he do the first Reinhardt?

Black Coffee was my first-ever Lee purchase, and after amassing something of a Lee collection, I'd have to say it's still my favorite. I've got it on a Jasmine LP. Those Lee two-fer CDs are nice. I'd like to find more of them.

Just curious, but was there a problem with the Conn of Judgment?

I've loved Django since first hearing him in college. He's one of those artists who transcends genre. I can't imagine anyone not liking his stuff, even if they're not jazz heads. Many folk and country musicians revere him, for instance. I've got the Mosaic and a bunch of random vinyl things, plus a lot of his stuff with American musicians. Looks like the JIPs are where to go next--and that first JSP box sounds tempting.

I remembered being startled by that when I first heard it. But it also sounds like it might have been one of those riffs that had been floating around for a long time before that recording, something that had emerged from the mists of jam-sessions past. And Monk adds his own very Monkian tag to it in his version. That Andy Kirk stuff is great, in addition to Mary Lou they had the undersung big-toned tenor player Dick Wilson. The Clouds of Joy were supposedly named for marijuana smoke.

That Watkins is a nice disc, indeed. Another one to pull out again.

Kalo - I wonder what you'll say once you see the forthcoming issues... Are you saying that the spelling is going to be corrected? But it's part of history now.

Children's Book author/illustrator Chris Raschka has created an entire book around Monk's "Mysterioso," called Mysterious Thelonious. It's literally a visual interpretation of "Mysterioso," with a colored grid on the pages standing in for the notes, and the words jumping up and down from tier to tier in emulation of the tune. Should have come with a record, but anyone who buys it for their kid most likely already has the record. Take a look at it here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=books&n=507846 It's funny, to me at least, because from the very first time I heard it, "Mysterioso" sounded to me like an ultra-hip children's TV show theme, with its odd yoking of the innocent and the sophisticated. Raschka also has a kid's book based on Coltrane's "Giant Steps" and another called Charlie Parker Played Be Bop. Only semi-related, but this thread reminded me of it.