Kalo

Didn't Sidney Bechet make a record where he played everything? All the reeds of course, but also bass, drums and piano. Fred Astaire played piano and drums and sang as well as danced. What a lounge act he and Ray Nance would have made!

OK. Plop-Plop I get. What made the boom? :lol:

I don't have to tell anyone here what a great series this has been. I'm very glad Classics will continue, "Chronogical" and all.

Guess I was wrong about Lehrer and Schoolhouse Rock. Glad to see so many Lehrer fans on the board. I grew up with his stuff. He was a true pioneer of the sick humor that emerged in the 1960s, though he began doing it about ten years earlier. A few years ago I sprung for the 3 disc CD Box, which was well worth it. Mark Russell isn't even in the same universe as Lehrer.

Belated happy birthday, Kevin. You're a brave man drinking a Turley Zin in this weather.

Not much to add, except don't overlook John Lewis's The Wonderful World of Jazz, great album, silly title. I love The Quest, too. But at this point I consider just about everything by Dolphy to be essential. This thread demonstrates what I love about this forum, because when I get home tonight I'm going to go on a Dolphy spree...

Tom Lehrer wrote and performed a couple, too, including the great "Silent E" song. Not a jazz guy, though. However, he is a serious student of the Great American Songbook, as I learned from listening to a radio interview with him a number of years ago.

Hicks was the man. Should have been higher on the list. As should have been Bob Newhart, Albert Brooks, Andy Kaufman, and Steven Wright. These guys would have been in my top ten. Innovators all, and about as smart as mainstream comedy gets. They got number one right, though: Richard Pryor.

The stores I shop at, especially Stereo Jack's, play good music. The chains generally dictate what is played, so don't blame it on the peons. Stick to the used and independent stores and you'll hear some good, or at least interesting, music.

Freshman year of college I used to blast 'trane's Ascension as loud as I could from my dormroom (and sometimes AEC's Nice Guys if I was in a more forgiving mood). It sounded great to me. This behavior was retaliation for all the Southern Rock, Doors, and Clapton that I was subjected to at similar volume from all the rooms around me. As you could guess, I was a real popular guy. I used to blast that one, too. And Dub Housing as well.

I'll have to check out The Real McCoy. I'm not a huge Tyner fan, I like him OK, but Henderson's presence makes it much more attractive to me. Thanks for the recommendation, Guy.

Nice annotations. I may be wrong, but I think he wrote even more lyrics than appear here. I've been a Cole Porter fan since appearing in a high school production of Anything Goes way back when. He is arguably the greatest single-act in the Great American Songbook and definitely the cleverest (though I love both Irving Berlin and Frank Loesser, who also wrote both words and music). Especially warm feelings for this song, as I used it as an audition piece for years. As for Ulysses, the only way to read it is to START this Bloomsday, then you might be finished by the next one. I've traversed the book twice, once in college, once a few years ago for my book group. The first time took most of a semester, the second time took six months. Very rewarding both times, though you have to be able to live with not understanding everything. I occasionally go back to favorite bits, and I hope to read it at least once more straight through. It's easy to bog down, however, so I would recommend getting one of the many Ulysses guide books to read alongside it. First time, in college, our teacher assigned us Harry Blamires's The Bloomsday Book (since revised and now entitled The New Bloomsday Book), which is a running summary and very helpful. The second time through, I read Frank Budgen's The Making of Ulysses, which is a truly wonderful account of the writing of Ulysses written by a painter who was friend of Joyce's and with whom Joyce would often discuss his evolving book, artist to artist.

Same here. I've been meaning to check them out for years. Will have to get to it soon.

It worked like that for me, too. For me the real tipping point on Henderson was hearing his solo on the title tune of Grant Green's Idle Moments RVG. Wow! Though I remember digging Henderson's live at the Vanguard State of the Tenor when that came out in the '80s. I'll have to go back to that one.

What do y'all think of slide trumpet? I voted for Roswell Rudd, but there's a lot of great 'bone players out there. I agree that Mangelsdorf and Lewis shoulda been in there, Priester, too.

I've been having the same problem. I'll try the solutions suggested above and report back.

Thanks neveronfriday! I assumed they were the same, butchyaneverknow.

Years ago I saw a newspaper add for a record store that was having a sale on the Columbia Records jazz catalogue. Beneath a tiny reproduction of the cover of Erroll Garner's Concert by the Sea they had a line of type that read: EARL GARDNER--CONCEPT BY THE SEA. Not discographical, but still funny (though not that funny).

Gee, thanks everyone!

This sounds really interesting, in a "missing link" kind of way. And Jim, when is your recording of the lost Bechet classic "Sassy Britches" coming out?

Right now I'm re-reading Italo Calvino's The Baron in the Trees for my book group. Read it during college and loved it. I am enjoying it now, too. Lots of fun. Interesting writer. Haven't read this one, but read "The Deptford Trilogy" (Fifth Business/The Manticore/World of Wonders) a few years ago. Found a paperback of "The Salterton Trilogy" for 50 cents a few months ago, but haven't gotten to it yet. Anyone else read any of these? I read pretty much all the Davies I can get ahold of. Deptford is probably the high point. What's Bred in Bone is part of another trilogy focussed on the art world and academia, which is also first rate. Salterton is earlier and is good, but the focus is more on small town life at the start, then gradually expanding the horizons to Davies' more Jungian preoccupations. I've also read for few other stray books and am thinking about grabbing a collection of his newspaper articles from the local book shop. He's one of the writers I never get tired of. Excellent at the craft, and with an observation of two about life & art that really get me thinking. He doesn't get a big head and neglect the craft, though. --eric I read all of Deptford a few years ago and enjoyed it immensely. I haven't read any more of his fictions, but would highly recommend his non-fiction, which is filled with a kind of congenial gusto for life and literature that is very engaging.

I woulda bought 'em all at that price. I'm especially interested in the Benny Carter, because the Pablo LP of his Montreux '77 appearance is some of my favorite playing of his, ever. I assume that the DVD is the same performance. Anyone know whether this is true?

I have a lot of other things to buy first, but the Slack I have, with Ella Mae Morse, is quite enjoyable. When I first heard that stuff it was a kick to realize that white R&B goes back a long time before Rock and Roll -- Slack and Morse were doing something roughly equivalent to what Louis Jordan was doing at the same time. Love that "Cow Cow Boogie." At one point I was considering putting together an acoustic string band that played tunes like "Cow Cow Boogie," "I'm an Old Cowhand," Herb Jeffries's Bronze Buckaroo songs, and Jimmy Rowles's "Ballad of Thelonious Monk." Not really Western Swing, but more your basic Harlem Cowboy repertoire. Who knows, I may still do it.

Good call, LAL. Years ago, when I saw Betty Carter at the Regattabar (in the era when Cyrus Chestnut was her pianist), I recalled having a mini-epiphany regarding her vis-a-vis Monk. It struck me that Carter's approach to standards was the exact feminine equivalent of Monk's very masculine approach; that is, they both had a similarly eccentric sense of time and spare approach to space, but where Monk was all angles and elbows, Carter swooped and curved.

It is rather unwieldy. The thing won't fit on any of my normal bookshelves, so I keep it lying flat on top of a row of LPs. I had the same experience. I was very happy when Fantagraphics published the whole shebang. Someone should publish a compilation of the Record Changer articles, too. (Orrin Keepnews's articles were reprinted in his book; does anyone know if any of the others were reprinted elsewhere?)