sgcim

Johnny Smith's "Man With The Blue Guitar" is a prerequisite for solo guitar playing. Harry Leahey recorded one that I've never heard, but I'm sure it was as great as his teacher's, mentioned above. George Van Eps did a few, "My Guitar", "Solo Guitar Recordings" (which featured Smith on the other CD playing Spanish Classical guitar recordings with a pick! ) Kenny Burrell recorded one that I'm picking up this weekend. The Lenny Breau ones mentioned above are also great works of art. I'm pretty sure Cal Collins did one on Concord, but someone I'd need to verify that...I saw him play solo guitar live at Bechet's in NYC back in the 80s and dug it. There's a recent one by a younger player that is incredible, but I can't remember his name. I'll add it later when I remember.

I loved Dick Katz' liner notes for his own "Piano and Pen" LP; I still remember and am inspired by them. Paul Desmond's LNs for his LPs were a joy to read. I think it was Geo. Frazier that wrote the LNs for that Miles LP where he talked about everything about Miles except for music were enjoyable.

RIP, Chico. Thanks for giving all those great jazz guitarists (Jim Hall, Howard Roberts, Dennis Budimir, John Pisano, Ed Bickert, Gabor Szabo, Larry Coryell, Cary DeNegris, and others) a gig. As usual, WKCR is doing a great all day retrospective today; some great music.

Thanx, the clips sound smokin'! I never heard of MF before; he and WN sound great.

Walt Namuth was a great guitarist. Are there any recordings of him available other than the Buddy Rich and Lou Rawls stuff? Is this Left Bank recording going to be available to the general public? If so, how would you get it?

WKCR is going to play six straight hours of his music starting in five minutes (3 to 9pm EST).

Some good stuff there, and they're pretty honest about the 'product'. Read what they wrote about this chuck loeb cd' Creatively, Chuck Loeb has had his ups and downs over the years. Some of his albums have been disappointing, but other Loeb releases have been a lot more memorable. The self-produced Between 2 Worlds, it turns out, is among the veteran guitarist's more consistent efforts -- not to mention one of his more organic. Excessive production has been a problem for Loeb at times; having a great deal of production and programming is fine for electronica, new age, and hip-hop, but it can become quite an albatross in a medium such as improvisation-driven as jazz. Thankfully, Loeb doesn't overproduce on Between 2 Worlds, and his lyrical guitar playing has plenty of room to breathe this time. In terms of production, less is undeniably more on an album that emphasizes pop-jazz but also contains some straight-ahead post-bop. Between 2 Worlds, which was recorded in New York City and Berlin, Germany, tends to be commercial, although it is tastefully commercial. "360" and "Early Turns to Late," for example, fall into the easy listening category, but they have some substance and avoid becoming outright "elevator muzak"; the same goes for Brazilian-flavored items such as "Hiram," the title track, and Antonio Carlos Jobim's "S¢ Tinha de Ser Com Voc?" (which features singer Carmen Cuesta). Meanwhile, "Let's Play" and "The Great Hall" (as in Jim Hall) are straight-ahead post-bop, and this 65-minute CD moves into funky soul-jazz territory on "Mittens" and the boogaloo-ish "Let's Go" (both of which feature saxophonist Eric Marienthal, formerly of Chick Corea's Elektric Band). Between 2 Worlds isn't a remarkable album, but it is definitely a good, satisfying album -- and the fact that Loeb's guitar playing isn't suffocated by an unnecessary amount of production is obviously a plus. ~ Alex Henderson

That's a complaint I hear about her writing -- that it works vertically but not horizontally, that is the chords are all voiced individually without concern for melodic voice leading within the inner parts. So, unlike say with Ellington, where every part is its own rewarding and sometimes independent melody, her inner parts lack melodic content; they just fill out the chord. This can be slippery analysis, depending on how much counterpoint you get going within the inner parts or how you use individual voices within the context of a harmonized sections. Thad's inner parts are more melodically oriented in some cases but in other cases they also just filling out the harmony. I understand the criticism but ultimately it doesn't bother me really because the other formal elements are so distinctive and there's a strong narrative flow in the charts -- "Quadrille Anyone," "Long Yellow Road," "Since Perry/Yet Another Tear," Transcience," "Strive for Jive," "Minamata," "Elegy." For me it's a unique, stimulating voice, a personalized take on the tradition with her Japanese heritage coming into play on certain works. My opinion, obviously. So, did Wess ever write full big band arrangements for other ensembles? I've been listening to the WKCR Frank Wess Memorial broadcast for almost 16 hours, and the only post-Basie big band charts that I've heard that Wess wrote were for Clark Terry's Bad Little Big Band back in the 70s. The sound quality and playing on the "Live At Buddy's Place" LP wasn't anything to write home about, so I can't comment about that, I'm listening to his flute playing this second with Basie, and it's pure heaven. I didn't like his tenor playing when he used all that fucking vibrato in his early days, but as soon as he lost that shit things got much better. The things with him and Frank Foster are the definition of great jazz! I saw The New York Jazz Quartet years ago and was bugged by Roland Hanna's whole concept, and based on the recordings they've been playing today, that feeling hasn't changed much. Thankfully they've been playing most of the Basie shit, and it don't get much better than that...

I'm diggin' this right now- they're playing continuous Basie! When a Black jazz musician passes, you can always count on PS to devote at least a day to their music. When a white jazz musician passes, it's business as usual...

To quote Milt Jackson concerning Frank Wess: "Ain't but a few of us left." RIP, Mr. Wess

I saw Lou Reed at several jazz gigs I have attended over the years in NYC. More than once I saw him at a Sonny Rollins gig... and he was a very enthusiastic audience member as I recall. "Walk On the Wild Side" had some nice Tenor Sax and upright bass on it. Anyone know who the players were? John Cale is still around...

I don't know if he does SS, but Tom Evans in the UK has a great rep for pre amps with the highest quality sound.

I try not to go down that road anymore. You could hate everything you've heard a guy play, and then someone pulls out a record where the guy sounds fine. That happenned twice with Ornette this week. Instead of the free stuff he usually plays, they played stuff from his "free funk' period, and he was playing some nice things in the groove, with a tonal center that he was clearly creating out of. Then they played the thing he did in 59 with Shelly Manne, Percy Heath and Red Mitchell, and OC sounded like Eric Dolphy! Even Don Cherry sounded good! What is this world coming to?

I hear they do a mean funky version of "Make Me Rainbows".

I think it was this type of thing that Art Taylor was referring to when he said in an interview: "When you're a jazz musician, you always got one foot in the gutter."

I'm listening! I like Ornette's "Free Funk" stuff a lot more than his free jazz.

That's pretty much what this person said, except rather than being a mistake, it was intended as revenge against the other member of JB's family.

I just got back from playing in a band with a guy who knew someone close to JB, and this guy believes it was a revenge thing that had nothing to do with JB. This is probably nothing new to some people here... i recently read a book called "Jazz And Death" written by an MD in 2002, that clinically describes the probable cause of death of various well-known jazz musicians. I don't remember if he mentioned JB.

Who wouldn't be a drunk if you were locked in a room and forced to read Mein Kampf.

Since I've read it, I've heard of another musician besides HG that AH told he did the deed in question.

Yeah, it's pathetic to hear how some of these singers butcher that song, but Frank D'Rone, Ella, and Vic Damone sang the shit out of it, IMHO. Nancy Wilson has a version too, but I can't find it online.

What was that- live from the Baby Boomers' Senior Center?

A jazz version from Smalls:

i never knew Chetsky did it. Good sax solo. Samantha Jones and Lena Horne show how to destroy a perfectly good song. The VD arrangement had some nice things in it, and at least he didn't destroy it like LH and SJ. You forgot this one:

It was written for the movie "Fitzwilly" by John "Star Wars" Williams, that starred Dick Van Dyke and (I think) Julie Andrews. What do you expect those two white people to sing, "Make Me hominy grits"? Musically, it's pretty unusual- it starts on the iii minor chord with an 11th in the melody. Then it goes into the bV key which then go into a bunch of min7 chords completely out of the key. Evans even does a very hip 7#9 substitution towards the end. Bringing DH into it reminds me of the time I was playing an Italian wedding, and the sax player starts playing "Femina" like King Curtis. The drummer yells at him, "Where the fuck do you think we are- on "Soul Train"?