Hot Ptah

I noticed that too. Until last night, her clothing had been flattering and she had not seemed overweight.

I can do without the judges, yes.

American Idol. I had not watched it in several years, but my wife and I are watching it this year with our 12 year old daughter--it gives us something to talk about and share, which beats the usual grumpy monosyllabic responses which we ordinarily get from her these days. It has been surprisingly engaging this year. They are down to nine contestants. I am assuming that most or all of the members of this board do not watch it, so I will state that right now the contestants include: Lil Rounds, a black woman from Memphis who would have been a leading soul singer in the 1960s--as Smokey Robinson said on a recent show, she can sing the phone book and sound great--her voice is a marvel by any professional standard. By her own admission she can't figure out what songs to pick each week and wastes her great talent on some unworthy material. She should become a star in the music business--she will need an Ertegun/Wexler type team to produce her; Megan Joy, a jazzy, quirky singer who should have gone in an Annie Ross direction as much as possible but seems to have blown it by trying to sing styles she's not capable of; Adam Lambert, the leader right now by acclamation--he has an amazing multi-octave voice and the ability to sing uptempo rock and r&b with excitement, and ballads with genuine sensitivity--he should become a star in the music business. His performances are always riveting--he blows out the walls. He has a genuine creative sense, and comes up with surprising approaches to the material each week. Some of the other contestants seem lost as to what to perform--Adam seems to be in complete control of his musical choices; Danny Gokey, a church music director from Milwaukee, a white guy with a genuinely soulful voice, who can belt out an emotional ballad like no one else--I mean in a certain way, like no one else in the history of recorded music--he should also become a star in the music business. He and Adam are above the rest of the pack right now, with Lil Rounds close behind; Kris Allen, a guy with a really good voice, and an appealing, unique approach. He plays guitar and piano and arranges his material with taste and creativity--I would buy an album by him; Allison Iraheta-- She's 16 and sings like a seasoned rock and roll singer, with a booming, raspy voice--when she lets it rip you imagine that she could break all the glass in the surrounding vicinity. Virtually any rock band would be improved by adding her on vocals. She should become a professional recording artist; Anoop Desai, a guy from Chapel Hill, North Carolina whose parents came from India. He can sing sensitive ballads in an appealing way, but falters very badly on contemporary uptempo R&B, which he stubbornly tries to perform about half the time. Scott MacIntyre, a blind pianist who sang Christian easy listening music before coming on the show. He has a bland, likeable style which does not resonate much with me. He could be very popular with the kind of audience that thinks that John Denver was really heavy. He sang a Billy Joel song last night, which was his best performance so far; Matt Giraud--a pianist from Kalamazoo, a white guy who can sing blues and 1950s r&b quite well, but resists it and sometimes tries to sing contemporary alternative rock instead, which he is miserable at--such as last night. I could see myself following the careers of Adam Lambert, Lil Rounds, Danny Gokey, Kris Allen and Allison Iraheta in the future, and buying their better albums. I had not expected so much musical quality. If Adam Lambert does not become a star it will be surprising.

AP--At a press conference at the Nashville Hilton, noted jazz musician Wynton Marsalis defended his recent decision to move to Nashville and become a country artist exclusively. "Doing the album with Willie Nelson really opened my eyes," said Marsalis. "How could I ever have liked that jazz stuff? It's nowhere. Willie turned me on to some real music....Merle Haggard....Red Foley.....Bob Wills....that's where I will concentrate my musical efforts from now on." Marsalis submitted his resignation from all positions held at Lincoln Center, and hopes to be invited to join the Grand Ol' Oprey "soon". "I have a twelve CD set coming out of 1920s country tunes, which I recorded at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville with my new group of student musicians. I hope that when the country community hears it, I will be invited to become a member of the Opry. That is my greatest dream. I love how my new pedal steel guitar and fiddle player can really play! I have never had musicians like them in my band before, ever." Marsalis admitted that he does not care for any current country musicians. "The stuff I have heard on the radio is really sad. You have to go back to the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers to hear the real country. I want to let the whole world know how great their music really was. America is so sad, it never honors its own home grown geniuses!" Loretta Lynn would not confirm the rumors that she may become a full time member of Wynton's new band. "If he asks me, I'll let you know," she said with a grin. When asked if he no longer listens to any jazz, Marsalis simply made a sour face and walked out on the press conference.

Everyone should buy the Devilin Tunes set if they don't have it. It's quite amazing.

When I saw the Mingus Dynasty band in 1979, Dannie Richmond always introduced him as "Malibu Joe Farrell", many times throughout the concert. What was that about?

Maybe he was a little of each. I only had the one experience, and he was on a downhill trajectory of which we all know how it ended. I love his music, too, BTW, glad we got to play once, and am sorry he was in such bad shape when I ran into him. Re this 'genius' bit: Don't know if he was a genius. Depends on one's definition, I suppose. The only one I encountered in my life as a professional to date was Jaki Byard. He was really ahead of the curve in his thinking and I saw him in action as a band member for 1 and 1/2 years. Nothing short of brilliant, I am convinced. I guess Tom Harrell probably is one, I met him a few times and never worked with him, but I know what he can do, and he probably does qualify. To hear Phil Woods tell it, there's no question. Joe Cohn has amazing ears and is a thrilling improvisor and can put thirds under a fast complicated melody he's hearing for the first time. He can play back what you just played, the exact voicings. Every musician in the know in NY knows what he can do, myself included. Does this make him a genius? Not sure. Woody Shaw was a powerfully creative and vital musician. And he was very advanced at a young age. Isn't that enough? I didn't want to start a discussion of "genius" actually... and in fact I don't mind, as it is - as you say - a very difficult thing to define. And certainly Woody is enough for me! More than enough, really, he was a terrific musician and his music continues to enrich my life! (As for Harrell, the night I caught him live in 2006 was sort of hard to take... but in between he made some stunning music - it was really like him struggling his demons in front of an audience, having trouble navigating through his own (marvellous!) themes, but as soon as they played something simpler (a few standards), he absolutely shined and made his band look like schoolboys in comparison, he really went places! A fascinating musician, to say the very least!) I don't understand Harrell to have "demons", other than the schizophrenia which he has talked about in several printed interviews. That is a medical illness, not a problem like bad behavior or self-induced drug addiction. One time when I saw him live, it appeared to me that he was about to have a seizure, and had taken some strong neurologic medication. He was shaking and trembling in the same way that I have observed other epileptic people before a grand mal seizure, and other people with serious neurologic illnesses and disorders. Please. There's nothing wrong with Tom, plenty wrong with people's perception of him. Try playing music that beautiful, then we'll talk. The world better get its shit tigether........ I think that he is a great musician. I was defending him. He does not have "demons", he has an illness. My son and the other people in my son's day services facility have similiar illnesses. I have spent a lot of time with people with severe neurologic disorders. Harrell is amazing to me, to have done what he has done, when he has shown some of the physical characteristics of people with very severe disabilities. To be able to create and play as he has--he has my utmost admiration. I think I have some understanding of what he has to overcome to create and play. It's a lot. Sorry to overreact, man. I've been going through some stuff of my own lately. I do think the world, especially America, needs to get its shit together and honor its resources like Tom. That's O.K. I agree that Tom Harrell deserves all the honors there are.

That sounds about right. That's the way it went down with me. I was 28. Sorry, but he was a prick, and I've heard stories similar to mine. He fucked with Branford Marsalis too, totally dissed him---and Branford was a 'somebody' (Woody called me a 'nobody', to which I looked him in the eye and replied 'everybody's a somebody'). I like his music too, but there's no excuse for his behavior. Plenty of people go through as bad or worse and smell like a rose. People like that---egomaniacs---are a big reason jazz lost its audience. Maybe I'm screwed up, but it's hard for me to like someone's music if I know them to be a quantifiable asshole. I mean, we're only human, and at least in my case I will look for excuses to dislike the music if treated jive. But I do like Woody's playing, especially his grasp of 20th century harmony. It gave his lines and his writing a different kind of edge. I guess I like Ride of the Valkerys too............. It's funny, someone brought up Tom Harrell. Tom is the sweetest, most positive person you'd ever want to meet. I know this from personal experience. He has a disorder and deals with it and has been blessed with a wonderful mate who makes his life a lot easier. Tom and Angela are great people and Tom is a great artist. He actually was influenced by Woody earlier on, but really his playing changed a lot, especially after he got into flugel more. Just a beautiful player and person---and misunderstood by people that have little on their minds but talk as if they know something. Wynton Marsalis has a reputation for arrogance and people talk loads of shit about him too. I did myself. But I met Wynton twice and he was totally cool. I just spoke to him about something the other day and he couldn't have been nicer. I wish I had nicer things to say about Woody. If he would've been nicer I would. But the lesson I learned there was don't fuck with out people. Yiu can't always hang out. Sometimes you have to back off and just listen to the music. I will only comment that when I was young, I would talk in a gushing way to jazz musicians who have no reported problems. Some of them were gracious and some were very curt. It did not seem to be due to any drug or other problems they had. I can now understand that they viewed me as a pest, basically, and some did not pretend to be cordial. Woody may have just grown tired of it.

Maybe he was a little of each. I only had the one experience, and he was on a downhill trajectory of which we all know how it ended. I love his music, too, BTW, glad we got to play once, and am sorry he was in such bad shape when I ran into him. Re this 'genius' bit: Don't know if he was a genius. Depends on one's definition, I suppose. The only one I encountered in my life as a professional to date was Jaki Byard. He was really ahead of the curve in his thinking and I saw him in action as a band member for 1 and 1/2 years. Nothing short of brilliant, I am convinced. I guess Tom Harrell probably is one, I met him a few times and never worked with him, but I know what he can do, and he probably does qualify. To hear Phil Woods tell it, there's no question. Joe Cohn has amazing ears and is a thrilling improvisor and can put thirds under a fast complicated melody he's hearing for the first time. He can play back what you just played, the exact voicings. Every musician in the know in NY knows what he can do, myself included. Does this make him a genius? Not sure. Woody Shaw was a powerfully creative and vital musician. And he was very advanced at a young age. Isn't that enough? I didn't want to start a discussion of "genius" actually... and in fact I don't mind, as it is - as you say - a very difficult thing to define. And certainly Woody is enough for me! More than enough, really, he was a terrific musician and his music continues to enrich my life! (As for Harrell, the night I caught him live in 2006 was sort of hard to take... but in between he made some stunning music - it was really like him struggling his demons in front of an audience, having trouble navigating through his own (marvellous!) themes, but as soon as they played something simpler (a few standards), he absolutely shined and made his band look like schoolboys in comparison, he really went places! A fascinating musician, to say the very least!) I don't understand Harrell to have "demons", other than the schizophrenia which he has talked about in several printed interviews. That is a medical illness, not a problem like bad behavior or self-induced drug addiction. One time when I saw him live, it appeared to me that he was about to have a seizure, and had taken some strong neurologic medication. He was shaking and trembling in the same way that I have observed other epileptic people before a grand mal seizure, and other people with serious neurologic illnesses and disorders. Please. There's nothing wrong with Tom, plenty wrong with people's perception of him. Try playing music that beautiful, then we'll talk. The world better get its shit tigether........ I think that he is a great musician. I was defending him, as I thought that he was being unfairly lumped with people with drug problems and problems with bad manners or worse. Compared to them, Harrell does not have "demons", he has an illness. My son and the other people in my son's day services facility have similiar illnesses. I have spent a lot of time with people with severe neurologic disorders. Harrell is amazing to me, to have done what he has done, when he has shown some of the physical characteristics of people with very severe disabilities. To be able to create and play as he has--he has my utmost admiration. I think I have some understanding of what he has to overcome to create and play. It's a lot.

Perhaps you were at the same Carnegie Hall concert that I attended that year. That was truly a fantastic concert, everyone was on fire. On another note, I highly recommend Farrell's work on an early Chick session, TONES FOR JONES BONES (Vortex LP). The version of "Litha" on that session is smoking! I do have the VIM 'N VIGOR session, good but I don't think it's essential. I did not see that Mingus Dynasty group at Carnegie Hall in 1979. I saw them at the Ann Arbor Jazz Festival in September, 1979. Larry Coryell opened for Mingus Dynasty that evening, and then sat in with Mingus Dynasty on the encore, which was "Take the A Train". Coryell played a good solo on that song. Sue Mingus, Jimmy Knepper and Dannie Richmond gave a talk in a University classroom during the festival, which was interesting. Sue expressed anger at a letter which Jack Walrath had written to Down Beat stating that he did not get credit for doing the arrangements on a Charles Mingus album. Dannie Richmond spoke fervently about the need to play simply, not to try to show off your technique as you play. It struck me and others who I talked to afterwards, that he was probably talking about Billy Cobham, who was prominent at the time. The rest of the 1979 Ann Arbor Jazz Festival: Friday night: Dexter Gordon (with Kirk Lightsey, Rufus Reid, Eddie Gladden) Sun Ra and his Arkestra Saturday night: Coryell and Mingus Dynasty Sunday afternoon: Joseph Jarman and Don Moye, duet (2 sets) Sunday night: McCoy Tyner with a group that included George Adams, Joe Ford and John Blake Oscar Peterson (postponed, did not show--came later in the year to make it up) This was all put on by a student volunteer organization, Eclipse Jazz. I was there at the right time, to see the Eclipse efforts when they were at their peak.

Maybe he was a little of each. I only had the one experience, and he was on a downhill trajectory of which we all know how it ended. I love his music, too, BTW, glad we got to play once, and am sorry he was in such bad shape when I ran into him. Re this 'genius' bit: Don't know if he was a genius. Depends on one's definition, I suppose. The only one I encountered in my life as a professional to date was Jaki Byard. He was really ahead of the curve in his thinking and I saw him in action as a band member for 1 and 1/2 years. Nothing short of brilliant, I am convinced. I guess Tom Harrell probably is one, I met him a few times and never worked with him, but I know what he can do, and he probably does qualify. To hear Phil Woods tell it, there's no question. Joe Cohn has amazing ears and is a thrilling improvisor and can put thirds under a fast complicated melody he's hearing for the first time. He can play back what you just played, the exact voicings. Every musician in the know in NY knows what he can do, myself included. Does this make him a genius? Not sure. Woody Shaw was a powerfully creative and vital musician. And he was very advanced at a young age. Isn't that enough? I didn't want to start a discussion of "genius" actually... and in fact I don't mind, as it is - as you say - a very difficult thing to define. And certainly Woody is enough for me! More than enough, really, he was a terrific musician and his music continues to enrich my life! (As for Harrell, the night I caught him live in 2006 was sort of hard to take... but in between he made some stunning music - it was really like him struggling his demons in front of an audience, having trouble navigating through his own (marvellous!) themes, but as soon as they played something simpler (a few standards), he absolutely shined and made his band look like schoolboys in comparison, he really went places! A fascinating musician, to say the very least!) I don't understand Harrell to have "demons", other than the schizophrenia which he has talked about in several printed interviews. That is a medical illness, not a problem like bad behavior or self-induced drug addiction. One time when I saw him live, it appeared to me that he was about to have a seizure, and had taken some strong neurologic medication. He was shaking and trembling in the same way that I have observed other epileptic people before a grand mal seizure, and other people with serious neurologic illnesses and disorders.

While this may not be a universally shared opinion, I think that Farrell's playing is one of the best things about the popular Chick Corea albums, "Return to Forever" and "Light as a Feather."

How Do We Get Allen Lowe To Loosen Up?

I saw Joe Farrell with Mingus Dynasty in 1979, in a group with Randy Brecker, Jimmy Knepper, John Handy, Don Pullen, Charlie Haden and Dannie Richmond. His tenor sax solos were excellent throughout the evening, very energetic and compelling.

There has been a resurgence of sorts in Kansas City among the small, independently owned used music stores. Zebedees, Vinyl Renaissance and NeedMoreDiscs all have expanded and improved their jazz selections in the past year, both in the CD and vinyl areas. At the first two stores mentioned, the staff is quite knowledgable about jazz and will talk to you about it in a friendly way. Half Price Books has three locations in our metro area and a fourth in nearby Lawrence, Kansas. Their selection of jazz albums is often quite amazing. I am finding that the staff at two of the stores is also quite knowledgable and will talk to me in a friendly way, now that they have seen me often. They seem to be mostly English major college students who all buy a lot of books from the store.

Street Team.

I received my copy of the Art Pepper box. It has a "Used" sticker on it.

My favorites are: George Adams--Sound Suggestions Jack DeJohnette--Inflation Blues, Tin Can Alley, Special Edition Art Ensemble of Chicago--Urban Bushmen, Full Force, Nice Guys Lester Bowie--All The Magic, The Great Pretender

I have this CD and can look at the liner notes tonight. What is it that you wanted to know, exactly?

Soul Jazz: Artistic Dead End

How My Religion Has Made Me a Better Person and the World a Better Place

List Your Top 3 Favorite Phil Woods Albums Here List Your Top 3 Favorite Oscar Peterson Albums Here

My Favorite Catholic

I bought a used LP, Bud Shank's "California Dreaming", for 50 cents at Half Price Books. It looks like it is in mint condition.