Hot Ptah

As far as I can tell I have 28 from the list, and there are more than 28 I want to check out! Thanks for posting! I love the reference to the Jay McShann/Buddy Tate album, an overlooked gem for sure.

I don't think that Easley's playing is "too much". I like it a lot. I saw him with Brian Blade and really liked his approach, and like these new links a lot too. When Brian Blade played in our city years ago, the newspaper columnist wrote that it would be a country/jazz fusion. It turned out to be not that at all. This shows the limited thinking people have about steel guitar, I think.

Minnie The Moocher's Wedding Day, by Horace Henderson (with Henry "Red" Allen and Coleman Hawkins)

T.S. Monk Pyeung Threadgill Karen Mantler

That's really something. Carla always seemed a bit zany onstage. I wonder if the entire group was responsible for this.

Is this it, or not?

That art was used on the cover of Mott The Hoople's first LP:

From our discussion of Rube Goldberg a few years ago, I learned that Heath Robinson also drew complicated contraptions for simple things. In fact, what people commonly think of as Rube Goldberg devices are actually more like Heath Robinson devices.

Odean Pope Walter Bishop Jr. Julian Priester Fatha Hines Deacon Jones Sam Nunn

Rocco Colavito Dagoberto Campaneris Lawrence Berra

Buddy Rich Horace Silver Danny Bank

Billy Sol Estes Billy Ray Cyrus Billy Carter Carter Ruck Thompsons Eversheds (all London solicitors) Evers Tinker Chance

I like The Magnificent Goldberg's list better.

I am glad to hear you say that, Larry. I enjoy Konitz's playing very much, but have never liked that album. I agree completely that Konitz is still playing very well. One of the best jazz concerts I have seen in the past five years was Konitz in a quartet with Bill Frisell about three years ago.

I have gone back and read this list again, and want to thank you for putting it together for us. I thought that I had a reasonably good handle on free jazz, but there are many albums on this list that I do not have, and in fact, that I have never heard of. It will be fun to try to find some of these in future months and years.

You all know that Dahmer died in 1994, right?

Hi Actually I'm not to keen on The Muir Woods CD. I play it very seldom. For me it's not really GD but more like an experiment.... /Shaft Could you give us a little more detail? Does George improvise on Muir Woods? Are the strings used in an ambitious way, or more just for background color? What is is about Muir Woods that does not work in your view? Hi again, Strings are used very ambitious way. It is in parts almost "classical" music - kind of "Arty". Some parts are more piano-driven and more jazzy, but I like GD when it swings and make me wanna move, tap my foot etc. When I want to hear classical I put on Beethoven. Here is a link to Amazon. It can be optained for under $3 so if interested please don't hesitate. Muir Woods on Amazon /Shaft Thanks for the information.

One thing that really annoys me is when a song is going through my head and it just won't leave. Right now I've got one: In a cavern, in a canyon, Excavating for a mine, Dwelt a miner, forty-niner....

You are right about something, JSngry. Music is not unique in having its highly negative characters and other aspects, which the neophyte encounters and is shocked by. I think that every profession has that baptism by fire period, in which the newcomer learns how the real world is very rough and unpleasant, deceitful and uncivil, downright evil at times. I think that there are people in all professions who honestly love their profession, and persevere despite the negativity because of their love (and massive student loans). Musicians do it in a more public setting, among other differences. You rarely read about the hot tempered tyrant who is an attorney or architect or investment banker, terrorizing new hires just out of school, and how they perform on their jobs despite the moral compromises and pressures. You certainly do not see their work in public, unlike musicians on a bandstand. And there are few sensationalized biographies of a probate attorney who was a real terror to deal with and left a long string of brilliant estate plans in his wake, despite his personal shortcomings, violent outbursts, roving eye for the ladies, and reliance on overdoses of Diet Mountain Dew. Musicians, actors and sports figures perform in the public eye and so we read about their personal flaws, which also exist in abundance in more private occupations. Do we hesitate to have a truly great surgeon operate on us in a life and death situation, because he is curt to his staff and is reportedly involved in a dispute with the IRS over some questionable deductions? Why should we not listen to a jazz musician who is reportedly not very nice to people? However, I can see that learning about a musician's deep flaws could allow one to appreciate the music without being impressed by the media hype and hero worship that had developed around the musician.

I like your Organissimo name, Chauncey Morehouse. It inspired me to read more about the jazz drummer, Chauncey Morehouse. I was surprised at how he was still active well into the 1970s. Chauncey, you have lurked here for years and developed opinions about some of the posters. Are there any posters who have truly impressed you in a positive way?

"Bitches Brew" is in some ways a nearly unique album, in terms of its moods, size of group and choice of instrumentation, sound textures, overall feeling. There was a lot of electric jazz which followed it, especially for about six or seven years after its release, some of which was pretty good, but not much of it sounded like "Bitches Brew." If you want to investigate the electric jazz that Miles Davis and others released in the 1970s, that is a topic which could generate dozens of recommendations. But few to none of the albums would really sound much like "Bitches Brew." You say that you like the chilled, relaxed, dark, repetitive aspects of Bitches Brew. I agree that the Miles Davis "On The Corner" box set, "Bitches Brew Sessions" box set, "In a Silent Way" box set, and "Jack Johnson" box set, might give you more of that, in places. Herbie Hancock's "Crossings" album also comes to mind--but no other Herbie Hancock, really.

Hi Actually I'm not to keen on The Muir Woods CD. I play it very seldom. For me it's not really GD but more like an experiment.... /Shaft Could you give us a little more detail? Does George improvise on Muir Woods? Are the strings used in an ambitious way, or more just for background color? What is is about Muir Woods that does not work in your view?

George Duvivier, in his autobiography Bassically Speaking, describes the long process which led him to tell off Benny Goodman in roughly the same way that you have described your fictional encounter with Miles Davis. However, George had been a professional musician for decades at the time, and was near the end of his career, and had put up with Goodman for a long time.