Hot Ptah

I am impressed with drummer Kim Thompson, who has performed and recorded with Kenny Barron. She is a powerful, swinging drummer.

I saw Michael Brecker play it very effectively in concert, in 2006, as a member of a Herbie Hancock group. I saw many of Sun Ra's musicians playing them all at once during a concert in December, 1981, at Merlyn's club in Madison, Wisconsin. Is that the instrument played by Wayne Shorter on "Three Clowns" on the "Black Market"album?

This thread is very interesting to me. I started listening to both rock and jazz with the "Great Man" mentality very much in mind. If a rock group did not compose songs as memorable as the Beatles, they were not worth my time. If a jazz saxophonist could not play as well as John Coltrane, he was no good. I went the other direction at some point, thinking that every artist has something to contribute, (every artist above a certain minimum threshold of ability that is), and that I could take something from every musician--some could be enjoyed for their overall genius vision, others for being merely interesting craftsmen, some for just a few memorable performances, some for an individualized sound or style, but all had some merit on some level, which differed for each musician. This thread has made me think that a bit more rigor in my judgments might be a good thing. I have always realized that Duke Ellington's 1940--41 recordings were "better" than the Ben Pollock Orchestra, for example, but I have listened to Ben Pollock thinking, well there's a well turned phrase by the trumpet player, even if the arrangement is pedestrian and the tune dire. At some point it may be a good idea to just say, this stuff really stinks, let's move on.

The Phil Spector box set, "Back To Mono", has a lot of early 1960s girl group classic singles. It is very inexpensive right now. The 4 CD set with extensive booklet sells for about $20 at many online sources. It has a lot of songs featuring Darlene Love, the Ronettes, Ronnie Spector on her own, the Crystals, and other girl groups of note.

Have most of the titles in fact been deleted? Was the concern justified?

Muhal Richard Abrams--Afrisong Jess Stacy--Stacy Still Swings McCoy Tyner--Echoes of A Friend

The two CD set, "Turn on the Heat: The Fats Waller Piano Solos", is outstanding. Fats Waller was a great solo pianist. Too bad that RCA/Bluebird has allowed this one to go out of print. It is really worth seeking out.

It sounds like every John Garfield movie I've ever seen. Perhaps, but I know law students and attorneys who are in that very position. They do exist. They do indeed. Unfortunately, folks fall into the stereotype of viewing all attorneys as either ambulance chasers or corporate robbers. Be careful of who you place into a box. In my experience, many attorneys are far more mundane than the negative stereotypes that people throw around. Many are technicians who provide services, don't get paid all that much, don't find their jobs all that interesting, and try to provide for a spouse and family without spending every waking moment at the office--which is what the clients seem to expect. Someone like John Edwards is a one in a million attorney. There are a handful of highly successful plaintiff's contingent fee attorneys in the nation who make a whole lot of money. They are very rare, and have had a good deal of good luck to go along with a lot of hard work. There are also very few attorneys who represent huge corporations and take in million dollar annual salaries. That is a world that the vast majority of attorneys in the U.S. have never seen. Most attorneys make the same income or less as many accountants, dentists, and architects. There is no reason to feel great gushes of sympathy for them, but there is also no reason to condemn them all as wealthy crooks. The reality is far more boring.

I've been around corporate attorneys my whole working life and I find them to be neither ambulance chasers nor robbers, they're just highly paid drones. Some of them spend their high pay on far too many jazz CDs.

I have found that real world skill by attorneys often has little or nothing to do with their academic background in law, or with their LSAT scores. It often has more to do with the mentoring they receive after law school, and their innate talent, which law school often seems to do its best to squelch or suppress.

It sounds like every John Garfield movie I've ever seen. Perhaps, but I know law students and attorneys who are in that very position. They do exist.

I read an article by Kent Syverud on ridiculing law students which has stuck with me. He wrote it for beginning law professors. He said that there is a tendency among law professors to treat the legal profession with scorn, or at least with negative humor. He points out that some law students come from poor or lower middle class families, and law school is the family's way out of poverty. For these students, their becoming an attorney is a great source of pride for their parents and their extended family members. Many of these students have genuine ideals and/or are acting as a beacon of hope for younger extended family members, a living example that education can be the way out of a dead end life. Not all law students are spoiled rich kids polluting the nation with more lawyers.

I took the LSAT a very long time ago, but at that time there was considerable value in either repeatedly reading the detailed manual that came with the test registration materials, or in taking a course. The LSAT had its own unique inner logic, its own "customs and practices" of how questions were formulated and should be answered. If you studied the manual obsessively, or took a course, you learned the unique mechanics of the test, and could answer everything much more quickly. It had nothing to do with learning the content of any material, nothing to do with patching holes in your knowledge base.

Fats Navarro Fats Domino Larry "Fats" Goldberg

I bought this at Half-Price Books three days ago, at a Kansas City store, which had several copies. They must get cut-outs from the labels and send them to all of their stores. I have had reactions to this music very similar to Larry Kart's--I like it more than I thought I would. His playing on these albums is much more passionate than it was when I saw him in concert a few years ago.

Rocky Boyd Nelson Boyd Boyd Dowler

His recent album, "Brown Street", is a strong effort. Let's hope he gets well soon!

I feel exactly the same way about Moby Grape and Love. I do like Moby Grape's first album--they caught a compelling mood in the studio while recording it, for me. Other than that, I just don't love their music, although I have tried. All of Love's output is the same way for me. Another group that I want to like from that time, but just really don't, is the group with Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder, the Rising Sons.

Walter had a sex change operation and a name change to Wendy. I remember reading an article about how he appeared on a late 1960s TV talk show while undergoing hormone therapy but before the operation, and how the other guests stared at him with open shock about his appearance, in that less PC era.

How to Get Your Wife and Daughter To Be Cooperative, Agreeable, and Non-Emotional

Taft Jordan William Howard Taft Howard Sprague

Does this give us a clue as to You Must Be's name?

The Albert Ammons/Meade Lux Lewis box.

I like the first album, "Moby Grape". How can you not like it? I must confess that the rest of their catalogue does not move me to the same extent. Maybe I am missing something about it.

Julio Franco Franco Harris H.E. Harris