Hot Ptah

I have read that Humphrey literally could not improvise. She would write out her solos in advance and memorize them. When asked by a record producer to take an additional chorus on a solo, she could not do it, and then confessed. I saw her live last year, and her flute playing was embarassing. My daughter's elementary school band flute players all play more in tune and with better intonation. I have heard some bad flute playing by the beginners at the elementary school but by the end of their first year of playing, they were all much better than Humphrey today. Instead of playing much flute, Humphrey smiled a lot onstage, danced around, often shouted at the crowd to party, and repeated a cute way of saying "hello" countless times.

This article is about one city with a large university population. I wonder if this trend has taken hold elsewhere.

To be followed by "Sir Loves Company".

Isn't sniping just skillful use of ebay?

I saw the SF Jazz Collective on March 18 in Kansas City. It was great, one of the best concerts I have seen in recent years. Bobby Hutcherson was fine but did not play that much. Dave Douglas was amazing, and on fire. Joshua Redman blew me away for the first time ever. His tenor solo during the encore was incredible. Everyone else played very well. Eric Harland was super on drums throughout. It was a high energy show, very inspired. Renee Rosnes also really stood out. She is becoming a monster pianist, in my opinion. The set list was similiar but not identical to the one posted earlier today from another city.

Haven't there been published surveys on the demographics of the jazz consuming audience in the U.S.? I seem to recall reading one. As I recall the demographic audience was mostly male, over 50, with high incomes and educational levels. No information was reported on hair loss and waistline expansion, as I recall.

A lot of live recordings of Count Basie's band when it still included Hot Lips Page. A lot of live recordings of Count Basie's band when it still included Claude "Fiddler" Williams. All of the Horos reissued on CD.

Did you ever get an identification of this Mystery Bassist? His mouth and smile look like Richard Davis to me. I know that Richard played with Hannibal at times during that period.

Thanks for that, Jim. The first artist's image is closest to what I saw, although I saw much brighter colors, not pastels, and they were everchanging throughout the operation.

Oh well. It is interesting that someone else had a similar experience.

Seriously, is there any chance that I could somehow view the artist's painting? Is it online anywhere? I would love to see that.

In my mid-40s, a few years ago, I had both of my lens replaced due to cataracts and had them replaced with the multi-focal lenses. It has been fantastic. I had always been very near sighted, since about age 9, and now I have 20/20 vision. No more glasses! The quality of vision is so much better too. I had not known it, but my strong glasses had miniaturized and curved everything I was seeing, a little bit--but the improvement is very noticeable. I went to a leading surgery center with physicians who do a lot of research in the area and have the latest, cutting edge technology. This was crucial immediately afterwards, as while the lenses were working perfectly, the astigmatism in my corneas had to be removed for the full beneficial effects to come through. My physicians were great at explaining it and working to make it right. The cataract operations themselves were amazing. Very bright light is concentrated on your eye as the surgeon looks through a microscope. The eye is continually bathed in water. So, when the natural lens comes out and the artificial one goes in, it is an incredibly beautiful light show, with amazing colors and shapes. If what I saw could somehow have been filmed, it would qualify as one of the greatest visual images known to mankind. Please private message me if you want more information.

I don't know about all of those witnesses, but any number of interviewers have been able to get Jay McShann to open up and talk about Charlie Parker. Jay was very generous that way, and it took no special magic to accomplish it. To me, that was a suck-up statement by Iverson, that only Crouch could have obtained those oral histories. Again, he may have deliberately wanted to make such a statement for strategic value--but what was the strategy? I guess I find it hard to believe that someone could affirmatively WANT to spend time talking in a pleasant way with Crouch, and that this was the entire goal.

As I said a couple of posts ago, "I suspect the idea was not really to try to change Crouch's mind but to publish an interview that shows the debate in a different light." What is the audience of the Bad Plus's blog? Jazz fans in general: musician pals of the Bad Plus, Bad Plus fans, those of us who have learned that Iverson is a great blogger, and, via threads like this, a bunch of other hardcore fans. The idea, I believe, is to show, to people who are interested and may not have entirely made up their minds forever, an actual dialogue on these issues rather than a gunfight. In a gunfight people either duck or start shooting themselves, while in a dialogue they listen and talk. I doubt that Iverson strained to remain in character or was wearing a mask. I've been reading that blog regularly for a few months now and that's who he seems to be: someone who is truly open himself, more interested in trying to find what's good in something than in squashing what's bad in it. He's also an exceptional communicator. To the extent that buttering up Crouch was a conscious strategy I think it was no doubt very sincerely motivated. Unlike don clementine, I don't think Iverson is a knucklehead, quite the opposite. I'm full of admiration for him. Read the archived posts if you're not a regular reader of Do The Math: this is a guy who's smart enough to be a free-thinker to such an extent that he's not constrained by one side or another. We've all seen how far one gets when one puffs out one's chest and fights Crouch with his own weapons--exactly nowhere. Iverson figured out how to debate Crouch with the weapons down. More power to him. Hmmm....someone just being open and sincere....seems impossible......or is it?

Iverson's interview technique is familiar to litigation attorneys who have taken a lot of depositions--get the hostile, dishonest, or otherwise very difficult person to open up and give information by pretending to be friendly and open and agreeable. In the litigation context there is a goal in mind, to win a lawsuit or at least obtain enough information to get the case evaluated properly and then settled. What I am uncertain about is what Iverson's goal was. Why adopt this mask with Crouch, for what purpose or end? It must have placed a strain on Iverson to remain in character for the entire interview. Why would he want to get Crouch to open up like this? It is not clear to me.

Why did Crouch claim that Cecil Taylor's music is drawn from Messiaen, without qualification? Iverson calls him on it, then Crouch says that Braxton had previously told him the same thing. So if Crouch previously knew it was incorrect, from Braxton, why did he say it again here? I remember reading a Crouch piece in the Village Voice in the 1980s which made this claim, that Cecil Taylor's music is just Messiaen with drums added. I have never been able to hear this connection. I have heard a fair amount of both Cecil Taylor and Messiaen, and just don't hear it. I wonder if Crouch has ever really heard any of Messiaen's music?

Chris A has posted his thoughts on this series on the AAJ board.

Richard Davis told us, his jazz history class students, that he stayed in Sarah's trio for years in the 1950s because he thought that she was the greatest instrumentalist he had ever heard--her instrument being her voice.

As is

Another vote for "No Count Sarah". I just didn't think of it before.

"Sarah Vaughan At Mr. Kelley's" is where I would start.

Happy Birthday Noj!

Shut up bitch! Since I am male, I am not sure where this comment gets us.

He probably grabbed the sword thinking of the scene in Pulp Fiction. Oconomowoc is a suburb of Milwaukee, and is one of several cities in Wisconsin with Native American or French names, as those were the earliest residents. I can't tell which it is, in this particular case. I second the thought that at least he tried to help. There has been a mystery in Kansas City for several years, with a young girl's corpse found in a park. It could not be identified for a long time, and she became known as Precious Doe. Finally after many years the case was solved and the man who killed her was arrested. It was then reported that he before he killed her, he had often beaten the girl and that others heard her screams of pain, but did nothing.

So a psychiatrist said that there is a strong male identity to jazz forums and the members feel threatened by females. Comments?