Hot Ptah

What really gets me is when a group begins "My Funny Valentine" or "Round Midnight" and kicks off a glacially slow tempo, and then from their demeanor you can tell that they think that they are incredibly cool and doing something just fantastic simply because they are playing the melody. It is as if they think that just running through the head of either song entitles them to immediate induction into Jazz Valhalla. It usually goes way downhill from there, as each solo is interminably long and dull, with few ideas--the musicians seem to think that merely because they are playing these two songs, that anything they play will be infused with genius by association. I have witnessed live performances by famous national groups like this, on both songs. Meanwhile, I am trying to keep from getting whiplash as my head is snapping back as I lurch out of a deep sleep several times throughout their renditions.

The greatest version I have ever heard was by Sun Ra and the Arkestra, in a concert at the Detroit Art Museum close to Halloween, 1980. It was a lightly swinging, highly appealing version, with beautiful short solos. It was a beautiful, subtle. and very memorable arrangement. Everyone in the audience seemed to be grinning with delight, as one, as the song ended. I wonder if that concert is out there to be downloaded or purchased somewhere.

"My Funny Valentine" is a song that is often played in a very slow, dull way, even by top musicians, in my opinion. It can be a very compelling song, but I have heard so many tedious versions that I cringe when I hear it announced from the stage.

The Fess Williams set is extremely good!

I have been deeply involved in an adult education, self-improvement course all along, and didn't even know it!

Happy Birthday, MG! You have changed my listening and buying habits for the better. This week I bought a Jimmy McGriff/Hank Crawford CD. As I walked to the counter, I said to the guy I was with, "this is all due to The Magnificent Goldberg." Have a great party. I expect this kind of aftermath:

I am also not that enthusiastic about the Hubbard title--it looked better on paper than it played, in my humble opinion.

Thelonious Monk Tommy Flanagan Terry Gibbs

I saw the Jazz Messengers twice, when the group was Bobby Watson, Billy Pierce, James Williams, Charles Fambrough, Art Blakey, and a young Wynton, with a scraggly, long, unkempt beard. He was playing his butt off. I talked to Bobby Watson recently and he said that one of those gigs, at the Jazz Gallery in Milwaukee, was one of Wynton's very first appearances with the Jazz Messengers. No one knew who Wynton was, but we were all struck by his soloing--it seemed remarkable. Everyone talked about the unknown, young trumpet player who was so good. I also saw Wynton in April, 1982, with Branford, Kenny Kirkland, Lonnie Plaxico and Jeff "Tain" Watts. He was playing very well then too. To me, the early promise makes what happened to him all the more regretful. I interviewed Wynton for a university newspaper at the April, 1982 gig. He expressed great doubt about the Miles Davis cover he had played at the gig ("Eighty One" from the ESP album). He said that he loved that music, but did not know if it was a good idea to explore going backward into earlier jazz works. He was very uncertain and in a state of agitation about it. He also said that he could not find any good drummer for his group, that there were no good drummers in New York who would join him. He trashed the avant garde, stating that the Art Ensemble of Chicago were the worst thing that ever happened to jazz, with their European classical music influences. He said that he had taken 20th century classical music classes at Julliard and knew that it was all nonsense and should not be brought into jazz. In short, he looked very young, but was very opinionated and not at all shy about speaking out. Shortly after my interview was published, a music professor wrote to the paper and said that she knew Wynton's professors at Julliard and that he had in fact not attended any class in 20th century classical music. In any event, he was playing quite well at the gigs I attended in the 1980-82 period, with much more passion and intensity than he showed at the gigs I attended in 2000-2005. At the most recent gig, Bobby Watson sat in (raising the intensity level of Wynton's band considerably), and he and Wynton told stories between songs about their fun times with the Jazz Messengers. Wynton recounted how Bobby taught him how to shave, and Bobby laughed about how "country" Wynton was when he joined the Jazz Messengers.

They have taken the board down today to upgrade the system--there is an announcement about it on the website.

Here is one from the early 1970s by the rock group Spooky Tooth: "You Broke My Heart So I Busted Your Jaw" I like some of Sun Ra's album titles: It's After The End of the World A Fireside Chat With Lucifer Some Blues But Not The Kind That's Blue God Is More Than Love Can Ever Be

Kate Moss Robert Plant Kate Bush George W. Bush Warren G. Harding Franklin Pierce

I like Ben Sidran's writing about jazz, especially in his recent autobiography.

What bothers me the most is the use of the term "jazz" to describe music that is not even arguably jazz--"Live Jazz Tonight in the Cocktail Lounge of the Howard Johnson's!"

If so, you need to be independently wealthy, for what the Saturns with magic marker artwork are going for now.

The Yardbirds appeared in the film "Blow Up", directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. If my memory is correct, both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page were in the group in this film. There is a scene of the group playing in a crowded London club. I have always liked this scene, because as I remember it--it ends with Beck smashing his guitar and throwing a piece of it out to the crowd. The audience members have a frenzied fight over it on the floor of the club, like starving dogs over a bit of meat. The leading male character in the film ends up with it. He takes it out of the club and drops it on the sidewalk outside. Passersby look at it without interest--it is a piece of trash to them. I love that.

PM sent on the Stuff Smith, Jutta Hipp, and Ella Fitzgerald-- '"Pure Ella".

The Music Exchange in Kansas City has about 1 million vinyl LPs that they hope to somehow get rid of. They were going to reopen this fall, but the sudden accidental death of owner Ron Rooks has put an end to those plans. The 1 millon plus LPs are in a warehouse in the West Bottoms section of Kansas City. You could get a phenomenal jazz LP collection probably pretty cheap, before someone else comes in and buys the whole thing from Ron Rooks' widow.

Milt Hinton. Try to collect every recording that Milt Hinton played on. You will never feel empty from the end of the quest.

"The Inner Light" is rarely played.

Johnny Cash--Cry Cry Cry Joe Raposo--Hard Hard Hard Bo Carter--Lucille Lucille Ren & Stimpy--Happy Happy Joy Joy B.B. King--Bye! Bye! Bye! Nels Cline Singers--Fly Fly Butterfield Blues Band--Mary Mary Big John Taylor--Money Money Many artists-Corrina Corrina

Benny Goodman: Sing Sing Sing Little Feat: Cold Cold Cold Dixiecups: Iko Iko Paul McCartney: Hi Hi Hi Sopwith Camel: Hello Hello Tex Williams: Smoke Smoke Smoke

Wait until they turn 10-11 years old. That is another time of great upheaval, more verbal than physical (although things have been thrown by our daughter while in one of her rages).