Hot Ptah

I will do so, yes.

I wonder if there had been an announcement on the All About Jazz board that the Saundra Hoffman Project was going to be kept secret from everyone once it was completed. I do not remember reading about that. I think that people would stop wishing that the stories could be widely read, if they knew that a decision had been made to not release them. This is the first that I have heard of that.

page, I had several very nice private message exchanges with Saundra Hummer. Maybe you were a closer friend but I also considered her a friend. What was actually completed on The Saundra Hunner Project was not well publicized to the AAJ board as a whole. I certainly never knew about it. When I clicked on a thread about The Saundra Hummer Project on AAJ, I got posts which were ads for male reproductive products. That is fact, not speculation. I hated seeing that. It made me sick to think that her thread had been spammed--which did happen often generally on the AAJ board. Big Beat Steve posted a link to a nice webpage about Saundra. I read it and there was another link within it. I clicked on that and a new webpage came up which someone named Jeff authored, and he mentions working on the Saundra Hummer Project. i meant no harm or disrespect to Saundra, or to you. Much the contrary. I have only sincere positive feelings toward Saundra.

Big Beat Steve, that link refers to The Saundra Hummer Project of collecting all of her stories, and contains another link within it, which takes you to a site where the person who was working on it, Jeff, is mentioned. I have just emailed Jeff and asked if I could volunteer to help him finish The Saundra Hummer Project if he would like. We will see what happens. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

He posts fairly regularly on Facebook these days. He seems to be perfectly all right.

There was an effort by a few AAJ Forum members to create a special online folder or site containing Saundra's numerous detailed stories, contained in a great many of her AAJ Forum posts over the years, about how she hung out with the jazz stars of the 1950s. It was announced on the AAJ Forum as "The Saundra Hummer Project." For some reason it did not succeed. I think it was hacked by malicious spammers and became unusable. When I tried to read it, that is what I saw, anyway. Why that could not be remedied, I do not know. I was not involved in the effort. It could be that the volunteer forum members lacked the technical knowledge to really set up a secure site, or maybe it became too much work, I do not know. I just know that in the end, there never was an organized place to go and read the Saundra Hummer stories. If her stories on the AAJ Forum could be all accessed, and then organized by subject matter, they would be one of the better jazz books of all time. Saundra had a storytelling knack, and reported on the scene from a unique first hand perspective. In the message posted by Mr. Ricci announcing the closing of the AAJ Forum, he mentioned that maybe an archive of the Forum would be made available at a later date. If so, the retrieval of the Saundra Hummer stories would be a priority.

Saundra Hummer was always a very polite, cordial person on the AAJ board. She had many fascinating stories from the 1950s when she frequented the Los Angeles jazz clubs and personally knew Miles Davis and many of the other greats of that era. I never had any problems with her, or ever heard of anyone having any problems. She and I exchanged a few private messages and they were brief, focused and cordial. Saundra must have been ill at the time. My private messages with her through the AAJ board were nothing like that. Mine were from an earlier time, and were very short and pleasant, sticking to the jazz topic at hand.

What I am thinking of is a response such as "so glad you liked the Miles Davis you heard. Here are some of his best known albums: Kind of Blue, Milestones, Miles Smiles, In a Silent Way. You might start there. Please get back to us with your reactions and we will have more ideas. Welcome to the board!"

I have two theories why the younger generation does not rejuvenate places like AAJ. Younger people tend not to use the computer through a desktop PC. They are more likely to use a smartphone for brief messages, instead of a PC for more extended writing. I know that I find it easier to participate here on a PC with a keyboard. Also I have often observed on jazz boards how a newcomer to jazz is treated a bit roughly by the old guard. A newcomer might write "wow! I heard a song by Miles Davis on NPR last night! I had never heard him before but it blew me away. I want to get into some Miles. What are some good albums?" Instead of welcoming the new listener with open arms and helping them in a warm, friendly way, it is much more likely than the established members of a board will make impatient remarks like "really? Miles Davis? Do some reading!" or "here are ten links where we have discussed this before. SIGH! I wish people would use a search function for once!" It is not surprising that the young people never come back.

I posted on AAJ for several years. Until the past few years it was a reasonably good jazz forum. I did not like the fact that people I like (from my online interactions with them) were banned. AAJ never bothered me personally. In the period before 2010 the discussions there were lively and informative. Also some of my college friends posted, and started interesting games, such as guess the film with jazz as a significant part of it, through question and answer clues. That game went on for years and was truly interesting. So I kept coming back. At one point the board was dominated for about a year by a feud between two musicians, which was strange, but which I stayed out of. Pat Martino had a long running thread on the site in which he would take questions and hold very interesting, respectful discussions with members. In the past few years there were not many discussions about jazz any more. It seemed like the jazz discussions had run their course, and that there were no new members to add new enthusiasm to the site. That also happened on Jazz Corner Speakeasy, another board that was discontinued.

Jerry Lynch may have been the best pinch hitter of all.

I purchased this set, and I have to say that it is different than I expected. A great deal of the several discs is narration and the playing of music by others, who were an influence on Sun Ra, according to the narrator. The actual Sun Ra recordings are interesting enough, but not essential enough to justify the purchase of this set, unless you are just a Sun Ra completist.

That is who I think of, when I think of a pinch hitter.

Has this been posted yet on this board? The All About Jazz Forum was discontinued this week. https://forums.allaboutjazz.com/

Thank you Dan for filling in on short notice when mikeweil had some computer problems. We hope mikeweil can present a BFT later in the year.

This is not a large, formal corporation where you have to pay your dues for a long time before you can speak out. If a new member wants to raise a strong point, I say good for them. I have noticed that there are some current vocalists who sing in what I think of as Manhattan Transfer-lite. It is a corny, lightly swinging, cutesy style which drives me up a wall. Compared to the true artistry of jazz vocalists who were around in the 1970s when I started going to jazz concerts regularly, these singers are less than a pale imitation of what used to be.

I had no trouble getting it to appear in my I Tunes library. Seriously, you might want to email I Tunes customer service for an online chat. Sometimes a small change in a setting an make I Tunes workable.

I would like the Holland and Phillips album if it was more exploratory!

I envy you that you saw the Ellington band in that period! About you revealing the BFT to me now: oh no, that would be like the Red Sox leading the Yankees 7-2 in the sixth inning, and the Yankees agreeing to just not play the last few innings and concede the game! I am going to keep listening and researching for the rest of the month!

I have listened to this Blindfold Test several times in the past few days, just because it is so pleasurable to listen to. 1. A good opener, kind of a fanfare kind of opening. I think about programming a Blindfold Test and often try to start with something that hits the listener directly. I enjoy the feel of this song, but have no idea who it is. 2. I recognize the song, "Ill Wind." I can't place the trumpet player. He is obviously a higher tier player,. I am not familiar with ballad playing like this from the usual suspects among the top trumpet players. 3. I hear tuba, not bass, in the bass part. So it could be Bob Stewart or Howard Johnson. Bob Stewart was often used on tuba, to play bass parts in different ensembles. I can't quite place the rhythm. It is not quite reggae, not quite ska. It may be a style of music that I am not familiar with. 4. Duke Ellington's "Warm Valley", by a great saxophone soloist. I have to buy this. I don't know who it is and can't wait to find out, His playing is so moving. 5. "You Go To My Head", in a sort of CTI style. But I think that this came later than CTI. It sounds like the guitarist may be the leader, even though he plays more simple parts than the other musicians. This was a pleasant interlude. My attention would wander during an entire album of this sort of thing, but for one song it is nice. 6. That must be Sammy Price on piano. I am not sure about the saxophone player. This is very fun, very infectious. I need to buy this album too, the day that I find out the album title. 7. Wow, that is very beautiful! A wonderful track! I am totally unfamiliar with it. Another album I need to get, as soon as it is identified. This one song really stands out for me, in terms of not just Blindfold Tests, but in terms of all of my recent listening. 8. At first I thought that this was a cover of the Mamas and the Papas hit single, "I Dig Rock and Roll Music." But the vibes are unmistakably Khan Jamal. I am not sure which album this is. I like the saxophonist a lot, and can't identify him. 9. How many bass duos have been recorded in history? This one is surprisingly compelling and listenable. When I first started getting into jazz, in the mid-1970s, there were not that many ECM albums out yet and me and my friends knew them all by album title and number. I mean, there were about 20 ECM albums then. One of the early ECM albums which I never bought or listened to was a bass duo album by Dave Holland and Barre Phillips. I don't know if this track comes from their album, but I can't think of any other bass duo albums. 10. Oh, I have this, and have always liked it! It is the 1990 soundtrack to the film "The Hot Spot," with John Lee Hooker on guitar and vocal, and Miles Davis on trumpet. I always thought that this was one of Miles' more unusual recording choices, to appear as a sideman so late in his career, with blues artists. I bought this when it first came out and have played it often. 11. I have this album too! It is James Spaulding's "Madeline" from his "Escapade" album. I bought it when it came out in the 1990s because the cover art reminded me of the cover art of Ben Webster's "See You At the Fair" album. Also because the sidemen included John Hicks, who I have always enjoyed a lot, and Ray Drummond. This is a beautiful track. 12, Well, three in a row! I may have never been on a winning streak like this in any BFT before. I have this album and played it often when it first came out. It is saxophonist Zane Massey's 1990s album "Brass Knuckles." This is the opening track, "Nu Kingdom." I like William Parker's bass playing here, as well as Massey's soloing. This was a favorite of mine when it first came out. What has Zane Massey done recently? He seems to have fallen out of sight. 13. That is Johnny Hodges for sure. That is later Duke Ellington for sure. It has that unique feel to it. But Johnny Hodges died during the recording of the "New Orleans Suite" album, so it has to be from before then. I have the official Ellington releases from that period and this is not on it. It must be from a later release of unreleased sessions. I have many of those, including from this time period, and enjoyed them when I played them, But I can't remember which album this is from. I like it a whole lot! This is one of the Blindfold Tests I have enjoyed listening to the most, of all time.

Great Blindfold Test! I had heard surprisingly few of these albums even though some of them featured favorite artists of mine. I always wanted to hear something from Santana IV and by Susan Cowsill.

Thanks! I am really looking forward to this!

As long as it is weird spoken word.

Hey, Jim, since you are here anyway.....April, August, September and October are open in 2017. Do you want to present a Blindfold Test in one of those months? Your last test was so remarkable!