Hot Ptah

Our various local Starbucks places in Kansas City play a variety of background music, none true to our region of the country. Jazz is often being played, usually of the hard bop era. I have never heard any Kansas City jazz played at a Kansas City Starbucks. I do not think that there is any effort made to match the music to the city.

Raven Simone Robin Yount Stephen Crane

Fred Haney Chuck Dressen Bobby Bragan

Stereotying of other areas of the world also takes place within the U.S. Kansas City residents get this sort of stereotyping all of the time. Here is only the most recent example in the local newspaper: "KC visit shifts boutique owner’s views By JOYCE SMITH The Kansas City Star New York fashionista Nikki Grant couldn’t fathom opening a shop in Kansas City, a place that conjured up images of cows and gingham-dressed Dorothy. But God had other plans, she said. First it was getting her out here. That happened when her pregnant sister, who lives in the Northland, requested a visit. “I was walking on the Plaza and I was like ‘Wow!’ ” Grant said. “I saw 20 women with these fabulous outfits...." But then when I was growing up in Wisconsin, we often heard that Chicago was a mean place, with rude people who would treat you badly if you visited there. Then I visited Chicago and found out for myself.

It is an interesting point, when an artist chooses to play in a style not as challenging as he could play in--what does this mean for his artistic merit? I saw Christian McBride's group last weekend, with Steve Wilson, Peter Martin, vibest Warren Wolf, and Carl Allen. The music was unrelentingly melodic, pleasant, tasteful, swinging, happy in mood. It was not challenging, did not take the listener to places he or she was not expecting, did not push back the boundaries of anything, did not enter any sort of avant garde realm even a little. The audience seemed to find it appealing. McBride did not include any pop content or include smooth jazz elements, and his music was not as catchy as say the Cannonball Adderley group in its prime. By comparison, Terrance Blanchard's group, which I saw a year before, was much more avant garde and thought provoking. McBride's bass solos were fast, cleanly executed, and very skillful. They reminded me of eating only candy. They were so bright and pleasant, all the time. But if this is what Christian McBride wants to present, if this is what he feels musically at this time, does this make him a lesser artist than if he included "difficult" content into his music? By comparison, Dave Holland's group makes more use of dissonance and the solos are much wilder, than in McBride's group. Is Holland thus a "greater" artist than McBride, even if Holland is disappointing to many here? In 2010, can a jazz musician just make nice, pleasant music, easy on the ear, and played expertly, and be considered a meritorious artist?

I have been listening to CDs 2 and 3. I am really struck by Jelly Roll Morton's 1923 recording, "New Orleans Joys" (CD 2, #6). This seems to me to be an earlier version of a lot of the New Orleans rhythm and blues that came later. There are moments that remind me of Professor Longhair. Whether Professor Longhair and the other New Orleans rhythm and blues musicians of the post-World War II era actually listened to "New Orleans Joys" as the source of their music, or whether "New Orleans Joys" is a 1923 example of a style of New Orleans music that has been around for a long time and gets passed down to succeeding generations, I don't know--but it is striking to hear this 1923 recording after listening to Professor Longhair, Archibald, Tuts Washington and other New Orleans pianists of the 1940s and later. Then the very next song, "Guitar Blues" by Sylvester Weaver (CD 2, #7), also from 1923, sounds to me like John Fahey or Leo Kottke, 40 years earlier. I had never heard of Sylvester Weaver before. CD 2, #10, James P. Johnson's "Bleeding Hearted Blues", from 1927, is so great. But then I think that I have heard only great recordings from James P. Johnson in the 1920s. CD 3, #26, Arizona Dranes' "Crucifixion"--what a great blues piano performance. I love stuff like this. Who is Arizona Dranes and why had I never heard of him before?

O.K., now I have a serious shopping list. I love this BFT, and now that I see the answers, I am rushing out to the nearest well stocked record store....oh wait.... It is especially good to get the information about the African albums, as I would not have a clue about how to begin to identify them. That is amazing that the vocal on Bonus Track #1 is by Harold "Geezil" Minerve. Harold "Geezil" Minerve is well known to me because the first time (of several) that I took Richard Davis' jazz history class at the University of Wisconsin, Harold's girlfriend, Jerri, was in the class and sat near us in the lecture hall. She told us many stories about traveling with the Ellington band while Harold was in it in the early 1970s, stories of the type that do not get into articles and books. She was a nice person, and drove us to a Dizzy Gillespie performance at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago in May, 1978--which was the only time I ever saw Dizzy live when he was really on fire for the entire evening. Dizzy came up to our table and told Jerri that he had Harold's pipe, because Harold had left it behind the last time they played chess. Getting back to the BFT, this is one I continue to play in the car for sheer pleasure.

You've got a gub?

They did win the World Series once!

What, no Noel Redding or Jack Bruce?

Allen, I think that any regrets you may have are akin to the 1961 New York Yankees thinking back on games they could have won. If I were you, I would sit back for a moment and bask in the triumph of your achievement.

Allen, where did you find this great stuff? I am amazed at how many records you have included with excellent acoustic slide guitar playing. I had no idea that so many even existed. One example--CD 5, Song 2, "Honey in the Rock" by Blind Mamie Forehand. This song, unknown to me before today, has a yearning, haunting vocal and some first rate slide guitar backing. It's one of the more powerful recordings I have ever heard. Again, where did you find this great stuff, Allen? But then, you have included the comfort foods of Doc Boggs, Tommy Johnson, John Hurt, Blind Blake, Blind Willie Johnson etc., so that the entire project does not seem like one giant roller coaster ride into obscurities. I am more impressed with this set the more I delve into it. I am also digging the jazz too, of course. I wonder how a hard core blues fanatic, who has never listened to jazz, will react to the great cuts by Charlie Johnson, King Oliver, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Joe Venuti, Meade Lux Lewis etc. That George Gershwin selection is an inspired choice. Annette Hanshaw's "I Must Have That Man", while quite good, has made me appreciate what a towering achievement Billie Holliday and Lester Young created on the same song. It is great to hear a different, good version for comparison.

No recall is needed as far as I am concerned. I am not complaining even if there was one duplication. With the immense riches of this set, it doesn't matter. I brought it up only because I thought that there might be an interesting story about two takes of the song. I am feeling grateful toward Allen, more so as I explore this volume even further. What a great collection! Allen really has a knack for picking songs with a distinctive quality within their stylistic niche.

One of the versions is listed at over 3 minutes and the other is listed at under 3 minutes. I have not listened to them back to back several times to determine if they are identical otherwise. There is such a wealth of great material to get to, that I did not want to stop and do that.

Baby Face Willette

I am referring to CD 7, Track 24, and CD 8, Track 7. Both are listed as Helen Morgan, "Can't Help Lovin' That Man." If this was a mistake, please rush out a corrected copy with a different song on CD 8, Track 7, so that I can be one of a few with the special collectors edition of Really the Blues, the impossibly rare version with two Helen Morgans.

I started listening to CD 9, then CD 8, then CD 7. My son was in the car with me as I listened and I imagined that he might like the later recordings better. WOW! This is a great set. It is an amazing stew of acoustic country blues all time classics, early jazz works in blues form, spirituals, piano blues, and some undefinable odd songs, which I especially love. 'Ham Beats All Meat"--wow, there had been a hole in my listening soul before I heard that one for the first time! There is enough of the "must include" well known artists and their classic songs, but then so many obscure songs too. I love the song on Disc 9 of the physician and woman patient--it reminds me of a similar routine by Lonnie Johnson in which he was a dentist. I had not known that the Lonnie Johnson song was only a part of a song tradition about women and medical men. Before hearing the three CDs which I have listened to in this set, I had thought that I had a decent working knowledge of earlier blues recordings....but no, I can already tell that I did not. Allen, I wonder if you could tell us why you chose to include two takes of Helen Morgan singing the same song on the same date?

Interesting points. In French's book, he describes how older musicians who joined Beefheart's band, such as Art Tripp and Elliott Ingber, would not put up with Beefheart's abuse, would confront him back, and he mostly left them alone. He seemed to prey on young musicians who were not very good at standing up for themselves. French himself describes episodes in his later life when he encountered Beefheart and told him off, although he felt a lot of emotion about doing it. I am not sure about Sun Ra. I have heard Michael Ray express only love and admiration for Ra in several long bandstand comments, during a concert by Michael Ray and his Cosmic Crewe. From what I have read, and obviously I was not there, Ra kept the musicians in long rehearsals, talked a lot, and punished the musicians for what he saw as behavior problems, such as getting drunk, but I am not sure that he was cruel to his band members. Maybe more like annoying, if you didn't like his long rehearsals and talking.

I think that you would have to get an appraiser to examine the collection and give you a written report, if you seriously wanted to have a reasonable assurance of getting paid off by an insurance company. A complete list of the albums would be needed too. I knew a record store owner who often offered to come over and examine my collection for that purpose. I was concerned that my Sun Ra's on Saturn Records would grow wings and fly out the door with him.

It was a treasure chest in which the "gold coins" were buried in massive piles of garbage. In other words, simply irresistible.

Interesting that the boyfriend pillow has no secondary sex characteristics, but the girlfriend pillow has breasts. So their marketing research revealed that women only want to cuddle, and men....

That sounds like a great deal of fun, and it is a very impressive haul. We had a time like that a few summers ago in Kansas City, when the massive collection of the Music Exchange was sold at very low prices, which went lower and lower as time progressed. Your account brings back memories of pawing through countless easy listening and soundtrack albums in search of a gem. There were certainly gems to be had. I agree with you that I wish that days like this came along more often!