DukeCity

Mine is a 20" and I love it. Not that size matters....or so I keep telling myself...

Last weekend I was talking with saxophonist Dave Pietro. He's primarily an alto player, but has recorded recently on C melody. He told me that he got an F alto and has been playing with that a little.

Indeed. Maynard used to joke about being called a "screech" player, with all of the negative connotations it comes with. A similar term that many trumpet guys embrace is "scream trumpet". Why screaming is better than screeching I'm not sure. One very fine high note trumpet player (that FreeForAll used to work a lot with) devised his own self-depricating term, "Blasting Lug Head".

That looks like a nice boxed-set. Sounds like a rotary valve trumpet. Lots of orchestral players (especially in Europe) use those, and in recent years I've seen Claudio Roditi using one.

You know, I've always thought that the various recordings of COTN were missing something. After hearing this one, it finally made sense: It needed an insanely high trumpet obligato, courtesy of Bud Brisbois! BTW: seems like Billy May was on a Shorter/Blakey/Bobby Timmons/Horace Silver/Blue Note/Hard Bop kick on this side, what with COTN, The Preacher, Whisper Not, Moanin' and Dat Dere included...

Art Vanderlai? ahh... the architect of many fine solos...

This discussion made me think of Yacht Rock. The Linda Ronstadt talk made me fondly recall a gig I did a few years ago, backing her up as part of the orchestra. Big outdoor thing (Memorial Day? 4th of July?), and she had a full orchestra with a rhythm section from L.A. and Bob Florence as conductor/pianist. We launch into a show of standards from her Nelson Riddle albums and everything is fine. Until the crowd turned on her. We were playing in Bernalillo, New Mexico for a HEAVILY Hispanic crowd, and they wanted to hear stuff from some Mariachi albums she had done. She heard a couple of folks in the audience shouting about it and said "I'm sorry, we don't have those arrangements here today. We hope you'll enjoy this next tune..." Then the crowd starts chanting, "Mariachi! Mariachi!". We slogged through a couple more tunes and then LR said "Thank you. Goodnight!", slinked offstage and into the waiting limo to beat a hasty retreat.

IIRC there's a couple of cuts in the Maynard/Roulette Mosaic box called Madison Pt. 1 and Pt. 2, where MF "calls" the dance. I remember trying to visualize the dance by mentally following his directions, but apparently my brain has two left feet (lobes?).

Always a very tough call. Difficult to watch a loved pet suffer, and just as difficult to "make the call". Sorry for your loss, papsrus (and yours, too, Chuck).

I can't help but think that a well placed comma toward the end of that title would make it a lot less...uh...creepy/felonious. That said, thanks for reviving this thread. I've heard bits and pieces of the TGDB, but have to admit it's a hole in my collection. Time to remedy that...

"This posting has been deleted by its author. (The title on the listings page will be removed in just a few minutes.)"

From this article about the history of the saxophone: "1841 - Adolphe Sax first showed his creation (a C bass saxophone) to the composer Hector Berlioz. The great composer was impressed by the uniqueness and versatility of the instrument." Don't know if there were ever (m)any C basses commercially produced. The whole Key of C/Key of F family of saxes never really caught on (except for the C melody, of course) but there are some collectors who have F altos and F baritones.

I have an LP from 1976 (Zim records 1004) of an airshot of Charlie Venura's band with this line up, and most of these tunes (no "Soothe Me" or "Baby All The Time", but other titles appear on the record). The record is called Charlie Ventura Sextet In Chicago- 1947, and the liner notes admit that it's not clear what the exact date was, guessing summer or autumn of '47. I've looked for a CD reissue of this or other Ventura/Stewart recordings, but so far I've come up empty.

Thanks for the info, Chris. Keep the stuff coming!

PM sent, re: Coltrane box.

The tubax is made by a guy named Eppelsheim. Available in a few different keys, and the basic idea is that the tube is as long as a contrabass sax (like Braxton plays) but the diameter of the tube is smaller. Also, the whole thing is "wrapped" to make for a smaller, easier-to-manage package. I think most of Eppelsheim's instruments are done on a special order basis. In the last few years there have been some Taiwanese manufacturers making "affordable" Bb bass saxophones (as in $6K - $9K as opposed to well over $10K for a Selmer or Keilwerth).

Thanks for posting these, Chris! Under "Additonal expenses" there's $350 for "arrangements". Do you have any recollection as to who did the arrangements? How involved the charts were (for a quintet doing what looks like a fairly straight ahead set of tunes)?

Happy Birthday, GA!!!

If I had stuff like that in my closets, I'd be posting it, too! Please keep it coming.

Or "jues"? Dammit, FFA was too quick for me!

I give Colbert props for singing a pretty decent harmony part to the Star Spangled Banner!

It's comforting to know that a group of jazz guys (especially Mr. Nickel) were such sticklers for parlimentary procedure. I'm envisioning a copy of Robert's Rules of Order sitting in the middle of the table at that meeting.

I didn't attend the concert, but one night I was playing a lounge gig in Dallas (mid-1980's) and two of these guys walk in to the bar: I had never heard of their band, but they told me that they were listed in the Guinness Book as being the loudest band ever. Later, I looked it up, and sure enough...

Happy Birthday, Chris!!!

Thanks for (re)posting those pics, Michael!