DukeCity

Barney Fife Floyd Lawson Ernest T. Bass

Often misquoted, it was actually, "...plays with Big Skitch."

I had a rehearsal today. When we scheduled it a while back, I mentioned that it would be Trane's b-day, so the singer in the band made sure we had some Sweet Potato Pie in celebration!!! YUM!!!!

I like PayPal a lot. I've used it mostly as a buyer, but recently sold a couple of saxophones, and recieved payment via PayPal. It's a bit of a drag to have to pay the fees, but I negotiated a prices with my two buyers that basically resulted in us splitting the fee. Also, my saxophone quartet started selling some merchandise at cafepress.com, and the profits from our meager sales are automatically put into my PayPal accound on a quarterly basis. Very easy and convenient!

Sometimes it seems that we (as listeners, or the writers that were quoted on the TBP blog) over-think these things. TBP was saying that they're not doing those covers with a knowing wink or an ironic agenda. They're just taking tunes they like, and playing them in a way that pleases them. We might dig it, or not. But it doesn't always bear up under too much scrutiny. What I'm not sure of is when jazz players in the '40s or '50s were doing show tunes or pop songs, how much was it that they just liked the tunes and the chord changes for blowing, and how much was it about playing some melodies that folks could recognize (or record companies wanting to put out recognizable titles)? Did some porducers/label guys specifically want some pop titles, or were they just as happy to put out records with all originals?

Jim, don't sell yourself short; not just awesomer, I'd say awesomEST!!!

My last name (Kostur) is not very common, but the database say that there aren't any of us! As it happens, just the other day UPS delivered two packages addressed to Glenn Kostur, but other labels on the boxes indicated that they were originally sent to a GK in Colorado. Apparently he moved, the packages got refused, and when someone did a search they came up with my address. Sadly, nothing good in the packages; just stacks of brochures for some Pharm company.

Brandon was a student of mine for a couple of years here in ABQ, and we played quite a few gigs together, both during and after his time in school. He's a very creative musician, and brings really positive energy to all of his projects. I'm sure it will be a great concert!

I was playing a gig at a church here in town that has a house jazz trio as the music (plus a guest each week). My wife was there, and asked the bass player about "my situation." He told me about her and introduced us a couple of weeks later. We just recently celebrated our First Hundred Days of marriage! I have some friends who found their spouses on match.com, and I tried it for a while. Met some nice women, but never made any real connections.

I also like the cameo appearance of Dave Sanborn on "contra" alto sax!

Ahh, the mysterious 2nd tenor on the grassy knoll...

Uncovered Heart (and KW's other Sunnyside titles) are available at emusic.com, as is the Maybeck solo record.

Excellent clip! Of course, then I got sucked into the YouTube vortex and watched Coltrane play Green Dolphin with Wynton, PC, and Jimmy Cobb. And so on, and so on...

I dig Ella, but this one doesn't really work for me. Yeah, it's later Ella and she's not in her prime, but it's mostly just the the when-worlds-collide feeling I get with Ella singing over an electric rhythm section. I'm confident that it could've worked with an acoustic rhythm section, or a different singer over this one. But the electric piano and bass just highlight the fact that Ella isn't/wasn't really a 1980's kinda gal. And it doesn't help that Zoot and CT sound equally out of place in that setting. Toots sound fine in that whole reverb-drenched thing. No dis on choosing this as AOTW, and I'm glad that some here enjoy this one. Hell, I hadn't even heard this one until it was mentioned here, so I'm glad it came up. Now I know...

Fred Thompson Barney Frank Betty McCollum

That's hilarious! I saw a story where a woman had been trying to get her husband and kids to pick up after themselves. After several warnings, she made good on her promise to pick up thier clothes, backpacks, briefcases, etc. and sell them on eBay (or was it Craigslist?). She did indeed see their stuff, and then donated the money to the charity of thier choice. Six kids....

Sorry for your loss, Mark. Sounds like Moose was a great pet!

OK, I'll contribute... I'm a fan. I have some of the Old Testament, but tend to gravitate to stuff from the late '50s. I really like "Chairman of the Board" with some of those Thad Jones charts.

Great news about the Uptown release, Chuck! Be sure to let us know when it's out...

I've never heard anyone with their EWI thing more together than Michael Brecker. The technique for playing EWI is just different enough from saxophone that it really is like learning a new instrument. Brecker invested a ton of time to develop phenomenal EWI technique. Also, as with keyboard synths, a huge part of the whole thing is getting sounds together. In the mid-'80s when Brecker was first getting into the EWI, he hooked up with a programmer named Judd Miller. Judd helped him get sounds together, as well as helping Brecker get a whole rig of sequencers and effects. Here's a later performance to check out. Maybe not your cup of tea musically, but damn impressive:

Happy Birthday, SS! Hope you had a great one!

It looks/sounds like there's a woodblock (most likely plastic) mounted between two of the drums. There was another one mounted between some drums on the right-hand side of his set up as well. Pretty fancy work!

I'm by no means an expert in this area, but over the last several years I've written a stack of arrangements for the college marching band where I teach. Our band does more half-time/entertainment oriented stuff, so they're playing Earth, Wind & Fire and Motown and "classic rock" stuff. But from hanging out with those guys a little I've learned a tiny bit about that whole world. In DCI (Drum Corp Intl.) there are groups like the ones linked to in this thread, that are stretching the idea of marching band to make it a "performance art". The Star of Indiana eventually evolved into a group called which is a touring theatrical stage show. Groups like the Cavaliers are doing Bartok, etc., but there are also groups like the Blue Devils from Concord, CA favor a higher/faster/louder approach doing jazz oriented shows (think Buddy Rich big band meets Don Ellis meets Pat Metheny Group with some girls twirling rifles). Of course, all of this is dependent on getting participants and fans from the ranks of high school marching bands. The high school equivalent of DCI is BOA (Bands of America), and the bands that are highly competetive in that arena (and you know it's not good music unless in can stand up in competition) model their shows after their favorite drum corps. Directors, arrangers and drill writers/visual designers spend their summers checking out DCI competitions to get ideas. Often, high schools will hire specialists to design shows for them, and those designers may very well be also employed by DCI groups. High school bands in the upper eschelons of this thing will spend well into six figures each year to design a show and take that show to several competitions to prepare for BOA competition. As for how the DCI groups evlolved, I think things shifted a lot when they changed the instruments being used. For many years the "bugles" used were strange hybrid instruments with only one or two valves. They could play more melodically than true, valve-less bugles, but they could not play fully chromatic music that trumpets and french horns can play. Several years ago DCI decided to allow three-vavle instruments, which now allows them to play fully chromatic stuff (Bartok). So, there you have it...

"I even call my girlfriend "Man"..."

But does the clarinet? You betcha! Hogarth was working in the first half of the 18th century, and that is about the time that the clarinet was developed (from a recorder-like instrument called the chalumeau).