danasgoodstuff

Amongst the currently active I gotta go with Perry Robinson, and not just 'cause he's the only one I've played with. But he did sound damn good when I was standing elbow to elbow with him getting blown off the stage! Heck of a nice guy too. If living is the test, Artie Shaw. All time? Sidney B, Johnny Dodds & Pee Wee are all up there for me, John Carter too.

We're on again this Wed. Don't think Perry will be there but I will, along with Vibra Stan and Jackie from Smegma and all the usual suspects. Be there, be square.

Clarinets (cylinders) overblow not at the octave like saxes (cones) but at the 12th (next harmonic, right?). That's why their fingering changes from one register to the other making them more complicated than saxes but able to cover a greater range (again, I think that's right, I play sax and have only held a clarinet for a few minutes). One of the things that false or alternate fingerings can allow you to do on a wind instrument is to sidestep the tempered scale cunumdrum and play perfectly in tune in all keys, or however 'imperfectly' you chose at any given point...if your ear and your technique are good enuff. I'm far short on both counts. I use three fingerings for b flat on a regular basis, but v. rarely much else.

My criteria for rock boxes is a little different. If it's a single artist box, then IMHO the basic rule is that you should be able to just buy the box and forget it - that should be all you really need. The Velevet Underground and Cream boxes, as different as they are, both meet this criteria - you could certainly live with just that, even though I can think of things which would have made them even better. I think the Faces box comes close, but I'd have to get all the original albums (aand some boots) to be sure and that kinda defeats the purpose. Of course, those bands all had relatively short lives, bands like the Stones would be hard to do properly in a managably consise box, although I'm sure that once Allen Klein dies we'll see one or more. Klein has of course kept Sam Cooke from being fully boxed, although the last attempt that included all of Nightbeat and Live @ the Harlem Sq. Club was v. good. The Who nd the Band should be possible to do in 4 CDs but so far the attempts have fallen far short. I've read that Robbie Robertson is working on another attempt at a Band box; it'll only work if they include some stuff with Hawkins and Dylan. Speaking of Bob, I have the Ten of Swords box, 10 LPs all at the time officially unissued from the beginning through Live at the Albert Hall (sic). Very nice even if it fails my test as set forth above. For genre boxes, I'm v. fond of Rhino's Doo Wop boxes, at least the first two, III is a little spotty. I was going to include a long tangental rant on the centrality of Doo Wop to R 'n R, but I'll save it for another thread. I enjoyed hearing both Nuggets boxes but don't feel any need to own them. Wouldn't mind hearing the Rhino Surf box, suffered through the Rhino Punk/New Wave box. I got all five Rhino Instrumental Rock CDs in a cardboard 'box' for $18 - not a perfect set but well worth it at that price. I don't think anyone has discussed label boxes here: I like the Stax Singles boxes (esp'ly the first), and the Jewell/Paula, Swingtime, Sun, Specialty, King, and Fire/Fury. A good overview of RPM/Kent still needs to be done; BB King's work for them has been given the royal treatment by Ace, UK. Chess has many interesting boxes on individual artists and various concepts, but most of them only add to the confusion in the end. I'd like to see boxes of their main artist that simply compile everything that was initially issued on singles, yes their are Muddy Waters singels that have still never been on US albums. Maybe next time we switch formats this will get done.

OK. I geuss y'all tired of hearing 'bout this by now, but I forgot the funniest part of my recent brush with (semi-)fame. I was sitting at the bar with my horn between sets (no, I don't let it out of my sight) when a patron came up and asked if I was form NY! Apparently he'd heard someone was and just couldn't figure out who. No, I didn't lead him on, although that could've been fun...

The thing that strikes me about the unopened records story is that these were 78s not LPs, i.e. they wouldn't have been shrinkwrapped so you couldn't tell for sure if they had been out of their covers or not. In other words, this story doesn't even make sense to me. I like Bix, to me the sad thing is that he doersn't need to be romanicized, what's really there in his music and life is more than interesting enough. As a C-melody player I, of course, like Tram too!

I like this one too, I have (part of?) it on a 2fer with the abovementioned sessions with Monk & Griffin (both v. nice too). Somehow it didn't inspire me to go out and buy more Clark Terry though...

So I went to the gig the other night, even tho' I'd been frustrated with my practising all that week, largely as a result of not playing enuff earlier in the month. So, the first set goes OK, everyone seems glad to see me both before and after. Especially our surprise guests who are there to play the 2nd set, local (but most excellent) drummer Abcar DePreist, Seattle tromboner Mark oh-no-I'm-forgetting his name, and, on clarinet, Perry Robinson. Yes, that Perry Robinson who is especially complimentary. So, they play their set, which is lovely (including Henry Grimes "Farmer Alphalpha" and a v. out snipet of "Sing, Sing, Sing"). Next set is the big freeforall, I'm thinking 'they don't need me cluttering up an already crowded stage', but others encourage me to play so I do. It's not too awful (my bit, I mean) even though I'm totally imtimidated and Perry is standing right next to me. I know I'm not going to be gigging with Henry Grimes next week, nor should I be. But it's still v. nice to get to play with the big boys and be one or two degrees of seperation from Albert Ayler. I'm so chuffed I go out and buy a new/old case for my Conn C-melody but on the way home some yo-yo sideswipes my good car while it's parked in front of my friend's record shop (www.jumpjump.com). Oh, and Perry at one point compared my playing to Desmond's, quite a compliment coming from a guy who played with Brubeck. And no, lp, I don't care if "he's just nice to everyone". All in all, a busy week.

Rainyday, If you haven't been to Ptld lately, Alberta street is full of Galleries and resteraunts, and North Mississippi is even more amazing, 'turned around' virtually overnight. My nearest rundown business district, Kenton, has been officially annointed as next. I think I preferred it when it had the highest concentration of bars in a three block stretch in the city. But even yuppie scum are preferable to empty storefronts. I'm a big Willie fan (that doesn't sound right!), but in many ways his aesthetic is v. non-R 'n R...

Rainyday, Nothing wrong with NE, I just get tired of local news outlets and other longtime residents who can't tell the difference/don't know that Ptld has 5 'quarters'. People if you're west of Williams Ave & east of the river, it's North. My mom grew up at 24th & Going, the house is 'sorta' still in the family. Getting mighty gentrified over there now. I've been to the Produce Row jams, but not much anymore. Dana

Our Man In Paris, no contest. I just love the swaggering authority with which Dex plays on this. I always figured the reason that nothing from it was on the best of was because you were supposed to buy Our Man & the Best of...

As a resident of North Portland (not NE, thank you v. much) I have no problem with Miller advertising whatever brand of swill they think the locals will drink. The 50th ann beercan thing is pretty funny; I think 'too many cooks' had something to do with it since Miller, RS & some 3rd party were all involved. Also funny that they mention Jimi H. as the black guy whose picture they couldn't get clearance for--I didn't think Miller made his drug of choice! I'm not a Miller fan, but I'll still take it over Bud if that's my only choice. Couldn't put Chuck Berry on a beer can, he probably gives it to underage girls...

Thanks for the imput. I asked Jackie if we should rehearse, back when we first talked about it. Her response was something along the lines of 'if you want to, but we don't play tunes so you don't need to...' The other players do respond to each other and the turntable/samples, but not in a 'playing the same tune' kind of way. The feedback I've gotten so far has been positive. I figure that however many gigs I end up playing is exactly that many more than I ever expected to play... I continue to practise tunes, but figure maybe I should be working on something else...scales, riffs and exercises wouldn't hurt but don't quite seem right for this gig either.

Great story 'bout Bernie S. Only way it could've been better was if you had gone home with Miss Congeniality! I have to wonder if Ayler and other might not have been better off without ESP...certainly there would be less documentation of their playing but it would've been done better(?) Even in the official ESP site bio, he and they come off as rather naive, especially for a NYC lawyer. Oh well, what happened happened.

I remember seeing Sonny with Cosby, D. Murray, and assorted others on TV (BET?!). They were all players from a 'Cosby Presents...' album, but a different combo than any of the tracks on the album. They played something from the labum and a smoking version of "All Blues". Is this performance in circulation? If I was doing a SS box, I'd want that version of "All Blues" for it...

BNBB

One of the Brit Rock Rags (MOJO?) has an issue out now with a bonus CD, something like 'the roots of Led Zep', with the predictable blues and lots of Brit folkie acoustic guitar pickers... The accompanying commentary might be interesting to you.

Love News, More News & SC Memorial Q I have a JB instrumentals LP from the 60s where they do Sidewinder and Song For My Father, w/out funking them up too much. May be we should start another thread for Blue on Blue covers of BN material on BN, eg John Patton's versions of The Turnaround & Chitlins Con Carne?

A few months ago a friend of mine asked me to come sit in with her at a once a month free improv gig (Sound Sunday Pleasure at the Dunes in Portland, first Wed of the month if you want to come). Pretty brave and generous of her considering she'd never heard me play... So I went and listened to the next one and then sat in on the last two. I'm thrilled to be playing in public and be treated like a real musician by the others, but I have no idea if I'm really contributing much. Any suggestions on ways to approach this sort of thing? I tend to free associate bits of tunes...

I liked Like Minds, but for me it was too many 'like sounds' or maybe it was the mix that made it the different instruments sound not different enough... Love Crystal Scilence. Burton's recording debut on Hank Garland's Jazz Winds From a Different Direction is worth checking out too.

My memory is that the Motion On Broadway is v. good, that Konitz makes it even better than the first two w/out him... Nedd to listen to it again, soon.

Shrdlu: The Harold Land on Cadet/Argo is nice, shorter tunes but otherwise not radically different than what they did for BN. I've only listened to it once, so more than I can not say...

"Sanctuary" 'cause that's what Miles sounds like he's looking for with all that rattle & hum building up to his three note cry. Lots of interesting stuff tto listen to all the way through, and yes I do own the box...

I'm most definitely NOT a Talking Heads fan, BUT TNTBTH(?) really is a great live album from an era that wasn't especially plush with them 'cause the expanded version of this band could really play...and the originals and the audience all seem v. excited by that. I have a theory (not again!) that many name rock bands (the Stones, the Who, Led Zep, etc.) actually put out mediocre live albums on purpose, so they don't have to try to live up to what the're really capable of 'on a good night'...

Larry, Thank you for a thoughtful & thought-provoking reply. I think I need to digest before commenting further. Jim, Want to have a go at the Rollins +3 album being the best argument for taking his recent work at least somewhat as seriously as the classic? I think it's better than any number of run-of-the-mill records from back in the day, if not quite as good as the best of 'em.... Dana