The Mule

$90 isn't way high for this used, $30 is way LOW. You got a helluva bargain. I think I paid about $75 for it used. In any case, it's an EXCELLENT box set if you love Dolphy. I have to keep reminding myself that all the music recorded therein was done in only a year-and-a-half! Some artists don't lay down that much great music in an entire career. Makes me think that some people just know they're not gonna be around long so they get it all out fast and move on...

OBITUARIES Grover Mitchell, 73; Trombonist Brought New Success to Basie Band By Jon Thurber Times Staff Writer August 9, 2003 Grover Mitchell, a jazz trombonist known primarily for his work with the Count Basie Orchestra, has died. He was 73. Mitchell, who since 1995 had also been the leader of the Basie band, died Wednesday in a New York City hospital of cancer. A member of Basie's orchestra from 1962 to 1970 and again from 1980 to 1984, Mitchell became the third person to lead the group after Basie's death from cancer in 1984. In taking over the orchestra, which had been led after Basie's death first by trumpeter Thad Jones and next by saxophonist Frank Foster, Mitchell solidified the group and returned it to making music more closely reflecting the great sounds of the Basie era. Under Mitchell's leadership, the band made several fine recordings, including the Grammy-winning "Count Basie Orchestra With the New York Voices" (1996) and "Count Plays Duke" (1998). Born in Whatley, Ala., Mitchell grew up in Pittsburgh. He wanted to play trumpet, but his school band teacher took one look at his long arms and gave him a trombone. He hated the instrument at first, he once told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but grew more receptive to it after hearing Tommy Dorsey play. Mitchell later earned a degree in music from Empire State College. As a teenager, he started playing in local bands around Pittsburgh and then territory bands in Indiana in the late 1940s. By the early 1950s, he was living in San Francisco and working with Earl "Fatha" Hines. After serving in the Marines, he played with Lionel Hampton in the late 1950s and Duke Ellington in the early 1960s before joining Basie. Mitchell developed a reputation as a solid brass player with the Basie orchestra but quit in 1970 for more lucrative opportunities as a studio musician in L.A. He had a regular gig on the "Flip Wilson Show" on NBC for nearly a decade and did film work as well, including "Lady Sings the Blues." In 1980, Mitchell returned to the Basie orchestra as lead trombonist. Off the bandstand, he was an important figure as well, helping the increasingly frail Basie prepare for concerts. After taking over the band in 1995 at the invitation of the Basie estate and organization, Mitchell reinstituted the core Basie sound. He told jazz writer Zan Stewart that the Basie units led by Jones and Foster "had gotten away from the original sound." While retaining such Basie standards as "One O'Clock Jump" and "Every Day," he brought back several tunes including Ernie Wilkins' "Kansas City Suite," Quincy Jones' "Dum Dum" and "For Lena and Lennie." As the result of these efforts, Mitchell told Stewart in 1997, "the current version of the band is as good as I ever played in." No successor to Mitchell has been named to lead the Basie orchestra. Mitchell is survived by his daughter, Gail O'Brien; two sisters, Edwina Posey and Marva Wilkes; and two grandchildren.

Man, it's been a rough year for jazz... This was one of my favorite reissues in the West Coast Series And I had just picked up this one last month...

Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!! Judges bribed?! In Chicago?! I'm shocked!!! SHOCKED!!! I'm a born and bred former Chicagoan and there's a looooooong history of judicial corruption in the Windy City. It wasn't called "The City That Works" for nuthin'. In this case, however, those two south-suburban knucklehead scumbags absolutely DO NOT look as if they've got the cash to bribe ANYBODY. I grew up with jamokes like that and they don't have pot to piss in let alone sense enough to be able to pull off a bribe.

Can't recall if this thread has been done in the past, but I thought it might be interesting if we shared our lists of what jazz artists we've seen perform live. I've only been attending live jazz shows for the past 20 years or so and I'm sure some of the "veterans" around here will blow the rest of us away, but here goes: Miles Davis (it was on the TUTU tour, but still....) Max Roach w/Odean Pope Dizzy Gillespie & Sam Rivers Dexter Gordon Sonny Rollins (twice) Jackie McLean (twice, once with Cedar Walton & once with his son, Rene) Joanne Brackeen Jimmy Smith Roy Haynes Bobby Hutcherson & Harold Land Sam Rivers Johnny Griffin Benny Golson Chico Hamilton Andrew Hill Martial Solal Mingus Big Band Mingus Epitath Concert Village Vanguard Orchestra I know there are others, but I can't recall at the moment...

JAZZ Shorter's imagination keeps cruising along at 70 A font of musical ideas, the composer and sax man nears a milestone and a bash at the Bowl. By Don Heckman Special to The Times August 5 2003 Wayne Shorter is gleefully describing the ocean view from his 27th-floor condo in Miami, Fla. "In one direction," he says, "I can look across the water and see the building Whitney Houston and Sophia Loren live in.... Sometimes we see a cruise ship go by, and since you can't see any horizon, it's like it's just floating out there in space." It's been a bit more than two years since Shorter and his wife, Carolina, visited friends in the area and instantly fell in love with the expansive, glass-enclosed aerie that would become their new digs. "When I walked in," he recalls, "I said, 'Uh-oh. Where's Captain Kirk? I felt like I was in a spaceship. We went back to L.A., and the day after we arrived, we said to each other, 'You want to move?' And that was it." In that moment, Los Angeles lost the regular presence of one of its preeminent jazz figures. Saxophonist Shorter is widely regarded as a nonpareil original, arguably the most influential living jazz composer. And with good cause. His creative powers — like those of Charlie Parker and John Coltrane — trace to the seamless connection between his improvisations and his compositions. But Shorter moved beyond Parker and Coltrane by creating works — ranging from impressionistic items such as "Lester Left Town" to stretched-out, melodically motivic pieces such as "Nefertiti," "E.S.P" and "Footprints" — which are far more than mere combinations of melody and harmony. The unique qualities of his music — with their insistence upon specific chordal voicings, their canny open spaces allowing soloists to soar while providing a cohesive sense of form and structure — profoundly impacted Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, the Miles Davis Quintet and (via Shorter's partnership with Joe Zawinul) the groundbreaking fusion group, Weather Report. Shorter's soloing, which has ranged (and continues to range) from straight-ahead hard bop and freestyle stretching out to funk-driven witticisms, has also offered consistently appealing riches, largely because of his capacity to remain in touch with melody, subtly pulling his listeners into his unfolding improvisational process. On Wednesday, less than three weeks before he turns 70, Shorter returns to Los Angeles for a celebration of his life and music at the Hollywood Bowl. In addition to his regular quartet — which includes pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade — he will be joined by his longtime friend and musical companion, pianist Herbie Hancock, along with guitarist Carlos Santana, dancer Savion Glover and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra conducted by Nicole Paiement. Shorter takes a lighthearted view of this star-studded birthday celebration. "I don't even think about it," he says, speaking by phone from his Florida condo, "because I feel like there's so much to do. I'm drowning in music paper. I call my work room the 'fun room.' I don't like to say, 'Let's go in the studio.' It's the fun room." "Fun" would seem a strange word to associate with a jazz artist whose résumé includes so many serious accomplishments. But fun, as in the joy of creativity, is an essential part of Shorter's personality. Omnivorously curious, he gathers ideas from every imaginable source and synthesizes them into his own imaginative interpretations. Sometimes described affectionately by friends as "Wayne the Brain," he converses in a way that reflects his jazz solos — free-floating improvisations in which seemingly random ideas and thoughts coalesce, often unexpectedly, into deeply focused points of view. Discussing one of his constant fascinations — old monster movies — for example, he spins off a recollection of character actors such as Maria Ouspenskaya and Sidney Greenstreet. Shorter's knowledgeable anecdotes (including a restatement of Ouspenskaya's famous "Wolfman" curse, for example) eventually lead to an insight connected to his own creative view. "The thing I get from movies," he says, "is what to look out for. I look for the chance-taking in certain actors. I look at how, when they're locked into a situation, the way they perform within that situation, how they break out. The way actors like Brando can't be harnessed." Equally intrigued by science fiction, Shorter has cruised secondhand bookstores in search of offbeat items. Describing an effort to find a particular item from an English outlet, he notes how this experience, as well, relates to his modus operandi. "The lady told me she'd have to look for it in the cupboard," he recalls. "And I thought, 'Hmm, I liked that word — cupboard. There's some rhythm in that.' And when I think about things like that and I'm between projects, that's the sort of unknown bounce that can trigger something — an appreciation of people's lives, their everyday activities, the way they talk and think. "Because it's not about me trying to get to Mars, or the thought that I'm going to be special if I find another galaxy that no one else has found. It's not that. It's the stuff that people overlook that is the real science fiction. People overlooking each other. It's not fiction, but I fictionalize it and see if I can" — and here he lapses into a monster movie-like delivery — "bring it to life!" Shorter's move to Florida is one element in a career revitalization that has been taking place over the past few years. Always a painstaking craftsman who works meticulously to find precisely the right musical solutions, he has nonetheless delivered a prolific series of efforts since the mid- to late '90s, including albums such as 1995's "High Life," a set of stunning duet performances with Hancock (with whom he also teamed up for the "1 + 1" live album), the establishment of his first regular working band in years (for last year's "Footprints Live!" album), and a collection of lovely arrangements titled "Alegría" (his most recent CD and his first studio recording since "High Life"). If there is a single theme that emerges through the free-floating, scattershot aspects of his conversation, it is the insistence that the Hollywood Bowl performance — despite its anniversary aspects — will be a present-tense event. Seventy, for Shorter, clearly represents only a number, and his artistic goals remain the same, alive in the moment and directly linked to a philosophical view strongly impacted by his Buddhist beliefs. "Historically," he says, "the shadow, which is indicative of the environment, moves, and the body matches the movement of the shadow. You look in the mirror, and the mirror talks to you — 'Hey! You're a little too fat. You're a little too skinny. Oops. Get rid of that mole. You'd better improve yourself if you're going to match yourself against someone else.' "But for what I call human revolution to take place, the body has to bend, and the shadow follows," he says. "We have been historically subject to our objective environment. And now it's time for the human being to become objective and the environment to become subjective — and that applies to the environment of thought too." Surveying his 180-degree ocean vista, Shorter laughs for a moment, worried that he might have become a bit too serious. He launches into a sidebar conversation about his fascination with comic-book superheroes. "I'm checking out the top of my shelves," he says, "and I see the Daredevil, I see Marvel Comics. I just got a lantern — [trumpeter] Wallace Roney sent it to me — that is from the Green Lantern. And I have a Green Lantern ring that lights up." But inevitably he turns back to his music, eager to make one final point. "What I want the music to do," says Shorter, "is maybe trigger something in people that helps them to remember that they are eternal. To help them remember that when you put your hand on your own eternity, you don't have to go robbing a bank because you think you only live once. You don't have to be on trial for something, or go off on Hollywood Boulevard. You don't have to step on people. Because if you do you're going to miss the boat."

Lon and Pops share a birthday. Somehow seems destined... In any case, here is a heartfelt Happy Birthday to a man I met on these boards and has since enriched both my musical knowledge and my everyday life. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LON!!!!!

I don't know about the new I WANT YOU, but the "deluxe edition" of LET'S GET IT ON is amazing. The sound is incredible and there's a ton of great unissued stuff which illustrates the creative bridge between WHAT'S GOIN' ON and LET'S GET IT ON. Can't recommend this one highly enough.

Don't forget Johnny Cash and the earliest recordings of Roy Orbison... Rest In Peace, Sam.

I have a family member who is a guide at Taliesin West. Amazing place! Well worth the trip if you're in the area (Scottsdale, AZ).

It's the work of Jim Flora. Here's an entire web-site devoted to his very unique style: The Jim Flora Gallery

Really? I can. Anybody else not seeing these?

Quite a collection. Especially DON'T PANIC! Also nothing like a very literal image for SY'S BACK....

Yikes!

Gotta love the title on this one... ...and this is just plain disturbing...

Very true. Good call. Great record.

Love this one:

Never saw these before:

I used to work about a mile from Atomic and it was a problem.... Now I'm across town and about a mile away from Rhino, which is not as much of a problem. I live about a mile from Amoeba and Aron's which is a BIG problem.... Yes, a movie at the Chinese or El Capitan should definitely be on the list. Also, since we're in the neighborhood a nightcap at Boardner's on Cherokee is a must. This bar has been featured in dozens of movies and television shows including ED WOOD. It used to be a bit of dive and the old bartender, George, once acted in blaxploitation movies like CLEOPATRA JONES. In the past two years, however, it's gone a bit upscale and has lost some of its dumpy charm. George is gone now and the customers are a bit more yuppified than they used to be. Still worth going to for a quick drink, tho.

J, is that the gas station in Palm Springs, CA? Think it might be. There's another one that looks very similar in West Los Angeles/Beverly Hills.

All I can find on the internet is that he's playing in both a trio and quartet format at the Telluride Jazz Festival in early August before he comes to LA. No mention of the sidemen...

Pan Pacific Auditorium, Los Angeles, California It burned down....

Johnson Wax Building, Racine, Wisconsin, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Interior of same:

Marina Towers, Chicago, Illinois. (Steve McQueen once drove a car out of one of these into the river in THE HUNTER....)