Cali

Just as a point of information, Lee Morgan didn't have a "process". That was his natural hair. BTW thanks Lazaro for that Billy Hart interview. Outstanding.

Remember seeing this when it came out. Sammy's character was an over-the-top interpretation of Miles. Ironically, Sammy's love interest in the film, Cecily Tyson, was engaged to Miles at the time.

Went by Tower Records in Pasadena last night (30% discount at this time). They had over a dozen different titles by Sun Ra in the bin. I had never seen more than one or two titles by him in this store before and I have been going to this store for fourteen years. Question: Why am I seeing inventory in this store that I've never seen before? I'm seeing other classic titles for the first time in this store. Are they stocking the shelves with things they've had all along or are they bringing in items from other stores?

Another thing I liked about Mr. Bradley was his fashion sense. The man was clean.

Here's one of mine:

Not if you're a Laker fan. But seriously, RIP Red. You were an innovator.

Well, I love Hank Mobley and listen to him more than Stanley, but . . . . Stanley had a much bigger, rounder sound than Hank. This is not to take anything away from Hank because he had many other strengths. But as far as a "big tenor" sound, Hank can't be compared to Stanley IMHO.

THAT'S WHERE IT'S AT is becoming my favorite Turrentine. And I've always loved his playing on Horace Parlan's ON THE SPUR OF THE MOMENT.

Phil is looking and sounding good. Catching him and his band a few times over the summer, I was amazed at how he appears to be fully recovered. His playing is still extraordinary.

Just came back from their Pasadena, CA store. Didn't buy anything. All the prices have been marked up to discount the 15 to 20% mark downs. Bought stuff cheaper there before this so-called sale. I'll check in the following weeks to see when prices actually come down. One thing though, I saw some jazz titles I hadn't seen at the store in the past.

Hey, but half a Hubbard is equal to a whole of . . . . . .

Please give a review. I plan to go tomorrow night. I'm crazy about the organ player, Gerard Gibbs, whom I saw last week.

Spiders as well! http://www.usyd.edu.au/anaes/venom/spiders.html#FUNNELWEB Oh, I don't know, I think Africa has some pretty frightening animals, as well. And by the way, why was your face in the dorm toilet?

Gerald Wilson moved to Detroit in 1934 and attended Cass Technical High School, a high school that's known for it's music department. Some of it's famous alumni are Betty Carter, Yusef Lateef, Milt Jackson, Kenny Burrell, Al McKibbon, Ron Carter, Donald Byrd, Howard McGee, Alice Coltrane, Bennie Maupin, the list goes on an on. Even some of the current jazz "stars", like Regina Carter, attended Cass. I can think of no other high school that has produced so many great musicians.

Maybe this kind of death is so rare because people rarely swim so close on top of giant stingrays.

I don't buy the argument that the rest of the world has caught up. I think that US basketball has declined. Someone mentioned the poor free throw shooting by the US team. When you shoot free throws 59% as a team and lose by 6 points, well duh! US basketball players are poor perimeter shooters. Their three point shooting percentage was in the 30% range (and that goes for Kobe, too). They can't consistently hit the 17' jumper, which used to be a prerequisite for making it in the NBA. Dunks can be jaw dropping to the spectators but when you haven't mastered the half court game and your opponent has, you're in trouble. One reason for the huge influx of foreign players into the NBA is that US players are no longer good outside shooters. They used to be, until dunking and one on one moves became the featured highlights on sports shows. When most of the "star" players in the NBA play 2 years or less of college ball, of course they don't understand the fundamentals. AND....with them making the salaries they make they are not about to listen to someone who wants to change their game. The original "Dream Team" was sound in every phase of the game. They were men and not kids and they understood how to win. They were on a mission. They had a meeting before the Olympics and vowed to "beat every team they played by at least 30 points", no matter what they had to do. And they did it. Charles Barkley was roundly (no pun intended) criticized in the US media for body slamming some opponent in one of the opening games. But he established in the beginning that they were not taking any crap from anyone, that they were serious and that none of their opponents should even dream that they had a chance to win. That kind of take no prisoners attitude is what made them champions.

Another irony is Betty Mabry, whom Miles wrote the song about and later married, introduced Miles to Jimi Hendrix. In Miles autobiography there is a picture of Miles and Betty attending Hendrix's funeral. Miles, "Jimi Hendrix's death upset me because he was so young and had so much ahead of him". He said Hendrix was a friend and a great musician who influenced his playing. The hillbilly quote from Miles autobiography was: "But Jimi was also close to hillbilly, country music played by them mountain white people. That's why he had those two English guys in his band, because a lot of white English musicians liked that American hillbilly music. The best he sounded to me was when he had Buddy Miles on drums and Billy Cox on bass. Jimi was playing that Indian kind of shit, or he'd play those funny little melodies he doubled up on his guitar. I loved it when he doubled up shit like that. He used to play 6/8 all the time when he was with them white English guys and that's what made him sound like a hillbilly to me. Just that concept he was doing with that. But when he started playing with Buddy and Billy in the Band of Gypsies, I think he brought what he was doing all the way out. But the record companies and white people liked him better when he had the white guys in his band. Just like a lot of white people like to talk about me when I was doing the nonet thing--the Birth of the Cool thing, or when I did those other albums with Gil Evans or Bill Evans because they always like to see white people up in black shit, so that they can say they had something to do with it. But Jimi Hendrix came from the blues, like me. We understood each other right away because of that. He was a great blues guitarist."

Damn, Herbie!

As a kid in Detroit, my friends and I loved Soupy. His noon-time show was a crack-up. It was a kids show but he would do all this risque humor. We thought we were getting one over on our parents, like we were insiders. I remember those characters so well, White Fang, Black Tooth and in particular, Pookie!

Bo-o-o, spanky bass player! Hoo-ray, Dave James!

Not only is Larry Young the organ player but "Old Man Moses" is actually the spiritual "Go Down Moses". Grant Green has another version of this song on FEELIN' THE SPIRIT.

KoB. First time I heard Trane's solo on SO WHAT was a life changing experience. Previously had been into LockJaw on those COOKBOOK LPs. When I heard Trane it was like an electric jolt.

The festival is a tribute to Dexter Gordon and the late, great Al McKibbon, hence the "bass summit" and the Afro-Cuban bands.

What's the name of a good one?

I know people who were friends of his. They pronounced his name Lie-tle.