Rooster_Ties

Oops, wrong thread!!

Oh, gosh, I didn't even realize there was an "Elder Statesmen of Jazz" org in KC. I just used the phrase, descriptively, to mean just what it sounds like. Of those you mention, Spontoonie, I'm the most familiar with Milt Abel (and I'm not all that familiar with him, come to think of it). I'm guessing he's probably among the oldest generation, among those mentioned anywhere in this thread (except McShann, of course). Also, re: Pat Metheny -- he'd be an obvious choice, except I'm pretty sure he doesn't live anywhere in the KC area any more (hasn't for probably well over 20 years). I think he lives somewhere on the east coast, if I remember right - maybe somewhere in the New England area?? Oh, and Bobby Watson is absolutely the best qualified for this, hands-down -- except for his age. In 10 years (when he's 60), he'll totally have it wrapped up, in spades. Or maybe the absence of an obvious replacement (like Fiddler or McShann), would push Bobby up into that role now, despite his youth!!

Depends on what your metrics are. I don't own any Krall or Jones CD's, but if pressed - I'd probably have a preference for Norah. All depends on what your metrics are.

Bidding isn't over yet. I'll bet he get's $900 out of this, which is at least close to what he paid (or sorta close).

Could easily be a more interesting album than Wynton's recent BN date.

Who's her daddy?

Case in point: there's a great Thai restaurant here in Kansas City (I just placed a to-go order with them for lunch, minutes ago), and they have a website. Now logically, I thought I'd just go to Google and type in the name of the restaurant plus "kansas city" -- and one of the first hits ought to be the website of the restaurant, right??? WRONG. Here, try for yourself. >> See if you can find the website for "Lulu's Noodles" in Kansas City... >> Or see if you can get any hits with the Google Image Search for "Lulu's Noodles". >> Or try searching on "Lulus Noodles" (without the apostrophe) I mean, their website is just http://www.lulusnoodles.com. You'd think that a search on "lulu's noddles" or "lulus noodles" would turn up at least one good hit to their site, right?? But no, Google turns up nothing. Don't let this happen with DoubleM's site. And, just for the hell of it, I'd bury "DoubleM" somewhere in the hidden tags too. You never know when somebody is going to remember seeing this thread, and then months later not be able to find it on this board, but somehow they'll remember "DoubleM Jazz Drawings" - and try to do a search on that, or some other "DoubleM Jazz" wording. Just some more unsolicited advice, from somebody who only knows anything about web design in a purely theoretical way (but who wishes he could actually do web design). EDIT: By the way, Lulu's website is all Macromedia Flash, so perhaps that has something to do with there being not a single hit coming up for them from Google. I mean, it's not that you can't add search tags to Macromedia Flash sites. But you probably have to explicitly add them manually to the site, rather than search engines picking up on the content of the site itself (since all of their content is in Flash). Same might be true of DoubleM's site -- hence my suggestion for some "behind the scenes" pages with text that search engines can see, with the names of all of the subjects of DoubleM's drawings, and other text info.

Tiny suggestion, and then a reminder that probably doesn't need to even be said... 1) Maybe make the "next" and "back" arrows blink (slowly) off and on, so they catch the eye a little bit more?? First time I looked at the page, I didn't notice the "next" button, and almost thought that the first 5 jazz drawings were all that there were. Or maybe make them a color that's a little more eye-catching (when you aren't hovering the pointer over them). Just a minor suggestion. 2) Be sure to hide all kinds of good search keys in the opening page of the site, so it gets lots of good hits when doing Google searches and the like. Also, if there was some way to have a set of images (even on a page that you don't ever directly link to), with the names of all the painting subjects as part of the file name of the .jpg of each painting (maybe just a thumbnail, even). I'm thinking that this might be handy for when somebody was doing a Google Image Search on, say, "Joe Henderson" -- and then one of DoubleM's drawings would maybe come up in the list. Kind of a "behind the scenes" page with all the drawings, with a simple link to the front-door of the site. Just something that Google searches (and Google Image Searches, in particular), might pick up on. Just an idea. By the way, before sticking my nose where it maybe didn't belong (offering advice that wasn't asked for!!), let me say a big WOW!!!! -- the site looks GREAT!!!! INCREDIBLE JOB!!! WAY TO GO!!! (Probably what I should have said in the first place, and maybe left it at that. )

Shit, that's right. Totally forgot about that one.

Streetside's classical stock has been cut to the bone. I think they're down 75% in classical inventory at the Westport location, and I'm sure the Overland Park location is down 50% too (not that they were all that big to begin with). And the jazz room at Streetside in Westport is down 50% in inventory too, and they aren't getting shit in terms of new releases much -- barely 20% or 30% of what they used to get. I guess Borders and B&N are the only decent source of classical CD's in KC, and frankly -- I would say both are only half-way decent (at best). Basically, there's no place left in town that's worth brousing any more, for jazz or classical CD's (new or used). Maybe Music Exchange, for used titles (95% of their CD's are used), but that's really about it. And their inventory doesn't change frequently enough to make anything more than monthly visits necessary. I know, I'm off-topic talking about used CD's, but the difference between what St. Louis has in Euclic Records and Vintage Vinyl (and their relatively INCREDIBLE used CD offerings ), and what KC has (which isn't shit any more ), is like night and day. How can St. Louis have TWO stores wish such GREAT 'used' CD sections?? - where in Kansas City I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel just to even find one or two discs per store that I'm even half-way interested in??? 'Tis a puzzle.

Free For All and I drove around town to like 5 different places last October, looking for Andrew Hill's "Passing Ships" on the Tuesday it was released. Never did find the damn thing, and it took me until Thursday to find one place in town that actually had it in stock. Streetside used to get a moderately decent number of new releases in on Tuesdays, but ever since that outfit in New Jersey bought them up, their "non-pop/non-rock/non-hip-hop" new releases are slim to none most Tuesdays (so I don't even bother going in there but once every month or two). And I don't think they even get any new Classical releases any more either, the bastards. Took me two or three weeks to find some place in town that had a particlar new Naxos release last fall too (I wasn't going to pay $3 in shipping for a $6 or $7 CD, buying it on-line). What the hell's going on when most new Naxos titles are suddenly special-order items??? I remember when every Naxos title came in on the Tuesday they were released - usually two or three copies each, per store. And, nearly every new CPO release too. OK - back to jazz. It took Streetside months to get in the last round of Rare Groove BN titles, and they've only gotten about half of the RVG's released in the last year. (On release day, they would get like only three of the six new RVG's that were due out that day -- and never get the other three.) WTF??? And I don't think Streetside ever got any of the Conns from last October either, not any of them. Gotta get everything on-line, anymore.

Hi everybody!! (This thread is primarily directed at the Kansas City members of this board (or those with Kansas City backgrounds), though anyone else can get involved). Since the passing of Claude Fiddler, I'm wondering who are the most prominent "Elder Statesmen" of Kansas City jazz. And by that, I mean old-timers that are still living in the Kansas City area, who have at least some Kansas City roots, and who still perform now and then --- or who are still active on the Kansas City jazz scene in some respect (teaching, mentoring, etc...), and who performed semi-regularly as recently as maybe up to 10 years ago. Clearly the mantle now falls to Jay McShann, with Fiddler's passing. But, specifically, who's second-in-command after McShann?? I guess my first thought was maybe Ahmad Alaadeen, but perhaps I'm forgetting some others. Also, I suspect the general level of opinion about Alaadeen is somewhat varied (which may or may not be deserved). But he does do quite a bit of mentoring, and one could probably argue that he's somewhere in the line of succession. Is Arch Martin known well enough around town to qualify?? I don't know of him very well, and my guess is that most other Kansas City folks don't either. But, technically, I suspect he's played with enough important leaders to qualify. Part of the answer to this question is public perception, and how people try to position themselves in the 'marketplace'. (Tommy Ruskin?) What I’m looking for is that somebody who's really played with a whole bunch of people over the years - who the people of Kansas City look to as being the "Buck O'Neil" of Kansas City jazz (which is how I think many people thought of Fiddler, and still think of Jay McShann). And hopefully somebody with some national significance, beyond just the local scene here in KC. (Also, IMHO, Bobby Watson isn't old enough to qualify yet, having only turned 50 just last year. I think the person has to at least be roughly of retirement age, or at least in their 60's. And again, clearly Jay McShann is the current titleholder. I'm just wondering who's waiting in the wings.)

As Chuck so correctly noted, "Black Fire" isn't anything like "Passing Ships", though you can hear much of Hill's quirky piano technique in both (which is oddly consistent between most of his more inside and outside recordings, at least within a given decade). While I wouldn't call "Black Fire" incredibly accessible, I would say that I think it's one of Hill's most approachable recordings from Hill's early '63-'66 period (and it's definitely more accessible/approachable than "Point of Departure". Anyone who digs "Dialog" will probably also like "Black Fire".

Not the PFunkJazz I remember from back on the old BNBB. -_-

Hey Chuck, would it change your opinion of my degree of Andrew Hill fanaticism if I told you that I only half-dig Smokestack?

The Plugged Nicke box is 7 standard CD jewelboxes, with standard linernotes for each CD, all in one slipbox -- so the whole thing ends up being approximately the size of a cube (roughly). There's also a booklet that is the size of the footprint of a standard jewelbox, which fits in the slipbox too. Note: One of the jewelboxes is actually a two-CD jewelbox, since that set was slightly over 80 minutes in length - and had to be split on 2 CD's. As a result, the discs are numbered 1, 2a, 2b, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 (which makes perfect sense to me). Nothing terribly fancy about the set, but neither did they do anything dumb when they designed it either -- and the importance of that cannot be underestimated. If only the Bill Evans Verve box was as well done, design-wise (for instance). FYI, here's a good pic of the Plugged Nickel box: CLICK HERE

I think I heard something about Friendster on NPR a few months ago, and promptly forgot all about it. Just added you as a friend, Brandon. Is there an Enemyster too?? (Ha - it looks like there will be!!)

Off topic, slightly, but Brandon -- if you get the chance, try to get over to the National Building Museum while you're in DC. It's just about my favorite museum in all DC, and with their ever-changing exhibits - I try to stop by there nearly every time I'm in town. (I think I've been there about 3 or 4 times, in the last maybe 8 years.) Here's how to get there, and their hours: CLICK HERE. They appear to be open on Saturdays -- and actually, entry to the museum is free, though they suggest a donation. (And there's a Metro station right at the Museum.) If I lived in or anywhere near DC, I'd probably be visiting this place at least 2 or 3 times a year, like clockwork. Back to the rest of the discussion about where you ought to live.

Sure glad that "Black Fire" is gonna be easily available again. It'll be nice to have better sound, and those alternates at the end of the disc too. (Yeah, I've got the Mosaic -- but I'm sure I'll be picking this up as an RVG too.) Good to have more of Joe Henderson's BN catalog getting updated too.

I never knew it. Cool!! B)

From the Feb/Mar 1998 issue of JAM Magazine (a local Kansas City jazz magazine)...

Longer version of the AP version of the article. Also from the KC Star (Spoon's paper)...

About 15 years ago, I took a bunch of top-40 promo singles (many without artwork, some even without jewelboxes even), and managed to get rid of them at a pawn shop that didn't know up from down. What I offered them probably wasn't even worth $10 (total!!!), but they gave me $3 cash for every one of the CD's I gave 'em (promo singles included, which most of these were), and I walked out of there about $400 richer. Place sold guns mostly, and they were tryin' to diversify their inventory. Both guys were some serious "bubbas", and didn't even hardly know what a CD was. The discs were all crap I got from the top-40 radio station I worked at part-time in college. None of the record stores around town would even touch the stuff, so I thought maybe a pawn shop would give me $20 for the whole thing. But NEVER in my wildest dreams did I expect to make $400 on that stuff. Wow, them were the days!!!