Rooster_Ties

I counted 21. Damn!

Mark Masters, w/ none other than Billy Harper! https://www.discogs.com/Mark-Masters-Ensemble-Porgy-And-Bess-Redefined/release/13497103

Chili’s gotta have beans in it. Otherwise it’s just loose meat.

Used copy at Dusty at this moment… https://www.dustygroove.com/item/505662

“Black Love” is the only Garnett Muse I have (like you, on a 90’s CD). Question: Do you have one or two favorites that stand out from among all five??

Definitely that, 100%!! I’ve always put practically all my music-related spending into buying more music, that’s for sure!!

Re: the topic in general — I’ll be perfectly honest in saying I’ve always felt SUPER self-conscious even just browsing around in stores dedicated to stereo equipment. I never knew (and still barely know) the first thing about amplifiers, or how to pair speakers with the rest of a system, or what pre-amp goes with what. Like next to nothing, I’m kind of ashamed to admit. I always felt (and still feel like) I haven’t the foggiest idea what sort of even remotely semi-intelligent questions to even ask, that wouldn’t reveal the depth of my vast lack of knowledge on the subject. It’s almost a neurosis of mine, if I’m being perfectly honest. Probably a big part of why I’m almost an anti-audiophile (in practice). You all wouldn’t believe the (mostly poor, I’m assuming) variety of stereo equipment I’ve had over the last 35 years. My last integrated bookshelf system bit the bullet (after 10 years of use) about 3 years ago. And my jury-rigged replacement — listening thru the barebones BluRay unit I have plugged into our 12-year old digital TV (and the TV’s built-in speakers) — sounded so much better, that I’ve been hard pressed to face my phobia about buying something else. We live in a small 630 sq ft 1BR apartment, and the TV fills the room with sound really well, so what can I say? Part of my fear is spending $1,000 (or more) for something really worth barely half that. And/or getting the wrong stuff that really doesn’t work together right, or over-spending on one component to the point where everything else in the overall system couldn’t possibly allow the one overpriced component to actually perform as designed. Yeah, those friendly sales people in the specialty shops are supposed to know how to get past all that — but the whole process always wigged me out — what can I say?

We’ve been doing more of that too, from a local-ish farm at our weekly farmers market. I think about 80% of the meat we’ve bought in the last 18 months has been from them. What motivated that (for us) was the reports of Covid spreading at processing plants all across the US. But the reasons you cite are good ones for our change too (even if that isn’t what finally pushed us make that change).

I read all these stories about should Pfizer and Moderna vaccine recipients get a 3rd booster shot?? — but absolutely NOTHING about us poor “one and done” Johnson & Johnson recipients. I’m not losing any sleep over it, because I’m in Washington DC where the spread has been and still is very low — but I would definitely like to know more about (for instance) how the J&J holds up against the Delta variant.

I try to never go anywhere without a mask. And I still mask-up close to 100% when I go in grocery and retail stores, and when I pick up food in restaurants (we’ve only eaten out “inside” a restaurant 3x since March 2020, and that’s just been in the last 2 months). And anytime I’m indoors and seeing more than half the people masked up, I will too — or if I’m getting on an elevator where I’m with (or likely to be with) someone who’s wearing a mask. I’ll skip the mask with all my (few) coworkers behind the scenes (who are all vaccinated), but we all mask up when dealing with the public, 100%.

BTW, what was the date of that DB interview? Might like to look it up in my collection. Gil was a pretty introspective guy, and I’ve always enjoyed what interviews of his I’ve seen/heard/read.

Masking is still relatively high in Washington DC proper, using “inside stores” as my observation-based gauge. Even now, inside the grocery store and Target very close to where I live, about 70% of people still mask — even though I’m fairly sure a good 70% of the people in our zip code have been vaccinated. Mask mandates were lifted, and the signage at these store simply say masks are strongly recommended for unvaccinated people. And yet, mask-usage is still pretty high. The situation in the suburbs here could be quite different — I really don’t know. My wife and I live about 3 miles north of the White House, in the most population-dense zip-code within the entire District. Most stores and museums require all their employees to still wear masks (as does the Museum I work for), so I’m masked up every day I’m at work. And about half our Museum patrons still wear masks.

Bump!

Those two Bobby Watson dates on Roulette — his very first leader-dates — are nice (especially the first one). And they’ve never been on CD, far as I know. The first one is particularly ambitious, considering he was all of 24 or 25 years old, and the band is chocked full of people… https://www.discogs.com/Robert-Watson-Estimated-Time-Of-Arrival/release/1160186

Woah, I don’t think I realized you were doing an 80’s jazz blog too. (I’ve been following the board less closely since I got to working again when the Museum I work for reopened at the beginning of May). Linky, linky??

For me, one trick to eating less meat is finding ingredients when I cook (and I do all the cooking in our household), that have a satisfying “mouth feel” that sorta approximates at least some kinds of meat — so everything doesn’t feel like eating veggies and pasta, etc. Edamame is one (blissfully available as a workhorse of an ingredient, flash frozen in bags, easily available in our regular grocery, even in a cheaper ‘store’ brand). I have no idea what it really tastes like, but it’s SUPER satisfying added to all kinds of dishes. Or I’ll make a recipe with half as much cut-up chicken (or pork), and add edamame instead. And I’ll stretch a Chipotle burrito bowl into 3 meals by adding about half a cup of edamame and some raw spinach. Chickpeas (Garbanzo beans) are similar. And whole cashews too, which soften slightly when heated — and especially when reheated after they’ve sat in the dish with all the other ingredients in the fridge overnight. That’s the way I cook with less meat a lot — and don’t really miss it — and food is still really satisfying.

My wife and I have grilled Beyond burgers a few times (when they’ve been on sale), and we thought they were mostly pretty tasty, by and large. As good as the real thing? Of course not, but still pretty good, all in all. We’re not vegetarian (far from it), but we’ve been trying to eat less meat for 10+ years — and easily eat barely 1/4th as much red meat — and 1/3rd as much chicken — but more fish (and shrimp), mostly all farm-raised, far as we’re aware. I’m all for meat substitutes, long as they’re tasty (and they don’t have to taste exactly like the real thing), and as long as the “mouth feel” is sufficiently good. Some faux-meat products have lot further to go than others, but Beyond is more than halfway there, imho.

Keith Jarrett probably sings along with choruses, and not just verses — and he’s most assuredly wordless.

Me too! I assume The Bastards will carry this (on CD), like they did Tolliver’s recent leader-date — so I’ll probably try and get it that way.

I always “liked” The Free Slave, don’t get me wrong — but for years I’ve felt like it wasn’t as good as I was hoping (But maybe my expectations of it have always been too high). It’s a solid ‘B’ album, but I always hoped for more of a B+/A- sort of affair. I do definitely plan to get Understanding soon-ish, once the positive first-hand reports start rolling in (or if I can stream a couple full-length tracks from it somehow). Not a title I’m gonna sleep too long on getting either.

Lyrics, especially wordy stuff or if there’s any kind of narrative, engages a different part of my brain. As opposed to a “might-as-well-be wordless” chorus that might happen to have some repetitive words that don’t really connect up in any sort of syntactical way. I think I get exactly what your saying. It’s not the singing, per se, but what’s being sung. That said, really traditional scat singing doesn’t do anything for me (at all), and I usually avoid it like the plague.

It’s not necessarily a deal-breaker, but more often than not, I *do* find occasional vocal tracks pretty annoying — with a handful of exceptions, if course. Also reminds me that leaders who double on too many instruments — who insist on playing all of them equally frequently — can also be a bit of an annoyance too me too (in some cases, at least). I’m annoyed easily, probably too easily.

This is literally the one and only Ruben Blades song I own (and have ever owned) — from an XTC v/a tribute album. But I’ve always wanted to get more Blades — especially with the kind of horn section and arranging I’m hearing here — but have never known what’s the best place to start. So, where should I go next?? (This is a very good tribute album, and this Ruben Blades track is absolute top-drawer, among many quite inspired covers found therein.)