Christiern

I have added another clip from my Ruby Smith tapes. This one is but a snippet and it deals with domestic violence on the road. There is some real rough stuff on the horizon, but you will be forewarned.

Ever feel like running back to your childhood home? Well, try this: http://thewildernessdowntown.com/

Jim will use any excuse to add another post to his Guiness quest.

I have posted the second half of my interview with Lil Armstrong. On this one she talks—among other things—about the Oliver band in San Francisco, the Hot Five rehearsing at the house she and Louis bought in 1924, and her decision to become a tailor.

Only Ma Donna, but she is taking something for it.

This is a 1989 Stereo Review I wrote: GEOFF KEEZER: Waiting In the Wings. Geoff Keezer (piano); Bill Mobley (trumpet); Billy Pierce (soprano and tenor saxophones); Steve Nelson (vibraphone); Rufus Reid (bass); others. The Drawing Board; Accra; Pierce On Earth; Who Cares?; Waiting In the Wings; Personal Space; and five others. SUNNYSIDE xxx xxx-x $ . , © xxx xxx-x $ . , D SSC-1035D (70 min). Performance: Potent debut Recording: Very good Acoustic jazz is enjoying a healthy resurgence these days, and the remarkable thing is that much of the impetus comes from very young players who easily could have taken their career along a more lucrative pop path. One of the most recent arrivals on the serious jazz scene is Geoff Keezer, whose debut album, “Waiting In the Wings,” was recorded in 1988, when he was seventeen. The fact that Keezer grew up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin—off the beaten jazz path—rather than, say, New Orleans, Chicago nor New York, where jazz thrives, is perhaps an indication of how far the new jazz trend has reached. With its deserved focus on the leader’s agile, surprisingly mature piano, “Waiting in the Wings” is a superb, generously long serving of sextet and trio recordings in the post-war jazz tradition. It contains excellent performances by trumpeter Bill Mobley and saxophonist Billy Pierce, who have been around a few days longer than their leader, and a rhythm section that reaps huge profits from the presence of Rufus Reid, one of the finest bassists around. Seven of the eleven tunes were written by Keezer, who is at least as interesting a composer as he is a pianist, so don’t expect this remarkable young man to be waiting in the wings for long. C.A.

You may have heard the interviews I did with Ruby Smith, Bessie's niece, at least the parts that appeared in volume 5 of Columbia's 5-box Bessie CD series, but just in case... I have started posting them on my blog. Ruby toured with Bessie for 14 years—she is candid, funny, and—I think—wonderful. I will be posting at least seven segments, so this is just the beginning. Here is a link to the first one.

I have posted the second Jimmy Rushing interview. Done at the old Half Note, around 1968.

I used Firefox for a brief spell—it worked very well, but when they upgraded Safari, I jumped back. I have both installed, however. I tried Chrome and concluded that it isn't ready for prime time—the ads are better than the product.

I have just posted it here, and that is the last of the Jordan recordings, but there is other material to come—spoken and otherwise.

I just posted the first of two separate interviews that I did with Jimmy Rushing. http://stomp-off.blogspot.com

When it comes to male vocalists, I find myself torn between Tim McCarver and Peter Lemongello.

I, too, find Starbucks to be highly overrated. I have yet to get a really good cup of coffee there. I recall Horn & Hardart's coffee, the cups were as thick as the Gaza wall, but the coffee was heavenly.

That sounds like a steal. Sweden has always given good steel. I'd grab it. ...and run!

I once visited a coffee plantations in Sweden,but I have to say that I was not impressed. When I asked about the smoke and mirrors, my coffee guide mumbled something in Swedish and offered me a lingonberry. The do know their lingonberries. As I see it, the only reason one might have to subscribe is the ultra cheap coffeemakers, but a google or two is likely to find a comparable brewer bargain.

Ah, yes, but it sank, didn't it?

I just added another Ronnie Matthews performance, Dorian, with Michael Fleming on bass and J.C. Moses, drums. I have one more Matthews piece to post, a blues. Then it's on to something different, a 1962 recording from Scranton Pennsylvania. It was Christmas week, the snow was piled high and a bunch of us squeezed into Ray Bryant's station wagon very early in the morning. Elmer Snowden, Herman Autrey, Budd Johnson, Tommy Bryant and Jo Jones—I was the MC and Perl Bailey's sister, Eura, was the vocalist. I'll post that next week.

Welcome back, BM.It's great that you and the kids had a good time—I hope you squeezed in a snow tango or two. Don't recall Wallace, but I gather that his stay here was brief and adversely memorable.

Before you have a reunion, you need to have a union. Did I miss something?

Thanks, Chuck. I just posted Jordan's quartet (same group, sans Roy Burrows) playing Tom McIntosh's Malice Toward None.

Let's not put all the blame on iPods. It was "ear buds," wasn't it?

I have just posted on my blog an performance by the Clifford Jordan Quintet, as aired during the 1965 WBAI marathon. Clifford, tenor Roy Burrows, trumpet Ronnie Matthews, piano Eddie Kahn, bass J.C. Moses, drums They play "Outhouse" and there is more to come.

Papsrus: "I wonder if Savory's work for the CIA was partly what made him guard these recordings so closely -- kind of like, once he went to work for them everything he'd ever done needed to be kept quiet. You know how they can be. Certainly, making them public would have brought him attention that he/they wouldn't likely want." I know of three CIA people who recorded jazz and put it out there. I didn't seem to hurt their day job. As for Schaap, yes, we should all fall to our knees—or whatever—and be thankful that he has nothing to do with these recordings. Live recordings, damn, think of all the coughs and other extraneous noises he would add as a bonus!

Sorry, Shrdlu, I should have said Tandberg tape recorder. I don't know if they put their name to tape.

Being a European, I was not at all impressed by titles....but then I heard his music!