Christiern

When do you sleep, Allen?

A great record does not make a great year. It contributes to it, but there is so much happening away from recording studios that needs to be considered. I think we base too many of our evaluations and speculations on what was captured in the grooves or on tape. I have seen biographical books that were 90% based on the subject's recordings. Close to home (for me), consider Paul Oliver's biography of Bessie Smith—one might easily conclude that she did not have a life outside of Columbia's studio. Also that we have in her recordings the scope of her artistic expression. Kind of Blue is a great album, but let's not get carried away by it. Great, pivotal music was recorded in the 20's, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, etc. I happen to think that Bozie Sturdivant's "Ain't No Grave Can Hold My Body Down" is not any less great than Miles or Louis or Bird, etc., at their best. We are talking about great music that simply is too timeless to pin to any calendar. IMHO

I was not very fond of her as a person, but I continue to greatly admire her talent.

My inclination is to think of this all as boulderdash sparked by active imaginations, but that is how I felt about crystal ball gazers until I experienced Noreena Tidman-Pink. She was very real and she quickly turned my skepticism into realization. Thinking back to that, I would not rule out some sort of paranormal occurrence having taken place in the Gould household. An interesting account, Dan.

I go back to Much Binding in the Marsh, which I recall my mother listening to in Iceland (via BFN, British Forces Network). Much of the humor probably escaped me, but a couple of decades later, when I actually found myself working with Kenneth Horne, my brain had tuned into the right frequency and I was actually writing lines for Kenneth. Well, writing lines is a bit of an exaggeration, the lines were written by Marty Feldman and Barry Took, I just had the job of Americanizing some of them for U.S. broadcasts. Makes sense, doesn't it, they get a half Icelander/half Dane to perform Americanization. That said, I also remember and laughed with Flanders and Swan.

Jazztrain. pointing out minor typos is, indeed, nitpicking. As for correcting factual errors, I am all for that, but there is no need to not do it in a civil way. What I see here is accusatory and thus not constructive criticism. Yes, internet jazz material is full of errors, some compounded by people who profess to be jazz journalists—we have all been Yanowed and Goursed, left and right, but the right thing to do is to point it out, correct it. As has been pointed out here, Lester is not deliberately distorting the information he posts. As I see it, his only purpose is to remind us that this has been designated as Black History Month, and to post material that is suitable for this forum. Many of us already know the history, which is why we are able to spot the occasional factual error, but so what? One of our chronic complainers wants a discussion, claiming that this is a discussion board, intimating that anything else is contrary to the Organissimo forum's purpose. How curious that this comes from a poster with whom discussion is inevitably a futile effort. Lester's posts are in keeping with this forum's raison d'etre and—occasional unintended errors notwithstanding—far more pertinent than, say, lists of lewd album covers or what's for dinner. As for misinformation, do we not get that on a daily basis when slanted political columns are linked to? I have yet to see the Goulding of quotes from "Green Footballs," Coulter, Horowitz, et al. In short, let's be fair, stop nitpicking, and rejoice in the fact that Lester is not a celebrant of Bulgarian Knitwear Week.

It really does not matter where Lester gets his information, whether it is in his own words or those of others. What matters is that Lester is honoring Black History Month by posting information that surely is not already known to everyone on this board. If anyone is bothered by it and cannot come up with a compelling reason why it does not belong on Organissimo (I am still waiting to hear that), I suggest that they state that reason or simply stop accessing this obviously pesky thread. This nitpicking is both tiresome and unnecessary. Go on, Lester, do your thing.

Jo Stafford did not use any such device. Herbie Hancock, on the other hand, did. He showed me his Vocoder one day when I interviewed him, and offered me a chance to try it out. I didn't, but that would have been a real test of its ability.

Good to see that you are still around, and posting, Victor. That was a great concert. Timme had the acetates in 1961, when we shared an apartment, but the only one I really recall as if I had heard it last week was the wonderful "I Got Rhythm" duo with Don Byas and Slam Stewart. Timme was rather careless with those vulnerable discs (which also included memorable recordings with Marlow Morris, made in a Brooklyn club. Didn't all those recordings go to a collection in Aarhus? This is all I could find in the NY Times. Something is wrong, unless Timme's musicians shared the Town Hall stage with a hundred singing Jewish workers. Then, again, it could have been an afternoon concert that the Times simply didn't cover. As you see, Don Byas was also present for the Gillespie concert a couple of weeks later. BTW, Victor, have you visited my blog? It has stuff about Timme that might interest you. http://stomp-off.blogspot.com

Thank you, BM. Sorry for the side trip, Lester.

hey chris how about linking this to your blog!!!! Isn't that a bit childish, BM? So, what is your point this time? My blog is not about religion—in fact, I think all organized religion is a plague upon humanity. If it were not for the "Political Correctness" dictates that so many feel compelled to follow (rather than their conscience and sense of reason) there would be no organized religion upon which to base hatred and warring. As Bessie Smith once said to her niece, Ruby, when she had had her fill of pretentiousness: "Let's get naked and be ourselves!" Might just solve a lot of problems caused by the socially challenged. Now, can we get back to Lester's celebration of Black History? There is much ground to cover and this is, after all, the shortest month.

Some of my favorite targets are discs by Bernie Nierow Kenny G Wynton Marsalis Mehitabel Geldwasser Harry Connick Alice Coltrane and others

It's the same concert (the first night). The Sony CD clocks in at 64m. The Jazz Door at 63m58s. Now don't ask me where that two-second difference comes from I think Phil Schaap may have the 2 seconds stashed away, somewhere.

Bertrand, those righties see only one kind of terrorist.

I find nothing "classy" about the Mosaic boxes. Unless one still has room on the old LP shelves, they are a bloody nuisance to store. Granted, it's great to not have the photos in miniature and to be able to read the notes, but a booklet half the size would do nicely, I think. I used to take the jewelboxes out of the big box and shelve them with the rest of my CDs. That may not have been the best system, for almost all my Mosaics were stole and I was left with only the outer boxes and booklets.

You have my respect for that. We should all be so civil and reasonable.

Mmr./ms Anonymous, your statement is meaningless without specifics.

Wouldn't it be great if we all did!

I think you misunderstand. Billie was not tired of singing the song, she was tired of people not getting it.

Billie told me (in 1959) that she was tired of club patrons asking her to sing "that sexy song about the people swinging in the trees."

You left out the Max for Max episode, that very hot cup of Maxwell House™ coffee that she emptied on him. I believe it hurt to the last drop. As for Hazel Scott, she stole Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. away from his wife, Isabel Washington Powell. BTW, Isabel—a wonderful lady— played the "other woman" in Bessie Smith's film, "St. Louis Blues". Her sister, Fredi Washington starred in the original "Pinky" film. Powell dumped Isabel as soon as he was elected, using her up to that point. In terms of black history, Fredi was probably more important than Hazel.

Mediocrity from people who are very popular. Sorry, but I find something skewed about that. Yes, let's hope the people of Haiti get some funds out of it, but who else? And what percentage of this mess was done in the name of publicity? I guess my perspective is different from yours, Alexander, mine looks back on exploitation and and the silly ain't-we-wonderful aspect of it all. These people make very good money, it would have been a far better thing if they had simply directed that some of the royalties from their own records be channeled to help[p Haiti. But that, of course, would bring Mr. Jones and his mutual admiration society as much publicity as this truly awful recording probably will. BTW, the rap on this thing is about as weak as any I have heard—I like good rap, but good rap seems to be going the way of pop music, in general.

I did not think Quincy could sink so far below hise original piece of nothing. What is there to be found beyond nothing? Obviously something less than nothing. Then I remembered "Back on the Block", Quincy's truly awful 1989 mishmash into which he threw an assembly hall of performers, including many with real talent (of the kind that had eluded himself) and proceeded to drown them out so effectively that only their names indicated their presence. No one can waste or mis-match talent better than Mr. Jones. Here are the people in that sea of mediocrity: Ella Fitzgerald Sarah Vaughan Chaka Khan Dionne Warwrick Al Jarreau Luther Vandross Barry White Take 6 Tevin Campell, James Ingram El DeBarge Al B. Sure! Ice-T Big Daddy Kane, Kool Moe Dee Melle Mel James Moody Gerald Albright Dizzy Gillespie Miles Davis Herbie Hancock George Duke George Benson Steve Lukather Paul Jackson, Jr. Nathan East Harvey Mason Steve Porcaro Josef Zawinul Rod Temperton (programming!) Paulinho Da Costa

Chewy, take two needle drops and call me in the morning. Actually, the site does have its positive aspects. Where else can you view photos of famous people who really weren't, where else can you find so much said about so little. Actually, I can sift through that nonsense to find the meat, but those so-called "gorts" need to get re-hab'ed for their obsessive use of censorship padlocks. What the hell are these people afraid of?