Larry Kart

So what arrangement would you prefer, given that the teams need to remain in each of the two cities for a minimum of two games to forestall extra intervening interruptions of travel days? Two games in their home park to start for the home field-advantage team, and then, if you can't go back and forth between games, what? If it's a seven-game series, the home field-advantage team gets four games total in its own park, plus the first two games there. That seems about right it to me; I can't think of another arrangement that would be at all fair and would work in practical terms.

Yes, Dan, it was. Sorry. I've since posted it there.

Just picked up and began to listen to this. It's certainly obscure (I'd never heard of it), and so far I'm very impressed. Pieces date from the N.O. modern scene of the early '60s, several of them by the late drummer James Black, and what I've heard is intriguingly individual and complex -- nothing neo-con here. Branford (the only horn) and his father are in fine form. Delfayo's portion of the liner notes (he's also the producer) is reminiscent of Wynton's hectoring/lecturing b.s., but who cares?

Just ran across and began listening to this. It's certainly obscure (I'd never heard of it), and so far I'm very impressed. Pieces, several by the late N.O. drummer James Black, are intriguingly complex and unusual, Branford (the only horn) and his father are in very good form. Nothing neo-con here. Delfayo's contribution to the liner notes (he's also the producer) is typically pompous and hectoring, a la Wynton, but who cares about that.

Actually, I made a mistake -- I don't have the second Katz album depicted in my post but "Folk Songs for Far Out Folk" and this one (see below). I'd have to listen again to be sure, but my memory is that the versions of African folk songs on the "Folk Songs" album are among the most striking and effective Stravinsky- and Bartok-influenced jazz pieces I've ever heard -- intense, spiky, and not at all fey, as one might have expected they would be from Katz's Hamilton Quintet background. Just ordered the Katz CD with "Pluck It." We shall see.

The bone I had to pick with Lees, aside from disagreeing with many of his opinions, had to do with dubious ethical behavior on his part. After I had written that negative review for the Chicago Tribune of Jazz/Grove, it fell under the eyes of Leonard Feather, who was of course an interested party (the book was a rival to his "Encyclopedia") and he alerted Lees, who got in touch with me, said he was planning to write a takedown of "Jazz/Grove" for "Jazzletter," and asked me what my piece had said. Naively perhaps, I filled him in on all the IMO choice errors and flubs in Jazz/Grove, and each time I mentioned something, even though Lees claimed to have looked through Jazz/Grove already, his response was "my gosh!," "I can't believe it!" or words to that effect. Then he sends me the edition of "Jazzletter" that has his review of "Jazz/Grove." Each thing I had mentioned in my review and had told Lees about on the phone -- again, each time, to his apparent astonishment -- was in his review but without any attribution, as though Lees had found all these errors and flubs himself when it clear from our conversation that everything I had said in my review was new to him. OK, chalk that up to my naivete and to Lees' ... whatever you want to call it. Then, a ways down the road, someone sends me a copy of the program booklet for the L.A.-based Playboy Jazz Festival of that year, for which Feather was the head honcho. In the booklet there's a negative piece about "Jazz/Grove" from a young L.A.-based jazz journalist that cites most of the errors and flubs I had found, again without attribution, and IIRC adds nothing new, though at this point I don't recall whether that writer tipped his cap to Lees. You live and learn.

Yes, many would-be cognoscenti felt that way about Phillips, Jacquet et al. when JATP was new and very popular. The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz was published in 1988, however, some 40 years later. Again, whether or not one regarded Phillips, Jacquet, Ventura, et al. as "tasteless" in 1948 or in 1988 is one thing, but totally misreading, 40 years after the fact and as the editor of a supposed reference work, the actual relationship between that supposed tastelessness and why audiences responded positively to an artist is something else altogether. BTW, that edition of Jazz/Grove has no entry for Peggy Lee but does have one for Maria Muldaur. It also says of Astrud Gilberto: "Her work has an economy of melodic line and a steady momentum akin to that of Basie" -- helpfully adding "but its rhythmic drive is often devoid of contours."

You misunderstand what I was saying. I have no problem with Flip's honking. My point was that Kernfeld said that Flip was popular with JATP audiences DESPITE his honking, which HE described as "rather tasteless," when it's obvious from JATP concert recordings that JATP audiences went crazy WHEN Flip honked and BECAUSE he did. As for Flip's honking at JATP versus that of "many out-and-out honkers," I was making no such comparison but merely pointing out that Flip's honking, contra Kernfeld, clearly DELIGHTED many members of the JATP audience and that that is what made him a jazz "star" at the time. Likewise for Illinois Jacquet. That both Phillips and Jacquet were excellent soloists across the board goes without saying. It's as though Kernfeld had written: "Despite their rather tasteless ascents to the trumpet's upper register, Maynard Ferguson's performances were popular with audiences."

Well, I don't like Lees -- YMMV. Two more gems from Jazz/Grove, both from its editor Barry Kernfeld (these may have been altered in later editions, at least I hope so): “... on tours with Jazz at the Philharmonic, [Flip Phillips] acquired a reputation for his energetic improvisations …; despite his rather tasteless, honking tone, these performances were popular with audiences.” Flip wasn't popular with JATP fans "despite" his honking but because of it. Kenny Dorham “rivaled his greatest contemporaries in technical command.” I love KD's playing, but the above statement is absurd.

Jazz/Grove has a few nice things, e.g. Felicity Howlett on Tatum, but many entries are a joke. I wrote a review of it, which I may post if I can find it. My favorite perhaps from Jazz/Grove was this on Joe Maini: "He died after losing a game of Russian Roulette." Oddly enough, that negative review of Jazz/Grove got me tangled up in revealing ways with both Mr. Feather and one of his rivals for low man on the jazz journalist totem pole, Gene Lees.

Before you couldn't have GIVEN these Fred Katz albums to me. "Pretentious twaddle," I thought. I was wrong. Some lovely playing from the late clarinetist Frank Chace. And it has the beautifully named Tut Soper on piano. A date where everything worked out perfectly. The Blakey-esque drumming of Nick Stabulas makes a nice difference. And like that Manny Albam "West Side Story" on Coral that Jim rightly extolled, it's very well recorded.

Jackie rips my heart out on "Beau Jack" and "Help." Excellent raw Bill Hardman, too. Yes, that's a copy of the original LP cover -- a muli-fold affair with lots of photos. Sadly the master tapes were lost, and the CD reissue was dubbed from clean LPs by Jack Towers. My memory is that the sound on the United Artists LP was better than on the CD, but I'll take it.

Again, not that obscure but not to be missed.

The Potts album was, I believe, the only one on which the full NYC top-drawer studio sax section of the time appeared: Woods, Gene Quill, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Sol Schlinger; trombones: Bob Brookmeyer, Earl Swope, Frank Rehak, Jimmy Cleveland, Rod Levitt; trumpets: Art Farmer, Bernie Glow, Charlie Shavers, Harry Edison, Marky Markowitz; Evans, George Duvivier, Charlie Persip, Herbie Powell (guitar). I've been told that Persip unavoidably was late getting to the date and sight-read everything. OTOH, a musician-friend in the know told me that everyone would have been sight-reading on a date like that. Nonetheless, Persip is quite something here. And in any case, there were three days of recording. Markowitz (gorgeous on "My Man's Gone Now"), Swope, and perhaps Powell were DC-associates of Potts.

Any album (there are a good many) by these guys. Dave Dallwitz was a great jazz composer.

"The Big Challenge" -- an all-star date (Cootie Williams, Rex Stewart, Coleman Hawkins, Bud Freeman, J.C. Higginbotham, Lawrence Brown, Hank Jones, Bill Bauer, Milt Hinton, Gus Johnson) that worked like gangbusters. Both Singer and Shavers are in great form on "Blue Stompin'." Probably the best iteration of the NYC studio denizens of the late '50s band. Excellent Bill Potts charts, terrific Charlie Persip. Try this one; you'll be surprised. Scott had his own thing, and it was good. Perhaps the best Scott LaFaro on record.

Maybe not THAT obscure, but not to be missed.

Hey, I wrote the liner notes for the first issue of "Consequence," on LP in the early '80s. The Japanese got the typewritten pages mixed up, but it's still not impossible to figure out what I wrote.

From "String Fever": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ6CH5iU2AE Alto solo is Gene Quill, tenor either Caesar DiMauro or Eddie Wasserman, Joseph on trumpet. My favorite Tatro piece: Love that French horn call about two thirds of the way through. Bob Enevoldson on valve trombone (his solo probably written out by Tatro), Joe Maini alto, Ralph Pena bass.

Tatro's writing is in the "Birth of the Cool" class, though it has its own rather dour flavor. Lovely solo work by Don Joseph on "String Fever," one of his best outings on record. Joe Puma takes a wonderful solo on "Body and Soul" on "Interactions." Alto is Lennie Niehaus, trumpet Stu Williamson, drummer is Shelly Manne -- natch. Wayne take the first solo, Puma's is the second.

Available on CD from Japan

Terrific record, much better than their studio recordings.Interesting, too, how much cleaner by and large (i.e. in terms of execution) it was than its successor, the Gillespie band. I assume that's in part because of Budd Johnson.

though others can weigh in: Kevin, you solved the problem by suggesting that it might be caused by a build up of gunk (10 year's worth in my case) inside the amp's volume control ,and that I should try working the control vigorously to see if friction could get rid of some of that dirt/gunk and thus relieve the problem. Voila! You also mentioned that if the problem recurs, they may have to remove the volume control and clean behind it or even replace the control. Further, you said that fit the between the volume control knob and the unit itself probably was too tight to make the application of spray contact cleaner worthwhile. Nonetheless, I got a can of CRC spray contact cleaner, figuring that using it could do no harm, and that if it does, the whole volume control assembly might need to be cleaned or replaced anyway, as mentioned above. So I sprayed, then dug inside and around volume control with thin stiff pieces of cardboard, and they came away coated with sticky black gunk. Of course, I thought that this seeming gunk might be a liquification of something on the other side of the knob that serves a vital function, but thinking that if it does I might again need to take it in and have the whole shmear cleaned/replaced, I persisted. And what do you think happened after a while? -- the stereo spread/imaging of what I was hearing changed noticeably and for the better -- i.e. the spread was much wider than before, and the location of any particular sound was more precise. I'm not complaining, of course, but how the heck could removing accumulated gunk from inside and around the volume control knob account for that?

Moment's Notice -- catchy, and it keeps circling back on itself

Michigan Racquet Furtive Cruller Canheball Naturally