Larry Kart

Be careful what you wish for, Knicks fans. Derrick is pretty much washed up, almost certainly can't run the Triangle (which might be a blessing, I know), is a potential locker-room cancer (wait till you encounter Derrick's brother and the rest of the entourage), and he has a rape lawsuit on his docket, the details of which are nauseating. BTW, if the Bulls has the brains and the balls for it, they now should trade Jimmy Butler while he has a good deal of value. A fine player for sure, but not the centerpiece of championship team, and last year he openly refused to play coach Fred Hoiberg's offense.

Charlie Parker. Given my age at the time and the places he was playing when he was in Chicago, it would have been difficult but not impossible. The one I certainly could have missed but didn't was Pres. Another one I could have missed (because he just wasn't playing in public much) but didn't miss was Tristano. Did get to hear Ayler, with Rudd and Tchicai -- astonishing. Caught Armstrong in concert several times, Dolphy with Chico Hamilton on a Birdland All-Stars tour and later at the U. of Chicago with a Gunther Schuller-led ensemble, essentially the group that recorded "Jazz Abstractions." Missed Clifford Brown; he died while on his way to Chicago to play with Max at the Modern Jazz Room, an engagement I was going to attend.

Saw “Money Monster” last night. What a joke — though it did build up some momentum, and Julia Roberts was quite good, very much at ease in a non-glamorous, non-sexy role. Does George Clooney have a plate in his mouth or some other major dental appliance, maybe even a set of false teeth? Suddenly it looked that way to me. Enjoyed the guy's pregnant girlfriend but not the guy. (You'll have to see the movie to find out to who "the guy" is.) My wife, who knows her boroughs, said that he was southern Massachusetts, not Queens. The villain and what he did were stupid. Was amused by Dennis Boutsikaris’ (the villain's CFO) attempt to assume the role that Ron Silver would have played once upon a time; they almost had him in a Ron Silver disguise.

Yesterday picked up two of the remaining (for me) very good albums that a favorite player James Spaulding recorded for Muse, High Note, et al. from the late ‘80s on. Don Sickler’s production hand is a plus in (probably) the choice of tunes, e.g. Elmo Hope’s “Minor Bertha, “Weston’s “Little Niles,” “Wee.” Spaulding’s own compositions are strong too: e.g. “Bold Steps.” Songs Of Courage, James Spaulding, 1990, Muse 5382 Tracks : Cabu, Minor Bertha, Black Market, Song Of Courage, Judy, Autumn Leaves, Wee, Uhuru Sasa, King Musicians : James Spaulding, Tyrone Jefferson, Roland Alexander, Kenny Barron, Ray Drummond, Louis Hayes Gotstabe A Better Way, James Spaulding, 1991, Muse 5413 Tracks : Bold Steps, Blue Hue, Ginger Flower Song, Remember There's Hope, Little Niles, Gotstabe, In Flight Out Musicians : James Spaulding, Mulgrew Miller, Monte Croft, Ron Carter, Ralph Peterson, Ray Mantilla

"Blocks, shapes, whatever" ... but not licks. I too use "interesting" as a high compliment, so much so that friends tend to laugh when I do it. It was your ""hmmmm..." that gave me pause, or paws; to me "hmmmm" sounds kind of reluctant. Your Mobley thought sounds right to me; Trane not so much, but how at that time could there not be some Trane? Basically, Sonny Red c. 1966 and I assume later on basically sounds independent ,self-motivated. Time now for latter-day reports on John Jenkins, if there be any?

IMO Sonny Red here is way more than interesting in a 'hmmmm...interesting' kind of way. Few Bird-like players of his generation came out the other side, so to speak, as far as he did by 1966 (Jackie McLean, of course, but how many others?) and correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think there's much if any recorded evidence of Sonny Red after this date, plus there's also (I believe) a fair-sized gap between this date and whichever was his most recent previous recording. About "came out the other side," I mean that Kyner seems to be more or less creating shapes here, not playing licks, while still remaining in touch with his former second-generation Bird-like self, though IIRC there always was an incipient shape-maker in Kyner. Also -- and so far I've listened only to "If I Should Lose You" -- the relationship of Hicks and Chambers to Kyner I(and Mitchell, too) is really interesting. Hicks' McCoy-ish harmonic thinking/comping and Chambers very even, almost glass-like beat are both inherently long-lined, and that probably suits what Sonny Red has in mind much better than a more boppish or hard boppish pianist and drummer would have.

Listened to most of the Southern. If you know her other work, it's not a game changer, but if you like her other work, you'll like it. As in the past I find some Southren (but more than a little Southern) goes a long way. There are moments, though, when she does something with a lyric that makes you catch your breath -- here on "You Better Go Now," for one. Nice, typically thorough Uptown-style liner notes by Kirk Silsbee, but I was surprised that he didn't mention that the last love of Southern's life and her companion in later years until his death was famed Hollywood composer Hugo Friedhofer, nine time Oscar nominee and winner for "The Best Years of Our Lives."

The real subject of Gavin's book, I thought, was the fashion photographer Bruce Weber (he of the Calvin Klein underwear ads and the shots of dogs and handsome young men in swimming pools) who made that movie about Chet and whom Gavin apparently disliked intensely because he wouldn't fess up to being gay. The passages about the photographer in the book are passionately, even intimately, indignant.

I've read it and I agree. Among many things, De Valk (correct sp.) establishes that Baker fell to his death from that hotel room window on his own and was not pushed/murdered -- a canard that IIRC James Gavin (not that he was alone in this) entertained in his Baker bio "Deep in Dream."

Monday night caught (alto and soprano saxophonist -- the soprano a recent addition) Nick Mazzarella with Jason Adasiewicz, Tim Daisy, and electric bassist Ray Montana at Elastic (in Chicago). Nick keeps getting stronger and stronger. When he’s at his most heated and most inspired, he reminds me of (Japanese altoist) Akira Sakata — that sense that the instrument and one’s brain are close to melting and that the resulting emotional state is more or less jovial and uplifting. Not surprisingly Nick mentioned that his favorite Parker recordings were the quartet tracks from “Bird D.C.-’52,” though I wouldn't say that those were jovial.

Just ordered the Southern -- why not? Will report.

Dan -- Not to be a jerk here, but it's "bated" (i.e. held in in expectation) breath. Think of, "The cat ate some cheese and lay down in front of the mouse hole with baited breath." Jim -- I've got a fair amount of Southern. To me she defines the line between jazz and cabaret singing. I once tried to parse that out and recall concluding that as tasty as Southern was musically, the musical aspects of her music-making were more or less decorative; the core of what she was doing was verbal/dramatic. In particular, Southern was often rather static rhythmically, but one could argue that this trance-like effect was what the dramas she was creating required. Even closer to the jazz-cabaret edge, and more to my taste, was Audrey Morris. Some Morris, from early on, maybe 1957. She got better and better with age, but I can't find any YouTube clips from later on where I'm sure she's on piano, which is a big part of what she's up to: OK -- here's Morris at her latter day best. The way the "grain" of her now-deepened voice tells the story!

I named them because what they did instrumentally was identical in time and in inspiration/necessity of response to when the primary vocal aspect of the blues was undeniable. Also, they weren't all guitarists -- Jab Jones was a pianist, Hammie Nixon played harmonica, Yank Rachel played mandolin.

I think it's looser probably because they were (or so I assume) on tour. Actually, the live in Japan album they did is much looser too, and with terrific solo work from Warne Marsh. https://www.amazon.com/Live-75-Japanese-Tour-Supersax/dp/B00000DGO9/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1465857126&sr=1-1&keywords=supersax+japan

Figured that was George Barnes.

A track from "The Fox in Hi-Fi":

The valuable part of Koester's quote, for me, is that the blues is a vocal music (with instrumental accompaniment). Worth saying and/or saying again. The part about what white fans think the blues is and/or like about the blues is also true, but it's not that those fans have made/are making a mistake or anything like it; rather, they've reshaped the music over time to suit their own tastes/needs. Do I myself like that reshaped music? Not much. Is this reshaping some sort of moral crime? Meh. Re-shapings of many sorts and in many directions are common in America's more or less vernacular music. More interesting, perhaps, at least in this case, is the sheer musical interest and proliferation of all the musical twists and turns that stemmed from those instrumental accompaniments to what primarily was a vocal music -- from Scrapper Blackwell, to Jab Jones, to Mississippi John Hurt, to Skip James, to Sleepy John Estes, to Furry Lewis, to Hammie Nixon, to Yank Rachel, to Big Joe Williams, ad infinitum.

Best Scarlatti set I know, two CDs for only $3.98! https://broinc.com/search.php?row=0&brocode=&stocknum=&text=thornburgh&filter=all&submit=Search Only problem is that Berkshire's minimum order IIRC is $15. If you can't find that much more good stuff on their vast site, ask me for recommendations.

Frank London Brown: http://www.upne.com/155553628X.html

That Bennie Green Vee-Jay date is one of the great "feel" records. Thinking that Wess sounds Ammons-ish on Track 1 of "The Long Road," I thought of the Green Vee-Jay and of comparing recording dates to see if they were done close together. I'll see if I can find out now. Report: No -- the Vee-Jay was from 11/12/58, the Nelson-arranged Wess date from 3/22/62. BTW, Albert Heath is killing on the Green album; there's a joyous "pop" to his work there.

Definitely a timbale player, along with Osie and Baretto, on track 1. Frank sounds great, a bit Ammons-ish at times.

Ted -- Yes I signed up. I'll try again soon and see if I can get past Chapter 12.

Enjoying the book so far, but for some reason the site it's on won't let me continue to read past chapter 12.

"Tiny's Blues" and more, from Chubby Jackson's 1957 album "Chubby's Back." The musicians are mostly Chicagoans. On "Tiny's Blues" the tenor soloistx in order are Sandy Mosse and Vito Price (given name Vito Pizzo).The guitarist soloist on "Flying the Coop" is Jimmy Gourley; not sure if the soloist on "Mother Knickerbocker" is Gourley or Remo Palmieri. That's the cover of the album -- Chubby's back, get it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_1SpnnXi6M

Several excellent Hines solo albums were made for the Australian Swaggie label in the ‘70s and are well worth trying to track down: Hines Plays Hines Hines Plays Cole Porter Hines Plays Dave Dallwitz (Dallwitz — 1914-2003 — was the remarkable Australian composer-bandleader) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Dallwitz I also like (from the same period): My Tribute To Louis Hines Does Hoagy Hines Comes in Handy They've been collected here: http://www.masterdigital.com/24bit/mastering/gallery/sacd-111.htm