Larry Kart

Picked this 1997 album up on a whim, even though I'm far from a knowledgeable Hargrove fan, and at this point I'm very pleasantly surprised. Hargrove does kind of blow his top and lose track of his lines from time to time (IMO), but he is definitely engaged, and his band (Gary Bartz, David Sanchez, Frank Lacy, Russell Malone) has its strengths; the charts are tangy (for want of a better term) in a Don Sickler-esque manner (he arranges one of them, the other charts are the work of their composers), and best of all the added Cuban contingent (Chucho Valdes, drummer Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, timbalist Jose Luis Quintana, congero Miguel "Anga" Diaz, and bassist John Benitez) is VERY strong and (thanks be) vividly recorded. Valdes I've certainly heard before, but his aggressive comping here is really something. BTW, 1997 is a LONG time ago, I suppose, and not only by the calendar.

Thanks, Chris. Correction made.

Chet Atkins? Not in a million years. I don't think he could read music on that level. Schoenberg's 12-tone system was the model for Adrien Leverkuhn's "demonic creativity" given to him by the devil in Thomas Mann's "Doctor Faustus". I read the novel when I was studying composition in college, and was all excited to hear this new way of composing music. Then I listened to some 12-tone pieces, and that ended the fascination right there. AS was a great composer, but his 12-tone system leaves me completely cold. I was kidding.

Piano Concerto -- Steuermann/Hermann Scherchen (Arkadia) I heard that story about the recording of the Serenade, but in my version the original guitarist was replaced by Chet Atkins.

In addition to other sterling qualities, Chuck is a living-breathing hero -- a man who has put his life and well-being on the line to further truth and beauty. That he tells the truth, too, is a big part of it.

Five Pieces for Orchestra -- Craft (Naxos)

Pierrot Lunaire-- Robert Craft/Bethany Beardslee (Columbia); Pierre Boulez/Helga Pilarczyk (Ades) Book of the Hanging Gardens -- Beardslee/Robert Helps (Son Nova) Suite Op. 29 -- Craft (Columbia) ...Dig Pearl Kaufmann on piano; among other things, she did the piano playing for Jack Nicholson's character in "Five Easy Pieces" and improvised a chunk of the piano part on Stravinsky's recording of "The Flood" at IS's urgent request when it was discovered at the recording session that he'd left some of the part blank. Piano music -- Edward Steuermann (Columbia); Claude Helffer (Harmonia Mundi); Pi-Hsien Chen (Hat Art) Violin Concerto -- Hillary Hahn/Salonen (DGG) String Quartets -- Kolisch Quartet (Music & Arts) Chamber Concerto No. 1 -- Holliger (Teldec); Orpheus Chamber Ensemble (DGG) Moses und Aaron -- Kegel (Berlin Classics) Ewartung -- Craft/Pilarczyk (Columbia)

To you on your birthday

It may just be me, but "early trombonist" strikes me as weird when applied to Dickie Wells . I mean, Kid Ory, Honore Dutery -- those are early trombonists, both in terms of era and style. Dickie Wells could (and did) stand tall alongside Lester Young as a soloist -- hear "Taxi War Dance," for one.

That was my point or part of it-- that a good many of the less-recognized but arguably worthy black beboppers were by that time no longer living or not in shape to play that well or growling in people's faces, etc.

No doubt the place was home to a fair degree of racialist thinking, but OTOH I don't recall the JALC gigs for C Sharpe, Tommy Turrentine, Dave Burns, Walter Bishop Jr., et al. Also, though I may be mistaken here, a good many of the relatively unrecognized non-white beboppers by the time JALC came into being were no longer among the living or not in great shape or not living in the NYC area. In any case, if there were a non-white counterpart to, say, Triglia or Schildkraut, he probably wouldn't have gotten a gig there either.

Not so sure I'd make that leap. Nor would I, much though I find Sach's playing attractive. The reasons aging guys who can play aren't recognized are legion. I suppose we should next consider the racialist snubs visited upon Dick Meldonian.

Sachs can be heard to great advantage (as can a number of other fine players, including Joe Wilder, Eddie Bert, Oscar Pettiford, and George Wallington) on several fine albums from the late composer-arranger Tom Talbert. The first one, "Bix, Duke & Fats," is quite special. http://www.amazon.com/Bix-Duke-Fats-Talbert-Orchestra/dp/B00005LCTV/ref=sr_1_5?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1368741635&sr=1-5&keywords=tom+talbert http://www.amazon.com/This-Living-Tom-Talbert/dp/B0000060IL/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1368741601&sr=1-3&keywords=tom+talbert There's also a fascinating Talbert biography: http://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2012/06/tom-talbert-different-voice.html

Tom Brechtlein on drums?

Yes, with Norvo.

Hey, I like the Carpenters:

A tentative top five, in no particular order: Tauno Hannikainen's Sibelius Second (EMI). Mozart Sinfonia Concertane for Violin and Viola, Drurian/Skernick/Szell (Columbia) Mozart Clarinet Concerto, Karl Leister/Karajan (EMI) -- not for Herbie (though he's on goodish behavior here) but for Leister; his between-the-cracks phrasing (if that's the way to put it) is sublime. Something by Horenstein, but there's too much to sort out. Something by Vlado Perlmutter, but there's too much to sort out. Interesting that IIRC three of those five -- Hannikainen, Horenstein, and Perlemuter -- came to me by way of Chuck.

That set is insanely expensive, especially for a public-domain release. I think that's mainly because its OOP and (allegedly) scarce. My copy back in the day was fairly cheap IIRC.

I have this one: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Cello-Sonatas-1-5-Beethoven/dp/B000007NKE It's OOP and fairly pricey used. Can't vouch for the sound quality versus the EMI because I haven't heard the latter.

Fournier/Schnabel

It was one of the oddest (and maybe the stupidest) things I've ever done, but for Down Beat back in the day (maybe 1969) I reviewed a Steve Miller album (it was his first or second) and Tyrone Washington's "Natural Essence" together and gave the Miller's album four stars and "Natural Essence" three-and-a-half stars. What I was thinking there I no longer recall/have no idea. Actually, I do recall that the Miller album definitely had its moments (Boz Scaggs was on board), though I also recall hearing and reviewing a later edition (late '70s) of the Miller Band at a rock fest at then Comiskey Park in Chicago. They were pretty bad.

Wasn't inept, just corny as hell. Guess she figured she had to do her cutsie BG bit on that one . Lame. Maybe not outright flubs, but things get downright vague/insecure/awkward/anomalous rhythmically at any number of spots -- at .45, at 1.00, at 1:19, at 1:33, and at 2:25 and for a fair while after that IMO.

There's lots of post-Les Petit work from Marquet on YouTube, but it seems much more variable to me (in part because of so-so on location video recordings) than what he did with Morel's bands, where everything was top notch. At least one latter-day Marquet performance with the Paris Washboard Band captures some of the former magic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpD-Tp__AME

Maybe she says: "Something's fishy here."

Not told ideally perhaps, but I prefer this one: A man is having an affair with his secretary. They leave the office early one day and go to her apartment, where they screw all afternoon, finally fall asleep exhausted and don't wake up until 8 p.m. The man rushes home, where his wife meets him at the door and asks where he has been. The husband decides to confess. "My secretary and I are having an affair. We left work today, went to her place, screwed all afternoon, and then we fell asleep." "You bastard," the wife says. "You've been playing golf again." Again, not perfectly told, but I prefer it because golf is a game for obsessives and bowling AFAIK is not. Further, bowling, for those who do go hard for it, is a game that typically revolves around a bunch of guys getting together. Thus the Helmsley joke might have worked better if the punch line would have been something like: "You've been out bowling with your buddies again!"