Harold_Z

An unforseen twist with Johnny Sack getting taken down by an informant who was just involved with the Brooklyn side of things. OUR THING is really going to shit...and nobody has a glimmer about Ray Curto yet. VERY black humor with Melfi's psychology being the catalyst that lets Tony S. realize that he really has to get rid of Tony B. AJ is such a shit head. For a second I was thinking Phil would take AJ out. I thought it was Phil's brother who was killed, not his son. Jim, why is it a copout?

Good closer. Too bad the whole season wasn't as good as the last 2 weeks.

Definitely smoke too.

BTW, the formica body Danelectro was great for eating on the gig.

Not sure about the bodies, but they definitely used the "lipstick tube" pickups. From what I can gather, those old Silvertone guitars have a cult following among guitarists. Yeah...they were Danelectros, and I remember reading that Dan Armstrong (Danelectro) designed them.. The formica body, the pickups, etc. the only real visible difference was the headstock. the Danelectros had a "traditional" 3 tuning keys on each side, whil the Silvertone headstock was set up like a Fender, with all 6 tuning keys on one side. Great deal for the money. The guitar case came with a built in Amp.

I don't know a whole lot about him, but you can hear him on some of the Eddie Harris Vee Jay recordings. He sounds great on those.

Somebody move that CORDEEN out of the way ! I think the little keyboard on top of the Hammond is an ORGANO (for real !). Piano players could bring one on a gig to get organ sounds. Why he needs one on top of a Hammond is a mystery - unless he like the (very) cheesey sound the organo got. A little cheesier than combo organs like the Farfisa or Vox and somewhat earlier chronologically. There was also a version where it was the length of a standard piano keyboard and little contacts would drop when the piano key was depressed and create depresing organ sounds - also muy cheesey.

...and I've seen some photos where I would say Alpha looked good indeed!

I dunno a lot of the skinny here, but Cliff Leeman married Alpha somewhere along the line.

Just to weigh in on the Columbia vs JSP sound thing. The Columbia is my preference, but prior to the Columbia's release the JSP was by far the best sounding issue to that point. I have both. To cut out Louis's post 30s work is to miss a lot of great music. There are a lot worse singers than Velma Middleton out there.

I guess THE COS really missed the point on that scene ! It strikes me that it's kind of presumptous on his part to try and dictate what someone else should do on their show. You could could have countered with script revisions for his show. Re Pops' later recordings. Yeah..I've od'd on Wonderful World, etc, but there are still many gems in Louis Armstrong's work right up to near the end. And I love the All Stars. The W.C. Handy album, the Fats album, the stuff with Duke, etc. MANY MANY gems there....and in good sound.

...and he sends money home to run a school for boys. Can you say Madras ? I think the writers were being semi humorous is an attempt to show how clueless Adrianna really was.

Very sad news. What a body of work he left behind!

Jazznerd / musician.

I'm glad you're getting into it Wesbed. That stuff is primo. I've been listening to the Hot 5s since I was a teenager - maybe even before. That's some 40+ years and I never get tired of it. There's always something new with every listening.

Movie bios of musicians always make me cringe. Big time.

Good enough ?

WKCR is devoting it's Jazz programming to Fats today. The programs remaining will be from noon to 3:00 pm and from 6:00 to 9:00 pm New York time.

EXACTLY right, Morganized and Danagoodstuff. Going back into the late 60s and 70s, a lot of jazz bandleaders hired guys playing electric bass in an effort to be "contemporary". A lot of the these guys were rock players who just didn't have the right sensibility for jazz, couldn't walk and couldn't swing. Too locked into the rock 8th note groove. The instrument ended up taking the blame for the bad players.

This Sony cd came out a couple of years ago - it's terrific! Is this the one you have? First getting into it? Imho get things by people like Machito, Perez Prado, Beny More, Tito Puente, Mongo, etc.

It aint the ax. It's the player.

Happy Birthday, Chuck, and many more.

Here's the thing (imho)..... Watch it a second time. There will be no expectation or impatience for the plot to move on and you can relax and be more receptive to what is essentially an interlude. (I know some wise ass is going to say "essentially a qualude"). For me it worked really well the second time through (and I didn't dig it the first time through - see above). I'm glad I took the time to watch it again.

I watched the show again last night and my opinion has somewhat softened. It held my interest - as did the first. Even when this show is off the wall it's fascinating. I decided to accept it at my evaluation of it's face value and meaning. Tony S. knows that Tony B. is a loose cannon and he knows that Tony B. put him right in the line of fire from Johnny Sack's faction. The teeth - the gun that wouldn't fire - the bullets turning to shit...all classic symbols of fear and impotence . His fear is that he will not be able to handle what is coming. It's formulaic in that the dream ploy was used prior to offing Big Pussy. From the producer or writer's pov - it was highly successful with audiences then - why not expand on it now? Re: A couple of symbols I've heard discussed in the office - The Finn/AJ morph - AJ is there when the converstion is "He'll never amount to anything" - not anytime else. Artie is there because Tony wants to bang Charmaine. I think a lot of the rest are pretty obvious, i.e "High Noon", etc. Don't forget David Chase has always put a comedic gloss (much appreciated here)over this show.

Sure was ! First season Tony had a 5 minute dream where things crystalized in his mind and he realized Big Pussy had to go. This season it's half a show. Filler.