BeBop

Thanks Tom in RI! I'm looking forward to some new/old reading material.

Okay. who went for the PopMarket Partridge Family set?

I'm rather tired of the so-and-so died threads. Or rather I'm tired of people dying. Oh yeah, and I hate the discussions that cost me money like that confounded Complete Black Saint Soul Note advert/enticement.

Kraftwerk at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from the New York Times. Eight concerts, eight albums, eight nights. All-you-can-eight. Unfortunately, it looks like the early albums ("Kraftwerk" and "2", with the cone covers) aren't included. And, of course, everything is already sold out.

I wish I'd been true to my word here before dipping a toe into the Politics Forum the other day. Failing that, I hope I learned my lesson.

Yes, Jaki immediately came to mind. Dick Hyman too. Also Hank Jones.

Way to celebrate! I hope it's a great birthday.

Social reasons absolutely played a big role in my musical tastes. ANTI-social. I suppose it was somthing of a revolt against my peers - or, more kindly, a desire to establish myself as an individual, not a "sheep" - that I gravitated away from the "pop" music of my times and classmates. I suppose one might add this to a long list of things I did to define myself as "unique" (my leisure travel destinations, my early career choices, the high school I chose to attend instead of the one I was expected to attend, my political leanings...) On the end, it circled back, and I was at least superficially accepted as a token everything-we're-not in various groups. The guy that listens to that strange music.

So Smalls is now charing for their online audio archives? 48 hours free; $5 month; $20 for 6 months. Not unreasonable. http://www.smallsjazzclub.com/join2.cfm?CFID=24273064&CFTOKEN=70666816 I can't listen online (I'm using work computers, cell phones, hotel shared computers and such for my "connections"), but I was out at the Smalls site to check concert schedules for my upcoming blast through New York.

I still like everything I did in my early listening days, but my biases have changed quite a bit - from bigger groups to smaller; from really "inside" to "more out". But I'd probably buy 90% of the recordings in my collection today. Not bad for 40 years at it.

Thoughts on the Konitz set from anyone who knows the music, whether from this set or the originals? I'm definitely on the fence. I like Konitz a pretty lot, especially duos and tenor stuff. (...just by way of background) Listening to the samples Amazon has for the Black Saint/Soul Note set, it seems to be a whole mix of stuff - small and large groups, some angular, some straight ahead, some swinging, some whatever. In a way, it doesn't much matter, since I tend to listen either to one album...or to throw it on shuffle. Overall quality?

Small Group Fave: Stan Getz in Stockholm (Verve) - Stan Gets Happy with some old standards Really Small Group Fave: Getz and Dailey - Poetry

The two sessions with Ricky Ford & Sonny Fortune are intense. Or, to be drama with it, INTENSE!!! Either way, but with confidence. I just finished doing my taxes. JSngry's enthusiastic recommendations consumed a greater proportion of my 2011 income.

The Mal Waldron does look good. It's $22 at J&R.

Relating this back to the jazz world, some news of saxophonist Dayna Stephens from the April 5, 2012 San Jose Mercury news. Bay Area sax titan Dayna Stephens fights for his life By Richard Scheinin Several times a week, Dayna Stephens drives his van from his New Jersey apartment to New York City, navigating traffic on the George Washington Bridge -- and eyeing the dialysis bag hanging from a hook above his head: "People stare sometimes," he says. "It is what it is. "I'd be dead in two weeks without dialysis." At 33, the East Bay native already ranks among the best jazz saxophonists in the nation. But he's also on another list: He's one of approximately 90,000 Americans awaiting a new kidney. Stephens added his name to the transplant list 21/2 years ago and has undergone dialysis ever since, a worry as only about half of dialysis patients survive more than three years. Link to full article

Sure we lose on each penny, but we make it up on volume.

Wishing you a birthday filled with sound. (That's what I would want.)

All the best for your birthday and the year to come!

Trader Joe's is okay, I guess...unless you want to buy produce. What they've got gets packaged in some pretty weird ways, and I don't think I've ever seen any produce sold in bulk/by the pound. But hey, their stuff has cute names.

Ah, memories. I did three meals a day for six weeks from the Publix across the street from my Fort Lauderdale hotel.

Rather like Lennie Tristano, methinks.

WTF? From CNN: Tornadoes were spotted in the Dallas-Forth Worth, area, prompting the National Weather Service to issue tornado emergencies. Video from CNN affiliate WFAA shows truck trailers being lifted and tossed like toys. Aerial footage also shows damage to homes; a Tarrant County official confirmed damage in the city of Arlington.

Gotta agree with this one (or these three, as the case may be) Some songs just require extraordinarily careful handling: It Don't Mean a Thing, Stardust, Take the A Train... No doubt they've been done to death. But under the hands of a deft and creative musical surgeon, sometimes something worthwhile can be extracted. Damn seldom. Uncategorizable: "C Jam Blues". Almost elegant (in its simplicity) when new, but now so battle-worn... Just get me past the head, please!

Yesterday, I came close to telling the person in front of me "Oh, it looks like the self-checkout is broken", just to steer her to the help she needed, in a traditional checkstand. But me, I'll check myself out anytime: groceries, Home Depot, hotels, air travel...

They can measure consumer sentiment about this and scanner overcharges and mis-bagged produce all they want. My grocery dollars to to Piggly Wiggly. ...or, in a pinch, H.E. Butt.