sheldonm

I saw them both in Chicago about 18 months ago and Terry last year.....Bellson was still swinging....Terry not so much. m

...woke us up here in Indy...no damage. Felt the aftershock (one of several) as well a few hours later....crazy! m

...very cool!

Randy Brecker with the Steve Allee Trio (Allee, Tim Horton, Bill Mooring) at the Jazz Kitchen tomorrow night (4/23). m~

I saw/heard Lateef at Joe Segal's 80th Birthday party. He was playing with Von Freeman and they were playing a little "out" and Joe pulled the plug on their performance when they ran a few minutes over. Walked out on stage in the middle of a tune and stopped them....love that Joe!!!! I think Von and Yusef got a kick out of it. What a great night m~

Have a great day!

....thanks guys....and Rachel also:cool: . Had a good day....other than working part of it. 75 degrees and lots of sun. Got a new 160 gig ipod from Gina...trying to get the mosaic covers to download...not sure what I'm missing? Several calls from friends and I scored a few gift cards for my favorite camera store.....the benefits of having six sisters!!! All is all, a great day! Thanks for all the kind words as well! m~

..very nice!

I noticed last week in my Borders store that they had just done a big reorgnization of the CD area and that the jazz section now takes up about half the space it used to. Looks like the beginning of the end. ....happened to the store a few miles from my home this week....sad~

Congrats!!!

...and

...one of the last photographs I made of him...

Buried at the bottom of this interesting article is the sad news that pianist "young" John Young has passed away m~ you wish to be removed from this list, just ask. The stars must have been in some strange alignment Friday night – on my way to The Green Mill I (almost literally) ran into the piano-bar entertainer Joel Berry, whom I haven’t seen for 7 or 8 years. Joel suffered a near-fatal stroke some time ago, and has made a miraculous recovery, with all of his faculties intact. He’s still gigging, and has become even more cheerful a person than he was before (and he was a happy guy, lemme tell ya). We should all be so fortunate. Once I got to the Mill, the first person I ran into was sax player Kevin Flannagan, who has promised for years to show up some night, and finally made it. Unfortunately the hour was too late for him to stick around and play with us, but it was great to see him outside of our usual milieu (Hackney’s/Mr. Myers band). My Japanese trumpet player friend Hiroshi Yasuda was also there, but for some reason didn’t play (we got sort of overloaded with trumpets – Ivory, Steve Thomas, Scott Anderson). My young drummer friend Jon Quiaoit sat in and sounded fine, and so did the fiery young pianist Justin Dillard, and I’m pretty sure I saw pianist Greg Spero in the audience, diggin’ it. The singer Shelly Lynne sat in and swung pretty hard, and my old drummer compadre Mike “Count Drumula” Linn was wandering around, looking a bit dazed. But the biggest surprise came as I was exiting via the side door; a guy walking across the street called out to me, and it turned out to be drummer Greg Fundis. I haven’t seen Greg for maybe 10 years, but he was always one of my favorite players. He’s on the road with the band 56 Hope Road, and they were playing at The Riv; it’s great to see someone who’s realizing his dreams. Tuesday night at Andy’s we also had a pleasant surprise; trumpet star Corey Wilkes and fast-rising tenor sax player Kevin Edwards sat in with us and burned up Miles’ “Nardis” and Freddie Hubbard’s “Straight Life”. I welcome surprises like this; the more the merrier. Which brings me, roundabout, to my sermon of the week: The quality of audiences. Andy’s was packed with tourists Tuesday (urologists’ convention), the majority of them foreigners, and although they were noisy, they were also respectful and appreciative. And that’s usually how I can tell an audience of Europeans, South Americans or Asians from an American audience. Americans persist in treating live music as nothing more than a version of music video, a version which annoyingly requires them to occasionally shut up and applaud. I know, every once in a while you get lucky, but you know what I’m talking about. The Europeans (from Spain, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, France and Italy) applauded at the appropriate places and bought cds, and many of those who did not nevertheless took the time to tell us how much they appreciated our music. There was a sizable contingent of Brasilians as well, and they enjoyed (or at least tolerated) our selection of Brasilian music, and were bemused as I trotted out my smattering of Portuguese. I like to think that American audiences don’t mean to be rude; they were just raised that way. The American culture really does not place high value on creativity, I’m afraid, and a lot of these attitudes are buried deep in our national origins. Not only in our Puritanical roots, but the very concept of democracy, in a way, teaches us that all of us are equal, so why should I shut up and treat you like you’re a big whoop? As part and parcel of early America’s refutation of all things European we threw the baby out with the bathwater and developed a national character that is not only independent-minded and rebellious but anti-intellectual as well. (A footnote to this argument is, do you know why Americans drive on the right side of the road? It’s because the English drive on the left. And the footnote to that is, why do the English drive on the left? It’s a throwback to the days of chivalry; men rode their horses on the left side of the road so that their sword-handling arm, the right, would be handy to fend off an attack from an approaching brigand.) All that can be done, I’m afraid, is for all of you hard-working teachers out there to continue fighting the good fight, and for those of you in “the media” to keep trying to sneak some of the good stuff past the arbiters of taste. And for those of you who are not in the trenches with us, to be kind when our paths intersect. Pay attention, applaud, teach your kids that art comes from people, not from machines. Speaking of you teachers, I just heard the disturbing news that the IAJE has gone bankrupt. Terrible news on the jazz education front. Some more sad news is the death of “Young” John Young. John was one of greatest pianists, and a true gentleman as well. I used to see him play quite a bit in my youth, and had a few chances to work with him once I had paid some dues; he was always gracious, always played sublimely, and he will be sorely missed. Eric Schneider passed along the following information about services for John: Wake: Tues., April 22, 6:00 until ?, Leak & Sons Funeral Home, 7838 S. Cottage Grove. Funeral: Weds., I presume, (10 - 11 visitation; 11:00 funeral), Ebeneezer Missionary Baptist Church, 4501 S. Vincennes.

Hi Erik....have a good one!

I have several cameras...mostly pro models....but did buy the Canon G9 a few months ago to play around with....very nice! m

...

I saw the composition performed live at the Chicago Cultural Center last year and have been eagerly awaiting the recorded release ever since. Some of her most interesting work to date to my ears. Here are a couple images from that show. m~

I was at the same show but didn't see Dan . I thought the show was fun in a strange way but had a good time. Phil's a nice guy and fun to watch! I was late getting there; I had just left the "triumph of trumpets" at the Harris Theater featuring the Chicago Jazz Ensemble with Jon Faddis along with Terel Stafford, Randy Brecker, Lew Soloff and Tom Harrell. Fun show as all the five previously mentioned players as well as the other CJE horns and Orbert Davis (pulled from the audience) played the finale....fun show. m~

Valerie, I thought that may be it but wasn't sure; thanks for your help. Bertrand, Alexander & Tom....thanks for nothing!!! m~

...called "Blues for Yna Yna"??? I know how to pronounce "Blue for"...just not the other part. m~

"Live" at the Village Vanguard...spinning at this moment!

I may see Jim this weekend; I'll ask about Joe. Nice article about Jim and his donation in this month's Downbeat (Matheney on the cover). m~

..this was already posted a short while back by Clem I think. Pretty nice issue! m~

...and another.

Here's a shot from a couple weeks ago...