John Tapscott

All the best to Paul and John for their gigs together! Wish I could hear them. I just ordered John Fedchock's new big band CD called "Up and Running" on Reservoir.

One of my favorite late-period Webster discs is a Storyville compilation call "Ben Webster - Masters of Jazz." Lots of variety ranging from Ben leading a trio and quartet to a standard big band augemented by strings on one track. "C Jam Blues" has Ben and Dexter Gordon playing long solos. Ben sounds good on every track on this 75 minute CD. Tracks are from 1967-1970.

Bud Shank Pacific Jazz - Disc 1. I really like this set. Easy listening in a very positive sense. Sometimes I need that.

Happy B' Day Paul. Thanks for the music and for the musical inisights. You are one of those true jazz warriors out there holding the flag high against some strong headwinds! Bless you. All the best for future days.

Friggin' cold and windy! Down to -35 C tonight with the wind chill.

Happy Birthday, Garth! Have a great day.

Never having seen Monk play I am particularly fascinated by his playing on the recent Jazz Icons DVD. Somehow it's given me a whole new appreciation of his playing. (Not that I didn't enjoy it before but this is priceless!)

It was the 5 Cd London House set I was referring to. I listened to the whole thing through about a month ago, for the first time in several years. It struck me again as it did before - consistenly inventive, swinging, and interesting. Basically the opposite to everything Allen Lowe says about OP's playing. I think it may be overall OP's best playing in disc, partly because the Brown-Thigpen group was the best he ever had, (IMHO). Other personal favorite OP recordings include the London Concert on Pablo with John Heard and Louis Bellson, plus the four CD's recorded at the Blue Note in 1990 with Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Bobby Durham (on Telarc). Top-rate mature Peterson before the devastating stroke a couple of years later which diminished his playing quite significantly.

I was about to post when I found shaft already said just about everything that was on my mind! Well put (BTW, the London House recordings are from 1961 and they are excellent, better in my view than the rather overrated Stratford Festival album, which has mediocre sound and some awful sounding "arco" bass from Ray Brown. Great as Ray was, he never did master this aspect of bass playing).

My thoughts are that if you are only going for one, go for the Hodges. I don't have the set, but have much of the music. It's sublime. I have the Wilson and it is generally very good, (even the pop material is good) but over the long haul I think the Hodges will really prove its timeless value (agreeing with Paul Secor).

Happy Birthday, John!

Generally, enough for a couple of Cd's per month from websites , a couple from local retail outlets, plus $5-10 monthly put aside for Mosaics. But I almost always spend more than I intend. I am a jazz lover and I have a problem....

I know it can throw you off, but "Mary Lou Williams" was apparently one way Woody referred to Nat Pierce. Not quite sure what the inside joke was there. But my understanding is that it's Nat soloing there, not Mary Lou.

It hit us in southern Ontario last night and this morning. The people close to the west end of Lake Ontario received 50 cm of snow. A little further north and east where I live, closer to 25 cm. The worst thing right now is is the wind which is whipping the snow into all kinds of weird and wonderful shapes. That also means that we might as well wait 'til it stops until we do the heavy shovelling. It's a snow day here which means schools closed, and lots of people off work. My wife and daughter are both home. I am going to have a quiet afternoon in my office catching up on paper work (with jazz playing, of course). One needs a day like this sometimes.

Ellington did some great things after Strayhorn's passing, too.

Mance's Sackville recordings are very good. Here's two I really enjoy - Jubilation (solo) and Milestones (trio).

Today - Sonny Stitt - Discs 7-9

Listened to my old LP last night which I hadn't heard for probably 10 years. It is a great session, very satisfying listening. In Ashley's Khan's "The House That "Trane Built", it's claimed that Oliver Nelson was supposed to be the arranger for this session, but was unavailable at the last moment. Perhaps that was providential, since I can't imagine he would have arranged like this for the band. Not to take anything away from Oliver, but I expect his arranging would have been more "mainstream," perhaps not even using this intrumentation. But what Dolphy does with the brass is quite astounding. I love those French horn shrieks. And the baritone horns are very nice. Of course, Coltrane is a powerhouse, and Tyner sounds very inspired, as well.

Act One is a favorite of mine. It is very good. In fact, I may go and put it on right now.

Friggin' cold. Last night -30 with the windchill. That's Celsius, but when you go that low there not much difference between C and F. Warmer this morning - 15 C. Just think, when we solve global warming, we'll have 3 more weeks of this to look forward to every year!

It's Ok to see the Colts win but I was surprised at how ineffective the Bears defense was. They kept on giving up 3rd and long conversions and those are a killer. The plan seemed to be not to give up the big play and it worked to a degree since they kept the Colts to field goals in the red zone. But the lack of a pass rush meant the Bears defense was on the field way too long. I was hoping for a decent game, But it was a slightly below average game at best. Also, I was kind of hoping Grossman might prove the naysayers wrong. Unfortunately he proved them right.

Probably closer to 25. The hair styles of the time probably made them look younger. Frank Tiberi would have been around 50 and most of the guys had just come out of college. Woody was never content just to recycle the old things. He was always incorporating new things into the book. "Giant Steps" (Fantasy) from 1973 is excellent, as are the last two recordings Herman made with the Herd - "50th Anniversary Tour" (1986 - Concord) and "Woody's Gold Star" (1987 - Concord). BTW I noticed yesterday in a newspaper listing that Woody and the Herd were one of the the half-time "acts" at the 1973 Super Bowl. Mercer Ellington a couple of years later. Neat.

I don't want to come down too heavily on a new member. So welcome Acoustic. Let me just say that Tyner's "Enlightement" absolutely floored me when I first heard it in 1974 and it was one of the 6 albums that turned me on to "real jazz". I still remember the extraordianry experience of hearing that album for the first time on the radio one night. I bought the album the next day and it started to take my jazz listening down a much different road than the big band and fusion that I had been mostly listening to up to then. Tyner ordinary? Not in my book. Never.

I like P.D. James. The book is certainly very good and thought-provoking, IMO, and ends with a bit of much-needed hope (which Sal indicates has been captured in the movie.) Glad to hear that that book seems to have translated well onto the big screen. That doesn't always happen.

Another thing to mention is that I've never known really driven people to accept defeat gracefully. They just don't. I don't think Ali was very good at admitting defeat; neither were Gary Kasaparov nor Bobby Fischer in chess. They hated to LOSE. Maybe Belichick is the same. I don't think he's got any kind of a life outside of football. I'll bet Belichick is cheesed off at the Pats ownership. The Pats paid the price for being cheap at wide receiver. It would have even been worse if Vinateri (sp?) had done them in.