duaneiac

He certainly must be thanked / held accountable for bringing to the attention of the public at large the "talents" of John "Bowtie" Barstow. http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bowtiebarstow

David Carroll sure loved him some dancin'!

Interesting that no mention is made of a Latin Jazz musician. Latin Jazz is probably one of the most vibrant forms of the music around these days, at least it would seem so here in California. Perhaps Machito deserves some respect for the influence he had on the following generations of Latin Jazz musicians? Wes Montogmeery, perhaps? The guitar has surpassed the piano as the primary instrument in American musical culture. It used to be, 60 to 100 years ago, that every middle class home had a piano. Now, middle class kids pick up a guitar instead. It seems like those who seriously pursue the guitar, but who are not especially jazz fans, can still dig Wes Montgomery. Does that count as influence? I don't know.

Given the film involved, we'll call that three women and two female impersonators on the cover.

A somewhat related question -- Has there ever been an under the top performance of "You'll Never Walk Alone"? That song almost begs to be overdone.

Maybe not "uhhh" so much as "why?" and "who would buy this?" and "what other weird stuff did Riverside put out?"

Given what a critcal ear he has always had for his own playing, I doubt if he would consider performing in public again unless he felt his playing was back to the level he thinks it should be. Given that he is 83 and has a "respiratory condition", it seems unlikely that he would get back to the level of playing that would satisfy himself. Fortunately, it seems as though he should be financially secure and doesn't need to perform just to provide for himself. I hope he is able to play for his own fulfillment, if he so chooses, and may even hope that he would one day decide he is ready to perform in public again, but I'm not expecting that at all.

I don't argue that David Letterman has been on auto-pilot for a number of years. I haven't watched the show in a long time just because that seemed to be the case. That said, he has provided a number of great television comedy moments over the decades. I think his NBC Late Night show was much better than the CBS Late Show ever turned out to be. There was something funny about just tuning in to watch a guy throw things off the top of a building, or see him go out on the street and ask passers-by "what's in the bag?", or the ongoing phone conversations he would have with Meg Parsont, the editor who worked in an office across the street from his office. Even things like Stupid Human / Pet Tricks were fresh and unexpected and funny stuff back in the 1980's. There were some good moments on the CBS show too -- some bizarre bits like "Potatoes or Gavin MacLeod" and one night when they had Lou Rawls just standing by in the green room all night because "It's better to have Lou Rawls and not need him than to need Lou Rawls and not have him" (truer words were never spoken). His first program on air after the Sept. 11 attacks and after his open heart surgery were unforgettably sincere, human moments. I see nothing wrong with mean-spirited comedy. When you come right down to it, much of comedy is mean-spirited, pointing out time and time again what fools we mortals be. For the most part, Letterman's more pointed barbs were aimed at powerful people who could easily absorb or deflect the arrows, people like Cher, Oprah, Jay Leno, the executives at GE and later CBS. He was not particularly mean to ordinary people who had not chosen to put themselves in the public eye. I'm glad he was around and I enjoyed many a night of late night viewing with his show. It is time for him to go. As far as a replacement goes, two people I would consider would be Neil Patrick Harris and Donald Glover. I think both are multi-talented individuals who appear to be quick comedic thinkers and who would probably be welcome guests in many viewers homes night after night.

David Letterman announced plans to retire next year on Thursday's Late Show. The host, who has been on CBS since 1993, made the announcement to his studio audience at an afternoon taping, and was met with stunned disbelief, says a witness, followed by a standing ovation. "The man who (runs) this network, Leslie Moonves, he and I have had a relationship for years and years and years, and we have had this conversation in the past, and we agreed that we would work together on this circumstance and the timing of this circumstance," Letterman said. "And I phoned him just before the program, and I said 'Leslie, it's been great, you've been great, and the network has been great, but I'm retiring.'" http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2014/04/03/david-letterman-cbs-retire/7266411/

This 2 CD set has selections from Sidney Bechet, Jack teagarden, Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Jelly Roll Morton and many other swing era musicians. This CD delivers what its title says, 20 tracks from a variety of pianists including Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, Jay McShann and Mary Lou Williams.

Guess I'll catch them if I can.

This goes from "uhhhh . . ." to "YIKES!" in record (no pun intended) time.

I guess he would "never give up, never give up" that pulse. Until now. RIP

This must have made for a nice relaxing evening of hi-fi listening:

Mal Sharpe used to have a Sunday night program on KCSM radio called "Back On Basin Street". Many years ago, at least a dozen years or more, he became intrigued by Austin Cromer after hearing his version of "Over The Rainbow". Somehow, he managed to track him down and at that time he was living, I think, in a mobile home park in Florida. Mr. Sharpe actually had a rather lengthy on-air interview with Mr. Cromer one night. I wish I had taped it.

I don't have a fear of clowns (whatever the name for that is - bozophobia?), but I have always found this album cover to be a little disturbing

The Fantasy label put out a nice series of various artists discs focused on different composers, such as This 4 CD boxed set has some good tarditional jazz both from "originalists" like Kid Ory and Willie "The Lion" Smith and "revivalists" like Turk Murphy and Clancy Hayes.

Also worth looking for is this 2 CD set which combines the Boston concert (with Reggie Moore, Alex Lane and Bill English) with some "bonus tracks" from a 1977 Tokyo concert (with Sir Roland Hanna and George Mraz).