HutchFan

Many thanks, xybert! Now listening to more Frank Foster: Frank Foster and the Loud Minority Band - Well Water (Piadrum) This is superb.

Thanks for the recommendation. I've not heard the Denon recording, but I intend to get it!

NP: Frank Foster - "The Frank Foster Non-Electric Company" (EPM Musique) Recorded in Belgian nightclub in 1979 -- with Ted Dunbar (g); Mickey Tucker (p); Earl May (b); Billy Hart (d). Nice opportunity to hear Foster stretch out in a small-group context. This music is available for streaming via amazon prime under the title Shiny Stockings: BTW: Don't confuse this music with a Denon release called Shiny Stockings. The title is the same, but the recordings are different.

Tremendous music. The two LPs coupled on this CD are Brown's very best, imho. They way that all of those guys are leaning in, hanging on Bird's every word, vaguely reminds me this famous picture of JRM with the Red Hot Peppers:

Roland Hanna - Bird Tracks: Remembering Charlie Parker (Progressive) Remarkable solo-piano transformations of familiar tunes associated with Bird.

Good stuff!

Jim Hall - Live (A&M Horizon) A quiet masterpiece -- and a desert-island pick for this listener.

Frank Wess - Tryin' to Make My Blues Turn Green (Concord)

Woohoo. Preach it, brother! NP: Terumasa Hino - Taro's Mood (Enja)

Very, very cool. ...And yet another reason to take a vacation in Hawaii.

Oooh. I'm jealous that you got to see Lovano & Sco'. Well, at least I have the records. I enjoyed this so much yesterday that I listening again today: Horace Parlan Quintet - Frank-ly Speaking (SteepleChase) Al Harewood is swingin' his ass off on this record.

LOL!!!! You're right: That 101 Strings track is not all that far from (much of) Hovhaness' music.

I'd recommend this Hovhaness LP: Andre Kostelanetz Conducts the Music of Alan Hovhaness (Columbia, 1977) This is probably my favorite Hovhaness record. (Admittedly, like Larry, I feel like a little Hovhaness can go a long way.) The most interesting piece on this LP is the opener, based on The Rubáiyát Of Omar Khayyám. It features narration by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and an accordion soloist! That may not sound like a promising combination -- and there is a certain latent cheeseball element -- but I was completely won over the first time I ever heard it. Incidentally, Teo Macero produced the record. I don't think the LP has ever been reissued in digital format. But here's The Rubáiyát via YT: Isn't that description true of much of Hovhaness' music?!?!? His compositions often seem (to me) to be walking a very fine line between (unintentional) camp and wonderment.

I've enjoyed everything that I've heard from Degen, but I've not got around to that one yet. Expect that I will eventually. . .

Mel Lewis - And Friends (A&M Horizon) with Freddie Hubbard, Michael Brecker, Hank Jones, and others

A recurrent theme on Enja releases of a certain vintage:

Joe Lovano - Joyous Encounter (Blue Note) with Hank Jones, George Mraz and Paul Motian Luxury class, all the way.

Tommy Flanagan - Positive Intensity (Columbia Japan) with Ron Carter & Roy Haynes

Michael Garrick Trio - Cold Mountain (Argo/Vocalion)

Horace Parlan Quintet - Frank-ly Speaking (SteepleChase)

Sphere - Flight Path (Elektra Musician)

Ted Nash - Still Evolved (Palmetto)

Well put. Hooray for the mortals. We're part of the equation too!

medjuck, I was referring to some of Kenton's comments regarding race that can strike a person as... um, perhaps "racially insensitive" is the right word? After a quick Google search, here's an example of the sort of thing I'm talking about -- from an article on A Blog Supreme: Accusations of racism also plagued [Kenton]. Annoyed by the exclusion of what he felt were worthy players in the 1956 Down Beat critics poll, he sent a telegram to the magazine protesting on behalf of "a new minority, white jazz musicians." Though Kenton regularly employed African-American musicians and professed friendship and admiration for black jazz pioneers, he never fully shook the stigma. This Down Beat quote is just one example. The are others where he showed a similar sort of "tone deafness" (at a minimum) when it comes to race. I'm not gonna bother to dig them up. Besides, I'm not making a case that Kenton was a racist. I'm just saying that plenty of non-musical factors played into some people's distaste for the man.

Yeah. That.