JSngry

It's the post-Monk Monk.

The bridge is where the Monk is in that one, thar same note on top while the line underneath moves. Took me a while to get that one.

Stan Kenton.

Coyote urine. http://www.bernardandagnes.com/journal/raccoon.shtml

Sister Rose Sister Rosetta Tharpe Allen Stoltzfus

Finally got to The Beatles Anthology DVD set this weekend, we did. Very impressive, very satisfying, not "complete" in any way, but it seems like this is their story as that want it known, namely, as a band. Even when it went bad, still a band. Works for me. I still hear people talking bitterly about all-hype, no-talent, couldn't play shit,etc etc etc, and ok, whatever, you stake those claims, but hey - band. Learn what that really means and then we can talk about that other shit.

ECM? Mexico? https://m.youtube.com/results?q=ronettes%20sunshine&sm=3

feels like there' s neither beginning nor end to be found nor to be desired.

Monk & Sonny, wherever you find it.All of it. Never before, never again, etc. Not even with Trane, nope, not like that. The Columbia stuff, as a whole, is imo as easy to underestimate as it is to overvalue. Follow you bliss on that stuff, although it should be noted that their big band album is markedly superior to Riverside's, if only because of Thad Jones skeetin' up brilliance with every note and because Steve Lacy, section player. But avoid the one with Oliver Nelson at all costs. I love Oliver Nelson, but that record is an abomination. But back to Thad, that 5X Riverside, that one too. Plus, Monk/Sonny At Any Cost gets you to Ernie Henry, and that is a place for one to be, definitely.

Johnny Dankworth Mrs. Butterworth Mary Worth

Giants declining to use the DH, that was a statement...

She's alive, is she well? No matter, the most stubborn about not dying woman I ever knew only made it to 98, so kudos to ODH, survival is not as easy as it looks.

Does yours say "CD MADE IN MEXICO" on the back? Maybe it's just on the wrapper, I don't know, it just got here today. But yeah, WTF? as in So Freakin' What? Shit gets made all over the world and it gets in fine or finer print, Bird comes in from a day's drive south and itgets advertised in red ink big enough to not go uunnoticed, racist baiting, internationalist pride, I don't get it, and as soon as I do, I won't.

This might sound like a wiseass answer, but it's not - you can't buy Naxos CDs where I live, not that I know of. Bricks and mortars that sells new classicals past the very most obvious (or in the bins since last century-ish), no, not now, not that I know about. So, I'm gonna be buying them from the same online shacks as everybody else, I suppose.

C'mon folks, Grace Kelly is young and has a career playing Young People Music, and apparently a viable one at that. Did anybody really think she was going to grow up to be Lee Konitz? I mean, hope springs eternal and all that, but reality being the unrelenting bitch that it is...no. So instead, celebrate life, celebrate Don Friedman (RIP) and fix yourself a bigass burrito! Grace Kelly, parallel universe, worlds not expected to collide. Hilah, like Don Freidman, welcome ANY time.

Finished Vol 2 today, a little less "essential" than Vol 1...still some good things on it, though. Problem is, not all artists fit the songs as well as they did on the first set. Licensing issues, no doubt. But kudos to Ace for keeping it real and keeping it legit, here and elsewhere..

Oh, this is only some of those songs...we got things here going as far back as 1962! You get all sorts of interesting thins to think about, like, imagine a singer being given an unknown song by an unknown-ish to sing with, at best, a demo to go by, and the lyrics and/or changes might be just a teency bit off-kilter, how does that all play out as far as making the record? And then you see a kinda Imperial/LA nexus start to form, Jackie DuShannon, Rick Nelson, and then Harry Nillson emerges, all these people around this one place, some on the way up, some on the way out, some just standing there for reasons never determined, I think Newman was an in-house songwriter for a publishing company that was a part of then-Liberty Records, that's how it seems, and...the first Warner Brothers run seemed kinda like here comes this new guy fully-formed, but no, this guy came out of the trenches really knowing his stuff. Not just in terms of subject matter/portrayal, but the craft of pop songs in general. Like I said, fun listening, on many levels. Written for Mary Hopkin in 1968, recorded by Ellison in 1970, the parallels between this (song and production) and "Ain't No Way" is obvious, but those lyrics...simple but deep. It's not like the guy was a totally creepy cynic, right? Not a one-trick-pony, not at all. And this...essentially The Serious Side Of "Have You Seen My Baby"...or maybe they're both serious,,,

How're they making the money work, ie the contract/royalties/etc?

Hell yeah. That song just oozes Fats Domino, no matter who does it. This one does not. I love the balance between cynical opportunism and dedication to real musical substance in a song like this. Sorta like Zappa with the misanthropy dialed down, perhaps even off.

It's common practice elsewhere to add an initial as a performance name.

I can talk to strangers if I want to. I'm a stranger too.

Oh, I am serious. Yeah, Fats has always sounded like that, but Fats never had lyrics like that to put that voice to. Those are very much Randy Newman lyrics. And the fit is perfect.

Otis Spunkmeyer The Sugar Land Skeeters Prickle & Goo

I'm not really a "Randy Newman Fan" and I remain weary/wary of "songs" as an ongoing primary proposition, but Randy Newman has had a very real skill set and he has consistently deployed it very deftly, apparently since the almost beginning. That's the premise of these two sets, and that premise proves to be a sound one, and for me, a semi-revelatory one. These are two delightful collections, and if the programming makes for a somewhat scattered listening experience the first time through, a coherency of voice develops with repeated listenings, and eventually it's just one big hoot. Highlights of unexpected delight will showcase Fats Domino, Rick Nelson, The O'Jays (whose reading of "Friday Night" is, I Swear To God, the exact Mathematical Midpoint between The Drifter & Elvis Costello), Cilla Black(!), and seemingly endless others. Other than Eric Burdon's seeming reading the lyrics off the paper for the first time take of "Mama Told Me Not To Come" (still, the first recording), there's nothing on here that is less than smile-inducing GOOD, and there's enough Genuine Goodies for my unhesitating recommendation to anybody and everybody for whom "this type of thing" might hold an appeal. Haven't really dug into the annotations yet, but they appear to be excellent and document Newman's evolution from a staff songwriter to a Genuine American Icon. Otherwise...is this not an eerie fusion of voices? Is Fats channeling Randy, or has Randy always been channeling Fats, I don't even know, eh what?