JSngry

I used to have Spirit Feel, then sold it, then a few years bought it again. No regrets one way or the other, about any of those transactions. OTOH, I bought Stride! a few years ago and was almost instantly upon listening filled with deep regrets beyond the total capacity of linear measurements. He's one of those guys who can be really interesting and really irritating, often at the same time. But there, credit goes to not being "invisible", ok? He has a lot of decisions at his disposal, so if some are not so fun to hear, hey, you know? Ain't no living in a perfect world, at least not all the time. But hello world (doggone ya'), how many of us heard him every damn week without realizing it at first?

Them What Devils The Ham Them What Made Some Typewriters Tim Watts

I'm no longer a rabid nightly viewer-fan, but still very much a fan. When I watch a talk show in that time slot, it will always be Dave, as long as he's there. Also have a very strong sentimental attachment to his shows for personal reasons not worth going into in detail. But those shows have been in my life only a few weeks less than my wife has. Smirking, mean-spirited, condescending, whatever, I've heard it for decades from some (but not many, overall!) and I'm not particularly sympathetic to the complaints. The guy is funny as hell (was, still can be on a good night), a true innovator, and if he's deeply/darkly cynical at times, too bad. Life frequently be like that, so you might as well get a laugh out of it when it is. If you want to whine or cry, do it in private. If you're in public, laugh for crissakes. And laugh at yourself before all others! In the beginning, it was magic damn near every night. Now it's just...an occasional visit with an old cranky funny guy, and pretty soon it will be just memories. I can relate to that.

Oh great. Now I have a legitimate reason for feeling old and depressed simultaneously and perpetually.

Cathy's Clown Somebody's Fool Everybody (who loves Somebody, sometime)

And no commentary for the Buddy Rich pick...just, like...if you have to ask why, don't.

John McGraw Tug McGraw Alec Wilder

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Szwed or, if you prefer a visual paradigm... https://www.google.com/search?q=Szwed&client=firefox-a&hs=J0u&sa=X&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=rcs&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=Jto8U-KrD7PQsQSeyIDICg&ved=0CDMQsAQ&biw=1400&bih=695

well i'll be damned

Playing this again...by chance, does anybody know anything further about the trumpeters here, Robert Nagel & Allan Dean? Don't know which is who, but there's a sureness of phrasing on display that is certainly impressive, and immediately appreciated by this listener. The entire ensemble is impressive (as are Schuller's readings), but the trumpet playing is, when it occurs, the final micro-focusing of the lens. Or so it sounds to my ears on these first few listenings. Going back many years, Nagel was a friend of a friend. I will see what I can find. That would be appreciated. Sometimes somebody will play something "just so" (not necessarily "better"), and it catches the fancy. Such is the case here. Probably some brain-chemical/neuron path thing, but I'll let scientists concern themselves with that. Me. I got records to play, and not enough time to play them all, at least not at once. Anyway, I listen to this, see Gunther Schuller, hear Ran Blake, make a lot of connections (viable or not, who knows?), and...go on to the next one, eventually.

Carol Channing Carole King King Karol

Playing this again...by chance, does anybody know anything further about the trumpeters here, Robert Nagel & Allan Dean? Don't know which is who, but there's a sureness of phrasing on display that is certainly impressive, and immediately appreciated by this listener. The entire ensemble is impressive (as are Schuller's readings), but the trumpet playing is, when it occurs, the final micro-focusing of the lens. Or so it sounds to my ears on these first few listenings.

Although perhaps not for life in general, hello this. Or perhaps for life in general after all. Who am I to judge?

The Wichita Lineman Kansas Fields Jerry Wheat

Fareed Majeed Fareed Haque Fareed Zakaria

Won't go THAT far, but will lock this one with an advisement to redirect to that other one, that one there.

http://www.amazon.com/April-Fool/dp/B002GM5T88

No bad choices, no dumb comments, although I still don't "get" Louis Bellson the way I maybe probably should. Love this comment about Sam Woodyard: cf Baby Dodds' "Playing For the Benefit Of The Band". An eternal verity, as they say.

Superb MOR/Jazz vocal album from 1964. Having now heard several Arthur Prysock albums from the early 1960s, I feel confident in saying that he was making superior records to a lot of the more popular/famous singers of the time. I'll be looking for more Arthur Prysock records going forth, guaranteed. I thought that the binging through the batches I've recently bought would either satiate or even burn out the curiosity, but to the contrary, they have whetted the appetite (although thankfully not the bed) for more.

Beltre!

Somebody just find Bird with Earl Hines, please.

Two "mod MOR" records w/an array of arrangers including Bobby Scott, Torrie Zito, Claus Ogerman, Don Sebesky, and, of course, Mort Garson, a.o. I understand when people don't care for this kind of thing, but I also understand when I do, and here, I do. Don't know if Sinatra wishes he could have made records like this with Don Costa, but I do. If Jack Jones had a voice like Arthur Prysock, he probably would have made records like this. Anyway, Arthur Prysock did make records like this, so...game over as far as that goes. ==================================================== Let it be Lonshein! http://www.waxpoetics.com/features/articles/out-of-the-mainstream-the-jack-lonshein-story Another MOR record, but from the pre-mod era, one with a few poppish songs, a few jazzy tunes, some blues ballads, almost none of which are widely known, some of which are very good, and all of which are sung quite nicely. =============================================== Now this one caught me and took me off guard. Completely. It's an all ballads album with arrangements by Herb Gordy, and I swan to my soul, the arrangements, and more importantly, the band, are straight-up vintage Billy Eckstine. If you like that kind of thing, the National & Deluxe era ballads, well, here you go, have this too. Prysock doesn't do those hipass tags on the end of songs the way that X did, but dammit, this band will have you looking for John Jackson. Prysock comes by this type thing honestly, of course, and from the sound of it, everybody involved did as well. Damn, this is one killer record. ============================================================= The cover says it all. If Bobby Goldsboro was Arthur Prysock (and all that would imply)...what kind of a world would that be, then, and do we dare even contemplate? Perhaps not, and probably just as well. But having said that - very well-produced for what it is, and Prysock still sings like Prysock. Never mind Rubber Soul, here is some Polyester Soul, and no matter the polyester, still the soul. Life's math, completely neutral in that regard.

The Little Dutch Boy Big Boss Man Tween