JSngry

This interested me, so I pulled out all my Harry James sides with Ziggy Elmer; not much - three 78s and one 45. Alas, no trombone solos on any of it. I'm going to keep my eyes and ears open, though. Look for a tune called "East Coast Blues". My late uncle played it for me on an old 78 waaaay back in the day, and the trombone solo made and impression that still lasts. There's awhole set of VHS tapes called Meet The Bands (aka "Swingtime Videos" in some places) that feature a buttlload full of great bands from that same time on that same set. No idea where or what it was, but if you find'em someplace, carpe diem!

No way IMO I can agree with that. The real problem I had with Buddy's bands was as that time went by, he was hiring more and more players straight out of college and the ensemble sound lost any real distinctiveness. There was nobody to push back, so to speak. But there's stuff on those early Pacific Jazz & RCA sides where band and drummer are groin to groin, and the energy is enthusiastically orgiastic. Granted, not everybody likes that sort of thing, but geez, it's like jazz headbanger music, it knows what it wants to do and does it, and if you don't like it, leave the room. And there's more variety than there came to be, especially early on. And what's really weird, on the 3/4 or 6/8 things, Buddy almost sounds like Elvin and almost feels like him even more. Go figure that one, only that it makes sense in the sense that everybody pretty much knows who's playing and who's not, and it's all there in the air. I saw the band live once, in 1973 in a college gym, one of those one-nighters where they rolled in, set up, did the hit, tore down, and booked on out.. No bullshit was played and no prisoners were taken. Full bore from start to finish. No way I can take a steady diet of that, especially these days, but damn, it was what it was, and bullshit-free is always ok with me, even if do I have to leave the room.

I don't recognize that Italian cover...this is the one I've always known:

Deer swim? That's pretty cool, I had no idea!

I've heard all three Shaw Argo sides, and don't find them "overwhelming" or anything. But I do find them very satisfactory, and I'd not want to be without them either. They're "local" records, and can/should be enjoyed as such, I think. Fine playing, but also "local flavor" aplenty, which often disguises itself as a genericism of sorts. A lot of those Argo/Chess records by their non-stars are like that, too. Just the odd one or two and you don't really hear it right away, but when you start exploring the catalog, a picture begins to develop. One can be forgiven for hearing them through the New York-centric concept of "identity", since that's the overwhelming collective overview, you know, if you don't go to New York, it doesn't really "count", but one can also come to hear a lot of individual subtleties as well. Quite possibly those subtleties are a result of staying local. I tend to like the local guys. They're what made this a 3D (or even 4D) music, when it was one.

Not a Sinatra, she's not. But her dad worked with Sinatra several times over the years.

Leonard Nimoy Nimrod Jack, who was admonished to be Nimble

One poster on YouTube says this: Joe Riggs would be the alto soloist. The chart is "Sunday Mornin'" by Neil Hefti. You notice how much this whole band sounds like Buddy's band from a year later (which Harry James helped fund, I think)? Tell you what, Buddy Rich is somebody who is "not for all tastes at all times', but that MF could drive a big band like nobody else. Not better than anybody else (whatever that means), just he did what he did as perfectly as it could be done. And kudos to Harry James for keeping a decent band playing decent music over the years and not falling into The Nostalgia Trap anymore than absolutely necessary. Here's the same band playing a Thad Jones arrangement of "Tuxedo Junction". Sounds like it was easy money for Thad, all he really came up with was the 16 bar sax soli and shout chorus on the bridge, but it's a damn good 16 bar sax soli and shout chorus on the bridge, and besides - Harry James was cool enough to put the money in Thad's pocket and not some hack's. It's not like most people would have been able to tell the difference, ya' know? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLUAF0XA3d8 And once again - Red Kelley & Buddy keep it in the pocket. Didn't have to be that way! Here's another one. Nothing superbadasship, just...a lot better than it had to be. Self-respect!

Is this why lately all my search results have been returning items for sale before anything else?

Harry & Buddy & Boogaloo & Electic piano, all of it waaaaay hipper than it had any kind of right to be, especially in 1965! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFloJkNa-Rc Harry & Buddy & Red Kelley swinging theirs & everybody else's asses off

Buck Nasty Silky Johnson Ice-T

Yeah, I know what you're saying, but that's what I mean by liking him perhaps more than I should. I really had no use for him until I heard his tenor playing. Then everything else started making sense in its own way. Its like a sincere/naive hustle, if you know what I mean. I know he knows better, you know he knows better, we both know for damn sure that he knows that he knows better, but he doesn't try to pretend otherwise, and...there it is. What i really like is his later "spiritual" sides that he did on indie labels. That stuff just works, period.

John Barleycorn Jerry Rice Johnny Oates

Dr. Feelgood Dr. Robert Dr. Drew (who I happen to think is a scourge upon humanity, at least in his TV "persona". FUCK him - and I don't mean that as a joke)

Bobby Pierce, no shit! His Cobblestone sides are freakin' lost gems.

She's always been a babe, but now that she's got hips, she's a womanly babe.

I find myself liking Rufus Harley more and more as time goes by, perhaps more than I should, but hey. Not a bad tenor player, either.

Interested in the AFLAC gig? They need help, and badly.

I suspect the percentages of parents who care and are strivers for their kids are pretty much the same as they always were. Kids still end up enrolled in all kinds of after-school programs, tutoring, etc. Just these parents pretty much keep their heads down and don't post about what they are up to on message boards, particularly political message boards. I would agree that in many cities the challenges have grown enormously and in many (not all) urban public schools the quality on offer is much less than in was in the past (and much, much, much less compared to the near mythic quality of urban public education of the 1950s say). You may be right, but it seems to me that "education" now too often is viewed as some mysterious side-effect of just showing up than it is something you have to work at. And don't get me started on the effect that the breakdown of the nuclear family has had on the kids and the single parents raising them and the pressures this puts on a school system...grrrrrrrr....

Valerie has finally developed "some hips" and looks so much better for having done so, imo.

Who was the organist? Amina?

World Book used to (still does?) offer a set called Childcraft, which was a multi-volume set for younger kids that covered a wide variety of subjects, music, art, history, etc. We had those, too. They were cool. Remember when parents actually wanted their kids to be smart and were willing to actually do things themselves to encourage it instead of just bitching that the schools suck?

Ok, this one is kinda sideways...this person is not particularly famous herself - but her father was, and the resemblance is there. Hint - she performed with her father on several occasions, some of which can be found on YouTube.

Was that the organ group?

All right!