JSngry

Good grief!

I too agree with Brownie. Somebody else here does too, you naughty boy!

I feel guilty because I've always bought every Sonny album on release, and this one I kinda piddled around on. Probably the whole initial website-only ordering thing and such, as well as my currently having more "driving" interests. I figured I'd get to it soon enough, take your time, get to it when you get to it, blahblahblahblahblah. But damn, this was not the one to do that with.

I have the Hodges, but have never heard of the Royal. Details please!

IIRC, The Swingle Singers specialized in Bach, so any compilation should suffice. IIRC.

Veronica Lake Betty White Archie Bunker

Would the Swingle Singers be too "non-jazz"?

Finally got around to ordering this from Amazon and....yeah. This is the most consistently relaxed & loose I've heard Sonny in a studio session since...Falling In Love with Jazz? Next Album? Hell, I don't know. This, however, a mixed blessing, because the hollowing of tone that began with Global Warming (and in my mind is entirely a function of advancing age) continues here. I hear the ideas here and wish he would have recorded stuff like this as recently as the 90s, when he still had that bigass Hoover-revving-up sound. But oh well about that. This is now. Same for how the momentum of his solos has evolved from a steadily ongoing surge of sometimes supernatural proportion to a series of declarations. His freedom with/of time is still amazing, and if he now applies it to spacing as much or more than notes, then life is still good. People are probably gonna bitch about the band, and the drummer does me no favors, but Bobby Broom sounds damn good, and Clifton Anderson sounds...not bad (or not as bad as before, not that he was ever really horrible bad). The thing is, though, is that as non "impressive" as the individuals (save for Broom) are on their own, they really get a group feel here. And that's something else that most of Sonny's Milestones haven't had, not to this degree. There's an organic "comfort" factor here that is beneficial to Sonny in a way that previous "comfort" accomodations have not always been. Let me put it this way - if you're looking for a Great Sonny Rollins Album, this probably isn't it, because not all the parts are at the same level, nor are they even remotely close to being so. But if you'd enjoy hearing An Album Where Sonny Rollins Plays Very, VERY Well, (and if you can handle the Fact that Sonny Rollins is now an "old man") then by all means, check this one out.

Jim Reeves Billy Bayou Johnny Rivers

Fred Flintstone Fred Gladding Dick Tracewski

Angie Dickinson Nancy Dickerson Pauline Frederick

Dr. Gillespie Miss Lizzy, who makes me dizzy Sweet Lorraine

Boney Maroney

I'm ok w/Kirk Whalum. Really. The cat can play. Not crazy about all/most of his recordings, but he's not at all a bad listen in that genre. Boney James? Hmmm.... "not offensive" is the very best I can come up with, and that's pushing the niceometer up to 11.

Does anybody come to hear Stephen Foster?

And Marvin Gaye resolutely resisted the Gordy Charm School.

In my experience, it's something that one either comes by naturally or doesn't. That's not to say that it's a skill that can't be honed/polished/whathaveyou, just that it requires a certain...level of comfort with one's self in front of strangers that not everybody has. Now sure, you got those who learn to fake it, but those usually end up being the ones who gove "entertaining" a bad rap, because they have an "act" that they do, not because they feel it, but because they have to do it to get a gig. And inevitably, that kind of phoniness turns putrid to the more discriminating observer. But hell, I see absolutely nothing wrong with being a relatively pleasant individual, nor do I see anything wrong with presenting one's self as same when performing. And if one is not a particularly pleasant individual, one can still say a few curmodgenly words here and there and pass it off as a "persona". People eat that shit up, especially "jazz fans", who love to think of themselves as a tough, cynical breed. If only they knew... Ultimately, though, it's nice to be important, but it's more important to be more important.

Chris Mabey Walter Knott Raymond Hunoz

Larry be The Sense Maker! Recognize!

Poppin' Fresh, The Pillsbury Doughboy (because nothin' says lovin' like somethin' from the oven, and Pillsbury says it best) Bibendum, The Michelin Man Mr. Stay Puft, The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man

She's always in the need of relaxing, or so she implies.

No, I never at that one. Where can it be found? Good question. There was a series of VHS things from the early days of same called The Big Bands, Volume XXX. The company was called, iirc, Swingtime Videos. I've got three of them, and the bands are Basie, Ellington, Lionel Hampton, & Harry James. All clips come form a TV show called (again, iirc) Meet The Bands, and all have the bands playing for Lawrence-Welk-crowd-type dancers. There is no host, at least in these clips, and the bandleaders themself do the emceeing. This is pretty valuable footage, I think. The bands all are in top form. Ellington in particular is a trip as he pullls numbers that nobody can dance to (the selections from Timon of Athens seem to particularly baffle the crowd...), act like everything's normal, and then goes right back into something danceable. That man was the ultimate...The Ultimate, period. The Basie footage cooms from two different shows, one w/Lockjaw (and as mentioned above, Leon Thomas), and the other with Sal Nistico in the section (and featured on a few numbers). Hamp's band has Ronnie Cuber strretching out all over the place in that wonderfully badass swinging mofo way that he did back then, and James gives you Buddy Rich. an electric piano, band choreography, Uncle Fester on bass (it's really Red Kelley, but it looks like Uncle Fester) and a Thad Jones arrangement of "Tuxedo Junction". Who, I ask, could ask for anything more? Now here's the thing - damn near everything has either been YouTubed or DVD-ed by now. But I've never seen this footage anywhere else. Gotta be a story here somewhere, both about the source and the videos. But damned if I've been able to find it.

Her? Look at what they did to Dick Dale!

It was on ECM, and I think it probably sold better than a lot of LEster's other things because of that. A lot of people I was around at the time got hip to Lester & the AEC through their ECM sides. That label had a lot of "cachet" with a lot of people at the time.