JSngry

Crippled Dick Dick Tracy Traci Lords

Lavar Hunt Wayne Marsh Sonny Stitts

Well, I already had the import Routes, so I took your advice & paid the same price for the Naked Breath hard copy package, replete w/the same extras. Lead sheets! The live stuff, although recorded less well than I had hoped for, is indeed SMOKING. Just Monday, Sipiagin (who impresses me more with each hearing - I think I'm in for his upcoming Artist Share project), and a rhythm section (Dave Kikowski kills again!). You might think that the "show" would be the singer, but it's not. The show's the songs, and Monday's more than content to let them, not her vocals, be the focal point. She also has the musical wisdom/integrity/whatever to let the songs be free to go wherever the band sees fit (no doubt with her fullest approval). And the band takes the already-interesting songs into some very interesting places. I'd been toying with playing "Chasing After The Sun" as an instrumental, but it would never have entered my mind to do it the way they do it here. Talk about hip! Again, what a marvelous woman she is to make music like this, and then, to make music like this like this. Talent like this is a blessing to the world.

A man can do that when he's so fat that he don't have to worry about getting kicked in the nuts.

What happens to a dream deferred? Ya know Jim, maybe it's my Jewish guilt kicking in (I mean, shit, it's been 6 whole minutes...) but perhaps Old Stanley can be persuded to come on here and speak for himself. I'd gladly debate him and it doesn't seem gentlemanly to be talking behind his cyber-back, despite his alleged and real crimes. This is a jazz-savvy crew and perhaps he'd actually discuss rather than deficate his royal poop over us. I'd enjoy whipping his ass myself. Plus I write pretty well and can actually play a musicial instrument with a jazz band. Administrator? Care to invite Mr. Crouch? You can say it was at the behest of Mr. Joel Fass I was referring to the opportunity (missed, it seems) to say "cryto-fascist". Crouch? Got nothing to say to him, nor he to me. I yam waht I yam, and so is he. And you are me, baby makes three, and we're happy in my bluebob havens.

Lucretia McEvil Lew Soloff Norman Luboff

The Fourth Way Mike Nock (Nock, who's there) Michael (Michael who? Michael White)

The Vice President The Viceroy The Vicereine

What happens to a dream deferred?

You talk about "underrated", I think that Lionel Hampton is severely underrated as a creative musician. A lot of that, he brought on himself, for sure (not that he cared, I doubt he did), but still...

Zoot Sims Toot Monk Joe Blow

There may be a want, but I won't call it a need.

Or Comrade Gotti...

Demi Moore Dinty Moore Stu Miller

Around here, $2000-$3000. So much for the idea of "renewing our vows". For $250, Pat & Vanna will let you buy a vowel. Sorta the same thing.

Operators are standing by.

The Chordettes Archie Bleyer The Newport Rebels

Judge Wapner Mike Judge Luann Platter

Alvin Stoller Bill Miller Joe Comfort

I'm not opposed to this, not because I want to necessarily pick up JC posters (although of course they are welcome here... that goes without saying I hope) but because I like the idea of bringing a wider range of music discussion to the board. What should we call it? Funny Rat.

Newton Minnow Minnie Ripperton Jack the Ripper

And a mark he would indeed be...

May I be so bold as to recommend Nice & Easy? Ballad artistry, true artistry, without the heartbreak. Agree, although ironically the title cut really doesn't belong on this otherwise excellent ballad set. Interesting that while you much prefer the ballad Sinatra, your favorites, i.e., Only the Lonely, Nice and Easy as well as the aforementioned In the Wee....., seem to be the Nelson Riddle arranged sides, the man also most responsible for the arrangements on the best of his swinging material while at Capitol. Regarding the Gordon Jenkins ballad arrangements for Sinatra during that mid to late '50s period, do you find his heavy reliance on strings a bit too saccharine as I do, or what? Jenkins is not a particular favorite of mine, although there were certain moments of undeniable synergy between the two up until the (almost) very end. But Riddle, yeah, that's my man. For both ballads and swing numbers, actually. Harold talked about having to shed w/the sides to get the real changes. Well hell, in Riddle's case, you're just as often as not getting his changes, and they are quite often brilliant. And just to clarify - there's a lot of the "swinging" Sinatra that I like quite a bit. Even if Sinatra himself didn't "swing", his bands always did, and the Riddle sessions seemed to always have the amazing Joe Comfort on bass. You wanna know why that shit swings, look no further than Joe Comfort. And if the band was swinging, Sinatra could get into that pocket of his and ride the shit out of it. I think he got better/more serious about this aspect of his craft as he aged, though. But as to why Sinatra "matters", I still maintain that you have to go to the ballads. The swing stuff is fine, fun, often kickass (in the best sense), and it's had a lot of sociological impact (most of it negative, imo). But from Sinatra's end, it consists mostly/usually of craft and attitude (definite exceptions, to be sure). But on the ballads, there's some amazing displays of vocal and interpretive skills of the very highest level, and as a result, there's a depth and complexity of emotion there that the uptempo stuff just does not have. It's art, if you believe in such a thing. And in my mind, attitude and craft only "matter" in the moment and the moments immediately surrounding it. But art matters forever. The question I'm asking myself now is this - why am I even talking about this? Sinatra's dead, the cultural climate that created/sustained him is either dead or pretending to still be alive, I've gotten what I need to get from him, and if I need some more, I know where it is. Do I really need to be having this conversation? Apparently so , but it bothers me that I do.