JSngry

Jessica Towie Olive Oyl The 17th Vestal Virgin (who wasn't leaving for the coast)

You want to taunt Jim, tell him you got his dentist...

They had some good Arthur Blythe stuff too.

The Lion King Haile Selassie Hey Jude

This is one to get, no doubt. Sonny... Disc Two is freakin' nuts, and is the only thing in the last month that's been able to pull me away from Monday Michiru for more than a single listen.

Dave Samuels Sam Donaldson Sam I Am

Oh, well, spell his name right, and here it is... http://bighnermusic.blogspot.com/

Thanks, Valerie. That's a bigger thumbnail than what I've had on my hand. And my apologies to you, Benard, wherever you are.

Theo Rudy Nessa

So, he writes this song, "Everything Must Change", that's damn near anthematic of a certain timeplacemindset, het pops up here and there doing this and that, and then what? He dies? Moves to Delaware? Finds god? ? Where he does show up is in some pretty good company, so the cat must have had something going on. So, what's his story?

The Farmer's Daughter Inger Stevens Bernard Ighner

Warne's about as heavy as you can get.

Bobby Boris Pickett Wilson Pickett Woodrow Wilson

Valerie, have you caught any of her recent NYC gigs?

Not sure if anybody cares, but... I've done a complete 180 on her lyrics. She believes in life, and so do I. Life's too short to let years of accumulated crust bury belief in life, even if it's a belief that begs to be crushed by "reality". So be it. And I've done a complete 175 on Delicious Poison after repeated headphone listening. It's not just Really Good Pop Music, it's DAMN Good Pop Music, with a lot of sonic detail and vocal nuances that I missed on previous, semi-casual listening. Also just got Epsiodes In Color, a flawed but ultimately touching record of intimacy with all the flaws intact. Some of the best Dave Kikoski on record here btw, that I've heard anyway. Makes you wonder what would happen if more jazz players and more pop artists would think for themselves, stop being afraid of just playing music, and stop being such damn tools of their own stupid notions of what they "ought" to be doing.

Houston Person Austin Crowe San Antonio Rose

Helluva fighter. Helluva sad way to go.

Yeah, but do you eat where you shit?

Fertilizer of one type or another is essential for a healthy life. It's nutrition.

Blue Note Fetishism is a syndrome with which I'm well familiar, having had a bad case of it from about 1976-1990. I still love the label, and yes, they did have something different going on. Maybe not always on a grand scale, but you know a BN side when you hear it, no matter what type of jazz it is. Having said that, I've always, from Day One, had a taste for other labels and other types of jazz, and pursued them with equal or greater vigor. But the Blue Note "thing" is something that is very, very real. It was a beautiful thing, and as the man said, beauty is a rare thing. Now, having said that, I also gotta say that history is history, and that once you get a good grasp of your history (which, of course, does take some time), it's time to move on. Truthfully, I think jazz as a whole is fetishized, especially since the number of living people making what is, for me, relevant music of now in the idiom is but a micro-percentage of what it used to be. Great music, my favorite "genre" bar none, perpetual nourishment for the mind, body, and soul, and when it's right, there ain't nothing better, at least not for me, but hey... Let that which is alive flourish on its own terms, and let the ashes of that which has died spread in the wind, providing bountious natural fertilizer for whomever (and I do mean whomever) & wherever (and I do mean wherever) they might land upon. Anything else just ain't natural, and if there's one thing the best jazz has always been and always will be, it's natural.

I can't afford it right now or else it would be sold.

Compilations are cool as an entry door, but if you walk throught the door and there ain't a house waiting for you, wellsir, I'm aginnit!

Tokyo Rose Daisy Yoakum Petunia Pig

When Rod (rostasi) ran his K-29, I bought everything from him, and even bought some things I might not otherwise buy, just because it was such a coolass store and I trusted him to carry good shit. The only time I was disappointed was with a Jim Hall MusicMasters side, which he took back and exchanged w/o any hassle whatsumever. Now, when K-29 ceased operations, I was cast adrift in the waters of the chains. Salvation was found only in the then-burgeoning used store market, when there was a used CD shop every quarter mile on every street in metropolitan America (every 5 miles in rural and semi-rural areas). It was mandated by law, and as laws go, it weren't bad. Then I discovered the Internet, and that, as they say, was that.