JSngry

Well, yeah, the schlock potential is above average. But those aren't exactly bad songs. Over the years, in the hands of the right singers, I've actually heard them be good songs! I guess the question is how bad you think Joe Williams can get fucked over by potentially weird material and settings. I'd bet on Joe 9 times out of 10.

Looking at the song list (and knowing the work of the arranger a little bit), I'd guess that this was more an "adult pop" record than a jazz one. But there's some good tunes on there, and Joe Williams is a singer that I'd not mind an adult pop album from too badly. I mean, Joe Williams doing "Here's That Rainy Day", "Lush Life", "Didn't We", etc., those are good songs. It would have to be really bad for it to suck, know what I mean?

The goggle look is still in...

Do talk. I'd LOVE to hear lots of discussion from the ranks here - about how jazz history is and has been taught in schools (particularly at the college level, where there ought to be less of an excuse for it being bad). The Breeden story is the only one I remember. That and there was a lot of pumping of lab band alumni. The more things change... Really, though, that class was a joke. I came to NTSU w/a good sense of jazz history already in place after having spent my high school years obsessively reading every book and magazine article I could get my hands on (and w/the Gladewater public library having a complete collection of Saturday Review, I got to read some very interesting writing) as well as an equally obsessive habit of buying everything out of the various cutout bins that looked even remotely "jazz". The class, I soon found out, was a joke. You got the most basic history, the stuff that had to be there, and everything else was propaganda to lead you into Lab Band World. I mean, Marvin Stamm is a fine player, but giving him w/Kenton as an example of "a modern trumpet great" & Lee Morgan never even being mentioned....

I dunno... These "outside characters" are highlighting how "removed" from the rest of the world these guys are, how isolated and ludicrous they really are. Did you catch all the gaffes in the meeting w/Kingsley? Hilarious! And then Chris tells Bacall how much he dug her in "The Haves & Have Nots". Classic! I think we're seeing the writers setting up a dynamic where this whole mob world, so self-important but totally irrelevent to the outside world except for the damage it causes, begins to cave in on itself, and Tony, always conflicted, realizes once and for all that the world he lives in and perpetuates is truly empty, meaningless, and perhaps even evil. How he processes this realization is going to be where the action is, and the possibility of an interaction with the Feds about the "potential terrorists" may or may not come to pass. Will he see that as his "redemption" and then go back about his business, or will he use it as an "out" to escape? Or will he do like so many do - finally accept himself as an evil, trivial, self-loathing creature and go about calmly living the rest of his life as if he's got one foot in hell and the other on a bananna peel? I'm optimistic that the series is going to end with some pretty interesting shit, although probably more psychological than visceral. The again, this show has always been more of a "psychological drama" than a "mob show", at least in my mind. Let's just wait and see how this all plays out in the end. Then again, the show might really have jumped the shark, and all we'll end up is a big bag of nothing. Could go either way. But I can't (at this point) see that happening.

I was thinking more along the lines of "Guess I'll Hang This Moron Out To Dry"...

Geek Time... Those of you who have the LP, what kind of label does your copy have? Mine's blue with silver lettering. And it's mono. Wondering if there were any variants to that label for the stereo and/or later pressings (if there were any).

Y'all talk about "jazz history" classes... I took one at NTSU back in the day that was taught by Leon Breeden. Now, Breeden's favoring of the white/Kenton axis was never a secret (he wasn't consciously racist, although his actions seemed to suggest that there might be "prejudice" lurking somewherein his decision-making process). Anyway... When we got to the 60's, this cat played Dolphy's "You Don't Know What Love Is" from Last Date and after going on and on and on about how it was more "bird calls" than "music" (even though he begrudgingly admitted that it was a "display of technical virtuosity"), he finally played the record. But not before getting in this immortal line - "This is NOT something that the average housewife is going to listen to while hanging her laundry out to dry!" I laughed, I cried, I contemplated homicide...

Seriously, I'm looking forward to this. I've got no idea how good it will or won't be, but two albums in two years from Sonny (even if one was a live tape), that's an encouraging sign. And Bret Primack deserves major kudos for getting Sonny a web presence, as well as for seemingly assuming the role of the cat who's going to "nudge" Sonny here and there when nudging is called for.

Is Sonny Lester the son of Bobby Lester?

I've got that album (great stuff imo) but have never actually looked at the personnel or read the liner notes.

the Moonglows kicked both they ass.

Really! That's a connection I wouldn't make.

Well, the ringtones sound good: http://www.sonnyrollins.com/sonnyrollins_ringtones.php

Does he box on it? Or was he getting boxes from the food pantry? This thread has suddenly gotten very confusing...

Roy Clark Clark Kent Kent Carter

Who are the Cole Bear family?

What was the connection between Bill Dixon & Jimmy Cheatham?

Sounds reasonable to me.

Zsa Zsa Gabor Eva Gabor Gabor Szabo

Buy one, then steal the other. Wait a few months and do the same thing in reverse. Then donate the stolen sets to a public library. Win-win, unless you're the one getten stolen from. But that too can be fixed over time.

If you flunk out of college, rather than just failing one class, you've got other problems than Cecil Taylor.

Thanks for the heads-up. I didn't know that, but will be on the lookout for it.

Nope. I don't do movies (or TV, if that's what it was on) too much any more. Just a few HBO series, Earl & The Office on NBC, MSNBC & TCM on and off, and sports, that's it for TV. For movies, I'm just like "eh....". Almost all the stories have been told already. the special effects are better, but the acting ain't. And what I probably should see, LTB usually ends up bringing home from Blockbuster eventually. Charlie made me watch Kung Fu Hustle the other night thought (against all my protestations, I might add), and that ended up being a gas. So I can be had. I'm a lot of fun, really. Make your ass laugh all night long, tell you some good stories, drink you under the table w/o getting sloppy, all that good stuff. But if I ever end up single again (god forbid), I'm gonna have a helluva time convincing a woman to go out with me, because "dinner and a movie" ain't for me.