JSngry

Well, that didn't take long! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=video&n=507846

No, afraid not. Lemme see what I can dig up...

It was a limited-release theatrical thing, iirc. Bravo aired it once, and I believe it had a VHS release. It's out there, somewhere. Just let me say this - Chuck Green was to tap-dancing what Lester Young was to music. Yes he was...

A nice explanation: http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2005/03/swe...rl-playing.html I thought it was gonna be something microtonal or something, but no, it's just a different way of doing the same thing. The concept of "all chords having the same shape", is interesting, though. When I started trying to dechiper lead sheets on piano, back when I was 14 and totally clueless, that was the principal I intuitively worked on. I played a D chord with the same "shape" as a C chord - alternating white keys. So, when I saw a D7, I played an actual Dm7. No wonder stuff sounded so funny!

Apparently, John Bubbles made an album for Vee-Jay where he mostly sang. But on one number, anyway, he tapped. http://ce.bromley.ac.uk/ese/cgi-bin/times/read.cgi

Made by one Markie Hancock, apparently it's only been released as part of a small, indie DVD-only anthology called N9 Volume 1 . I can find no details on how to purchase this collection, or even if it's still available. A review of N9 Volume 1 : http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s145N9.html The N9 website: http://www.n9mag.com/ N9 Volume 1 : http://www.n9mag.com/n_nine_volumone.html I've sent them an e-mail requesting ordering information, and will report back if and when I get more info. And, no, I don't sit around looking for this type of stuff. I just did a Google search to verify if I was spelling Sandman sims name right, and VOILS!, this, this....THING was in the search results, this link that said something about Sandman Sims, Andrew Hill, on the same site. I only found it because I was spelling Sandman's last name "Simms" instead of "Sims". Gotta love the Internet!

Baby Laurence & Fred Astaire both made albums where they tapped, & Bunny Briggs did it on a number from Ellington's first Sacred Concert. Might be a good time to put in another plug for the movie "No Maps On My Taps", a documentary featuring Briggs, Sandman Sims, & the incredible Chuck Green. One of the deepest musical/philosophical things I've seen, even though it's about tap-dancing. Lionel Hampton's in it, too.

Should I have added brownies as a choice?

A Monk fan reciprocates:

Make mine pie. Preferably, but not necessarily, something with fruit.

Reformed or re-formed? Either way works for me...

Thanks, Bev! 'Preciate it!

A good friend has shared two releases on this label with me (both available from Cadence, I'm told): REVEALING by Hakim Jami + Revelation Ensemble featuring James "Blood" Ulmer SKEETER by Skeeter C.R. Shelton The first is a nice date, w/Ulmer playing like he did in the days of The Music Revealtion Ensemble. All the compositions are his. Jami plays wonderfully droning bass (meant as a high compliment in this context, btw). A very nice, if ultimately unsurprising, Ulmer date. Shelton's tenor adds a very nice flavor on some cuts. Ulmer buffs will defintiely want to pick up on this one, and others might as well. The second date, Shelton's own, is also worthy of attention. Shelton plays what might be described, for general purposes, as "loft" tenor. He's combined elements of Ayler, Sam Rivers, Julius Hemphill, Henry Threadgill, etc. into one voice. He plays with authority, conviction, and is definitely not a lightweight. JAmi shows up on this one, too, and plays quite nicely in this different setting. Both of these albums seem to be artist-produced CD-Rs. The label has no website, the only information being an address in Detroit, and an e-mail address. Other than Ulmer, none of the names were familair to me, although a bit of Googling shows that Shelton has performed with the Northwoods Improvisers along w/Fariq Z Bey, with whom I am somewhat familiar. (as well, I see here http://www.northwoodsimprovisers.com/history.htm that one Randy Marsh has a past association w/the Northwoods Improvisers. Randissimo, tell us more, please!) So what's up w/Jami, Shelton, & Reparation Records? What kind of a scene do they have going up there in Detroit? Contact info as listed on the albums, for those who are interested: REPARATION RECORDS 1470 Clairmount Detroit MI 48206 Reparation@SBCGlobal.net Also, as noted, likely available through Cadence.

Now THAT I would like to hear! "There Comes A Time When I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"? Oh HELL yeah! Where can I go to investigate this one?

Not yet, you don't...

Lorber seemed kind of unnecessary to me back then, although better than a lot of his peers mining similar territory (harder grooves, mostly, that's what I noticed). In retrospect, it's because I was then listening to it as "jazz", rather than as something else. Today, a little still goes a long way, but a little I can genuinely enjoy.

"KoKo". Bird's not Duke's. Trying to, anyway...

Dammit, Mike, you made me do something I never thought I'd have to do: look up Kenny G on AMG. I didn't realize that his career went back so far (his first album in 1982). For some reason I thought him a 90's phenomenon, which is why I wasn't sure if he hit the tail end of the "LP age." Dude, he was recording as a sideman w/Jeff Lorber before that, 1980's WIZARD ISLAND on Arista. How does he sound? Not bad, not great, "in the style", etc. No inkling whatsoever of what was to come. If we had known then what we knew now...

Been revisiting it the last few days, and am enjoying it very much. As others have noted, perhaps not a "starting point", but like anything else, knowing what came before gives this one a high element of "mature" satisfaction. Nothing particulaly "new", just further refinements and nuances. Still, I miss the hell outta Lester Bowie, and not just in this band...

His next project is a duet with Coltrane, over both versions of Ascension. We laugh about it, but it is the only way to get Kenny G fans to listen to Coltrane! Oh hell, let's be done with it - get G to duet w/Trane on the Hartman album and then let's all catch the next bus to the next phase.

That's probably my favorite Horn Verve side. Great stuff, and probably the best version of "It Had To Be You" I've ever heard. Definitely the slowest... Miles, remember, was Shirley's "sponsor" of sorts in the early 60s, introducing her around and helping her get gigs. There's a live album of her from back then when, I think, she was sharing the bill w/Miles' group.

I'm leaving for a vacation in the next few days. When I get back, we'll take care of that, ok? Still can't get a stream, though, and my WMP works fine. Oh well, work in progress, as you say. It'll get there soon enough, I'm sure.

"I'm Paul, and I'll be your server." "Hi, Paul, I'm Jim, and I'll be your customer." Uh, no thanks... We'll have to make it up as we go along, I suppose. Which, like jazz, is a good way to look at it, no? And now, I imagine that Rooster would like his thread back. Again, welcome!

Yeah, that's a "problem" that Brenda and I both have with a lot of the older stuff, the "slow start". I've gotten over it, she's still working on it. Scarface nearly lost her this evening. Nearly... What's the deal with that, anyway? Was the audience back then in need of a slow exposition, or was that just the pace of life back then? Or was it a case of the filmmakers still discovering the art and its possibilities? Anyway, this nightly TCM thing is turning into a ritual with us. Good stuff, and sometimes a real surprise, like the one a few weeks ago, Tomorrow The World. What a trip that one was!

I really dug it, somewhat contrary to expectations. Flynn's spirit was contagious. And the color, WHOA! But the main thing was the spirit - it was lively, frisky, and it pervaded the entire cast.