JSngry

I picked up SO DOGGONE GOOD on LP a few months ago. Great cover, good but not great music. It's almost a parody of a Sonny Stitt album - blues and rhythm changes, very little else. Good players, but if you wonder how Stitt bot a reputation in some quarters as a journeyman player who "went through the motions" on a lot of records, this one is a good example. Stitt's "motions" are better than many folks' inspired moments, but DAMN. the lack of variety in the programming is almost funny.

You, Sir, are my hero. Welcome to the board. Your first name isn't "Pete" by any chance, is it? You ever play Gillette, Wyoming? I played a week there back in 1981, and the town was in the middle of an oil boom. The male-to-female ratio was, literally, 25-1. As travelling mistrels, er..., musicians, many of the local women were, shall we say, "interested" in some new blood, but you couldn't DO anything about it because they all had this squadron of horndogs surrounding them everywhere they went at every hour of the day (and night). You think a rendezvous at 4 AM in the local diner would be safe? Nope - the guardogs were camped out in full force. I think they had assigned shifts. Never has so much potential had so little opportunity to be realized. Ah, the road. Something everybody should experience. If it doesn't kill you...

It is more than camaraderie. It is a sacred brotherhood. We are doing God's work.

Thanks, Mike. I agree, the Feldman show is much cool. Don't know if it's like this everywhere, but on our local NPR affiliate, we got a KILLER 1-2 punch of Car Talk at 10 AM followed by Whad'ya Know? at 11. Switch over to KNTU for Hazen Schumacher's (sp?) Jazz Revisitied at noon, and it's a morning well spent, especially if you're driving around running errrands or working outside. The beauty of radio! The problem is, my Saturday mornings don't usually start until Saturday afternoon...

Is it just me, or does the bassist on some of those early Tyrone Davis DAKAR sides, especially "Can I Change My Mind?", sound like James Jamerson? Some questions - DAKAR was a Chicago-based label, right? Did they record there? Is it Jamerson on these records, Carol Kaye (a noted Jamerson inflencee) or somebody else? If so, who? Anybody know? Anybody care? Whoever it is, the cat is GROOVIN'!

Yeah, Harold, and I'm also digging checking out how some people hold on to the BN sentiment (pro or con) and "traditions" longer than others, how some take the lead in setting up shop elsewhere (catesta was AWESOME in reforming/reshaping AAJ in a matter a days, and Dan Gould has been a leader in initiating new, serious discussions over there. And the fact that we're HERE is a testament to B-3ers willingness to go underground and set up an "alternative" apart from the AAJ "mainstream". Jazz Corner is a world of it's own, but there's good stuff to be gotten there if you can tough it out in the early phase of newbiedom. Cyber NYC (from a musician moving to "the city" standpoint) it indeed is! ), how some people follow along and some go off on their own, etc. None of which is meant as excess praise OR criticism. It's just revealing, I think, and a fascinating (I need to learn another adjective...) case study of the dynamics of diasporadom, which has been one of the major factors in shaping the global politics of the last half-century (or longer). I've said it before, and I'll say it again - circumstances change constantly, but people don't. Watch and learn, as they say.

I've yet to be able to catch G.T, w/Marchel, schedule/gig conflicts, but I get reports from Lyles West, Marchel's bassist. G.T.'s playing fine, a tad rusty occasionally, but still a solid, hard bop drummer, and definitely a "personality". He's not Marchel's regular drummer though. That would be Andrew Griffin. The article you quote is from 1999, and I don't know how often Marchel uses G.T. these days. Not often, it seems, and not here in Dallas. The show referenced was in Austin, part of SXSW, a regional "industry showcase". A fair number of jazz "refugees" end up in Texas. Carlos Garnett is in Houston too. Trumpeter Martin Banks is in Austin. Keyboardist Bernard Wright is here in Dallas, and arranger Onzy Matthews made Dallas his home in the last years of his life. Roy Hargrove, of course, still pops up here, usually unexpected and unannounced. His family is still here. He actually showed up and sat in on a FUNK gig I was working a few years ago! Same w/Cedar Walton - he's got family here too, and sometimes just comes by to visit, not to gig. Not too much interaction between the various Texas cities jazzwise, however. Seems like we've all hunkered down in our own bunkers, trying to just stay alive on our own turf.

I'm with Harold - each board has it's own collective "personality", and I like being able to cruise around, drop in, hang for a little bit, take a penny, leave a penny, etc, at each one. The BN board kinda had that "all under one roof" thing going on, but hey, as many have said, it's gone, so move on, adjust, and thrive in the New World of Polyboardogomy. I still think, however, that this whole "refugee", "diaspora", etc. phenomenon is a fascinating sociological study, and following it in detail reveals a lot about human nature as it pertains to similar historical events. What's happened through all this is probably none too different from other diasporas, albeit in a cyber-way. Watch and learn, as they say.

Isn't the "rule" that if you give an answer that contains a part of the correct one, or is more than the correct on but still gets the idea across, you get credit? Didn't used to be that way, especially in the Art Fleming days, but times change...

Worse - a night job (long story of the laughing to keep from crying variety). Flexible scheduling, so I can still gig, but.... Man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, right?

It's in a Steeplechase Tete Montoliu CD, I WANNA TALK ABOUT YOU, where Hank guests on one cut, "Autumn Leaves". Here's the cover of the CD, which is still in-print.

No, but I got one yesterday about the new Soullive album, with an option to preorder no less. See, they DO care!

South Dallas IS cool as long as you stay on the main streets. I've never had a problem in 20+ years. Now, the SIDE streets can bring trouble - some are totally benign, but others aren't, and unless you know the hood well enough to know which is which... But there used to be JAZZ in South Dallas. As recently as the late 70s, Sonny Stitt, Blue Mitchell/Harold Land, Jimmy Smith, and Abbey Lincoln performed in clubs down there. But that was then... Now, Cousin Lennie - THERE'S a legend! I used to listen to him late nights in the late 60s on Gordon McLendon's KLIF, The Mighty 1190 (you AM radio buffs know what I mean, probably). I met him for the first time around 1984-85, and fell all over myself telling him how much I used to dig his show back in the day. He was graciously nonplussed and said, "Well, young man, I AM still on the air, you know!" Well, of COURSE he was - KKDA-AM (Soul 73, 730 AM) is one of the GREAT Deep Soul stations anywhere in the world, and Cousin Lennie doing drive time in the afternoon was a part of my daily listening ritual for many, MANY years. He's do a thing called "Round Up The Posse", replete w/it's own little tag song, where if you were mugged, or had your car stolen, or something like that, you'd call HIM on the air rather than the police, and responsible citizens (NOT vigilantes) would come to your assistance, help you out, and MAYBE go looking for the perp. He's also have call-in contestsin the summer/winter where the winner got their electric/gas bill paid for the month. It was commercial radio at the service of the community, and it still is. But Cousin Lennie (Henderson) is no longer on the air - he took ill a few years ago and was unceremoniously replaced by a Millie Jackson show that she does from her home in, I think, Atlanta. Now, I love Millie, but Cousin Lennie she ain't. Bobby Patterson, the singer, does a mid-morning show now that has SOME Of the flavor, and Saturday nights feature a live broadcast from R.L. Griffin's House Of Blues (not a record-playing show, but a live weekly broadcast of the R.L. Griffin Revue in action!), but Cousin Lennie was in a class by himself. He's still alive, I think, still not in good health, and needing financial assistance from what I can gather. The man deserves better.

WEll, there was that one guy on the old Verve board who dogged the SHIT out of them about the digipacks, so there's that. I think other people complained too. OTOH, EVERYBODY bitched about their prices, so you never know, I guess.

The Lateef/Ricky Ford thing on YAL is truly one of the most WACK records I've ever heard. God only knows what was going on when they made that one, but I can't really say I've ever heard anything so out, even though the playing is not all THAT "out". It's the vibe and the attitude. The two go at it at the speed of light, and nothing ever resolves, it seems. Nothing. EVER. Highly recommended, btw. Jaws and Griff you can't go wrong with. My personal favorite is GRIFF & LOCK, found on the OJC BLUES UP AND DOWN. "Hey, Lock" is the sound of eternal world peace, 7:54 of nirvana captured for posterity, a reminder to us all that the tenor saxophone IS the instrument of God, and that we ignore this fact at our collective peril. I kid you not.

For me, the best single disc introduction to the AEC would be MESSAGE TO OUR FOLKS. that's got a bit of everything on it. Don't know how readily available it is right now, though. But BAP-TIZUM & FANFARE FOR THE WARRIORS ARE readily available, and are excellent as well. Same for NICE GUYS on ECM, which lives up to it's title - totallt "accessable" w/o any musical compromise. By that token, a dip into Lester Bowie's solo dates, with or without Brass Fantasy, might be called for. Now THAT'S some fun stuff. Two ECMs, THE GREAT PRETENDER (w/o BF) & I ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU (w/BF) are thoroughly entertaining and supremely musical. The thing to remember about the AEC is that you're not going to be getting JUST "free jazz" per se. They're about a WHOLE lot more than that.

Speaking of Clyde Stubblefield, I was shocked to tune in that NPR show WHADDYA' KNOW (or something like that) that airs out of, where, Wisconsin?, to find out that the drummer on the show, apparently the HOUSE drummer for the show was none other than Mr. Funky Drummer hisownself. It was a "jazzy" trio, nothing special, and Clyde sounded adequate. The last few years, I haven't heard him on there, but that's where he was for a while, apparently. Go figure.

That's the one with Topsy. The Mosaic Tristano/Konitz/Marsh set is pretty much a "must have" if you're digging this stuff at all. For later adventures of this duo, check out the three volumes (indivdual) discs on Storyville recorded at Cafe Montmarte in December of '75. They're call WARNE MARSH-LEE KONITZ QUINTET, VOLUME (X). Some pretty heavy stuff going on there. Warne's a particular favorite/god of mine, and I'd recommend pretty much anything you come across by him. Lee's one of the most prolifically recorded musicians in the history of jazz, so finding SOMETHING by him shouldn't be hard at all. Two of the most distinctive and creative voices jazz has produced, as far as I'm concerned.

Did you read the instructions?

To paraphrase Kelley LeBrock (or whatever her name is). "don't hate me because I'm anal", but those LT sides were originally on ABC, pre-Impulse!

In Dallas, THE after-hours joint was called The Green Parrot, and it was an organ room. 'Nuff said. Kinnagetcha a drink while I'm up?

It's more than odd, it's ignorant. The guy was a virtuoso of staggering proportions on all three of his instruments. What he did facilitywise on bass clarinet alone is really awe-inspiring, and, as far as I know, unprecidented (if I'm wrong, somebody PLEASE let me know). Just goes to show you that criticism, be it of intent or facility, is often based on ignorance. Not always, but often.

My feelings on this matter are well known, so this poll is....

Let him live a while with two other dogs named McCoy and Elvin, and take them away about a year before he dies.

Dude, I need to clean my glasses. I though it said I was a