JSngry

He played on some Eddie Harris Atlantic datres. Fine player.

Griot.

YES!!! Between the ages of 10 and about 14, I read every one of those I could get my hands on, going so far as to visit libraries in other towns to see waht they had. Obviously good training for collecting music... Another series I read as fully as possible was Wilfred McCormick's BRONC BURNETT titles. But they were more idealistic than Tunis'. Still, for a kid who loved the game with a passion but played it less than ideally, those book and Strat-O-Matic dice baseball (APBA was too expensive at the time) were wish-fullfillment of the highest order! Those Tunis books were hip - for instance, the players aged. Highpockets went from being a wiseass rookie to a grizzled, veteran leader over the course of the series, and the players had names that closely resmebled those of real players. The only one I can remember is "Bob Appermonte", the fictitious version of Bob Aspromonte. But it was that "reality" that made those books a cut above the rest, including the Bronc Burnett series. Nice to see that somebody else remembers those. I had forgotten them myself!

Got this one when I was a kid, and it remains a favorite still:

You got mail!

Nowhere to go from here but down.

Have we made it clear? Bebop spoken here!

If Gibbs tries to install Interstate batteries in his running backs, you'll know he's been away too long. Otherwise, I'd think he's still a force to be reckoned with. The guy always had his act together, and that kind of character should not be taken lightly. Look at Dick Vermeil, for instance.

SOMETHING has to be, doesn't it?

So do I! Perfect accompaniment for the bermudas...

Not bad. Keep in mind that the days of this kind of music being "new" for these guys was long gone even then, but staleness had yet to set in. It's a work of "refinement" rather than "discovery", but refinement holds many delights of its own.

Found a copy of Ms. Carroll's first 70s BN LP (w/inner sleeve punch-out send-in form to get "Blue Note Hits A New Note" merchandise fully intact, btw. No expiration date, either!), and was decidedly non-plussed. Sounded like Bill Evans with all the Bill Evans removed, or something like that. Yet, I know this woman's playing has a positive reputation in some circles. So what's the deal? Has she always been one of those players that have an adoring circle of fans but everybody else goes, "So what?" or was she once a player of some substance? Or - is this a good album that I just don't get?

They need to be out for histroical reasons, definitely. Musically, I'd rather see the "Silver 'N' X" series, I think there's more meat there, I think, but getting the USOM trilogy out on CD is a necessity, imo. It was a project near and dear to Horace, supposedly, and although I can guarantee that a lot of people won't like it, that's life. I've got mixed feelings about it myself, but bottom line - it's Horace. And "Total Response" is one of the funkiest tunes BN ever released!

Patton's Nilva LP is the "missing link" as well as da'BOMB!

More of the latter. Woodard's a good player whom I like well enough. Horace's tunes are such that I enjoy them interpreted either with lots of grit (ala the vets) or lots of spunk (ala Joe, Tyrone, etc). The classic Silver front line of Blue & Jr. had both, as did several of their immediate successors, but cats like Woodard, although fine players I enjoy in other settings, don't bring enough of either to really satisfy me in this setting. Although, to be fair to them, Horace hired them, so he likes it, which is what counts, right? And like I said earlier, if what I hear is right, when you take Horace's gig, you play it his way if you want to keep the gig., which is the way the world works, right? Guys like Miles or Mingus who damn near demand that you push them are few and far between. Still, I'd sure like to hear what somebody like Shelley Carroll could bring to the gig. Or Fathead. Or Marchel Ivery. Or all three.

Various West Coast cats, including Paul Horn & John Pisano, a.o. The later stuff gets into some "free" type music w/Robert Campbell (?), and the most recent thing I've heard by him (released on some kind of Grateful Dead-related label) is kinda "trance-y/electronica". These days, he's no longer "fun" as much as he is "whimsical/mystical", and he does it quite nicely, I think. And then there's the Levi's and Taster's Choice commercials!

Anybody ever heard Oliphan's Prestige stuff? Has that been on CD anywhere? I'm curious. All I've heard is THE GRASS IS GREENER, and I like it quite a bit.

Love the voice, love the perspective. The Word Jazz stuff gets a little cutesy at times, but when it's good, it's great. And the post-WJ stuff is REALLY interesting, especially COLORS. "Middlebrow" all the way, but I'm cool with that. Ken Nordine is all right with me. How are things in your town?

What's the password?

Rhetorical question, btw.

Why does Japan get all the good shit?

Good question.

Domestically? I've never seen them before. Are they issued as a two-fer, or individually? Prima had his own label in the mid-late 60s, and I think his daughter might be reissuing the releases. Don't quote me on any of this, though. I could be wrong. But I seem to remember seeing THE KING OF CLUBS in a used LP bin once upon a time. Sam Butera has also been releasing things under his own name for quite some time now, too. What I've heard of them has been nice. "Light", but nice. The guy's a better player than you might think, and a consummate "entertainer" in the best sense of the word. I hear his health is beginning to falter, but he's still out there gigging. Lena Prima (the daughter) has her own web site http://onestientertainment.com/pages/lena_...lena_prima.html and apparently a schtick of her own. Kinda creepy if you ask me, but everybody's got to be someplace, right?

You got me there. For me, Tony's thing was an actual band working on some new music (agreed about Tony's maturation as a writer, btw) over time, a very "organic" process. And Roney, well, I hate him becasue he's married to Geri Allen , but besides that, his status as "heir apparent" to Miles based on the Montreaus thing, something he might not have asked for, but something he certainly didn't take any noticable steps to dispel, certainly didn't work to his favor in these Tribute band. I mean, nobody could replace Miles, but at least Freddie had a character of his own, which he brought to the VSOP muisc. Roney just seemed to be "role-playing" (even if it might have been a role which he came by naturally), as did everybody else involved. I think a lot of people expected more from those guys than role-playing. I know I did.