JSngry

Howzabout Sugarcane Harris? Did any of those MPS sides he did have organ? Ponty & Louis recorded together, w/Daniel Humair along, mid-late-60s. Pretty interesting stuff, and available on Dreyfus.

When did Charles Lloys sign with Columbia?

I've never seen the worth of the melon baller myself.

Yes, thanks to my good buddy Joe. It's a kick!

As good as anything gets. Don't miss'em.

Can I be your friend?

I might be way off on this, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that this was a last-ditch effort by RCA (and possibly Sonny) to produce an album that would be a "big" seller, a commercial success that would help the company recoup the huge (for the time) advance they had given him. The tunes were therefore faded to fit within conventional "airplay friendly" timing boundaries. By some accounts, Sonny really felt pressure to "deliver" for RCA, and this might account for the nature of some of the music he recorded for them, especially as far as tune selection goes. He certainly sounds more relaxed, and possibly even more adventurous, on the subsequent Impulse! dates, I think.

"Yes, that tattoo DOES look familiar, and yes, I WAS in Clovis in August of 1962. Why do you ask?"

Exactly.

Hear this thing whilst driving around running errands, got home before it was announced, had to come directly inside, etc. All I know is that it was preannounced as being by Bob Crosby. 'Twas a minor-keyed piece w/electric guitar & plunger trumpet featured, kind of a vampy thing. Vaguely reminiscent of Artie Shaw's "Nightmare" in harmonic flavor, but like I said, basically a vamp, not a lot of changes. So what's the piece, and more interestingly to me, who was the electric guitarist? As always, thanks in advance!

Some people drive a bus because it is their calling in life. Some people do it because it's a good gig for them. And some people do it because their ignorance and stupidity severely limit their options in life. I'm guessing that with this cat... Was his name Otto by any chance?

Rodney King models the first Police Band Scanner headset.

Yet another reason why more than one child will be left behind.

Why Aggies never got a foothold in the carwash business. (It's a Texas thang, y'all wouldn't understand. )

I LOVE all the RCA material. Not all of it reaches "full realization", but Sonny is, for some reason I'll probably never understand, somebody whose "misses" somehow end up having as much, or almost as much, meaning (as opposed to satisfaction) as his "hits". I didn't ask for this to be the case, it just happened. Go figure... As for "Three Little Words" - Red, are you familiar with the version on ON IMPULSE ? That's one of the most mind-boggling things I think anybody's ever commited to wax (or magentic coated mylar, as the case may be. Faster than hell, yet rhythmically fragmented and deconstructed with a sense of relaxation that could be called perverse if it weren't so damned RIGHT! I slowed this puppy down to 16 2/3 RPM one time, and it really jumped out at me that THIS is where Henry Threadgill is coming from as a player a lot of times. I had already suspected it, but this confirmed it! And then there's the live of TLW version from 1968, in Copenhagen, captured by a private recordist and released on Moon as SONNY ROLLINS IN DENMARK VOLUME 2. I'd include it in my blindfold test, but it's about 45 minutes long (and is almost all Sonny, or Sonny trading fours w/Tootie Heath), and to just include an excerpt would be cruel. I made a tape copy of it for a good friend once, and he later told me, in all seriousness, that he was istening to it while driving, and about 15 minutes into it, he had to pull over to the side of the road, shut the engine off, and just listen. Now that never happened to me, but I seldom drive for pleasure, and I'm usually running late, so...

No shit... Chris, those are priceless.

Full details come Monday or Tuesday of next week. I gotta clear out my PM box here (which includes backing up a buncha stuff), and reactivating an e-mail account that I haven't checked for quite a while. Patience folks, please. I move slow, but I DO move.

People forget that Hammer was once an above average "regular" jazz pianist, before he got into fusion.

Whenever Betsy begins to lag, Jeb merely has to remind her what happens to Pintos that stop performing adequately.

Ah yes, Prestige7750. "The rest of Worktime's delights I leave for you to discover." Still have it, still play it. And still read the essay. It might (or might not!) interest you to know that that was the VERY first record I bought the VERY first day that I left home and got dropped of by my misty-eyed parents in Denton, Tx, at NTSU. It took me about 45 minutes to unpack, another 15 to find and walk to the record store, and about 30 seconds to track down a copy of WORKTIME. We didn't have it in the Piney Woods, and the Internet had yet to be born. Mail order? Too slow, too risky, too "fancy". But I knew I had to get it, and get it I finally did. Live and in living Electronically Remastered For Stereo! Listening to that album (and reading that essay) over and over for the first 48 hours or so away from home at a "major" university, made the prospect of embarking on a new direction in life not only less intimidating, but positively the most exciting thing that anybody could ever want to do. Although, the slightly pained look on Sonny's face on the cover photo they used, like somebody REALLY trying to stifle a sneeze, should have been a warning that not all would be roses...

Thankyaladiesandgermsillbeheretherestofthisweekandallofnext. And NOW....

Respectfully disageree about Disc Five, which seems to be the MERRY-GO-ROUND & MR. JONES albums. I think those are VERY good albums, the inexplicably-left-in clinker on "La Fiesta" notwithstanding. Lot's of youthful energy from the sidemen there, and a lot of good playing gets done. My view is perhaps colored by the fact that I live htorugh those records, if not EXACTLY when they were released, within 5 years of it, and I still remember the buzz. Still, I think that stuff, if not exactly "great", is still pretty damn solid. Disc Six, though, that's from THE PRIME ELEMENT Two-fer, and that stuff never did too much for me. My favorite Elvin BNs remain COALITION & GENESIS, no contest. Them bad boys got it all!

If enough of that beer gets consumed, we'd be flooding that store in more ways than one...

I'm thinking that's a Conn, dude. And NOT as in Connesieur!

Yeah, I have it as SONNY ROLLINS PLAYS JAZZ CLASSICS, the last pre-OJC Prestige packing of the album, as well as in the Prestige box. Agreed, it's a superb date, and far too often overlooked. Your observations agree with mine in every regard.