JSngry

For the last cut, that is.

Sent an e-mail to the program director inquiring as to this new talen, but have yet to receive a reply. I wonder if they were playing bootlegs...

The demise of Gene Quill is close to being up their with the demise of Woody Shaw in the pantheon of jazz tragedies.

I can second the recommendation for Freeman-Tuell. They've been in business as long as I can remember, and I've never heard a foul word about them.

Ahmad Jamal.

For once I catch one of these on time! May your best be ahead of you, your worst behind you, and a bratwurst or two beside you!

So much Roy! So much Oscar Peterson... Oh well, it ain't a perfect world. But thanks for trying, Mr. Granz. As it stands right now, this one might be my Christmas "present" from all the relatives' lump sum gifts. I DIG Roy Eldridge!

So, ok. The last few days or so, KNTU has been playing cuts off of what I just asssumed was a reissue of some old Joanie Sommers album (and if you only know Joanie Sommers from "Johnny Get Angry", know that she was no slouch as an "adult pop" type singer of standards as well). I was really enjoying this stuff. The band swung loosely, sounded like they were having fun, and the vocals were extremely good - the pitch was dead on, the phrasing surefooted and elastic without being overly mannered, the lyrics delivered with a real sense of authority and understanding. Having hear an old Joanie Sommers album like this in the past but not remembering what it was, I was wondering if it was the same one. Well, guess waht? Today, through the miracle of back-announcing, it was revealed that it wasn't Joanie Sommers who had been entertaining me, but Stacey Kent! Ordinarily, when sombody sounds this much like somebody else (and in fairness to Kent, she doesn't sound EXACTLY like Joanie Sommers, but close enough to fool me, who could identify Sommers on a "blind" hearing, but who doesn't know the subtleties of her voice well enough to distinguish between the original and somebody similar in timbre and style), I get really peaved, but I wasn't bothered at all this time. In fact, I remained pleased. Why? Two reasons - ability and intent. The abilities of all concerned are very high indeed. I really thought I was listening to a vintage "West Coast" date. But more important was the intent. I got the feeling that these folks were all about "entertainment" of a high standard and nothing more. That's no slam at all either - I can dig good, old fashioned, "put on a smile and put on a show" stuff, and that's just what this seemed to be. It wasn't "jazz" in the sense of a personal creative expression, not at all. What it was was taking songs and a "style" and using those as elements in a presentation that was clearly meant to bring a smile to the face and a pat to the foot of those who were so inclined, and I'm not such a hair shirt maniac about "art" and such that I'm "above" enjoying the pleasures a good song well done, and that's exactly what this was. In the "old days", you'd hear stuff like this in hip supper clubs and lounges, a time and a place when "entertainment" was an art unto itself, and was not mutually exclusive to "quality". I dug it, and wouldn't mind hearing more. I doubt I'd spend money on a CD or anything like that (although I could concievably buy ONE to have on hand for road trips and such), but I hope that enough people DO so that Ms. Kent can continue to be heard on jazz radio and maybe even cross over into the "adult standards" market and it's airplay niche, a niche that has over the last few years grown increasingly hospitable to singers and material like this. Stacey Kent & crew have a good thing going, based on what I've heard the last few days, and as long as nobody tries to convine me that she's a "real" jazz vocalist of significance (her "vibe" and "intent" are at odds with the "depth" that "real" "jazz singers" are all about, but that's cool - what she's into has a vibe and depth of its own, and pitting her against a "different" lineage ends up doing a disservice to both in the end. She doesn't need to be a "jazz singer" and "jazz singers" don't need her), I wish her much success. Save the labels for canned goods. Hey - it made me happy. Good enough!

If you're of a certain age, you probably remember when cereal boxes occasionally came with records built into the box, sort of a flexi-disc deal. Cut the record out of the box, and enjoy The Archies, The Bananna Splits a madcap adventure w/Count Chocula & Boo-Berry, you know, stuff like that. Well, if you could put any Blue Note performance on a cereal box record, which one would it be? For extra fun, which cereal would your choice come with?

The drag about all this is that I really, REALLY like Joe Torre as both a manager and, from what I read/hear, a person. But I can't pull for the Yankees. I could a few years ago when they were on the rebound, but enough is enough.

Lon, you only needed 10 OBIs for the watch, so you could have skipped the Cherry (yeah, it was in that first series). I just looked at my copy of WHISTLE STOP, OBI still attached, and that's what it says.

Go Carts!

...and could change it to go back in time to have it happen during any Blue Note session, right in Rudy's studio, right while the session was going down, which one would it be?

You got the recent OJC release of his Galaxy things from the 70s? I like the Sonet album MEAN WHAT YOU SAY from 1977. Charles Bowen, Tommy Turrentine (on a few cuts), and Mickeys Tucker & Bass. Don't know about CD on that one, though. How obscure would you conside Elmo Hope's SOUNDS FROM RIKERS ISLAND? That's a good one, as is anything Philly & Elmo did together. Just came out on Fresh Sounds CD.

Just found the Wilen thing for $9 @ Dusty Groove (THE BASTARDS!), and ordered on sight. More to come, I'm sure.

A good friend let me hear this set, and I just jumped all over The Jazz Loft's deal. Great stuff, and I feel even GREATER about doing the right thing and buying a "real" copy. Lyons is one of my heroes, even if he was an alto player...

I hope one will do.

YES!

Not TOO terribly far off, actually...

How about Idrees Sulieman for that vintage bebop flavor? He was doing Prestige dates at the time. Dorham, however was on Dameron's previous Prestige date, so there would be a precedent, I guess.

The "soulful feel" in immeasurably enhanced by Jamey's count-offs...

No shit, Dude. That's one of the best records ANYBODY'S ever made. Those chords! SHADOWS AND LIGHT works better on video, I think. I found a VHS copy a few years ago and enjoyed it in a way that I had not previously. Too bad Brecker made the gig instead of Wayne, but that's life. Take away "Parprika Plains", and DON JUAN is a pretty darn good record, I think. But thatt's a BIG chunk to take away! MINGUS? No thanks, bought it on release day, kept it about 6 months, ditched it, and haven't looked back. The lyrics to "Pork Pie" are among the WORST things anybody's ever written. Probably in the minority on this, but I think that Jaco's most MUSICAL playing was with Joni. I think it speaks volumes as to the strength of her musical vision (and personality too, probably) that this is so. More than that I'll not say. I've heard some of the Geffen things, and I never thought that they were nearly as bad as the reviews said. The one that's got Wayne all over it (CHALK MARKS?) I thought was really good. Been meaning to pick that one up cheap somewhere sometimes. I bought that standards w/orchestra thing she put out a few years ago and found it quite moving. She's not just a great writer, but a great interpretive singer as well. That one got really mixed reviews, but I liked it very much. The lady's got soul. Joni's fine by me, sometimes overwrought lyrics and all. I wish more people had her spirit.

The digital age (internet, 1,000,000,000 channel cable, etc) makes it a LOT easier for people to stay home and get further absorbed in themselves, or when they do go out, to do so for something they already know about. It's probably more complicated than that, but probably not by much. Never before has so many choices led to so few decisions, so much contact to so much isolation, and so much information to so much willfull ignorance. When you can spend all your time going further and further into EXACTLY what turns you on, everything else becomes a nuisance, an annoyance, an invasion of your personal space. Nobody likes THAT. If you don't know it, LOSE it. If it was really worthwhile, you'd already know about it, or at least your friends who like everything you do and think exactly how you do would. There was a time when curiosity and tolerance were desireable traits, because they were necessary. That time has passed. Now, they're nuisances of the highest order. It's offical, I'm a codger.

Well, to elucidate (if it qualifies as such) further, whenI go there, I'm not thinking specific notes (except for certain key pitches along the way) as much as I am shapes, textures, and pure sounds. It's all good if you FEEL it and NEED to do it, dig? If you don't, well, no problem. But if you do, why not? Music (well, "real" music anyway, whatever that means to any one individual) is the one chance you get to fully be who and what you are and/or to explore that without hinderance or fear. That's too precious an opportunity to waste on trying to be somebody else or to follow a rule JUST because it's a rule. We do that enough in "regular" life, eh? FWIW, I went to an Aebersold clinic in 1979 where Dave Liebman was a clinician. Not my favorite player or anything like that, but a cat I have a lot of respect for (now more than then, but that's another story...). Anyway, he played for us and got off into that bag for a little bit. When he finished, he took questions, and I asked him if, when he was playing that "textural" stuff (as I called it then) if he was thinking notes or shapes, and he didn't hesitate - "Shapes" was his immediate response. And then, a little wink and a "that's a good question" directed my way, as if to let me know that if I was thinking about it like that that I was probably feeling it too, and that he appreciated that. So really, it's just another mode of expression, one that comes in useful when/if "traditional" stuff doesn't quite get the point across you feel that you need to make. For me, it's usually when I'm really REALLY good. I use it to express joy more often than not. Although, seeing as how the bigger the front, the bigger the back, I can also use it to get really dark. But I only do that when I HAVE to. Life's too short to constantly dwell on misery, but sometimes you DO have to holler, ya' know what I mean? Again, there's no reason to do it just for the sake of doing it. That's poser-ism of the WORST kind as far as I'm concerned. To thine own self be true, as one of those dead cats once said.

Looks like he's 51 and lives in Pittsburgh now. http://www.runhigh.com/2001%20Results%20A/.../R090801BC.html Wonder if he's got any tapes of Dodo Marmarosa?