JSngry

Don Ellis.

washingtonpost.com Melancholy and Infinite Sadness By Thomas Boswell Thursday, October 16, 2003 CHICAGO -- As though the devil himself had planned it, the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field on Wednesday night arrived at exactly the moment when the heart of every Chicago Cubs fan had just been smashed like a rotten pumpkin. What a time to ask 39,574 fans, all in the mood for a dirge, to sing, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." The last batter of the top of the seventh inning blooped a hideously meek double, inches out of the reach of diving center fielder Kenny Lofton. Two Florida runners scored, giving the Marlins a 9-5 lead that felt like a 40-run margin. The Marlins hitter was thrown out stretching for a triple. The Cubs trudged off the field. And the harshest of baseball realities quickly swept over everyone. The Cubs really were going to blow the pennant again. Staring them in the eye was the worst moment in the entire 128-year history of the franchise that outstrips all others for disappointment. The collapse of 1969 was just preamble. The NLCS fold in 1984 to the San Diego Padres couldn't match this. Not only were the Cubs about to lose their third straight potential pennant-clinching game, but their last two defeats came in games started by Mark Prior and Kerry Wood -- two of the top strikeout pitchers in baseball -- against virtual nonentities named Carl Pavano and Mark Redman. So, Wrigley fans, now that we've all been kicked in the stomach by an 800-pound gorilla, let's stand for a rousing, cheerful rendition of the late Harry Caray's favorite tune. Led, naturally, by the singer from Smashing Pumpkins. You never heard such a forlorn rendition of baseball's anthem in your life. When the crowd got to "I don't care if I never get back," it sounded distinctly like all 39,574 in attendance -- the crowd might have been 39,575 but wasn't there one empty seat down the left field foul line? -- seemed to sing, "I don't care if I never come back." Somewhere, Steve Bartman, the 26-year-old Cubs fan who knocked The Foul Fly Ball out of Moises Alou's glove in Game 6, may have sung, "Take me out of the Midwest, take me far from the crowd. Buy me some airfare and fake ID. I'm real sure that I'll never come back." "I don't care what anybody says. . . . We didn't lose the pennant. The Marlins won it. . . . We were close and the Marlins took it from us," Cubs Manager Dusty Baker said. "Nobody even expected us to be here. . . . But our guys got a taste of it. Next spring . . . " Oh, next year. That would be No. 96 in a row without a world title and No. 58 without a pennant. If the Cubs had lost this NLCS to the Atlanta Braves or San Francisco Giants -- proven 100-win teams -- then Baker's analysis would probably be correct. But the Cubs had a three-games-to-one lead against an inexperienced wild-card foe that had seen three of its starting pitchers pummeled in their first outings. The Cubs got to start and end the series at home. And they held the Prior-Wood hammer at the end. The Marlins get credit for doing plenty of winning in these last three games. But the Cubs did just as much to lose. "We weren't even supposed to show up for these last two games against Prior and Wood," said Marlins Manager Jack McKeon, whose team scored 17 runs -- a dozen off those two starters -- in the last two games. "I'm not going to get into that hex-jinx-goat thing you guys got going [in Chicago]. . . . I think we'll be the darlings of baseball the rest of the way. We're going to have some fun wherever we go [whether to Boston or New York]. We're going to give the American League a tough shot, too." McKeon may be right. This 9-6 victory was built on the dramatics of two infant Fish stars who will probably someday be household names. Miguel Cabrera, 20, greeted Wood with a three-run homer in the very first inning, then drove in a fourth run later. In the outfield, he ran down six Cubs drives, three with catches worthy of Roberto Clemente. Josh Beckett, 23, who shut out the Cubs on two hits on Sunday in Game 5, appeared in relief on only two days of rest and allowed just one run in four innings. McKeon, old enough at 72 to be the grandfather -- or even conceivably great-grandfather of his best players -- managed circles around Baker as he has this entire series. Baker couldn't hide his distrust of his second-line players in tight situations and managed around them. That erodes confidence. Until this final all-hands-on-deck Game 7, McKeon kept everyone in his role, building confidence. If Trader Jack tells you to go fishing with a dumbbell for bait, just do it. You'll probably catch a gold-plated whale. So, silence now holds Wrigley in its melancholy arms. A wonderful game by Alou will be forgotten. His two-run homer went where no fan could possibly interfere with it -- straight into Waveland Avenue. Three times, he robbed the Marlins with catches in left field. Alou did all he could for Bartman, the fellow for whom he expressed so much sympathy and wanted to unburden with a final victory. But, in the end, the demons that have reigned here for almost a century remain firmly in possession of the most beautiful ballpark on earth, like a glorious mausoleum atop generations of buried dreams. Perhaps two moments on this evening, both involving Wood, captured the potential for elation and the reality of ultimate Cub dejection. In the second inning, Wood hit a two-run homer to tie the score, 3-3. Fans always cheer and clap, sometimes they scream. But when Wood connected, everywhere you looked, people jumped, danced, waved their arms and seemed to hover in midair with elation, like Snoopy on a joy jag in "Peanuts." Four innings later, Wood shuffled off the mound after being tattooed for four singles, a double, a triple, a home run, four walks and seven earned runs. He kicked at the grass like a dispirited little boy, lost in despondent thoughts as he approached the dugout. All the dejection of 95 years of Cubness were written in his demeanor, though he has worn the luckless uniform for only six seasons. As Wood ducked into the dugout, he flipped his glove disgustedly into the crowd, even though his team trailed by only one run and might have won. If body language could speak, that disgusted flip said, "Cub Curse wins. We're dead meat." Within seconds, though no one requested it, the crowd tossed Wood's glove right back onto the field. For Cubs fans, that's how deep the disgust and depression now cut. For the faithful of Wrigleyville who have been jilted for so long, these are the dark hours when love fades, even love passed from generation to generation like a community heirloom. Perhaps the spring training which Baker invokes will revive the romance. Winter, especially in Chicago, is so long and April so sweet. But now, if Wood -- or for that matter perhaps even Prior or Sammy Sosa -- throws his glove into a Cubs fan's lap, that worthless hunk of leather comes flying right back. After all, whatever the Cubs have could be contagious. The Marlins will have their Series frolic. But, for the Cubs, let's end this evening with the saddest of possible words. No, not "Tinker to Evers to Chance." Rather they are the words that Bartman, a Notre Dame grad, wrote in a statement of penance before this game: "I am so truly sorry from the bottom of this Cubs fan's broken heart." So are we all. © 2003 The Washington Post Company

I really dug Lanny's work w/Maynard, especially the sextet album on Mainstream. A very unique tone back then, something I always appreciate.

The Baccus thing is VERY nice. He plays organ so much like Rahsaan plays tenor that I still have to fight the urge to believe that it's really Kirk playing organ under a pseudonym. I got the Carn Savoy a few years back from Red Trumpet during one of their sales. It too is very nice. Not as "modern" as his later work, but still very happening. How about Bu Pleasant's Muse album w/Harold Vick? As long as she doesn't sing, that's a very fine album. LP only, I'm afraid.

Start here, please.

Checked out those samples. Sounds good to me, not as consistently startling as the classic Hi sides, but to expect that is totally unrealistic. I'll be buying. Will somebody back me up that Willie Mitchell is one of the most subtle, sophisticated, quirky (those changes!), elegant, and HIP producers/songwriters in the history of American (or even Global!) popular music?

I had a college buddy who had it, and I remember it being very nice indeed. Not at all "jazz" or even "jazzy", but closer to what I suppose was called "High Life" back then, sort of semi-traditional "African" (like "European", too broad a term to really mean anything too terribly specific) party music with a few "popular" elemnts added on, but I don't know enough to say that definitively). I enjoyed it then, and I think I'd enjoy even more now.

Who you talkin' to dude? Rooster. He knows what I'm talking about.

Almost as cool as adding to your post count by deleting then reposting! JUST KIDDING!!!

Almost as cool as adding to your post count by deleting then reposting! JUST KIDDING!!!

So I'm guessing that The Three Stooges never gained too much a following in Fiji, eh? (hmmm... "Foothold In Fiji", sounds like a Wayne tune from the Blakey days... )

We are our own lightbulb? If that's the case, I think I need a stronger wattage...

Yeah, but having a "Soul Woman" on the cover a la LET IT ROLL woulda sold a heckuva lot more!

Dude, how'd you make that post change places?

Another totally valid question is this - does Andrew still have these charts?

That's a totally valid question, I think.

I'm not a stickler AT ALL for tight ensemble work if the lack of "precision" comes from everybody feeling the parts confidently but differently. Ellington is the definitive example of that for me, as are the Mingus-led big band dates. It's not "tight", but it is TIGHT. But that's not the feeling that I get from the ensembles here. It's more like they got the notes, they got the phrasing, and they got the feel, just not all at once and not at the same time, if you know what I mean. Same thing with some, SOME of the solo sections (and it's the ones that gel completely that make the ones that almost do so frustratingly beautiful). It's almost like Moses viewing the Promised Land. They're ALMOST there, which is why I feel that another rehearsal (or maybe just another few takes) would have pushed this group over the edge into total Nirvana. But yeah, I'm happy enough with it as it is too. I can (and will) use my imagination to make this what I fully want it to be, and it won't be hard AT ALL!

DEFINITELY! What I wanna know though, is this - what the HELL are they doing on "Soul Man"? Sounds like they just took the hook and said "That's enough, we'll take it from here!" Shoot, if you're gonna do it like that, why bother with crediting the source? Call it an "original" and pocket a few extra bucks. I don't think anybody would be any the wiser, given how tangentally (at best) related to the original this performance is.

I'd forgotten how GREAT Fathead plays on this album. Goodgawdamighty does he have it goin' on here. The whole side pretty much cooks. It's near classic Lee of this vintage, replete with the Cedar/Billy no-missing-the-point assertations that this music is first and foremost about RHYTHM(S) and all the good things that can happen when you approach jazz from that angle. Again, Ron Carter is the weak link (sorry if I seem to be picking on him, but it's just that he's SO good when he's on that when he's not, it's REALLY aggrevating to me). He actually starts to DRAG in a few spots, the equivalent in this circle of players of farting during a silent prayer in church, but Billy hits a few subtle rim shots on 2 and 4, just enough to send the message (and it's really embarassing to hear when you know what's going on), and then it's back to business as delightfully usual. A DAMN good record overall, and Fathead...WHEW!!!!

RE: CARAMBA, "Suicide City" is one of the baddest tunes Lee ever recorded. TOTALLY hip composition, and the band nails it. I like the title tune a lot too, but especially when I can let go of my surroundings and just zone out on it. It's one of those pieces that isn't anything too terribly special unless you can get DEEP into the groove of it, and then it all comes together in a wonderfully stoned way. Side Two (sorry, I'm an LP guy with this one too) doesn't do as much for me. Good, but slightly routine. In this way, it's CHARISMA in reverse for me. But I'd recommend both of them. No reason not to, none at all.

This is the album that earned me a spot of notoriety amongst a few good friends because I bought it, brought it to a listening session, did a series of samples, and proceeded to bitch that there wasn't enough tenor playing on it. I don't give a damn who's date it is, if Hadley Calliman's on it, I WANT SOME TENOR! Seriously, it's ok. Nice version of "Sunny". I totally agree with Dan's assessment. But it would have been a HELLUVA lot better with more tenor on it!

In the spirit of this board, I'm not reading this thread until it gets RVG-ed, JRVG-ed, or TOJC-ed.

A day late and a dollar short, but Happy Birthday indeed!

Whatever is more than "whole", that's what I'd say, yeah. -_-

Put me down for ACCENT ON THE BLUES, one of most favorite records PERIOD!