JSngry

Yeah, I read that, and I'm not convinced that it's the same Johnny Spence. But maybe it is!?!?!?!?!

Ok, I just got this Annie Ross thing, A HANDFUL OF SONGS, and the arrangements are by Johnny Spence, a name I recognize from his work with Matt Monro as a Nelson Riddle clone of the highest order (and I mean that as a compliment, "clone" notwithstanding). This is a perfectly wonderful pop album, with a version of "Love For Sale" that gets more intense every time I listen to it, and not in a "comfortable" way. Ms. Ross seems to understand the darker side of the lyrics QUITE well. Then I jog my memory a bit more and realize that Johnny Spence was Tom Jones' arranger for years. O...K... So I'm doing some Websearch last night and find hime mentione in connection with a seminal(?) British rock band called The Pirates. Now I'm REALLY asking myself - who the hell was this Johnny Spence cat? Seems like he came up on the cusp between jazz(y) pop and rock, had the tools to fully work in both worlds, and did so. Seems like an interesting career, to say the least. Anybody got stories? Info? Opinions? Recs? Outright venom? Gimme something here, I'm clueless!

As the old folks know, the soundtrack for A HARD DAYS NIGHT was released in the US on UA Records. The songs from the movie were mixed in with incidental instrumental versions of some of the same songs. Pretty cheesy stuff overall, but the album finishes w/a jazz waltz version of the title tune that has a boppish alto solo. Nothing particularly gripping, but nice, competent work. I've long wondered who it was. Anybody know? Also, who was the arranger for these instrumental cuts? George Martin, or somebody else? And finally, what has become of this instrumental music now that the album has been restored to its original (i.e. - British) form of an all-Beatle album? Does it survive on CD anywhere or has it been relegated to the scrap heap of history? Not that theat would be too big a loss, but still... I suppose I should ask the same about the HELP! soundtrack as well. But who's that alto player?

Sometimes I feel like this is the really cool UHF station that only comes in on certain days, and when the antenna is angled just so. (Guess the analogy dates me...) But hell, when it's on, it's great!

Got 2 e-mails that I assume were from the real you. Sorry to hear about the major hassles you've been through, and hope that resolution is soon at hand. Welcome to the land of .org!

Yeah, it was 1980. My bad. Guess I suffered brain damage from the combination of a house with no AC and my antidote, which was filling up the car, getting a 6 pack of Mickey's Big Mouths, and cruising around with the windows rolled up and the car AC totally cranked until the sun went down and things cooled off some. Did that pretty much every day. Kids, don't try this at home....

So this Hamilton Price cat is going from playing with Sam River to playing with Jim Cullum? Well, like I say, at some primal level, it's all the same thing when you get right down to it!

Remember a movie called The Adding Machine from late nite TV. Pretty cool, actually, especially the closing scene. Not from my "youth", but I saw a flick called "The Day The Fish Came Out" one afternoon when I was married but childless (and that SEEMS like my youth...) that was just freaky.

If you see it, jump on it.

DAMN it.

OOPS!

Fortunately, I've been sleeping during the days, so its already at or near peak heat when I wake up, and has cooled off a TAD by the time I get up and actually doing anything.. But from what I hear, this one sucks donkey dicks. The worst one before this was the summer of '79 - 30+ days of 100+ degree days, and I was living in a rent house w/no AC. Hey Rooster - we recorded the first QO CD in San Marcos. Drove down in an ice storm, in fact. That whole experience was fraught with more adventure that an Indiana Jones movie.... You know, the saying about Texas weather is, "If you don't like it now, wait a few minutes". Unfortunately, that's not been the case lately. Oh well, at least I'm not in Houston, where the cure for dehydration is just breathing....

How 'bout "Domino"?

Yo!

SPACES was regzrded as a "classic" for some time. Don't know if it still is or not, but it's a killer lineup. The thing that has always bugged me about Coryell is a lack of discipline in his playing. Maybe discipline's not the right word. "Focus", "center", whatever. The guy's obviously had great chops from the beginning, and spirit to spare, but it seems like he'll just bust loose in a prolonged ejaculation of energy without rhyme or reason at any damn time or place, and that's a quality of his that continues to bug me now that he's gone completely "straight ahead". It's like he's the posterboy for ADD jazz or something. Still, the cat can play, no doubt about that. I like his work on Chico Hamilton's THE DEALER as well as I do anything. And SPACES, although a WILDLY undisciplined record, is a good portrait of the fusion universe in the moments before the Big Bang - a jazz record of jazz that is obviously fixing to go somewhere else in 3...2...1... And akanalog, I'm with you about "Harlem Boys" - I once got a speeding ticket because of that song. It was a sunny spring day in the late '70s, about 11 AM, that jam came on the radio (in gloriously scratchy AM monophonic sound out of a (yeah, "A"!) Plymouth Duster dashboard speaker, no less!!!), I was on a downhill stretch of fairly open freeway, and it just got GOOD to me! The officer didn't understand when my answer to his question about why I was speeding was, "Sonny Rollins"....

Well, you know that anybody who's talking about sex and spells Gel with a "J" ain't even got HALF a clue.

No, and my sidekick Roi wishes you would get it right.

Dear Jealous Wife - Is your jaw wired shut? Are both your hands in a cast? Have you considered alternatives to baby-making sex? Love means never having to say "I'm pregnant again" unless you want to. Wake up and smell the sheets. Love, Pru

Really, unless you pass up a chance to buy an item somewhere else and go back to find it's gone, what have you got to lose? I didn't have a CD of SHADES before I ordered, I didn't have one when the on-line order told me it was in stock, and I still didn't have one when they told me it was unavailable. Can't miss what you never had. It's not like they charge your card before the order gets filled. I just look at it like, "Well, I ordered the max I could afford, now let's see how much it's gonna ACTUALLY cost me". Inevitably, I still get a LOT of stuff, and just have to continue hunting for things that didn't get filled. Some fish you land, some get away, and some you never hook.

Sure. And get VEEDON FLEECE ASAP! Did anybody notice how when Harry Connick got dropped by Columbia that he went to Rounder? The label that handles Branford's label? And did a PIANO album? Does Rounder have more bucks than Blue Note? Was Blue Note interested in Connick (gotta think that the cat can still sell some records)? My theory is that everybody who was on Columbia during the Wynton era is trying to stay the hell away from him. Not a shred of evidence for it, and it's no doubt totally false, but DAMN does it satisfy my Inner Bitch!

Hell, I go to bed in the morning. Besides, exercise is a way of telling God you don't have any faith.

Reckon he has call-waiting?

Tough call, but I'm of the school that believes that live is usually more revealing and "true" than studio, so... If anybody ever comes out w/an "official" live set of '65 stuff, that'll get my vote. That was THE year for Trane in so many ways. '63 was the "apex" of the "Classic Quartet" live (at least that's conventional wisdom amongst the hardest of the hardcore Trane geeks), but '65 was when the shit just broke loose in all kinds of thrilling and unpredictable ways, ways that can UPSET 'cha! Audio-Fidelity DID put out a multi-LP box set of Trane @ the Half-Note in '65 back in the 70s, and it's since made its way through the Net on CDR. Not to be obscure or anything, but THAT is my favorite Trane "box".

I just called Pete Gallio, who has done clinic work with Bill Perkins in the recent past, and told him that Perk had some money coming due him. Well, I actually told Pete's answering machine, but six of one...

Sometimes I listen to Carla Bley's music while I'm doing exercises. My routine is, basically, get up, do exercises, have oatmeal and a boiled egg, then make phone calls. - - 85 year old Marian McPartland in this month's Jazz Times