JSngry

Talk radio, sports or political, never got a taste for that myself (although back when Larry King was on Mutual, I could listen to that for a while). But religious programming....it depends. If it's truly folk-grown, I can give it a listen for at least a little while, not interested in the doctrine, just the voices, the pitches and the cadences, i get fascinated by that stuff for some reason. Problem is, there's less and less of that. I heard some a while back travelling though either Kentucky or Tennessee, and the difference between that and the Infomercial Blitzes was immediately noticeable. Real always gonna real, if you know what I mean. But within the last 18 months, I was driving though the country and found the most fascinating thing - an bi-lingual evangelist duo. they would tag-team on each other's lines, one in English and then one in Spanish. And they were tight man, non-stop call and response, in a deep pocket. And to fuck things up even more, they would sometimes, every so often, just for a second or so, they would switch languages, the English guy would say a line in Spanish and then the Spanish guy would call it back to him in English, just for a line, and then they got right back on it as before. It was amazing, verbal acrobatics of the highest order. Of course, driving through the country, I only had signal for not more than 15 minutes, but I tell you man, finding stuff like that is why I still turn the radio on AM whenever I leave town.

That lack of localness….not a fan of that, and not just in radio. I'm in favor of unity from the bottom up instead of the top down, although, as with art vs commerce, there is a constant tension to negotiate, That is as it should and will be. But, the local thing...keep it alive, by any means necessary. Worth noting, though, that the beauty of old-school AM radio was that the dial was not segregated at all. My radio could get the same station as everybody else's, if I wanted it to. And I did. Where this got interesting as it pertains to your post) was on Sundays, especially Sunday mornings. We just lost a local commercial AM station that was seriously engaged in that, broadcasting stuff from almost-storefront churches in 15 minute block via what for all intents and purposes sounded like a telephone. This station targeted the urban, adult (ie over 50) African-American audience in both music and public affairs/news. And they sold ad time, plenty of it. Still, it was sold to a concern that now broadcasts K-Pop 24/7. another market served, which is cool, but one very important cultural listening post lost. Oh well... To that end...in this area, anyway, there is a dazzling array of Spanish-language music on both AM and FM, and that is a really significant listening post. Desi culture as well. Still, it's one of many that could be had. When a culture goes dropping off this particular radar, one can't help but having that "canary in the coal mine" feeling. How Phil Spector fits into this...I don't know and I don't care. Like an AM station at 3 AM, different signals can exist simultaneously!

Phil Spector actually had a pretty interesting musical life, worth reading about if you are so inclined. He was no "phenom" or anything, he really paid some dues in both the music and the record business before hitting big. I had no idea how much there was pre-Philles other than The Teddy Bears and then Spanish Harlem. No hits, but a lot of working at getting it right. Radio waves are freaky things.

Old folks get to/have to tell the same stories over and over again, so...another great thing about AM Top 40 was how after dark, many of the local stations signed off, so it was easy/easier to just go up and down the dial and find stations from other cities that you couldn't get during the day. Sometimes strongly, sometimes faintly. But that wa a good way to hear what was happening in other markets, bot the overlaps and the regionalities. I would spend hours doing this, I mean, literally ours. sometimes for the ball games, but always for the music. GA Russell doesn't remember this, but I do - there was a station out of New Orleans (WNOE?) that for at least one period, set their turntables just w teensy bit fast. I never timed it, but it was noticeable, and I have to wonder whether the motivation was to get another record in per hour, or to just play the same number of records but to have an extra 30 second ad space to sell per block. either way, you could do that! I tell you, though - I spent many an evening listening to a combination of WNOE, WLS, KMOX, whatever border radio was going, KOA out of Denver, something out of Memphis, god knows what else. not all of it Top 40, but all of it different. That was fun! Oh, check this out - AM signal during the day didn't reach too much over 90-100 miles, so getting KLIF out of Dallas, about 120 miles away, was a big deal, and mostly done after dark. Which was cool, because the "after dark" shows were more open programming than during the day. so.... All you had to have was a cheap radio and some curiosity. Such a bargain!

Top 40 radio was entirely revenue driven. The revenue came (mostly-to-entirely) from selling ads. Ad prices, were, of course, driven by ratings/listeners. So the object of the game was to get the listeners to buy the records that the DJs played so the listeners would want to listen to the DJ so the station could sell ad blocks. That's a big reason (along with a collective short attention span) why Top 40 records hovered around the 3 minute mark - it lended itself to a good block of programming that then set up a good block of advertising. so when Spector put a false timing on a 45, DJs could, if they weren't careful, fuck up their entire blocking, make the ads get a late start, which then made the next music block start late, lather/rinse/repeat. So doing what Spector did, playing games with the timings, was actually a not-too concealed act of aggression. What I really enjoyed about the whole "block" thing was when a station would always go to national news at the top of the hour and, all of the timings being real-time and not precisely calculated, an hour would run just a little short. That was when the "bumper music" came into play, usually (where I lived) an instrumental, and quite often, jazz. Wes Montgomery's "Windy", I hear that one a lot waiting for the national news to come on. Mongo's "Watermelon Man", that was another one. None of these got played to completion, of course! So, it was flexible, it breathed, it was DEFINITELY an analog experiencing of time, cats had to improvise as to what records to play when, and there was always that BEEP at the top of the hour when the news feed started. I liked it. I liked it a LOT more than what passed for "radio" now... Anybody with an interest in DJs....there's a lot of airchecks out there, and of course there's the Cruisin' series of re-creations, but this one here is a priceless document of the rise and fall of a singular talent. HIGHLY recommended. The guy was a victim of both changing times and self-destructive habits, but LORD have mercy!

I have most of them on vinyl (old), and CD (not as old), so I really don't see the need to buy $25 vinyl (new), I mean, what, do I look like I'm made of money here?

Hell, I remember when "oldies but goodies" were mostly reserved for weekends, and then only like 2-3 hour. When Sha-Na-Nah first hit the scene, they were considered radical and conceptual (and maybe they were!). Just saying, the same thing has happened with "swing", the reduction of a truly wide-spread cultural experience into a reductionist instacapsule to that tries to make you think that this is all there was, is, and will be. And then, when a discovery of somebody like, say, Alvin Robinson comes along, the malevolent myopia is once again shattered and revealed for the fool's game that it is. There has been a lot of music. There still is a lot of music. A lot. It's all over the place, and hopefully always will be. Music is not commerce and commerce is not music. They are at best, at best, business partners that never fully trust each other to do what the other wants.

"oldies radio" is an unfortunate phenomenon. The premise of the context is itself an artificial construct, and the way it's played out over the years is damn near sinister. They select a handful of songs, and by god these are the songs you WILL remember. The only "oldies" station that I ever heard that was worth a damn was one that they had in Tampa when I lived there, 1990-91. It was an AM station and they played a LOT more than just the "approved" hits...which is how I recall listening to Top 40 radio in a damn near obsessive fashion form ca, 1963 through ca, 1970. This idea of a "canon" of "oldies"...it's bullshit, same as it is with any other field of music. It's one thing for there to be more or less "universal favorites", it's another thing to block out everything else that happened. Force feeding the same thing every day every year...yuck. No wonder so many people hate music. and let's talk about surface noise...thos Gary U.S. Bonds 45s...one of the Spector books looks at Frank Guida & Legrand Records and how they exploited their limited resources and turn it into a big bundle of NOISE - not only the recording itself, but the cheap noisy vinyl. they did that shit intentionally, the nose was meant to be part of the record. Oldies radio cleans that shit up/away, sanitizes it, and what you're left with is something that won't interrupt you even a little. It's evil!

I see the Richard Williams book has been revised and updated, for whatever that's worth. My interest in Spector is pretty much limited to the way he acted out through music, which was equal parts inspiring and disturbing, genius and madness (listen again to "I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine"...), the rest of it...not so much. so I'm sticking with what I got.

To keep the DJs from turning the record over. Simple as that. Believe it or not, there was a time when Top 40 DJs were autonomous individuals who would play what they wanted, when they wanted. There's a little subset of hit records that started out as A-sides that the DJs didn't like, but they did like the flip side and started playing that instead, and it became a hit. AM Top 40 radio used to be a lot of fun, because there were "rules", but not RULES. No programmed playlists, and definitely no prerecorded song sets. Of course, not all DJs felt empowered to wing it, but there were enough who did (at all hours, too) that you had things like regional hits, or even local hits. Thus, payola. Nobody told the DJs what to play, the DJs called the shots. And Spector didn't like that, for whatever reasons. So he did stuff like put out 45s with loose studio jazzjams on the B-Side, or putting false timings on some records to make them seem shorter than they really were. I've heard it posited that a lot of DJs were loathe to play Spector's records because they kept getting noisier and noisier, and Phil kept getting more arrogant and disrespectful by doing stuff like that (remember, there was a National DJ Convention that was HUGE, these guys had clout), and it all came to a head with "River Deep, Mountain high" - not a teen band, again, past the 3:00 "barrier), and the noisiest record yet (and do go out and get the 45 on that one, I've yet to hear another format that sounds like it). Some speculate that there was an unspoken conspiracy to show Spector who was boss, and the decision was made to put the kibosh the record. It's interesting to me to look at certain records that pop artists make that were genuine artistic breakthroughs that tanked and then left scars of one sort or another on the artists. Spector had River Deep, Brian Wilson had Pet Sounds, Joni Mitchell had Hissing Of Summer Lawns, Stevie Wonder had Journey to The Secret Life Of Plants, I'm sure there are others. The Art vs Commerce battle in Pop Music is as treacherous as the music is naïve. Bottom line - you can fuck (with) the industry for as long as you are of use to the industry. And that shit is subject to change at any moment. There were two Spector bios (TWO!) that were readily available in all good record stores in the mid-70 - The Phil Spector Sound & Out Of His Head. both are excellent sources of information, and both are different than anything since, because they were written before Spector totally desended into reclusion, guns, and madness. Yeah, well, you have an excellent modern hi-fi system. Those records should not be played on that type of rig. Go to a flea market and buy something like this: And if you rally want to splurge, buy an vintage jukebox. Whatever you do, do not play it on anything resembling "audiophile" and whatever else you do, play it LOUD.

AH! I really hope it's the former, because that is so not Jordan with Maynard on this recording. Damn near impossible.

PM is fine, or I think the board still has a send email function. I'm going to look for the file right now. I just quick-sampled "Newport" from the gig, and that's definitely Wayne, could not be anybody else. Maybe the dates are snafued or something, but that's Wayne, I'd bet the contents of my refrigerator on it.

Somebody, please, help me understand why you would want to get an LP from a digital file? I'm assuming there's no analog in this chain anyway, so WTF? Is Exxon/Mobil trying to get in on this vinyl action (remember when vinyl was "doomed: because of the oil shortage?)?

Lady Gaga is not without at least some skills as a singer.

It's definitely Wayne on the show I got. Couldn't be anybody else.

When you play "Tedesco and Pitman', it should take 5 second or less to determine if it was intended as the A side or the B side. Trust me on this one.

Besides, now that "Kitty" is gone from YouTube (I think?), Mosaic has an obligation TO THE WORLD. Or somebody does.

I like my statements to speak in the same voice as the solos. I mean, yeah, it it comes on you to go left, by all means, go left. But,,,it bugs me when a player seems to be making an effort to reference one player on the head, and then the solo comes and like, where did THAT go? Not a reflection on skills, obviously but it is a personal esthetic preference. Personal, mind you. Reading the responses now, I see who it was on #10, and that makes sense to me, a lot of influences, but ultimately one voice, maybe not particularly "original" or "distinct", but still, solid all the way through.

Oh crap, saying something nonsensical is something to worry about? NOW you tell me... But seriously, I look at it like some of this stuff has always been with me and is just accelerating a bit with age. THAT's ok. It's the stuff that seems like relatively "new" behavior that has me wondering have I always done this and am just now noticing it, or, uh-oh, better keep an eye on this, and get Brenda to do the same. Because, you know, she's used to damn near all of it by now, god bless her, so I ask her to stay in the game with me, at least as much as possible...but she's not a kid any more either...what scares me is thinking that we reach the point more or less together where neither one of us can take care of the other one but think that we can. What could possibly go wrong, right? BRIGHT MOMENTS, Y'ALL!!!!

Ok, dinner's on. let's roll. TRACK ONE: "Handful Of Keys"? Dick Hyman? I like it well enough, always like some stride, but it feels just a little rushed, internally. Not a deal-breaker, though. TRACK TWO - "Moose The Mooche", solo guitar? Lenny Breau? I hope not...this is jagged to my ears, jagged and a bit rushed. TRACK THREE - Nice tune, Don't like that type of tenor playing, though. Head had a strong Dexter vibe to it, but the solo was all Brecker-y and shit. Speak with one voice, please, don't be Rich Little about it! TRACK FOUR - Please note - "Tee", not Cee". Makes a difference. Love Clark, but this band...it's not his, I hope? Like Buddy Rich without Buddy Rich. WAAAAAY on top of the beat, everybody, except CT and again note - CT, not CP). Maybe you had to be there? TRACK FIVE - Very interesting ideas in left hand, almost pedestrian ideas in the right..."Yesterdays, all that Bartok seemed so far away...seriosly, this sounds like a player who maybe just needed more season to get both hands on the same page, in terms of ideas.Oh, there's guitar....shades of (or in the shade of) Tristano/Bauer TRACK SIX - Oh yeah, Uptown String Quartet, great band, and nice to hear them with out Max. Love that, but string quartet is one of my favorite instrumentations, so much opportunity there...now, whose wedding to I have to go to to hear THIS band during dinner? Betty's? She done come along darn it. TRACK SEVEN - Say what you will about Herbie Mann, he sounded the same then as he would decades later. Other than that, I've never really liked the arrangements on this record. Too foo-foo. The soloists, otoh, hey, there they are! I love me this era of Phil woods as much as the later stuff makes me cringe (usally). Motherfucker came to play, and DID! Same thing for Bill Evans. But that chart....not for me, I'm afraid. Waltz those vibes outta there, please! TRACK EIGHT - Spring is here...no, will be here...eventually...hopefully? Wow, Pat Williams-esque writing...but get that guitar out of there, please! Oh, it's probably their date, right? Ok, save the chart forsomebody else, like art Farmer (oh wait, can't do that...) This would have been better (in almost every way) if it had been done in the 70s. Nice writing, though, very nice writing. TRACK NINE - "Tricotism", LOVE that tune! I'm not a stickler for intonation, but this player is maybe just a leeeeeetle bit, shall we say, "cavalier"...So, either Ron Cater or Rufus Reid, among "name" players. Can't dfault the ideas, though, excellent ideas! And excellent chops as well. TRACK TEN - Getz? Nah, a little too square-on to be Getz, or any of those guys. Not what's new, but well played, and sincere. No idea who it is. Doesn't need to be new when that is there, what? TRACK ELEVEN - "Delilah", FLOORSHOW! I think this record was on a BFT within the last few months? No worries, it's a GREAT record. thnks for including it here! TRACK TWELVE - Oh my...is that a Mingus tune, yes? So it should swing, yes? So why doesn't it? Sorry peoples, right notes are jsut the beginning of the battle. It don't. etc...otoh, this is not one that everybody plays, so kudos for picking ti for the program, whoever you trumpetpianoduet is.. TRACK THIRTEEN - That's Bobby & Harold, timeless All-Stars, right? Billy on drums? Not sure if I have this record or not. of I don't I should probably look for it. Later Harold Land (I mean later-70s and beyond) turns me on, actually. This is a fine cut for my money (Even if it's free!). TRACK FOURTEEN - I would be in no hurry to come home to this. Stay home once there maybe, but yo gotta get me there with more than this, ok? Nice, MOR music, expertly played, and as the old saying says, I'd not kick it out of bed for eating crackers. But it would have to be in the bed before I could kick it out...may be you had to have already been there? Put this out in the late 60s, drench it in reverb, hey, it would stay blogged forever. But they didn't, so... TRACK FIFTEEN - That intro disturbed me, but it got better. A little off-kilter, and not in a bad way. Roger Kellaway? Or are there two pianists here? Jacki Byard? Did I ever think i would put those two names together? I did NOT!!!! TRACK SIXTEEN - Ok, that's Tatum ground, tread carefully...Almost sounds like the Piano starts Here version, but not quite...cleaned up sonically and just a little heavier-handed in the execution? I will say this, no matter what - regardless of one's gut reaction about Taum, on anything, it's most likely wrong, there's always more to it than you think, no matter how much you like it or don't. Always more, ALWAYS more. That's been my experience anyway. Ok, I had to a/B and I don't think this is the OPiano Starts here version, the applause at the end is different. So I don't know what this is. if it's a different Tatum performance or a clever imitation. Those are not the same thing,s obviously, os I sincerely hope that it's not an imitation. TRACK SEVENTEEN - Happy trails on the snowfallen lanes, and thank you so much (whoever you are) by not ruining this lovely take by improvising on it. More is every bit the enemy of perfections, as is less. A difficult balance, to be sure. But this is it! Quite a listen, Ken, thanks for sharing!

That is awesome as fluck! The play-along sides, to my knowledge, never made it past their first issue. That would mean that the chance to play along with Monk himself is in this set, correct?

Has anybody involved ever had real plexi-discs to make them think that it would be a good idea to issue rare Bird on that medium?

Assuming that you want just the side that had Woods, yes: https://www.discogs.com/Phil-Woods-With-The-Hall-Overton-Quartet-And-George-Wallington-Quintet-Bird-Calls-Volume-1/release/7067714 and here: https://www.discogs.com/Various-Signal-Sessions-/release/11317333 What is this 3-LP set, though? Is it both sides, with the soloist + the play-along side? Or just what, exactly? The play-along sides, I've never seen one of those, from anybody.

That's a good record!

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/brief-history-children-sent-through-mail-180959372/ Uh, we said male child...M-A-L-E