Niko

I do agree, that Kelley's Monk biography is not the best example of someone sticking to the essentials and only the essentials... (for instance, I am just reading John Chilton's Bechet biography and imho that one is perfect in keeping the balance between biographical information, gossip and music; also in talking about the music without getting overly technical), then again, genealogical research is not cockroaches in Texas; and while Kelley makes (iirc) some new contributions to our understanding of Monk's family history, I hope very much that the authors of that Dorham bio do not expand the world's knowledge about cockroaches in Texas...

he's impressive indeed, saw him with Pharoah Sanders in 2019...

Somewhat later, Wilson was a proponent of QANON and related wisdoms, what I would expect at the other end of the political spectrum, see here, the posts near the bottom of p 11

That should be him, if you search this board for "math rock", you find some instances of Larry discussing his son, apparently his former band as a guitar player was Crush Kill Destroy

the kid is ill so I could finish some of the books on my stack, including this one, with Peppa Pig in the background... The best chapters are great

I'd that the album is pretty good for an inhouse production of a super market, to be sold next to dairy and vegetables... And I wouldn't blame them too much for the overselling in the title - it's not like there were other Ben Webster album on offer there ... In fact, I kind of like the idea of coupling Webster with a somewhat larger group of excellent, more modern players, it's a nice change of pace from many of his later albums

thanks for posting!

Yes!

Among those Motian-led Winter&Winter albums with Kikuchi, my favorite is On Broadway Volume 5 with Loren Stilman and Michael Attias, that one is just wonderful...

the Myers/Wadada album and the Myers solo album are magnificient, as are the Kikuchi albums... I also liked the earlier Wadada... the remaining three albums (soon four) couldn't quite convince me to the same degree... still: an amazing run for a young label!

It's similar to the first volume, about as good, too. I am really happy with it, a bit like getting a second serving of a favorite meal.

the Dutch and their first names are funny anyway... I recently almost bought this duo album of Hazevoet (English: Harefoot) with Hendrikus Johannes 'Han' Bennink might still get it for Easter if it's still available

I'd say what you are playing there is pretty much the highlight but I haven't followed most of the more recent developments

Envy you a bit, saw that concert advertised on insta this morning... Hope the album by the band appears soon!

On Long Island National Cemetery, his daughter keeps a nice memorial here: https://de.findagrave.com/memorial/82671444/frank-haynes

Agreed that Sun Ra is not spiritual jazz, and agreed that his popularity was held back by the fact that his work on famous labels Impulse and ESP is so much less accessible than other periods of his work like Lanquidity or the Chicago years as exemplified by Jazz in Silhouette, or the current edition of his band

#1 reminded me of Sonny Cox on Argo but at first sight there's no 6 minute track on those albums... Still, I hear Chicago/Argo, not Europe

The book is just an endless stream of JC Moses was a pimp and Bertha Hope was on heroin, Frank Haynes, too, and George Brown was on crack and violent and Barbara Donald was on Pepsi, and ... I am sure a lot of it is accurate and some of it is not (e.g. the findagrave memorial on Frank Haynes reads a bit different from the speculation in Simmons' book)... In the case of Barbara Donald, her life would have been so different if Simmons could have managed his addictions to much more serious substances than Pepsi better when their kids were little... So I felt he wasn't in a position to be judgemental... Even though, yes, softdrinks are more dangerous than the industry wants you to believe...

It does make a lot of sense that it was only published after he left us... 500 pages of ramblings from a world in which being a pimp is more respectable than drinking Pepsi... He does have some interesting memories of famous people though, and the book gives a lot of context to his career... It did not make me want to listen to his music more though

Started reading the Sonny Simmons autobiography, he's trash talking everyone he ever met for their substance abuse, their lack of character... According to Sonny, Barbara consumed way too much Diet Coke (or was it Pepsi? Need to read again)

I like that one a lot, the short movie is worth watching, too

Pim mentioned driving home from Tilburg in another thread today... Did that four times this week and now it's enough... It's not the prettiest of cities, buildings are strangely small - as seen in the picture- and the edges are still rough and there's nothing glorious about that... But the city does have one of the best bands playing South African Jazz in the Low countries, the various incarnations of Eric van der Westen's quintet...

It's an all-star band featuring Melissa Aldana, Nduduzo Makhathini, Linda May Jan Oh and Jeff Tain Watts in addition to Lovano... Quite a band imho even though it can't quite imagine them all together...

The 80s edition of Berendt's jazz book would mention people like Kenny G... But, if you only have half a page for Ben Webster and a sentence or two for Johnny Griffin or Roland Kirk, someone like Kenny G cannot expect more than to be part of a list "further saxophone players in 1980s fusion jazz, some crossing over into what has become known as smooth jazz include Kenny G, Dave Koz,..." Acker Bilk might get a similar name check in the clarinet section... The sentence doesn't really hurt anyone and I always appreciated that Berendt tried to keep that type of open mind... If the record store stocks it, then the book should explain it... Then again, I also wouldn't mind if the sentence was missing.

Yes, American based in the Netherlands... I've read that comparison often but I wouldn't know of an interview where he says this himself.... Btw Lewis Porter has an interesting pair of posts on why Brubeck has not been much of an influence on other pianist https://lewisporter.substack.com/t/brubeckdave