Joe

Bern Nix

John Purcell, Arthur Blythe, Eric Person and James Spaulding have also logged time in the WSQ. Although they remain a fine group, I'm not so keen on their employment of African percussion, et. al. I find it telling that perhaps their finest latter-day recording is the REQUIEM FOR JULIUS. Hemphill was, in a lot of ways, the real guts and intelligence of the group. And if you're going to own any Hemphill, you simply must own: http://www.screwgunrecords.com/records.php...ecord=Blue_Boye And here's a fine recent record by Oliver Lake that seems to have been unjustly overlooked... http://www.passinthru.org/catalog.html#stick

I'd sure love to know.

Interesting. Isn't the SHADOWS score -- as used by Cassavetes; I seem to recall that maybe Mingus never actually got around to writing any music per se for the film -- mostly Shafi Hadi tenor solos?

Much ballyhooed when Sue handed it over to "the feds" -- as they are known in my line of library business -- in '93 or so. I just wonder is any of the many writers and researchers who post frequently here have ever actually been through the collection, know how accessible it really is, what the terms of Sue's bequest were (copyright?), and whether LC ever plans to include any of the material in their American Memory project? BTW, a finding aid for the collection is available online here (I'll spare you the EAD tutorial): http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/music/eadxml.../mu004009_x.pdf The recordings originally included in the collection appear to have been "transferred to Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division", but, sadly, I can locate no registry or inventory for them. Darn it.

Dr. Isiah Ross!!!

Not to mention a great vocalist ("Slow Drag"...)

Al Casey, Fats Waller's gittarist... And dare I mention Alvino Rey, pioneer of the pedal steel / console guitar and inventor of the "Golden Throat" (singing guitar; think FRAMPTON COMES ALIVE). IN the early 40's, he also employed Neal Hefti, Billy May, Johnny Mandel, Al, Zoot and Herbie Stewart (3 of the 4 Brothers). And Rey's grandkids are even making quite a name for themselves in pop circles as The Arcade Fire... http://pitchforkmedia.com/top/2004/index5.shtml

Howard Johnson plays both baritone sax and tuba. Warren Smith is a fine vibist as well as a very creative drummer / percussionist. Olu Dara has recently been recorded on guitar as well as his customary trumpet. He's truly "pan-stylistic", too. And then there are all those contemporary "non-idiomatic" improvisers who double on a conventional instrument and "electronics"...

There's a set of Joe Diorio / Ira Sullivan duets on the Ram label that's worth hunting down. THE BREEZE AND I. Sullivan sticks to reeds throughout. Very fine, relaxed but still inventive. How about early bopper Bill DeArango?

Oscar Moore, perhaps. Certainly, his leader dates for Skylark and Tampa, happily now available ona single VSOP disc, seem to receive little attention. Harmonic sophistication and, on these recordings, real intensity.

Another Canadian altoist of interest... Maury Coles. Apparently a legendary "free improv" figure in Toronto, he passed away in 2001, but it looks like Cadence still stocks a couple of his recordings for the AMI label -- ABSTRACT and MUSIC FROM THE GALLERY. I own the latter and though I have not listened to it in a loooooong time, I can vouch for its quality.

What little I've heard of this date is quite good...

One thing I really love about the MEMOIRS recordings... not only was Lion a hell of a pianist, he had a great voice as well as a really unique way with narrative.

My other favorite Willie "The Lion" Smith set... http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=1742403

Another strong recommendation for the Jimmy Yancey recordings, though I have the softest spot for the late Atlantics (first sides I heard by him). This is also a worthy purchase (and then some):

Sad news. Great artist, brilliant story-teller, innovater, important thinker.

I think that this does apply to some of the later Zoot on tenor I've heard, but I do think his soprano playing is -- pardoning the unpardonable reference -- another kettle of fish altogether. The more I listen, the more it seems to me Sims excelled most in that mid-50's Mulligan Sextet (alongside Brookmeyer and Don Ferrara or Jon Eardley).

Thanks Larry and Garth for the correction and the quote. Now if I can just recall where I read this recently... maybe the liner notes to Attila Zoller's GYPSY CRY? Will let you all know.

Maybe it was even mentioned on this very thread, but I failed to find it here... I could have sworn that Williams once wrote something to the effect that a good deal of Eastern European "folk music" contained more of a jazz feel than most blues music. Does this sound familair to any of the Williams readers here? if so, pointers to the exact passage would be most welcome. Thanks.

Another very strong recommendation for this set.

A critic critiques the critical character: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/02/movies/02scot.html

In my mind, good criticism isn't a heavy gate which requires a good deal of force to open and whose posts run deep and sturdy into a bedrock of accumulated "facts" and knowledge. Criticism is much more dynamic that that, a place that could be an entry but may not be, and, at its best, criticism takes on some of the untrustworthy and "useless" qualities of artistic work. To me an excellent and honest "critique" expresses one individual's experience of interacting with a work -- listening, reading, viewing -- and any explication it offers grows from this remaining true to the individual's experience. If I did not think "critical writing" offered those freedoms -- one of which is the freedom to be who you are, whether that is an amateur, a simple fan, a practicing musician, a scholar, someone with an axe to grind, whatever -- I wouldn't even bother with it.

No, you heard somebody say Noel Coward, but the one time he blew an alto is a story that doesn't belong in this thread http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/isntitaw.htm

It would only be a problem if there were a whole bunch of vocalists named Naamah.