Joe

Well, as someone who writes (in part) for a living, there are some things I posted on the BN BBS that I'd like to get back into my portfolio. Some thoughts / ramblings / lucky occasions when, in retrospect, it seems to me I hit on something like I might like to use in a future writing project. That said, I won't pretend that I'm not a minority in this respect.

Many, many happy returns.

Now: (well, about 2 years and some facial hair ago; my employee ID pic...) and then:

Of the Yales... Volume 2 consists of live shots from Basin Street circa 1955, and features some fine work by Ruby Braff, Paul Quinichette, Mel Powell, and Teddy Wilson. Volume 7 (?), already mentioned, is also worth picking up, for Phillips and Harris alone. There are also some big band circa 1959 - 1960 recordings in this series, with Joe Newman and Zoot Sims among the soloists featured. Very much worth hearing.

As far as the over-renditioned "Knockin' On Heaven's Door Goes" -- for me, the definitive version is Television's (hear THE BLOW-UP).

I have an old VHS copy. If you are a Tristano-phile like myself, its essential viewing. Its a rather short concert (29 minutes or so [?]) but watching Tristano freely improvise several of these pieces in his inimitable manner, at perhaps the very height of the "free jazz" explosion -- 1965 was the year of ASCENSION, after all -- is just fascinating. For those further interested... http://www.lennietristano.com/

My budding musical career was cut tragically short the day my sister grew exasperated with the incessant rehearsing and put her foot through my

Ah, yes, the fond, fond memories this one conjures up...

Of the Fairport versions, I'm most fond of "Percy's Song".

They aren't showing STALAG 17, LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, SABRINA and ACE IN THE HOLE (aka THE BIG CARNIVAL)? Hmmmm... Agreed that both ONE, TWO, THREE and THE LOST WEEKEND are among the best of his output. The former is one of the most relentless comedies I've ever seen. Ed Sikov's ON SUNSET BOULEVARD is a fine bio of Wilder. Several compendiums of Wilder interviews have also been published, inlcuding Cameron Crowe's CONVERSATIONS WITH BILLY WILDER.

Didn't Hot Lips Page record some trio sides with Teddy Bunn and Leonard Feather in the late 30's? Though recorded in the early 1960's, this is rather much in the idiom Chuck mentions...

Lynn Hope was black power before there was Black Power...

Seriously, what's the story behind the man's sky piece / topper / lid / bonnet? Is it a form of homage to Hammond organ pioneer Korla Pandit? http://www.spaceagepop.com/pandit.htm

I'll stump for: | Frank Gratkowski Quartet, SPECTRAL REFLECTIONS (Leo) | Fathead Newman, THE GIFT (Highnote) | Jeff Parker, LIKE-COPING (Delmark) | Charles Davis, BLUE GARDENIA (Reade Street Records) | Julius Hemphill, ONE ATMOSPHERE (Tzadik) | Wadada Leo Smith / Anthony Braxton, ORGANIC RESONANCE (Pi Recordings) Re-issues: | Bobby Bradford, LOVE'S DREAM (Emanem) | Cecil Taylor, STUDENT STUDIES (Fuel 2000) | the Bud Freeman sessions on Fantasy (ALL-STAR SWING SESSIONS) | Elmo Hope, SOUNDS FROM RIKERS' ISLAND (Audio Fidelity / Fresh Sounds)

I have the Novak Quartet readings on Phillips. The Amazon reader isn't too fond of them, but I find their slightly clinical, Boulez-esque interpretations make it easier to really examine the architecture of the work. The recording I heard most often growing up was this one: but its been ages since I heard it. I do know the Juilliard Quartet built their legacy in part on their performances of these quartets, and that my father never gave up his old Juilliard LPs, including those 1963 recording of the Quartets.

Thanks for the plug, all.

Paul Desmond also recorded a couple of fugue pieces for fantasy in the mid-50's.

I believe a Shelly Manne group recorded a very brief fugue for Contemporary in the early 1950's. In fact, I'm pretty sure its a Jimmy Giuffre piece -- the first of several such pieces he wrote over the course of that decade.

I'm rather fond of the Antilles quartet date with Anthony Davis, Mark Helias and Ed Blackwell, a record that seems hardly ever to get discussed. Though I don't usually go in for such things, and I think it is abundantly clear that Braxton's own music is more rewarding for those who answers the unusual challenges it presents, there is something to be said for the man's "songbook" recordings: THE CHARLIE PARKER PROJECT and THE EIGHT (+3) TRISTANO COMPOSITIONS: FOR WARNE MARSH (both on Hat); the recent Andrew Hill recording on CIMP; the Monk date with Mal Waldron on Black Saint; and the SOLO PIANO (STANDARDS) on No More. The Delmark Quartet release from earlier this year is very, very strong; listeners who have complained about the Glass-ism of earlier Ghost Trane Music performances have even liked it.

I believe John Handy played that solo, not Hadi. Guy Guy -- that's right, it was Handy. Therefore, I submit into evidence Hadi's solo on "Reincarnation of a Lovebird" from THE CLOWN.

I went with Hadi, and not just because of his great "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" solo. Hadi was somehow able to put an Ellingtonian spin (timbral variation, understanding of ensemble dynamics) to a very set of quintessentially hard bop ideas (some original funk in his ideas; an almost caustic articualtion of bop phrasing). INSERT: Damn, Chuck said almost this very same thing, only much more succinctly. END The little bit of mystery that surrounds Hadi doesn't hurt either. The Bobby Jones HILL COUNTRY SUITE is an excellent date, though Jones' clarinet is slightly more in evidence than his tenor sax.

Walt Dickerson Jay Hoggard -- his solo vibes set on India Navigation is worth checking out, as are his various collaborations with Anthony Davis (the duets on UNDER THE DOUBLE MOON especially). Check out the vibes work on this record, too... Dusty Groove description