Joe

The Gil Melle stuff; I think that material definitely qualifies. Also, Moondog. Finally, out of a wholly different bag -- my hero, Earl Bostic!!!

The Richie Kamuca Concord sides. Marion Brown, JUBA-LEE The Martial Solal / Sidney Bechet sessions Mingus' self-produced records (MY FAVORITE QUINTET, MONTEREY 1965) Julius Hemphill, DOGON A.D. Many others...

You know what's next, of course...

Paul -- I haven't listened to it in a good while, but I recall it being quite nice. Twardzik's compositions are not the sort that benefit from any smoothing out, and Van Bommel and co. respect this.

Excellent advice.

The 1959 Paul Desmond session with Jim Hall, percy Heath and Connie Kay. Issued on WB as FIRST PLACE AGAIN, since available on Discovery as EAST OF THE SUN.

That's the record I started with. Still finding new things in it a decade of listening later. the ballads on tis record -- "Barfly", "Eejah", his version of "Like Someone iIn Love" -- PROFOUNDLY moving. Those LAST SESSIONS are so refreshingly loose in comparison to the dark complexity of the earlier records.

Y Todavia la Quiero

How long has RJ been playing? I mean, he's on some mid-70's Chico Hamilton BN dates with Blythe, but he must have only been a teenager at the time. And, yes, I agree -- both his BN dates are worth picking up. For a chance to hear BOTH Broom and Jones with the *great* Kenny Burrell (who even plays banjo on this record), try to locate PIECES OF BLUE AND THE BLUES: Just don't confuse him with Ronny Jordan!

Laugh if you want, but... GENE AMMONS PLAYS JIMMY WEBB

There's girls that bend. And then there are girls that break. Ask Dylan...

If I could voice one reservation or even regret about Joe's Verve output it's that, with the notable exception of SO NEAR SO FAR, he was often surrounded on those dates by either much younger, much more callow players (Stephen Scott, Christian McBride, audibly in awe of / supplication to him, or by "professionals" who are in the business of being proficient, sympathetic and versatile (Hancock, DeJohnette), sometimes too much so. So that some of that sparring excitement that is always present on the best (IMHO) Joe Henderson recordings -- best to to even try and talk about his live performances here -- is missing. You can hear what I'm talking about on INNER URGE and OUR THING, on PTAH THE EL-DAOUD, on UNITY, on CAPE VERDEAN BLUES, on THE REAL MCCOY, on BLACK FIRE, on RELAXIN' AT CAMARILLO, and, I think, on this record, one of the finest from Joe's final (sigh) decade: Norris' harmonic sensibility is just what Henderson needs to really spin off some intricate, intelligent, swinging, totally compelling solos. Finally, I see that the Palo Alto date with Mal Waldron, David Friesen and Billy Higgins -- ONE ENTRANCE, MANY EXITS -- is about to be reissued on CD. Opinions?

Seconded. Perhaps my favorite Jordan LP, if that favorite isn't actually STARTING TIME, with Kenny Dorham, now available from Fantasy on the MOSAIC 2fer. Jordan was often superb on other people's dates. His solos on Charles McPherson's CON ALMA! are for me the highlight of that record. SPEAK BROTHER SPEAK, a Max Roach date, also has some great Jordan on it. And leave us not forget his fantastic work with the classic 1964 Mingus groups with Coles, Dolphy, Byard and Richmond.

That I do remember. God bless Dave Sim!

Though today I feel much more like:

I do believe Welty has much to teach us. And, if you are a jazz listener and have neer read "Powerhouse"... well, you should!!! The thing to remember about Flannery O'Connor, who indeed could write a Faulknerian sentence or three, is how important her Catholicism is to her. Ditto Walker Percy, perhaps the last of the truly "great" (whatever that means) Southern novelists. Anyway, O'Connor is much closer in some respects to one of Faulkner's contemporaries, and one of the first "Jewish writers" of the modern American era, Nathaneal West. MISS LONELYHEARTS and DAY OF THE LOCUST have proved to be hugely influential works, and in some unexpected ways. The name "Homer Simpson" comes from DOTL, e.g. As for Pynchon being influenced by Faulkner -- well, when he uses the word "preterite" in CRYING OF LOT 49, I firmly believe a neon sign reading FAULKNER is supposed ot go off over your head. its up to the reader to sort out the layers of spoof, homage etc. in that diction. All of which is my way of kind of shooting the wheels off this whole American regionalism thing. All these writers share similar moral concerns, even Pynchon (maybe ESPECIALLY Pynchon), when you get right down to it, no mater how similar and disimilar their "styles" appear to be. Finally, a word for one of my favorite critical works on Faulkner -- the Coen Bros.' BARTON FINK...

Another vote for the short stories. "Barn Burning", "A Rose for Emily", "Red Leaves", "The Bear", "Mistral"... And why does no one ever talk about how deeply, darkly FUNNY Faulkner can be?

GOM -- if you haven't already, you might want to check out this book: Michael Harris, THE RISE OF GOSPEL BLUES: THE MUSIC OF THOMAS ANDREW DORSEY IN THE URBAN CHURCH

Unfortunately, the record with Marchel is pretty hard to find. Though I would like someone in Ivery's circle here in town would have a copy / could get a copy. I was fortunate enough to get to see James Clay a couple of times in and around Dallas before he passed away. The times I saw him at Chumley's Coffee House (RIP), he looked very frail, and yet oh so hip at the same time. And his playing was something else, of course. He had a pretty fine band behind him on tose nights, too -- Dwayne Clemmons (sp?) on trmupet, Lyles West on bass, can't remember the pianist and drummer, but it seems they were old associates. Be sure also to track down the FRANK MORGAN CD reissue on GNP, which tacks on 5 tracks from 1956 club date / jam session by Morgan, Jack Sheldon, Bobby Timmons, Jimmy Bond, Larance Marable and Clay And: "Incomplete Clay Discography": http://member.nifty.ne.jp/mrmanri/JamesClay/

Nice review (by Luc Sante) to be found at: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16478 Looks to be a promising read.

I place him in any unnumbered list I have of favorite piano players (a long list), easily, because, as Jim says, he is so personal a player. Hearing BLACK FIRE for the first time was, for me, a quite profound experience. I was and still am so impressed and intrigued by the complex interplay of emotions, light-and-sahde, and figures in Hill's playing. I agree too that he has often ebenfited from great rhythm accompanists: Richard Davis, Cecil McBee, Alan Silva, Roy Haynes, Elvin Jones, Joe Chambers, Freddie Waits. By the same token, it takes a very intelligent and sensitive bandleader to put together bands like that! Hill's compositional craft I hold in even higher regard, and it is pretty amazing to me that not only can this guy write this stuff, but also improvise on it. I put him in the same league as Herbie Nichols, Mal Waldron, Elmo Hope, Ran Blake... I'm not sure the "Blue Note" / RVG sound really ever did him any favors, or he became a player of much greater subtlety in the 70's. The solo recitals that became a regular practice for him in that decade reveal a much more "pianistic" player than the idiosyncratic, Monk-and-Silver-inflected abstractionist (I see Franz Kline or Philip Guston) of BLACK FIRE, JUDGMENT, SMOKESTACK, ANDREW!, etc. To assuage my own doubts about this impression, I like to A/B those early works with records like VERONA RAG, LIKE AT MONTREUX, FROM CALIFORNIA WITH LOVE and even the recent LES TRINITAIRES.

Love Geri Allen's work on that one. RoyBrooksROYBROOOKSRoyBrooks!!!

Joe Lovano plays straight tenor on at least one of his recordings...

A Bb/A piccolo rotary valve trumpet Saxes! From left to right: 1. King Manzello/Roland Kirk/Key of B Flat 2. Buescher Curved Tip Soprano / Key of B Flat 3. Buecher Straight Alto / Key of E Flat 4. Lyon and Healy Slide Sax / Key of C 5. C.G.Conn Bass Sax / Key of B Flat 6. Raffiel and Husted Slide Sax / Key of C 7. Conn O Sax / Key of F 8. King Saxello / Key of B Flat 9. Martin American Professional / Key of B Flat http://drrick.com/display.html The Lyricon: http://www.jorritdijkstra.com/thelyricon.html