Joe

I would second Hod O'Brien. Jack Reilly. Almost the "Andrew White of piano players," in that nearly his entire discography consists of self-released / private press recordings on his Unichrom label. As his website suggests, his chief influences are Bill Evans and Dave Brubeck; fire and ice or oil and water, maybe, but he's a pianist possessed of a deep harmonic intelligence and compositional imagination. http://www.jackreillyjazz.com/

Another vote for Tim Berne. Also: Vijay Iyer, Mary Halvorson, Matt Bauder, Ellery Eskelin and Henry Threadgill.

John Mehegan. Interesting career; I was aware of his role in "Streetcar Named Desire" but not aware of the HUAC connection (further research required). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mehegan http://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/05/obituaries/john-mehegan-jazz-pianist-wrote-4-volume-textbook.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jgamzc6eIrY

Mingus really chewed through pianists in the 50s didn't he? Not sure if he is still alive and / or playing, but I could swear he did a long CADENCE interview in the past decade. Also, this looks like it merits further investigation: http://www.folkways.si.edu/nadi-qamar/mama-likembi-instruction-record-thumb-piano/islamica-music-instruction/album/smithsonian EDIT: Like! http://www.facebook.com/NadiQamarSpauldingGivensOfficialPage And this recent release on what I presume to be Qamar's private label: http://www.worldcat.org/title/from-spaulding-givens-to-nadi-qamar/oclc/741515919

Nico Bunink, perhaps most famous here for his brief stint with Charles Mingus. http://en.muziekencyclopedie.nl/action/entry/Nico+Bunink Choice quote: "In an interview with Dutch jazz magazine Jazz Nu the pianist says that he considers Mingus's timing to be somewhat rigid, even like 'the German army'. The best rhythm section he ever played with, so he says in the same interview, consisted of bassist Percy Heath and drummer Connie Kay."

Paul Knopf, The Outcat. Sort of Third Stream, but in a very Ran Blake way (though Knopf was on the scene prior to Blake's arrival). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t31cIlmVeco http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/paulknopf

Interesting to see how much traction this story has gotten in The Media. Seems to me that Spirit's legal advisors are leaning heavily on the circumstantial evidence here: the touring together, the theremin thing, the previous borrowings of "Fresh Garbage" etc. Such evidence makes for a good story, but I wonder how much of a factor it would actually play in court proceedings. My gues is little to none (would it even be admissible?). Then again, John Fogerty was once tried for basically plagiarizing himself (he both won and lost)... http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/jul/11/artsfeatures3 Jimmy Page didn't get rich by being scrupulously naive as to how the music biz works. Before Zeppelin was even a band, he made sure to get his publishing figured out (Superhype Music); he understood the value of having a Peter Grant as his manager; he is the Led Wallet. As much as I love and admire Spirit's music, they and Lou Adler made some poor choices the consequences of which always seem to become compounded by bad luck. Turning down an invitation to perform at Woodstock; "1984" being, for all intents and purposes, suppressed; simply being from LA in the ROLLING STONE "everything from LA is plastic and yucky" era, etc. All said, I'd much rather Randy California be remembered for his prodigal guitar playing -- what a tone! Josh Homme from Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age seems to be one of the few contemporary guitarists to understand the power of Randy's idiosyncratic use of the fuzz box -- and his final act of heroism than the plaintiff in this case.

There's also this fine release: http://www.worldcat.org/title/string-quartet-no-1-1947/oclc/15507931 Note the series heading here.

Only boots. But just about every Zeppelin show can be had via taper trees and such. PS - Jay Ferguson did indeed pen the theme music to the American version of THE OFFICE. He has also written for one of the NCIS franchises. But in rockier times... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KoqgALsa_I Joe Walsh handled the guitar solo on the studio version.

Ask Jake Holmes.

Smart, regardless of how much this is "really Sonny" or his management (?). Either way, Sonny Rollins is rapidly building a social media empire. At 83 (nearly 84) years of age. He just needs to do a Reddit AMA next... assuming he hasn't.

RIP indeed. What a wonderful musician; about as tasteful -- but never over-polite -- a trumpet player as I can ever recall hearing. His Savoy record (with that amazing version of "Cherokee" is justly celebrated, but later recordings for the Evening Star label are absolutely worth checking out. http://www.lpb.com/eveningstar/index.htm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgnJdgjGvL0

The DVD for the aforementioned McFarland documentary seems to be on the horizon. http://thisisgarymcfarland.com/Gary-McFarland_film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he2VGXRgI6U

Also fun to browse Sonny's bookshelves... I noticed copies of (I think) Dance's WORLD OF EARL HINES and Chilton's SONG OF THE HAWK.

I watched / listened in its entirety. Not sure if this was 100% engineered or a matter of self-selection (how many older folks in the "jazz fan" demographic ore really tuning into Google Hangouts on a regular basis), but most of the questions for Sonny came from young people... I mean, young musicians averaging 15 years of age. Not that they had bad questions; not at all. Just sort of surprising. But a real kick to see Sonny interacting with actual kids. Probably the most interesting question-as-question came from a tap dancer who wanted Sonny's thoughts on the relationship between his medium / metier and jazz (a word I feel comfortable using here because Sonny used it consistently in his responses). Sonny dropped some wisdom, of course, preaching practice, patience (in life, not just on the bandstand), advocating for universal musical education. He dished out a few anecdotes, too... I'd never heard him talk about Lockjaw Davis before... I wouldn't call it essential viewing, no. But how often do you get to spend an hour just hanging out with Sonny Rollins?

One of those guys who always played with a lot of character, regardless of the setting / circumstances or whichever instrument he happened to be playing. Most fond of his baritone sax work... but his solos on this record are uniformly "Whoa? Who? What?" in tone, phrasing (such snap!) and conception. Shihab was not one to keep slow company, either.

I'd like to ask him about the conception and recording of FREEDOM SUITE and if there's not some way we might ensure that he lives forever.

Share some virtual time with Newk! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_BJktYamh4 http://news.allaboutjazz.com/sonny-rollins-meets-his-fans-google-hangout-session-set-for-may-5-at-1200-noon-edt.php

OMG, how could I have forgotten this one... Wonderful stuff, and really fascinating listening in the context of Giuffre's Pena / Atlas and Hall trios.

In a similar vein, Zo-Ko-Ma: http://www.discogs.com/Attila-Zoller-Lee-Konitz-Albert-Mangelsdorff-Zo-Ko-Ma/release/1860151 Zo-Ko-Ma is a great record but there is the fact of Stu Martin's drumming that would probably keep it out of contention for the OP... There's also this "in a similar vein" date:

Also, the Anthony Davis / Abdul Wadud / James Newton trio.

Glenn Ferris' trios on Enja: trombone, cello and bass.

Will look for that Saft / Pride / Morris disc as well. Still rather taken with Saft's playing on Chris Speed's IFFY. Not sure why this date is not better known. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LJxnU4bazQ