Teasing the Korean

Ramsey Lewis - The In Crowd and Wade in the Water

Erroll Garner - Concert by the Sea Dave Brubeck - Time Out Getz & Gilberto Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd - Jazz Samba

I spin lots of exotica in the summertime, and our cats love the bird sounds! I also have jungle sound effects on a loop in our tiki room, and they love that!

Our cat will sit right in front of the speaker for music she likes. I was once spinning Bernard Herrmann's score to White Witch Doctor, and she instantly ran up!

I was getting ready for bed, brushing my teeth, and Alexa for some reason started playing "Rock 'n' Roll Woman" by Buffalo Springfield. At about this time, our Siamese cat Pyewacket wandered into the hall and was just sitting there, looking bored and mildly annoyed. I was watching her while the song was playing, and I realized how ridiculous the song sounded when juxtaposed against the image of our cat. She may have been enjoying the (minimal) chord progression and the harmony vocals, but I could tell she thought the lyrics were incredibly stupid. (She's right.) I then asked Ms. TTK if our Siamese cat was a rock 'n' roll woman, and laughing, she exclaimed "No!" This then got me to wondering why any of us would want to listen to music that a cat wouldn’t like, or or at the very least, that would not pair well with the image of a lounging cat. The mind boggles. I should add that I am currently listening to the Gil Evans Pacific Jazz twofer CD, and Pyewacket seems to be enjoying it.

Did not know that! Gotcha.

Like Jimmy Smith's man-crush on Alain Delon!

OK. I didn't know if the name was technically pronounced "jool" and "Julie" was a nickname. But that makes sense. Like guys named Angelo who go by Angie.

Didn't Frank call him Julie?

Thanks for clarifying. I knew there was a famous relative!

I don't know much about him, or what he did later. I think I have him on an Anita O'Day record also.

I became aware of Bregman through the Ella Fitzgerald Cole Porter and Rodgers & Hart Songbooks. I instantly thought the arrangements were subpar. The best are serviceable, and the worst sound dated and old-fashioned. I don't think Bregman had a very good harmonic instinct. I found out only later that he was a relative of Norman Granz. Having friends and relatives in high places always helps. To this day, those are my two least favorite Ella Songbook albums, and that's too bad, because they are among my favorite songwriters of that crowd.

My Dad told me a story ages ago about a conductor - not sure if he was classical or pop - who had a live radio show and was rumored to be a real bastard. One night on his live show, they pranked him. The clock was set ahead five minutes, and when the conductor gave the downbeat, the orchestra just sat there and did nothing. Silence. Apparently, the conductor turned pale, and they then told him that it was a joke. Anyone know the story I'm referring to?

I don't think CTI overshadows Taylor's work at Verve. Possibly impulse!, as he was involved for only a short time, and also ABC Paramount, because no one remembers that label anymore. So let's all enjoy a track from Lonelyville.

Several years back, I e-mailed discographer Doug Payne and asked him about the color prints of the Pete Turner CTI album covers that were hyped on the inner sleeves of CTI LPs. The price of these went from $19.50 on the earlier CTI albums to IIRC $1.50 on the later ones. I told Doug that I had never, ever stumbled upon one of these prints in the wild, at any price, and asked him what the story was. Doug replied that he never saw one either, and that when he interviewed Taylor, he claimed to have a storage unit full of them.

In the late 1990s, those early-70s CTI albums felt very contemporary, and many of those tracks fit in so well with the downtempo electronica that seemed to be everywhere. I remember many late nights putting on Hubert Laws' version of "Fire and Rain." It felt like a current track.

Thanks! You made it much easier for me to buy nearly all of those albums for a buck a throw!

1960s Verve albums are essential to understanding - and partaking in - the international jet set aesthetic. "Bloating" the backgrounds is precisely what drew many of us to CTI albums. Without the backgrounds, those albums become run-of-the-mill quasi-jazz records. The backgrounds made them something special, conveying that delirious, introspective early-70s post-Jesus Christ Superstar ethos of ecology and solar energy.

Through Verve Records, Creed Taylor probably did more to create the 1960s international jet set aesthetic than any other single artist. And let's not forget his role in the career of Thee Great Kenyon Hopkins, particular with regard to The Sound of New York, Lonelyville, and the trilogy of Shock, Panic, and Nightmare. RIP.

Looks like this was an internet hoax, or, more accurately, an exaggeration of something taken out of context. https://www.world-today-news.com/how-and-why-alain-delon-fell-victim-to-rumors-of-euthanasia/

Same key as Herb Alpert's vocal version!

File under: Things you never expected to hear.

It's like wine. Most of us can taste the difference between an $8 bottle and a $25 bottle, but many of us may not be able to taste the difference between, say, a $50 bottle and a $100 bottle.

At least one Zoom meeting per day.