Teasing the Korean

It says he's gaining weight for a 3 Stooges Movie, but it looks like he could play Bill Evans during the leisure suit years: http://movies.yahoo.com/news/usmovies.acce...e-three-stooges

What is the focus of this set? I didn't see a description. I have so much Coltrane already, most on vinyl. Please advise.

I think our comrade who started the thread is really looking for West Coast things that are "representative of that style." It sounds like he has lots of hard bop already. While there are some hard-bopping West Coasters who challenge the stereotype, I'm not sure that's really what he's seeking. Still, lots of good suggestions so far.

So does the Doggett book read like a novel and let you meet the Beatles as PEOPLE? One reason I've never finished a Beatles book is that authors seem so obsessive - they want to tell you who drank their tea with milk as opposed to lemon, and constantly remind you how important and great they are. They give you these laundry lists of details about who played tambourine on which track, but by the last page the four guys seem every bit as distant and impenetrable as ever. Does the book I want exist, and is it the Doggett book?

Is this the same Bobby Scott who ghost-arranged for Q and composed and arranged the album "The City" that came out under the name of one of the Elgarts?

I've got that one somewhere on a UK London LP. That would be the original British issue? I bought it on Affinity in 1989 with a sleeve note by Brian Priestley. Yes Bill - It's the 50s issue. Flimsy type sleeve and red deep-groove London label. I remember it, but never owned it. (In those days you often got to know albums by borrowing them from friends - many jazz listeners, but with little disposable income at a time when records were comparatively very expensive.) There were TWO I Want to Live albums, BTW; The Johnny Mandel album and the companion album by Gerry Mulligan. They are both on the CD. There is an overlap of thematic material between the two but the arrangements and performances are different.

That is correct, although frankly I think the Short Stops collection works better without the Count album. I cannot recommend the Johnny Mandel/Gerry Mulligan "I Want to Live" highly enough.

Here are three of my favorites, all on CD: Shorty Rogers - SR and his Giants/ Cool and Crazy/The Wild One (two ten-inch albums and an EP combined onto CD "Short Stops"). Gerry Mulligan and Johnny Mandel - I Want to Live! (Both albums combined onto one CD). Shelly Manne plays Peter Gunn

What is this?

You're right, but there are express trains. Bill Evans was an express train for me. Maybe not for everyone, but for me.

I'm not prepared to type a dissertation, but I can promise you: When I was a teenager, I loved but didn't fully understand what players like Herbie and McCoy were doing. Around the same time, I listened obsessively to "Kind of Blue" and "Sunday at the Village Vanguard." That experience opened doors for me.

I feel that Russell is recognized more as an arranger than a pianist - from my perspective. I haven't heard everything, and you may be right.

As a piano player, I can truthfully say that from a harmonic standpoint, Evans opened more doors for me that any other jazz pianist, before or after.

Do you seriously believe that? I think that Bill Evans, more than probably any single pianist, stands as a pivotal figure between the bop and post-bop players and the modal and more experimental players of the 60s, who I referenced previously. EDIT: I should add that my opinion on this is hardly unusual, from what I've read. My ears concur.

Ten years in music is huge.

Well, I'm not claiming to be an expert, but I am a piano player and I have transcribed and analyzed chord voicings and solo styles of a number of pianists. I can definitely see a similarity between Evans's harmonic approach and that of the next generation, including Herbie. I believe HH said in an interview - I can't site when or where right now - that arrangers such as Nelson Riddle helped to inform his harmonic conception. If that is true, I can certainly see how Evans would have done the same. That aside, I am willing to bet that when "Kind of Blue" was released, HH, CC, KJ and McC T all were listening to what BE was doing on that record. I believe that Bill Evans's approach overall pointed to a new direction that he himself might not have followed, being that he stuck primarily to the standard 32 bar, AABA standard approach. I think that Evans is an interesting, pivotal figure in that regard. Again, I don't claim to be an expert, and others may agree or disagree.

Yes, but they're much easier to do now. You can easily assemble a master take of a track digitally using bits and pieces of things. My point was digital technology allows you to obsess to a whole new level.

Consumer-grade digital audio programs today have functions that are light years beyond those of top shelf analog equipment back then. Nowadays, musicians obsess over every little detail, using auto-tune, punch-ins, etc. In the 60s, they didn't even bother tuning their instruments before they rolled tape. And I love those records for that very reason. "I Got You" by James Brown is totally out of tune. The horns, guitar, and bass don't match up. Paul's voice cracks in "She's a Woman." Things were so much more real back then.

Did you ever notice on "You're Gonna Lose That Girl" how flat the opening vocals are in relation to the piano underneath?

IIRC, they felt like they copied their sound in a superficial manner. Harrison was apparently unhappy that they did "If I Needed Someone." The Hollies' producer, Ron Richards, formed a production company with George Martin beginning in 1965. EMI could have told GM to take a hike, but they allowed him to continue to produce the Beatles. The Beatles may have felt that, through this partnership, RR was glomming onto what GM was doing and applying it to Hollies' recordings. Correct me if I'm wrong on any of these details.

"Softness" should have become a standard. It is such a beautiful tune.

I can't understand a single word of "Long Cool Woman" beyond like the first line. Is it the reverb or bad enunciation? Is that still Allan Clarke or was that during the period when he split?

Many years ago, after college and in need of an adventure, I moved to a strange city where I knew virtually no one and brought very few belongings. I had left most of my albums at my Dad's place. The only jazz album I had with me - accidentally - was a 70s twofer of two early RW albums, "Trio and Solo" and "With These Hands." I unexpectedly found myself playing it nonstop. Many years later, I was living in Beantown, and went to a performance/lecture RW presented for a class at Harvard. Just him at a piano in a classroom of about 40 students. I got the impression that many of them had no idea who he was. His solo playing was riveting. Over the years, I've accumulated a decent number of his albums from between the 50s and 70s. I had one of his more recent albums (i.e. last ten years) on CD, can't remember the title, but found it less interesting than the earlier stuff. It seemed much more straight-ahead and lacked the edge of his earlier stuff. Maybe there are other recent albums by him that are better.

These are good points, Bev. The notion of why we like anything is very complex. I understand your point about nostalgia, but I still believe that in its purest form, nostalgia involves longing for one's own past, rather than longing for an abstraction of a general period.

I can't speak for Chuck, but when I said that "I've moved on," I was stating it as simply a fact, and added that "I'm not knocking the Beatles." Different music has spoken to me at different times in my life. I simply don't feel an obligation to continue to listening to something that no longer speaks to me. That's all.