Teasing the Korean

Thanks. I'm always interested in how people navigate certain life details such as this. I had been in some long-term relationships with people whom I did not have much in common with, and at a certain point, I decided that I wanted certain things in common, or I would end up single. My wife and I share probably 90% of our respective interests. I realize that this is probably an exception.

Interesting. I'm trying to imagine how that would play out.

Does your wife not listen to jazz with you?

Medical is legal where I live, and you don't have to jump through any hoops to get a card. People are smoking weed on the street all the time. At least we don't get freaked out by the smell of skunk anymore. We all just assume it's weed now. While I am not a fan of smoke, I think that edibles are a reasonable and realistic alternative to drinking. I know drinkers who alternate alcohol with edibles on different days, to save themselves the calories.

Ms. TTK is having to work today, it is now summer, so I am mixing rum cocktails and spinning exotica. Here is my playlist: Phil Moore - Polynesian Paradise - Strand (stereo) John McFarland - Provocatif - UA (stereo)

All of which makes sense. I will put that bio on my reading list.

Still, if you're an arranger under contract, you deliver what the job requires. I love Gil Evans, but he apparently was not very adaptable.

I wonder why.

I would like to think he gave us a free round, but I woke up at that point.

I dreamed I was listening to a piano player in a bar. There was a grand piano. Imagine that - a bar that actually has a grand piano. He was playing a tune in a minor key, and when the tune was over, after he hit the final chord, I jumped up and exclaimed, "That is my favorite voicing of a minor chord to end a tune!" The voicing in question, top to bottom, goes like this: root, 11th, 7th, 3rd, 9th, 5th.

It was just a bad idea. Last night, Ms. TTK and I spun Astrud's Windy and September 17, 1969 LPs and we both picked up on a strong Claudine vibe, in terms of material, arrangements, and even Astrud's singing, which seemed at times to be mimicking Claudine.

This is as good a place as any to say that Astrud with Gil Evans is probably one of the odder, and not in a good way, vocalist/arranger pairings I've heard. It is probably my least played Astrud album. I will also add here that my LP copy of The Shadow of Your Smile, which has the usual 11 tracks, shows a 12th track on the label that is not on the LP, nor listed on the cover. It is Quincy Jones's theme from The Pawnbroker. It is listed as the 5th track on side 2, between "Tristeza" and "Funny World." I suppose it was yanked at the last minute, after some labels had been printed. The melody may have been challenging for Astrud, but that's just a guess on my part.

Jandek?

Is this a complete, more or less, listing of 1950s-60s TV shows focused on jazz? Anything important missing? Frankly Jazz Jazz 625 Jazz Casual Jazz Party Jazz Scene USA The Sound of Jazz Stars of Jazz The Subject is Jazz

Well, if you play Astrud's version of "Beginnings," you get Chicago and Brazil in one (lengthy) track!

Not so much our tastes, but maybe our categorization methodologies. The ways in which we interact with our accumulations also are worth considering. I know people who file everything A-Z by artist, with no genre differentiators. I could never do that.

I consider her a 1960s international jet set singer, like Claudine Longet. I never think to spin her records if I am in a Brazilian bag, except for maybe the Verve solo debut. C'est la vie.

What makes a singer a Brazilian singer? Being born in Brazil? Singing Bossa, samba, MPB, or tropicalia? Singing in Portuguese? Singing with Brazilian musicians? Consistently conveying the inherent sadness that you find in Bossa? Of course Astrud will always be thought of as a Brazilian singer. Her signature tune, after all, is "The Girl from Ipanema," and she is on the Meet the Beatles of Brazilian Invasion LPs. When the 1990s Bossa revival occurred in the US, it was her earlier Brazilian-flavored tracks that were reissued, and not stuff like "Windy" or "Beginnings." But as someone who owns her entire Verve catalog, and many of the albums that came afterward, I can attest to the fact that Astrud by no means stayed in a Brazilian bag. What she did and how she is perceived are too different things. And I love her singing, whether she is or is not in a Brazilian bag. The only tune I skip is the kitsch track with the kid singing.

The best thing about legalized weed is that we are not freaked out my skunks anymore. We just assume a skunk is weed.

Agreed. Astrud was to Verve what Claudine Longet was to A&M - an alluring, somewhat mysterious female singer doing the 1960s International Jet Set songbook, consisting of tunes by Jobim, Legrand, Mancini, Bacharach, Morrricone, Jimmy Webb, Tony Hatch, and Lennon/McCartney. Her last 3 Verve albums have minimal Brazilian content. The choice was either Astrud's, or that of Verve's A&R department.

Do you know anything about her time in Philly?

RIP. I love her. Her version of Chicago's "Beginnings" is definitive.

Tony! That you?

It was digitized at some point, but I can't find it.

Did anyone hear this? Can't remember who did the interview or where it originally aired. Apparently, things got off to a bad start before the interview even started, and Tony just let the guy squirm by answering "yes," "no," or other monosyllabic responses.