Teasing the Korean

The Animals' live version of "Bo Diddley," from December 1963, runs nearly 8 minutes. It was not released until 1970 as part of the live In the Beginning album on the Wand label, but still, it should be considered in the discussion. This Animals album to me is much more interesting than Five Live Yardbirds. I wonder how it would have been received had it been released at the time.

Wow, this sucks for everyone. Either your transportation gets destroyed, or your transportation fractures your arm. Positive vibes to both of you!

Chuck, you missed a great show yesterday. Lots of O gauge. As you know, I'm an HO guy. I really cleaned up; there was a dealer who didn't know what he had. The major scores included: Tyco red-box-era PRR light-up caboose, still in box, looks unused, $5. Mantua Western Maryland derrick kit in box, small detail parts still sealed in plastic bag, $10. (On the rare occasion that one of these shows up on eBay, it goes for at least $50.) Varney Aerotrain dummy locomotive kit in box, unbuilt, $10. I would have paid $10 just for the box, with that gorgeous illustration.

Thanks! I have the Belden but am unfamiliar with the other. The bass clarinet credit is indeed a very good sign!

If nothing else, listen to that version of "Riff Blues" posted earlier.

Well, disco had taken over in a big way by late 1974, so soul music - and by extension, a lot of soul-infused jazz - traded in its introspective, minor-key, black consciousness vibe for a shake-your-booty ethos. This is why I strongly prefer pre-1975 CTI. There were other cultural changes circa 1975 also. In film, Jaws had created the paradigm for the summer blockbuster and the definition of a "successful" film. So a lot changed in Hollywood. As a Morricone freak, I will add that 1975 is when Morricone split with Bruno Nicolai. As a result, his later scores lost some of the X factor that characterized his earlier work. (There are still some post-1975 Morricone scores that I love, including Exorcist II and The Thing.) I could probably list more, but I'm on my first cup of coffee.

That makes sense. 1975 is a big cultural dividing point for me, in many spheres.

Not sure I know many, or for that matter any, of the later Strata-East albums. What years would the later albums cover?

I dunno, the Gene Russell album where he destroys "My Cherie Amour" is one I can certainly live without. Granted, it was his label, so he had the right to destroy whatever he wanted to.

More than I can count. The real reason we love music is for the cover art.

Happy Thanksgiving! Listen to the two Met singers perform a song from Showboat at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, 1976. They show up at the 45 minute mark. Listen to how out-of-control the vibratos are. This is one of the main reasons that TTK can't abide opera. Give me Beniamino Gigli any day. Happy Thanksgiving!

Mildly off-topic, but it is interesting that Bill Barber, who played tuba on the Miles/Gil Evans albums, didn't really have many other jazz credentials. He played in theatre pits and ended up teaching music in elementary schools. Interesting that someone would play on jazz albums with that level of notoriety and not do much more than that within jazz. Then again, there is not much demand for the tuba.

I always thought it was funny that another composer was sued by the Cage estate for including on an album a track with a title along the lines of "A Moment's Silence." As far as I'm concerned, the title alone differentiates it from Cage's piece, which was not at all about silence, but rather the sounds we hear when we shut up and listen.

Nina Simone - Four Women, collecting her 7 albums for Philips.

Michel Legrand - The Go-Between

I think they may be tuned bongos (boo-bams), but I'm not sure. Yeah, it sounds off though.

The bridge starts at 36 seconds, but back up a little bit so you can hear it in context.

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, with this badass tune:

Lately I have been obsessed with Esquivel's version of "So Rare." It is very restrained by Esquivel standards. Take three minutes out of your life and check it out.

Thank you! I knew I'd heard this!

I was fortunate recently to find a CD of the 1970 version of I Am Sitting in a Room for only $2.99. The kind of music that demands your undivided attention.

Did someone record a version of "Nutty" with lyrics, or am I misremembering?

Well, people write all kinds of naive, romantic horseshit about music all the time - not just spiritual jazz. These kinds of statements demonstrate how little people understand about art and how it is made.

Bingo.

God forbid that a subgenre of jazz becomes cool or hip. Jazz fans complain that no one likes jazz, and then they complain when people start to like it. The mind boggles...