gmonahan

One of my very favorites!

I'm still working on that.... gregmo

Just showed on TCM. Fun little movie! Great special effect with they smash the nasty alien and he goes up in a puff of smoke! gregmo

Thanks for the response! gregmo

I just finished watching this too, and I agree completely. I thought it was outstanding. gregmo

The single review of this on Amazon says there's lots of distortion, and the sound sucks. Curious as to whether you agree?? gregmo

I just finished that one. Well worth a read, and he does a nice job of disentangling the legend of her death. From the same era, I'd recommend the autobiography attributed to Sidney Bechet, _Treat it Gentle_. It's a good read. Aside from that and several of the other suggestions made here, if you're at all interested in a biography of someone associated *with* the music, I liked Tad Hershorn's recent _Norman Granz: The Man Who Used Jazz For Justice_. gregmo

Well, *I* was all wet on that one!! Just shows that sometimes one sees what one *expects* to see, doesn't it?! gregmo

Me too!! gregmo

Making a little space, are we, there, Lon?! gregmo

"Blazing Saddles" was released in 1974, which means this scene was probably shot sometime in 1973? Basie didn't do much recording that year (he'd started with Pablo the year before, mostly doing small groups), but my guess would be Bobby Plater and Curtis Peagler on altos, Eric Dixon and Lockjaw on tenor, and John C. Williams on Bari. That's probably Norman Keenan on bass. As for the drummer, Sonny Payne was drumming for him in 1973, but that looks to me like Harold Jones. And that should be Freddie Green on guitar rather than KB. Looks to me like it might be Freddie. The brass section changed a lot during that period, but I imagine Sonny Cohn is on trumpet, and Al Grey could be sitting in the trombone section. gregmo

After a recent thread on the Board, listening to this one:

I looked at a bunch of it, and "minutia" doesn't even begin to describe it! It is perfectly titled: "New Research on...." And, based on what I've seen, it is also a good example of the kind of work for which self-publishing with Amazon is a good format, because I can't imagine any publisher spending the money to do it. In essence, what it constitutes is not an analytical biography at all, but rather, all of his notes for *writing* a biography. I am not dismissing it at all, by the way. In fact, I think it would be a very important source for a new biography of Miles, but exhaustive discussions about things like the *exact* building in which he lived and exactly where Bird lived in relation to him are a classic example of losing the forest for the trees. gregmo

disc one

Thanks for the run-down on it. I'll have a look. gregmo

That's right, they were done for Commodore. In my cursory look, I thought it said "Columbia." Pays to look closer! I've never read Feather's autobiography. Is it worth a read? gregmo

My pleasure! Good luck on an intimidating project! gregmo

Fremeaux reissued a bunch of the Esquire 40s sessions on its 2-cd "Summit Meetings" set (dominated by the Metronome All Stars recordings). I don't have the old RCA cd "Esquire's All-American Hot Jazz Sessions," so I don't know if they all duplicate or not there. I do have the old RCA Vintage LP, and it did not have the 1943 recordings by "Coleman Hawkins with Leonard Feather's Esquire All Stars" that are included on the Fremeaux set. Feather appears to have organized most of the Esquire sessions in the mid-40s until the blow-up over the Condon business in 1947. Tad Hershorn offers a fairly concise summary of that in his (very good) biography of Norman Granz on pp. 101-102. . gregmo

Ditto. Very nice piece! Luckily, we have no shortage of great recordings of them together! gregmo

I like the Swintons just fine, but I found the movie aimless and without any coherence. [Spoilers ahead!] Why on earth was she attracted to this guy? And what did the film she was supposed to be making have to do with the relationship? The classroom scenes and scenes with classmates didn't seem to fit with anything else, and the mother's monologue at the end in the film within a film mystified me. None of the film within a film seemed autobiographical to the relationship between her and her mother, of which we got very little (I thought the great Tilda Swinton was entirely wasted here.) And now someone is talking about a sequel?? To what?! I'd love to see these two women (the Swintons) in a good movie in which they really interact with each other! gregmo

Nice writing on that one, as usual, Larry. Did you ever see Cohn and oft-partner Zoot Sims live? I would have liked to have seen that duo! gregmo

I saw Souvenir yesterday. Have to admit I really didn't like it at all. gregmo