Shrdlu

Big eyes!! Unlike Bev, they were not before my time. I had the original "At The Drop of a Hat" LP, recorded, as Michael said, "for posterity" in stereo. "With the tone control / At a single touch / Puccini sounds like double Dutch / But I never did care for music much / It's the High Fidelitee / Lol.

Funny, I just played "Round Midnight" for the lads who hang out at my place. They were on their laptops, pretending not to be listening, but every now and then they would imitate some of the lines in the movie, and hum along with the tunes. One of them asked who the tall black guy was.

I hope these new 24-bit wonders don't sound like the terrible German 20-bit OJCs. Meanwhile, the original Original Jazz Classics sound great to me. Ain't no way I'm going to try to replace any of them, not to mention all the original box sets.

Hi, Daxie! I didn't mean that you are timid. I think you are thinking of Bach's "Well Tempered Klavier" series, though maybe old Ludwig van also did that. When Bach did it, they had just developed the modern piano, with three strings for most notes, and tuned so that it was slightly "off" in all keys, but still very playable. Its predecessor, the harpsichord (as well as sounding shit), has to be tuned for each new key, or it sounds as sour as a lemon. So, Mr Bach wrote a series of exercises in every major and minor key. As well as being exercises, they sound good too. Other lovely works by JSB are his "Brandenburg Concertos". I think there are five of them. They can get very addictive.

Most teens and early 20s that I know are very timid, and are glued to their laptops and Wiis at home or their mates' places. About three months ago, I finally persuaded four lads, average age 20, to go clubbing with me. They are my son's mates. (I usually go on my own, because everyone I know hems and haws and won't go out.) We all went downtown in my car. When we all arrived at the club, they weren't quite ready for us to go in, so I went into the watering hole next door, to get warm (it was a cold, rainy night). There was also some electro house in there. The lads all vanished while my back was turned, and an hour later I got a txt saying that they had gone home in a taxi. Arrgggh! It was a great evening at the club, and they missed out on a treat.

I slam my cabinet doors. Because my dishes talk smack to me. They taunt me. But I get the last word, by slamming the effin doors. Neighbors be damned. Deal with it, MFs. I just love that!! I live next to a couple who are the worst people I have ever met. (I haven't met many people I didn't like or didn't like me, and I can get on with just about anybody, anywhere.) When they moved in, I tried my best to be nice to them, got them gifts and so on, but they wouldn't let me be nice to them, so I gave up. All they ever do is gripe. They have even physically assaulted me and a mate of my son's. Just last night, I put on "Unaaaaaaaa Mas", at a moderate volume, at about 8:30 pm, and immediately they were pounding on the wall. I've had a letter from the City, citing "noise from music, musical instrument, and dog". There is hardly any noise at all. They do a lot of kitchen cupboard door slamming, lol. Riverside, Motherfucker! Let's go! Man, who would want to fuck her?

Spot on, Bev! I've toiled through a lot of stuff that one is supposed to like, over the years. Bottom line, go for what sounds good to you. That comment, Bev, applies to all of life, including one's personal relationships. A very profound, yet simple observation. Sadly, most teens and 20s are not confident enough to follow it.

As soon as I saw the thread title, I thought, here come the sandbaggers. Sure enough ....

"Facebook privacy" is a contradiction in terms, and that's why I'm not on the wretched thing. Sounds like you feel the same way, Moose, lol.

You can't really go wrong with Gerry. It's all good, from his arrangements for Claude Thornhill onward. I love the Concert Jazz Band material, and I have all of it: the Verves and the live concerts at Newport, Paris and some place in der Schweiz. (Aside: check out "Broadway", from the Paris concert [misnamed "Moten Swing"], where Willie Dennis plays an amazing trombone solo!) I like all of the Limelight LPs. (I don't think any of these made it onto CD, although the Japanese probably snuck in some for the usual 6 months.) There, you will hear Gerry on clarinet (in the Pres manner) and even the alto. "Feelin' Good" is an especially lovely album; my copy, off of eBay, is very crackly and I'd love a clean copy of that. Thanks for the tip about the "Night Lights" CD, Late. I've heard the LP, but never had my own copy. It's very hard to find a decent copy of the original. I just had a look at that CD. The clarinet track is taken from the Limelight "Feelin' Good" LP. It is a wonderful performance.

This reminds me of a time when I was in London, England, and got a copy of a magazine called "Time Out" to see what jazz was on offer. There's never been much jazz there, but Ronnie's always had the top names - often booked as a single backed up by a local rhythm section (always very good when I saw them). The magazine said that Zoot was booked in, and that "he was always good after he had had a few". He was, too, as expected. I saw him once, and then took some relatives back with me to hear him again. He certainly did have a few, and my cousin remarked on his skin pallor, which was kinda green. His tenor (a mk VI Selmer) was all worn - hardly any lacquer left on it - but when you are Zoot, putting out such gorgeous sounds, you can get away with that. That was in 1974, by the way. The addition of soprano was a surprise to me; he didn't go for a Trane sound on it, but sounded like Zoot an octave higher. It was lovely. I can't really think of a sax player who I'd rather hear live than good old Zoot.

.... cos they are a bunch of fucking racists ... (the world's worst).

Fish and chips is such a great meal. Almost enough to earn forgiveness for the rest of England's culinary contributions... Almost ...

The Buck Clayton Columbia Jam Session set. It has the original Basie rhythm section, 'nuff said. I got my set about a day after it went OOP, and disk 3 or 4 was missing. A mate did a CDr of the missing disk, though it didn't have any of the best sessions on it anyhow, and I never play it. (Don't tell Interpol, lol, though how on earth could I hear it without a CDr?? Achtung! Die Gestapo kommen!)

All of those BN sessions that Andrew did with Richard Davis are fabulous. There is lots of variety in instrumentation too. You can't go wrong. Richard was very important to these sessions; no other bassist could possibly have helped more. The later BN stuff is rather a bore to me, except the funky album, "Grass Roots" with the picture of some kids playing in a park on the cover. I have never heard a note of Andrew's post-BN work. Where could I??

Aww, so glad you are a lot better, Jim. I'm sorry to hear about all the suffering. My late wife had lots of allergies, perhaps because she was born at 7 months. Tons of common things, like wheat, dust, pork, live rabbits, some nuts. My daughter inherited a lot of these, and added all nuts and cats to the list. I do find that nearly all shampoos give me a terrible itch for days. Even the pH balnced ones. Never been able to solve that properly. I don't think it would be a dye, because there are so many colors of shampoo.

This is like Stan Laurel and James Finlayson! Can anyone catch the thread?

I'm a (b), in that my Dad had a lot of jazz 78s and he let me play them whenever I liked when I was only 4. I was listening then - there was no later "listening time". There was a teensy bit of jazz on the radio (comme toujours), played by knowledgeable people, but I also had an uncle who knew a lot about jazz, and the lad next door was 5 years older; he used to get lent jazz LPs, and he brought them around for me to hear. These all helped. When I was 13 and up, I could go to record stores and, occasionally, buy an LP. There were always lots of jazz LPs in the bins. After the 78s, it was Brubeck and Desmond, bigtime, because everyone was playing it and I heard it a lot. Then, thanks to my neighbor, Trane at the Vanguard, "The Cannonball Adderley Sextet in New York" and so on. That was fantastic. A guy at a record store was talking about Charlie Parker, so I bought a budget LP (a bad reissue of Bird's Dial stuff) and was shattered. I got everything by Bird I could get. Playing alto by then, I was soon doing Bird licks. It just took over! During this time, jazz LPs by all sorts of guys. Whatever sounded good, and there was lots of it. The original Blue Note, Impulse, Prestige and other LPs were flooding out at that time. You couldn't keep up with all of it. I guess that forced me to be more selective in what I bought. I might want to hear Ellington in 1942, but there was the new Miles out. I concentrated on mainly hard bop, and I've never regretted that. I like many other eras, and the CD reissue flood has helped us all to catch up on everything. But you can't beat something like the Art Blakey Sextet, with Freddie or Lee, Curtis and Wayne.

Bass clarinet?

That's a lovely post, Reppy! I really enjoyed reading it, and the many names brought back a lot of memories. My pianist buddy, Stan Jones (who used to play at the old Ronnie's) told me that when Bill Evans played there, Ronnie said "A few months with Joe Loss would do him a power of good."

Bill, if you want to call, I will translate the notes for you. Years ago, when I was in South Africa, my buddies were big Bill Evans fans (and why not?). The Verve "At Montreux" LP had just come out (a very nice album, with Jack de Johnette on drums), and our drummer came up and said "What does the (Swiss French) announcer say at the start?", with a frustrated look on his face. So we stuck it on again, and the bit he didn't like was "Tous deux sont les partenaires (du pianist Beel Evans!)". Lotsa fun. [i don't think he said "Tous les deux", but I'd have to dig it out to find out.] What does that mean, by the way, lol. Added: Ooh, Jim, your italics aren't working today.

Woody was pretty trivial.

I'm with Lon. I just enjoyed the concert. I think my copy is the Schaap one, but I can't be bothered to go look. I don't plan to listen to it again in the near future. If there are sonic problems, I am blissfully unaware of them. Boy, I'm glad I'm not Phil Schaap, or Orrin Keepnews or Leonard Feather. I've never met any of them, so yes, I don't know the whole story, but I don't really want to know. Can't they be forgiven for their weapons of mass destruction? All I have are lots of nice memories of getting LPs and feeling good that Leonard had written the notes (always very good, too); buying a Riverside LP and seeing Orrin's name on there, and, much more recently getting some Columbia CD reissues that Phil had done (including the Miles and Gil, I think).

Interesting about the Jimmy Smith, you guys, because during the mid 60s I found a used copy of "Back To The Chicken Shack". Its cover was badly water-damaged, but it was only $3.00, so I took a chance on it. Well, the disk was mint, and what a wonderful album! It's Smith's best ever, I think, having since heard all the Blue Notes and a lot of the Verves. (For my money (and it was only $3.00, lol), it's way ahead of "The Sermon", because it is much more focussed, having only two soloists apart from Jimmy. "The Sermon", I think, goes on way too long, and the solos by Tina Brooks and Lou Donaldson are boring. It's good at the start, as the first two solos are by Smith and Kenny Burell; I stop it at that point usually.)

Hi, Teach! My journey started when I was about 4. My Dad had 78s of Fats Waller, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman's Quartet, Sinatra and others. He didn't mind me playing them on our clockwork phonograph. I also had a hip uncle who had some primo stuff. Then, I got into Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond. Then, wow, I got a cheap LP with Bird, which led to about 20 more LPs. I was also blessed with an older lad next door who used to borrow LPs from his mates and pass them on to me - notably Trane's "Live at the Village Vanguard". My first two LPs were "The Music from Peter Gunn" and "Southern Scene", by Dave Brubeck, albums that I still love. Lol, I didn't like Trane's sound at first, and on the Miles albums I couldn't wait for Trane's solos to end so that I could hear Cannonball. (Adderley's intonation was a lot better than Miles' or Trane's - Miles went a bit sharp at times on some of the low notes, and Trane often sounded a fraction sharp.) The late 60s were horrible years politically, but they were a real golden era for jazz collectors. I had a current Blue Note catalog ("For free catalog write to ..." and I did) and I used to order Prestige LPs through the mail direct from Marcia Weinstock.