medjuck

I agree, but it is complicated. I think there was an accepted attitude about blacks that even the most sympathetic whites let creep into their way of thinking. And we shouldn't think we're so sophisticated that we would have been wiser. Some of this was discussed in the thread about Johnny Mercer and racism. A few "probes" as Marshall McLuhan used to call them: Isn't Hoagy Carmichael sort of doing a black dialect when he writes and sings "Lazy Bones"? Apparently most black listeners didn't know Amos & Andy were played by white men until the film Check & Double Check was released. (And that movie is really weird-- white men in blackface intercut with documentary footage of Harlem and certainly worth seeing because of Duke Ellington's performance-- during which Barney Bigard and Juan Tizol wore dark make-up and when the band does 3 Little Words some of them step forward to sing but the soundtrack is Bing Crosby and the Rhythm Boys!) Did emcees on radio shows refer to white musicians as "boys" as often as they do to black musicians? I find Freddy Slack's version of "Further on Up the Road" (Is that the correct title?) disconcerting because it seems to be in black dialect but Amos Wilburn had no problem covering it and even including the reference to Freddy Slack that's in the lyrics. I bet I'm the only person on this forum who ever actually performed in a minstrel show. (I wasn't in blackface-- I was Mr. Interlocutor.) And perhaps more shocking, despite what Lieber and Stoller think I prefer Elvis Presley's version of Hound Dog to Big Momma Thorton's.

Happy B'day and many more!! (How's the Jazz Loft book?)

Maybe I missed it but has no-one mentioned Fred Katz with Chico Hamilton?

"the most influential jazz musician of our time" yet "essentially a minor artist". I've read this carefully and I don't think that you've explained away the obvious contradiction. The attempt to differentiate between "the pretty" and "the beautiful" seems a little condescending. Having said that (anyone else see the last episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm?) Pettinger makes a good point when he suggests that Evans coasted for a long time on the goodwill generated by the Village Vanguard trio. (Though I thought he retained his chops with Chuck Isreals (sp?) and regained them with Eddie Gomez. ("Chops" is probably the wrong word to use. "Inspiration" might be better.)

I remember when the bargain bins were full of copies of the EKE "All American". I think I never got it because I'd read a bunch of dismissive reviews. (Or maybe I was just being snobbish.) Maybe Mosaic can do a single (or have they stopped doing those?).

I bought the Art Farmer and Blakey ones--The Farmer is fantastic with Jim Hall, Steve Swallow and Pete LaRoca! Really great set full of variety--and LaRoca/ Swallow are tippin! The Blakey is cool, but did not blow me away like I'd expect from 65' Freddie...but still very cool to see/hear Jaki Byard with these guys! I agree about the Farmer-- it's great. Always liked that group. Sound and image are both terrific.

I can't imagine restricting myself to 3. I was just re-listening to a cd of '38 Cotton Club broadcasts and loving it more than I remembered from earlier plays so it seems to depend on my mood. I would list "Ellington Indigoes" though I know not every-one here likes it. (I love it but I may be influenced by the fact that more than 40 years ago it was the first of the 300 EKE records I've gotten .

I got them. So far watched Hawkins, Smith, the bonus DVD and Herman. All very good (I admit I'm not a big Jimmy Smith fan and this didn't turn me into one). The biggest surprise to me was the Woody Herman. I saw this band around the time the DVD was made and I liked it but it didn't impress me as much 4o years ago as it does now. (It's also a bit weird to see a big band from 1965 with no black faces.) The Hawkins has a good concert that I think has never been seen on tv. It's not well photographed but the 2nd concert which has some great Sweets Edison is very well shot.

Or maybe they'll release "1969 Miles Festiva De Juan Pins" which Sony originally released in 1993 but only in Japan.

Didn't a 3rd member of the Charles band die around that time?

This is obviously not the order of the songs. Each set is quite well balanced.

In SF: Swan's Oyster Bar for lunch. If you get as far as the Hearst castle keep coming to Santa Barbara. It's worth taking highway 1 south from Monterey. You can get from the Bay area to Santa Barbara in a half day if you take the boring 101 but the 1 is spectacular. If you do go the the Hearst CAstle make a reservation and plan to spend more than a couple of hours.

I'm really liking this. The original 2 cd release has all the highlights but it's great hearing a set per disc.

Just got the new Mosaic catalogue and noticed that the headline for the Braxton box is "The Birth of a Record Label" and that in the body of the article they mention the "unlikely story of jazz on the Arista label". But if this is discussed in the booklet for the box I missed it. (Which is possible-- I only skimmed the notes which I didn't much care for.) Is there an interesting story about Arista and jazz beyond the fact that they signed Braxton? I have a vague memory of there being a sub label dedicated to avant-garde jazz which didn't seem to me like Clive Davis's cup of tea.

I don't know if it's jazz but I like it.

As well as being too expensive, Taschen books are often too big. The Claxton Jazz Life is much bigger than the original edition and I don't think gains anything from it except make it more difficult to gset down from teh shelf or turn the pages.

It was interesting to see this right after reading Kelley's Monk bio which IIRC contradicted the film at a couple of points.

I ordered People Time from Amazon France. Cost $57 including shipping and it arrived today! Nice looking box. About the size of the Miles box sets but much simpler. Each cd is in a cardboard sleeve which are in cardboard box along with a 40 page booklet (most of it written by Gary Giddens, who I usually like, though I know some here resent him.)

Finished the Monk biography and Save the Deli. Starting the 5th and last book of 2666.

Hearing that I'd ordered a turkey my daughter rebelled. Cancelled the turkey-- we're having lobster. (It's local lobster season here in Santa Barbara.)

He took a solo on Honeysuckle Rose at the Benny Goodman Carnegie Hall Concert. Supposedly he wasn't prepared to do it but Goodman just threw to him without warning.

By "the original" do you mean the single or the album version? I've always liked the guitar solo on the single better, but that may just be because it's the one I got used to hearing on the radio.

Right now there top downloads are Warren Zevon and Count Basie! Meanwhile I'm listening to the Monk at Newport '59 which is described in detail in the Robin Kelly biography.

Listening to Count Basie right now. Pretty great!

I don't think Louis Armstrong or Fatha Hines were on either of them. He does explain why Monk isn't on the LP, something I've always wondered about. He repeats the claim that it's of a rehearsal but I've always presumed that it was a separate recording session. I think I read somewhere that Gerry Mulligan isn't on it because he wanted double scale. I've also presumed that Prez had weakened so much between the recordings of the Lp and the tv show that he didn't have the strength to play on all the numbers on which he appears on the Lp. IIRC his one appearance on the tv show is for Fine and Mellow during which he's sitting down adn takes what may be his last great solo. (I could be as wrong about this as I was in my speculations as to why Monk wasn't on the Lp.)