medjuck

I think they go Fletch, Confess Fletch, Fletch's Fortune,Fletch's Moxie, Fletch and the Widow Bradley, Fletch and the Man Who, Carioca Fletch, Fletch Won, Fletch Too and Son of Fletch. Even the early ones are out of chronology which was confusing. Fletch and the Widow Bradley takes place before Fletch. Carioca Fetch takes place immediately after Fletch. IIRC the charcter Flynn is introduced in Confess Fletch and then went on to have his own series.

Ganja and Hess was a favorite of the critic/writer Jim Monaco. I think we published Jim's review of it in Take One, a film magazine I used to help edit. Jim mentions Gunn several times in his book American Film Now. (It was published many years ago so should probably be referred to as American Film Then.)

To answer my own question (at least in part) the Nontet was recorded playing Godchild at the Royal Roost on September 4, 1948 but didn't do an official studio recording until January 21 of 1949. Meanwhile the Thornhill band did a transcription in October of '48. Mulligan did similar charts for each of the bands.

He did a rather clever thing: putting Fletch's adventures in chronological order after he began the series so that the ones that took place earliest were published 4th or 5th and called: Fletch Won and Fletch Too.

Sure this wasn't earlier? He began to claim his name was Dylan by '61.

Glad you've picked a picture that looks like you, Niko. I always find it a bit disconcerting not to know whether or not I'm looking at an image or near-image of the poster. I mean, does Allen Lowe really look like one of Richard Nixon's seedier henchmen? Or does medjuck look like Clarence Williams - or is that a photo of someone else? Tiny Parham actually. I'll try to attach a picture. If it works, I'm the old guy. The others are my family. I do have a beard though only for the last 35 years.

So I even got it wrong that the non-film composer was "the East Coast" John Williams.

Chris: How do you happen to have so much Elmer Snowden stuff?

I just came across a Japanese mini-lp cd of a Stan Getz record called "Cool Sounds". On about half the cuts he's accompanied by John Williams on piano. Am I right to assume that this is not the film composer but "The East Coast" John Williams"? Does the film composer appear on any notable jazz discs? Benny Carter once told me that composer Williams had played with him and Elmer Bernstein said that it was the film composer's hands playing jazz in the title sequence of the old tv show "Staccato". (How's that for name dropping.) But does he play on any records we might care about?

Sorry to hear that. I read all of the Fletch novels and a couple of others by him too. Very clever. I never understood why they didn't ask him to write the screenplays. The books are much better than the movies.

just saw Brian Wilson at The Lobero (600 seat theater). We were in the 2nd row and in Heaven.

Well then how about a film noir: Two of a Kind (1951). I had to do research to find the title. All I remembered was that it was Edmond O'Brien and he chopped off part of his finger in a car door in order to impersonate someone. Argh!! BTW Cheap sci-fi scripts often have amazing sub-texts. In case of Invasion from Mars there are 2 very disturbing things suggested: 1) Your parents aren't who they say they are. 2) Life is a dream/nightmare from which we can't awake.

I'm old enough that I saw The Thing, Them, and Invaders from Mars in movie theaters when they were first released. They scared the shit of of me. Invaders from Mars was fairly obscure despite being directed (I think) by William Cameron Menzies. It started to get revived (and remade) when people my age who were traumatized by it as children entered academia and the film business.

I went looking for a postage stamp the other day and discovered that my wife had bought a couple of sheets of these. I'd didn't know about it before and immediately posted to the Duke-Lym group under the subject line "Forty-two Cent Stomp". (And I don't usually like puns.)

I'd say yes, either this or The Masters of Jazz cd which may be hard to come by. However I notice that there's also a disc from 1949 but I've never heard it.

Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara with the Liberation Jazz Orchestra!

Yes regular DVD discs do look a bit better on Blue Ray machines. I bought my machine the day after HiDef went down the tubes with the Warners announcement that they were going Blue Ray. I decided to do so after comparing some regular DVDs to Hi-Def tv broadcasts of the same films. I'd been a skeptic until then.

I got a Blue Ray player a few months ago but haven't bought any discs yet (I'm running out of room for more DVDs) though I've rented several from Netflix. So far my favorite is Ford's "The Searchers". It was shot in Vista Vision and the Blue Ray transfer looks great--so much so that after viewing the whole film I began to watch parts of it with the sound off so I could concentrate on the visuals. Anyone here have any other films to recommend that they think look particularly good on Blue-Ray? I'm looking forward to seeing some older Black & White films.

Chris: You have a lot of material about Alberta Hunter. Were you ever planning a bio of her?

Recently l I've been to concerts by Leonard Cohen (74), and Bob Dylan (67). Tomorrow I'll see Brian Wilson (66) and later this year Charlie Haden (71) and Sonny Rollins (78). I also saw Radio Head but they don't count for purposes of this discussion. I saw Benny Carter perform when he was (I think) in his 90s. He paced himself but he was great. I guess as one gets older one's heros get older with you.

And BTW except for the last song and the 2 encores, he didn't play anything he'd played in Santa Monica.

I've been on a Thornhill jag recently but re-listening to this cd made me want to recommend it in the sense of "if you're only going to buy one Claude Thornhill cd this is the one to get". Not only is the sound better than on most of the others I have, but of the 23 cuts 15 of them are arranged by Gil Evans and four by Gerry Mulligan. There's a lot of Lee Knonitz and Barry Galbraith solos and a few by Mulligan including a brief one on which he plays tenor. They even play Godchild which I thought originated with the Miles Davis Nontet. ( Is Thornhill's the first recording of it?) The only Thornhill highlight missing from this disc is Evans' arrangement of part of Mussorsky's (sp?) Pictures at an Exhibition which Evans titled The Troubadour or somehting like that. I think it's only available on Masters of Jazz cd containing all of Gil's instrumental arrangements for Thornhill.

Saw Dylan last night at the final stop of the latest leg of his Never-Ending Tour. Great show. I usually warn people that if they go to see Dylan they won't be able to make out any of the words, recognize any melodies or even know which musician is Dylan since he hides off to the side behind a keyboard ( usually inaudible and when you can hear it, he doesn't seem to play it very well.) I keep going back anyway, since very so often there's a show like last night's at the Santa Barbara Bowl. I was in the ninth row but off to the right side. Since Dylan placed the keyboard on that side I was often looking at his back. However his vocal mike was on the side so he turned his profile to us when he was singing and lo and behold: you could make out almost every word, and even recognize the songs from the the instrumental intros. He even took some great keyboard solos! He did manage to change his phrasing so that it was impossible to sing along but I think he approaches his songs like a jazz musician: he sticks to the original words but improvises his phrasing. Sang a lot of old favorites from the 60's interspersed with songs from Clem's favorite, Modern Times. My theory on the old sings is that the 67 year old Dylan has a cover band-- the guy they cover is the young Bob Dylan.

I used to be a medium grade one but now my ears are shot from old age and too many rock concerts. So I still try to buy fairly good equipment but nothing too expensive- it would be wasted on me.

I do like to see a bit of the article or a precis of it: often there is just an enigmatic subject and a link. I'd like to be told enough about an article to know whether I want to link to it. (is "link" the correct verb here).