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Speaking of Small's (the club and the label), I must say that the Ari Hoenig Trio, with Jean Michel Pilc on piano, which I heard there last Monday, is one fine group.

One of the coolest recordings in the Bird's Eyes Philology series (perhaps this also has appeared elsewhere) is a recording of Charlie Parker, Willie Smith, Johnny Hodges and Benny Carter together. As I recall, Bird actually introduces Willie Smith.

I was able to see Mr. Terry at the VV a week ago Friday. He was not moving around very well, needing some assistance to reach the stage. He was still able to play, at least for brief passages, in his identifiable style. At times, he could no longer execute his ideas. (As he said, "the Golden Years suck.") Still, I enjoyed seeing him. His best performance was a very quiet and beautiful muted version of Mood Indigo. Red Holloway was on tenor, and his playing was quite strong.

An ipod and a cassette adaptor have revolutionized long car drives for me. They are now a pleasure.

I used to (back when their albums were coming out) like the Rolling Stones, the Doors, the Who, and Led Zeppelin. Now I can't really bear to listen to any of them, the main reason being that I can't stand hearing their lead singers. On the other hand, I still like the voices of John Lennon, George Harrison, and Jack Bruce, so the Beatles and Cream still provide listening pleasure.

My one opportunity to see Woody came in 1984, at the Caravan of Dreams, where he appeared with Steve Turre as his frontline partner. Hence, I've always been partial to the then recently issued Lotus Flower, on Enja. Another favorite is Bobby Hutherson's Live at Montreux, which is an amazing performance by Hutcherson and Shaw. However, I'm noticing on Amazon.com that this one may be out of print, as the only copy for sale is for $85. Woody can be seen on DVD already--Mal Waldron Live at the Village Vanguard (with Charlie Rouse, Reggie Workman and Ed Blackwell).

My favorite "bootleg" series was the "France's Concerts" label (Mingus in Chateauvallon, for example). Also, the Jazzbuhne Berlin series was another good one (George Adams-Don Pullen live). I've never had too much luck with the quality of isolated bootleg issues.

Is it possible to remaster Robert Plant out of these recordings?

I picked up his new CD yesterday, and on first listen, it sounds like another really good one.

Which Columbia Armstrong transfers are you talking about. I dumped the JSP box for sound reasons. There are other transfers "out there" that beat the JSPs as well. The early Columbias sucked. The early Columbia's are the ones I have.

Has anyone compared the sound of the JSP Charlie Christian box set to the Columbia box set? The sound on the JSP Armstrong Hot Fives/Sevens box is great (far better than the Columbia CDs that I have), so I was wondering if the same was true for the Christian box set.

Definitely Breezin'. I saw him live at an outdoor touring jazz festival a dozen or more years ago, which also had Miles Davis and Wynton. Benson's set was truly awful. I hated every song, which were all vocals, and I couldn't stand the brief guitar solos he played either.

So as not to confuse matters, I have created a separate "After-the-Fact" thread.

Post here to publicize significant concerts after they have already happened. This thread serves the alternative of allowing those depressed about missing an underpublicized concert to commisserate. Or, if you want to rub it in that you found out just in time and were the only person there...

After the Melvin Sparks debacle, I thought it would be a good idea to have a thread where anyone in the Dallas or Austin area might give advance warning on upcoming significant jazz concerts. Unfortunately, I don't know of anything at present.

I like his recent Savant recording--It is What it is. I could not stop listening to to Give Me the Night from this CD--he is on fire on this cut. Another favorite featuring Sparks (also on Savant)--Charles Earland, Slammin' and Jammin'.

I've read In the Moment and Bebop and Nothingness--both excellent compilations of his work.

He played at the Sammons in Dallas Thursday night. Unforutnately, I read about it in the paper Friday. Damn and Double Damn.

Roy and Diz (Verve).

Did anyone else see his Texas Tenors concert with David Newman a few years back in Fair Park? That was another good one, with a rather heated tenor battle at the end.

Years ago, he played at the Caravan of Dreams, and the first set was his regular group, playing bebop, and the second set Cornell Dupree came out (otherwise the same group), and they completely switched into playing blues/rhythm and blues. That was one great set.

You're fast. I just bought it this evening. The Apple store was wall-to-wall people.

At least according to her website, the release of the new MBB CD is to occur soon: In the studio, the three current bands - the MBB, the Charles Mingus Orchestra, and the smaller Mingus Dynasty - recently finished recording ten tunes for an upcoming release entitled, "I am three." The title takes its name from the first line of Mingus' autobiography, Beneath The Underdog, and refers to the different people he thought he was: the vulnerable man, the impassioned man, the observer. "He might as well have said a hundred and three," says Sue Mingus. "There were that many Minguses." The title also refers to the three different approaches to Mingus' music on this CD. On the recording, the Mingus Dynasty performs Mingus's famous gospel piece, "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting" and also a new arrangement by bassist Boris Kozlov of "Free Cell Block F, 'Tis Nazi USA." As Mingus once said, "titles should speak from time to time to issues that ought to be of concern." The title could probably be up-dated to "Free Cell Block Alpha One," of Abu Ghraib infamy. The Orchestra - with an exotic instrumentation that includes bassoon, French horn and bass clarinet, performs "Todo Modo" and "Chill of Death," focusing on the more orchestral side of Mingus composition. The Mingus Big Band tracks include three new arrangements by tenor saxophonist John Stubblefield, who is currently undergoing treatment for cancer. He left the hospital to attend the recording sessions and to personally conduct the tracks. It was an enormously moving occasion and produced some of the "swingingest" pieces the MBB has recorded, including "Orange is the Color of her Dress," "Pedal Point Blues," and "Song with Orange." The musicians, who stayed in the studio from noon to 8 at night, along with Stubbs, included: Randy Brecker, Kenny Rampton, Jeremy Pelt, Ku-umba Frank Lacey, Conrad Herwig, Earl McIntyre, Alex Foster, Craig Handy, Jaleel Shaw, Wayne Escoffery, Abraham Burton, Boris Koslov, Johnathan Blake, John Hicks and George Colligan. The remaining material includes a Mingus composition called "Tensions" arranged by bassist Boris Kozlov, an arrangement by trombonist Robin Eubanks of "MDM" (for "Monk Duke Mingus") and a vocal by trombonist Ku-umba Frank Lacy of a tune Mingus wrote in the Forties called "Paris in Blue," arranged by trombonist Earl McIntyre. Of the ten tracks on the album, eight are arranged by band members, for the first time. The other two compositions ("Todo Modo" and "Chill of Death") performed by the Orchestra, are arranged by Sy Johnson. The release date is scheduled for May 2005, and video clips from the recording session will soon be available for viewing on this website.

I've read this before, but hopefully the promise will become more of a reality (from a Sue Mingus interview): While all six of the Big Band's albums are on the French label Dreyfus, Sue Mingus is stepping out on her own with "I Am Three," releasing the CD on her new label Sue City. In a twist the bassist surely would have appreciated, he indirectly inspired the endeavor. Mingus and Max Roach were among the first jazz musicians to found their own label back in the early 1950s when they created Debut, which immediately made its mark when the epochal "Jazz at Massey Hall" album captured the last meeting between bebop legends Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell and Roach. Sue Mingus founded Sue City after she read an article about bassist Dave Holland leaving ECM to create Dare2 Records "and he mentioned that Mingus was among the first to start his own record company," she said. "I'm going to issue not only these Mingus repertory bands, I have a bunch of unissued recordings, incredible stuff from the 1960s with Eric Dolphy, Clifford Jordan and Johnny Coles. There's a live album recorded at Ronnie Scott's that Columbia never released with Charles McPherson and Roy Brooks."

There's a Peck Kelly session from 1957, the very last session in volume 3 of the Mosaic Complete Commodore Jazz Recordings.