Free For All

I agree completely, Lon. I have many favorite sides where the playing does indeed trancend rec. quality, like the live Trane/Monk, the Clifford Beehive (did that one ever make it to CD?), several Bird recordings and the live Birth of the Cool session, to name but a few. God will be in my house very soon!

Message received loud and clear! Thanks Chuck!

I've heard that Miles was influenced by Freddie (or is it Freddy?) Webster, especially regarding his approach to the use of the harmon mute. Are there some decent FW recordings to check out? I seem to remember a Bud Powell date with FW on a couple cuts. I see a bunch of sideman dates on AMG, but I was wondering what the Organissimites might recommend.

I love both Pablo sets. Reasonably priced, too. Several times I've almost bought the Tatum HighNote "God Is In The House". Is there a concensus that this is a necessary purchase? I realize that it consists of those Jerry Newman acetates (which are sometimes of questionable quality) but how IS the quality of the recording? I always hear that Tatum live is often preferable to Tatum in the studio, so I'm interested in some of these live releases.

I remember hearing that Gary Larsen (Far Side) is a guitarist and Jim Hall fan- he did a cover for one of Hall's recordings. I thought I heard that he told Hall he'd do it for either one million dollars or one guitar lesson. Also, remember that ad in DB or JT that showed Scofield hanging out and playing w/Alan Arkin?

That's the band Danny Elfman was in, right? I liked a lot of their stuff.

I have been to the UK many times and always manage to find obscure titles that are nowhere to be found in the US, so I don't think we have any kind of a "leg up" on Europe. You also see many titles issued over there before we get them. I'm sure this problem or one similar to it will hit us over here eventually so I, for one, am not in the least "smug" about this issue. Cheers!

Good Chambers compositions. Some tasty Spaulding flute work (I actually like his flute playing) Bobby Hutcherson. I'd say GET IT!

BTW, another posting day like today and Jim will be the next to reach 2000. How does that sit with you, Rooster? I mean, there can only be ONE "master groover", right?

Guy's got balls................

Ed Bradley

Have you heard this one yet, clandy44? How is it? How's the recording quality? Any input is greatly appreciated.

Sorry. Got greedy. Conrad Janis. George Segal.

Have you seen "Wild Man Blues"? It's a documentary following Allen and his band on a tour. It's pretty funny and quite bizarre. Other celeb jazz fans: Kevin Spacey (as mentioned in my UK thread) Clint Eastwood Jeff Goldblum (plays piano) Chevy Chase (plays piano) Jackie Gleason Penn Jillette (plays bass) Malcolm Jamal-Warner (plays bass) Peter Weller (Robocop; plays trumpet) Harvey Korman (big jazz fan) Jack Lemmon (plays piano- once sat in on a gig I was on) I'm sure there will be many more.....................

....I thought it was Dubly....... B)

.....or is it Buddy Bolden? B)

I'm away from my music right now, but what was the name of the Tolliver big band side- "Impact" or something like that? What a great listen that one is. I think George Coleman and James Spaulding were on it, right? High energy, high intensity and some very interesting writing. Rooster, a little help? P.S. it looks like a laurel and hearty handshake is in order for the return of PFunk.......

Count me in as a Woody fanatic. The first time I heard him was on a Columbia LP called "Montreaux Summit"- it was a label concert of current Columbia recording artists done in the 70s (Dexter and Woody, Getz, Maynard etc.). Maynard's band was sort of the "house band" and was probably the reason I picked up the side (that's where my interests were at the time). On one tune Maynard was trading w/Woody (talk about "when worlds collide")- needless to say, my eyes were opened and my priorities changed forever. I immediately started to buy anything w/Woody's name on it (starting w/Homecoming), a practice that continues to this day. There was a series of concerts in the 70s at Iowa State University called "Jazz at the Maintenance Shop"- this was an excellent series and exposed me to many of the "desert island" heavies of jazz such as Bill Evans, Dexter, Woody, Jack DeJohnette, Johnny Griffin and others. I think the Dexter and Evans concerts were released on video. I wish the Woody would be released- it was an amazing performance! In addition to all the sides mentioned here, I've always loved Horace's "Cape Verdean Blues"- the sextet cuts w/Woody, Joe and J.J.- what a dream band! And I also like the Blue Notes w/Freddie- that's some of the last listenable Freddie, I'm sorry to say. I also would have loved to hear Woody and Lee mix it up. Or Woody and Charles Tolliver. I hear a lot of Booker little in Woody as well.

...walk towards the light.......................walk towards the light........

My wife has been coming out here to SF for several summers now- she plays in the orchestra for the SF Opera. We are able to avoid the overly "touristy" places and frequent the more unknown dives. I usually have my own summer activities like jazz camps, etc. so I don't get out here 'til the end of August most of the time. By the time I get here, though, I'm TOTALLY jonesin' for some New Mexican goodies. One thing I didn't expect is that I've actually developed an appreciation for opera. It helps that they have the libretto on little monitors on the back of the seat in front of you- my problem was that I NEVER understood what the hell was goin' on. Some of the music is awesome, I must say. BTW, just got back from lunch- the catfish tacos were awesome!

I just arrived in Santa Fe (to be reunited w/my wife and dog after 2+ months of being apart doing our various gigs) and my first stop, as always, was at Harry's Roadhouse for my usual inaugural burrito. Grilled chicken, black beans, red AND green chili (THAT is the part I haven't been able to duplicate at home), cheese, guac............it was a religious experience. There are so many great places to eat here for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's also green chili harvesting time and you can smell them being roasted all around town. Anyone else share an affection for SF cuisine?

Dick Wright was absolutely an awsome person. He was incredibly knowledgeable about the music as well as being one of the kindest and most generous people I've ever known. If you mentioned that you liked a certain player the next thing you knew he'd have made up a compilation tape for you. He had a HUGE music collection (did he leave that to KU, Eric?) and seemed to have it all indexed in his head. He will be sorely missed.

I think the others have explained this adequately. I guess my main gripe is that I just don't like underdone breakfast meats of any kind. I'm not saying it has to be burned, but I like it a little crispy. I sometimes fry slices of ham for breakfast and like to get them fairly well done. Bev, I think you need to experience a nice maple-smoked, thick sliced peppered bacon cooked medium-well and I think you'd see what I'm talking about. The crap you get in hotels in the US is not indicative at all. I guess with all that is going on in the world my little bacon rant is less than significant. Just trying to do my part for whirled peas.

It was incredibly boomy and extremely hot. From what I was told the sound (especially where a big band is concerned) was much better in the back, and worsened as you moved towards the front. The sound crew wanted to mic EVERYONE in the group as well as many drum mics, but we were able to talk them out of doing that and just used mics for soloists. It's always dangerous to put your ensemble sound so completely in the hands of a sound person unless you know how they work.

I'm inclined to think of it not as a LACK of tension, but more as a lack of VARIATION in the tension-release way of thinking. There is often little to differentiate between head and solos on bop tunes, and the solos can contain little or no variation in texture/density. If a bop era player approached solo construction the same way as a post-bopper (more pacing, use of space, periods of less activity) they probably would have been ostracized by their peers and the public. I try to look at the bop period as something that was a reaction to swing; I think the perceived lack of textural contrast in the bop solo style takes a back seat to the importance of the increased level of harmonic awareness that came about. Bebop wasn't perfect by any means- for a "revolutionary" type of music it was defined by fairly conservative parameters- but I think it was an integral step in the evolution process. I think of the influence of the bop style as one element of my playing- I don't want to be a "Bird clone" (not that I ever could) but since studying bop was an integral part of my musical education, I don't want to deny or overlook its influence. Plus, it's fun to play! With all that has happened since it's easy to look back on the bop style as one-dimensional; it sure would have been interesting to live in that era and see how we all reacted to it initially!