brownie

French bass player, critic, historian Jacques B. Hess died last week in Bonzac, near Bordeaux, where he retired a couple of decades ago. He was a familiar figure on the Paris jazz scene and played with Claude Bolling, Jack Dieval, Sonny Grey and many others. Hess subbed briefly for Jimmy Woode in Duke Ellington's orchestra during a French tour in 1959. He also accompanied Bud Powell and Barney Wilen for an Italian tour in 1961 and appeared on Eric Dolphy's last recorded appearance (with Donald Byrd and Nathan Davis in a 1964 Jack Dieval date). His WWII actions earned him the Legion of Honor (he ended the war in the infamous Buchenwald concentration camp). Hess leading a group with René Thomas, Sonny Grey, Charles Saudrais, also Henri Renaud (unseen) in Paris in 1963... ... and interviewing Thelonious Monk in 1969 http://www.ina.fr/art-et-culture/musique/video/I09292071/interview-de-thelonious-monk.fr.html

Another label from the Prestige staple (Don Schlitten produced this one): The Lively Arts label catalogue: Prestige Lively Arts 30000 series (12 inch LP) LA 30001 Billy Dee Williams - Let's Misbehave LA 30002 A Taste Of Hermione Baddeley LA 30003 Roddy McDowall Reads The Horror Stories Of H.P. Lovecraft LA 30004 Burgess Meredith Reads Ray Bradbury LA 30005 Larry Storch Reads Philip Roth's Epstein LA 30006 James Mason Reads The Imp Of The Perverse And Other Stories By Edgar Allen Poe LA 30007 James Mason Reads Herman Melville's Bartleby, The Scrivener LA 30008 Morris Carnovsky Reads Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground LA 30009 Norman Mailer Reads Norman Mailer

The Lonesome Road (Jimmie Lunceford) Hit the Road, Jack (Ray Charles) Two for the Road (Count Basie) King of the Road (Woody Herman) Road Runner (King Curtis) Next up: POTATO/POTATOES

Sad to learn that George Whitman who ran the Shakespeare and Company bookstore died. He was a neighborhood fixture. A most generous and warm person. I spent hours in his bookstore and still went past it almost daily. He died on Wednesday, two days before his 98th birthday! Obituary in The Washington Post today.

Hal McKusick 'Jazz Workshop' (RCA Victor, mono) A desert island album!

Nice shot of Nat 'King' Cole rehearsing with musicians from the Quincy Jones orchestra in Paris in 1960. The musicians include, from right: Sahib Shihab, Budd Johnson, Phil Woods, Jerome Richardson...

Two Against One (Nat King Cole) Up Against the Wall (John Coltrane) Don't Hold It Against Me (Dinah Washington) Prelude to Odds Against Tomorrow (John Lewis) Against the Wind (Chris Potter) Next up: FRAME

Andrew Hill Select 'Solo'

Sax of a Kind (Lennie Tristano) Saxophobia (Pete Rugolo) Sax Appeal (Chubby Jackson) Saxophone Blues (Scott Robinson) Sax Fifth Avenue (Phil Woods/Gene Quill) Next Up: ECHOES

Was this ever confirmed? Wikipedia does not have a date for this in the note for her!

Carmell Jones 'The Remarkable Carmell Jones' (Affinity)

The Father Jumps (Earl Hines) Your Father's Mustache (Woody Herman) Feather Merchant (Stan Getz) Song for my Father (Horace Silver) My Mother, My Father and Love (Duke Ellington) Next up: PERFECT

The new version of the WordPress blogging platform released this week is named Sonny in honor of Sonny Stitt The WordPress announcement Trust Stitt's family gets a good share of the sales!

John Lewis/Helen Merrill (Mercury)

Now's the time to think about the future... article in The New York Times today.

Frank Driggs Raymond Fonsèque André Hodeir Al Vega

Gamblin' Jack (Jelly Roll Morton) Life Is a Gamble (Brownie McGhee) Gambling Bar Room Blues (Jimmie Rodgers) Gambling Woman Blues (Freddie King) Gamblin' Blues (Lil Son Jackson) Next up: WALTZ

Jimmy Heath 'Triple Threat' (Riverside/Fontana, mono)