Dan Gould

OK, as long as I can still hear "Ain't Misbehavin'". Seriously though it is funny how many of these tunes I have multiple Percy France versions, none of which are less than good and most are kick-ass (especially Percy w. Budd Johnson on .. Ain't Misbehavin'. )

Is this really getting played/recorded that much in the first place? I received a tape from the Smithsonian that had this tune, but I wouldn't have named it in a thousand years and needed Jim to tell me what it was. It just sounded medium-familiar to me. And Percy blew most enjoyably on it.

Duly noted for BFT purposes. (But what purposes, he asked himself.)

In the course of my Percy France project I've heard a lot of performances of some of these tunes ... he surely played a lot of "A Train" and "Cottontail" just to reference examples among the particular tunes ID'd as overplayed by the OP. But all I can say is that I haven't at all grown bored with those performances, proof perhaps that in the right hands (and your choice of the right hands may vary from mine) even standards you've heard again and again don't grow old, boring or stale.

Nope, and it's not a middling Smith album either.

I have to say that for me, this one ties with Plays Pretty Just for You for last on the Jimmy Smith BN playlist. I wouldn't say terrible, just not a favorite.

Almost slipped right past me ... Dec 11 was six month anniversary of launching of site. Traffic: 576 site sessions / 429 unique visitors I think all things considered that's not bad.

Why is Richard Gere a punchline?

His records as a leader start in 1982 and up until 2010 were out at a very regular clip (now its about 4-5 years in between shitting out a new one). Given the fact of this documentary being produced and aired now, and that a major part of it is a change in critical approval, I would hardly say that he "barely exists" culturally. And OMG, check out the AllMusic review of his latest With 2021's elegant New Standards, saxophonist Kenny G wryly inserts himself into the pantheon of American Popular Songbook composers performing and writing songs that feel as if they were written during the heyday of traditional pop in the '50s and '60s. The album is G's first studio production since 2015's Brazilian Nights and while it certainly hews to his distinctive crossover style it's steeped in a lush orchestral atmosphere that evokes the classic traditional pop of artists like Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, and Ella Fitzgerald. Of course, these aren't swinging big-band numbers, but hushed and intimate ballads with just enough R&B keyboard, bass, and guitar textures to keep things contemporary. What's particularly notable about New Standards is just how effectively G has managed to capture the sound of traditional pop. While solely instrumentals, tracks like "Emeline," "Blue Skies," and "Paris by Night" are nonetheless harmonically sophisticated songs that have the cozy, martini-soaked vibe of Tin Pan Alley and Brill Building standards. One could easily imagine a companion album with lyrics and guest vocalists added to the mix. That they are all G's own newly penned original compositions makes them all the more impressive. Even the one guest appearance here, a somewhat dubious, digitally crafted duet between G and his late idol, saxophonist Stan Getz (or more specifically "the sound" of Stan Getz), does little to distract from the overriding aura of relaxed, old-school romanticism.

If you care about the label (and I do, for it will always for me signify the music I care most about, from swing to hard bop to the modern mainstream of artists plying their trade in those sub-styles) there is nothing worse than encountering someone who says they are also a "jazz fan" and the first artist mentioned is G.

I am sincerely wondering where it is that Kenny G has ever protested that he doesn't play jazz. Where has he ever said "don't call my music jazz" or "I play instrumental pop" or (as I frankly think his ego is big enough to say it) "Ain't no "jazz" label can hold me, bitches."

I do not know why, clearly he belongs in the Founded a Label section, with Ray Charles.

You're skipping over the part about him playing an instrument associated with jazz and getting acclaim as a jazz musician. If there existed a "smooth jazz" chart and recognition of "best selling smooth jazz artist" I wouldn't remotely give a shit about him and his music.

If he didn't get the label "jazz" or was considered the highest-selling "jazz" artist of all time, I wouldn't give two craps about the G-Spot's music. But he does, and he is, so it does matter to me. I will admit to not exactly paying attention to smooth/quiet storm/New Age, but I did have to play a Dave Koz hosted syndicated smooth jazz show before I hosted my own jazz show on Mello 105-Tallahassee. My impression of smooth does not gibe with what G does. There are warmed over r&b licks and funky rhythms in smooth, owing to its derivation in Grover/Sanborn. G-Spot doesn't play blues as far as I am concerned. He plays sickly sweet melodies that the masses find appealing, to their eternal shame and embarrassment, if they had any sense of either.

I think it depends on the definition of "pantheon". For penetration into the wider culture and influence there you got to go with Cannonball first, IMHO. But plenty of room for both ... in fact after those two, isn't it almost fair to say that from each sprung a distinct river/brook of descendants, with the more straightahead coming from Cannonball (think Vincent Herring and his time playing with Nat) and the more avant coming from Jackie and his HAAG BNs?

I trust Allen Lowe's report on FB that Barry has passed. Terrible loss. RIP.

I knew there was ... and why match with Norman Simmons unless they literally didn't have any copy of this other release?

Yeah that Richard's Almanac had a CD release at some point by the Andorrans? Or maybe not. You would think that with Jack Wilson on piano, a two-fer needle drop would have come out by now. This thing must be so rare ...

Thanks Chuck it seems as rare as anything in the jazz genre but its good to know that there is more detail than that other page provides and it must really have been issued. One to keep watching for but after 20+ years I have my doubts it will show up.

Say Chuck, does this info from the web page https://www.bsnpubs.com/chess/argo600.html check out in the Argo section? Years and years ago I was on the lookout for Argo records and especially this one but have never been certain it existed (I think Eddie Higgins asked Richard Evans on my behalf, and he said he thought it did come out, that he recalled a photo session in front of a Chicago soul food restaurant. LPS-675 - Home Cookin' - Richard Evans Trio [1961]

I have never heard it asserted that "beta males" aren't a universal phenomenon, even in countries where "machismo" is a major trait. Maybe I shouldn't have used 'beta' and just said 'wimpy males'. I'll continue to assert his market is predominantly or overwhelmingly females who like, in one order or another, his delightful hair and his delightful, easy to digest pretty melodies.

I always thought that his fanbase was nearly all female in the first place though I guess there is a subset of Beta Males keeping the CD handy to help them try to get laid. In a decent world those same people would have one of the "Ballads" comps that BN put out years ago ... Dex, Turrentine, someone else? But that went out of style when Hef started to look ridiculous in his robe.

Even if I lowered the percentage, I do not think this is the case at all. Kenny G is not the "look at my sample jazz CD I own" avatar that KOB or Time Out (or Ken Burns comps) are. Kenny G is the "here's my pretty instrumental CD I have, doncha love him" CD.

He is the highest selling jazz artist of all time, because his music is mindlessly labelled "jazz," which is simply wrong. It is instrumental pop - the fact that he would piece together individual notes from different takes is even more proof of what has been obvious from his first successful album. Yet I would bet that maybe 75% of those who own his records own nothing else that gets categorized as "jazz", and the rest who own other "jazz" own only the smooth variety. This is the problem with the G-Spot. The fact that "critics" have apparently determined in the last 20 years that he is great, and those who criticize know nothing, only proves the ongoing degradation of "criticism" in this day and age.