Tom Storer

Joe Pass did a version on "Intercontinental." I doubt very much Gentry was making reference to the Emmett Till story. Nothing about the song other than the mention of the Tallahatchie bridge seems to make even the slightest allusion to racial injustice in the south, the Civil Rights movement, turbulent social change of the postwar era, or anything other than the vague and tragic story of young love ending nowhere.

Someone should perhaps point out that Iverson's quote about "what you dug at 13 you'll dig for life" or however he phrased it was just a way of saying "early loves have a lasting influence on one's taste." Certainly edc can understand the lure of exaggeration?

I concur. The CD sounds fine. It's available on eMusic as well, with bonus tracks.

I've gotten up to 150--kph, that is, or a bit over 90 mph. That was a few years ago before they installed radar-cameras all over the road system in France--if you speed past one it takes a picture of your car and they send you the ticket in the mail. Before that, people regularly drove 140-150 kph in the fast lane (speed limit 130 kph). Now mostly everybody is very careful to stay within the speed limit.

With the horns, or just the trio? Do you know if they'll pass through France?

Well, fuck.

I liked Iverson on the recent Billy Hart quartet album. I have no love for the originals of the covers they do, but I like their blog, especially Iverson's posts on music. The only thing to do now is see them live, which I'll do three weeks from now.

Very cool site - thanks, JS!

Another vote for "All Together Again For The First Time"--Brubeck, Desmond, Mulligan, Jack Six on bass, and the great Alan Dawson in the drum chair, a worthy successor to Morello. I wore that sucker out when I was in high school. Also "All the Things We Are" from 1973 or '74--Brubeck, Jack Six, Roy Haynes & Lee Konitz on "Like Someone in Love"; Anthony Braxton replacing Konitz on "In Your Own Sweet Way"; both Konitz and Braxton on "All The Things You Are"; and then a trio of Brubeck, Six and Alan Dawson playing a medley of Jimmy Van Heusen tunes (originally side 2 of the LP). And of course those early-50's college albums, before the arrival of Gene Wright and Joe Morello. Some of my favorite Desmond, when he had a lot of youthful heat that later melted into his more wistful lyricism.

That's actually not entirely true. My Nero burning program recognizes FLAC files and allows you to add them directly to the CD you are creating. I guess I need to update my Nero. Is that just a feature of your version of Nero, or is it a plug-in?

Are you talking about storing the FLAC file on a data CD, or making an audio CD out of it? As far as I know you can't make an audio CD directly from a FLAC file--you need to convert it to WAV first.

Thanks for a picture of a surrey with the fringe on top, MG! But where are the sidelights winkin' and blinkin'?? Where are the isinglass curtains??

I have no idea what a surrey is. Some sort of a carriage with a fringe on the top, I assume. What sort of fringe does one put on top of a carriage? I can't imagine. Why does a horse-drawn carriage have a dashboard and two bright sidelights winkin' and blinkin'? Again, I can't really picture it. And what on earth is "isinglass"? Despite the obscurity of these now dated lyrics, it's obvious that the song is about a guy looking forward to taking his girl out in his ride, and the fantasy is told with considerable warmth and affection. Nice lyrics, now that I think about it, and not so dependent on context. It's not context I lack, it's knowledge about surreys!

No, not by how many people covered it, but by who covered it! I'm just a layman. I don't think I have any particular insight into whether a song is good or bad in some Platonic sense. It's particular styles and performances that grab me. I just don't have the rock sensibility that the Bad Plus and, I assume, much of their audience do. I vastly prefer Tin Pan Alley to rock, probably because so much great jazz is built on Tin Pan Alley material. I'd rather listen to Miles, Rollins or Betty Carter play an otherwise forgettable composition than listen to David Bowie sing anything. But I'm more than willing to let the Bad Plus attack my prejudices with their rock covers, and will do so when they play my town on October 11.

" Even apart from the lyrics...." A pretty ironic comment from a group of instrumentalists , though one consistent with a pop sensibility with its over-emphasis on lyrical relevance reflecting a callow presumption of the uniqueness of its own psychological/affective mindscape . Well said, Chas. I generally admire the thoughtfulness and insight of this blog, but I was a bit non-plussed by a non-ironic reference to David Bowie's "profound lyrics." The lyrics of "Surrey" are perfectly silly but don't pretend to be anything else. The song is a vehicle for music-making and nothing else. Blossom Dearie and Betty Carter sang it memorably. Sonny Rollins played it, so did Miles Davis. Who did "Life on Mars"? David Bowie. I mean, come on. You can appreciate David Bowie (I don't, but I accept the possibility in the abstract) but look at the competition from the interpreters of "Surrey." (In other words: JAZZ RULES OK)

That's only when you become consciously aware of it. I suggest, as a possibility, that that baggage is in fact what attracts you to them in the first place. When we have repeated, similar patterns in relationships, it's not accidental. Think hard about your emotional history, early childhood, relationship with your parents, all that stuff. I know it sounds like a cliché... but it's not!

Actually, they're only turned off if they themselves are not focused on establishing something long-term. If that weren't the case, online dating services would go nowhere, but in fact they're very active.

I went to Paris for a year of studies abroad in the fall of 1979. My wife moved to Paris from Ireland at the same time and was working as an assistant English teacher in a Paris lycée. It so happened that part of my study program involved spending a few hours a week at a lycée providing assistance to an English teacher. And so we met. This was a public school but somewhat posh, and the teacher's dining room was just that--not a cafeteria but a room where you sat at a table with place settings, chose from among two main dish possibilities, were served at table, and were allowed to drink wine with your meal. She and I began to have great conversations over lunch at the school, getting slightly sauced. I'd been given a card that allowed me to eat in the teacher's dining room all week long, even though I only came in usually two days a week, so I would frequently go around there for lunch just to talk to her. We soon discovered that she was staying in a place just two metro stops from where I was, and before long we had started courtin'; the school dining room remained a regular meeting place, but now we also worked the bistros on the boulevard de Ménilmontant. Decades later, eating a nice meal with nice wine while engaged in deep conversation is still probably our favorite activity together (well, second-favorite). I had to go back to the States at the end of that year to finish a semester in college, and then I went straight back to Paris and have been here ever since. After living together for a couple of years, we got married in 1983. Our son is twenty. If I were single today, I'd definitely take advantage of online dating services. I've known several couples who met that way with happy results. One friend put her profile up on a dating service, met Mr. Right, and we were attending their wedding ten months later. When you're in your late teens and early twenties, the combination of raging hormones and intense socializing, hence plentiful possibilities, often result in spontaneous ignition of True Love. When you're a grown-up I think there's a lot to be said for giving yourself more possibilities in a methodical way.

Mine arrived on Saturday, too. Listening to it now--plenty to say!

No European leg of this tour, alas. If you do bittorrent, hurry over to Dimeadozen where there's currently an audience recording of his California show from Sept. 4. I've just listened to a little bit so far, but it sounded great! Here's the set list to give an idea of the show. Lots of greatest hits, he has so many... cd1- 70:00 01. Stevie Welcome 02. Love's in Need of Love Today 03. Too High 04. Visions 05. Living for the City 06. Master Blaster (Jammin') 07. Higher Ground 08. Golden Lady 09. Ribbon in the Sky 10. Overyjoyed cd2- 68:38 01. Don't You Worry 'bout A Thing 02. Signed Sealed Delivered (I'm Yours) 03. Memphis (Chuck Berry) 04. Boogie On Reggae Woman 05. story about a girl... 06. My Cherie Amour 07. Sir Duke 08. I Wish 09. Isn't She Lovely 10. You Are the Sunshine of My Life 11. Superstition > You Haven't Done Nothin' > jam > 12. band introductions > jam > 13. I Just Called to Say I Love You 14. Another Star

Come on, can you blame him for avoiding that painful comparison?

Nope.

To add to the mystery, a second tenor player can be seen lurking behind the drummer shortly after the 6:30 mark. The bassist is clearly Jean-Paul Sartre.

I wish I'd been there. I like Do the Math, Iverson's Bad-Plus blog, and his appearance on that relatively recent Billy Hart quartet CD. We've had rave reviews of his duo with Charlie Haden, and now with Hersch. He talks on his blog about collaborations with Tim Berne. I wish he'd do some more recording outside of the Bad Plus! New York Times jazz writing cracks me up. It's as if they put on evening clothes and puff a professorial pipe as they write. For example, lines like:

Wait a minute, wait a minute. What did you drive Sam Yahel in if you had just hit a deer and totaled your van? The narrative isn't clear here.