poetrylover3

Dorothy Parker Charlie Parker Charlie Christian

Wednesday 4/23/08. Caught Santana in St Louis with an electrifying 2 1/2 hour set. Good to see Carlos is still putting out the effort instead of just mailing it in. Less impressive-The Derek Trucks Band which was uninspired and even pedestrian.

Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring is one of my all-time favorite recordings. It introduced me to Stravinsky's work at a young age and years later I still find it inspiring, despite having heard many other versions of the same work. Whether or not he was a great conductor or "idiosyncratic", the bottom line for me is did I find a performance memorable, would I want to hear this music again? If the answer is yes, then I go happily on my way, enriched and in search of new experiences.

Miles Davis: Chronicle, Discs 5-8 Needless to say- a wonderful soundtrack for any afternoon. Peace, Blue Trane

Kim Hunter Maid Marian Gwen Stefani

Bono U2 Francis Gary Powers

Soul Station has a good mixture of Mobley originals and standards and makes a fine introduction to his art. It can be listened to with pleasure at any time if you enjoy either hard bop or soul jazz. IMO, you probably won't find much of this era appealing if Soul Station flunks your listening test. Having said all this, I would rank Workout and Roll Call ahead of Soul Station as Mobley outings and believe all three recordings belong in any serious collection of hard bop, late 50s/early 60s jazz. Peace, Blue Trane

A facade of normalcy often conceals a wealth of deviance- a famous psychiatrist. This reminds me of our various President's (RMN comes to mind) claim of unity with the values of America's "The Silent Majority". Apparently Sony/BMG thought they were too big and too clever to be caught. What do you want to bet that the poor so and so who called for help on the pirated program will get the shaft instead of the manager or managers who condoned and promoted the piracy? But then, it wouldn't surprise me if someone hadn't done a cost benefit analysis that low-balled this into the zone of "acceptable risk". Here's hoping SONY/BMG is made an example.

St Thomas a Beckett Glenn Beckett Frederick Douglass

Pontius Pilate Inspector Gadget Spiro T Agnew

The Pillars of The Earth. Highly enjoyable mind candy, laid in the Middle Ages. Night-Elie Weisel. Still one of the most horrifying, powerful memoirs ever written. High Times, Hard Times-Anita O'Day. So far an engrossing read...

Baby Face Willette: Face To Face with Fred Jackson, Grant Green, Ben Dixon. So far a steady, burning groove. Peace, Blue Trane

Abby Mann A B "Abie" Normal August A Busch, Jr

Alan Sherman Steve Allen Benedict Arnold

Maury Povich Willis Conover Art Pepper

They were funny in person, too. Part of their stage show included showing how they did some of their tricks. You still needed quick reflexes to avoid pain as I found when I tried it at home with my brother the next day. Are they still featured on the AMC Channel?

Pope Gregory Pope Brock Lou Brock

Sterling Hayden Abbey Lincoln Dustin Hoffman

FWIW-I believe CD still represent the best use of my time and money-as long as my brick and mortar used CD/Lp store stays in business. Until MP3 files or another digital download format come to rival the CD 's sound quality, I won't buy digital downloads. This is partly because Jazz and Classical don't have "hits" that I want to cherrypick-albums often grow with me over time and my tastes are enriched thereby. The Coltrane and Monk I couldn't dig at first or second listen eventually became treasured works. In a very real sense improvising musicians/interpreters are "re-composers" and it's the performance I listen for as long as the musicians involved are dedicated to making my active listening worth my while. Rarely do I find filler or manufactured on demand tracks aka selling out in my genres of choice. So what if we're a niche market? And yes, I too appreciate photos, cover art, and liner notes-the latter contributed mightily to my musical listening education. Peace, Blue Trane

Thad Jones Elvin Jones Elvin Bishop

Coltrane: The Classic Quartet, Disc 2

Burleigh Grimes-noted spitballer Dazzy Vance Hal "Prince of Darkness" Chase Sparky Lyle Oil Can Boyd

Goose Goslin Wahoo Sam Crawford Walter "No Neck" Williams Dick "Dr Strangeglove" Stuart

Dorothy Parker Robert B Parker Penelope Cruz

THe Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Sessions-John Coltrane