Spontooneous

Oh, dear. Just "The Music of Hank Mobley." Not "The Life and Music of Hank Mobley." Another entry in the burgeoning field of guy-writes-about-his-record-collection books that are passing for real jazz scholarship at presses that should know better?

I like the tempi in the Kubelik First. His speedboat Sixth is the one that's too fast for me.

Hey, bringing Donna into the band was a pretty good idea in theory. They were always looking to tighten up the high harmonies. Wasn't practical to have Phil singing them, assigning the highest part to the guy with the deepest voice. But Donna wasn't comfortable on the higher parts either -- her voice wasn't really much higher than Garcia's. Factor in lots of cocaine and allow for some crazy personal circumstances ... and there ya go. Hey, later on Brent's voice got pretty burnt out on those higher parts too. Casting voices was not Garcia's forte. Listen to the out-of-tune backup singers in the latter-day Jerry Garcia Band. Just about as bad as 1970s Donna.

With the Walter set you've got versions of 3 and 4 that are among the best. The First in Walter's stereo set isn't up to the rest, though. Walter did a mono set in the '50s with the New York Philharmonic that's often even better than the stereo set. The LPs turn up at Goodwill now and then, and they're well worth watching for.

I'll take a download too.

I enjoyed Kostelanetz' Victor 78 of "Chant of the Weed."

I wouldn't take the newspaper report that Hank died at the hospital as gospel. When someone dies on the street, or a hotel, or in any number of unusual places, the newspaper obituary will often say the person died at the hospital they were taken to.

Any particular reason? I ask because, while I haven't heard it, I've read some good things about that recording. I only have Bernstein doing Brahms' symphonies. I like them, but have nothing to compare them to. Sluggish tempi. Weird balances. The Chicago brass at their most blaring. When I want to hear slow Brahms, I pull out the Kurt Sanderling set instead. (It's gorgeous.) If you want to give Decca some money for Brahms, get their Kertesz set instead. Beats drinking the Solti Kool-Aid.

This is all part of a giant conspiracy to take my tax refund away from me. And it's working beautifully.

It's true. I've seen him. Pat Metheny's father is bald.

OK, I give up. The horse is cool. The car is not. Driving on the wrong side of the road to make a YouTube vid, as these guys are doing at the 2:02 mark, is definitely not cool.

Now I see that all but five of the tunes were lurking somewhere in my collection. You'd think I would have ID'd more. I'll be looking for that Dakota LP. Heck, I'll be looking for the Matty Matlock too. That was cool.

Stay away from that Solti set, please. I'm really bothered by Karajan in the odd-numbered symphonies, but the even-numbered symphonies go pretty well with him. The Abbado set struck me as not too much better than OK, except for a great non-consensus reading of the Second(!). Old faves are Horenstein in 1; Monteux in 2; Klemperer in 3; Reiner in 4.

Larry, maybe you were seeing manifestations of physical pain? The man had some real problems from playing so long, so hard.

Update: This story now has more than seven times as many Web hits as ANY other on my paper's site this week.

Took the plunge and ordered five CDs from Newbury. Received a package containing five CDs within a week, but two of them weren't what I ordered. At least the guy on the phone in customer service is being nice about it.

Guess what story is getting more Web hits than any other on the site of the newspaper I work for...

Pretty standard collection of Ibrahim material. But the string arrangements are not mawkish at all. Schnyder is an interesting cat.

My sympathies. My Duke's Men Vol. 1 has the same problem, two of Disc One. Seems to me that a lot of CBS sets from that period had collation problems. My first copy of the Mingus Epitaph set also had two Disc Ones.

Indeedy. (Though I'm still partial to my well-worn Joe Turner "Cherry Red"/"Baby Look at You" shellac.)

A wonderful version by "Eddie Durham and his Orchestra," with Buster Smith blowing his ass off, was recorded for the 1940s American Decca "Kansas City Jazz" set. Wish I knew of a CD reissue. I confess I've never liked the later Ernie Wilkins arrangement for Basie. The 1932 Moten is still tops in my book.

So was Sarah Jessica Parker the one on the right?

One of those Columbias got a recent CD reissue here.

Fifty years! Someone in Andorra is taking note of that fact.

What they said. When it's all over and done, you'll find a lot to remember, and you won't be remembering any momentary discomfort the vocals may have caused.