Spontooneous

When I heard live him in 2004, there was no snooze factor. Rory Kirk was in the audience. Valentin said that Hilton Ruiz had made him buy "I Talk With The Spirits" a couple of years earlier -- then looking at his instrument, he said, "I haven't been able to play this thing the same way since."

Sound quality on the Armstrong is nice, greatly superior to the Monk set. But the performance is VERY subpar.

You won't get the same sound quality from the Monk set. It sounds grainy and kinda nasty, like someone NoNoised it to excess.

About 1973, when I was getting heavy into pop music, one of the radio stations here in KC distributed free copies every month of Phonograph Record Magazine. (Lester Bangs was among the writers.) The magazine was BIG on The Move. But of course, you couldn't hear their music on the radio here. Luckily I found a promo single of "Tonight" in a charity sale before too long. Loved it to death. It was followed by a thrift-shop single of "Fire Brigade." And the "Message from the Country" LP. I remain a fan.

So we stream the audio and capture it with Audacity or some other software. No more controversy.

I always wondered how much better Floyd Horsecollar Williams could have played without that darned heavy collar. We won't even mention Willis Jackson's unfortunate gator tail.

Personally I'd rank the Closing of Winterland set lowest of the three. Preference here is Three From the Vault. I'm not the biggest Pigpen fan, but this set shows brilliantly why he matters.

Just posting this link to make sure that everybody here knows about the newly escaped soundboard tape from 10-22-71. The show has a MONSTER Other One.

I thought he got punched out by Art Blakey.

Promo copies showed up the other day. So far I've listened to two. The Monk set is a disappointment. Grainy sound -- maybe someone NoNoised it to within an inch of its life. And the performance is for completists only. The larger-ensemble tracks are disappointing. Buddy Collette is cool, but Bobby Bryant is an awful drag. The Pops set sounds MUCH better but isn't a very distinguished performance. Billy Kyle and Peanuts Hucko are having a good night, though. Velma Middleton sounds especially awful.

The beautiful take of "Groovin' High," with Ernie Henry, is worth the price of the whole set.

Shoulda called this one "Fearless Co-Leader."

Oh, I keep forgetting about Vinyl Renaissance. Mainly because of their prices.

I pulled this one out last week. Nice coincidence! Beautiful transfers, and the music burns.

Since the Music Exchange and Recyled Sounds closed last year, it's no fun hunting for vinyl in KC anymore. The three Half Price Books stores (Westport, Overland Park and Olathe) and the place on 39th (it's called Zebedee's) are essentially all we've got left, and that ain't much. It's a drag. Nowadays I have to get my vinyl fix by leaving town.

Probably meant "number of the beast part."

Repeat: If one or more of the artists involved is dead at the time of the "collaboration," it ain't collaboration.

OK, as long as his first words weren't "Get these f***in' electrodes outta my brain!"

Yep, longest cuts are Pig's. And he is putting his boot in the band's collective ass. This show is one of his best levitation acts ever. (Found out not long ago that I share a birthday with Osama bin Laden.)

Sal had a groove of his own. RIP.

If the Blackhawk recordings are any indication, Mobley fell into his just-playing-licks bag with Miles a lot. Ever notice that on the Blackhawk sides, the rhythm section sparkles in the trumpet and piano solos but often sounds bored during the tenor spots?

Another reason to hear the trio live is the creative tension between the placid piano of Arriale and the bumpier drumming of Steve Davis. It really works. The energy comes across pretty well on the live CD/DVD combo on Motema.

84.6 meters. But that was lucky. Usually I get shredded by the ceiling fan.

I could get behind that idea. Maybe improvised interludes around the electronic interludes. Hey, kids, let's start a band!

Hey, wait a minute...what flute solo? Ionisation is the percussion-only piece. The chances of anyone improvising a more beautiful coda to that piece are pretty much nil.