Spontooneous

About three years back, someone tried presenting a jazz festival in Lawrence, Kansas, about 40 miles from Kansas City. They wanted a lot of Kansas City jazz musicians to participate. But they also insisted on some kind of wacky "no gigs within 100 miles for six months" clause in the contract. So nobody signed.

Don't miss the phenomenal Clarinet Quintet. (The cheap Naxos recording is actually better than some of the full-price competition.) Also the string quintets and sextets. More fun than the quartets. The more parts, the merrier.

A very healthy turnout last night. And lots of people I've never seen at these events before. (Fedchock said, "See, you just have to have two trombones on every gig.') Paul plays "Old Folks" fairly often, but last night's was especially beautiful.

Is there any more perfect drum performance on record than Jo on "Tickle Toe"?

Gee, that was my favorite photo of Bud...

You must be kidding Hmm...charming music decorated with a cover featuring a device designed to kill thousands of people. Just hilarious. See, we Americans ain't all nuke-happy. I think Claude was making a reference to his 'avatar'. Oh. Now I git it, when you draw me a diagram. Sorry about that. My day job is editing copy written by people who think that "nuke" is the funniest verb imaginable in a joking context. This leads me into arguments over nuclear metaphors and images quite often. As you can see, I'm getting pretty good at it.

You must be kidding Hmm...charming music decorated with a cover featuring a device designed to kill thousands of people. Just hilarious. See, we Americans ain't all nuke-happy.

Well, it sounded better when I was four years old and the car radio had tubes.

George Gruntz Henry Hyde I...I give up.

Has there ever been a more tragically unfitting album cover than this one? It's so wrong in so many ways.

Yes, there were several Rites on 78 sets. There's a composer-conducted version with a lousy French orchestra from about 1929; a version conducted by Pierre Monteux (who gave the premiere) with a slightly less lousy French orchestra, also made about 1929; Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra (as heard in "Fantasia") from the 1930s; and a 1940s remake with the composer conducting the New York Philharmonic. That remake is really, REALLY good. Those are the 78 recordings that come to mind. There are probably others.

A blue label Vocalion is probably a reissue from about 1938-1940. Not a lot of value. An original would be on the Okeh label.

The composer's 1960 recording, raggedy as it is, was the most important record in my musical development, period. I've never liked any of the Boulez recordings. They sound strangely smooshy and soft-core to me. I like Dorati, who's constantly interesting, even when I don't like his tempi. There's an Abbado on DG that isn't bad, coupled on some issues with a great Petrushka. The Markevitch, if you can find it, is never dull.

In his honor, enjoy some toast on a stick.

In the late '70s and early '80s, there were cutout copies of "Giant Box" EVERYWHERE. Shouldn't be too hard to turn up another one, cheaply.

I bet it pawns itself.

Makes one wonder. The late Trigger (who looked quite a bit like Syd), my companion for 18 years, ate an awful lot of one of the foods on that list. She died of cancer about four months back.

The Complete Lee Konitz Plays "All The Things You Are," an 85-CD set.

Did he sign the papers with a repeater pencil?

You're asking the wrong folks. It ain't OCD if it makes the sound better, I say. You didn't check your turntable speed with an A-440 tuning fork? I've reached the point in my life where this seems like a viable idea. Obviously I need professional help.

Looks like I'm gonna be having lunch with one of the guys from Jerry's Reconstruction band in a couple of weeks. Anybody have questions they want me to pass on?

Tom, this is one of my favorite threads on this board or any other. Thank you!

I tried to read it and got bogged down about 90 pages in. It's basically another dude-writes-about-his-record-collection book. No real insight at all. It's tragic that a major university press was snowed into thinking that this somehow advances jazz scholarship.

Yeah, but I want to see more shots of that tie Frank is wearing in the bassoon shot.

So when do we get a Wozzeck thread?