Spontooneous

Another Prez lift: There's a riff blues on "Sonny Stitt-Bud Powell-J.J. Johnson" (originally on Prestige, now OJCCD-009-2) that's built on the first phrase of his "Jive at Five" solo with Basie. I forget the title, and I'm away from home right now and can't check it.

Not a lower rung on the food ladder. This stuff is the sarcophagus inside the food pyramid.

I was late to the Jamal party. Didn't get there until "Digital Works" and "Rossiter Road." But oh, how I love those records! Here's one that few people seem to know about: Ahmad Jamal with the Assai Quartet, on the Roesch label, RR0042. The string-quartet arrangements work surprisingly well, and there's some revealing solo-piano material here too. KH1958 is right: Jamal has a telepathic relationship with James Cammack.

Yesterday, at a garage sale: Yummy vinyl of "A Jazz Message," Art Blakey Quartet (the Impulse date with McCoy Tyner and Sonny Stitt), and "Ella in Hamburg" (not sure I want to hear what she does with "A Hard Day's Night"). Today: Morton Feldman, "Words and Music," to a Samuel Beckett text.

Crossed the 20 threshold last year, and ain't no goin' back now.

Absolutely! Bobby Watson's "Post-Motown Bop" is one of his 2 or 3 best albums. I'm also inordinately fond of Jack Walrath's "Master of Suspense" and "Neohippus." Michel Petrucciani's "Power of Three" is a masterwork. McCoy Tyner's "Revelations" might also be one. The albums from Ralph Peterson and Geri Allen, all very fine, came from the Somethin' Else label in Japan. Maybe they'll be reissued over there. But the others, from BN/USA, might be in an undeserved reissue limbo for a long, long time. Alas, some of the titles probably DO deserve to be in reissue limbo. The Hubbard and Turrentine titles were big disappointments.

No room here for McKinney's Cotton Pickers? And don't forget the undersung Roland Hanna.

We're three pages into this and nobody's mentioned Coleman Hawkins! The godfather of all saxophone tone. Another one you can recognize right from the first note.

Damn alien career snatchers!

Saw Tom last week. He's been working on a political campaign, home repairs and job hunting. His cable modem's been messed up, though. Still the same Tom -- just not online at the moment. He shall return.

Subtle? I resent that!

My favorite Terence disc too. Played it again recently, after not hearing it for years, and found it to be even better than I remembered. There's a typo in the credits on the cover. The pianist is Bruce Barth.

Maybe someday we'll be calling him Oran "Hot Lips" Coltrane. (I want to personally thank all three readers who will get this joke.)

You know who's the only singer I've ever heard live who was brave enough to tackle "Laura"? Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson. I kid you not. Sang it beautifully too.

How many discs in your set, Guy? I've got a couple of these as stray singles, and I wonder how many I'm missing. Number 45!!

As for the question of where the $$$ came from... I once had the privilege of interviewing Mercer, about 1991. He said the band was still going at that point because of a wealthy patron. I couldn't delicately ask who the patron was, but I'm guessing he was talking about Helen Oakley Dance. Can anybody confirm or deny?

But personnel may vary slightly because somebody might have had passport trouble. I'm thinking of Sonny Payne, who had to miss at least one European tour. (A veteran drummer friend of mine once played a one-nighter in the Basie band on very short notice, because Sonny was in jail.)

Marcus Belgrave, David Newman and Hank Crawford will be represented by a composite character named Quincy.

Look up the chapter on Ray in Joe Goldberg's "Jazz Masters of the Fifties." Highly recommended. I'll give you a hint, from Ray's obituary on CNN.com: "Charles had his struggles. In 1964 he was arrested on drug charges and checked into a rehab center in California. He admitted he had struggled with a heroin addiction for 20 years. "He later became reluctant to talk about the drug use, notes The Associated Press, fearing it would taint how people thought of his work."

After some digging, found a personnel for the current LMO on the Web. According to Miguel Zenon's Web page, it's Carla Bley, Matt Wilson, Steve Cardenas, Joe Daley, Ahnee Sharon Freeman, Curtis Fowlkes, Miguel Zenon, Tony Malaby, Chris Cheek, Mike Rodriguez and Seneca Black.

Lots of Tapscott (though not "Dark Tree") available from www.nimbuswest.com. Anybody tried ordering direct from them?

This one was my introduction to Tapscott. A friend sat me down and made me listen to "Lino's Pad." I was struck by the ease with which they handled the 7/4 -- the bridge in 4/4 always comes as a jolt! Great choice, Adam. I'll come back to this one with pleasure.

My own intro to Brooks -- a damn fine one -- was on Paris Reunion Band, "French Cooking," Gazell GJCD-1002. With Nathan Davis, Johnny Griffin, Woody Shaw, Dizzy Reece, Slide Hampton, Kenny Drew and Jimmy Woode. July 3, 1985. The notes by Mike Hennessey say this: "Drummer BILLY BROOKS is perhaps the least widely known of the musicians on this album -- and that is a clear injustice because he is a brilliant, subtle player with a highly individualistic approach to the drums. Billy, who comes from Newark, New Jersey and now lives in Berne, Switzerland, came to Paris in 1964 to work with Nathan Davis, Woody Shaw and Larry Young at the Chat Qui Peche. He also played at the Blue Note, the Cameleon and the Club St Germain. In 1967 he moved to Spain and, after a period in Germany, settled in Berne in 1972 and became a teacher at the Berne Jazz School."

You mean Bush was ELECTED?

We can all be glad that record companies' obsession with jazz versions of Broadway shows was short-lived, can't we? (But, darn it, I still catch myself secretly hoping for a copy of Randy Weston's "Destry Rides Again.")