Spontooneous

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.")

Flann O'Brien, "At Swim-Two-Birds" Parts of William Faulkner's "The Hamlet" are among the very funniest stuff ever written in English. An absurd masterpiece is Flaubert's unfinished, maybe unfinishable, "Bouvard and Pecuchet."

At my humble home on 59th Street, I regularly receive mail addressed to 55th Street, 69th Street, 79th Street and 99th Street. And occasionally 159th Street. The same Christmas card clearly meant for a 55th Street address was delivered to my home FOUR TIMES. They know me by name at the complaint window of our local PO.

Just did a Google search on the Girard Gibbs law firm mentioned in the long post. Found their Web site. But all it seems to do is re-direct you to a different site, dedicated to slamming another company. Weird.

Yes, it was the mayor who bid on the Bird horn. The taxpayers of KC were told that the price on the horn was $119K, not $145K. Maybe there were some other fees added on. In the same auction, the city bought "five other items" for $21K, the newspaper clippings say, including a piece of Parker music manuscript. No other details offered.

No major tour scheduled for the band, I'm told. These five guys have a LOT of commitments and it's hard to get them all together at once. (Vivid illustration: Just last month, Terell was in KC for a leader date -- on a weekend when Bobby had to be out of town. The only Watson at the show was Pam.)

Not too long after the plasic sax arrived in KC, the museum engaged Jackie McLean to play a few licks on it. They also brought in Max Roach and Richard Davis to accompany him. You shoulda heard that trio! Gotta admit I'm not fond of the statue. I know folks who really like it, but I also know I'm not alone on this.

The rhythm section on this one can do no wrong. A great performance from Edward Simon, Essiet Essiet and Victor Lewis. (Listen to how many DIFFERENT grooves there are in "Lemoncello," and how seamlessly they fit together.) Weakest tracks are 4 and 5, I'd say. But the strong stuff is very strong indeed. A factoid that's not in the liner notes: "Permanoon" is written by David Moore, who's a student of Watson's at UMKC.

He's on a TON of Prestige and Swingville sessions around 1959-60. (Type his name into the towerrecords.com search engine!) I was just last night listening to the compilation of Bill Jennings sessions, where Marshall's in the rhythm section with Jack McDuff. This is pretty light stuff, but so sweet and tasty. One false move and the cake would collapse. It never does. Marshall keeps it floating. (Mixed metaphor, but you know what I mean.)

Time to share some Kansas kulture. Here's the tornado siren up the street from my house:

Louis' first recorded solos are with Oliver, yes. But plenty of artists recorded solos on other records earlier. Fr'instance, Joe Oliver. We'll probably never identify the first. It sure wasn't Louis, though. He's not the first. Just one of the most amazing of all time, for all time.

Very far from being the first person to solo on record. Very far indeed.

Doesn't 1422 figure in all this somehow?