Spontooneous

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?

Let us now praise the lowly fuse. I have a very nice Rotel turntable that was abandoned at a thrift shop because it wouldn't go. But all it needed was a fuse. After the 99-cent repair, I'm now enjoying my $10 Rotel very much.

OK, I got it: "I need that polysorbate-80, That monosodium glutamate-y. Little Debbie is my desire, Responsible for my spare tire."

May all your tiles be good ones, Randy. Go get 'em!

Help! I'm stuck! What rhymes with "polysorbate-80"?

I'm shocked. He came to Kansas City several times and never disappointed. There was a brilliant sparkle and sense of fun to his playing. He was also charming, and helpful to younger musicians. I saw him give Art Blakey's phone number to a KC player he thought was Messenger material. (It was just a months before Blakey died, so it wasn't to be.) Rest in peace, James.

1. I'd have said Uptown, because I have a weakness for Betty Roche. No problem with Eclipse, though. An apple or an orange? 2. The Brunswick/Vocalion set is a broader and deeper overview of early Ellington than the Okeh set. Many of the Okeh performances don't seem as fresh. The Brunswick/Vocalion set has higher highs. Lower lows, too, but now many. Assembling the Classics collection is frustrating and expensive. I gave up trying.

Then there was that trumpet player named Joe Oliver, who definitely got it right the first time.

"Ohhhhh, Little Debbie is my sweetie The girl who gave me diabetes..."

Brownie's right. Prez's "Lady Be Good" and "Shoe Shine Boy" solos were hugely influential, widely studied, widely quoted. They changed the world. Don't forget Bird's "Hootie Blues" solo with McShann.

Sounds good. McIntosh shouldn't go unsung. I catch myself wishing for a reissue of a James Moody LP on Chess called "The Great Day," with four out of seven tunes by McIntosh. With Johnny Coles, Bernie Leighton, Jim Hall, Richard Davis and Mel Lewis. And we'll get a little McIntosh in the impending Jazztet Mosaic!

A co-worker looking over my shoulder while I was on this board thought he was seeing the word "orgasm" at the top. I'm guilty of the same sort of misreadings.

More thanks here. But I'll never understand why there aren't more albums with the word "Freap" in the title.

Interesting question. Does Don Byas count? Sid Catlett doesn't do a single bit of damage on that 1945 Dizzy and Bird date. And wouldn't we love to have a recording of the Earl Hines bands with Dizzy and Bird and Sass? But surely the champ in this category is Woody Herman, who did a lot more than mess around with bop, to say the least.