Spontooneous

How soon we forget... Buck Clayton Shorty Baker (and one more for Benny Bailey here.)

His Riverside dates are quite fine, especially "Budd Johnson and Four Brass Giants." He adds spice to Gil Evans' "Out of the Cool." Look for "The Old Dude and the Fundance Kid" on Uptown, a co-leader date with Phil Woods. His last recording, I think. Never been on CD, AFAIK. Contains a Budd composition in 7/4. Not bad for a guy who was playing with Louis in 1933! Budd was one of the baddest of the bad. Quite an amazing career if you look at the totality. He died suddenly in Kansas City in '84, just hours after playing a gig with Jay McShann and Carmell Jones at the old Signboard Bar. I wasn't there, but people who were say that he was playing beautifully that night.

I once had a copy of Cannonball's "Jump for Joy" on Sears. A friend once had a Sears copy of the early "Tom & Jerry" recordings by Simon & Garfunkel. Sears releases are appealingly cheesy ... but they just don't have the delightful sleaze factor that Tops records have.

I'm with danasgoodstuff. The Charley Patton Paramount recordings.

Not to offind anyone, but is the goat blark or whit?

A question for those whose ears are more acute than mine: Are there pitch problems in the Columbia box? I used to monitor a 78-rpm record discussion group on the 'net, but quit doing so about the time this box came out. Before the release, there were fears among the group that the reissue producer wouldn't get the pitch/playback speed right. (Those "78 rpm" records were hardly standardized.) He apparently had messed up the pitch/speed on some other reissues. (No, I don't remember which reissues they were talking about...)

It was a lucky eBay purchase. There seem to be a lot of them on eBay lately.

The idea of Snoop as Miles is bothersome, yes... but somehow not as bothersome as the story from a few months back that Sean "P. Diddy" Combs was looking to portray Robert Johnson in a movie.

I'm awful late getting on this train, I know... I'm just now hearing this refreshing album for the first time, and I wanted to thank Geoff for making me aware of it.

Thanks, Gary. Can't quite tell with her eyes closed, but the lady is probably Blanche Williams, Claude's wife, who did so much to make the last years of his life good ones.

Check out Lionel Hampton's small-group recordings from the '30s for RCA, if you can find 'em now. The first of JSP's Django Reinhardt box sets is life-altering. (And maybe the 78 transfers weren't stolen. Hope the board's JSP police won't jump on me for recommending this one.) I assume you already have Billie with Teddy Wilson in the '30s. Many more thumbs up for Benny Carter "Further Definitions." And "Ben Webster and Associates" on Verve. And Prez, and Hawk, and the Ellington Units, and the early John Kirbys, and Fats Waller, and...

I've complained long and loudly in print about the lack of jazz festivals in Kansas City. Nothing's happened. Except maybe my readers got bored. The lack of action on the festival front by certain local "jazz advocacy" groups is just amazing. We've apparently got the jazz festival we deserve in KC, which is to say, none. This year, the Corporate Woods Jazz Festival has morphed into something much more commercial, and quite jazzless. Check http://www.jazzinthewoods.com. (The one acoustic jazz artist on the whole weekend's bill is apologizing to his friends and fans for having signed the contract to appear there before he knew about the format change.)

Some other things on the Stunt label have been distributed by Cadence. So maybe there's hope that this one will be fairly easy to get.

Eldar is genuine, not some jazz poser with a hat and dark glasses. He's sounding more and more like himself all the time. And he's evolving rapidly, in good ways. The last time I heard him live, about three months back, was the best I've ever heard him play. Now he sounds like someone who's open to taking chances and making mistakes, not a boy whose mom is looking over his shoulder as he plays. His writing seems to be getting better too. Frankly, a whole set of Eldar wears me out. So many notes! I hope that his Sony album sounds like much more than a chopsfest, despite the presence of Patitucci and Brecker. He is a genuinely nice and down-to-earth human being, with his head screwed on firmly. And he plays the correct bridge to "When Lights Are Low," not Miles' bridge. Argue all you want to over which artists deserve a major-label contract more than some teen who hasn't paid his dues. Still, there's something cool about Eldar, and I can't grudge him his success.

Welcome to the party, Gary. I came up in KC, but too late to have heard Charles. There's an organist here in town who tells stories about him, though. Are you guys very closely related to Ben Kynard, composer of "Red Top"?

Here's to many more, Chuck. And thanks for all you do for the music.

One of the truly original sounds. One of the few. One who expanded the possibilities for all. Elvin will ALWAYS be contemporary.

Nothing on the Associated Press or New York Times wires as of 4:30 p.m. Central.

Gotta check this one out. Also, the newly reissued Lee Konitz OJC, "Peacemeal," has Bartok material. That one's on my shopping list too.

P.S. Get the Etudes. Jacobs or Mitsuko Uchida.

Haven't heard Thibaudet. Might be a pretty good choice given other things I've heard from him. No set has ever displaced Paul Jacobs on Nonesuch for me. Probably none ever will. Passion, grace, humor, and no self-indulgence (despite what the Penguin Guide says). Great liner notes too. It's on two discs, so it's more expensive -- but in the end you'll be glad you spent those few extra bucks. Somebody is bound to enthuse over Arturo Benedetti-Michelangeli in the Preludes, but I don't get it. Sounded cold and bloodless to me. Zimerman's 2-disc set is a little indulgent at times, but mostly pretty good. If you must pay for two discs, pay for Jacobs.

Nobody mentioned my favorite transliteration of "shatchkovitch." On the RCA Red Seal 78 rpm album of the Sixth Symphony, conducted by Leopold Stokowski, the composer's name is given as "Szostakowicz." I guess Stokowski liked that Polish-leaning spelling.

This thread takes me back to the nights I misspent editing newspaper copy in those impeachment days of yore. Every night, the Associated Press would send at least one story that used the phrase "a blow to the presidency."

Lacy's "The Gleam" is one of the sextet's best. (But don't pull the trigger on this one if you can't abide Irene's singing.)

Boney Dog Smith here. You can call me Dawg.