Spontooneous

My all-time fave album titles remain "More Songs About Buildings and Food" (Talking Heads) and "Bad Music for Bad People" (The Cramps). But some good jazz titles come to mind... Bobby Watson, "Post-Motown Bop" Cecil Taylor, "One Too Many Salty Swift and Not Goodbye" David S. Ware, "Earthquation" Oh yeah, and "Waiting for the Boogaloo Sisters." B)

Sad to say, that "Basie's in the Bag" cover also has a US release, on US Decca's Brunswick label.

I'm 44, not a very strongly built guy. I fail to exercise. Gotta watch my blood sugar. But I'm getting by. I'm one of those people who swallow a fistful of supplements every day. Vitamins, fish oil, some days some herbal things.

I'm gonna let my Kaycee prejudices show here by recommending the Basie jam session with Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, who got so few opportunities to blow so freely on record. And the Mary Lou Williams solo recital from Montreux is a definite keeper too. Here's a hearty second to the Sarah Vaughan "How Long...?" and the Gillespie/Machito session.

In the early days of my newspaper career, I was assigned to write a lengthy obituary of a man whose last name was Boner. This was made far more difficult to carry out in a dignified fashion by the fact that Mr. Boner was a very important man in the grease and lubricant industry.

Don't know any other Disneyland sides, but I can tell you all that "Disney Songs the Satchmo Way" is worth wading through just to hear the moment when Pops sings, "Bibbidi, Bobbidi, Boo, mama!" It's on Buena Vista CD-006.

All this from one message today. Think I'll call it "Begin Earth Polka": heavy xylem hasty madam tease woman dives solve risks merry the xylem magma soars the gaily golfs hands cross seven simon medic sabin grins tease paste a exams khaki karat cause brush proof there night boxer sever as field fewer karat salon rowdy sarah wheel taste leave fairy heels apply waves solar also drink super was badge above sabin, cycle quilt homes cadet was width begin earth polka jiffy caddy later dives fader quote sacks as bread glory a naked today seven judge soars entry short north alone belts also train digit abets novel weirs crack modal river piano swift stood fresh weird often meows state man salty texas creed modem unsay photo abode wheel rapid after holds brace chips ashes weird boing alarm, salad sever pacts teats medic salsa covet among rival yield niece stops pilot salad ducks sacks pilot brace eerie popup cloak least helps man young

Another "Skies" fan here. Didn't Ornette get a chance to perform "Skies" again in the '90s, or '80s? Did anybody here hear it? Don't care much for "Forms and Sounds," though.

Elmo Hope Trio (the one originally on Contemporary) Thad Jones (the one originally on Debut) Art Pepper -- Smack Up Gigi Gryce and the Jazz Lab Quintet Mal Waldron -- Mal 1 Dizzy Reece -- Asia Minor Benny Carter -- Jazz Giant Art Farmer -- Portrait of Art The Jaki Byard Experience (plus everything everybody else has mentioned)

Hey, Tom, I was wondering where you were! Look on the Web, if you can, for a program called CWS Shredder. You've got a variant of a really pernicious little bot called Cool Web Search, and the shredder takes it out very well -- better than Spybot Search and Destroy. Good luck.

I've gotten this one three times: Is a college degree holding you back?

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.