Fer Urbina

"Strictly Instrumental", I presume. The info regarding the Winner's Circle recordings is not very precise regarding the actual dates, but personnel is clear. You can see it in the Oscar Pettiford discography and jazzdisco.org (the info on this one is correct, AFAIK). F

Paco de Lucía did one album with John McLaughlin and Larry Coryell (Castro Marín, 1981), and three with McLaughlin and Al di Meola (Friday Night in San Francisco, 1981, Passion, Grace and Fire, 1983, and The Guitar Trio, 1996). Famous as they are, I don't think they give a fair measure of Paco's artistry. Anyone interested in his work should check out Siroco, Zyryab, and Sólo quiero caminar and Live... One Summer Night (these two with the sextet) and going further back Almoraima or his first solo album, recorded when he as 19, La Fabulosa Guitarra de Paco de Lucía. Even the 2-CD compilations Universal has released over the years are not so bad. I've written about Paco in my blog. This has hit harder than expected, and in my case it may be because Paco was the first musician I was ever aware of (I was three when "Entre dos aguas" came out), and his rumbas are the first syncopated music I ever heard. F

Got them a couple of weeks ago in London.

FWIW Source. F

Gopnik wants to make a point and to do that, he makes up a premise which doesn't hold water at all, and it is so far away from the truth that you have to question either his ability as a listener, or his honesty as a writer. And that gets published in The New Yorker. F

So far the only confirmation I've seen is on Jazzcorner's FB page. Silver had been ill with Alzheimer's for some time. Rest in peace. F PS Gheorghe, you meant this? Thanks!

Not being facetious, but did they really swang their pelvises while marching? F

The late Peter Broadbent seemed to have (from what he said on the second edition of his Charlie Christian bio) the acetate of the famous "Topsy" (a/k/a "Swing to Bop", a/k/a "Charlie's Choice"), but as far as I know he sold it before he died. Also, Jerry Newman seems to have been pretty busy on May 8, 1941. The "Stompin' at the Savoy" from Minton's (with Charlie Christian et al) only released on Volume 9 of the Masters of Jazz CD series is also from that date. F

Gardner is still around, in England. He writes for Jazz Journal. F

I don't start many threads, but boy, has this one gone intense... Anyway, I don't get much into these arguments among other things because I think that you Americans have to do a lot of talk among yourselves about race issues (not that us Europeans are free from any of that). Besides the fact that those "communities" imply some sort of generalization (I'm not talking about neighbourhoods), I don't think we can talk about a single African American community, at least not one covering the whole of the USA. I think the differences between the African American lower and the middle classes are clear enough and deep enough for us to speak about a uniform group of people, from the different ideologies of African American leaders, to the reaction to and relationship with popular African American music (blues and jazz, for instance). F

Larry Kart, Max Harrison, Dan Morgenstern, would probably be at the top for me for making me listen harder. Ira Gitler for the first-hand accounts. I also enjoyed Ethan Iverson's liner notes for Brad Mehldau's Art of the Trio boxed set. In the liner note writer and musician category, Bob Brookmeyer can be hilarious. The worst ever for me is Stanley Crouch on Wynton Marsalis's records, especially the early ones. Some things should be done in private. F

Off jazz, I don't think I've ever seen George Brassens's 14-CD set L'intégrale des albums originaux at €30 + shipping. From Amazon France. F

This Savoy reissue reunites all the studio and live recordings, if I'm not mistaken. F

I know what you mean, but having read 2/3 of the book I gotta say that the criticism rings more true than the compliments, which seem a bit forced. FWIW, I was really looking forward to this book, in spite of having more than a passing knowledge of Crouch's writings about jazz. Let me give you just one example of what I think it's wrong with the book. I love this one, because it's at the end of an odd page. The paragraph begins : End of page. I love Lester Young and I could easily fill a page off the cuff with reasons why I love Lester Young and why I think he's important. And so could many people I know anyway. So, you turn the page to I don't know what others make of this, but IMHO it's vague, unnecessary and uninformative. The direct witnesses' accounts are great, but the rest... F

Too many adjectives for my taste. Personally, a no-no in any kind of literature. F

I'm still on page 118, but I tend to agree with Larry Kart. There are quite a few passages that just drag along. I'm also rather intrigued by the font size and line spacing. I have the impression that the whole business could have been fit into one volume. It'd be interesting to compare the word count with Kelley's Monk bio. F

I think the problem is not so much factuality (it'd be silly to waste so much effort put into research) but how much of Crouch there'll be in the book. I've read everything he's written about Wynton and much of what he's done about jazz, and there's a lot I don't agree with. And it's not so much that I don't agree with his worldview, everyone's entitled to their own, but with a certain dogmatism about it. Priestley's book (which I think is very good) may seem a bit impersonal or dry because, as an author, he turns himself invisible. Haddix is not too far from that style, either. It'd be impossible for Crouch to take that approach, he's more assertive as a writer, but even so, and despite the long history of writings I personally don't have much use for, I look forward to the book. In the interview with Ratliff he sounds humbled by the story he's telling, and more interested in telling it well than in any of his own agendas. My two cents.

I thought that was quite interesting. Agreed. This, by Ratliff, worries me: "a book that is heavy on your [Crouch's] own interpretation of American life". I'll still read the book, though. F

I know, I just wanted to elaborate from that. You're welcome. I should add that it's not a long book, and it's well written as in very easy to read. As for the level of detail, I haven't compared it properly with previous books on Bird, but some of the stuff looked "new" to me. F

OK, OK...

Haddix's book is a straight biography, with no musical analysis, just passing comments on it. I'm half way reading it and it's very strong and specific on the pre-1945 stuff, as expected from his being based in KC, his own research and his access to Frank Driggs's (they did a book together on KC jazz). F

Comparing Priestley to Russell is grossly unfair on Priestley, and ignorant about the extent of Russell's fabrications (he's the main responsible for the Massey Hall legend, as I explained in my blog). What Brian did is to compile all solid biographical information available on Bird with some tidbits of his own, and added a very clear explanation of the music. IMHO it's a very good introduction to Bird. With two new biographies coming out shortly, Priestley's book can be found for very little cash. F

Allen, Are they going to be available as e-books? F

I second this. IIRC, Haydon was friends with Roach. You have a couple of interesting references here: http://ncpedia.org/roach-max F

The Bauer bit is not correct. However, Christian did record with the big band. I'm not sure as to whether he performed life with the big band playing strictly rhythm (he got to play "Solo Flight" towards the end of his time with Goodman). The discography in the Mosaic box is worth a look regarding Covey/Christian. F