MartyJazz

Just offering my "2 cents" here - that's insane!

Well, most of us can cite times we experienced Dex. One of the most sublime live moments I can recall is when Dexter introduced Sonny Stitt in the audience at the Vanguard, stating tongue in cheek, "I'd like to call up an old.....old.......VERY old friend to the bandstand" and they both tore into McShann's "Jumping Blues". Just fabulous, a real highlight among quite a few I've witnessed. Just wanted to add a highly positive note about a great jazz artist.

Got my copies today. No problem with the Netflix-styled mailer. Will listen soon.

I gather Dobell's no longer exists in London. Loved that store many years ago where I copped quite a few very good jazz LPs, which shows you just how many years have passed as I've been purchasing CDs exclusively for many years now.

What does it usually command? One of these days I'll get around to parting with all the vinyl I have that's duplicated on CD.

Coincidentally, I have just viewed a couple of episodes from the first season - THE GERMAN WOMAN and LESSON IN MURDER - the DVDs having been available at my local library. Enjoyed them very much and appreciate the production values, e.g., the re-creation of early '40s ambiance in and around the British countryside, as well as the weaving in of wartime concerns with the drama inherent in each mystery. Hope to get a few more out of the library before I start using my Netflix membership to seek them out.

Not familiar with Cool Summer or tade. Can you 'splain? Cool Summer: Dexter Gordon & McCoy Tyner (2002) From a online review: When Dexter Gordon takes the stage, he deflects the audience's applause to his horn, but there's a bit of false modesty there, I'd guess. The disc gets right to it, and he sounds great. His performance is intercut with backstage interview footage of him; he doesn't have anything especially revealing to say, and the clips only impede the sense of flow, as they're spliced into the first song in his set. You never really get the feeling of what it's like to be on stage, or even in the audience, but man, Gordon can blow that horn. Unfortunately, we get only a truncated little set, running less than half an hour, of three songs—they are: Cheesecake Skylark Backstage at the Village Skylark is probably the best of these, a plaintive sax rendition of a torch song standard. I remember seeing this when it was broadcast on TV (the series was called Harvest Jazz, from 1982 ) and was not very impressed. The other portion has McCoy Tyner with Bobby Hutcherson, that I have not seen. The "Cool Summer" DVD of separate sets of Dexter & McCoy is available now on eBay, little time left, for $11.96 + $4.50 for domestic shipping. The fact that there is a cutaway from a performance in order to interview is a turnoff to me but perhaps not to others. Here.

No tix necessary. Just walk in, sit down at a table or at the bar and pay the cover and your bill when you left. I didn't get to Slugs until 1970 but saw a few great acts there: Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Charles Mingus, and of course, Lee Morgan (including his final performance).

Of all the great recordings he made, my favorite Dexter solo is on, of all things, Herbie Hancock's first Blue Note session, TAKIN' OFF. Specifically, I'm referring to Dexter's extended, cohesive and moving solo on "The Maze". I don't know how any jazz saxophone lover can listen to that solo and 1) not dig it &/or 2) think it's just the work of an "average" saxophonist.

With respect to Dex, I have a tenor playing friend, who's playing I like, who HATES Dexter Gordon's tone. Won't even discuss it with me and he and I generally have pretty similar taste. I think that the fact that people tend to come down strongly on one side or the other is attributable to a unique style. Stand out as an individual and be prepared to be loved and hated. But that's art, right? I don't see how one can absolutely "hate" Dexter's tone inasmuch as it changed throughout his career. His sound during the '40s through the '60s is, to my ears, very different from that he manifested in his late Steeplechase & Columbia recordings of the late' 70s to the early '80s. The earlier sound was more taut and muscular, while the later sound could be quite turgid at times. Needless to say, I reserve the highest rank for the Blue Notes and the sessions he recorded for various labels during the late '60s.

Will do.

Relax. RT said he'd post the answers before the end of this calendar year. He still has a lot of time.

A post Blue Note Dexter session that I really love and recommend is A DAY IN COPENHAGEN (MPS). Recorded in '69, it's a sextet gathering that includes wonderful performances by Dizzy Reece and Slide Hampton, the latter also responsible for a very exciting up tempo arrangement of what is normally a standard jazz ballad, "You Don't Know What Love Is". Every track on this session is a winner. Unfortunately, it is no longer readily available on CD. I myself only have the LP. I'll pick up the CD too if I get the chance.

http://www.reuters.hu/card_dom/index_content.html

I never did see the videotaped show of Piano Jazz and therefore am wondering just who was the pianist guest?

How does he look?

I'd love to have heard the Cecil especially he and Marian playing duets with each other. What I heard at the time though was that Cecil was extremely cordial and very happy to be on the show, something that surprised MM somewhat. I'd love to get a copy of that as well as the recent one with Andrew. I have the released CDs of she with Corea, Bill Evans and Brubeck and also private CD-Rs of she with McCoy, Marilyn Crispell and Michael Weiss. They're all wonderful listening. The powers that be seem to be more interested, as always, in putting out the ones with greater commercial potential, e.g., Marian with Steely Dan, Elvis Costello, etc.

An alto is featured prominently on Track #4, "Con Alma". Yet your personnel listings for that track do not indicate any reed players. So who's the featured player on this track?

Lainie Kazan Elia Kazan Hans Kazan

Whenever they say "it's not about the money"........

Kay Kyser Kay Starr Kai Winding

This deal just goes to show how the real "idiots" are we fans who get so wrapped up in a team and its players. There is absolutely no sense of loyalty among players who, given the structure with which they are free to operate (and certainly that is how it is in the business world), will move without a care in the world to the "enemy". Being a hard core Yankee fan, certainly Damon not only obviously represents an upgrade over Bubba Crosby, his absence totally diminishes the Red Sox, a team he had come to personify. I hate to say it but there is definitely a sadness to this. Thankfully, I grew up in the '50s and '60s. If free agency had resulted in Mickey Mantle signing a contract with the Red Sox or Sandy Koufax leaving the Dodgers to pitch for the New York Mets, etc., I would have been totally appalled and my ardor for baseball would have been quenched in my relative infancy. My condolences to Dan, blues for Bartok et al.

I'm biased when it comes to '60s Newk. Loved the 2nd album as well as the 1st.

While perusing a number of CDs at a 2nd CD store I like to frequent, it occurred to me that I was eliminating a few for purchase based on the sight of certain standard tunes that either never did anything for me or that have become such warhorses I really don't care to listen to yet other versions, no matter the artist. Anyway, my nominees for tunes that turn me off: Willow Weep for Me Tenderly Sunday Over the Rainbow Come Rain or Come Shine Lover Man I realize that a great songwriter or two are involved in the above list, e.g., Harold Arlen (whose output is justifiably celebrated) but that's where I'm at. How about you?

Yeah, I have to agree because he looked way past 58 and we know that smoking does age you faster. I, a non smoker, was shocked to discover that I'm older (by 2 years) than he was. In any event, he was the consummate professional, quite credible in every role he took on. RIP.