fasstrack

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/12/The_Death_Collector_DVD_cover.jpg&imgrefurl=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_Collector&h=314&w=214&tbnid=8xb03ZgkhO4aAM:&tbnh=186&tbnw=126&docid=Y2LSWD_qz35ArM&itg=1&usg=__BPbO5cLkA00rpCuahndPwXXV7rg= What can I tell you? I have a fascination with wiseguys...

You really don't have to say much. Sometimes just 'hello' will suffice. Talking to the crowd is not a bad idea, though. I remember the late Clarence 'C'. Sharpe relating a story wherein a club owner told him 'You're in show business! Open your mouth. Say something!' He started talking after that. C. was a talker, though, and that may not be you. I talk a bit on my own gigs if I'm the leader, and fancy myself a jokester. I think, though, it's the attitude you project more than what you say that will entertain and engage people. Just the basics: dress nicely, no surly looks, give the folks the feeling that you respect them and the $ they spent to come out and hear/support live music. All the while be yourself. People can read phoniness and will be turned off by it. The main point is that if people like you they may be more apt to like your music. Of course, never change a note of, or dumb down, your music. People will get it. Hope this helps a little...

I wish KCR broadcasted jazz 24/7. Listening to WBGO right now, and they don't even come close to KCR's jazz programming. I do like Rhonda Hamilton---the host as I listen---she is knowledgeable and personable. But the playlist I can live without. They just played a ditzy Pat Metheny Brazilian composition, for example. Long live WKCR!

I can attest that Sharif is a great guy. I was a guest on his show, and was treated royally, also the same when I ran into him afterwards. He is warm and positive, and, perhaps most importantly, plays artists deserving of airplay whom WBGO wouldn't touch.

Listening to Bird Flight right now. They're playing a Symphony Sid airshot from Boston. Unfortunately, Phil Schaap soon to follow. Very glad they are back online...

What was James Mason's accent anyway? Never been able to figure that out...

My friend, the lovely and beauteous Tania, took me to the Morgan Library for my birthday last month. There were Rembrandts on exhibit, and also original Chopin manuscripts...

Exact same lips and honker... I wonder if Benny Golson's tune title was inspired by this film...

Looks remarkably like Harry Connick, Jr., doesn't he?

I assume that is one of Mr. Zappa's creations?

? What's a UMRK?

I'm on a autodidact musical self-improvement bender. Currently reading Something to Live For (Walter van de Leur), which analyzes examples of Billy Strayhorn's pieces---and I just ordered Don Sebesky's The Contemporary Arranger (not so 'contemporary' anymore, I believe it came out around '79, but still a great arranging textbook/CD)...

Balmy and uncomfortable in Bronx, NY---2 days running. Fortunately, I am indoors...

Palmenteri, sorry. (Was unable to edit previous post)...

After A Bronx Tale I later watched Donnie Brasco (geez, I need some things to do...). Funniest line: Lefty, on ABSCAM boat with Donnie/Joe: You go to the bough. I'll stay at the stern... Palmentieri looked amazingly death-like lying in the coffin. Just like a real stiff...

I did think Sonny and the band were a bit subdued on this. Not at all a bad thing, BTW. His solos were shorter and less exploratory than the usual for this period. I have a feeling that this performance was taped in a T.V. studio with no audience present (there is no applause audible), therefore the numbers perhaps had to be somewhat truncated...

I heard there's a possibly better one coming out shortly...

Notice how Kenny Drew solves Sonny's piano 'problem' by laying out for most of Sonny's choruses. It's generally a good orchestrational device, anyway, waiting and introducing a new color. Works well here... ...choruses on the first tune, I meant. Wasn't allowed to edit my post for some reason...

Just watched A Bronx Tale. Call me lowbrow, but I thought it damn good. It had a lot of heart---even had Duke Pearson's Cristo Redentor in the soundtrack in one scene. Only thing is, DeNiro should pay royalties to Martin Scorsese. The gangster scenes were pretty derivative, down to the use of music. Hell of a movie, though, for what it tried to do and did...

In an interview in the documentary Eat That Question he seemed to infer that he was deemed more interesting than his music. He said, more or less, 'I'm famous, but no one seems to know what for'...

I saw American Gangster. Brutal. IIRC, Ruby Dee played Washington's character's mother... Hilarious! Thanks, I've been needing to laugh all day. Maybe one day I'll see this piece of dog crap and laugh at it... Here's a review: https://letterboxd.com/film/one-more-time/

Got it to work again. It works half the time. Bizzare...

The only time I ever saw Charles Mingus in the flesh he was not performing. He walked into Bradley's in the mid-late 70s. Jimmy Raney was on the stand. Mingus's arms were like tree trunks. I caught a tad of his conversation, something to the effect of 'that's what I been doing'... I do recall seeing Max Roach once. Don't remember the details, but it was a Dizzy Gillespie event at Lincoln Center, and Paul West was on bass. Max was sort of challenging him by accenting 1 and 3, perhaps to see how West would react. He came into the Schomberg performance space in the '90s, to hear a tribute to Nat Cole. He was dressed like a king, and beamed when he said to the audience he was amid 'thank you all for coming'. I seem to recall him grabbing my arm at that moment...

Still having problems with it. I click and nothing happens. Why?