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Over the weekend, I got through John Fante's West of Rome. Not too crazy about this, particularly when the narrator goes off on how terrible it will be if his son marries a Black woman and then, gasp, has children... In my view, Fante's work hasn't aged all that well. I also got about halfway through The Heptaméron by Marguerite de Navarre. This was directly inspired by The Decameron, and indeed aspires to be the French Decameron. Some of the stories are interesting, but there is a cruelty to many of the stories, which is largely, though not entirely, absent in The Decameron. I definitely prefer Boccaccio. Also dipping into Koestler's Darkness at Noon. This is translated from the recently recovered German manuscript, which was assumed to have been lost during the War.

Yeah, that's why I don't want to get in too deep. I'm already too much of a completist when it just doesn't make much sense*. But I'm intrigued enough to check it out (a bit). * BBC Radio 3 has switched its jazz format over to Round Midnight, which is a daily jazz show (previous shows were weekly), so trying to keep up with that is too much, and I am trying to not get bogged down with regrets... 😁 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001xmqv

Thanks for sharing. 👍 Will try to listen to a bit.

Saw most of the early set at The Rex. Tonight was Eric St. Laurent. I stayed through 1.5 sets of the main act - Dick Oatts (as) with Neil Swainson (b) and Brian Dickinson (p). An unexpected surprise was Virginia MacDonald on clarinet. (She is Kirk MacDonald's daughter.) It was a solid night. I wanted to make sure to drop off a copy of that Woody Shaw CD, Vim and Vigor, that came out on Timeless recently, as Neil features on it. Swainson will be back at The Rex in a couple of weeks backing Ryan Oliver, and I'll try to make it out at least one night.

I was supposed to see Neil Young and Crazy Horse but some people in the band got sick and several dates were cancelled. Interestingly, Steve Earle was in town on the same night, doing a solo show, and I managed to get tickets to see him instead. Some good stories interspersed with his set.

I always put this on when I was trying to get my son to go to bed (as a small child)...

With very, very rare exceptions when music is donated to a library, it just goes into the sale pile. I've had enormous trouble in the past few years donating valuable books to university libraries, i.e. things not in their collection but should be, and have basically given up. It truly was easier 10 or 15 years ago to donate massive collections of things. The one exception I am aware of here is the Merrill SF library will take donations of SF or fantasy books if not already in their collection. And the AGO Library will take art books. Those are pretty much the only exceptions I can think of. In 20 years' time, I really don't think most music stores will be buying collections the way Jazz Record Mart or Amoeba do (or did) in the past. And with shipping prices going the way they are going, I can't imagine burdening someone with trying to sell it piecemeal through discogs... If we downsize and move to a condo downtown or something when the last kid leaves the nest, I'll try to get rid of almost everything at that time. I barely listen to my physical collection at all anymore.

I'm listening to this on iTunes (as Joe Pass Capitol Vaults Jazz Series). 🤪 I'm not entirely sure why none of the tracks from Sounds Of Synanon (PJ-48) were included. Was this discussed somewhere previously? There are close to a dozen PD versions of Sounds Of Synanon floating around out there, but it seems a shame there doesn't seem to be a legitimate release (at least on iTunes).

It's usually buried under the options, i.e. do you want CD, vinyl or downloads only, and then there will be a link to subscribe. You can also contact JiB directly, and I found them to be pretty helpful.

I wish I had been more organized about this. One thing that I did was start making a list of how many of the "great" jazz artists I had seen at least once, but my memory isn't good enough for the side artists. Like I'm almost (but not 100%) certain I saw Stanley Cowell one time with the Cookers, but there's always that nagging feeling I'm getting something wrong.

In the end, I found this very disappointing, primarily because almost none of the characters acted in plausible ways. I'm actually disappointed in myself for not dropping it sooner, but I thought the post-COVID storyline would be more interesting. It was not... I've just started Rushdie's Victory City. Aside from a starting point that is magic realism on steriods, it's pretty interesting so far. It reminds me a fair bit of The Enchantress of Florence, so your feelings about that novel will probably be a good guide for this one.

Yeah, I think so. I don't see a place to put in the code. I think Greenleaf is having another sale through the weekend. I think I may get a few things on Cuneiform, like Out of the Blue by Raoul Bjorkenheim/eCsTaSy and Ghost Surveillance by Algernon (a band from Chicago, that appears to be defunct). It would be better to wait until the next Bandcamp Friday, but it's not until Sept apparently! So I'll probably just get them now.

Am back from day 1 of the Toronto Bach Festival where they did mostly Bach (and snuck in a Vivaldi piece), including Brandenburg Concerto #3. Great performances in a fairly intimate space. Tomorrow there is a noontime all-organ performance at St. Andrew's. And yes, Toccata and Fugue in D minor is on the program. I'm not sure I've ever heard it live on a church organ before. (It is played as part of Powell and Pressburger's A Canterbury Tale, which I just saw about a week ago, but I feel confident hearing it in person will be more inspiring...)

I've actually seen her in person a few times, though not doing Lulu. She performs in Toronto generally once a year. I have tickets to see her Nov. 28 where she'll be doing pieces by Messiaen, Scriabin and Zorn. Should be interesting and challenging in equal measure.

PM sent