ejp626

So I had to take a break and skim a lot of books on South Africa, specifically Johannesburg, but I have some time for fiction again. I am in fact reading Bradbury's Rates of Exchange. Droll, but I'm enjoying it. Then I'll probably read Metropole and then maybe back to Mahfouz and Nabokov, though I haven't been enjoyed them as much as I thought. I have a new gym book, and it's pretty good - Millhauser's Dangerous Laughter. (Love the cover - like an old Astounding anthology cover.) I am, however, starting to fret about the huge number of really good (unread or only lightly skimmed) non-fiction books on my shelves, and I may start to try to work them into the mix.

Wasn't the best of days, wasn't the worst. I did, however, spin Structurally Sound, and that was nice.

Probably I buy much of my jazz semi-blind in that I have a few recordings by the leader (or a really strong co-leader). No question I have picked up most of the CDs that Rudresh Mahanthappa is on as a sideman for example, esp. if I can get them as dls. But I picked up Booker Ervin's The Space Book without too much info on him at the time. For a little while I was picking up a number of jazz and latin CDs under the Whatmusic imprint, as they rarely steered me wrong (like a somewhat more discriminating Dusty Groove ) And if it's used and cheap, then sometimes I will even be swayed by cover art. Those don't always work out as well though. I'm trying to think of the last time I did that -- probably Ken Moule's Adam's Rib Suite, which is ok, but hardly essential.

Well, sorry that the US didn't advance, but I thought they did awfully well for themselves this WC. Something to build on. Anyway, I have to say that I am glad a number of countries got shafted by really inexecusable poor calls in this round. This is just an unacceptably poor level of refereeing, and if I were a major sponsor, I would simply refuse to put any advertising dollars towards the next WC unless they adopted some basic replay action.

Really sorry to hear this. RIP. I didn't see him nearly enough times living here in Chicago (perhaps 5-6) but I did enjoy seeing him live, probably the most mellow being at outdoor concert at MCA.

No real updates in this Trib piece, though the outlook (from my reading) seems somewhat grimmer: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/ct-live-0622-jazz-20100621,0,213782.column The piece mostly focuses on what might happen to the Velvet Lounge down the road. Sounds like this is the year to go to the After Fest gigs if you are so inclined. I'll have to try to fix the link later. The editor is acting all funky.

I've been fairly restrained these last few months, other than getting the 2-CD Joe Newman on RCA set. Today I dropped by DG and picked up a used copy of Elvin Jones' Youngblood, a cut-out of Taft Jordan's Mood Indigo and Barney Kessel's Feeling Free (Contemporary). I don't think I've ever heard of Feeling Free, but it looks fascinating with Kessel joined by Bobby Hutcherson and Elvin Jones. Looking forward to hearing it later today.

Going to catch the matinee this afternoon. Really looking forward to it. I believe sheldonm will be there also. Well, I did not see Sheldonm at the matinee. It was pretty full, not quite standing room only, but close. A very talented group: trombonist Robin Eubanks, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, saxophonist Chris Potter and drummer Nate Smith. Aside from Dave himself of course, I think I was most interested in the vibes. I'll definitely see if Steve Nelson is on record, aside from the Holland recordings which I already have*. The group played a number of tracks, including one or two big band cuts rescored for quintet. I think they did a total of 7 songs; I recall Metamorphoses, Fly a Kite, something called A Rio? and I believe he ended with Free For All. Very enjoyable. After the set, Dave Holland was very nice and took a few moments to talk to several children in line, including my son, saying that he had started played music at age 6 (on ukelele!). He also mentioned that he now has a special traveling bass where the top part actually detaches, since the airlines mostly won't allow full upright basses anymore. What a really nice guy. * Looks like he mostly played with Fathead Newman and Mulgrew Miller. Don't have that many of his sideman appearances, but he is on Jackie McLean's Rhythm of the Earth. Maybe I'll see if I can dig that out tonight.

Going to catch the matinee this afternoon. Really looking forward to it. I believe sheldonm will be there also.

I've managed to catch a few more Shostakovich Symphonies since my last post, including the fairly monumental #11. Anyway, for those in Chicago, there is a pretty incredible chance to see the Pacifica Quartet do his entire String Quartet cycle over 5 concerts (and we all remember clementine saying the String Quartets were the real shizniz (I think I spelled that right), right?). I am definitely leaning towards going. Details here: http://www.pacificaquartet.com/shostakovich.html

Last night: Bassekou Kouyate and his group Ngoni Ba. They played for an hour at a free concert in Millennium Park. Then they were joined by blues artists Otis Taylor and Eddie Shaw. It wasn't the most polished jam session, but it was fun. I left a little bit early. Next Thursday: Tinariwen!!! Also for free in the park! I saw them for the first time earlier this year, and they are incredible.

Point taken, but I still don't want to buy the Mosaic just to find out the music doesn't really speak to me. I think even the recent 4 CD set might be too much. I am a bit more interested in the John Carter Select. I do have Castles of Ghana and a few others, but I still don't reach for them that often. I am trying to re-prioritize and maybe having hundreds of CDs on the shelves that I never listen to isn't the way I should play out the second half of my life. I have one bookcase of the most important CDs (maybe 300) and I could sell all the rest off and probably never notice the difference. I've been thinking about that a lot lately, especially as the second hand CD market looks set to collapse as well.

I'd probably go with Roscoe Mitchell. I've picked up almost all his CDs, including most of the AEC outings, but aside from Snurdy McGurdy, which I just love, the rest leaves me pretty cold and I've parted with most of it. I'm almost certain I would feel the same about Threadgill (whom I don't know nearly as well), so I've decided getting the Mosaic box would not be a good decision for me.

Well, my kids get rashes if they wear clothes (even those sealed in plastic!) before being washed, so all new clothes are washed. So no worries on my end.

I guess I don't see this set of interest to their core market. If they were a European PD outfit, maybe they could take such a chance, but I just can't see it.

That's a good one, though I actually thought Between the Assassinations (by the same author) was better. Something to look for later perhaps.

Beatles envy... Anyway, after going through the thread, I decided to go for the 1994 remasters of Exile and Sticky Fingers (Reckless had them for pretty cheap and I didn't have to worry that someone was selling them under the wrong category). These new remasters don't do anything for me. Completely off subject, but in general, it just depresses me that once upon a time Mick was a pretty interesting guy, but that seems completely drained out of him now. As late as 1982, he played a significant role in getting Herzog's Fitzcarraldo off the ground, and indeed he had a role in the film but interminable delays in shooting (and the illness of Jason Robards who was to play the lead!) forced him to drop out.

I'm relatively fortunate in that I didn't have a CD player until 1988 and didn't buy much of anything until 1990. At that point it was a little bit of jazz (Mingus and Monk mostly) but more indy rock. My jazz CD habit didn't really kick in until about 1999. So I think I missed the worst of the early CD pressings.

This might be clever if they minaturized it down to something that would fit in the palm of your hand or maybe sit on a monitor. As it is, it is full size. I have exactly space for one LP player in my office, and I am sure not going to waste it on a toy LP/MP3 player.

I'm just about done with this. It is a long novel (nearly 400 pages) and while each chapter is easy to read, the cumulative effect is kind of wearying. Mahfouz has come up with the ultimate mamma's boy, milksop character who only occasionally rouses himself to action and then usually regrets it afterward. I do find it hard to read such an unsympathetic character. Now I wasn't crazy about Ignatius (Confederacy of Dunces) or Ed (a near cousin in Guy Vanderhaeghe's My Present Age) in the sense that I would have hated to be next-door neighbors. But they were interesting characters to read. This guy, even if he ends up snapping, isn't very interesting. He's basically just the most pathetic man who ever lived. So I wouldn't recommend The Mirage unless that's your thing. Next book up appears to be Karinthy's Metropole. Actually, there are some parallels between Metropole and Malcolm Bradbury's Rates of Exchange. I've skimmed a bit of the Bradbury; it was fairly droll. Perhaps I should take the opportunity to read it first. Hmmm...

I've got quite a few of these re-issues. I think they sound pretty good, particularly when we are talking about something that usually was passed around on cassette. I guess they could have digitally recreated the tape hiss...

Well, this is a new one. I'm having a problem with a Half.com seller. The items never showed up. I contacted the seller who blew me off. So I try to file the claim. It keeps sending me to Page Not Responding. I've tried this on multiple days, different browsers, emptying the cache, etc. So I finally find a way to complain to Half.com (which is a total black box compared to Ebay, even though Ebay owns Half.com). The person says, oh everything looks fine at this end, you should just file the claim. So I ask them to file the claim on my behalf. Oh no. They can't do that. I have to file the claim, despite their software having some weird bug. I suspect that this does violate some federal trade regulation of not having a non-electronic way of settling a dispute, but I can't find the relevant statute and I'm getting sick of this. Basically, I wrote back and said if they didn't find a way for me to file the claim, I was never going to buy on Half.com again. And I won't. I already scrapped my seller's account there because I disagreed with their policies. So it won't be hard for me to live up to this promise. Honestly, what a douchey website.

If I'm reading the info correctly, the only new material on the new Les Tricheurs CD are some false starts. I think I'll pass. I would definitely have preferred if more of the JIP notes had the original artwork inside, but I am not buying the music a second time. OTOH, if the Quincy Jones was issued as JIP with matching cover, I would buy it without a second thought. That's kind of crazy as well...

Very helpful, esp. as a number of these releases have just hit Dusty Groove! I've got a copy of Jazz Boom #1 on hold and will pick it up Friday. I think the only other one that would be worth picking up (for me) is Quincy's I Dig Dancers. How is this? Certainly the band members are pretty incredible but sometimes these things don't jell the way you would think.

Danilo Perez Things to Come concert at CSO. This was called a 21st Century tribute to Dizzy Gillespie. Featuring Rudresh Mahanthappa, Amir El-Saffar, David Sanchez, John Patitucci on bass, Adam Cruz on drums and Rogerio Boccato, a Brazilian percussionist. This was quite the super group, and Perez has played with this group on a few dates, including Ann Arbor back in April, but it isn't clear when they will play again next. This might have been the only date with David Sanchez. I have to give them credit -- it would be easy to put together a group and play tribute to Dizzy by using the old arrangements, but this was certainly more "out" than most of Dizzy's shows, though it wasn't free jazz by any means. Basically in McLean's Destination Out territory. 10-15% of the audience did drift away early (obviously expecting something safer), but most people were into it. They played 2 hours straight, doing somewhat inverted arrangements of Salt Peanuts and a cubist version of Manteca. At one point, Perez did a piano trio piece in honor of Hank Jones (couldn't catch the title), then this became Round Midnight and a restrained (compared to the rest of the evening) David Sanchez came out and joined in. Very lyrical and touching. If they keep the group together and tour more, I would recommend trying to catch them; certainly I will have an eye out to see if they record anything.