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That's true (I forgot), but I am sure he had found a way to present concerts somewhere in Vancouver (pre-COVID) and not just at the Shadbolt Centre.

It appears that Vancouver is still allowing some live performances, whereas these have been completely shut down in Toronto (not that there was ever that much live jazz beyond some local acts playing at The Rex, at least in the last 10 years). However, Cory Weeds is offering a livestream (generally for $10) of the various upcoming shows he is presenting. It appears that they are being presented at the Shadbolt Centre in Burnaby rather than in his club, The Cellar. Details here - https://coryweeds.com/shows/ I'll try to catch the show on Nov. 15 which is actually a big band project led by Cory.

RIP. I will definitely be picking up the 1994 Velvet Lounge show and probably a couple of the Die Like a Dog recordings on the next Bandcamp Friday. I'm currently streaming music with very different vibe - Realm 2 Parallax with Kondo and Barton Rage.

My father's collection was much deeper on the classical side. He had Brubeck's Time Out and a few other jazz LPs, though I am having a lot of trouble remember what they might have been. He also had Sgt. Pepper's and a couple of Simon and Garfunkel albums, but not much else on the pop/rock side. As he grew older, he gravitated away from classical guitar (he had been a very talented guitarist and actually later on a luthier) and more towards bluegrass and "old timey" music. He and my mother listened to NPR all the time, including the jazz programming, though as I said, they didn't have that many jazz LPs in the house. My parents certainly encouraged me to listen to mainstream jazz, getting me the Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz (on cassette!) and a Columbia sampler (one of my first CDs). And oh so many books in the basement. I have a lot of books (probably three thousand if you count the ones stashed away everywhere), but he must have had 2 or 3 times that many!

- That's a good sign. We actually have relatively few signs up around Toronto, as most folks are pretty good about wearing masks indoors or on transit (and it isn't anywhere near as big a flash point). That doesn't mean far too many people have their noses uncovered, and we definitely do have a loud (but pretty small) minority of anti-maskers here. I believe the anti-maskers have a bigger presence in Quebec actually, but probably still much less relevant than in the red states. But as I said, we are in the midst of a second wave here, and new restrictions were announced. (The masks help for sure, but it's still not a magic bullet...) I'm guessing there will be no more indoor dining or drinking at all in Toronto until the vaccine, and the restaurant owners and bars will just have to hang on as best they can. I'm going to order take out sometime this week, which we haven't done for a while.

Ontario hit an all time high last week (still better than Quebec though). Toronto and the Region of Peel (and Ottawa) are moving back to a modified Stage 2 - no indoor eating or drinking, no gyms or indoor exercise, no movie theatres or performing arts, most (but technically not all) museums are closed, teams can train without any contact but all games are cancelled. This will last for 28 days but will likely be extended if the trends aren't coming back down. I'm basically expecting the end of indoor eating and bars until a vaccine is ready, and most restaurants will simply go under. Probably the independent gyms as well.

If this holds true elsewhere (that 80% of people infected with COVID in the UK had no core symptoms), then this virus truly will be impossible to beat because we are just not set up to do very widespread testing of entire populations (and probably having to do this repeatedly for a while). https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/08/more-than-80-positive-cases-in-covid-study-had-no-core-symptoms The main difference with SARS and MERS and some others is that you basically were only contagious at the same time you were clearly exhibiting major symptoms. I don't think I've ever heard of a disease with such a wide variety of outcomes with large numbers experiencing essentially no symptoms to rapid onset of death. The hidden killer indeed.

Making very, very slow progress through Don Quixote. It's not that it's not good, I'm just extremely busy and it's too thick to take to the gym and read there... In terms of "gym books" I was deeply disappointed in Kiran Desai's Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard and abandoned that quickly. The Betrayers by David Bezmozgis looks more promising, but it's early days still.

Next Tuesday, Rudresh Mahanthappa is doing two separate live-streamed concerts to promote his new album, Hero Trio. I believe tickets are $10. I'll see if I can tune in to the evening concert. Details here: https://www.crowdcast.io/rudreshm

While sampling can usually be determined fairly precisely using the right technological tools, the question of infringing copyright in a distinct composition seems much more subjective and even error-prone particularly when left in the hands of a jury. All kinds of songs sound like other songs for the untrained ear, though experts usually say there are critical differences (or often say that chord sequences in and of themselves cannot be under copyright). In my view, the Blurred Lines case was wrongly decided (and then upheld on appeal, unless I am mistaken). I personally don't see how music can evolve when a small number of musicians aggressively pursue copyright cases, often trying to shake down the big fish.

The really interesting follow-up will be whether Biden caught it from all that yelling Trump was doing on stage. And beyond that, Trump met in person (and maskless) with Pence, McConnell and even Barrett over these past few days. So quite a few people are likely to have caught this thing from the Superspreader-in-Chief. Not that I am wishing anyone any ill of course...

Agreed. His contributions were always welcome. One interesting finding on iTunes, there are actually two versions of "Singles Collection" by Leonard Dembo and Barura Express. One is sort of a continuous mix where the tracks are clipped short and butt up against each other (fairly choppily in the sense they aren't actually mixed together), and the other has more traditional breaks between the tracks (and is 7 minutes longer!). I personally prefer the latter, but I can see how one might want to throw the continuous mix on for a party.

Apparently there have been so many, many complaints about the quality of the streaming at the Village Vanguard that they are suspending the program indefinitely. In the end, I didn't catch either night of Kenny Barron. Maybe it is just as well...

Digging a bit deeper into what is available on iTunes. Not everything, but sometimes it feels close. There are at least 7 albums (and 2 best of compilations) by the Devera Ngwena Jazz Band and 20+ albums by Thomas Mapfumo, as well as 20+ albums by Leonard Dembo and Barura Express. I am just working my way through these albums and can't really make any clear recommendations right now but am digging them. It appears all these artists are from Zimbabwe, which is why they all sort of clustered in the recommendations. I was aware of Mapfumo before, but not the other two groups.

"Texas residents warned of tap water tainted with brain-eating microbe" Quite the headline! https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/26/texas-tap-water-tainted-brain-eating-microbe

As of yesterday, 35 US colleges and universities had reported at least 1000 cases of COVID (each). It works out to 130,000 cases when adding up all the universities below 1000 cases. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-college-cases-tracker.html With a few exceptions, Canadian universities are virtual-only and relatively few students are now living on campus, but the experiment in our case will be the school children back in school.

Anyone tuning in tonight or tomorrow to Kenny Barron streaming at the Vanguard? https://villagevanguard.com/event/barron-trio They say they've overhauled their system (I guess in response to a lot of complaints). I haven't entirely decided, but at $10, I'll probably give it a whirl...

There's been a bit of back and forth between the Province and the Mayors about who can really call for stricter standards, particularly at bars and nightclubs. Right now the private gathering numbers have been cut back, but stores, gyms, movie theatres, etc. continue as before in the Phase 3 reopening. However, they announced two new restrictions, Ontario-wide: Last call at bars and restaurants, including nightclubs, is 11 p.m. All strip clubs will be closed until further notice. I might even have gone with 10 pm last call, but this may help a bit. The daily Provincial new COVID cases are definitely up around 400 (from 150 or so) but it may have leveled off for the moment and doesn't seem to be headed to 500+ or anything. I really hope I don't have to eat my words in another few weeks. Quite a lot of kids are doing on-line only learning but a sizable number are in school at least part of the time a few days a week, including mine. The real question is whether this will drive up cases or not. Supposedly in the next week or so, we'll be able to go to the pharmacy for an instant COVID test. Depending on how things go, this could bring some relief to the standard COVID testing centres, especially for all the kids that get a case of the sniffles and can't go back to school without a COVID test.

Ripped from the headlines - "Trump claims White House can overrule FDA's attempt to toughen guidelines for coronavirus vaccine" https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/23/politics/trump-fda-coronavirus-vaccine/index.html My worry is that we may never actually know what the FDA recommendations are because the WH runs interference. In any case, I do hope that any vaccine that reaches the US market is thoroughly vetted by the firms themselves. But I'll only have what is released in Canada anyway.

You do what you want. Given the track record of the political appointees over-riding the core recommendations of the scientists at CDC and FDA, and then only coming clean later or reversing themselves under pressure, I no longer have faith in these institutions. Sad...

My copy arrived , though it was just left on the front lawn, not on my stoop . What an odyssey! Curious to find out more about the upcoming releases on Impulse!

I don't think anyone recommended Hutcherson's Dialogue, but I think it's swell session with several Hill compositions.

RIP I may well have seen him over the years at the Chicago Jazz Festival in an ensemble. However, The only time I know for sure that I saw him was at this amazing concert where he was one of several tenor players - March 19, 2005: The Great Chicago Tenor Saxes, featuring Johnny Griffin, Ira Sullivan, Von Freeman, Franz Jackson and Eric Alexander. The Art Institute of Chicago Rubloff Auditorium Still can't believe this wasn't recorded (or at least made publicly available)...

That sounds good, though I might prefer the Viking burial approach where all my junk is loaded onto a ship in Lake Ontario and then set on fire.

I think the real issue is that there is so little confidence in the CDC (at this point) that the public expects the first vaccine in the US will be rushed out (and indeed maybe from Russia). I wouldn't have any faith in that either. I do plan on taking a vaccine that has been vetted by Canadian and/or European authorities when it is available.