Mark Stryker

All -- thanks. Very helpful. Case closed pending unexpected new evidence.

Yeah, I saw that in my own copy. Trouble is Bennett/Friedwald appear to have it backward according to other sources, among them this Roulette discography: http://www.bsnpubs.com/roulette/roulettea.html That's why I'm wondering if anyone can confirm. Re: Bennett, Sinatra and Basie. Bennett was the first to work & record with Basie. When Frank did team with Basie starting in '62 or so, he did several songs that Bennett had already done with or without Basie -- Fly Me To the Moon, Too Close For Comfort, I Wanna Be Around, and one or two others. But he didn't re-record all the same songs with Basie ..

Gang -- In 1958-59 Tony Bennett recorded two LPs by Basie's band -- "In Person" on Columbia and a second for Roulette that was issued variously as "Strike Up the Band" and "Basie Swings/Bennett Sings." My question is about the Roulette side: Which title/cover came first, "Strike Up the Band" or "Basie Swings/Bennett Sings"? Sources seem to differ.

Another great scene with Carl Reiner -- Laura has accidentally told a national television audience that Alan Brady is actually bald. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGEOjxtQtWc

Don't forget Sal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJQBql2K4R0 Nice chart on Mountain Greenery (really slick first 16 bars of the 2nd chorus). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYNjsGKx7Vs

More skills: MTM WOW!(and dig Col. Hogan on congas)

Thanks gang -- appreciate it.

I would like to know the citation for that quote and see the context. I did a quick search and couldn't find anything -- doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but it does make me curious. I did happen upon this long Rochberg piece about Schoenberg. Don't have time to read but tried to quickly scan it to see if I could locate the quote and I didn't see it. In any case, context: http://www.schoenberg.at/library/index.php/publications/show/7608

Very rewarding for those of us in Detroit to see this perceptive NYT review of Marcus Belgrave with a gang of hometown musicians. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/arts/music/marcus-belgrave-and-his-quintet-play-dizzys-club-coca-cola.html?ref=arts

Denardo Coleman has posted some brief thoughts from his father via Twitter: https://twitter.com/denardocoleman/status/490734191324049408/photo/1

Thanks for posting that, Mark. What a wonderful set of tributes. Nothing from Ornette though, which I find surprising... or is it? Not really -- Ornette is not in great health these days, and it's always been tough to get him. You either need to have his direct number (and a prior relationship or temperament that allows you to cold call); or you need to go through family to reach him and that can be complicated.

Ethan Iverson has collected thoughts from a sprawling multi-generational cast of some 40 musicians. Valuable. . http://dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/liberation-chorus.html

Bought today in Detroit -- all original pressings, some a little beat up but not horrible, some perfectly clean, some with rough covers, others perfect): Kenny Dorham, Kenny Dorham & Friends (Jazzland) Kenny Dorham & Jackie McLean, "Inta Somethin'" (Pacific Jazz) Tricky Lofton & Carmell Jones (arr. Gerald Wilson), "Brass Bag" (Pacific Jazz) Carmell Jones, "The Remarkable Carmell Jones" (Pacific Jazz) Curtis Amy, "Way Down" (Pacific Jazz) Jimmy Smith, "Home Cookin'" (Blue Note) Carla Bley, "Escalator Over the Hill" (JCOA) Ron Carter, "Blues Farm" (CTI) Donald Byrd, "I'm Trying to Get Home" (Blue Note) Total cost: $50. Yes, um, that's $50.

Some interesting reflections by John McNeil http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/memories-of-horace-silver/

Happy birthday today to Andrew Hill -- FWIW, pace the discussion above my favorite of all the early BN's is still "Black Fire." But you know what's amazing? "Black Fire," "Judgment," "Smokestack" and "Point of Departure" were all recorded in a 4-month stretch from Nov. '63 to March '64. I mean, Jesus Christ ... that's not just a career but immortality in four months.

Jim -- did you know trumpeter Ray Sasaki, who I believed plays on Lab 75? He was an important mentor of mine at the University of Illinois in the early and mid 80s and was kind of anti-North Texas when it came to aesthetics. A bebopper in the mold of Kenny Dorham and a contemporary classical chamber (avant-garde) chamber musician. He's had an endowed chair at the University of Texas at Austin for a long time now. Great man and musician.

At the NEA Awards/Broadcast next year you could see a reunion of 3/4 of the Charles Lloyd Quartet circa '66/67 -- Lloyd, Jarrett, DeJohnette.

No idea how good this will be, but this is a book I would want to read, http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1574415743/ref=redir_mdp_mobile

Tyrone replaced Joe Henderson in the band. Horace wrote about this in his autobiography, beginning on page 113. Spoiler alert: It doesn't end well. http://books.google.com/books?id=_7nzUPUNvg8C&pg=PA113&lpg=PA113&dq=tyrone+washington+and+horace+silver&source=bl&ots=TvtkQLRQP_&sig=20gN39aeGDjuCfjHKqY3UWQuXqA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hc2lU_zFLtikyATOmIK4CA&ved=0CE0Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=tyrone%20washington%20and%20horace%20silver&f=false

Louis Hayes plays on "Prescription for the Blues" (Impulse) from 1997 -- 38 years after he last worked with Silver. "Prescription" turned out to be Silver's second to last recording. Both Randy and Michael Brecker returns as well, and the bassist is Ron Carter. There's a really lovely trio track on that record called "Brother John and Brother Gene" that Horace wrote for his siblings. It's a ballad with a strong melody, some typically impeccable voice-leading and moving inner details in the arrangement and chromatic movement in the changes that tickles the ear. If I were putting together a set list for a Horace tribute and looking for off-the-beaten path repertoire, this tune would be a great place to start. Coda: Curious that for most of Louis' tenure in the band in the '50s the bassist was a Detroiter -- Doug Watkins at first and Gene Taylor at the end. (Teddy Kotick was in between,.) Nearly 40 years later when the drummer returned for a one-off recording he ended up working with another Detroit bassist, Ron Carter.

I'd strongly recommend "The Cape Verdean Blues" with Woody Shaw and Joe Henderson on the front line and, if it's issued somewhere, the live Half Note recordings by that same band. Super aggressive and Woody and Joe really push within with the structures. Very sorry that band didn't record more.

Here's an interesting near miss: Marcus Belgrave tells me he was offered the job with Horace in 58 -- the gig would go to Blue Mitchell -- but he turned it down because he had just gotten off the road with Ray Charles and was settling into NY and didn't want to return to the grind so soon after unpacking his suitcase. At the same time, Marcus also turned down Ellington, who knew about him because Clark Terry and Ray Nance had played alongside Marcus on "The Genius of Ray Charles" sessions.

Slide's charts on "Sophisticated Giant" are seriously great -- beautifully detailed, fully realized and like all of Slide's writing, revealing a stylistic breadth that takes in huge chunks of modern jazz in an organic fashion. The chart on "Red Top" is a good example with a "Maiden Voyage"-like intro with the vamp and suspended 4th chords and then the way he dresses up the blues in modern harmonies without obscuring an essential earthiness. There's a nice moment in the interludes introducing Dexter's solo where the harmony is contemporary but the syncopated rhythms are pure Dizzy Gillespie big band of the '40s. Later around or during the vibes solo there are backgrounds that directly quote Thad Jones' "Quietude." I love Slide.

At 29, Max Scherzer is the reigning Cy Young Award winner and has made 179 professional starts. Last night he threw his FIRST complete game. In 1971 alone Mickey Lolich pitched 29 (!) complete games and he ended his 16 year career with 195. Another way to think about that: If Scherzer had thrown all 9 innings in every game he has started since his 2008 debut, he would need another 16 complete games to reach Lolich. To be clear: I'm not criticizing Scherzer -- this is the way the game is played today and the way he and his peers were trained. We have effectively bread the 6-inning starting pitcher. But it is striking how much pitching has changed in the last 35 years since the concept of the closer solidified. My memory is that Bruce Sutter was perhaps the Louis Armstrong of the breed starting in the late '70s, though Goose Gossage and Rollie Fingers were key transitional figures. But I think it was LaRussa managing the A's who really codified the whole set-up guys in the 7th and 8th then using Eckersley exclusively in the 9th.

Really enjoyed my first pass at Azar Lawrence's "The Seeker" on Sunnyside, recorded live at the Jazz Standard in Dec. 2011 with Nicholas Payton, Benito Gonzalez, Essiet Essiet and Jeff Watts. The modal universe! Vamps, etc. The spirit of Trane and '70s McCoy but it doesn't sound like a museum. Cats sound fiery, inspired, in the moment. Also amused by the 70s throwback tune titles: "Lost Tribes of Lemuria," "Venus Rising," "Rain Ballad," "Spirit Night." I feel my consciousness rising.