Pete C

I'm rather fond of Alexander's associate Jim Rotondi; nothing original, but a really nice sound. He's a much better Freddie Hubbard than Hubbard these days.

I'll be in Montreal 4th of July weekend. I have tickets for Joao Bosco/Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Portal/Sclavis/Texier/Humair, & Jorge Ben Jor/Margareth Menezes.

The couple of times I saw Frank Catalano there was a level of excitement that was missing from Alexander, whom I've seen live 3 or 4 times. Ultimately it's all taste. Kevin loves Alexander and doesn't get Idris Muhummad. I love Muhummad, and have seen him several times with the great Lou Donaldson rhythm section with Lonnie Smith & Peter Bernstein (the rhythm section was great, that is; Donaldson generally sucked), as well as with Ahmad Jamal.

I'm in agreement with Larry on Alexander, Hamilton, and Vache. Since he wrote those pieces they've all gotten better at what they do, but what they do hasn't gotten any more interesting. I'd be interested in whether the Alexander fans have heard much Tony Malaby, and what they think of him. That, guy, IMO, is one of the most exciting younger tenors around.

Yeah, she's really good. I also saw her several times in Montreal. She was just in NY in January at the IAJE conference; unfortunately they had her playing in a noisy corner of the Sheraton lobby.

Rebecca Coupe Franks is indeed good. If she's not in NY now she was for a while, and I believe used to gig at 55 bar. Another great unknown trumpet player was Barbara Donald, who used to be married to (and recorded with) Sonny Simmons (check out Simmons' Burning Spirits on OJC). I saw her in the '80s with Gunter Hampel's Galaxie Dream Band, but I don't know what happened to her.

"Throughout the '80's, Foster continued to play on a wide variety of sessions and eventually moved into production. Among the musicians he worked with in the '80s were Jimmy Smith, Klugh, Flack, Harvey Mason, Stanley Turrentine, David Sanborn, Djavan and Grover Washington Jr. Foster continued the same path in the '90's, playing with many of the same musicians, as well as Lee Ritenour, Roland Vazquez and The Temptations, among others. His own records were rediscovered by a new generation of listeners in the '90's, as well, with several of his records used as source material for sample-heavy acid-jazz and hip-hop records." http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Ronnie%20Foster.html

I just posted the updated schedule above.

Yes, I'm me. From my perspective the best nights of Vision (combination of quality, variety, and presence of new/different blood) are Wednesday, Sunday and Saturday, in that order. I'll be at those 3 shows.

Have a Brooklyn Lager when you're in town, the flagship beer of the greatest former city in the world. Dmitry, I think we met very briefly at one of the Vision Festival shows a couple of years ago (I can't remember who introduced us). Are you going to any this year?

Is that a compliment?

Huh? I don't know about the rest of Canada, but there are plenty of good microbrews in Quebec, many of which I sampled last year at the Mondiale de la Biere in Montreal.

I'm not really an Alexander fan, but he appears on this KILLER album: Cookin' With the Mighty Burner

I was just there tonight and tried the K.C. spare ribs, which are new to the menu. Very good, as are the Memphis baby back, St. Louis spare ribs, & pulled pork sandwich. I never tried the catfish--I love catfish, but the call of the pig is too strong every time I go. They get $5.50 for pints of draft. I had a Magic Hat #9 with dinner. I was entertaining a friend from out of town, and we went to see Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra. Quite a lot of fun.

Maybe he lusts after Cleo Laine.

I'll be interested in the reactions, but my feeling when I heard about this was that I couldn't think of anything more ridiculous.

Thanks, that's pretty impressive, even if it is a bit of a pain to read.

Yeah, I think the print edition of AAJ is the most comprehensive. I usually download the PDF and keep it for reference.

Weston at the Jazz Standard is easily the best combination of band and venue (too bad Billy Harper won't be added to make it a septet). The food is good, they have a good beer list, and if you don't want to eat or drink you don't have to. The only downside is that if you want to stay for a second set when they're not fully booked you have to pay 1/2 a second cover. They say it's because they don't have a minimum. I've seen Weston easily 20 times since the '70s, in various settings, so I won't be making this gig. Potter is good, but Weston is a giant (in more ways than one). Smoke pretty much is the mecca for 3rd (or is it 4th or 5th) generation hard boppers. These days you can get a decent meal at Birdland, Iridium, and the Standard. Fifteen years ago you couldn't get a good meal at a NY jazz club, period.

Two other recordings that should appeal to Bartok fans are Sylvie Courvoisier's exquisite Abaton, on ECM, with Mark Feldman & Erik Friedlander, and: Change of Time: Change of Time (OmniTone 15102) in Down Beat magazine! Inspired by Béla Bartók's progressive piano pieces Mikrokosmos, Change of Time creates miniature tone poems like little episodic travelogues. Cloud of notes, filled with Brownian motion, congeal into drops of primordial soup brimming with life. Musicians Russ Lossing, piano · John Hebert, bass Adam Kolker, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet

When I do go to the Blue Note I get there early enough to get the seats at the end of the bar facing the stage. It's usually $10 cheaper than the tables and less claustrophobic. I think they charge $6.25 for a domestic beer at the bar.

Blue Note is one of the most expensive and least comfortable of NY clubs. However, they only have a $5 minimum per set. But drinks tend to be over $6 for anything alcoholic anyway. The food is inedible. Randy Weston & African Rhythms is at Jazz Standard, a much nicer club, and they serve good bbq. But they actually have no minimum in addition to admission. If you've never seen Weston, I'd go for that over the Blue Note. Chris Potter is at the Vanguard. On a weekend you'd pay $30, but that includes a $10 drink credit. They do not serve food. Birdland has Pat Martino on Saturday and the Chico O'Farrill Latin Big Band on Sundays (great band). The food is decent, and it's one of the best laid out clubs in the city. Monty Alexander is at Iridium. Bob Dorough does the Sunday brunch at Iridium. He's always fun and it's a great deal. $20 gets a pretty good buffet with music included. In the evenings the food is good but pricey. Also, on Sunday the 23rd from 4-7, for free at Lincoln Center (Avery Fisher Hall) is the semi-finals of the Essentially Ellington High School Band competition. It's fun to watch those very talented kids, and I usually make it every year.

No, I'm not familiar with her albums.

She's been around a while longer than Goldings. She's definitely processed Larry Young. I saw her on a double bill with DeFrancesco in Montreal about 10 years ago. She had Ray Anderson with her.

If nothing else, the Arkestra and the AEC were two of the most visual groups in the history of the music.