Peter Johnson

Oblique. Never understood why it wasn't issued at the time...I think the interplay between Hancock and Hutcherson is otherwordly; highly recommended.

All the best, Mike! PJ

The tone of your post is aggressive and I shall not respond to it.

Me too...Amazing Grace, man...wouldn't have been a dry damn eye in the place...

From the Inquirer: Posted on Fri, Feb. 18, 2005 Jazz pioneer Smith gets musical tribute By Daniel Rubin On the day they buried Jimmy Smith, no one rushed to sit at the Hammond B3 organ that he'd made famous. The Philadelphia Clef Club was filling with old friends and fans about 4 p.m. yesterday for a jam session to honor the jazz great. Kids in hoods with horns, old men and their sticks - everyone stood waiting. Then Tony Monaco stepped up. He'd been crying on the sidewalk as he waited for the door to open. After canceling his regular gig at a club in Columbus, Ohio, Monaco flew here to honor the man whose records had changed his life at age 12. Monaco, 45, handed off his coat, fiddled with the floor pedals, then filled the hall with "I'll Close My Eyes," a song Smith owned. As the applause faded, he said softly, "I just wanted to make sure the organ worked before everyone started," and disappeared into the crowd. Three times yesterday the legendary player from Norristown was honored - at a funeral service at Deliverance Evangelistic Church at 20th and Lehigh, at the Clef Club, and at Yoshi's, in Oakland, Calif., where two massive Hammond B3s face each other on the stage. One was to have been played last night by his protege, Joey DeFrancesco, who grew up in Delaware County. The other was to remain silent, its lid closed, its light left on. That was to have been Smith's, who died Feb. 8 at age 76. The two had been scheduled to start a string of shows together this week in support of their album Legacy, released Tuesday. At the noon service, DeFrancesco's father, John, read a note from his son, saying how he felt obliged to continue with the show. "That's what Jimmy would have wanted him to do," the elder DeFrancesco said. "Keep the cats working." As evening approached, the cats kept coming to the Clef Club. Following Monaco was Keith Hanratty, a 51-year-old lawyer from Minneapolis, who had flown in for the event as well. He was 16 when his keyboard teacher invited Smith to hear the teenager play. "He came by one more time then invited me out to study with him in L.A.," Hanratty said. "He had this club where his mother cooked in the back. "I'd play and he'd growl, 'Here's how you do it,' and he'd show me. I was always asking questions. He'd say, 'Shut up. You'll learn something.' I learned to listen." Said Rich Budesa of Camden, the third to sit at the organ: "He was a giant man. He was the biggest genius that ever touched the Hammond. Jazz organ is Philadelphia's music - that whole style is our music - and he was the best at it, the originator." Smith did not discover the jazz organ. In 1951, he heard Wild Bill Davis playing it in Atlantic City, and Smith, who'd been winning audiences at the piano since age 8, asked how long it took learn the instrument. "Four years," Davis told the young man (in some versions of the story, it was 15 years). Smith hung a chart of the organ's foot pedals on the wall of the warehouse where he worked. Within three months, he played a fluid, walking bass line with his feet. By 1956, he was recording for Blue Note. Smith made a name for himself mastering an instrument so foreign to jazz that it was several years before Downbeat Magazine created an award category for organ. But it was the private Jimmy Smith who was remembered yesterday at the church service: the uncle so beloved that when he visited, his Norristown family shucked corn and picked string beans for him. The man they knew as Sonny, Smitty, Big Jimmy and Boo. At the funeral, four musical friends were each given two minutes to send a final message. Bill "Mr. C" Carney called Smith the "Charlie Parker of his instrument." Carney's wife, Trudy Pitts, apologized to the pastor, saying words could never express what was inside her. And so after a few remarks, she walked up to the church organ and silenced the room with a 10-minute performance of "Amazing Grace" and "I'll Be Seeing You" that raised shouts of "Amen" as arms extended toward the church's ceiling. "Hey," she said afterward, as family and friends clapped. "Two minutes for Jimmy Smith? Don't mean a thing to me. I had to let my spirit fly."

Well, of course this happened when I was in Seattle. Just pulled it off of the Philly Inquirer website tonight...even at that, a day late and a dollar short. Enjoy yourself on the other side, J.O.S... Jimmy Smith services set • Funeral services for jazz legend Jimmy Smith [were] today [Thursday, 2/17] from noon to 1:30 p.m. at Deliverance Evangelistic Baptist Church, 21st Street and Lehigh Avenue in North Philadelphia. A viewing will take place from 8 a.m. to noon. A jam session to honor Smith, who died last week at 76, will follow from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Clef Club, Broad and Fitzwater Streets. Musicians are urged to bring their instruments to send Smith, hailed as the world's greatest jazz organist, off in style.

Called today, had a nice chat with M.C., and ordered the goddamn thing thanks to you bastids!!!

No.

Good thing you're "clearing out the house" to go to New York, if you know what I'm sayin'!

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

Mmm, dill sauce. What was the base?

Hey Jim--I'm coming out Thursday and will be hitting New York with Gail on Saturday during the day, and going to the Lou/Lonnie show that night. Please post your plans if you decide to go!

In the (in)famous words of Rockefeller Center, "You are invited to lunch in [seattle]" (replacing Vienna)! Sadly (for food delivery) my flights have all been nonstop...I wouldn't want to depressurize the cabin to do a provisions-drop!

Alright--that guac thread was fun, and I think we need more cooking threads, so let me give this a shot. I was walking through the market earlier and I started craving shellfish. "Hmmm," I thought. "Doesn't sound so hard!" So I grabbed 10 mussels, 10 clams (the seafood guys thought I was nuts--"You mean 10 pounds, right?" "No, ten clams.") and a link of andoille sausage. Got a shallot, some butter and a bottle of dry French white wine. Still had some cilantro ( ) left over from the guacamole! Back at my apartment, I threw the butter and shallots in a pot and cooked them for a while. Threw in about a cup of wine or so and when it was boiling I threw in the clams, mussels (debearded, of course!) and andoille. When all the clams and mussels were open, I tossed everything around with the cilantro. Twenty pieces of shellfish plus a baguette to sop up the sauce = quick, cheap and tasty late lunch! I'm no expert chef, but I've started to learn that a big secret to cooking is trusting your instincts. If you think something will go together, give it a shot. This quick and dirty lunch is as good as any moules marinieres as I've had at a French bistro--and it was super simple. Who else likes to throw stuff together and see what happens? Horror stories are welcome too--things like this can't always turn out well!

wowwwwowwwwowwwwwowwwwwowww My mouth is watering!!! Thanks, Eula!

Pimptastic Johnson Beautiful here, gonna beat you down because I KNOW your money ain't in your other pants, sucka!

Amen!

Oh man, Wes, that is _the_ breakfast of champions. No way am I adverse to an a.m. Tecate if it's going with that meal! Yum!

I KNEW I forgot something! Duh...lemon juice...that's really the secret ingredient that makes it work--no idea why, but it does. Hadn't thought about cumin _or_ cayenne; I'll have to give those a shot next time. Thanks, Patricia!

Threadkiller!

So I'm hanging at my pad and trying to figure out what to do for dinner, when it hits me: guacamole! How hard can it be? Off to the market for one avocado, one roma tomato, one shallot, one garlic and one bunch of cilantro. A slice down the middle of that avocado and it's in halves; squeezed it out of the skin, cleaned off the pit. Sliced up the tomato, scoop out the crap, and toss it in the bowl. Minced up one clove each of the shallot and the garlic; tossed it in. Also minced a fair amount of cilantro, tossed that it. Two spoons, mashed it all together, and bam--some good goddamn guac that's put a smile on my face! Can I get an amen for some guacamole? Anyone have a special ingredient that I left out--maybe white pepper or a little salt (although I'm sure it needs it)? Particularly nice with a California pinot noir!!!

Wow, I've really been affected by this, much more than I initially thought I would...I haven't been conscious of the passing of a lot of our idols in my late indoctrination into this world, but this is really tough...Elvin, Jimmy...damn...

Now THAT's going to be a service! I was at John Patton's funeral and was in awe as I saw legend after legend walk by. Can't imagine the royalty paying homage at Jimmy's service. Of course, this happens when I move to Seattle. If there's any feasible way, I'm going to get my ass back "home" for this...

25 on wax. More on CD.

Ahhh, Bashin'! Never heard it! Going to Barnes and Noble in my building (dangerous) right now...