SEK

These days, I listen most often to Roscoe, but I have more recordings with Mitch Mitchell. However, Joni got my vote, because I really dug her early records ("Song To A Seagull" through "For The Roses") as they appeared, and those records still move me (nostalgia mostly, I suppose...), and the woman was and is fine.

Wednesday afternoon: Andrew Hill Mosaic, Disks 1 & 4

John Surman - "The Amazing Adventures Of Simon Simon" Misha Alperin - "First Impression"

Happy Birthday!

Thanks for the marvelous pictures! And Happy Pesach!

Happy birthday, sheldonm!

America needs Billy Bob Thornton!

I imagine that happens more than we might suspect on releases as well as on stuff "left on the cutting room floor" (to use a movie metaphor). Where's the interview from?

I've been enjoying "Horace Tapscott and the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra Live at I.U.C.C." for many years. I wish that someone would rerelease it on CD so that more people could hear this excellent large ensemble set... My favorite recently released Tapscott solo session is "The Tapscott Sessions, Vol. 10" by a significant margin. I think that he is best at interpreting his own compositions, and that's what this session consists of. My favorites on 8 and 9 are the Tapscott "tunes". I greatly prefer "Aieeeeeee! the Phantom" to "Thoughts of Dar Es Salaam". "...Phantom!" is a strong quartet recording, with fine playing by all, of memorable compositions. "Thoughts..." is nice enough, but I almost always play something else by Tapscott instead and will probably give it away. I held off from buying "The Dark Tree, Vols. 1 & 2" till it was out of print. I don't know why, with all the superlatives it's garnered, and I dig everyone on it. A major oversight on my part. The Jazz Loft no longer carries it...

Happy Birthday!

I've probably mentioned that in West Texas, at least when I lived there for a few years in the late '70s, highway distance was commonly measured in 6-packs!

When I bought this CD around 1990 (the McMastered version that I still listen to), I thought that it sounded quite a bit clearer than the '70s vintage LP that it replaced, with the additional virtues of having no pops, clicks, and groove noise. I love CDs; any sonic sacrifices (which, for better or worse, I don't often hear) are more than made up, for me, by my ability to play the recording often and with abandon. That's especially important with staples like "Let Freedom Ring". I had first heard Jackie McLean on some Charlie Parker and some Miles records, on a duet record with Gary Bartz called "Ode To Super", and on Kenny Dorham's "Matador". I played "Matador" a lot, especially for its long and burnin' version of "Melanie" (called "Melody for Melanae" on "Let Freedom Ring') with Kenny, Jackie, and especially Bobby Timmons "tearing it up" during their respective solo turns; it's my favorite Timmons solo for sure! So then I had to get "Let Freedom Ring". The Melanie/Melanae tune did not move me quite as much as the version on the Dorham record, but "Let Freedom Ring" hangs together much better than "Matador". Jackie McLean also speaks more boldly in this fantastic quartet setting (and I dig his ecstatic "squeals"). "Let Freedom Ring" remained my favorite McLean session till I got McLean's Mosaic 1964-66 set many years later. And thanks for your great post, Cali.

I saw Andrew Cyrille with Cecil Taylor and Jimmy Lyons in 1972 (I couldn't quite appreciate Lyons at the time, Cecil was majestic tumult, and Cyrille stole the show for me with a segment during which he used his hands, instead of sticks, to produce mesmerizing rhythm-melodies and -harmonies with his drum kit... I've been enjoying Billy Harper's recordings since around 1975; I have almost all of them, foreign and domestic. I came close to seeing BH perform, soon after the release of "Black Saint", while visiting the (San Francisco) Bay area, but, at the last moment, I was sidetracked. I've not had the opportunity to see him since. Newk, you're fortunate indeed. And I agree that it is time for you to become better acquainted with the music of Billy Harper.

Thanks.

I used to take many different supplements. Now it's just a daily multivitamin-with-minerals supplementing a usually-healthy diet. They don't call them micronutrients for nothing.

Happy Birthday, Lazaro!

I couldn't agree more...

I just finished filling in the forms this afternoon. Signatures go on tomorrow. Then they're in the mail. The lack of deductions and my wife's retirement planning have made the completion of the forms significantly simpler. I also like those PDF files that you can fill in on the computer. The completed Federal forms can even be saved. I, more than ever, dislike where the money does and does not go. But that's a subject for the political forum.

Why was he in Odessa?

This is a surprising development to me. I must have missed something.

I chose bagels and lox (bagel toasted, with cream cheese or butter), because superior examples of both are very hard to find around here. Another classic combination is tomatoes and fresh basil. I look forward to summer, when a salad of tomatoes, fresh basil, olive oil, garlic, red pepper, and fresh mozzarella is more readily available.

"Our Man In Paris" has always been my favorite Dexter Gordon album; everything on and about it works for me. "One Flight Up" has become my second favorite, only in the last decade. Before then, I thought that it was relatively commercial. I wasn't really listening. When I was a teenager, KBCA used to play "Go" all the time; it's a good record, and I still have it, but I don't often play it...

Yeah, that bomb scare was creepy! It just takes one knucklehead. All I needed was another inexplicable (to me, anyway) Piston loss... But there was some redemption tonight vs. the Celtics (Paul Pierce is formidable, but Sheed was awesome and Rip has returned! Chicago beat the Pacers in overtime tonight. It's good to see Chicago coming back into the fray, but no joy for Indiana...

That's a very hard question to answer. It's probably be one of these: John Coltrane - "A Love Supreme" Miles Davis - "Miles Smiles" Jimi Hendrix - "Axis Bold As Love" Okay Temiz's Oriental Wind - "Chila Chila" McCoy Tyner - "Expansions"

I am not sorry that I had to miss the Pistons vs. the Sixers.