paul secor

Phil Spector Richard Speck Spotted Dick

Rooster_Ties The Duke of Windsor Gene Chander

Half the jazz musicians still try to. Which says so much for Bird, the great musician. Q Or much about a lot of jazz musicians.

Germany Schaefer Frenchy Bordagaray Swede Halbrook

Paul, what you need is the complete set of Group Masterpieces. Possibly, but I'm not a huge Tatum fan and I'd rather explore piecemeal. Also, I find that if I get a box, I'm less likely to take it off the shelf and listen to it - even listen to individual recordings from it.

Art Tatum Group Masterpieces Volume Six Ives: Emerson Concerto; Symphony No. 1 - Feinberg/Sinclair/NSO of Ireland (Naxos) Fletcher Henderson: The Harmony & Vocalion Sessions Volume 1 (Timeless) Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 6, 7,8 - Ward/Northern Chamber Orch. (Naxos)

Archie Andrews Archie Shepp Tom Archia

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/going-home-for-christmas-with-the-armstrongs/

The first jazz that I listened to knowing that it was jazz was the classic Brubeck Quartet. There were reasons for that, but this isn't the time or place to discuss them. Thanks for your music and for helping to bring me where I am today, Mr. Brubeck.

None of those names are familiar to me, but "weird and wonderful" is always an attention-getter. What's we got here? Fred Ramsey, Jr. was a writer, folklorist/record producer, and photographer. He recorded Leadbelly's last sessions and recorded an obscure but good record entitled Cat Iron Sings Blues and Hymns, among other records on Folkways. He also recorded Michael Hurley's first record - on Folkways - supposedly after picking up a hitchhiking Hurley, who was hitchhiking with his unencased guitar. Michael Hurley - hmmm. My good friend Bill Morrison wrote some fine words about Michael Hurley's music: "I guess Michael Hurley fits in with folkies as a genre - he totes a guitar, mostly writes his own tunes, is influenced by blues and country. But there it stops - Hurley needs a bin of his own in the shop, if you ask me. His songs sound like they were pulled together out of spare parts - a little Hank Williams, a little Fats Domino, a little Appalachian fiddle melody, and some other stuff that Hurley machined on his own slightly off-center lathe. His loosest songs resemble the Rustoleum-and-duct-tape jalopies you see on the road in rural Vermont, where Hurley lives - weld together the right spare parts, and you can get something that will run forever, even if it emits some funny rattles and maybe needs a jump-start sometimes. Cars and songs like this elicit a kind of affection that factory-fresh ones will never know." Nick Tosches put it another way: "In the world of Michael Hurley, things - as Lucretius called them - are as they should be. Werewolves, love, pork chops, and the Lord all share and bear metaphysical meaning and at the same time are real enough to attract flies. In a way, he is from the olden days, the days when songsters expressed the desire to be burrowing creatures (Bascom Lamar Lunsford, 'I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground,' 1928) or asked, in commonplace earnest, 'Have you ever woke up with them bullfrogs on your mind?' (William Harris, 'Bull Frog Blues,' same year, different color); and then again he can flick the ash of this moment and have it land in an ashtray not yet made. I don't know what else to say about what he writes and sings other than it is gosh-darned great. What kind of music is it? Hell man, what kinds of weeds does God grow? Let's just shut up, you and me both; let's just shut up and listen and go to where Michael Hurley is. After all, we can always turn around and come back. He can't." As for where one might start listening, I wouldn't recommend Back Home with Drifting Woods as a starter. Watertower would be a good place to start, or perhaps Snockgrass or Long Journey. Amazon has some recordings, both in and out of print. Michael Hurley's web site http://www.snockonew...t/buy_stuff.htm has CDRs of his out of print recordings available. Michael Hurley's music is probably one of those hit or miss things for a lot of people. If it hits you, you have a friend for life. If it and you don't connect, well there's a lot of other music and other stuff in this great wide world. Here's a musical taste: Hope something here piques your curiosity. edit - Forgot - Hurley's also an artist who does his own LP/CD covers.

Samuel Clemens Clem Kadiddlehopper Crusader Rabbit

Michael Hurley: Back Home with Drifting Woods (Mississippi) Recorded in 1965 by Fred Ramsey, Jr. Early Hurley, but still weird and wonderful.

Does anyone care about the Grammys? Did anyone ever care?

Jim Morrison Aldous Huxley My Huckleberry Friend

I love Quatuor Mosaiques recordings of Haydn's string quartets.

George Sauer (Jr. or Sr.) Rachel Sweet The Archies

I've written this before, but it bears repeating. If you read Jeff's posts, check out his blog and his web site and the links on it. Fascinating stuff.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/03/sports/football/one-day-after-jovan-belcher-tragedy-a-bouquet-and-tears-in-the-locker-room.html?ref=todayspaper A-hole of the week - year? Not more than 100 yards away, Gary Nussman said, “It’s the N.F.L. — they don’t cancel a game for that.” Grinning, he said, “We’re die-hards — we might win a game someday,” then added, “But it’s sad that it happened.”

Thanks for the update, Jim. Glad we met the goal.

Cecil was on a different level back then and he still is.

Listened to A Modern Jazz Symposium today. My feeling is that most of today's artists don't have the passion that's necessary to play Charles Mingus' compositions and have them sound like anything. And they don't have Mingus to push them to have that passion.

You may not have to order for another three years. Lots of good listening there.

Peter Gunn Frank Cannon Yancey Derringer

Cecil: Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! (MPS) Back Home with Drifting Woods (Mississippi) Bach: Sonatas & Partitas - Nathan Milstein (EMI) Dvorak: String Quartet No. 13; String Quintet - Pacifica Quartet + Michael Tree (Cedille)

Billie