paul secor

Saw the personnel you listed and realized that Junior Cook, Slide Hampton, and Mickey Tucker (but not Bill Hardman) all play on Mickey Tucker's The Crawl, also recorded for Muse - obviously Mickey Tucker would have played on his own record. Anyway, I wondered if they were recorded on the same day or close together. Nope - Tucker's date was recorded sixteen months later. Never bought "The crawl" - good title. What's it like, Paul? MG Good hard bop spiced with a bit of funk session. I'd give it 3 to 3 1/2 stars. I think you'd like it even more than I do.

Yes. Probably more time was spent talking about Nick Drake than anyone else he produced.

Saw the personnel you listed and realized that Junior Cook, Slide Hampton, and Mickey Tucker (but not Bill Hardman) all play on Mickey Tucker's The Crawl, also recorded for Muse - obviously Mickey Tucker would have played on his own record. Anyway, I wondered if they were recorded on the same day or close together. Nope - Tucker's date was recorded sixteen months later.

Thanks for the tip. I listened to the show - interesting but way too short. I hadn't listened to Fresh Air in years. The format/time limitation is just too limited to explore a subject in any depth. I was hoping to hear something about Joe Boyd's experiences with James Booker. Guess I'll have to read his book for that.

Mark Levinson is mainly known nowadays for his celebrated highend hi-fi products: http://www.marklevinson.com/ I don't believe that Mark Levinson has any connection to the company that bears his name. I think that his new company is called Red Rose and has a store in Manhattan.

Reverend Robert Wilkins' Piedmont LP is very deserving of reissue. It's a great record - perhaps the best recording made of the blues musicians who were rediscovered/rerecorded in the 1960's. (Though Rev. Wilkins was only recording religious music by that time, he falls into that general category.) I try to use the term "great" sparingly, but, to me, the word applies to this recording.

A grant that would give Chuck the $ and time to rerelease the entire Nessa catalogue and perhaps record a few new sessions.

The future at least as far as most U.S. releases go. There's always Japan. And we can hope that Mosaic will hang in there.

I don't think that most Americans have anything more than a surface interest in any kind of music.

John Coltrane Quartet: Ballads

Things could be very different if you were there witnessing this stuff as it happened. Part of my problem with Williams re. Coltrane is that I have the sense that he never was able to hear John Coltrane's music - at least post 1960. And That's ok - I just don't think that he should have written about it if it didn't speak to him. I stopped reading his stuff after 1966 or 1967, so perhaps he didn't write much about Coltrane's music as time passed. He must have had the sense that other listeners/critics he respected were moved by Trane's music. (Did he respect other critics?) Perhaps he should have accepted the fact that it just wasn't for his ears. I never bought the Smithsonian jazz box, but I believe that he only included one recording from Coltrane's post 1960 recordings. (I may be wrong about this. If I am, please correct me.) For me, that's the same thing as if he had written a negative review of Coltrane's music. He might have allowed someone else to have made the choice(s) as to what Coltrane recordings would be included. To my mind, there should have been more than one included. I find that I'm writing mostly negative things about Martin Williams' writings, and my feelings about his books (at least my memories of them) are much more positive than negative. I don't have any of his books anymore, but I'm going online today and see which of his books my local libarary has and do some reading and rereading.

Since I was the one who posted the phrase "blind spots", I guess that I'll respond. Yes, we all have blind spots, but not all of us have reviews published in national publications. Martin Williams did, and in his review of Africa Brass he shows that he didn't "get" Trane's music at all. The sentence I quoted - "If one looks for melodic development or even some sort of technical order or logic, he may find none here." - misses the sense of what John Coltrane's music was about. (I tend to wonder if anyone has ever come close to capturing the sense of Trane's music in words.) As far as pontificating goes, Martin Williams was pretty good at doing that - and much of the time he was right - just not this time. I learned a lot from Martin Williams' writing, starting back about 45 years ago, and I'm thankful for that. But his writing about John Coltrane wasn't good enough for me.

Overcast and gloomy, but the temp is supposed to make the mid 40's by afternoon.

Happy Birthday, J.C., wherever you be!

Best wishes on your birthday and for all that's in the future.

Lorraine Ellison: Stay With Me Lorraine Ellison shoulda been up there with Aretha. At her best, she was that good.

George Russell Septet: The Stratus Seekers

I used to know the words to "Lawrence from Oblivion" or whatever it was called... Great record. "Lawrence of Euphoria" Oar is one of the handful of rock records (tho it's not a "rock" record at all) from the 60's that I still listen to these days.

Alexander Spence: Oar

One of Martin Williams' blind spots was his music = logic mindset. "If one looks for melodic development or even for some sort of technical order or logic, he may find none here." And for all of his positive critical qualities, he did have that blind spot.

"Big Game" James Worthy often played his best ball when it mattered most, putting up 40+ points in crucial playoff games. He had that sweet spin move in the post and could really finish around the basket or on the break. Scottie was awesome playing next to MJ, time to review some Classic Sports footage of the Bulls at their peak. However, that 50 greatest NBA players list is really a joke, for the reasons you state. It's WAY dated. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Nate Archibald Paul Arizin (no idea who this is) Charles Barkley Rick Barry Elgin Baylor Dave Bing Larry Bird Wilt Chamberlain Bob Cousy Dave Cowens Billy Cunningham Dave DeBusschere Clyde Drexler Julius Erving Patrick Ewing Walt Frazier George Gervin Hal Greer (Who?) John Havlicek Elvin Hayes Magic Johnson Sam Jones Michael Jordan Jerry Lucas Karl Malone Moses Malone Pete Maravich Kevin McHale (if we're questioning Worthy for benefitting a lot from great teammates, zombie-man has to get the same treatment) George Mikan Earl Monroe Hakeem Olajuwon Shaquille O'Neal Robert Parish (again, the Chief benefitted from that great Celtics team as much as Worthy did from the Lakers or Pippen from the Bulls--Bird was clearly their greatest player) Bob Pettit Scottie Pippen Willis Reed (what, because he played hurt and had a clutch playoff game?) Oscar Robertson David Robinson Bill Russell Dolph Schayes (c'mon now) Bill Sharman (puhlease) John Stockton Isiah Thomas Nate Thurmond Wes Unseld Bill Walton (What did he play, two healthy seasons?) Jerry West Lenny Wilkens James Worthy The following players could easily knock a few of those old-time players off this list, imo: Tim Duncan Steve Nash Kobe Bryant Dirk Nowitzki Paul Arizin was one of the first great jump shooters in the NBA. I saw him play and he was one of the best offensive players of his time.

Merle Haggard & the Strangers: Let Me Tell You About a Song

Any Northern Exposure fans on Board?

I have the Tangerine LP issue of River's Invitation, and grabbed the Rhino Handmade when it was issued. (Glad I did - couldn't afford it now, and wouldn't pay that much even if I could afford it.) The two Specialty reissues, Poet of the Blues and Memory Pain, contain classic early Percy Mayfield sides, plus his demo of "Hit the Road Jack"- and they won't set you back $266. Two more for interested parties to latch onto before Concord deletes them.

Haven't listened to the Krog/Shepp in a long time. I'll have to put it on the turntable soon. The only Weston sideman recording I have in my collection is on The Warm Sound of Johnny Coles. edit - My mistake - I had it in my head that Randy Weston played on that date, but I just checked and it's Kenny Drew on piano. They do a version of Hi-Fly, and perhaps that's where the thought came from.