mjzee

Congrats to 7/4!

April 30: Percy Heath, bass, 1923

April 29: George Adams, saxophone, 1940. Ray Barretto, congas, 1929. Joe Gloss, guitar, 1960 I didn't mean to gloss over Joe!!

April 29: Duke Ellington, composer, piano, bandleader, 1899 Toots Thielemans, harmonica, guitar, 1922

I think the key, odd thing about jazz is that it was a popular instrumental music. It's hard for me to envision going forward a popular music that doesn't involve vocals, and lyrics of a predictable nature.

April 28: Mario Bauza, trumpet, 1911 Blossom Dearie, singer, piano, 1926

There are lots of other Carter/Bradford releases - why make this obviously Andorran claim? I recall once owning a Carter/Bradford on one of those small European labels from the late 70's (Moers Music?). Am I wrong?

April 27: Connie Kay, drums, 1927 Ruth Price, singer, 1938

April 26: Dave Tough, drums, 1907 Teddy Edwards, tenor sax, 1924

April 25: Ella Fitzgerald, singer, 1918 Willis Jackson, tenor sax, 1932

Thanks for that, Jim Just excellent.

April 24: Johnny Griffin, tenor sax, 1928 Joe Henderson, tenor sax, 1937

April 23: Jimmy Noone, clarinet, 1895 Alan Broadbent, piano, arranger, 1947

I read that August 5th, 1973 was the primary date for the album. Which just happened to have been my 3rd birthday. Nope. It was a 2-night gig. I was at the one on 8/18/73, which provided a lot of the album, including "Dream."

I think that's why I haven't ordered/read French's book. I'd rather not know (at least not right now). But I did read the Harkelroad book and got a taste of it.

April 22: Charles Mingus, bass, composer, bandleader, 1922 Don Menza, tenor sax, 1936

I want to recant my diss on Robert Williams. He's totally great on Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller).

I recently bought the CD of Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller), and listened to it in the car today. I probably haven't heard it in 20 years. I was completely blown away. The music still sounds fresh, inventive, and involving. So much imagination, intelligence and creativity. I hesitated playing it, because I would have felt so sad if it were just an exercise in nostalgia. No way; this is great music. I want to highlight "Suction Prints." Wow! What a driving song. Listening to it with fresh ears, I totally misjudged Robert Williams on drums - he's a monster! And the way the trombone and bass lines snake in and out, and the constantly changing musical pallette... As you may have surmised, I totally dug it. Highly recommended.

A really good later McCartney album is Driving Rain. I probably wouldn't have given it a chance, but I got to see him at MSG during that tour, and liked what I heard. The CD didn't leave the car for literally months afterwards. I think his great strength is as a melodicist, not as a lyricist. Not hard to understand, though: he was always a family man and pretty content, so wouldn't write vindictive or angry songs. I think a lot of songwriters create sorrows in their personal lives so they'd have material to write about. I think the Concord deal is easy to understand: they're one of the few labels interested in older pop performers (see their recent James Taylor releases). Also, McCartney the solo artist is facing the same sales doldrums as others of his timeframe: as today's WSJ put it, "Sir Paul's albums have sold more than 9.4 million albums in the U.S. since 1991, when SoundScan began tracking sales, plus 2.3 million digital songs. But those numbers have fallen dramatically in recent years along with the rest of the recorded-music market. Sir Paul's catalog sold just 357,000 total albums last year, and two-thirds of those sales were generated by a live album released that year by Concord, giving an anomalous bump to the catalog as a whole. He sold just 129,000 albums in 2008." Concord is one of the few labels still seemingly committed to CD releases, and to trying to find innovative ways of marketing them; hence, their deal with Starbucks.

April 21: Mundell Lowe, guitar, 1922 Slide Hampton, trombone, 1932

April 20: Lionel Hampton, vibes, bandleader, 1909 Tito Puente, percussion, bandleader, 1923

April 19: Tommy Benford, drums, 1905 (Slow day, huh?)

I just returned from a vacation in The Bahamas. While strolling through an upscale shopping and restaurant area that has music piped throughout, I was surprised to hear "I'm Exuma...I'm the obeah man! Na na na na na na na!" I thought Exuma was a New York City artist, but perhaps his roots are from The Bahamas. He caused a minor stir in the NYC area around 1971.

I suspect that the Amazon mp3 store is actually a separate corporate ownership, perhaps part-owned by Amazon. Would love to know the details.