Leeway

Joe McPhee with the Bill Smith Ensemble. Sackville LP, 1985. This is a smoking hot album. Everyone is on fire, none more so than McPhee. The group does Ayler's "GHOSTS," but the whole album is permeated with Ayler's spirit. The Bill Smith Ensemble doesn't seem to have lasted long or recorded much, but their performance here can't be faulted. The sleeve on my copy of the LP is inscribed in the left margin by McPhee, "To ---- [not me], Best, Joe McPhee." Above that, in the upper left corner of the sleeve, in the same handwriting, "Just out of the 'john'." Not sure if it is referring to the cover photo or the timing of the autograph.

Wilbur Wright Wright Morris Morris Udall Stewart Udall Stewart Alsop Joseph Alsop Marin Alsop Marina Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald

Joe McPhee: OLD EYES. Hat Hut LP. A killer version of DJANGO, methinks.

Wilbur Wright Wright Morris Morris Udall

Ralph Waldo Emerson: Walt Whitman: Walter Mitty:

Does this count?

Check this out: CD sleeves

Wally: Wally: Where's Waldo?

Not my cup of tea it turns out. Too processed. Guess I am not a fan of the ECM sound,

Reverend Moon The Cow that jumped over the Moon Neil Armstrong (saw something go overheard while he was taking a walk)

This is on a West Wind LP. Some folks have told me that this is pretty close to a grey market or even bootleg label. I have a Braxton Quartet LP on West Wind and it sound quite good, better than the similar LEO label release. What's the story on West Wind?

I saw him at a jazz festival in Sept. 2007 (not so recent now I guess) and Bobby looked great and performed great. After his set, he talked with fans, signed autographs, etc. Really nice. He seemed in great shape. I have a lot of Hutcherson LPs. I suppose my faves are STICK-UP, PATTERNS, and COMPONENTS, and you can add TOTAL ECLIPSE too, I guess. His music was the kind of in-out music that really attracted me.

There might b a difference between what the past represents for us, the audience/consumer, and what it represents for musicians/composers (and all artists for that matter). Most recently Harold Bloom has explored that subject in the "Anxiety of Influence." Before him T.S. Eliot addressed it in the essay, "Tradition and the Individual Talent." These are key works in thinking about the influence of the past on the present.

Ted Danson J H Plumb Led Zeppelin Graf Zeppein Van der Graff Generator Van Morrison

Fabulous record. I got this when it first came out. Knocked me out then and still does. Frank's best? Quite possibly it is, but I think this one is a close contender -- at least:

John Maynard Keynes Maynard Ferguson Fergie, Duchess of Something or Other

Gunter Hampel and his Galaxie Dream Band) Jeanne Lee, Perry Robinson, Thomas Keyserling, Martin Bues. I like Jeanne Lee more here than I did in NUBA.

Continuing my Dickens journey, just finished GREAT EXPECTATIONS (if you have not read Dickens, start there), and now on to:

Harper is on fire.

I saw Tchicai last year in NYC, in a group organized by Garrison Fewell. Steve Swell was in the group; can't remember who else was in the group that night. Very nice, thoughtful, intelligent music, but nothing that grabbed you by the lapels and shook you (so to speak), although Swell had his usual volcanic moments. However, every once in a while, Tchicai would step up and blow and just pin you back in your seat. When he does that, he's a pretty damned exciting sax player. He is also a very nice guy to talk with. Tall, yes: I'll go with 6'4" or 6'5".

Don Ellis Ellis Larkins Philip Larkin A Lark Ascending Bev Robin Hood

A Canticle for Leibowitz The Big Lebowsky Mr Big (admit it, you've watched Sex and the City)

Cinderella F Scott Fitzgerald Sarah Vaughan Mo Vaughn Ralph Vaughn Williams Vaughn Meader (JFK: Would you like some Mayo? Chiang-Kai Shek: Please, not to mention that name. ... Fidel: I want a chicken sandwich with a live chicken.) John Byner David Frye Rich Little Jimmy Cagney John Wayne Richard Nixon Cagney and Lacey Steve Lacy Steve Potts

Cinderella F Scott Fitzgerald Sarah Vaughan Mo Vaughn Ralph Vaughn Williams Vaughn Meader

The ones in the DC markets, Like Giant or Safeway, are never ripe; usual hard as a brick. Wegman's or Fresh Fields might be a good sources to try. My understanding is that the melons come either from Texas or Central America, especially Guatemala. They are not raised locally, at least in commercial quantities.