Leeway

Suarez -- meet Mike Tyson --

Have to disagree on Keith Moon. Saw him a couple of times back in the day, and the guy was electric. Yeah, they did a lot of crazy shit onstage (and off), can't talk about his technique or even if he had any, but Keith created tremendous energy, tremendous vitality. Pure rock and roll. Probably where I got my taste for high-energy music. One other guy I would mention, Mitch Mitchell, probably not a great drummer by most standards, but again, watching him with Hendrix was so tasty! That was the right place and time for him and the results were sterling. As for Ginger Baker, I've always felt he gave a certain monumental quality to rock, drumming that added power and depth to the music. Something monolithic about his sound. It was like tribal tom-toms, and back then we were all tribal.

General George S. Patton Georges Clemenceau Nicolae Ceausescu

MEH? NAH. This is a good one. Not bad but I just don't love it. I've tried it several times - still meh.

Cyd Charisse El Cid Sid Vicious

FIGURE AND SPIRIT - Lee Konitz Quintet: Konitz (as, ss), Rufus Reid (b), Ted Brown (ts), Joe Chambers (d), Albert Dailey (p). Progressive Records (really a misnomer since most of its releases are quite conventional). I like early Konitz, but so much of the later stuff is MEH.

SWEET HANDS - David Liebman, Richie Beirach, Frank Tusa, Badal Roy, John Abercrombie, et al. Liebman strikes me as a very interesting person and musician. Candid too. Always the hippest guy in the room, that has led to some fine work--and some ephemera.

Green Lantern The Glow The Best and the Brightest

Classic Records 200g version

Wimpy The Lone Ranger The Loneliest Runner

I've seen Mahanthappa three times, last with the Mark Dresser Quintet. His soloing was not strong; he seemed a bit unsure. Maybe it was the context, but he seems much stronger in a composed context.

Aaaagh! I had a feeling the US side was letting up a little. Gotta play every second. Credit to Portugal for playing to the very end, and they got their reward.

Pistol Pete Maravich Machine Gun Kelly Bazooka Joe

THE COMFORTERS - Muriel Spark - 1957. Picked up an inexpensive copy of Spark's first novel while up in NYC for Vision Festival. A fairly long novel, tries to do a lot, including some meta-fictional novel-within-a-novel type stuff, doesn't quite all hang together, but is still amusing to read. It does contain the essentials of Spark's fiction: Catholicism, mental breakdown/instability, criminality, and the supernatural/supernormal.

ILLUSIONARY SEA - Mary Halvorson Septet - Firehouse 12 2LP 45rpm. The 45rpm production is excellent. Oh yeah, I dig the music too!

Kenny Millions Daddy Warbucks Erle Halliburton

That must have hurt! Watched the 2nd half of the Germany-Ghana match. Germany had a chance at about the 85 minute mark but the striker took just an extra step and the opportunity disappeared. Germany also got a bad off-side call. Having said that, it did seem to me (no expert certainly!) that Ghana was the stronger team, or at least played the stronger game, overall. Exciting game.

Charlie McCarthy Edgar Bergen Candace Bergen

A couple of large® ensembles: NEW LIFE - David Murray Octet - Black Saint EXIT - Fire! Orchestra - Rune Grammofon. Really digging the Fire! LPs lately.

The Yardbirds Yardbird Yardley

Life of Pi Euclid Archimedes

I saw Crothers in the "Women With An Axe to Grind" piece on Friday. Was supposed to have been Kris Davis; no explanation for the change. Shayna Dulberger was on bass, Mazz Swift on violin, Patricia Nicholson dancing. Connie was pretty animated, as were Dulberger and Swift; lots of heavily rhythmic, staccato playing. Nothing wrong with Connie's energy level, she was really pounding away at the piano, but the piece overall didn't really work for me.

Huey Long Louie Armstrong John Dewey

It really bugs me how the Marsalis crew is trying feverishly to co-opt Ornette's music and legacy. Branford? Roney? Lovano? GTFOOH! The show seemed, for the most part, to consist of arrivistes and pretenders to the throne. The celebration in Philly seemed more honest, but it lacked Ornette in a pink suit and plastic alto. That I regret missing.

Otis Redding Oscar Brown Horace Silver