Larry Kart

Johnny Richards' "Something Else": http://www.amazon.com/Softly-Something-Johnny-Richards-Orchestra/dp/B000B6TRNO The hair-raising trumpet section includes Maynard Ferguson, Pete Candoli, and Buddy Childers; Stu Williamson and Shorty Rogers are along for the ride. Some of Richards' most extreme, goofily exuberant work; the man had a surreal sense of humor -- e.g. the writing for piccolo!

An e-mail from a friend: 'I haven't even read the first sentence, but I feel a rant coming on: the latest issue of The New Yorker arrived in our mailbox a few minutes ago and the table of contents lists "Duke Ellington and the Beatles," by Adam Gopnik, subtitled "Duke Ellington, The Beatles, and the Mysteries of Modern Creativity." IMO, and obviously in that of my friend, Gopnik is a twit in the very top class. Wouldn't be surprised if he's riding on the back of the Terry Teachout Ellington biography here and borrowing many of its dubious conclusions.

Happy Birthday

I'm trying to remember a comparable goof of which I had personal knowledge. One doesn't come to mind right now, but I'm sure there were some. None that I was responsible for though, I don't think.

One of my favorites, too. Hall and Raney were an intense pairing, especially on "Move It" (think that's the title and think it's a Hall piece). The young Steve Swallow adds a lot to this date, as he does to the Art Farmer Quartet with Hall, and Walter Perkins or Pete LaRoca.

This one is a gem for both Hall and Brookmeyer: http://bobbrookmeyer.com/albuminfo.aspx?ID=201 Also, the Art Farmer Jazz Icons DVD: http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Icons-Art-Farmer-Live/dp/B002N5KE0Q

I've got that LP. Will have to listen again to the Powell work.

Does anyone know Frank Herbert's pre-"Dune" novel "The Heaven Makers," originally published in 1967 in Amazing Stories (probably as a serial)? In it a race of alien immortals, the Chem, ward off the ultimate blight of boredom by observing the various "stories" of human behavior. But in order to do so with maximum effectiveness one key presenter of these stories, Fraffin, begins to manipulate our behavior rather than to merely observe and present it to his fellow Chem. I remember finding it to be an insidiously compelling semi-paranoid tale, and several weeks ago I bought a used paperback copy of it. (Couldn't find it in any local library.) Hope it holds up. It begins: "Full of forebodings and the greatest tensions that an adult Chem had ever experienced, Kelexel the Investigator came down into the storyship where it hid beneath the ocean. He pressed his slender craft through the barrier that stood like lines of insect legs in the green murk and debarked on the long gray landing platform. "All around him flickering yellow discs and globes of working craft arrived and departed. It was early daylight topside and from this ship Fraffin the Director was composing a story. "To be here, Kelexel thought. Actually to be on Fraffin's world."

Damn. He gave us a great deal. And such a unique player, too.

Hey, another Andrew Imbrie fan.

Not being facetious, but did they really swang their pelvises while marching? F Could be wrong, but I don't think he means that the music of the black marching bands was being made by players who were themselves swinging their pelvises. Rather it was a music that led those listening to swing their pelvises, just as, when "pulled together," the various strains of early jazz fused into a "music that purported ... to soak the bloomers of listening girls." BTW, aside from everything else, isn't there something a bit off there language-wise? The music couldn't have soaked, or purported to have soaked, those bloomers; only the girls could have done that. What Crouch meant to say, I think -- and let's get rid off "purported" -- was something like "a music ... that would make listening girls soak their bloomers" etc. Freelance editing available for no fee on request.

Link (I hope it works) to David Hajdu's very favorable review of the Crouch Parker bio in the NYTBR: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/books/review/kansas-city-lightning-and-bird.html?_r=0 Interesting (at least to me) that Hajdu toward the end of his review singles out for praise -- "[Crouch] effectively presents the whole history of jazz in one dizzying sentence" -- a passage that I quoted in post #154 on this thread as an example of Crouch's overwriting at or near its worst: “First the cornet, then the trumpet, had dominated early jazz, taking the strutting, pelvic swing of the black marching bands, the melodic richness of the spirituals, the tumbling jauntiness of ragtime, and the belly-to-belly earthiness of the blues, and pulled them together into a music that purported to soothe the mournful soul, to soak the bloomers of listening girls, and generally to cause everyone to kick up a lot of dust.” I agree -- dizzying. Then, after quoting that passage, Hadju concludes: "If writing like that takes three decades to do, I'm willing to wait another 30 years for Crouch to finish his work on Charlie Parker." BTW, Freelancer -- believe it or not, it's not Crouch's racial views, such as they are, that bother me. Rather, what I don't like about Crouch is his IMO bad writing, his arguably retrograde musical views, and the role he has played over the years in puffing Wynton Marsalis.

It didn't for me. IIRC dental insurance is in a separate bag from (if you're of that age) Medicare and whatever supplemental medical insurance you may have. That is, you have to purchase dental insurance separately from medical insurance. As to whether dental insurance is worth it, I'll bet that the fees for it are such that it's close to a toss up; that's the way the insurance industry works. OTOH, if you have good reason to think that you're going to have significant dental problems, I'd look into it.

Yes, indeed. Interesting aside there about Ray Brown.

Have had one implant, after an old tooth that had had a root canal job some years before developed new nastiness down below, which could not be ignored. Had the old tooth extracted, got the nastiness cleaned out, went the implant route. No problems, and it's been about three years now IIRC. Also, IIRC the whole process involved almost no discomfort. Once they insert into your jaw the metal post that will anchor the implant, you do have to wait some time (several months?) before the implant can be put in place, but you do have something temporary sitting there that's satisfactory enough.

Both of those Como tracks are a nutty delights. Without doubt, the man himself had a a very dry, wry sense of humor; you can hear it right there in his voice, especially on "Linda." And who the heck takes that tenor solo! There's a place or two where I think it might be Seldon Powell. The likely arranger was Joe Lippman (Jack Andrews also worked on "Como Swings"). Best know as the arranger for "Charlie Parker With Strings," Lippman was a pianist with Artie Shaw in the '30s and wrote a subtle set of arrangements of Beiderbecke pieces for Bunny Berigan (see below). I did a telephone interview with Como back in the day. What a nice guy. I wouldn't be surprised if his patented laid back manner wasn't helped along by applications of Mezz Mezzrow's favorite herb. If so, that might also account in part for the attitude that allowed/encouraged "Donkey Serenade" and "Linda" to happen.

Ok, so it's just another form of "essential" then, a concept both useful and useless concept, not any kind of "official designation" or anything. Thanks for clarifying that for me. I really wasn't sure what it was supposed to mean. Furtwängler and especially Mengelberg are an acquired taste for many and I'm not sure they are the best to start with if, like the original poster, you don't know anything about Beethoven's symphonies. What's so odd about Furtwangler? Great time, he has, not stiff at all. Who said that Furtwangler's time was stiff? The complaint (for those who complain -- certainly not me) would be pretty much the opposite, that his phrasing was too free and plastic.

A "reference recording" is a recording that conveys as fully as possible -- in the opinion of one person at the least, in the opinions of a good many supposedly knowledgable people at best -- how a particular work should go, i.e. a recording that other recordings of that work can and should be measured against. The term, I think, was popularized (perhaps even originated) by writers at the British classical music magazine The Gramophone, which was founded in 1923. Of course, what turns out to be your reference recording for any work (should you wish to entertain the arguably rather stuffy-prissy concept) is up to you, but I think it's safe to say that you shouldn't throw the term around unless and until you've heard a fair number of recordings of that work. In the Beethoven 7th sweepstakes, Carlos Kleiber's recording (Hans' choice) is regarded as a strong candidate by many. I also like Eugen Jochum's DGG recording from the 1950s, not (or not so much) his later ones on Philips and EMI.

On some of those solos from the Reinhardt-Wells and Reinhardt-Stewart-Bigard dates, there are moments when I feel that Django is almost able to make time come to stop -- in the sense that he and we seem to have the time to walk around the phrases he's playing and look at them from all sides.

Billy Drewes, Steve Slagle

Bill Coleman solos on tpt. on both of the above.

Delighted that you hear the resemblance too, Don. For some reason, it just clicked in my head when I was listening to that particular Webster album, though I've loved his playing for almost 60 years.

Oops -- I think you're right. Link removed.

Inzalaco (b. 1938) settled in Europe, where he was a member of Kurt Edlehagen's radio band. Here are some of his credits: Roger Kellaway Trio: A Jazz Portrait of Roger Kellaway, Fresh Sound, FSR-147, 1963, CD Maynard Ferguson Orchester: The New Sounds, Fresh Sound, FSCD-2010, 1964, CD Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band: Latin Kaleidoscope, MPS, 15 213, 1968, LP Paul Nero: El Condor Pasa - Paul Nero in South-America, Liberty, 1970, LP Peter Herbolzheimer: My Kind of Sunshine MPS 2121331-5, 1971, LP Benny Bailey: Mirrors, Freedom 26316, 1971, LP Stan Getz/Francy Boland: Change of Scenes, Verve/Ex Libris 171 084, 1971, LP Ira Kris Group: Jazzanova, MPS 21 20907-5, 1971, LP Mangelsdorff-Whigham-Persson-Hampton : Trombone Workshop, MPS 2120915-6, 1971, LP Bora Roković: Ultra Native MPS 1972 Maynard Ferguson: Dues, Mainstream, MSM 474418 2, 1972, CD Ben Webster: In Hannover, Impro-Jazz, IJ 506, 1973, DVD Peter Herbolzheimer: Rhythm Combination & Brass, MPS, 0088.048, 1970 - 1974, LP Art Farmer: A Sleeping Bee Sonet Records, SNTCD 715, 1974, CD Francy Boland: Papillon Noir, Freedom 40176, 1975, LP Dexter Gordon: Stable Mable, SteepleChase SCCD-31040, 1975, CD Eugen Cicero: For My Friends, Intercord 130.010, 1977, LP Fritz Pauer Trio: Blues Inside Out, MPS 0068218, 1978, LP Looks like he's based in California now: http://www.saddleback.edu/news/arts/tony-inzalaco-quintet