Larry Kart

Hey -- I've got that one, too, but forget about it. Need to pull it out and listen again. IIRC it's quite good.

OTOH, here are LaVerne and Richmond with Billy Hart and Billy Drewes from 2012 concert, a more satisfying occasion IMO: Some really nutty, perhaps Marsh-influenced Drewes here, from 1992:

Here are two examples of LaVerne the accompanist stepping all over Stan Getz and Bob Brookmeyer (IMO). Mike Richmond is also culpable here, but that's mostly because of the way he's amplified: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok4ZJ5dS4N4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUUV2ti8zy0

I heard Frink play lead in person with the Gerry Mulligan band that recorded "Walk On the Water." She and the band sounded terrific, and her contribution was crucial because, a la Artie Shaw, Mulligan wanted his trumpet section to pretty much sound like violins, and that ain't easy. The band's recording of "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" from that album is a fine example. Here's another, "A Song for Strayhorn," from a live concert (in grainy video): BTW, I hope Chuck doesn't cringe or want to throw things, but whenever I see Mulligan of about this vintage in action, something in his speech and demeanor reminds me of Chuck.

I'm not always a LaVerne admirer -- when he was sideman with Getz, his comping could be quite intrusive/insensitive at times -- but this 1993 LaVerne quartet album is stunning: http://www.amazon.com/Double-Standard-Andy-Laverne/dp/B0000057Q8 It's five standards and five contrafacts on them (the latter all LaVerne's work), and the only horn, quirky tenor saxophonist Billy Drewes, plays his ass off. Don't know if Drewes counts Warne Marsh among his inspirations, but it sure sounds like it. If so, he takes Marsh to some wild and crazy places -- rhythmically and harmonically.

What does that mean? She's playing dumb. As a "character," so to speak, or as a harpist? If it's the latter, why was she the first-call harpist in the L.A. studios for so many years?

What does that mean?

Picked a copy of Hale's "Plays Gershwin & Duke" yesterday at a garage sale. It's a 2001 CD reissue on her own label Lass-Hale Productions of her 1957 GNP album "Modern Harp." Nice band (Buddy Collette, Howard Roberts, Larry Bunker on vibes, Red Mitchell or Bob Enevoldsen on bass, Chico Hamilton or Don Heath on drums). Roberts is in especially fine form, and Collette takes a gorgeous half-chorus solo on tenor on "I Can't Get Started." Hale herself (then only 19) has a striking harmonic imagination, and her piano playing on several tracks is quite nutty at times in the best sense, kind of Tristano-esque. Hale grew up in Freeport Il., and studied at the Chicago Conservatory of Music, so perhaps there was some contact there.

Haven't listened to Rattle in a while, but I should add that both Maazel's version and John DeMain's are very good IIRC and that Rattle's approach doesn't sit well with a lot of P&B admirers.

Probably. Given the shape of his head and his protruding ears, the young Lee looked a good deal like Howdy Doody.

Clips sound great.

I'm with you, except that Jay Beckenstein of Spyro Gyra has much better control of his instruments.

I'd never heard of that title. Has it ever been issued on CD? Apparently not: http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-marches-i-played-on-the-old-ragtime-piano-mw0000936982

I had the good fortune to review it for Down Beat when it came out. Another earlier and excellent Eubie LP is "The Marches I Played on My Ragtime Piano" (Twentieth-Century Fox), with a quartet that included Buster Bailey and Kenny Burrell on rhythm guitar. Eubie is in great form, and it's fascinating to hear ragtime versions of marches by Sousa and others.

Of course -- but until it does...

But you yourself, on your own label, are very particular about every aspect of the recording/mastering etc. process, right? And for that, we are grateful. So if you are concerned in that way with the side of the chain of sound reproduction that you can control, why should we not try (this side of delusion or conspicuous consumption) to keep in correspondingly good shape our side of the chain of sound reproduction? If RVG took the trouble to make Paul Chambers sound as much as he could like Paul Chambers, i want to return the favor -- to all three of us.

I've never bought any piece of music reproduction equipment or associated stuff in order to impress anybody, which is not to say that some of those purchases weren't dubious or based on outright delusions, just that they had nothing to do with ... etc. As proof -- I've never mentioned what equipment or associated stuff I have unless I thought someone was legitimately curious, as on this thread.

No doubt I'm late to the party, but has this one been done before? I should add that, as may be obvious, this is an act of bemused protest again the whole album-cover threads thing, which strikes me as ... I don't know what exactly, but the image of people of dropping hot dog wrappers on the grass in a public park comes to mind for some reason.

Stokowski, Symphonie Fantastique, New Philharmonia (Decca)

Just re-read Peter Rabe's "Murder Me For Nickels," a noir classic set in a unnamed medium-sized midwestern city in the late 1950s. Narrator Jack St. Louis is second in command to Walter Lippit, who controls the juke boxes in town. Neither Lippit nor St. Louis is a gangster -- their business is legit -- but gangster-connected folks may want to try to take it over. Humorous at times, the book has a unique, off-the-wall flavor -- in a way it's about the non-sexual but arguably romantic bond between St. Louis and Lippit, which is complicated in part because St. Louis digs Lippit's girlfriend, while she is fond of both of them. St. Louis is a Mitchum-type perhaps, a man who doesn't want to take orders, doesn't want to be tied down, prefers to follow his own nose, spend his money as it comes in, etc. And yet he's drawn to Lippert, is tied to him practically and emotionally (but how much?), and because Lippit's outfit is doing well, St. Louis has more money in his pockets than he can get rid of as he used to, which leads him to start a small record label on the side to suit his own tastes (he likes jazz, has a good ear for it). One nice typical scene comes in Chapter 8, when St. Louis visits a bar where some semi-thugs from one arm of Lippert's outfit have been waiting to see if trouble arrives from the group that may be trying to muscle in. "I went to the bar on Liberty and Alder where Folsom [a somewhat dubious, in St. Louis's view, Lippit associate] had one of the goon squads waiting. I didn't see them at first because the place was so dark. There was a long bar, with one morning drinker and the bartender was doing a crossword puzzle. And there was a grey cat. She sat on top of the jukebox and her eyes were closed. Suddenly she gave a screech like a woman and flew off the machine. Somebody laughed. They were sitting behind the jukebox at a round table, playing cards. But without much interest, One of them was laughing. The bartender came over with the cat on his arm. The cat was clawed into his shoulder and if she were afraid of the height. 'Listen,' said the bartender. 'Who done that?' The cat smelled a bit of burnt fur and the bartender knew very well who had done that. But he was short and thin and the one who was laughing was big and fat. 'Phew,' he said, 'what a stinker,' and threw his cigarette on the floor. It hit me on the shoe and I stepped back a little. Then I stepped on the cigarette and rubbed it out. 'They been bothering you?' I said to the bartender. 'It's just the cat here, Mr. St. Louis. They keep bothering the cat.' 'We're here to see nothing happens to jukeboxes,' said the big one, 'and cats sitting on top of jukeboxes is not allowed. Right, fellers?'.... 'Not allowed,' said the big one. 'Put the cat back up there,' I told the bartender. 'So you're the feller with the name,' he said. 'New Orleans, wasn't it?' I didn't have to answer because he filled the space right after that crack with a long, phlegmy laugh. After a while it even sounded stupid to him and he let it die down. Then he talked as if had never laughed before in his life. 'Folsom's been telling me about you, New Orleans.' 'St. Louis. And now I'm going to tell you about me.' I came just a little closer to make it more personal. 'Folsom is running you and the rest of the apes, but the orders come from me. You sit down and hold still. You wait till you hear from Folsom before practicing your art and in the meantime no extracurricular activities. And leave this cat alone.' He looked at me and then at his buddies and I think he didn't answer anything right away because he wasn't sure of all the words I had used. Then he said, 'You come all he way down here to tell me about that cat?' He hit the ridiculous part of the conversation right on the head and I didn't feel very impressive. Which is no trick anyway. I'm just built about average and he wasn't. I felt I should talk about something else." Etc. I particularly like "After a while it even sounded stupid to him" and "before practicing your art" and St. Louis's apt internal follow-up -- "I think he didn't answer anything right away because he wasn't sure of all the words I had used." And the air of tension -- one senses that this scene could lead to violence or even death or dissipate into semi-nothingness. Further, the tension, even the potential menace, and yet so little in one sense is or should be at stake; they all "work for the same outfit," right?

Yes, fascinating for what it reveals of Laughlin (not enough - he must have been quite a character himself) and his experiences with all the amazing authors he published. Too bad he didn't write an autobiography and too bad someone else didn't write a long, detailed biography, full of footnotes, of Laughlin. There is a Laughlin memoir: http://www.amazon.com/Byways-Memoir-James-Laughlin/dp/B005Q7SD1A/ref=sr_1_19?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372861551&sr=1-19&keywords=james+laughlin Haven't read it but did enjoy "The Way It Wasn't." Among many other things, great pictures of some of the women that the lusty Laughlin pursued and bedded over the years.

Link to "Finally .... Bengt!" Great stuff.

Stanley Clarke (it is to laugh ... or cry?) And for the complete opposite of what we're talking about, Errol Garner

Art Pepper Bill Perkins Sonny Rollins (though some may disagree) Wayne Shorter (though some may disagree) Miles (but of course?) Bill Evans Lee Konitz

Earl May