Larry Kart

This may be the opposite of what you meant, or just what you meant, but I thought McBride was a stiff, unswinging drag. His idea of where "one" was -- blech! And I've thought that about him many times before. Based mostly on recordings, I'd say that there are a whole lot of bass players in the NYC area in that general style who are a whole lot better than McBride. Dwayne Burno and Peter Washington are two that come to mind.

Fascinating how what Ornette plays leads Sonny to go to the place where he goes.

And that Bird recording, played IIRC while some talking head is praising his miracles of construction, is on a tape loop! It's as though Burns had panned across Leonardo's "Last Supper" and repeated what was to the left side of the fresco as though it also were on the right side, all while someone was discussing the formal layout of the work. If you're dealing with music, it helps to have ears.

Heartbreaking.

My memories of this are not as fresh as I would wish, but I'm trying not to forget a circa 1966-7 session held in a house I lived in in Hyde Park when I was a student at the U. of Chicago where the two horns were Kalaparusha and the late tenorman Fred Schwartz. A great evening that was, though it might have been a weekend afternoon.

From an Amazon comment: "The organist on this 1954 live date is not Shirley Scott but Harry Bagby who, unlike Shirley, plays his own bass lines on the recording. However, like Shirley he employs a heavy, thickly textured, pre-Jimmy Smith organ sound, one moreover that's bound to turn off some listeners, evoking Sunday morning shouting church services or roller rinks as much as Saturday night lounge scenes." Would that it had been the swinging Scott, though I find Bagby's huffing and chuffing easy to ignore. Jim's comments about the nature of the Jaws-Stitt battle are right on target.

Perhaps this shouldn't be in "Recommendations" because this 1991 Roulette CD (an expanded version of a 1954 Roulette LP) seems to be OOP, even from EU sources, but I just found a copy and am thrilled by what I'm hearing from Jaws and Stitt (though organist Doc Bagby is no bargain, drummer Charlie Rice holds up his end). Jaws (in very good form and leading off on each track; it was his trio) and Stitt are a nicely contrasted pair, as one would expect, and that fact plus whatever vibe might have been in the air that night inspires some of the best (maybe THE best) Stitt tenor playing I've ever heard. He's incredibly fluent even by his standards (Jaws often tries to rival him there in exchanges, which of course eggs Stitt on), little or nothing is routine, and he's also quite Pres-ish at times (a plus for me).

"It seems that the flight of leading Jews, including the famous producer Max Reinhardt, has by no means left Germany barren. In point of fact, it has given brilliant natives a chance of which they are, I hear, making the best all over the country." You can say that again.

So you're the guy that's been doing it! Unfortunately, I can only control some of what he says, not what he's played (with some exceptions) since about 1957-8. But let's not start that thread again.

How delightful that I'm able to operate Phil Woods by remote control.

I've only heard the first in the series, "Que Viva Coltrane," which as I recall was very good. The choice of pieces was thoughtful -- "Lonnie's Lament," "Miles Mode," "Wise One," "Countdown," "Central Park West," "Grand Central," "Straight Street," "Locomotion."

"The Latin Side of Spade Cooley"

See here (though probably not for budget alternatives): My VPI has lasted maybe 30 years and does a fine job.

I particularly like Pettiford's work on an obscure Hall Overton trio record with Teddy Charles "Three for the Duke" (Jubilee) -- all Ellington material, including some uncommon things ("Mainstem," "Sherman Shuffle"). The drumless format allows everything Pettiford plays to ring through. And a definite thumbs up to Ind on "The Real Lee Konitz." Their duet work on "Fooling Myself"!

Sorry -- I didn't put that right. When Rich was a member of the Thad Jones- Mel Lewis orchestra in the mid-1970s, they called him "Little Joe." Now, in the VJO, they call him for supper.

Though he's his own man now IMO, when Rich Perry was with the Vanguard Orchestra, they called him "Little Joe."

Paul Chambers is in exceptional form (and recorded with great presence) throughout the title track of Louis Smith's "Smithville" -- brief but striking unaccompanied walking intro, great support for the other soloists (Smith, Charlie Rouse, Sonny Clark), blues-drenched solo.

But Franklin Trampsteamer played the C-Malady!

Wilbur Ware: "Woody 'n You," Johnny Griffin Sextet Mingus: "I Can't Get Started," Jazz Portraits -- Mingus In Wonderland Albert Stinson: "My Joy," Bobby Hutcherson, Oblique

After hearing Stanley Clarke and Lenny White blast us out of our seats in large theaters (during mid-1970s Return to Forever concerts), I am trying to imagine what they would have sounded like in a small club back then. I am also trying to imagine them toning down their showy RTF style to fit in with Joe Henderson and Curtis Fuller. I have not heard the Clarke-White versatility in action, only their loud, rocking side. They were quite tasty in 1971; Clarke still playing acoustic bass. Also, this was the best Fuller I've ever heard. Untypically for him in my experience, he expressively roughed up his tone at times a la Dicky Wells -- this probably in response to the band's overall high level of intensity.

Make that all of "In Pursuit of Blackness."

One lingering memory I have of Henderson is a 1980s Jazz Showcase engagement that paired him with Johnny Griffin. It seemed that Griffin's normal aggressiveness and Henderson's perhaps normal diffidence were exaggerated under the circumstances. What really threw me was the significant difference in sheer volume between them (Griffin, of course, being the more forceful; Henderson sounded like he was muttering to himself -- perhaps, I thought afterwards, he might not have been in good health). On the other hand, I recall a early 1970s performance at Chicago's North Park Hotel (also under Joe Segal's aegis) by the Henderson sextet that appears on half of "In Pursuit of Blackness": Curtis Fuller, Pete Yellin, George Cables, Stanley Clarke, and Lenny White. Everyone in that band was on fire that day.

Switched from Safari to Firefox. I prefer Firefox. For one thing, on some sites where images exist within blocks of type, the type bleeds over the art on Safari (at least for a day or so) but not on Firefox. Firefox seems quicker too.

C. V. Wedgwood's "The Thirty Years War." Lord, could she write.

I'll wait a bit -- say until tomorrow a.m. -- for further comment. Then we all can try again on this topic when and if significant stuff happens on this issue in the world "out there."