Larry Kart

Dexter's cachet in the jazz world was firmly in place long before "Round Midnight," and it was primarily based on his music.

The key piece there IMO is "Minor Incident,"with that beautiful horn call -- as firmly knitted together as a piece by Monk, albeit quite different in atmosphere. I believe that Bob Enevoldsen's valve trombone solo on that piece was written out for him by Tatro.

Love that record. Talked to Tatro on the phone once many years ago. Nice guy, pleased to hear that his music was the subject of admiration. He said that he was going to send me a tape of the premiere performance of the 12-tone guitar concerto he wrote for Howard Roberts, but the tape began with a radio announcer's intro and then nada.

Dick Berk, Dick Kniss on bass.

Painting with a broad brush here, but by and large Stitt more or less skates or surfs on top of the music, which is certainly genuine on his part and can be delightful; Dexter, by contrast, digs in.

She was a mess when we adopted her from PAWS Chicago. She came from Oklahoma in the aftermath of tornadoes they had there. She was overweight and scraggly, but my wife, who has long experience with dogs (mostly pugs), saw into her soul and said "She's the one." She was. We slimmed her down to her proper weight, fed her good food, groomed her regularly, walked her a lot, talked to her a lot and and she soaked it all up -- a love sponge my wife called her. PAWS said she was an Austrian Cattle Dog; we had a DNA test done just for the hell of it, and it came back on the maternal side: Corgi (she was somewhat on the squat side for her size), Dalmatian ( the white chest and white paws), and Bull Terrier. On the paternal side some Shepherd.

Her eyes looked into our souls and vice versa, or so it seemed.

Had to do the same thing with my beloved cat Baby about a month ago. He was about 14.

had to be put down yesterday -- age 9, cancer. She was a sweetheart. Part Corgi, part Dalmation, part Theda Bara (those eyes).

Never before owned a copy. Desmond plays beautifully there.

He did have the sheet music, so the story goes, and the chances of hearing Joplin's rags in French clubs or cafes in the teens or twenties would've been slim I believe.

Yes -- Hindsight (a three CD box for me) but it's the Musicraft band.

I've always felt that there was a definite resemblance between the stoptime passage in Joplin's "Stoptime Rag" (its resolution in particular) and the final phrases of Stravinsky's Octet. As we know FWIW (I think this is so ) Stravinsky's experience of ragtime was through sheet music, not recordings or live performances.

Love this somewhat ignored edition of the Ellington Band. Three CDs, handsome booklet, thorough annotations by Patrica Willard. A must for "Happy Go Lucky Local Parts 1 and 2." Neverthless and why not? I was responding to your "narrowing of focus" remark by mentioning some recordings before "hard bop" and its children that I've recently been paying attention to. But that's just me.

OK: Fascinating, and I believe fairly obscure, early Henderson.

Another: Superb late Chet with the fine NDR Big band and excellent arrangements. And another: Hicks fascinates me. At times he sounds fairly decorative (e.g the semi-florid upper register flourishes with which he typically ends phrases), but this is far from merely decorative playing. There's a cumulative force to it (rhythmic, melodic, harmonic) that sweeps one (i.e. me) away. Not utterly unlike Tyner in some respects but perhaps less formulaic -- not that there's anything wrong with McCoy's formulas by and large. BTW, McCoy's playing on Coltrane's "One Down, One Up: Live at the Half Note" is out of sight.

I don't like lists. And I'll talk about stuff that tickles my fancy when and if it spontaneously does so -- as with that "Buddy Tate and His Buddies" album from a week or more ago. OK, here's one: John Swana and the Philadelphians, Philly Gumbo Vol. 2 (Criss Cross) with tenormen Bootsie Barnes and Larry McKenna, a fine duo. Barnes I believe is gone now. Swana is a fine trumpeter. Vol. 1, with only Barnes as the other horn, is is excellent too.

I'm 79 and I think Chuck is 78 and we've both been listening for about the same length of time -- myself sInce 1954. If we're not part of some sort of critical mass who is? Also, grumpy though we may be, neither of us has the musical tastes of a grumpy old man.

I became aware of Quincy through the numerous EmArcy album he wrote arrangements for in the early to mid '50s.. At that time his work had a very distinctive sound. Later on that dissipated, probably when he began to farm things out to Billy Byers and others.

Bought Matthews' Dawn album back in the day (the one with Farmer and Gryce) and have always liked it. Lee Konitz did when young.

Caught that band live at the Jazz Showcase. It was magical indeed.

"Piece of ----"... "as was their right" says it all, no? Provided one doesn't trust Feinstein. I saw the film when it came out, and if memory serves it sure as heck was no bargain. Don't know what color process was used, but IIRC it looked cheap and ugly.

Just listened to an excerpt on YouTube. She should have turned the gun on the guy who was singing.

Tania?

Right -- "Gotterdammerung."