Teasing the Korean

Same cat!

Who knew?

In 1979, a community radio station, WMNF 88.5, was launched in our humble hamlet. At that time, they played jazz in prime time, 7-10 if not 7-11, Monday through Thursday (possibly more.) Each night of the week featured a different host, and as a result, different aesthetics and musical/cultural perspectives. While most of the jazz DJs were white, the Thursday night DJ was an African American gentleman by the name of Charles Van. He played primarily organ grove. As a white kid (That is not me in my profile pic; I'm not that handsome), I had never heard this music before and was mesmerized. I didn't know it at the time, but Charles Van was playing this stuff 10 years after it had gone out of fashion, and 10 years before hipsters rediscovered it. Anyway, my anecdotal experience seems to reinforce the book's thesis. The "jazz" that anyone was talking about, writing about, or listening to at that time was all very "serious." But I could tell instinctively as a teenager listening to this organ groove stuff that it was party music. Fast foward another 20 or so years. In the late 1990s, I was living in Beantown, and Ms. TTK and I went to a small jazz club in Roxbury - forget the name of the club - where there was an organ trio playing. The audience was a blend of both demographics - younger white hipsters getting into this stuff, and older African American couples who were probably spinning these records 30 years earlier.

Keith Richards is 80 today. If researchers want to cure death, they know where to look.

I like most of the MGM-era stuff, but from Capitol on, my favorite Shearing albums (and individual tracks) have Latin percussion. I like his solo piano albums, too, though I don't spin them often.

I found the LP years ago without ever having heard it, and bought it just for that track. I couldn't even imagine how the quintet would play it. Turns out it's a killer version!

This is as good a place as any to post the George Shearing version:

👍

I just read that O'Farrill arranged an LP by the Barry Sisters on ABC Paramount!

About 15 or 20 years ago, I digitized 3 of the tracks for a comp I was curating. These included "Ghetto," "Good Sense Humor Man," and "First Thing in the Morning." These three have more or less funk grooves. IIRC, the tunes I did not digitize were more swinging and straight ahead. Because I have mostly listened to the other three on the comp, I know those well, but I'm less familiar with the others. It sounds like this album was designed to appeal to multiple audiences, maybe not unusual for a jazz album of this era by someone of Moody's generation.

I'm saying that there are certain sounds that I can take only in small doses. Whistling is one.

Looks like he had 4 albums total. Yeah, he would probably work better in a various artists playlist.

Here is "Summertime."

This weekend's viewing: Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970, Frank Perry) Barbarian (2022, Zach Cregger) In Fabric (2018, Peter Strickland)

Yeah, harmonica is far from my favorite instrument, but I LOVE Toots's contributions to those early-70s Q albums. The Shearing Quintet sides with harmonica, not so much...