Spontooneous

PM sent on two discs.

Listen to Bird rattle off the names of lesser-known Stravinsky pieces!

Charlie Parker, The Verve Years 1952-54, a Verve double bought at a garage sale in 1982. I didn't understand the music at all, but felt the need to figure it out. I told myself I'd listen every day for a week or two. Five days later, I owned three other Charlie Parker LPs.

Hi there, jabird. Thanks for posting and letting us hear these. They're delightful. I'm going to join the chorus that says it isn't Charlie Parker. It's a group of highly devoted and skilled young players, likely from Kansas City but perhaps from somewhere else in the Midwest, who paid Damon to make a test record of their good band. And for the session, they chose a couple of their favorite Parker tunes. Just guessing by the style of the performance, I'd say it comes from the early to mid 1950s. Oh, if they had only put their names on the label... Acetate discs cut by Damon show up at estate sales, thrift stores, etc., around Kansas City with some frequency. I think he was cutting acetate discs for people into the '60s. I'd bet that Parker authority Chuck Haddix at the UMKC library would agree that it isn't Bird but that it's a wonderful band and a beautiful slice of history. You might have a hard time reaching Chuck through UMKC these days, but you can find him on Facebook.

Ashkenazy is good. For archival interest, there's a composer-conducted version from the '30s, with the Philadelphia Orchestra. It had an RCA-BMG CD reissue in the '90s.

(jeez, where the fuck can you buy simple, bare-bones landline phones anymore? - guess I'll find out). Buy 12 at the thrift store and you might be able to piece together 3 that work.

One other thing I forgot. You may encounter someone who says they can help your dad get a veterans "aid and attendance" pension from the federal government. Don't fall for it. It's usually a gateway to a scam. I mention it because five different parties have tried to snag my parents on this one in the last four years. As recently as last week. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2015/11/veterans-dont-let-scammers-bilk-your-benefits

Some unsolicited input here from someone who has been lucky enough to know Tom's dad, albeit briefly. (Patrick gets it right: "A creative force, and pretty darn robust.") --Did he perhaps have a long-term care insurance policy? (Through a union, or another source?) That can be an enormous help. --You will need to let him live in that house absolutely as long as possible and maybe then some. Of all the people I've known in life, I can't think of ANYBODY more rooted in the place where they live. If at all possible, simplify to where he can live on the ground floor all day and night, without climbing stairs. And look into hiring a home health aide, an insured one from a reputable company. Maybe just a few hours a day. Long-term care insurance would help with this. --I'm sorry to hear all of it, for you and your dad. I'm glad you've got good info and some social services support from the hospital; the hospital social services staff will know how to extend this support further into the community. --Follow your conscience. It's doing a hell of a good job. --Do not be afraid to invoke FMLA with your employer.

My Mosaic booklet died in a basement flood, so I have to go on memory here. About the time the Mosaic was released, I interviewed Charlie Lourie about it. I remember Charlie saying there was some other Benedetti material still with a family member because they couldn't agree on financial terms. I don't remember him saying specifically that it was a Benedetti family member, but I believed at the time that was what he meant. I don't think Chan was the problem here. But I distinctly remember Charlie saying how touched he was when Dean's brother handed over the material that's in the set and told Charlie, "Please take care of my brother."

I'm not alone in thinking it's Chick Webb on drums, am I?

You couldn't get the Bakaleinikoff version?

Assuming it hasn't been hacked: His death was announced eight minutes ago on his own Facebook page.

This morning on the internet,friends are saying that Hargrove has died. Can anyone confirm or, please please, deny?

Maybe a good, immersive club or concert recording is better for this purpose than a scattered anthology? I consider myself fortunate that my first Monk album, circa 1983, was "Live at the It Club" (a new release at the time). The quartet's in good spirits, and quite a few of the most-famous tunes are represented. The double-CD reissue from Columbia does it justice. In the same vein, the "Live in Tokyo" double on Columbia and the "Live in Stockholm" set that was on both Dragon and DIW. (But not the Columbia "Live at the Jazz Workshop" double. Weird vibe in the air that night, and everything seems a little bit off.) OK, fellow posters, now you can talk smack about Rouse, Dunlop and Riley.

Seconding what Justin said.

OK, a little more before the month gets away. 5: Darn, that ID slipped right past me, though I replayed that album a few months back. This track is worth another listen just for the piano comping. 7: I'm left with a strong feeling I've heard this before. James Newton? What commanding flute playing. 8: Maybe Darcy James Argue? 10: Even if I don't have a guess, I like it very much. 11: Mixed feelings here. Again, a strong feeling I've heard it before. The reasons for that feeling may not be so good. I've heard several records sort of like this one over the last few years. Take some changes that sound like a Radiohead song and add some blowing that works up to repeated-note climaxes like an arena rock guitar solo. I guess this is a new iteration of How Things Should Be Done. This performance is an excellent example of some new parameters. I like it some, but I want to see it open up to other things. Overall, a damn fine BFT here.

Y'all remember who set you up with that Project H album, y'hear? I too feel bad about missing Mary Lou. If I ever have another pet, I'll name it Igmar.

Please pardon hasty response amid dodgy internet connectivity. Is that Liberty Ellman on 2? 6, Harry James?

Just wondering what people have to say about 14. And if anybody has good guesses on 15.

OK, here goes. 1 -- Sun Ra goes into Fletcher Henderson mode. 2 -- Sun Ra and Gilmore again, or have you tricked me into thinking that somebody else is Gilmore? 3 -- I'm 260 miles from my record collection right now, but I'd start looking for this one among the Rabih Abou-Khalil records. I love, love, love the sound of that alto. 4 -- No guess, but I like the refusal to turn this into a showpiece. It's music on a guitar, not mere guitar music. 5 -- Dat Dere. No guess on the pianist, who is presumably the leader. 6. -- I see that it's been identified. I'm too embarrassed to say what my guess was. 7 -- At first you have to say Ben, but after a while details such as the bass part suggest we're listening to something newer. When the tenor comes back, I'm hearing Ricky Ford. I know there's a Richard Davis quartet album with Ricky Ford, and I'll bet this one can be found there. 8 -- Ricky Ford for sure, with Carlos Ward on flute and Charles Davis on bari, in Abdullah Ibrahim's Ekaya. Are we perhaps playing a game of pairs here? Two of Sunny and Gilmore, two Ricky, two of others I haven't figured out? 9 -- OK, this is fun. Is that a mellotron wailing along in the back? Might be something that was mashed together electronically. But no less enjoyable for that. 10 -- Maybe Eddie Palmieri with Brian Lynch and Conrad Herwig. Or Brian and Conrad with somebody else. Or none of the above. Yes, definitely one of those things. A good one. 11 -- Illinois, or Arnett, orJug. Tenor with maybe three other horns in the back. The first half-chorus of the tenor solo could be textbook Dexter, but it's not him. Eagerly awaiting an answer to this one. 12 -- I'll guess Earl Bostic. The technical security is amazing. 13 -- I want more of this guitarist, whoever it is. 14 -- I'll tell y'all later. I want to hear what you have to say about it first. 15 -- Tenor sounds like Bennie Wallace at times, bari like Bluiett, and I'll probably be embarrassed by the reveal. This BFT tickles me. Thanks, Bill.

Thanks for this, JIm. It'll be printed and filed with the reissue, which I was thrilled to get.

Quickly, before my internet connectivity problems catch up with me: 2 is "Piggy Love" from Jack Walrath's "Revenge of the Fat People," reissued on CD as "Hi Jinx." That's Ricky Ford on tenor and Mike Clark laying down the prime funk. 7 -- I dearly love that piano. 8 -- I get the feeling this is a horn player of advanced age. But unbroken by it. 9 -- Maybe not adventurous, but I like that little coda a lot. 10 -- Henry Butler? 11 -- I got nothin'. But I like. 12 -- That shuffle on brushes is infectious. This could go on a couple minutes more and I wouldn't mind. 13 -- Probably not Illinois, but someone who paid attention to him. Lovely. 14 -- A pretty good Hi-Fly. I got nothin'. 15 -- OK, but not speaking to me today, which may say more about me than it does about the music. 16 -- Misty, maybe a little chopsy in spots, but pretty good. 17 -- Under the sign of T-Bone Walker. 18 -- Tenor really digs into Now's The Time when others might simply cruise. This has some surprising depths and undertows. A beautiful ending to another good one, Dan!

Sneaking a listen at work tonight. 1. An interesting 'Round Midnight. Each chorus, there's an unexpectedly sweet chord around the seventh bar of the bridge, where Monk is much tarter. This is lovely, though. The short coda is very pleasing. 2. This is from a Jack Walrath album, I think Neohippus with Carter Jefferson on tenor. If I were at home I could run down the exact ID. Good one. 3. Is that alto Bobby Watson?

Saw him with Horizon at least twice. Among other things, he was one of the few left who really knew how to work a plunger (on a trumpet, that is). In a quote in liner notes somewhere (hope my memory is accurate), Bobby Watson called Melton's style "fried chicken with wine sauce." Always hoped I'd get to hear him again.

Enjoying the BFT, despite my online silence. The only one I got straightaway was Phineas, and I see I'm not alone on that. The composition behind tracks 9/10 is the Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5 of Villa-Lobos. This sounds like an interpretation out of CTI land, or GRP land.