Went down the rabbit hole at jazzcollector.com for an hour or so this evening. Surprised to learn that this album, with its iconic cover:



is, economically, a valuable collector's item, very good condition vinyl copies apparently selling for between $1,200-$2,000.

Shouldn't be that surprising I suppose. It was panned on release, so pressings were probably limited, and now, for reasons - music was actually better than was appreciated at the time, players are all notables, winning cover art, collectors of anything tend to be screwy, etc - it's coveted.

catch the spirit:

not sure if this website's been posted in here:

Tokyo Jazz Joints (the project)


Sample of one of the 50-odd places (of about 150 planned) they've photo-documented

So SF Jazz is now producing like 300 events a year. They are one of the only dedicated Jazz orgs with their own facility, which while it's nothing as big as the opera or symphony - is only 5 years oldand is still quite nice. Anyway - among all the concerts they have a series of sessions with artists in residence where the ED of SF Jazz interviews them on stage - they create a sort of lounge vibe on stage and then the artist discusses influences and plays certain influential tracks of shares things with audience. Then they play a litlte themselves...

This past Tuesday evening was Christian McBride, Philly's own native son and bass wonder. He talked about how he got hooked on bass and his dad played with Mongo and he had this cool uncle guy who blew blunts and turned him on to all these jazz cats. He was very great interviewee ,humble funny - articulate. He played a couple Jaco clips, an old Ray Brown w Oscar Peterson clip and VSOP as well as this amazing solo by Paul Chambers using a bow... at the end he did an insanely musical and skilled solo rendition of a jazz classic, I forgot the name - but recognized it -

After, there's a meet and greet mingle, and though I never met him before - he knows old friends of mine from Philly and he was on a record that a good friend of mine produced - some of you may know it "The Philadelphia Experiment" maybe 10-12 years ago? So I introduced myself to him and he had said something about "Chip Kelly" being SF's problen now and talked about "Jawn" and we had a quick chat but it was fun, I dropped "case quarter" on him and he fell out laughing... super nice guy.

Sadly, I haven't had the wherewithall to go hear all his gigs this week - last night he played with DJ Logic and anotehr DJ and a couple lmusicians. Tonight is his trio. Tomorrow he does a matinee thing with studetns and kids ilve on their site - and then tomorrow night is his big band. Sunday he does a duo with Dee Dee Bridgewater...

When I see these guy - especially the ones from Philly - I saw Kenny Barron a few months ago in the same format and talked to him too, he was my teacher in 1982 at Rutgers -- at one point he turned to me "you still playin..." a pit in my stomach - cause I'm not and haven't in a long time... it's a reminder of a life and a world I once inhabited but no longer - so it's bittersweet...

Kenny is 74 now... I once had a lesson with him like 11am on a Tuesday on campus and then saw him at Lush Life at 11pm later that night w my crew...

Long time ago...

Philly the Kid wrote:So SF Jazz is now producing like 300 events a year. They are one of the only dedicated Jazz orgs with their own facility, which while it's nothing as big as the opera or symphony - is only 5 years oldand is still quite nice. ....

....When I see these guy - especially the ones from Philly - I saw Kenny Barron a few months ago in the same format and talked to him too, he was my teacher in 1982 at Rutgers -- at one point he turned to me "you still playin..." a pit in my stomach - cause I'm not and haven't in a long time... it's a reminder of a life and a world I once inhabited but no longer - so it's bittersweet...

Kenny is 74 now... I once had a lesson with him like 11am on a Tuesday on campus and then saw him at Lush Life at 11pm later that night w my crew...

Long time ago...

Awesome post Kid, sorry I missed it days ago. Many thanks for recounting your conversations with McBride & your mentor K Barron. One of the many things that makes jazz special for me is the approachability of so many of the artists - approachable even by a non-musician schmuck like me.

I'm utterly envious of your proximity to SF Jazz's activities. I hope you get to enjoy many, many more.

For those in/near DC, or DC-bound - particularly if you're there October 13 with nothing else important to do - there's this exhibition of photos by Allentown PA's own Herman Leonard. Yeah, they're photos of jazz notables. Yeah, Leonard is one of the form's most renowned photographers.

In the Groove: Jazz Portraits by Herman Leonard

I like this 'portrait'; jazz hipsters know who it is 'of':





The exhibit's on until February 20, 2017, at the National Portrait Gallery, which, if you've never been, you had ought to have gone already. One of our nation's treasures.

SNL's lampoon of the Clinton/drumpf debate featured Alec Baldwin as drumpf, referring to Michael Che's "Lester Holt" as "jazzman" (2:10 into the clip), and later (at 4:13 in the clip) having his drumpf refer to "Holt" as "Coltrane" - which was itself a reference to an exchange between Gene Hackman & Danny Glover in The Royal Tennenbaums, which was narrated by.... Alec Baldwin.

Jazzmen would call that some great 'quoting'....

The SNL open:



The Royal Tennenbaums bit:

I noticed that too. Seemed weird.

Youseff wrote:I noticed that too. Seemed weird.

why it's more than weird

1) awesome references to a subversive genre, dropped in a subversive political parody

2) Gene Hackman

3) 'jazzman"=subversive=other="obviously black"

so, well, weird, yeah, but other things too. Takes skills to craft cultural commentary that operates on multiple levels simultaneously

Some nice Sunday listening. I'm sure doc and doc's son would agree.

I'm drsmooth, and I approve slowhand's message

can't believe we missed this NYTimes photo slideshow of a Sunday in the life of BSG jazz fans' adopted girl singer, Cyrille Aimee - from way back in February.

Accompanying article: How Cyrille Aimee, Jazz Singer, Spends Her Sundays


Mezzrow is a nice little - VERY little -club built for solos, duos, & maybe if they inhale, trios

EDIT: wow, Just went to Mezzrow's website, & they've introduced a livestreaming option you can sign up for for free - access to live shows at both Mezzrow AND Smalls. Free, did I mention? This could come in very handy..... Gretchen Parlato on right at Mezzrow now; not my favorite, but she has skills. Sound quality is poor - they should work on that if there's any improvement possible - and the camera angle is ridiculous, but free is a good start....

EDIT EDIT: the Smalls feed is markedly better quality. Still not Panavision/Cinemascope, but better. And production values! Two camera angles, crossfades, etc. You.Are.There.

Merry Christmas from Charles Mingus - an eggnog recipe that will knock you and your friends right on your ass

I like it and know it mostly through its use in HipHop

iladelph53 wrote:I like it and know it mostly through its use in HipHop

Mingus's Moanin' is not Art Blakey's Moanin' and yet both are great

drsmooth wrote:For those in/near DC, or DC-bound - particularly if you're there October 13 with nothing else important to do - there's this exhibition of photos by Allentown PA's own Herman Leonard. Yeah, they're photos of jazz notables. Yeah, Leonard is one of the form's most renowned photographers.

In the Groove: Jazz Portraits by Herman Leonard

I like this 'portrait'; jazz hipsters know who it is 'of':





The exhibit's on until February 20, 2017, at the National Portrait Gallery, which, if you've never been, you had ought to have gone already. One of our nation's treasures.

If i had to put money on it, I'd say the Prez, Lester Young.

drsmooth wrote:can't believe we missed this NYTimes photo slideshow of a Sunday in the life of BSG jazz fans' adopted girl singer, Cyrille Aimee - from way back in February.

Accompanying article: How Cyrille Aimee, Jazz Singer, Spends Her Sundays


Mezzrow is a nice little - VERY little -club built for solos, duos, & maybe if they inhale, trios

EDIT: wow, Just went to Mezzrow's website, & they've introduced a livestreaming option you can sign up for for free - access to live shows at both Mezzrow AND Smalls. Free, did I mention? This could come in very handy..... Gretchen Parlato on right at Mezzrow now; not my favorite, but she has skills. Sound quality is poor - they should work on that if there's any improvement possible - and the camera angle is ridiculous, but free is a good start....

EDIT EDIT: the Smalls feed is markedly better quality. Still not Panavision/Cinemascope, but better. And production values! Two camera angles, crossfades, etc. You.Are.There.

I lke Parlato a lot.

Philly the Kid wrote:

drsmooth wrote:For those in/near DC, or DC-bound - particularly if you're there October 13 with nothing else important to do - there's this exhibition of photos by Allentown PA's own Herman Leonard. Yeah, they're photos of jazz notables. Yeah, Leonard is one of the form's most renowned photographers.

In the Groove: Jazz Portraits by Herman Leonard

I like this 'portrait'; jazz hipsters know who it is 'of':





The exhibit's on until February 20, 2017, at the National Portrait Gallery, which, if you've never been, you had ought to have gone already. One of our nation's treasures.

If i had to put money on it, I'd say the Prez, Lester Young.

You sir are, no great surprise to me, 100% correct - and I'm pretty much with you on Parlato. She's not much on range/power, but she's a jazz singer all right.

I don't know if anyone here collects vinyl? But when I was in Phila. during Thanksgiving window - my good friend who is a record producer and teaches at U Arts and lives in Fishtown - he turned me on to a bi-monthly event in Fishtown where serious vinyl guys shows up and sell rare items. He himself brought no jazz but a lot of early 80's stuff like SMiths, Cure, New Order, Joy Division, etc...

But there was a lot of classic jazz, early pressings, etc... I didn't intend to get anything but I couldn't resist and snagged some old jazz pianists which was always my passion coming up as a young pianist - I got a rare Randy Weston Live at Cafe Bohemia, a rare Phineas Newborn Jr., and a rare Red Garland who was my first jazz piano teacher's favorite guy...

My two jazz piano teachers were Bill Meek Jr. came up with Grover Washington Jr, and played with Philly Joe Jones for a time. And then of course Kenny Barron who I studied with when I was at the Jazz program at Rutgers back in the day. In grad school Anthony Braxton was one of my thesis advisors.

Anyway - if anyone is interested in the vinyl meet-ups, I can pass the info along and how to get on the mailing list for those -- some premiere stuff and you can bargain a bit.

Recently, I've just been enjoying jazz renditions of xmas classics! I got bgo on right now and they just had a couple fierce versions of Drummer Boy and a couple others mixed in...!