Jazz and a Hangover...

[nobody]

Waking up slowly this morning after having a few last night and enjoying a trio of nice, relaxed jazz LPs I picked up at a used record store this week. Right now, listening to...

<b>Count Basie and Oscar Peterson: Yeah, That's My Baby</b>
Two keybord masters with just drums and bass accompianiment. Pure style and class in a liad back groove. Basie even takes one of his final recorded turns on the organ for this one. I'm starting to develop a real fondness for the Pablo label, which released this one.

The other two, which I'm sure to get too as the day goes on are...

<b>The Tatum Group Materpieces</b>
I guess there are a series of these albumns featuring a selection of players along with tatum's piano, but this one features Buddy de Franco on the clarinet, an instrument which I really enjoy but have little of, outside a couple Artie Shaw discs. Anyway, this is another highly entertaining disc full of laid back, sophisticated jazz on Pablo.

<b>Lou Donaldson: Rough House Blues</b>
OK..this one swings a bit much for this time this morning, but perhaps later in the day, I'll give this one a spin. Already listened earlier this week though. The whole thing's conducted and arranged by Oliver Nelson and recorded in 1964. This is the first Big Band I've heard Donaldson play with, and he sounds wonderful as always since I'm a fan anyway. He always comes across with a nice mixture of jazz style and popular sensibility.

Anyone else listening to something to get them through the morning?

[MindGoneHaywire]

Josie & The Pussycats--not the soundtrack from the movie, but a collection from the early 70s cartoon. Rhino put this thing out in a limited edition. The band they used covers the Jackson 5 & the Carpenters. What more could you ask for? I mean, it's better than the Osmonds...I would suppose. But then I haven't listened to an Osmonds record in more than 30 years.

Earlier, what I was listening to that was way more in the mold of getting me through the morning was the Aria album by the Paul Schwartz Project, with Mario Grigorov, whoever that is. Schwartz is a guy based in Pittsburgh, I believe, who has been involved in classical music over the course of his career, but now makes electronica records that are a type of fusion, usually with New Age sorta stuff, but very melodic, and with some very listenable end results. Aria's an opera/electronica fusion & it got me through the morning very well, thank you very much. Always highly recommended. Except to Schwartz's brother Jonathan, who is, along with Wynton Marsalis, one of the head honchos over at Jazz At Lincoln Center. May both be violated by being tied down & forced to listen to music they hate. Which is just about anything, in Marsalis' case, outside the world of bop (as if no free jazzer ever made anything worthy, and I'm not a fan of that stuff), in Schwartz's case, outside the world of the Golden Age of Broadway (as though no blues or folk or ethnic music was made in the first half of the 20th Century that is worthy...let alone rock'n'roll). Schwartz is probably the bigger tighta$$, he did a horrible job of programming a radio station that became the last one in NYC to offer standards as a format. The father of the Schwartz brothers was the author of a few old popular standards, most notably 'Dancing In The Dark,' which I believe was from 1927. I can only imagine what Jonathan Schwartz thinks of his brother's music. I must say I like the idea that it disturbs & embarrasses him. I do sure hope that's the case.

Last night I finally replaced the pos stock speakers that came with my desktop a year & a half ago with Harmon Kardon Soundsticks. I'm not an audiophile, but from day one the Dell A425s, in spite of the subwoofer, were absolute garbage. They replaced a nice pair of Altec Lansings that had come with my first real PC that still sound great, except for no bass response. I know the Soundsticks probably aren't up to audiophile standards, but now that I have my entire record collection on an external hard drive, and seem to spend more time listening to it here than firing up the stereo these days, I got to the point where I had to upgrade. I've heard these things over at friend's houses--one whose stereo is powered by speakers that are well over $2,000, so he's not the type who's going to put up with the sort of crappy speakers I just replaced--and they're fine by me.

Next up is that Bob Marley/Wailers collection, Wailers & Friends...no, wait, the mix I made a couple of years ago of the tunes I picked off the first few solo LPs by the ex-Beatles...no, the Madeleine Peyroux album...no...

R. Kelly's Trapped In The Closet DVD. I've really got to start a thread about this. I've never read anything good about this guy, musical or otherwise, in fact, I've only associated his name, really, recently, with being a pedophile. And I don't even know whether or not that's actually accurate...but I think it is? I don't know. In any case, I don't want to do anything that's going to benefit a pedophile...but this video album is one of the most amazing things I've seen in a long time. It works in the way Michael Jackson's Thriller works, sorta, but it's full-album length & absolutely f*cking BRILLIANT. I sh*t you not. Borrow it from the library. It's that good. Really. Amazing stuff. I thought this guy was just another R&B singer? This shows a range of imagination I didn't think possible from anyone in that genre, you'd figure you would've heard it already. Well, this is a concept album that, along with American Idiot, has given new credibility to the long-tattered concept of concept albums. If he's guilty of what I heard he was charged with, then supporting him is something I don't think I can get behind at all...but this is something that should be seen. Like, now.

Oh, wait, the Giants are on soon. Well, it'll just have to wait a couple of hours.

[Swish]

R. Kelly's Trapped In The Closet DVD. I've really got to start a thread about this. I've never read anything good about this guy, musical or otherwise, in fact, I've only associated his name, really, recently, with being a pedophile. And I don't even know whether or not that's actually accurate...but I think it is? I don't know. In any case, I don't want to do anything that's going to benefit a pedophile...but this video album is one of the most amazing things I've seen in a long time. It works in the way Michael Jackson's Thriller works, sorta, but it's full-album length & absolutely f*cking BRILLIANT. I sh*t you not. Borrow it from the library. It's that good. Really. Amazing stuff. I thought this guy was just another R&B singer? This shows a range of imagination I didn't think possible from anyone in that genre, you'd figure you would've heard it already. Well, this is a concept album that, along with American Idiot, has given new credibility to the long-tattered concept of concept albums. If he's guilty of what I heard he was charged with, then supporting him is something I don't think I can get behind at all...but this is something that should be seen. Like, now.
.

I really should check this first, but as I recall, he was will a young girl who looked much older than her age. I think she was actually 14 or 15 but would have passed for 18 or 19? If that's true, no way I would call him a pedophile. Stupid maybe, but not sick. And don't think I condone what happened, because I don't, I just think that a pedophile is a whole lot worse...beyond my comprehension actually, than what R. Kelly was accused of doing.

As for the music, I suppose it couldn't hurt to listen, but I won't buy it.

Swish