Stan Getz and Kenny Barron: "People Time" revisited and expanded

A great record has become greater now that we have all the concert recordings.

Read the review by Francis Davis in The Voice.

Christgau on Teachout on Armstrong

The dean on the recent biography and on the significance of Gatemouth the Magnificent here.

Hank Jones has died

A poet of the keyboard, with an inimitable touch, and what Giddins calls "a regal but nimble bearing." For early piano solos try the twofer that contains "The Talented Touch" and "Porgy and Bess." For tasty piano duets find "Our Delights" with the sympatico Tommy Flanagan.

Jones was a great accompanist of horns and singers as you can hear with Coleman Hawkins on "The High and Mighty Hawk" and with Ella Fitzgerald on the to-die-for "Pure Ella." Jones resurgence as an eminence gris in the last two decades meant he got a lot of opportunity to record. The recent "Kids" with Joe Lavano is bracing, but my favorite Jones is on the spirituals-only set with Charlie Haden, "Steal Away."

NYTimes obit is here.

A wonderful appreciation by Giddins in The New Yorker is here.

Gary Giddins on Jazz Writing

Giddins is the best jazz writer there ever was. Period. He's also one of the best writers on any subject currently writing about American culture. Here's a recent post to his site about being a writer. His new huge tome on the history of jazz, co-authored with Scott Deveaux, is due out in a few weeks. no doubt the Prof will have more to say then.

Les Paul has died.

Obituary here.

70 Years Ago Today: Roy Eldridge Recorded Live at The Arcadia Ballroom

Happy Birthday, Satchmo! August 4, 1901--July 6, 1971

And to you, too, Mr. President, sir! And to Percy Bysshe Shelly (1792), Helen Kane (1903), William Schuman (1910), Frankie Ford (1939), Frank Vincent (1939), Billy Bob Thornton (1955), Roger Clemens (1962).

And R.I.P. Billy Lee Riley.

Happy 100th Birthday, Benny Goodman!

The Prof and others celebrated The King of the Ray's centennial by attending a glorious concert organized and starring that louche loupgarou of the licorice stick, Dan Levinson with James Langton's New York All-Star Big Band, ably assisted by Molly Ryan, vocals. (Happy Anniversary, Dan and Molly!)

Set List

First set:

Bashful Baby
Don't Be That Way (arrangement by Fletcher Henderson)
King Porter (arrangement by Fletcher Henderson)
Frelechen Swing (And the Angels Sing)
Clarinet a la King (arranged by Eddie Sauter)
One O'Clock Jump (arranged by Basie and Durham)
Silhoutte in the Moonlight
Life Goes to a Party (arranged by Harry James)

Second set:

Bugle Call Rag
You Turned the Tables on Me
He Ain't Got Rhythm
Down South Camp Meeting (arranged by Fletcher Henderson)
Roll 'Em (arranged by Mary Lou Williams)
Sing Me a Swing Song
Avalon (trio)
These Foolish Things (arranged by Jimmy Munday)
Stealin' Apples (arranged by Fletcher Henderson)
Why Don't You Do Right (arranged by Mel Powell)
Sing Sing Sing
Goodbye

Organic

MMEF (My Most Excellent Friend) Mr. Retail saved me the trouble of deciding what to post about by posing this question: Who are the great jazz organists?

The place to begin is the Prof's birthplace, Camden, NJ, where in 1926 Fats Waller made jazz organ recordings for Victor on the RCA Estey organ. Waller played organ in his father's church in Harlem and in silent picture theaters before he develped his jazz chops. (For more fascinating information about Fats and all things organically jazz, try this site.)