Sunday Overnight

The great Johnny Smith (with Zoot Sims, Stan Getz, Sanford Gold, Eddie Safranski and Don Lamond), playing Vilia and Moonlight In Vermont, 1952.



Duke Ellington, with Max and Mingus, playing Caravan, 1962.

And a special happy birthday to Stanley Clarke tomorrow - Here's RTF playing Vulcan Worlds in 1974.

You'll Laugh, You'll Cry

CanCon Friday - Aldo Nova

Ladies and gentlemen...Montreal's own Aldo Nova for your Friday morning.

Have It My Way

Sunday Overnight

India, 1961, by the John Coltrane quartet (Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, and Jimmy Garrison) with Eric Dolphy, who would have been 80 years old on this past Friday.



The Eric Dolphy quintet (Benny Bailey, Pepsi Auer, Jamil Nasser, and Buster Smith) playing 245, Berlin, 1961.



...And Something Sweet, Something Tender, from the Out To Lunch! album, 1964.

Photoshop Suckers Never Play Me

My valued readers are no doubt aware that a largish component of this blog's content consists of my attempts at insolent social relevance using photographic manipulation.

Some of you have indicated to me that my abilities in this endeavor are of a reasonably high quality, which is of course the aim - that even if one does not agree with my viewpoint, the rendition itself remains of a certain standard.

Recently, a satirical piece published on Huffington Post's 23/6 blog was brought to my attention, and quite frankly I am somewhat peeved.

You see, I do this for free - no one compensates me for my work, yet I strive for quality control that doesn't insult the aesthetic sensibilities of the modern Internet addict.
The work is the goal, and I remain free of commercial considerations, as I have from this blog's inception...But somebody on 23/6's staff got paid for putting that horrid little pastiche together to reinforce a weak joke.

And so I say to those who would not do their absolute best in the act of creation within this medium of expression...

Kick out the jams, or get off the stage, motherf*cker!

The Road To Ragnarök

CanCon Friday - Fludd

Perhaps a harbinger of things to come...Fludd (of Cousin Mary fame), with their tune Get Up, Get Down, And Move On, 1972.

I See A Cell Door and I Want To Paint It Black

Lord Black of Crossharbour, better known currently as 18330-424, has taken time from his busy social whirl of cafeteria lineups, 'insider' trading and compulsive handwashing so that he might rush to the defense of someone who was 'not a crook', or at least not a pedigreed one.

Indeed, a recent tome on just how long the hanky panky has been going on might have provided a slight degree of cognitively dissonant reading for a prisoner of lenders, a papillion of papyrus, and, in spite of his current unseemly circumstances, a man with an iron task to right the wrongheadedness of leftish rabble even if he was forced to buy up every newspaper in the world and have them pay him to do it.

A disturbing read, prose that would perhaps expose a great noirish aorta of malice and malfeasance running through the heart of the type of politics and practitioners of same so beloved by smash and grab capitalists, for their sweet willingness to cuddle up when the lights are low and exchange 'favors'.

...And so, there are inventive citations of merit hurriedly assigned to a tricky figurehead who remains a long-gone icon of wrong, a roll call of achievements from days gone bye when a President wasn't an impotent legacy figurehead surrounded by townie grifters out for all they could get.

Black: "...Four years later, he was reelected by 49 states and a plurality of 18 million votes, because he stopped the assassinations, race riots, anti-war riots, skyjackings, inflation, extracted the U.S. from Vietnam without losing the war..."

Oh, there's more - but let us examine what immediate treasures soft hands unaccustomed to working with toothpicks and glue have crafted for us.

"...assassinations, race riots, anti-war riots, skyjackings, inflation, extracted the U.S. from Vietnam without losing the war..."



Butterfingers - but be mindful...Penitent practice makes a perfect penance.

;>)

Sunday Overnight

Errol Garner, born on this day in 1921, with Wyatt Ruther and Eugene "Fats" Heard...Misty, 1954.



And Mr. Garner again, with Eddie Calhoun & Kelly Martin - Spring Is Here/It Might As Well Be Spring, 1964.

The Middle Name Is Danger...Baby

CanCon Friday - Myles and Lenny

Ah, one from the personal vaults, dear readers...These Juno award winning fellows (Myles Cohen and Lenny Solomon) had their one mutual Top 20 hit - this track, one of my pre-teen favorites (classical upbringing, y'see - Pops didn't dig no dirty rock and roll), due to the numerous violin hooks and subtle rhythm phasering...Can You Give It All To Me.

Well, can ya?

;>)

Bring Out The Chimp

Sunday Overnight

Grant Green, Exodus, 1961.



...and Mr.Green again, with Idle Moments, from 1963.

All Poppy Got Me Was This Lousy T-Shirt

My Favorite Marxist

Smiles, everyone... smiles!

A laurel, and hearty handshake to my recent surge of guests via that fine font of information Crooks & Liars, and that true Blue Gal.

;>)

CanCon Friday - The Poppy Family

Terry Jacks and Susan Jacks, a Vancouver-based duo, took this song to the number 2 slot on the U.S. charts in 1970, garnering much acclaim along the way for that and other tunes such as Where Evil Grows (look for a rather hippieish Kenny Rogers in the background of that video).

But the real payoff for Terry was his cover of a Jacques Brel tune with anglicized lyrics by Rod McKuen that he had brought to the Beach Boys but later re-recorded with Rumble man Link Wray, releasing it under his own name and seeing it journey to #1 on the hit parade in 1974...Seasons In The Sun.

Made him enough money that he could finally afford to get out of this crazy business.

;>)

Don't Touch That Dial

Blue Hue's Ruse

Sunday Overnight - Drum Battle

Papa Jo Jones, with the JATP All Stars, 1957.



Buddy Rich, in the studio, 1970.



Tony Williams, Montreux Jazz Festival, 1972.

And finally...



Sunny Murray, Art Blakey, and Elvin Jones, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1968.