Elvin's the drummer from Coltrane's classic quartet, Lyra.

And thanks again! But think of Pete!

Pete Shmete. It's Joey Ramone's birthday too!

Hap-Hap-Happy Birthday, Hay-Hay-Hayden Childs! (Chanted to the tune of Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh!)

I like The Zeppos. I'll try to influence your decision by telling you that Eliot's standard description, one of them at least, of his band was "We're the world's greatest Marx Brothers tribute band." Groucho's Toronto song found its way into Eliot's "The Anomaly Song": "It's better to be in Toronto than to be in a place you don't want to." That led to his inspired ad lib when performing in my home town, "It's better to be in Canandaigua than to be a rutabaigua."

From the ridiculous to the sublime... very sad about Elvin Jones. I didn't know he was sick. Odd that Thad Jones died in his early sixties and heart problems plagued Elvin, while the eldest brother Hank is in his mid-eighties but looks twenty years younger. What a great musical family! And from everything I've read, and witnessed personally with Hank, they were really sweet people. It's the obvious choice, but I can't think of a better starting place than A Love Supreme if you aren't familiar with Elvin and want to know why he was a giant. Tons of pages out there available if you want to find out more.

One of the posts on the page Jon linked to mentioned that Orrin Keepnews died a year or so ago, which I did not know and which makes me sad, too. I couldn't Google any confirmation. Not that I doubt the poster, I just want to know more. Keepnews was everything a record producer and executive should be. He co-founded Riverside Records and played an important part in the careers of Monk, Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery and Sonny Rollins among others. Indirectly he played an important role in Elvin Jones' career, too. Without Riverside Monk probably would not have landed his legendary engagement at the Five Spot with Coltrane, a musical internship for Trane that was an epiphany and set in motion the sequence of events that led to Milestones, Kind of Blue and his formation of his great quintet with Elvin, McCoy Tyner and Jimmy Garrison. (I'm not claiming cause and effect, just that it was an important catalyst.) The Times obituary was written by Orrin's son, Peter.

It's Joey Ramone's birthday too!

Y'know, I knew that and forgot. My memory's like one of those things with the holes in it, you know what they're called.

Anyway, gabba gabba hey!

I've been chatting with Eliot this morning. I'll pass on the band name. A google search turned up a Belgian folk band called the Zeppos, so I'm thinking about maybe changing it to The Zeppo Factor. Or maybe The Zeppos UK.

And yeah, it's tragic about Elvin. McCoy's the last one standing now.

Who's Eliot?

Elvin's the drummer from Coltrane's classic quartet, Lyra.

Ah. My knowledge of John Coltrane is, "He's the one who's supposed to be cool who's not Miles Davis."

I seem to be running up against my ignorance of most things pre-1980 in many threads today.

Happy Birthday Hayden!

Eliot is my friend whose band I used to manage. He grew up with Jonathan Lethem so I made him read Hayden's profile of JL. I thought they'd hit it off, and they did. Among other things they share the Melville love. (That always sounds dirty... which is why I like to say it.)

Lyra Jane, try Miles Davis' Kind of Blue and Coltrane's My Favorite Things, both of which are easy to find and can usually be had for $10 or under. They're also very "easy" albums: unlike Ornette Coleman's landmark recordings from the same period, or bebop for that matter, they yield immediately pleasure -- there's no learning curve where you need to get into a mindset to get it -- but at the same time they're hard to exhaust because there's so much there. Kind of Blue is the Sgt. Pepper of jazz albums... except that it deserves its standing.

Thanks, Joe. My problem with jazz is the same as my problem with classic literature -- it always feels like homework.

Eliot is my friend whose band I used to manage.

Didn't you send me stuff from that band? Idlewild was it?