Happy Birthday, Hayden!

So, I got all excited because Neko Case was going to be playing locally and then...she cancelled. Weasel.

We did see Rebirth Brass Band at the Maple Leaf (which is much scuzzier, though consequently more "authentic" than I had anticipated).

Interested in a local band called The Happy Talk Band who have a new release out. Girl bartender described it as dark sour stuff with bits of Waits and Johnny Cash (not unlike 25 other groups I found on CD Baby. It's like a whole cult of Waitsians have spawned in the last 5 years).

In other music news, JZ and I did a tango on a balcony in New Orleans at Midnight.

Excellent, Msbelle! Congrats on paying off the CC.

Thanks, David! Hope you're having a hell of a time. The wedding pictures look great!

While you're down there, see if you can't get to the Saturn Bar in the 9th Ward sometime. It's sleazy as hell and apparently Tom Waits hisself is known to hang out there.

Fresh Air has an Elvin Jones interview today. Don't know if it's this one from Dec. 2000, but I recommend that one. Interesting for many reasons. I was speculating when I said that Monk's Five Spot gig (& therefore Orrin Keepnews) had an influence on Elvin, but I just meant that it was a crucial episode for Trane personally and professionally that led ultimately to his quartet with Jones. Turns out that Elvin met Coltrane there! It was something like a six month gig. Elvin would go night after night and nurse a beer (admission was just a minimum back then) for hours. He met Trane, they hit it off, Elvin sat in a couple times for Philly Joe Jones in the Miles quintet and Trane asked him if he'd join his band when he managed to get it together. "Just say the word and I'm there." Terry Gross asks him if his music with Coltrane was a little too out for the taste of his older brothers Hank and Thad. They never talked about it: "They didn't care. They just loved me. I'm the baby boy!" Very sweet. He talks like Hank. Gruffer voice but the same cadences, as is often the case with families. Also talks about the influence of the church -- their father was a deacon -- on his music, and even talks about Wednesday prayers! (One of Charles Mingus' most famous compositions is "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting".) A snippet of "A Love Supreme" leads off. Part of "Spiritual" from Coltrane at the Village Vanguard is played with Eric Dolphy on bass clarinet.

The interview was from a week devoted to jazz. Tuesday of that week had interesting interviews with Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln (separate interviews.) Abbey's so cool. She says that Monk was whispered to her after a gig, "Don't be so perfect." She didn't know what to make of it so she asked husband-to-be Max what he meant: "He means don't be so perfect." Eventually, she says, she figured out that he meant don't be afraid of mistakes. Go for what you want artistically, and if it doesn't work out, so what? Better to take the chance than to play it safe. She clearly took it to heart, because if you listen to her early recordings she was a fairly conventional singer, and it's clear that she can sing "correctly" if she wants to. Her mature style, on the other hand, is really kind of odd, full of deliberate dissonance and weird phrasing. That general description sounds like Monk, and he's definitely an influence, especially spiritually, but her style is as personal as can be. It strikes some as incredibly affected (I feel that way about Betty Carter). It's deliberate, but I don't think it's affected, and when it works it's amazing, really deep stuff. Even for some of us fans, though, the style is hit and miss. But I find her fascinating, both her music and her spiritual journey, and glad she took Monk's advice because I'd rather have her be inconsistent but amazing rather than just another pretty voice.

Nice! I'm listening to the Elvin interview right now.

The current show or the page I linked to? I can never get Fresh Air when it's on, the servers are always overloaded.

The page you linked to. I don't think Fresh Air runs here until 3 or 4 central.

So, SA, how do you like Snow Patrol?

Hec! Remember when you said that you were listening to my new favorite CD I didn't know about? You were right. Jill Tracy's Diabolical Streak is brilliant.

Anne W - I mailed off the liner notes to the two mixes you have now.

I'm totally into the Dresden Dolls now. It took me a little while to warm up to the CD, but it's great. "Girl Anachronism" still rocks my socks, "Coin-Operated Boy" is bouncy fun, "Gravity" and "Bad Habit" are new favorites, and "The Perfect Fit" and "Truce" are lovely.