Jazz for aficionados

Rok, sometime you have a hard time understanding things; before Leon Thomas was anything, he was a childhood friend, and now he's dead. Although he's been dead since 99, I haven't dealt with that fact. I might start a record, and then stop it. When he was alive, I enjoyed his records, but now it's a mixed bag.

This is no different than if you were hearing a childhood friends voice that was no longer with us. I should have dealt with his death when he died, but I didn't; and now whether I want to deal with it or not, I have no choice. It's no fun dealing publicly with something I should have dealt with a long time ago, but such is life.



Enjoy the music.

Rok, while checking out Jimmy Blanton records I ran across this and knew you were a fan. Can’t figure out why? ;0 )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLVbIT-y7ts

Hey Frogman - Thanks for your insights into preparations for that Mingus sextet performance.  

"...that solo by Dolphy is deliciously strange."  :-)  Well said.  I'm no Dolphy-ologist but the little I know, that seems to be the story on him.  Zappa certainly appreciated him.  (Yet another who died too soon).

http://www.allmusic.com/song/eric-dolphy-memorial-barbecue-mt0010976240

***** Rok, while checking out Jimmy Blanton records I ran across this and knew you were a fan. Can’t figure out why? ;0 )*****

I just love American Opera Divas.   Started with the tough, street wise, NYC babe,  Beverly Sills.  Battle is a treat to hear and see! She conquered the Opera World, but never forgot her church roots.

I will assume this was made prior to her musical relationship with Wynton.  Otherwise, I am sure he would have been the trumpet player.

I have a 3 CD set by Ellington called "The Blanton-Webster Band". Also one Cd titled "This one's for Blanton" with Ellington and Ray Brown.  This should tell you what Ellington thought of him.

Thanks for the clip of Miss Battle.  I do miss her.

Cheers

I would like to add one thing about musicians and money - the vast majority of musicians do not make very much at all from album sales.  Only the very top artists who sell millions of albums make good money from sales - the record labels kept just about all of those profits.  This is also true of the studio musicians in Hollywood - there are only about 300 or so musicians total in LA who make a lot of money from royalties from films they played on.  And for orchestral musicians, while we often get small payments from making a recording, this is insignificant compared to our regular income.  Some of the top soloists will make some nice royalties, but even for them, the majority of their income is from the actual live performances.   

So many of those jazz musicians O-10 is asking about would indeed have made more money touring and performing than they did from recordings, again only excepting the very top names.  

There are actually many battles going on right now for musicians to get paid fairly in this digital day and age.  I would encourage everyone on this board who loves music and musicians to write their congressman in support of the Fair Play Fair Pay Act.  I'm bad at providing links, but this can be googled for those curious, which I hope would be all of you, or I can speak more about it in another post if people want.