Survived!

Well, I survived my stag. Barely...but I survived. Joking aside it was awesome. A great time was had by all and it was awesome hanging with friends. The day started out so great with me golfing my best round ever. An 85. It was great!

Picked up some great music over the last few days. THE CANNONBALL LEGACY BAND - Maximum Firepower led by powerhouse drummer Louis Hayes who of course played with Cannonball and Nat from 1959 to 1965. Its on Savant Records. Its a good record. It doesn't knock me out as a whole but there are definitely some really fantastically swinging moments on it. HIGH NOTE released a quartet date led by Billy Hart called 'Quartet' that got a ton of great press. I eagerly awaited it and am feeling a little luke warm about the whole thing but its strikes me as a record that is going to take a few listens to really get into. Another one that I was excited about was Medeski Martin and Wood's second release with John Scofield as the fourth member of the band. A GO GO which was the first one they did about 8 years a go or so was a great record. Definitely far from ground breaking but just collection of simple funk tunes that all had infectious grooves. On this record really hard to figure out exactly what the quartet is trying to accomplish. It doesn't seem to have much of a musical direction and at times is really really heavy. So much so that my girlfriend came in and said "what are you listening to? I didn't think you liked hard rock." I'm going to give it a few more listens though to see if this is one that will grow on me. When I took Joey Defrancesco and the trio down to Seattle, Joey hipped me to pianist Cecil Taylor's Jazz Advance. I think the recording date was 1956 and its a wonderful record by someone that I have never really checked out but its a a fantastic record and I learned a ton but just listening to it once. Its a bit tough to find but if you can find it and think you can remain open to what it has to offer its a good one.

As I'm writing this Im recording the Graham Shonwise (saxopohone) Quartet, Conrad Good on bass, Daneil Reynolds on piano and Adam Cormier on drums. What a great band. These guys are all first year college and they sound like they are a lot farther ahead than that. Jazz is in good hands, very good hands!

Im on A TRAIN this Friday from 2:30 to 5:30 on 102.7 CFRO subbing for Nou Dadoun. It is SOCAN week so Im dedicating the three hours to original Canadian music!