Was reading this one by Jim Harrison last night (pretty good, not great) and thinking about how I've always wanted to read that one, which of course, or not so of course I guess, got me to thinking about books I haven't read, movies I haven't seen, things I haven't heard. Maybe you'll be pleased to give me advance warning on these before I get around to them:
1. Finnegan's Wake. Loved Dubliners, on or about the thirty-five yard line with Ulysses (scarred by Jesus manque 9th grade English teacher's fanaticism). I think maybe we were supposed to read Finnegan's for a Modern British & Irish fiction class I took in college, but I sure didn't.
2. McCabe and Mrs. Miller. The little description is enough: 'haunting, wintry Western.' Altman at the peak of his powers, I am told.
3. Duke Ellington. I mean, heard everything here and there, by osmosis I suppose. But haven't yet given him a concerted essay. Reading this biography now which, despite Nat Hentoff's nice jacket quote, actually kind of sucks so far--feels like piffle.
4. Arcade Fire. I like Canadians, I love Montreal, I think it's neat when couples form bands, a couple of friends have told me I'd really love them. I guess we'll see.
5. Ulysses S. Grant's Ripper of a Yarn. Interesting: Mark Twain published this bad boy.
6. Candy. They're sort of the great white whale of power pop for me. I don't know why I haven't just bought this. Maybe today I will.
7. Monte Walsh. The book not the movie, though I have an inexplicable fondness for Tom Sellect that has nothing to do with his moustache, and certainly not his love of the firearm.
8. East Boston Pizza. Pizza, pizza. Now I'm really hungry. Is it okay to serve pizza at a wedding? Probably not. Also, that was just a joke.
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3 comments:
wow, the grant/twain book sounds awesome.
listened to a load of ellington. he can capture any mood he wants. and do it really er articulately. the slow slow slowest molasses romantic ones are the best.
and then you're snappin' your fingers the next song.
Re: Ellington...
If you're looking for a really nice encapsulation of the man's powers, pick up
"...and his mother called him Bill." It's a tribute to the then-recently-deceased Billy Strayhorn, but the group and the composing are both in absolute tip-top form. Strayhorn had a lot to do with Ellington's later sound, so much so that it's a bit difficult to figure out where one leaves off and the other starts.
You can hit up the complete Brunswick Recordings for early Ellington, which is another beast altogether. Some of my favorite music ever; the subtlety of his later years is replaced by raw power and very short forms, which coincidentally may be more in line with your current MO. Then check out the Blanton Webster band.
His album with Rosemary Clooney is superb. She was pregnant at the time, so she was recorded after the orchestra, in a different state, but you'd never know. Tight, beautiful stuff.
Than check out the Far East Suite, and you've got a pretty good idea what his orchestra was capable of. Make sure to listen to Johnny Hodges' painfully perfect alto sax bends on every record he's on. He'll stretch a half-step bend across 3 measures, and it's so perfect and so achy and so tense you won't be able to stand it. The bari-sax guy, Harry Carney, also has quite a lot to do with the group sound. It's deep and throaty and adds something essential to the whole thing.
For a decent idea of Ellington as a player and small group composer, get Money Jungle with Max Roach and Charles Mingus. It's funny, people assume that their youth and avant-garde leanings spurred him to such an outside session, but both Roach and Mingus stressed that he was the guy driving them. Seriously, the guy was about as forward-thinking a musical artist as this century has seen, and he managed to incorporate all those ideas into really listenable music.
wow...awesome charlie, thanks. what got me to get to that book actually was a little pbs special i caught on billy strayhorn the other night.
i forget who now...oh yeah, coltrane was quoted in the book as saying johnny hodges was the greatest sax player who ever lived.
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