I thought for sure it would be Ted Nugent tonight.

I had that album too.

From a documentary on one of my faves, free jazzer Ken Vandermark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtSYQAtK6RY

I love this tune! Transcribed it when I was in college! Took me two weeks.
Thank you!

Oh, this guy's great! I saw him about a year ago.

Ben Allison.

Ignore the video...just some guy goofing around with video clips, but know the song, "Tricky Dick," is about Dick Cheney.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCpYLhL3OzE

I saw Woody at Jazz D'Opus in Portland OR in 1977. Tiny little club. His band blew the roof off and took us with 'em.

Camel: Metrognome -

http://technohippie.com/geeklog/public_html/mediagallery/media.php?f=0&s...

Alan Parsons Project: Games People Play -

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TYPQMPO_oY0

better video, though the short version

*sigh*

I hate it when I do that

woops... I thought posted the dex gordon clip. A thank you to Super Karate Monkey...

Stan Getz & João Gilberto

O Grande Amor

romântico, roll the rrrr

Carter Jefferson -- I should have been paying attention...

Okay, I know there are people out on a Saturday night durin' the summer, but last week there were hundreds of posts here. WAKE UP PEOPLE!

Cornershop

Lessons Learned From Rocky I to Rocky III

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8crcO1gwhA

Grand Funk Railroad

I'm Yer Captain/Closer To Home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHhqmnyLlmk&mode=related&search=

Steve Miller Band

Threshold/Jet Airliner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qirfCc3M2WU

Woody Shaw was arguably the last great jazz trumpet stylist. He was the last trumpet player to contribute significant new vocabulary to the jazz trumpet dictionary, especially in melodic explorations outside/against the harmony (which is where he lost most civilians).

He often liked to play cornet instead of trumpet because it got a slightly different sound, very few other people were using it at the time, and most importantly, because it's a easier to be fleet and saxophone-like on cornet than it is on trumpet.

He was also an excellent composer (most improvisers are, since improvisation is improvised composition), although the process of composition was like pulling teeth for him.

Before he died, he was in bad shape: he was a junkie, he had AIDS, he was seriously underweight and frail, and he was nearly blind from retinitis pigmentosa. In 1989, when he fell from the platform onto the tracks in the path of an oncoming subway train, no one was sure if it was an accident or attempted suicide. His right arm was severed, and he never left the hospital. He died nine weeks later.

What took you so long to get to Woody Shaw?

33lp, I saw Woody Shaw at Keystone Korner, in San Francisco, maybe a dozen times in the 1970s. I agree he was an impressive stylist and inexhaustible improviser. He was also a tad on the arrogant side, although in an entertaining way. He was notable fo saying things such as, "now we are going to play a very beautiful composition... by myself!" Of course, the piece would always turn out to be beautiful, so....

BEST. TRUMPET. PLAYER. EVER.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1yKgAEkCKxY&mode=related&search= Ella and Satchmo....Summertime.

Kenji, I have a friend who tells the story of being in San Francisco ca. 1970 on tour with a Broadway show. One afternoon, in the city streets, he heard the sound of a solo jazz trumpet playing amazing stuff. He followed the sound and eventually found a black guy sitting under a tree on the edge of a park, busking. When my friend got up close, he recognized him as Woody Shaw. He couldn't believe it.

This friend also tells the story of sitting at a bar a couple of stools down from Woody, who was talking trumpet to another black man on a break between sets (I don't remember the venue or year). My friend, who is white, and back then, was a young aspiring trumpet player who looked up to Woody like a god, was eavesdropping intently, which Woody eventually noticed. According to my friend, Woody finally turned to him and said something like, "You probably wanna ask me a question about my mouthpiece, huh? You mutherfuggin' white cracker!" My friend slunk off.

I'm proud to say that I got a chance to play for Woody over a weekend at One Step Down in DC a few years before he died. It was one of the best playing experiences I ever had, in no small part due to Woody's incendiary playing. He was also a helluva nice guy and his personal encouragement to me was a tremendous boost for a young player such as I was then. Thanks for featuring him.