stuff i'm listening to

stooges: the weirdness -- by now, all the songs i didn't get initially have kicked in fully. this is a great album, front to back; to hell with the oh-so-jaded rockcrits of the world (a fine example of groupthink). even if i'd rather see the me-thinks at the wreck than these guys in memphis (sorry, irv), whom i've never seen in the flesh except for iggy in '80 when he sucked and RON with mascis/watt and powertrane, i still believe that whenever jim, ron, and scotty get together, they are THE GREATEST BAND ON EARTH. so there.

spot: s/t -- reggie rueffer is still my favorite songwriter, and chad ain't half bad hisself when he wants to. and back in the '90s, they rocked hard.

sonny rollins: saxophone colossus, way out west, a night at the village vanguard -- besides being the year of my genesis, 1957 was as epochal a year for sonny rollins as 1959 would be for miles, mingus, and coltrane. the "other" great tenorman of the '50s wasn't a spiritual seeker like trane, but rather a thematic improvisor of acerbic wit and endless invention. the first was his magnum opus (with max roach on drums, who'd employed him in brown-roach incorporated and played on his also-worthy worktime date); the second is a trio that gives him even more room to stretch out, in the company of ray brown and shelly manne; the third is an even better trio (wilbur ware and a young elvin jones) playing a club set.