Ray Charles - Kitchen Listening

Ray Charles - Kitchen Listening. The Birth of Soul: The Complete Atlantic Rhythm and Blues Recordings, 1991. A 3 CD box set of his years recording with Atlantic Records 1952 to 1959. We've been listening to this collection over the past couple of days and just finished it this evening.

I was surprised at how many of these songs were so familiar. He had a tremendous amount of crossover hits during his career. Becky and I both really enjoyed listening to this collection which ran for about two and a half hours.

Ray Charles was a musical icon during my early years of listening to the radio. We heard him all the time. He was also on a lot of TV variety shows like Ed Sullivan.

I'm looking forward to a couple of additional sessions. One with a 2 CD Rhino collection that covers his career through the 1990's and another collection of his country western albums.

Dinner @ Shango

Wonderful dinner tonight at Shango. Blackened Catfish Po Boy with Cajun Remoulade, Fried Shrimp Po Boy. Both with Creole Slaw and incredible Sweet Potato Fries too. And of course Chicken and Andouille Sausage Gumbo with White Rice to start.

I had a nice glass of Broken Heels IPA from New Trail Brewery.

We always love going to Shango and this evening was no different. We've had this particular dinner many times and we looked forward to having it again when we decided to come here.

When we were leaving our house we were surprised by the amount of traffic on our street. It really took us a lot longer than usual to back out of our driveway because of the traffic. Then we saw that there was heavy traffic all throughout the neighborhood and all the streets were parked up. We had forgotten that today was the Corporate Challenge in Delaware Park and every year on a Thursday evening in the middle of June we have to deal with this situation in our neighborhood. It's crazy. Well, we got out of the driveway and made it over to Shango for our nice dinner anyway.

James Blood Ulmer - Kitchen Listening Blues

Another set of James Blood Ulmer - Kitchen Listening. Starts out with a live album from 1984 and then gets into his serious blues playing. 

• Part Time, 1984
• Blues Allnight, 1989
• Forbidden Blues, 1998
• Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions, 2001
• No Escape from The Blues: The Electric Lady Sessions, 2003
• Rock In Blues, 2015

Camilla Trinchieri - Authors List

Camilla Trinchieri - Authors List. I've read 5 books in her Tuscan Mystery series over the past few years. 

I especially love the food and wine aspect of this murder series and the ex-NYPD detective turned amateur chef involvement in the local scene.

They're all great and I'm looking forward to another one. 

• Murder in Chianti, 2020 - Jun 2023
• The Bitter Taste of Murder, 2021 - Nov 2023
• Murder on the Vine, 2022 - Feb 2024
• The Road to Murder, 2024 - Aug 2024
• Murder in Pitigliano, 2025 - Nov 2025

James Blood Ulmer - Kitchen Listening

Spent some time over the past couple of days listening to James Blood Ulmer from albums in my collection including some vinyl. These were from his early years 1979 to 1983. I saw him in 1983 at The Tralf, a small rock/jazz/folk club, in downtown Buffalo. He was awesome. I've always loved his unique guitar playing.

This set of music ran for nearly three hours.

• Tales of Captain Black, 1979
• Are You Glad To Be In America?, 1980
• Free Lancing, 1981
• Black Rock, 1982
• Odyssey, 1983

James Blood Ulmer RIP - Vinyl Spins

James Blood Ulmer RIP. Vinyl Spins. I was sad to hear of his passing this week at age 86. I first started collecting his albums in the early 1980's and I have a bunch. Becky and I saw him perform at the Tralf in 1983. It's time to go upstairs and listen to his amazing guitar on vinyl. I'll start with a couple favorites... Tales of Captain Black, 1979 and Black Rock, 1982.

Terry Pratchett - Authors List

Terry Pratchett - Authors List. I read the 5 books where he collaborated with the author Stephen Baxter for the Long Earth parallel universe series. I read the entire series between March and November 2016. I was always interested in parallel universe science fiction.

Pratchett is primarily known for writing the Discworld fantasy series that consist of 41 novels. I have not read any of that fantasy series but I may try one.

The Atlantic magazine had an article about Pratchett this week... I Am Begging You to Read Terry Pratchett.

The Long Earth series I read:

• The Long Earth, 2012 - Mar 2016
• The Long War, 2013 - Jun 2016
• The Long Mars, 2014 - Jul 2016
• The Long Utopia, 2015 - Oct 2016
• The Long Cosmos, 2016 - Nov 2016

The Hidden History of the Supreme Court - MAGA Dystopia

The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America - Thom Hartmann, 2019. MAGA Dystopia.

I just finished reading this incredible shocking account of the Supreme Court and their conservative MAGA betrayal of America. The hard thing about reading this was that it was published in 2019 and now in 2026 the Court is worse than ever. The book was informative and depressing. We really need to do something to fix this growing problem and the author here has documented ways to do that.

One of the amazing accounts was his description of when John Roberts, the current Chief Justice, worked for Ronald Reagan and came up with a theory of how Congress could go around the Supreme Court.

Subterranean - A Novel

Subterranean - A Novel by James Rollins, 1999. I just finished this science fiction thriller adventure novel which I read in a week. I recently came across a reference to it somewhere and looked it up on my library e-book app and sure enough there it was ready to download. I did and then I couldn't put it down although I was reading a couple of other books at the same time.

This book was about an archeology exploration into a subterranean world full of dangers, mysteries and revelations. A sort of "hollow earth" novel. It was my first time reading this author and was it was very entertaining. I may read another of his novels.

Simon & Garfunkel - Kitchen Listening

Simon & Garfunkel - Kitchen Listening. Old Friends, 1997. A 3 CD box set that runs for nearly three hours and includes their greatest hits and plenty of previously unreleased outtakes. 

I played this album after seeing that Paul Simon was ranked number 2 on the NY Times Readers Poll of Top 100 Living Songwriters. I followed this up with one of their several live albums... Live from New York City, 1967 that was released in 2002. That added another hour to the set. I got a lot more of their albums and solo albums to play over the coming days. 

The first time I saw Simon & Garfunkel in concert was in 1969.

Barbara Tuchman - Authors List

Barbara W. Tuchman - Authors List. 5 books read. I first discovered this amazing historian when I came across her book A Distant Mirror a few months after it was published in 1978. I read it the following summer and loved it. This has been one of my favorite history books and still have a copy on a book shelf.

I then read four more of her histories over the next several years. Because of her I did read many more books on middle ages over the years and continue today.

• A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, 1978 - Jul 1979
• Stillwell and the American Experience in China: 1911-1945, 1971 - Jul 1980
• The Guns of August, 1962 - Nov 1983
• The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam, 1984 - Apr 1986
• The First Salute: A View of the American Revolution, 1988 - Feb 1989

100 Top Living Songwriters - Part 2 The List

 

Bob Dylan Live - Kitchen Listening

More Bob Dylan. Kitchen Listening Live. Celebrating his 85th birthday. This is about a five hour set of live music from different times in Dylan's career but mostly in the 70's which was when I saw him perform several times. I especially liked his 1975 tour concert.

I'm also celebrating his position in the NY Times Readers Poll for Top Living Songwriters. He was voted #1.

• Bob Dylan Live 1975: The Rolling Thunder Revue, 2002
• Bob Dylan Live at Budokan, 1978
• Hard Rain, 1976
• Real Live, 1984

Dinner @ Cafe 59

We had another wonderful dinner tonight at Cafe 59 on Allen Street and sat at a table in the front window. I had there delicious Harvest Wrap with roasted turkey, candied walnuts, dried cranberries, field greens, gorgonzola, and balsamic vinaigrette. This is one of my favorite items on their menu. Becky had their Chicken Finger Sub. We also had a side of their amazing Potato Wedges. I also had a Port City Belgian Wit. Cafe 59 has been one of our favorite restaurants for years.

Jim Thompson - Authors List

Jim Thompson - Authors List. 5 books read. This was a classic hardboiled crime fiction author. He wrote over 30 novels mostly in the 1950's. 

The first book of his I read was The Grifters in 1981. During that time period I was reading a lot of classic noir crime novels including books from Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, etc.

• The Grifters, 1963 - Apr 1981
• Savage Night, 1953 - Oct 1982
• The Getaway, 1958 - Dec 1984
• Wild Town, 1957 - Jan 1987
• The Killer Inside Me, 1952 - Nov 2004

100 Top Living Songwriters

NY Times conducted a reader's poll creating a list of the top living songwriters. This was in response to an earlier critics poll that the NY Times posted a couple of months ago. 

Repost @nytimes:

As soon as we decided to make a list of the 30 greatest LIVING AMERICAN songwriters, we could guess how readers would respond to the results: with a combination of enthusiasm and outrage, quickly letting us know which of their favorites we had unconscionably forgotten.

We didn’t want all that passion to go undocumented. So we invited readers to assemble their own list in a formal poll. More than 25,000 ballots were cast, producing nearly 12,000 distinct choices. We spent weeks combing through the votes to tabulate the results.

Finally, here they are: the top 100 songwriters, according to our readers. They’re annotated throughout with facts, testimonials and interesting patterns we noticed in the data.

So here is the link to the NY Times Top 100 Living Songwriters selected by a reader's poll.

Here is a link to the original NY Times Top 30 Living Songwriters as selected by a group of critics.

30 Living Songwriters

The New York Times recently posted a list of 30 greatest living songwriters as determined by their critics. Posted here. 

The expanded list of 100 created by a reader's poll is much better. The NY Times post is here.

Ego Power Chaos

From Vets Against Trump

After Fred Trump died and left Donald Trump a fortune estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars, Trump spent much of his life bouncing from one failure to another.

There are really only two undeniable successes on his résumé:
* The Apprentice, which transformed him from a struggling businessman into a television celebrity.
* Winning a second presidential term, which allowed him and his family to cash in on their political fame in ways most presidents never have.
But even as Trump profits personally, the list of failures surrounding this presidency continues to grow.
* Renaming institutions and attaching his name to everything in sight.
* The turmoil surrounding the Kennedy Center.
* Damaged relationships with longtime allies.
* Tariff policies that have created economic uncertainty.
* Continued chaos and turnover within his administration.
* An increasingly unpopular conflict with Iran.

And now there is another warning sign that even some Republicans are beginning to lose confidence.

The House recently passed a War Powers Resolution aimed at limiting Trump’s ability to continue military operations in Iran without congressional authorization. Four Republicans broke ranks and voted with Democrats, sending a message that cracks may be starting to appear in what was once nearly automatic Republican support for Trump.

That’s what makes the vote significant.

It isn’t really about four Republicans.

It’s about the fact that after years of loyalty, some members of Trump’s own party are finally willing to publicly tell him “no.”

Meanwhile, his polling numbers are slipping, public frustration is growing, allies are questioning America’s reliability, and controversy continues to follow this administration from one headline to the next.

Yet through it all, Trump continues to insist he is the greatest president ever, the smartest leader ever, the best dealmaker ever, and the most successful businessman ever.

The question isn’t whether Trump will declare victory.

The question is:

What could possibly go wrong next?

Because every time you think the chaos has reached its limit, Trump seems determined to prove there is always another level.

As this old veteran sees it, real leaders don’t spend all day telling people they’re great. Eventually, the results have to speak for themselves.

If you enjoy my political commentary, observations, and occasional dose of sarcasm, please consider following me. I may not always be right, but I promise I’ll always give you my honest opinion—and probably a few laughs along the way.

– Jim Lager, this old veteran

WOW 2026

This evening we attended the first Parkside Wine on Wednesday for the season. It was a perfectly beautiful night for a neighborhood party and there was a great crowd. We knew most of the people there and met a few more. A lot of old friends.

Looking forward to a few more of these get-togethers.

War Powers Resolution

Today a bipartisan majority in the Republican led House voted to end Trump's illegal war with Iran which was a very clear rebuke of his handling of the conflict and the subsequent economic fallout. The war powers resolution passed by a vote of 215 to 208 with four Republicans joining Democrats in support.

Trump blasted the vote in a post on social media Thursday. He wrote:

"Yesterday, in a meaningless vote, the House voted, 4 bad Republicans and all of the Dumocrats, to limit my War Powers, right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Who would do such an unpatriotic thing. They know where the negotiations stand. The Democrats are fueled by Trump Derangement Syndrome. They would rather have our Country fail than give me another, of many, victories. The four Republicans, that's a whole other story - They're GRANDSTANDERS! They should be ashamed of themselves. MAGA!!! President DJT."

The administration has furiously pushed against the effort in both the House and Senate. Wednesday's vote signals his support for the war may be slipping even among some members of his own party.

Now more than 90 days into the conflict, some Republicans have expressed frustration that the war does not appear to have a clear end in sight. Talks to end the war have yet to gain clear traction, casting doubt on a fragile ceasefire. Just hours before the vote, Iran and the U.S. traded strikes in the Persian Gulf.

The conflict began on Feb 28 with strikes by U.S. and Israeli forces on Iran. Under the 1973 War Powers Act, the president has 60 days to end hostilities if there has been no congressional authorization – though he is able to seek a 30-day extension. The same law also gives Congress the ability to end hostilities by voting on a resolution to end military action, subject to presidential veto.

Tom Petty Anthology - Kitchen Listening

Kitchen Listening with a couple of Tom Petty anthology compilations. Started yesterday with the Anthology: Through The Years, 2000. A double CD album featuring the best of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. I followed that up today with The Live Anthology, 2009 which is a 4 CD compilation of live material recorded from concerts between 1980 and 2007. This awesome set of music played for nearly 6 hours. I'm sorry I never got to see him perform live in concert.

Scott Pelley & CBS

From Occupy Democrats

BREAKING: Iconic “60 Minutes” journalist Scott Pelley drops EXPLOSIVE allegations after the new pro-Trump CBS News FIRES him after 37 years, saying he “was told to lie" in news stories by Trump's corporate minions.

For years during the Trump era, Americans have watched one news organization after another bend the knee to political pressure, corporate interests, billionaire owners, and partisan agendas.

But what veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley just alleged may be one of the MOST disturbing warnings yet from inside a major American newsroom.

After 37 years at CBS News, Pelley says he was FIRED tonight because the network's new pro-Trump leadership abandoned the principles that made 60 Minutes one of the most trusted institutions in journalism.

And his allegations are HISTORIC in nature.

Pelley didn't merely complain about management. He didn't simply criticize corporate restructuring. He accused the new MAGA CBS leadership of attempting to CORRUPT the news itself:

"New management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story."

Read that again.

"New management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story."

WOW. Pelley is openly accusing CBS News of lying to the American people to hide Trump’s corruption. He continued: "I've been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them."

This represents a DIRECT assault on the core principles of journalism.

But Pelley says the problems didn't stop there.

"Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast."

That is an EXTRAORDINARY accusation.

The entire purpose of an independent press is that journalists decide how politicians are questioned — NOT the other way around.

As Pelley bluntly put it:

"Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done."
No kidding. The allegations become even more alarming when viewed in the broader context surrounding CBS and Paramount.

For months, critics have questioned whether CBS corporate executives were softening coverage and restructuring news operations in hopes of maintaining favorable relations with the Trump administration to enrich shareholders and ensure that Paramount’s multibillion-dollar upcoming merger with Skydance is approved by Trump’s FCC.

Now one of the most respected journalists in America appears to be CONFIRMING those fears from the inside.

"Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration."

"60 Minutes lost its DNA. Our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause."

"Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience."
"They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias."

"They stood for professionalism against chaos."

But perhaps the most heartbreaking part of Pelley's statement was his conclusion:
"The collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone."

"And so I must leave as well."

Let that sink in. Scott Pelley spent nearly FOUR DECADES building his career at CBS News. He could have quietly accepted the changes. He could have collected a paycheck and remained silent. Instead, he chose to walk away while publicly warning Americans about what he says is happening behind the scenes.

"I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return."

Whether you're a Democrat, Republican, or Independent, one thing should unite us: No corporation should be telling journalists to LIE in stories. No politician should be CHOOSING which reporters interview them. And no news organization should sacrifice truth in exchange for political favors.

We salute Scott Pelley for being a shining example of integrity in the face of Trump's war on truthful journalism!

Philip K. Dick - Authors List

Philip K. Dick - Authors List. 6 Books. An interesting science fiction author who has written about 45 novels and numerous short story collections. I've read five novels and one collection. I had known about this author for many years but it took the movie Blade Runner for me to read a novel. Then it was another 20 years before I starting reading him again. There are plenty more I should check out.

I also liked the TV series of The Man in the High Castle. 

• Blade Runner: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, 1968 - Nov 1986
• Ubik, 1969 - Nov 2007
• The Divine Invasion, 1981- Aug 2009
• VALIS, 1981 -  Oct 2009
• The Minority Report: Collection of Short Stories, 2002 - Dec 2009
• The Man in the High Castle, 1962 - Jul 2016

Typical Day for the Orange Turd

Trump had another mental health episode today.

This is what trump posted on social media 57 times.

The photo is also from today

11:15 AM - Trump attacks judge who said he couldn’t put his name on the Kennedy Center
12:03 PM - Says he may perform and give a speech at the America 250 event instead of artists who cancelled
12:08 PM - Says Obama filled the Reflecting Pool with Garbage
12:09 PM - Attacks Biden
12:09 PM - Posts edited photo of Columbus Circle in DC with the caption “CLEAN”
12:10 PM - Attacks Biden again
12:11 PM - Posts AI photo of him and George Washington riding horses in front of the White House with a space shuttle and race car in the background
12:11 PM - Attacks Rosie O’Donnell
12:11 PM - Posts photo of him in front of the American flag
12:11 PM - Brags about his endorsed candidates winning
12:12 PM - Attack Obama and Biden over the reflecting pool
12:12 PM - Posts photo of him pointing at the camera
12:13 PM - Posts photo of the UFC event cage he’s building at the White House
12:13 PM - Posts an AI image of a “golden dome” for the White House
12:15 PM - Defends Jaxson Dart, calling him a “winner” and his critics “losers”
12:45 PM - Posts an AI image of him as a NY Knicks basketball player dunking on Governor Kathy Hochul
12:56 PM - Posts an AI image of him with Tom Brady
1:03 PM - Posts a garbage can labeling it “The Obama Presidential Library”
1:16 PM - Says America is back
1:16 PM - Says America is back again
1:16 PM - Says America is back for the 3rd time
1:55 PM - Posts an AI image of him golfing
2:55 PM - Says he’s in “excellent health” lol
3:17 PM - Promotes his Fox News interview with Lara Trump
4:33 PM - Attacks the Pope again
4:54 PM - Posts a weird image of him staring at Greenland (which he has posted already)
4:57 PM - Posts an AI image of the “drone port” he wants to build on top of the ballroom
5:33 PM - Attacks Biden
5:33 PM - Attacks Biden x2
5:34 PM - Attacks Biden x3
5:34 PM - Attacks Biden x4
5:34 PM - Attacks Biden x5
5:35 PM - Posts cartoon image of Governors Newsom, Pritzker, and Hochul saying they like crime (Trump is a felon)
5:36 PM - Posts meme about Republicans who voted to release the Epstein files losing their primaries
5:36 PM - Posts an old tweet of his where he attacks “disloyal” Republicans
5:37 PM - Posts an old tweet where he said he wants to stop the world from “killing itself”
5:37 PM - Posts a mock up of a “Trump Peace Prize” which may be the most useless peace prize known to man
5:37 PM - Posts a photo of a B-2 bomber with the caption “Trump energy 2026”
5:37 PM - Posts a photo of his face on Mount Rushmore
5:38 PM - Posts an image of him kissing the American flag (he’s the least patriotic president we’ve ever had)
5:39 PM - Compares himself to George Washington
5:39 PM - Says you were convinced to think a photo of a family sitting on a car is “evil” and billions were spent to do that (???)
5:50 PM - Says we should “physically audit” Fort Knox
5:50 PM - Posts an image of him cosplaying as a navy commander
5:51 PM - Posts another image of his face on Mount Rushmore
5:51 PM - Posts another photo of him and George Washington
6:09 PM - Attacks Biden again
6:09 PM - Attacks Biden x2
6:09 PM - Attacks Biden x3
6:09 PM - Posts an old photo of himself and King Charles
6:12 PM - Posts an old photo of himself and President XI in China
6:12 PM - Posts another photo of himself and President Xi
6:22 PM - Posts a photo of himself walking in China
6:48 PM - Says the U.S. should have a ballroom because China has one
7:03 PM - Says he wants to cancel his America 250 celebration and replace it with a MAGA rally
7:56 PM - Promotes Mark Levin’s show on Fox News
7:59 PM - Promotes his Fox News interview with Lara Trump
All in one day. This man is not well. Impeachment and removal NOW.

Yukio Mishima - Authors List

Yukio Mishima - Authors List. I read five Mishima novels all in one year. 1978. The first book I read was The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea but that was about a year or so after I saw the film version with Kris Kristofferson that was released in 1976. I was fascinated with the story and really wanted to read the novel the movie was based on. Then it was on with reading the Sea of Fertility series.

In June 1978 I just finished my four years at Temple University with a degree in Media and Film Studies. I relaxed that summer reading these books.

• The Sailor Who Fell Grace With The Sea, 1963 - Jun 1978
• Spring Snow, 1969 - Jul 1978
• Runaway Horses, 1969 - Aug 1978
• The Temple of Dawn, 1970 - Aug 1978
• The Decay of the Angel, 1971 - Sep 1978

Chicken Dinner

Becky made a wonderful chicken cutlet dinner with some nice potatoes in butter. Nice salad too.

It was a delicious dinner after a nice walk through the neighborhood.

Sonny Rollins - Kitchen Listening 4

Kitchen Listening. Sonny Rollins. The Freelance Years: The Complete Riverside and Contemporary Recordings 1956 - 1958, 2000 - 5 CD Set. 

Another set of listening to Sonny Rollins this week. This collection brings together many of the albums from that two year period where he played on other artist's albums and some of his own works on the Riverside and Contemporary record company albums. This box set also includes the Thelonious Monk album Brilliant Corners from 1957. 

Overall a nice addition to the series of his albums I've been listening to this week.

The Image

The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America by Daniel J. Boorstin, 1962. I came across this book while recently browsing the American history section of the Canisius College Library. Browsing a library is becoming a lost art. So I came across this book and picked it up. I had read some of Boorstin's American history books over the years but not in a long time.

I finished this today and enjoyed it's perspective of it's time although I did skip over a few spots here and there which I don't usually do but some of this content was dated although interesting. I especially liked his views on some of the early concepts of American culture that we take for granted today but were relatively new when he was writing. Things like advertising, mass media, travel agencies, reader's digest, political polling, changes in technology, etc. 

Downtown Evening

Becky had to drop off some artwork at Book Arts downtown at Washington and Mohawk. We decided to go for a walk around the area and then go somewhere for dinner. We decided on dinner at the Streetlight Brassiere. We had a nice meal there last year.

We went down there at 4 pm, hung out a little bit talking with the staff and then walked around the area. Mike told us about a tiny mall nearby that was interesting to explore on Main Street. The entrance was a book store and a narrow hallway took us through to several businesses that ended with a ramen restaurant. We walked up and down several streets before heading over to the Streetlight at 5 pm. 

We had a wonderful dinner. Very tasty and the service was great. I had their Streetlight Smashburger and Becky had a Buffalo Chicken sandwich. We shared an order of fries. I also had a Sapporo Lager on tap.

When we came into the restaurant the host sat us at a prime location table at the front window where we had a great view of the downtown neighborhood and the happy hour bar crowd.

Sonny Rollins - Kitchen Listening 3

Another set of Sonny Rollins Kitchen Listening. Three compilation albums and then a live album.

The Prestige Profiles album features selections from his albums on the Prestige label 1953 to 1956. The Blue Note years cover 1956 and 1957. The RCA years were from 1957 to 1962. The live album at the Village Vanguard was recorded in 1957.

• Prestige Profiles: Sonny Rollins, 2004
• Best of Sonny Rollins: The Blue Note Years, 1989
• The Essential Sonny Rollins: The RCA Years, 2005
• A Night at the Village Vanguard, 1958

Bags of Mulch

Today we went over to the garden center at Home Depot and got 8 bags of mulch and a couple of bags of soil. A bag of grass seed too. It's that time of year and we are a little behind because of the week we recently spent at Katie's house. Tomorrow Becky is going to the garden center to buy plants.

It's nice to go there and buy this stuff then drive to the back lot and someone loads it into the car for you. But of course we had to get it out of the car, on to a wheel barrow and then get it out to the backyard... one bag at a time.

Sonny Rollins - Kitchen Listening 2

Listened to more classic Sonny Rollins today. This time some earlier albums from the 1950's in my collection. This set went on for about three hours.

I was a tenor sax player in my teens and Sonny Rollins was an early influence. I had some friends that played sax with me in the Uptown Mummers String Band who were older than me and liked playing music for me because I was always interested in hearing something new... like Sonny Rollins.

• Sonny Rollins with the Modern Jazz Quartet, 1953
• Moving Out, 1954
• Rollins Plays For Bird, 1956
• Tenor Madness, 1956

Crook Manifesto - A Novel

Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead, 2023. This is the second book of the Harlem Trilogy. Looking forward to the 3rd volume in the trilogy to be published later this year. 

I enjoyed this book very much although it was a very intense trashy view of NYC and particularly Harlem life in the early 1970's. I was also reading this novel at the same time I was reading Ibram X. Kendi's Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age, 2026. Another very intense book.

This is the fifth Colson Whitehead book that I've read so I really should add a posting for him in my Authors List series.

Sonny Rollins - Kitchen Listening 1

This is the first of several sets of Sonny Rollins albums from my collection that I'm listening to following hearing of his passing yesterday. I have about a dozen of his albums including a box set that I will be playing over the next few days.

This set ran about three hours.

• The Bridge, 1962 
• Sonny Meets Hawk!, 1963 
• Sonny Rollins on Impulse!, 1965
• There Will Never Be Another You, 1965

Sonny Rollins RIP

We woke up this morning to discover that Sonny Rollins had passed away yesterday at the age of 95. Wow, actually I didn't know he was still around. Haven't heard anything about him in a long time. When Becky and I saw him in the early 90's we thought we were being lucky to see an old classic sax player. I also saw him in 1986 at the Tralfamadore Cafe in downtown Buffalo. 

He was one of my favorite tenor saxophone players. I played tenor sax as a teenager.