One Down, One Up

Things I'll write about - jazz, blues and other music; crime fiction; poetry and all things literary; and politcs.,

Jazz - primarily Bop and post-Bop. My latest favorite is the CD The BeBop Singers with Annie Ross, Joe Carroll, Eddie Jefferson, Jon Hendricks and my main man King Pleasure. Also listening to Verve's Best of Shirley Horn, Andrew!!! - a Blue Note reissue of the music of Andrew Hill, and Native Lands by drummer Will Calhoun which features a few tracks with Pharoh Saunders.

Blues - I'm waiting for something new. Caught Buried in the Blues & have begun tracing back some of those old Chicago based white blues players who started me listening thirty-plus years ago.

Other music - in heavy rotation right now - brit folkie Bert Jansch, Sufjan Stevens- Illinoise, Franz Ferdinand's latest, Nada Surf, Death Cab, Modest Mouse, Spoon, Calexico with Iron & Wine, Mindy Smith and a whole bunch of other stuff.

Crime fiction - WCGault, The Wheelman, Greatest Hits, some of the Hard Case Crime books...

Other Fiction - No Country for Old Men, Northwestern's Writings from an Unbound Europe.

Poetry - Jack Hirschman's latest selected from City Lights, Jack Gilbert's latest

Politics - Liberal, pro-choice, pro-gun, pro-civil union/marriage

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