I saw that Sullivan show, too. (You’re dating yourself by talking about it…) Even better to see would be video of when they disrupted the taping of (I think) Mike Douglas, which is what led to Rahsaan getting the spot on Sullivan.

CrimLawStudent:

I’ve got two CDs by Jupiter (are there more?) and I love the 2-cd set. I’ve listened to Kullrusk some online, but so far it hasn’t been that prominent on my radar, and there are already so many things on Moserobie alone that I want to buy, including Dog Out, Stahls Bla, Filip Augustson, Brat, the Kullhammar with the big band, maybe one of the Magnus Broo discs (I think of Broo as Cesar Rosas to Ljungkvist’s David Hidalgo…).

If you don’t have them already, check out the Nacka Forum, Fredrik Nordstrom (start with the quintet stuff; I haven’t warmed up to the big band one yet), the Zetterberg disc with him in drag on the cover, Vita Pratica by Alberto Pinton, and Per Henrik Wallin and his Gang.

No, I didn’t get into this stuff by way of the Swedish Embassy’s festival. (I hadn’t heard about the festival until this year, and then I somehow managed to miss each of Kullhammar’s three gigs here.) My point of entry was Atomic, and if I recall correctly I stumbled onto the Scandanavian cornucopia when I checked out Atomic’s page on MySpace and started clicking on their Friends.

The Embassy of Sweden has been having an annual “Nordic Jazz” festival around the middle of June the last past 3 years. Maybe that’s where you became a fan?

This year had a great line-up: Nils Petter Molvær and Arve Henriksen, Søren Kjærgaard, and, of course, Kullhammar’s quartet.

And Ken: interesting looking blog. I’ll have to check it out more closely. Given your interest in hard bop, have you heard any of what’s been coming out of Scandanavia over the last few years? E.g., Jonas Kullhammar and Jazzmob. If not, you should

Definitely was planning on going to see that.

There are several good shows coming up in the DC area.

This past Monday, David Binney played a terrific set at the Blues Alley (along with a stellar ensemble consisting of Craig Taborn, Eivind Opsvik and Brian Blade.)

Chick was here a few days ago too.

Kurt Rosenwinkel’s trio (with Eric Revis and either Eric Harland or Ted Poor, both fantastic) will be playing material off his new Standards album at the Blues Alley next week on Tuesday.

Bill Frisell will be playing the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, on October 16th, with Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollesen (the bassist and drummer of Sex Mob, respectively.) On his website, Frisell wrote, “My trio with Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollesen is probably the most flexible, spontaneous group I play with. The program can change from night to night depending on what kind of mood we’re all in, the size or sound of the room, the audience, what we have or had not had to eat that day, how much sleep we’ve had recently, how far we’ve traveled, etc. etc. We never plan a set before hand. With Tony and Kenny I have the luxury of playing just about anything that comes into my head at any moment. This could be music from any of my albums, standard songs, folk songs, or whatever. These guys really inspire and challenge me everytime we get together.”

Some other artists coming to DC: Kenny Barron Trio this Friday at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, and also, for more contemporary jazz (not so much for me), there’s Christian Scott, Terence Blanchard, Roy Hargrove, Christian McBride.

Anyways, I’m especially looking forward to seeing Han Bennink in Baltimore in mid October, although I imagine his appeal may be limited to the weird or adventurous.

. . . . but hey, I was watching Ed Sullivan the surreal night that Rahsaan Roland Kirk put on a five minute “Haitian Fight Song” free-for-all with Mingus, Roy Haynes, Archie Shepp, and a bunch of others. Nobody in cyberspace seems yet able to find video of that moment, but I know other people who saw it, so I know I didn’t imagine it.

Rubalcaba is still kind of a cipher to me; he clearly has monster technique, and some very interesting ideas (there’s a recording of live date from Cuba from decades ago in which he’s helming a sort of supercharged Afro-Cubanized version of Weather Report) but seems to fizzle almost as often as he inspires… …when he’s on, though, he’s REALLY on…

I saw Elvin, Max Roach and Miles. The other guy I would add to your list is Horace Silver. I saw him too. As I am kind of out of touch with the jazz scene these days I don’t know if he is still active. If he is go see him.

Don’t feel bad. At least you’re not posting about soccer.

Sk