Lemme tell ya, there's nothing like coming home after an long Monday at work and finding an iCal reminder popped up on your computer screen that says "Jazz Patrol, 6pm today." And the clock time when you see this: 6:08pm. Drove over to the station in a mad cussing panic. For some god-unknown reason, my cellphone was giving me "extended network" all the way across town. Hey, I'm all for the importance of communication but I'm not paying roaming charges to let someone know I'm coming when I'm 5-10 minutes away. It all worked out. Big thanks to Howard and Jason for holding things down until I got there. And it was actually, I think, a pretty good show. I was mostly just grabbing stuff that looked interesting (Cecil Taylor, Billy Strayhorn, James Moody), stuff I already knew (Pfeuti, Greg Osby, David Murray) or stuff that was new (Buddy Rich, John Zorn). But I think it actually hung together pretty well. And I got to use the word "hellafied" on the air, while describing the gig by David Murray's Latin Big Band that I saw at Knitting Factory with my friend Lisa a coupla years back. Towards the end of the show I was playing a cut from a new CD we've got of Buddy Rich's big band recorded live in the 70s. It's called No Funny Hats and it opens with a quote from Rich talking about how he and the band take jazz seriously and play it with no funny hats and no funny hair. I agree with Eric K that Sun Ra Arkestra have easily enough funny hats to cover pretty much everyone else in the jazz game. I wonder if the "no funny hats" line was a dig at Sun Ra or someone/something else.
Anyway, I'll be back on the air this Wed night for my regular gig, 10pm to midnite.