The Journey is the Destination II: Chicago to New York

Two of my favorite subjects,Jazz and Railroads!

Returning to my Beer topic,it is getting to be my favorite time of year, Holiday ale season! Every October, craft breweries begin releasing there special Christmas ales.
Generally they are available until mid January. This great tradition has probably evolved from Wassail, a hot, spiced punch often associated with winter celebrations of northern Europe, such as Christmas, New Year's and Twelfth Night.
Living in Hawaii there are fewer to choose from but usually I can find my 3 favorites
Anchor brewery special Ale http://www.anchorbrewing.com/beers/christmasale.htm
Deschutes Jubleale http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/BrewPub/OnTap/5811.aspx
and Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale www.sierranevada.com/beers/celebrationale.html

Anchor has been producing special ale for over 30 years. Each year the recipe is slightly different but is always loaded with holiday spice flavor! Taste is great but the tradition is the thing! If you are careful these beers will keep for years. Once on an British Christmas holiday with friends we had a collection of Special ales dating back 10 years. We sampled them all and the 10 year old bottle was the best!
So go out and find one of the many available today and enjoy

Happy holidays!

Benny Goodman Quartet - I've Got A Heartful of Music

Maybe I will get tired of playing with youtube soon . Until then here is more great jazz fun

John Coltrane - Fearless Leader

On My Christmas List !

Meet RED

After 35 years of a cats only house hold we now have a dog. Three weeks ago ,on our way to go swimming, we passed an abandoned car with this dog lying next to it. Returning home an hour later, it was still there so we stopped to check it out . The car had been vandalized and no one was around so we decided to take the poor hungry dog home with us. We later learned from friends that he had been there three days before we happened by. Since then we have had him neutered , received a clean bill of health for him and proceeded to fall in love! I turns out that although a little over exuberant (now that he has regained his strength)he is a real smart sweetheart . In three weeks he has gone from being abandoned to totally spoiled! Although I have learned very quickly that dogs are a lot more work than cats I think he has found a new home!

From the Verve website

Smokin' At The Half Note Catalog #8295782
compact disc
reissue release date 11/21/1989
original releasing label Verve Records

This album is the live equivalent of the INCREDIBLE GUITAR album--Wes Montgomery cooking with a seasoned and communicative piano trio on a set of jazz compositions, standards, and original material. INCREDIBLE GUITAR has Tommy Flanagan, Percy Heath, and Albert Heath; SMOKIN' has the Wynton Kelly trio, with Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums. Not only had the same trio served as one of Miles Davis' great rhythm sections, but Kelly was considered by many to be the most gifted accompanist of his time.

Miles Davis's "No Blues" is in fact an utterly relentless blues, with Montgomery nailing each single-note, octave, or block-chord phrase with passionate conviction. Bassist Sam Jones's "Unit 7" is another uptempo blues. "Four on Six," which debuted on INCREDIBLE GUITAR, gets an edited version of the head and a slightly faster treatment overall. Kelly takes the lead on the first ballad, "If You Could See Me Now," Montgomery on the second, framing the melody to "What's New" in octaves over Cobb's late-night brushes. The excellent sound quality and almost complete lack of audience noise throughout makes SMOKIN' feel like eavesdropping of the best kind.

Producer: Creed Taylor
Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder; Val Valentin

Personnel: Wes Montgomery (guitar); Wynton Kelly (piano); Paul Chambers (bass); Jimmy Cobb (drums).


Recorded live at the Half Note, New York, New York and Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey in June and September 1965.

This re release was originally recorded in July of 1961 and combines the Duke Ellington and Count Basie bands. This is not a battle of bands but a wonderful 30 piece orchestra! Not a contest but friends getting together for a“visit “according to the Duke . These great musicians really appreciated each other and the finished product reflects it . All with no rehearsal! This has got that swing!!

A surprise dinner guest! (happens a lot here in Hawaii)

Still more Portmeirion !

Never can seem to get enough of Portmeirion

As demonstrated by my lovely assistant(aka wife Sharon) all of our work on the pineapples (see June post) has paid off!

This is one terrific CD . It was originally recorded in March of 1961 and released on CD sometime in the late 80’s .A combination of Lenord Bernsteins orginal music , Jhonny Richards jazz adaptation and Kenton’s Mellophonium period orchestra make this music brilliant! The liner notes say that of all the success Kenton’s West Side Story obtained, one event tops everything. During the mixing of the album the producers of the almost complete Film West Side Story paid a visit to see what was going on. They were astonished with this material saying “if we had only known “ As well as having a 28 week run on the Billboard charts in November of 1961 , this album won a Grammy award for Best Big Band Jazz recording of the year! IT has to be one of Kenton’s greatest recordings!

Meet Harlech (A castle in Wales) Positive proof that each of our 4 cats is slightly spoiled!

This is one of my very favorite Pubs in London. At the end of a quiet cobbled mews off Belgrave Square, the Star stands proud, head and shoulders above its neighbours. It was built in the early 19th century to cater for the domestic staff of the many great houses of Belgravia. The mews cottages were used for stabling horses and to accommodate the grooms and coachmen. Today they are more likely to house a millionaire than a servant. From the outside the Star probably hasn't changed that much, but inside the new social order has left its mark. The open bar would have been divided into many rooms, each one used according to ones status 'below stairs'. Now it is open and bright. There are two fireplaces in the largest room, with comfortable benches and scrubbed pine tables. The Star is a very popular pub, particularly at lunchtimes. There's a pleasant room upstairs which acts as an overflow dining room. Incidentally it's thought this room is where the Great Train Robbery was planned here. The food is simple but good quality, a typical menu includes sausages and mash, steaks, salads and freshly cut sandwiches. The Fuller's beers are very well kept, proven by its inclusion in the CamRA Good Beer Guide for the last 30 years. Some material taken from From Pubs.com

It has been almost a year. My not so new eating habits have been more than a diet for quite a while now. During this time I have lost over 45 pounds. The plan has a few components . First thing in the morning I weigh in. This simple act has kept focus on the goal. Another area is what I was eating. Label reading,reducing fat, less bread and processed food, switching to 1%milk etc etc. Then how much, just slow down and don’t keep stuffing your face. ButI haven’t been strict to the point of restricting eating out. I zig and zag . Go off as long as you return the next morning. An on the weekend anything goes. But on Monday, back to the watch! It has worked ,almost too well, as some are starting to ask if I have been sick. I am not sick I'm just Notso fat anymore!

In May of 1913 The premier of the Ballet The Rite Of Spring caused a riot in a theater in Paris. Igor Stravinsky had created the music to do precisely that. It set aside the notion that an ordinary interrelationship between melody,harmony and form was mandatory. Instead, texture, dynamics and rhythm were a focus. This,in part makes it extremely elemental and primitive. In addition, a great deal of its melodic material is based on folk songs .Folklore was a phenomenon during that time period and Stravinsky used the material to create the essence of primitive energy. Also its metric complexity ,changes, syncopation ,and odd phrase groupings create a mood of mystery. The total effect is most successful at shocking the listener even today almost 100 years later. It is quite a work!