6 August 2009

Too busy working on the site tonight to watch anything. The irony of persistent blogging.

And the soundtrack to all this HTMLing and Photoshopping was a whole lot of Herbie Mann. Through eBay and used record stores in San Francisco and Reno, I managed somehow to acquire 27 Herbie Mann albums on vinyl in the last couple of months.

I should be listening to 30s jazz. (I am, in fact, writing this to a background of early 30s Louis Armstrong) But Herbie Mann came out of nowhere to obsess me for at least a little while.

I can heartily recommend just about anything from Mann's discography up to about 1972 or so. Particular favorites at the moment are At the Village Gate (1962), Impressions of the Middle East (1966), A Mann and a Woman (1967), Wailing Dervishes (1967), Windows Opened (1968), Stone Flute (1970) and Push Push (1971).

After 1972, Mann gets a bit problematic, with a disco period that I have yet to explore. I'm expecting much from his later work, though, particularly a collaboration with Mal Waldron, who was last year's sudden obsession.