Ahmet Ertegun has passed.

Gah--I lost the buffistarawk login info! Can someone e-mail it to my profile addy? Thanks!

It has been sent, Kathy.

This looks awesome: Christmas with Colonel Sanders

...featuring the deep-fried musical stylings of Chet Atkins, Henry Mancini, and Harry Belafonte.

Check out the new U2 video. A music fan's dream and beautifully done.

[link]

Okay, musicistas, I need some gifting help.

I drew my uncle G. in my family's Secret Santa-type gift exchange this year, and I have no idea what to get him, besides the fact that it should be music. I know he loves jazz, and piano jazz in particular. He also really likes choral music (esp. classical or early/medieval, but I bet there's some contemporary stuff he'd like too).

So I have some idea of what he'd like, but I don't know what he has already. I'm assuming he's got the most popular & well-known examples of his favorite styles already. This is where you all come in. Anyone got any suggestions? Heard any fantastic piano-based records this year? I'm looking for recent stuff especially. If you think of something that's sort of similar, but not quite, tell me about it anyway; maybe I could introduce him to his new favorite genre! Past musical gifts he's really liked include CDs by Abdullah Ibrahim, Ney Matogrosso, and Trio Mediaeval.

Thanks in advance!

Kate, if you really want to go out on a limb, doo-wop may be worth a try. Some of the vocal arrangements can be jazz-like, and while the small group dynamic isn't the same as choral, it is a group dynamic.

The problem is, not many doo-wop groups have enough of an oeuvre to rate a Greatest Hit CD. But there are plenty of compilation CDs out there.

And doo-wop bears a passing resemblance to a lot of the vocal group pop of the early and mid '50s. Some groups worth checking out would be the Four Aces (known for "Three Coins in the Fountain," if that rings any bells), the Four Lads ("Moments to Remember"), the Chordettes ("Mr. Sandman"), the McGuire Sisters ("Sincerely"). I'm less familiar with the Four Freshmen (except "Graduation Day") but understand that they're considered a major influence on the Beach Boys, so they should also be worth checking out.

You couldn't go far wrong with some of the Rhino Records DooWop box sets. Box Set #1 is pretty obvious, but I'm extremely fond of the second set, because the selection pretty much automatically skipped over the super-boffo-big-obvious-choices that went into the first and let the programmers cherry-pick worthy regional hits that never got the recognition they deserved.

However, Rhino has several retrospective CDs of the various doowop groups that had a long enough career to provide a substantial body of work. I'd especially recommend The Drifters, who had a bit of rotating personnel, some of whom went on to become big names in their own right.

Kate, if he likes classical AND piano AND choral, you could check out Nikolai Demidenko on Hyperion playing Bach-Busoni piano transcriptions (Busoni's transcriptions of various Bach pieces, including many chorales). Drop dead gorgeous music and virtuoso pianism of the highest order.

Cool Jazz Piano:

At the Top
Art Tatum
Bud Powell

Accessible Pop/Jazz Thang
Vince Guaraldi
Oscar Peterson
Ramsey Lewis

Old School
Jellyroll Morton (this is where I think you could get a good present - Library of Congress has put out some very cool Jellyroll CDs in the last decade that he might not have)
Fats Waller (for the songs, of course)
Willie the Lion (stride)

New Orleans Jazz Piano
Resurrection of the Bayou Maharajah - James Booker (Oooh! get this. I reviewed it in LiTG!)
Dr. John Plays Duke Ellington (very cool, very New Orleans)