Tie one of these wet pants legs around your neck: Wayne Shorter, Bill Evans, John Guare, Hal Blaine, Monk Rowe, Henri Crolla, Buster Keaton: Photos, Videos

John Guare’s works include The House of Blue Leaves, Atlantic City and Six Degrees of Separation. His new play, Nantucket Sleigh Ride, is at New York’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center Theater.

Wait until you read about the man-cave beach house his father built in 1930 and how his parents inspired him to write plays.

John Guare on Six Degrees of Separation...

SiriusXM. Last Thursday, I was on Feedback (Ch. 106) with co-hosts Nik Carter and Lori Majewski to talk about Roxy Music and how the band recorded one of the first pure new wave hits—Love Is the Drug, in 1975. To listen to the show …

Hal Blaine. A special thanks to Richard Sandomir of The New York Times for quoting from my Wall Street Journal interview in his obit of the late drummer and to Harrison Smith in The Washington Post for quoting from it as well in his.

When record stores ruled. Back when long-playing recorded music was still an exiting concept of convenience and the 12-inch vinyl album was a relatively new format, record stores were like futuristic candy stores for adults and children. They looked modern, and once you were inside, the album covers and music playing over speakers could hold your attention for hours. Last week, Alan Matheson sent along a couple of fabulous photos and some words:

Dear Marc, my father ran a small group of record stores in Calgary and Vancouver from 1956 to 1972. The top photo is his store located at 232 7th Avenue in West Calgary, Alberta, in 1958. Nat King Cole’s Welcome to the Club had just been released on Capitol. You can see a cardboard cut-out figure of Cole in the window to promote the album. The “double storefront” gave my dad a chance to do some great displays to promote new records, and the store was a wonderful place for me to grow up! (Click photos to enlarge.)

The interior shot above was taken around the same time (1957 to 1958). My father is the man on the left talking with the gentleman in the hat. (Notice the guitars and small amps against the wall, a sheet-music rack next to them and compact radios by the window; I love the girl in a daze with her purse out unsure where to start looking first.)

Bill Evans. Pianist Dave Thompson sent along a fascinating article by Steve Silberman in The Believer on Evans and his relationship to Miles Davis’s Nardis.

Wayne Shorter. Fifty years ago, a suite of jazz compositions written by tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter in 1968 disappeared. The suite was called The Universe Compositions and was written by Shorter while he was in the Miles Davis Quintet for a 24-piece orchestra. Several years ago, trumpeter Wallace Roney found the music and has been working ever since to have it recorded. [Photo above of Wayne Shorter by Robert Ashcroft, courtesy of Wayne Shorter]

Fortunately, co-director Sam Osborn has been filming a documentary on Roney and his odyssey to see the music realized. Sam told me last week that the film and album are expected to be finished by September 1 and will be released in the first or second quarter of 2020. As you’ll hear from the video, the music sounds fantastic. Sam needs funds to help complete the project. Listen to the music, watch their Kickstarter pitch.

Monk Rowe. The on-camera jazz journalist’s vast archive of taped interviews is now accessible through Hamilton University’s platform. To watch an.

Pretty track. Carlos Lyra playing and singing Baden Powell’s Samba De La Bendicion Saravá…

French harmony. Are Les Voice Messengers singing Mimi Medley/Suite Double-Six, both in tribute to pioneering French vocalese vocalist Mimi Perrin, who died in 2010…

Thalma de Freitas. Lou Judson sent along a link to Brazilian vocalist Thalma de Freitas singing Sorte! backed by John Finbury’s Alma Brasileira…

Wow, this cover makes these chores look grim. As a result, the album’s songs are begging for longer titles. For example, Don’t Worry About Me (I’ll Be Doing This for Another Four Hours), After the Ball (I Didn’t Have Time to Attend) and Deep in My Heart, Dear (I Want to Tie One of These Wet Pants Legs Around Your Neck).