Wes Phillips

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William P. Gottlieb, R.I.P.

I just learned that William Gottlieb died last night. Like every jazz fan, many of my images of the jazz greats come directly from his photography. Billie Holiday with her head back, eyes closed; Django Reinhardt, cigarette a-dangle, fretting a run; a skinny Frank Sinatra looking beyond the microphone . . .all are indelible Gottlieb images. You'll probably see lots of obituaries in the next few days, but a visit to the Gottlieb collection at the Library of Congress might be the best place to remember him.

Wolfgang's Vault

Unreleased Fillmore East, Fillmore West, and Winterland performances available as 128kbps streams. I haven't been able to get it working completely glitch free, but some of these performances are pretty amazing and I'd buy 'em if they were available in a non-compromised format. Wolfgang, BTW, was Bill Graham's birth name.

Wolfie & Sid?

Stephen Brown argues that Sid Vicious and Mozart shared the quality of primitivism, by which he means the winnowing away of unnecessary complications. I see his point with Sid, but in Mozart's case, I see it as the essence of the refining fire. Still, a good read and well-argued, even though, IMHO, wrong.

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