Polka Dots and Moonbeams

• Howard Mandel launches the #jazzlives campaign, and Darcy James Argue gives us bloggers a widget.
• Chris Albertson recounts an encounter with an acrimonious Leonard Feather.
  
• Fred Kaplan reviews the latest Motian-Lovano-Frisell residency at the Village Vanguard. This is one of my favorite groups. Nate Chinen also had some nice things to say.
  
• If you haven't done so already, make sure to read Ethan Iverson's massive posts on Lester Young.
• Branford is mad. He makes a good point about grade inflation, though.
  
• At jazz.com, Stuart Nicholson interviews Darcy James Argue. Also at jazz.com, Jason Moran reviews 12 classic tracks by his mentor, Jaki Byard. If that is not enough for you, check out Steve Coleman's take on 12 Charlie Parker tracks.
  
• Peter Hum discovers that Office Space creator Mike Judge is not a fan of Pat Metheny. His loss...
  

Since I neglected to write anything about the Lester Young centennial, below are a few videos of Pres from YouTube. First, the 1944 short Jammin' The Blues, featuring Young, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Jo Jones, and others.

Below is Pres playing Pennies from Heaven in 1950 with Con Bill Harris, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, and Buddy Rich.

Finally, below is a recording of Young playing Polka Dots and Moonbeams with the Count Basie big band at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival. In his Lester Young remembrance, Ethan Iverson said of the performance,

My god, if you aren’t moved by this you have a heart of stone. Young interfaces with the complicated big band chart behind him beautifully. (It’s reminiscent of Charlie Parker in a similar situation with a complicated chart on “My Foolish Things” on One Night In Washington.) Young’s secure aria over the opulence makes one regret that he never made the album with strings like he wanted to.

I totally agree.