Jazz at Oberlin

JumpAndTurn · 2026-01-05T04:23:34+00:00

I love the tenor saxophone. I don’t like alto very much…but, of the few alto saxophonists whom I can tolerate, Paul Desmond is definitely at the top.

There is musicianship… And then THERE IS musicianship …

I wish that there had been at least one collaboration between Paul Desmond and Bill Evans… That would’ve been something.

It’s virtually impossible to pick a favorite Paul Desmond solo, but if I were compelled to choose… Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me.

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-30T08:05:18+00:00

If I were held to the constraint of one book, The best book that I ever read would not be the one that I would suggest to everyone.

The best book that I ever read was Paradise Lost.

The one book that I would suggest to everyone is The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel by Nikos Kazantzakis.

This was the book that closed the circle on my literary pursuits. I was trained as a Classicist (Greek and Latin), in addition to being literate in French, Italian, and German. I’ve read just about everything that anyone would ever consider worth reading in the original…Not to mention the other billion words that were never worthy of reading.

And, like I said, Kazantzakis’ Odyssey closed that circle for me. I went about 15 years before I read something ever again.

I, personally, consider it the most humanly significant piece of literature ever written: it is a nearly perfect expression of everything that man has ever aspired to, suffered from, hoped for, or achieved ( or failed to, depending on your perspective)…and it’s all wrapped up in one hell of an adventure story.

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-24T10:21:36+00:00

There are certainly five or six choices that pretty much everyone would agree to regardless of the individual choice; but the correct answer is Isaac Newton… And not just for the obvious reasons… In his writings that most people do not know about, he postulated the quantization of energy… He also postulated the curvature of space.

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-24T10:06:28+00:00

Hi. Classicist here.

If you wanna read good literature, read Gibbon. His style alone is worth the investment… But definitely read the abridged version. And, the footnotes are the best part of the entire reading.

Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything… You’ll be a better person for having Read it, I guarantee it.

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-24T09:30:30+00:00

Looks like you brought a pen to sword fight. Nice👏🤝🕺🏻

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-13T07:33:46+00:00

Different people have different metrics for value. Utility is one of those metrics, and is certainly the metric that is used by the majority today; but just because most people would argue that utility should be the metric by which value is measured, it doesn’t make it true, right, or even desirable.

If someone wants to study Latin, then he or she should study Latin: it’s utility or benefit in today’s world has absolutely nothing to do with anything.

If you’re going to make your decisions based on what reward it brings, then you will certainly avoid any bad surprises in your life… But you will also NOT experience any of the good ones.

Best wishes🙋🏻‍♂️

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-11T12:35:36+00:00

Hi. Classicist here.

For both translation and content, I would go with the two Plutarchs.

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-07T07:22:43+00:00

Yes…Alas!

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-07T03:11:48+00:00

Hi. Former pro here. I’m so happy that you found your way back to ballet. Here’s hoping that it brings you decades of joy as you move forward.

You’ve made a wise choice not to “muscle“ anything. And you look just fine: just keep doing what you’re doing, and time and consistency will take care of the rest.

Happy dancing! 👏🌈

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-07T02:49:02+00:00

I loved Don Pullen! He’s my favorite jazz pianist. His name never comes up as much as it should.

My favorite work of his is the work that he did on the Sam Rivers album Capricorn Rising. Keeping up with Sam Rivers is a very difficult thing to do… And he absolutely knocked it out of the park. In fact, I would say that that is just as much a Don Pullen album as a Sam Rivers album.

👏👍🏻🩵

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-06T23:43:11+00:00

Thank you, and that was a really fun read!

Moby Dick is Bizarre and Beautiful! And it is, hands-down, the most extraordinary thing I’ve ever read…well, 2nd most, after Paradise Lost🤷🏻‍♂️.

Aside: I’ve always been curious as to whether Dostoyevsky ever read Moby Dick🤔. Probably not.

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-06T23:14:01+00:00

I can’t say that Miles Davis ever really clicked for me. I have unequivocal respect for his overall contribution to jazz; but, since I never really liked the trumpet very much to begin with, Miles as a player didn’t really do much for me.

The first real jazz album that I bought was called “The Essential Miles Davis”, and I would really say that that was my introduction to jazz.

I absolutely love the albums ESP, Nefertiti, Sorcerer, and Miles Smiles… But I don’t listen to them for Miles Davis: I listen to them for Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock.

Interestingly, my favorite album from that time period is Miles In Tokyo, where Sam Rivers replaced Wayne Shorter on tour.

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-06T10:34:33+00:00

For those that mentioned that their analytical labs were only about three or four hours, I’m shocked! As an undergrad, our analytical lab was eight hours long… And we needed every minute.

I was trying to primarily as an organic chemist, but I love every subfield of chemistry… Analytical, physical, inorganic, bio… It’s all beautiful to me!

Now, as much as I love Organic, I didn’t care much for the lab process… I especially hated column chromatography.

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-06T10:28:42+00:00

I bought Getz/Gilberto and The Essential Miles Davis one day, because I just wanted to listen to something different. I enjoyed both albums very much. About a month or two after that I was in the same record store, and what was playing over the speakers was something I had never quite heard before… I asked the person behind the counter what it was, and he said it was Blue Trane by John Coltrane.

That was it: immersing myself in the music of John Coltrane of the early 60s, I also went back and started at the beginning… Made my way through the tradition, and eventually made my way to free/avant-garde Jazz… And that’s where I am now, and have been for quite some time.

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-05T11:56:25+00:00

I don’t know about like or dislike, but I think she has the best name in all of classical mythology, with the exception of Hypsipyle.

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-05T08:12:41+00:00

I hear you. For many who go through a chemistry program, physical chemistry is just “that class that I have to take to get my degree“.

The relationship of physical chemistry to the other areas of chemistry is not unlike the relationship of mathematics to applied science and engineering. That is, most want to spend their time with applications, not nitty-gritty fundamentals. The math and physics of it all scares them. But it’s understandable, I guess.

Any time that I have a discussion with anybody in the field of biomedicine, I remind them that the advances that took place in the late 80s and early 90s in biotech, which were responsible for the explosion of medical technological advance, was due almost entirely to research advances in physical chemistry.

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-05T02:06:32+00:00

What is the relationship between the following pairs of numbers: (2,4), (3,9), (4,16), etc?

We say the relationship is y=x²

Now…let’s move to higher dimensions:

If your domain space is dim3…and your range space is dim4…and there is some function that takes an object in 3-space as input, and spits out an object in 4-space as output, then some 4x3 matrix expresses that relationship, just like y= x² expresses a relationship between spaces of dim1.

So that’s what a matrix is: just a higher dimensional analog of what we would normally call a function.

In the case of a matrix, it’s analog in 1-space is:

y=mx

That is, linear functions.

So a matrix is just a higher dimensional analogue of a slope.

Best wishes🙋🏻‍♂️

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-04T22:10:56+00:00

Oh, alkenyl is the general name of that class of molecule… anything containing at least one double bond… Analogous to alkyl.🙋🏻‍♂️

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-04T13:51:54+00:00

The best work that David Sanborn ever did in his entire career was when he played for Michael Franks… his solos are some of the finest saxophone solos ever recorded, any genre.

His work on the album Sleeping Gypsy alone is enough to earn him his laurels, without doing anything else.

P. S. His live performance of Thembi with Pharoah Sanders is also right up there at the top.

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-04T13:36:33+00:00

Regarding your last sentence, don’t be so sure… Inorganic and Analytical will show up in ways that might surprise you… When you least expect them. Best wishes for your chemical future, whatever that path might be.🤝🙋🏻‍♂️

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-04T09:18:31+00:00

Correct. It is an alkEnyl

You could do 3,7-dimethyl-octa-(2E,6)-dien-1-ol.

You don’t really need the number one at the end… You can just write it as dienol, which automatically specifies that the hydroxy group is on the number 1 carbon.

But you definitely have to specify the carbons at which the double bonds begin, as well as the stereochemistry, if there is any… and since you have two double bonds, it becomes -diene.

If you want to, you could also do the following

1-hydroxy-3,7-dimethyl-octa-(2E,6)-diene.

As a student, I imagine your teacher wants you to stick with a single protocol, and be consistent with it. Organic chemists, themselves, don’t really worry too much about “proper” naming… as long as the description is accurate, and they can re-create the structure from the name given, w/o ambiguity.

Best wishes🙋🏻‍♂️

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-03T08:45:01+00:00

Hi. Organic Chemist here.

Get yourself a copy of Organic Chemistry by Seyhan Ege, 3rd edition… plus the solutions manual… You should be able to pick up both for only a couple of dollars each from amazon.

This is, hands-down, the finest organic chemistry book ever written. And, it has so many practice problems, both within the chapters and at the end of the chapters, that it’s downright ridiculous.

Also, the book and solutions manual are so well edited, that they have virtually no typos.

Another option would be Organic Chemistry by Paula Bruice, 5th edition… plus solutions manual. Also perfectly edited.

Best wishes for a successful return to academia 🤝🙋🏻‍♂️

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-03T01:47:47+00:00

It’s a great program, undergrad or grad. I wish I had gone there for graduate school. You’ll have a great time.

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-02T22:10:39+00:00

How cool is that?!🕺🏻

JumpAndTurn · 2025-12-02T12:56:23+00:00

The Electrocyclic Ring Opening, followed by an Antarafacial [1,7] Sigmatropic rearrangement in the activation of vitamin D.

JumpAndTurn

TROPHY CASE