AllenLowe

I actually don't know anything behind-the-scenes here, as I have not talked to Phil in probably 5 years - the mastering on the box seems generally OK, but hearing that weird and completely unnecessary artificat (as Weatherbird is a very easy track to work on - I have CEDAR myself) - means somebody at Sony was asleep at the wheel -

Cleaning house this weekend - a few odds and ends, and I only have 1 of each of most of these. First to email me gets each or whatever quantity is requested (please email at ammusic@maine.rr.com) - all are CDs: 1) Art Pepper Quartet, V. 1: With the Sonny Clark Trio (Live 1953). Time Is $10 shipped. Sealed. 2) Johnny Otis: Be Bop Baby Blues. Night Train, '50s sides. Sealed. $6.00 shipped. (I have two copies of this one only) 3) Jay McShann Orchestra: Blues from KC (GRP Decca Reissue, very good sound, sealed) - $8.50 shipped. Sealed 4) Django Reinhardt: Guitar Genius. (A Charly reissue; good sound). Sealed. $6.50 shipped. 5) Sonny Terry. Capitol gatefold reissue. $6.5o shipped. Sealed 6) Jimmy Witherspoon. Call My Baby. Night Train. Sealed. $6.50 shipped. paypal, check, or money order -

the other thing I would suggest is to consult a lawyer - I doubt very much that what he is doing is legal -

find a bar nearbye, work there, and draw his crowd away -

hey, there's no doubt, David can play. I just feel that somewhere along the line his own ego and money-lust got in the way. I do hear that he's a bit easier to deal with these days, though we haven't been in contact for some time -

I have limited quantities on these - this weekend, email me at ammusic@maine.rr.com. All are still sealed, cutouts, CD's from the old Specialty Records: Joe Liggins, Vol. 2 The Meditation Singers: Good News (great female gospel group, middle and late 1950s) The Detroiters (male gospel group, great stuff; late 1940s, early 1950s) Vocal Groups, Coast to Coast (rare singing goups, late 1940s, 1950s) Women of Gospel's Golden Age Volume 1: (Bessie Griffin, Dorothy Love Coates, Wynona Carr; essential) Creole Kings of New Orleans (another essential anthology: Professor Longhair, Lloyd Price, Earl King, Clifton Chenier, Art Neville, etc) Lloyd Price, Volume 2 Smokey Hogg: Angels in Harlem $8.00 each shipped. Buy 3 or more and the price goes down to $6.00 shipped.

well, no - if we are talking about the public Roach, than we should talk about it, warts and all. If we are talking about the MUSICAL Roach, than we talk about the music, straight and simple - I just am slightly offended at seeing a public/human tribute to the now disabled wife-beater. Sorry, it just irks me.

sorry, can't stop talking about Joe. After I wrote the last post I put on the Donte's CD, with notes written by the writer who wrote the Marsh bio (which I have not read but have been told is quite good) - have to say I was a bit annoyed when he termed Joe's solo on 'S WOnderful as one of Joe's best; well, Joe gets lost in the middle of it and clearly has trouble keeping up with the rhtyhm section - and so goes jazz writing...

"It may be an "honest assessment", but ultimately we are talking about subjective opinions and each listener is entitled to react differently. Right?" We're not questioning anybody's right to disagree - there are things I disagreee with Larry on, and which are in his book. The point is (and this has nothing to do with how technically knowledgeable your are or are not) that good honest essays on jazz like Larry's enrich our point of view whether or not they coincide with our own viewpoints - it's not a matter of simply agreeing or disagreeing with him, but of allowing yourself to broaden your perspective. As it is with all good critics.

it is not "trashing" Murray - it's an honest assessment. If you want to be engaged with this music you have to be willing to see different viewpoints -

I should add that Bruce Lundvall called me, probably around 1980, because he wanted to do a duo album with Al Haig and Joe Albany (and someone had told him I knew both of them). I proposed it to Haig, who would have none of it, as Joe was quite unpredictable, both personally and musically -

I knew Joe very well in NYC in the 1970s-80s. He had some incredible chops when he was right, but a tendency, in those days, to get lost. The best stuff is the stuff with Marsh from the living room, and I recemmended the recently issued live recording from Donte's. Joe's solo on I Love You (from the Riverside) is astounding and transcendant, astonishingly advanced and individual, rhythmically complicated in an entirely original way (almost sounds like Cecil Taylor in small bits). I produced a session he was on in the late 1970s with a Connecticut saxophonist named Diockey Myers - Joe played well, but got lost on occasion. Read AJ Albany's book, which is simply one fo the best jazz books I've ever read by anyone. I emailed her after reading it that Joe came off like a combination Ward Cleaver/degenerated junkie, and she was in complete agreement. Joe could be quite cranky as well as quite affable, and cleaerly had a problem with recurring depression which he self-treated with alcohol, junk, and a lot of pot in the years I knew him (a side benefit was that Joe always had the best stuff in NYC, or so it seemed).

I would walk - you might check, if you guys are in it, with the musicians union - otherwise just walk, and let people know why -

actually the parrott was just sleeping and a little depressed - he was pining for the fjords -

well, I played one gig with Murray, at the Knitting Factory, which was recorded (Mental Strain at Dawn - a Louis Armstrong program) - the problem with Murray is that, I think, he has some good ideas but has learned to coast on those ideas relative to audience reaction - some of his writing, is, indeed. intriguing, but I'm with Larry on this. On the bandstand he was nothing exceptional, and I know 20 tenors who can take that "inside-outside" thing and make something MUCH more of it - Larry's essay on this in his recent book is outstanding and should be rquired reading.

actually, I was thinking of it as the Toilet Seat cover -

well, Lenny Bruce said he wouldn't go to any more Civil Rights demonstrations, because he was tired of watching Ray Charles bump into Al Hibbler -

didn't mean to start a storm here - Max is a great drummer no matter what. But I do get a little weary of praising the humanity of people of whom we really know too little -

this I would like to see in coherent form - in my jazz-development years I bought a ton of that stuff, and was frequently confused as to origin (and I always wondered if Bates was the English actor; I know now that he wasn't) - there was also a lot of bad sound, bad pressing, bad original sources, god-knows-what. I'd also like to see the paper trail of how all this was set up, contracted for, and issued. It would be a good supplement to the skectchy history we have of 1960s jazz -

yes, Jeff was the other half of my rhythm section, another of the less-known greats - (I remember sitting in his basement and watching Joe record with Cecil Payne) - since moving to Maine I've been largely inactive, mostly because there ain't much work up here, but also because with Ray in Europe and Jeff far away I have lost a bit of the urge (though there are some extremely fine musicians up here) - I was wondering where that picture of Ray is from in that earlier post? I will tell you that I was floored by Roswell Rudd's comments, as here's a guy who has worked with everyone from Eddie Condon to Cecil Taylor - and you know, listening to Ray on those recordings we did, I realize that he's absolutely right -

I'll give him $900 for the whole batch -

he can, indeed, do anything -

If you haven't heard it already, Stormy Weather by Eric Dolphy with Mingus is the not just the greatest performance of an Arlen tune, but THE GREATEST JAZ PERFORMANCE EVER. I really mean this, as emotionally disturbed as I seem when I put everything in caps. WHAT's IT TO YA? Listen to Stormy Weather, a perfect performance, from Mingus's incredible intro to Dolphy's yearning screams -

I met Ray in New Haven Connecticut in the 1990s and began working with him, eventually recording 5 CDs - At the Moment of Impact, New Tango, Woyzek's Death, American Song Project, and Mental Strain at Dawn - we worked together a lot, got to be friends, and a few years later Ray married a German woman, moved to Berlin and than Ulm. Well, recently I was listening to some of that old music and realized (once again) that Ray is not just a good drummer but a brilliant and original drummer, able to play in all styles, incredibly inventive and creative; Roswell Rudd, with whom we recorded several times, told me he had worked with everyone, and Ray was the equal of any drummer he had ever performed with. It kills me that I can so rarely work with Ray, as he comes to the States only on occasion - but I wanted to mention his name here as I truly believe he is one the the world's great drummers - he does tour a bit of Europe, so keep your eyes out for him -

one bizarre negative on the Columbia Louis set - there is audible CEDAR distortion at the beginning of Weatherbird - unforgiveable -