[The Village Vanguard turns 70 in February]

yes - I did some checking around - she was quite an admirer of Monk, as a matter of fact she's the one who came up with the term High Priest of Bebop -

[The Village Vanguard turns 70 in February]

well, here goes - moderators please delete if this will cause problems - I knew the bass player Curley Russell in the middle-late 1970s - he was telling me, one time, about what an incredibly nice guy the owner of Bluenote records was. "Man," Curley said, "he was so nice that he once caught his wife giving a ****job to Monk in his car, and he didn't even say a thing to her!" Well, a few years go by. I 'm sitting at a table with a bunch of people, including Lorraine Gordon, at the West End Cafe. Conversation goes around. Somebody says, "hey, did you know Lorraine used to be married to the guy who owned Bluenote Records?" I had to to leave the table until I could stop giggling. It was hard to look at her in the same way after that -

[The Village Vanguard turns 70 in February]

well, Lorraine is a character. I got to know her a little bit when she was managing Jabbo Smith. I have one story about her which is absolutely hilarious, but I won't tell it unless someone can guarantee that she doesn't read this site -

[Matthew Shipp Article]

by the way, my post, above, was not to take issue with Larry but with the sense, indicated earlier, that a young audience insures that a music will remain vital -

[Matthew Shipp Article]

Larry's post makes me want to travel to Chicago to hear these guys - because, and I've discussed this with him in emails, I've gotten a little jaded about the new music/free jazz scene - this, however, is based primarily on recordings I've listened to after reading articles in the Wire and Signals to Noise - I just have this feeling that there is a generation out there that has learned to talk the talk but not really play the music - lots of learned rhetoric on sound and sonority and theory, and lots of cliched playing. And I know I'm an old guy now and out of touch (and in the way) but I believe I understand all aspects of the spectrum, having played it all and having recorded with a few new music luminaries (Hemphill, Rudd, Byron, Murray) and having played or recorded with a few of the older generation (Walter Bishop, Doc Cheatham)- the fact that the young audience likes all of this does not mean it's good - those young 'uns also like Niels Cline (a leading bs'er in my opinion) and Brittany Spears -

[Recording Techniques on Stan Kenton Capitols]

wasn't Capitol using three track in the 1950s?

[What have you done for a living?]

I've worked my way up from nothing, to a state of extreme poverty -

[miff mole]

this is one area in which Sudhalter has it right - read his chapter on Mole in Lost Chords - some of Miff's late work is astonishingly modern -

[Oscar Aleman]

Aleman's quite a guitarist; I only get a little edgy when people say he's in the same league as Django.

[Welcome, Chandra!!!]

I thought we were talking about Mrs. Miller, who is one of my personal favorites -

[Melvin Sparks interview]

I played with Sparks at a jam session in Bridgeport, Connecituct, early 1990s. I knew some of his playing from records, but what amazed me in person was what a great bebop player he was. He was incredible -

[Larry Kart's jazz book]

yes, absolutely right - Evans used to come up on weekends to Branford Connecticut and lock himself in his room up in their house - his method of injestion was the classic junkie one, reminding me of what Lenny Bruce was supposed to have said when the cops broke into his room and found needles:

Bruce: I never take anything stronger than aspirin.

Cop: Than why all the needles?

Bruce: I can't stand the taste of the stuff.

[What does everyone do for a living?]

"She also managed (and still manages) several jazz musicians, including Teri Thornton (RIP), Howard Johnson, Lynne Arrriale and Jerome Richardson (RIP)"

hmmmm....this would make me a little nervous if I were one of her clients...

[Larry Kart's jazz book]

Per their drug use, "If so, it certainly seemed to have worked that way with him and Philly Joe. "

interesting, and somewhat ironic, as I remember Evans's wife telling me, at the time, that he had to stop using Philly Joe because of excessive substance abuse problems -

[What does everyone do for a living?]

well, actually there's more - I play occasionals in a western swing band - I lead a jazz trio (on guitar) - I record whenever possible - I consult to the Jazz Museum in Harlem and the Smithsonian on a jazz project or two - I have two unpublished books,with one scheduled for 2006 - I have a large jazz history CD project coming out in May -

[Musician vent. Everyone profits but us.]

I've never made near a living as a musician - my best year, maybe I made $10,000. On the other hand I regard musicians as their own worst enemies. Chuck is right - few have any sense of the larger business picture, they undermine each other, there's no real sense of community. That's why I work for an insurance company, so I can strike back at guys like Chuck - CLAIM DENIED!

[What does everyone do for a living?]

well, I just follow orders...

[What does everyone do for a living?]

nothing wrong with military intelligence - actually, Lee Harvey Oswald worked for military intelligence - I actually know a guy up in Minnesota to whom Oswald confided this at Balboa Naval base some time in the early 1960s -

by day I work for an insurance company. By night I sleep -

[Dizzy Gillespie Discography]

hopefully it will also list assaults -

[Rollins' 60's work]

well put!

[Rollins' 60's work]

true, but it sounded like he was playing in the parkling lot -

[Most Influential Jazz Writers Today]

"Take it outside!! "

well, it's a little too cold where I live to do this today - and thanks for your support, Chris - let's just let it ride -

[Laura by David Raksin]

I love Don Byas's version - nice one also by Bird with strings -

[Most Influential Jazz Writers Today]

well, not exactly, Dan , as you managed to throw in a jab at me related to a post in an entirely different thread; Yanow knows a little bit but not enough, is shallow in his historical analysis, and takes such a generalist approach to jazz history as to make his books virtually worthless. Just my opinion.

[Are there any brothers up in here?]

just for some historical perspective - in my opinion the further jazz has moved from it's folk roots, the less justified are we in calling in black music. It is not racially or ethnically specific. There's a great passage by Ralph Ellison in which he points out that the music is transmitted culturally, not genetically. Of course African Americans had some advantage intially in the development of the music, but mass distribution has largely taken care of that. Still, we musn't lose sight of the fact (and I'm not saying that we have, here ) that virutally all of the special quality of American vernacular music comes from the contributions of African Americans, at least initially. And I would add that I consider the African American cultural heritage part of my own heritage, as it is very specifically American.