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Where the hell is Phil Schaap?


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Fast, I don't think it's been a month but at least a couple weeks. He was on for the Mingus and the Ellington birthdays, right?

Last week I did hear I a Bird Flight student fill-in say Phil would be in sometine next (now this) week but yes, otherwise it Is A Mystery with no explanation even hinted at.

Note also Schaap's good friend & everybody's, Sharif Adbus-Salaam didn't say anything last week as he usuaully would if Phil just had cold or other illness.

Marcello, thanks for headsup on Facebook, which I otherwise don't look at but there's no evidence those are 'new' as opposd to pre-made but recent postings. On the other hand, promoting the archives of his site and not addressing his WKCR absence is Strange.

Is Phil on vacation? Some serious illness or operation? Suspended?! Quit? Sulking?

I never understood the gripes over Bird Flight-- anyone wants to listen to just Bird, the CDs (and now downloads) are there, have at it. The obsessive etc is what's compelling & in the past, interviews with Bird associates. Especially when most people in the U.S. are supposed to be "grateful" for some college or erstwhile "public" radio playing jazz 1.5 times a week, once on the weekends and once at maybe 3 AM on alternating Thursdays.

Schaap's Traditions in Swing on Saturdays is often excellent, likewise his Monday Out to Lunch.

I'm less than thrilled about the Wynton Marsalis affiliation but... what can you do? That's the reality he and others' in New York jazz have to live with.

If anyone is on Twitter I wonder if asking WKCR or WKCR Jazz there would elicit a response?

Edited by MomsMobley
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He's posting on Facebook with regularity: https://www.facebook.com/philschaap?fref=nf

Nothing on his FB page about his disappearance from the airwaves. Weird.

And note, NONE of those posts make any reference to the present; show us a picture of today's newspaper or mention a minor league baseball score from last night or something to show us Schaap is actually alive and/or not kidnapped. I'm exaggerating, slightly, but not much.

If he's not back and if Sharif doesn't say anything tomorrow... Something Is Up. Folks could ask Ben Young but...

I don't know how much he could or would want to say.

Edited by MomsMobley
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I found him, he's here in my den. Ordered that complete Bird With Strings from Amazon, it got here in what i thought was an abnormally large box, and sure enough, when I opened it up this morning, out popped Phil, already telling me about the alternates and how Buddy Rich kept burping and ruining takes, arcane stuff like that that only he would know.

It was entertaining at first, but I've not yet been able to get to the disc with the alternates, Phil keeps stopping the disc every five seconds and telling me where Buddy had lunch that day, which was NOT where he usually had lunch, and this different place used a different type of mayo on their coleslaw and was actually shut down by the health department the week before Buddy ate there, and that's all good, but I got shit to do, ya' know, so I've called Amazon to get a return label for this box and Phil should be back soon, assuming that Dusty Groove doesn't get involved.

To that end, if anybody wants to drive over and pick him up, he's here.

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I found him, he's here in my den. Ordered that complete Bird With Strings from Amazon, it got here in what i thought was an abnormally large box, and sure enough, when I opened it up this morning, out popped Phil, already telling me about the alternates and how Buddy Rich kept burping and ruining takes, arcane stuff like that that only he would know.

It was entertaining at first, but I've not yet been able to get to the disc with the alternates, Phil keeps stopping the disc every five seconds and telling me where Buddy had lunch that day, which was NOT where he usually had lunch, and this different place used a different type of mayo on their coleslaw and was actually shut down by the health department the week before Buddy ate there, and that's all good, but I got shit to do, ya' know, so I've called Amazon to get a return label for this box and Phil should be back soon, assuming that Dusty Groove doesn't get involved.

To that end, if anybody wants to drive over and pick him up, he's here.

:rofl: :rofl:

:tup :tup

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I didn't know he was missing.

7/4, no, he's definitely missing and it's been noticed. The robot or purposefully non-referential Facebook postings a smokescreen of some kind.

I don't know if you noticed but the Duke Ellington b-day broadcast was interrupted from 9-10 PM for the motherfucking weekly sports talk show... do you ever remember something like that happening before?

Not suggesting that and Schaap's vanishing are related but both Ominous Signs.

A very reasoned but irritated person posted copy of their letter to WKCR board re: Duke b-day on Schaap's facebook btw.

The WKCR policy towards sports versus other programming has varied over the years but it's always, horribly, the 9000 lb gorilla in room.

If (the rightfully beloved) Sharif Adbus-Salaam doesn't say anything tonight on his program... I'd start worrying.

Edited by MomsMobley
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I was late for work today, the guy kept bugging me to fix him some eggs "Bird Style", which he refused to explain, claiming instead that if I listened to the crowd noise on one of the Royal Rooster (sic) broadcasts, it was all right there. I told him to fix his own damn eggs and he got indignant for some reason and starting rambling on about how a yardbird is a chicken and a chicken is a bird and birds lay eggs after sex with a rooster and Charlie Parker was the most royal rooster of them all, what's so hard about this, just on and on and on about birds and eggs and roosters and shit.

I really don't have time for this. I somebody wants to drive over and pick him up, I got your gas, ok?

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In the past, threads on Phil Schaap have met with overwhelmingly negative comments. (Perhaps that's going too far, but I'm sure that the comments have been over 50% negative). Now the guy disappears from the airwaves and folks are concerned. ????

Negative from whom? Shitheads who just want to hear the fucking music, man? Which is asinine, anyone can just listen to the music, man, anytime. How many minutes/hours of Bird interviews-- i.e. Charlie Parker speaking-- and how many hours of interviews of musicians who played with and knew Bird have you (or anyone) heard on your (anyone's) happy hoss horsewhit "public" radio station?

Negative from one guy who had an interesting career in radio & other forms of jazz presentation 40+ years ago?

The archive of WKCR interviews alone-- jazz & classical especially but also other arts, some politics, news etc-- is astonishing in depth & breadth & ** any ** signs that such is threatened, inc. Schaap's vanishing, are worrisome.

So far, save the Ben Young departure noted by Clifford above and the unprecedented interruption of a birthday broadcast for a sports (or any) talk show, all is mostly as it's been but that doesn't mean it ** has ** to stay that way.

Q: how many times have you heard 3+ hour interviews with Roswell Rudd in the last few years? Karl Berger? Ras Moshe? Pheeoan Aklaff? George Lewis? Adam Rudolph? Matt Shipp? MONTHS and MONTHS of dissection of all known recordings of Cecil Taylor 1970-1974? Tons and tons of stuff I didn't hear, am forgetting etc.

How long did YOUR local radio station celebrate the life of Ronald Shannon Jackson? Etc etc.

WKCR's opera & contemporary classical programming-- check the latter out, JSngry, weekdays 9:30-12 and 3-6, not always because depending on show they might feature diff period or 'contemporary improv' etc-- are alone invaluable and blow any fucking 'classical' station proper (sic) in the U.S. away.

Edited by MomsMobley
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In the past, threads on Phil Schaap have met with overwhelmingly negative comments. (Perhaps that's going too far, but I'm sure that the comments have been over 50% negative). Now the guy disappears from the airwaves and folks are concerned. ????

I don't think anyone really wished him harm.

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In the past, threads on Phil Schaap have met with overwhelmingly negative comments. (Perhaps that's going too far, but I'm sure that the comments have been over 50% negative). Now the guy disappears from the airwaves and folks are concerned. ????

Negative from whom? Shitheads who just want to hear the fucking music, man? Which is asinine, anyone can just listen to the music, man, anytime. How many minutes/hours of Bird interviews-- i.e. Charlie Parker speaking-- and how many hours of interviews of musicians who played with and knew Bird have you (or anyone) heard on your (anyone's) happy hoss horsewhit "public" radio station?

Negative from one guy who had an interesting career in radio & other forms of jazz presentation 40+ years ago?

The archive of WKCR interviews alone-- jazz & classical especially but also other arts, some politics, news etc-- is astonishing in depth & breadth & ** any ** signs that such is threatened, inc. Schaap's vanishing, are worrisome.

So far, save the Ben Young departure noted by Clifford above and the unprecedented interruption of a birthday broadcast for a sports (or any) talk show, all is mostly as it's been but that doesn't mean it ** has ** to stay that way.

Q: how many times have you heard 3+ hour interviews with Roswell Rudd in the last few years? Karl Berger? Ras Moshe? Pheeoan Aklaff? George Lewis? Adam Rudolph? Matt Shipp? MONTHS and MONTHS of dissection of all known recordings of Cecil Taylor 1970-1974? Tons and tons of stuff I didn't hear, am forgetting etc.

How long did YOUR local radio station celebrate the life of Ronald Shannon Jackson? Etc etc.

WKCR's opera & contemporary classical programming-- check the latter out, JSngry, weekdays 9:30-12 and 3-6, not always because depending on show they might feature diff period or 'contemporary improv' etc-- are alone invaluable and blow any fucking 'classical' station proper (sic) in the U.S. away.

In the past, threads on Phil Schaap have met with overwhelmingly negative comments. (Perhaps that's going too far, but I'm sure that the comments have been over 50% negative). Now the guy disappears from the airwaves and folks are concerned. ????

I don't think anyone really wished him harm.

Hey, I have nothing against Phil Schaap, but there are others here who have posted negatively about him in the past - and not just one person. That was my point.

I hope he returns to the airwaves.

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Hey, I have nothing against Phil Schaap, but there are others here who have posted negatively about him in the past - and not just one person. That was my point.

I hope he returns to the airwaves.

hep & to clarify, I was using yr question to make 'public comment,' wasn't assuming it was yr opinion. The criticisms of Schaap-- bits of which are at times justified (he's a very eccentric guy, as anyone with his life and obsessions-- starting with many of his best friends being old black guys from the time he was a kid-- would be), most picayune, overblown, irrelevant compared to what he's done, offers, has encouraged in others etc, be it acolyte student DJs, the years he booked West End Club, the halycon days of Verve label reissues etc.

Not to imply Schaap himself is irreplaceable-- he is unique & at his best, terrific (who else will always give you overlay of jazz & Civil Rights history as matter of course?) but the overall commitment of WKCR to jazz, classical, Latin, African, reggae, blues, arts, community news, etc is most important...

But if Columbia U starts trying to push their goddamn sports because, you know, 'the brand'... Not sure why they don't broadcast more sports on internet stream and keep airwaves other, more needed, less served, capacious etc but... That WKCR exists as it does is MUCH to Columbia's credit!!!! of course, let's hope they realize its value and the immense goodwill it brings to the university community.

And again, just Schaap's and Ben Young's interview archives alone are astounding & tho' the most prolific because of their time there, from the early-mid 1970s onwards there tons & tons of amazing inc., numerous 'new music' & avant jazz performances.

Schaap disappearing without explanation and nearly without acknowledgment-- some DJs have noted, others haven't-- might be something Personal but it might a Something Else.

Not to mention Bach-fest though I can't say I actually like a good % of old style performances they play.

Schaap regularly does a Jazz meets Bach, Bach meets Jazz show for the fest that's excellent though he's also done one on St Matthew's Passion, which he's apparently an adept of.

Edited by MomsMobley
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uh, whatever one did or didn't pledge to WKCR 10 or 20 or 30 years ago-- when the station's internet presence was either less/non-existant-- isn't precisely relevant today, is it? Nor has WKCR's policy re: sports v. other programming remained static in that period, has it? And even 10 years ago, WKCR didn't have the technology to broadcast thing & stream one other(s), did they?

***

the great Sharif Abdus-Salaam announced this evening (Thursday 21 May) that Phil Schaap will be returning to the air Tuesday.

He didn't offer any reason for Phil's absence.

Edited by MomsMobley
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I told Sharif to save his reciepts, I'm good for them.

Now Phil wants to go to Henderson, Texas, to see if he can't find the garbage can lid that Dizzy wrote "A Night In Tunisia" on, but I'm trying to get his to understand that Texas is not New York, that yes, we might be able to take "the train" from Dallas to Henderson, that the train would have to go to Longview and then we'd have to rent a car to get to Henderson, and, really, it's not the most modern of our east Texas communities, but I really don't think a 70+ year old garbage can lid will still be hanging around, but Phil says it doesn't need to be A garbage can lid, it just needs to be THE Garbage can lid, and, really, this guy is driving me nuts, if Sharif hadn't read this thread when he did and got in touch, I was gonna let Phil loose with the Mystery Milk just to see what happened.

As it stands now, Sharif looks to pull up to the crib early Saturday afternoon. We got a late lunch scheduled at Salsa Tex-Mexhttp://www.salsatexmex.com/ (apparently Phil has never had enchiladas, and eaten only one taco in his still-young life...go figure that...but I told him he could find some "manteca" in the kitchen and that got his to a happy place...he said something about maybe it was Mateca that was written on a garbage can lid, but honestly, I tend to not pay much attention to him if he's not looking in my direction).

After lunch. we're going record hunting for a little while, Phil keeps talking about how this guy named Slippy Slabberwocky who ran a joint here in the 40s and 50s that had a recording setup in the bar, and I told him, no, that was the Recovery Room in the 60s and 70s and it was Bob & Jeanie Donnelly, but I guess Phil got a postcard from this Slippy guy in 1963 talking about the Kennedy assassination was coming up next week, get ready for that, and...you know how that goes...lord jesus, just get me through the next day and out of the last night,

Then, hopefully, a good night's sleep for all of us, and Sharif leaves with Phil Sunday morning. They should hit town midday Monday, plenty of time for Phil to unpack, take notes, and get his eggs fixed the way he likes 'em. And then, physically refreshed and mentally engaged with a whole new set of story lines to develop, back on the air he'll be on Tuesday, better than ever.

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sonny & linda

krishna bhatt & anindo chatterjee

granted such could/should happen anywhere it's the WKCR interviews archive that's most gone in the air etc shit there must be dozens of hours with Ben Young & Bill Dixon, somewhere I have an excellent Steve Kuhn WKCR interview re: Coltrane etc etc

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I'm generally with Moms on Phil. When I first became interested in Bird, he was a godsend. Like Mom said anyone can listen to the music, but he gives a lot of historical perspective. How many shows can you find anywhere that do that today on Bird.

I grant you, at times, especially after you've listened to him for years, it can get a bit tiresome but thank god he is around is all I can say. I also love his Saturday Swing show and his participation on the Birthday shows.

Yes, there was some negative vibes about him on this Forum, principally from Chris Albertson, although he wasn't the only one. In all fairness, he's had run ins with other jazz potentates and some of it was his fault. I remember he had a run in with George Avakian over the Goodman Carnegie Hall re-issue.

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