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In the late ‘70s my phone rang and it was Andrew Hill – I was astonished because we’d never met. He said he was back in Chicago because his mother was failing and he wanted to be there for her. He said he needed a “night out” and wanted to find some musician friends performing and he figured I was the guy to do that. A couple nights later I picked him up at his mother’s house and took him to Roberts Show Lounge to catch Jodie Christian and later the Enterprise Lounge to hear Von Freeman and John Young. A great time was had by all. The next morning Andrew was on the phone to say his mother passed while we were out and to thank me for making it all so easy.

Armen can play, and years ago when I knew him he used to complain and complain about not getting gigs. So I hired him for a Sunday lunch thing I had at Sweet Basil, a good, high-visibility gig that paid well. And guess what? He never showed up. When I called him up the next day he was not apologetic or regretful but completely indifferent; not the first musician I've known whose lack of work was not difficult to understand. 

if you can, find his comments on Charlie Parker, who he thinks was just a harmonic trickster, essentially, who was a virtuoso but, to Freeman, uninteresting. How can anyone who thinks that be taken seriously as a critic? Here is from my Substack column about Freeman: " 1) He says: "He (Byas) came up in the 1930s, when tenor players were supposed to be just one part of a big band, taking the occasional, short solo without disrupting the action on the dance floor." This is a pretty bizarre claim; horn soloists, as Lester Young said frequently, were early on inspired by and offered their own prompts to the dancers. Lester said specifically: "The rhythm of the dancers comes back to you when you are playing." And he was far from the only one; there was Dick Wilson with Jimmy Lunceford’s band, Johnny Hodges and Ben Webster with Duke Ellington’s band, all of whom were public soloists for dancers. And more. Phil, try listening to some records. 2) He compares Byas' tone to Lester Young, which is….well, strange. Byas’ tone was not anything like Lester Young's but related to that of Coleman Hawkins, who was his prime early influence. But strangest of all was Freeman’s comments about bebop, which he doesn’t like much, and Charlie Parker. What he said about Parker was really a disqualifier; how can someone who does not understand basic musical principles write about jazz ? Freeman tells us, in reference to a bebop recording: “Anyway, listening to this mostly makes me think about why Charlie Parker’s music has never had the impact on me that it has had on so many others. Like, I can hear that he’s a virtuoso player, and I acknowledge his influence — he changed the way players after him approached composition, improvisation, and even their tone on their instruments. But any time I read about Parker being called the greatest saxophonist ever, or whatever, I always think Sure, for one particular value of “great.” “His melodically and harmonically adventurous, chord-flipping style (which he famously described as “playing clean and looking for the pretty notes”) is one way to play jazz. But it’s not the only way, by any means. Personally, I have always been more drawn to players with more rawness and grit to to their sound. And I don’t just mean free jazz.”  "

If that clip is representative I doubt I will buy.  I'm pretty sure I will listen to whatever becomes available for free streaming, but only once. There are so many great Coltrane recordings with good sound out there.