Chuck Nessa

And "George Russell Sextet In Kansas City" wasn't recorded in Missouri.

On deck for tomorrow - Paal Nilssen-Love and friends

I am firmly on the other side of the equation - maybe because I experienced those groups in person.

Continuing my journey through my "Rabbit" vinyl -

Rare chance to hear Sonny Clark with Coleman Hawkins.

On deck for this afternoon -

An old favorite

Listened to that his morning - now on to

No - Goodman, the Dorseys, Bix, Pee Wee, Teagarden, Hoagy and less famed.

A fascinating archeological survey =

An old friend -

Ellington tracks from August 1930 - June 1931 from the Centennial box.

disc 1 for the 2nd time.

A wonderful human. And this demonstrates my admiration - from 1971 and from 2014

Byas was not recorded.

Afternoon and evening shows. The cd has 2 tracks (31 minutes) not on the original lp. Not sure if more survived.

Joe Segal ran those things with his wife and a couple of his kids helping. I arrived about 90 minutes early. Joe met me at the door and said something like "Great, someone who knows something. Prestige wants this recorded, and I hired an engineer but I'm here all alone and I have to work the door. Will you take charge of the recording?" I later found out there was a big family fight and as a result they all stayed away. I look inside to find my old friend Leon Kelert fiddling with a tape machine. Leon was some sort of electrical engineer, trad band fanatic, record collector and proprietor of Blackbird Records. He had a semi-pro Concord tape machine and had recorded a few dixie dates for his own label. Leon was in over his head and knew it. He was as happy to see me. The recorder was on the right edge of the stage, no playback facilities and only a pair of headphones. Since the sound of the band would overpower the headphones, I decided my best chance was to have as thorough a soundcheck as I could get for balances and just watch the VU meters. Oh yeah, I moved the recorder off the risers and set it on a folding chair or something. The show was 3 tenors - Jug, Dexter and Don Byas. Joe told me we would not be recording Byas since Don and Prestige had not come to terms. The format was a continuous program of tenors rotating in quartet and quintet formats, sort of "round robin" style. Because of the format, Joe had hired 2 rhythm sections, or they would have played for hours at a time. The place was packed with a rowdy Chicago crowd and Byas took to the stage and announced there were 2 thieves at the edge of the stage and asked the audience to police us while he was on playing. This became an ongoing "joke" throughout the day and by the end of the evening Byas was plying me with Courvoisier back at the bar, and exhorting me to punch him in the stomach so I could see just how tough he was. We rolled tape when the other guys played, both afternoon and night. I watched the dials and Leon sat there with his headphones, shaking his head from side to side. In the evening, during a fantastic version of "Lonesome Lover Blues" (or what passed for it) a drunk tripped over the power cord and unplugged the machine. At the end of the piece, a delighted Jug, wiping his brow with a bar towel, looked over at me and said "How's it goin' fellas?". I held up 2 fingers, he stared at me for a few seconds and turned to the mike. Then Jug said "the man says we have to do it again". Dexter chuckled and the crowd went wild.

That was a crazy day!!

I met him circa 1963, at the University of Iowa, when he spoke to our music appreciation class. Interesting fellow.