Chuck Nessa

I met Julius a few times and want to convey what a bright, warm guy he was. The first time was at Lester Bowie's home around 1967/8. He (and Oliver Lake, I think) was staying there and I arrived just after a long basement session with Lester, Malachi and Roscoe. We talked, had a couple of beers and returned to the basement for more music. I wish I had been there earlier to hear all the music. Julius made one appearance at an early AACM concert I remember. He fit in perfectly with the others on the stage at the Abraham Lincoln Center. The last time I saw him was in Chicago with the WSQ. The show was fine and Julius was Julius but the WSQ seemed like a waste of his talent. I'm sure he cashed some well deserved checks from this group but .......... I wanted more.

Storyville's site claims this is the first time this music has been issued. I'm just saying Raretone issued 12 titles on lp. Joyce issued 6 of them too. More may have been elsewhere.

In spite of Storyville's claim, most of this material was issued on Raretone lp #5004.

See you on the 22nd. I think I'm out of town for the other dates.

You should read some jazz history books. There are some good ones.

Muskegon is about 15 miles south of my house.

Looks like I have procrastinated too long. Ann and I were going to get tickets but she had a conflict, so I dithered.

Dick Hyman.

Looking for some audio help. The pink and white contact paper is peeling off my Silvertone. Should I glue it back on or should I steam it all off and cover it with foil? If I go the foil route, does the glossy side give better sound than the dull side? Does the choice of adhesive affect the sound?

Sorry for the delay - I was in Chicago for Malachi's funeral. HMV says the source is Impetus Distribution. At one time Impetus was my distributor for England, but I had collection problems and they closed down and moved to Isle of Lewis. Looking through old paperwork I can find no shipments of the Freeman record to them, but I might have. It is possible they have some old stock to unload. Still a mystery for me.

I'm just back from the funeral. and I sent this message to a few friends. I decided to post it to the group: Saw Roscoe only long enough to clasp hands. Had conversations with George Lewis and Leo Smith. Visitation at 10, service at 11. Service ended at 2:30, another hour talking. Wanting to beat a winter storm, I did not go to the burial or subsequent "get together" at a rented space. Sorry to have missed that. Lots of musicians and tons of people from Malachi's church and family. Large church full. Really too bad it takes this to see old friends.

And were they smokers?

AND they may have the same hair.

When I recorded Eddie Johnson, Stanley Dance contacted me to suggest a "Johnson & Johnson" date with Budd. Listening to Duke's "Far East Suite" tonight made me think of the Paul/Von combo. Maybe we'd need 3 pianists with all the instruments tuned differently.

If you called the US office at the time, they would send the Tristano 45. This music was included in the Tristano cd. The cd version of the Benny Carter material contains a bunch of alternates not included in the lp box. I still have the lp box and the cds of Carter, Hawkins, Prez, Tristano, etc.

I wish I could get nessa.com from the "broad" named Vanessa who owns this address.

Why on earth would you try to sell such crap on this board?

I have a battered lp. Let's talk.

All the pre-Take Five stuff is dandy. Go for it.

Way to go big guy. If it is of any import, I only had trouble for about a half hour this morning - around 8 o'clock, if memory serves. All has been fine since - earthlink dial-up and IE 5 point something.

Malachi had health problems on and off for the last few years. He had recently been in and out of the hospital with some frequency. He told family and friends he had a stomach infection. This way he avoided pity and covered the cancer. I've heard both stomach and pancreatic cancer - don't know the answer. I may get details, whether I want them or not, at the funeral on Thursday.

Another neat story about Malachi. At some point in the '60s, my wonderful wife Ann gave Malachi a cutting from a plant he admired in our apartment. In the mid '70s Malachi (again at our place) thanked Ann for the plant and said he still had it. He had taken it to Europe and brought it back. He still brought this up in 1998 at the re-staging of The Maze and LRG at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Shrugs, at the risk of seeming really anal, I went to my "LRG/Maze" file and discovered I still have such things as toll receipts from the journey. To put stuff in perspective, Ann and I stayed at the Gramercy Park Hotel for two nights and the total bill was $101.60. The Ryder truck contract reveals the breakdown of the odometer (1062 miles out, 562 miles back). I was charged for the "reading". Messing with all these details reduces the pain and brings back pleasure.

Been thinking of Malachi all day and the following incident keeps popping into my head, but it needs a bit of a “set-up” from me. When we recorded Roscoe’s “The Maze” for 8 percussionists Roscoe rented a 19 foot Ryder truck to drive all the equipment from Madison and Chicago to Woodstock, NY for the rehearsals. We had arranged for the Creative Music Studio to house and feed the musicians for a week of rehearsals. Then we went into NYC to the CBS 30th Street studio for the recording. Afterwards Malachi drove the truckload back to Chicago. I met him there to help unload the stuff, return the truck to Ryder and pay the final bill. On the way to the Ryder location Malachi started complaining about the truck and how it was “unsafe to drive”. He wanted to vent to the Ryder people before I paid the bill. He kept repeating that the engine kept cutting out on the highway, endangering his life. It turns out the truck had a governor on it to keep it from reaching a certain speed and Malachi repeatedly hit the limiter. The thought of him barreling through the hills of Pennsylvania in a truck loaded with drums, bells, gongs, etc. brought a smile to my face.