Michael Fitzgerald

I have that CD - there were no signatures printed on the cover. Benny & Phil did a bit of gigging together (there's a live set from the Regattabar in Boston on Benny's label Evening Star) so it probably wouldn't be too difficult to have gotten the autographs together. But I'm confused by your description - the cover that I have is ONE color photograph of both of them sitting together with their saxophones. You can see it at the dreaded allmusic site. Does your CD's cover differ from this? Mike

I am sad to pass on the news of the passing of one of the greatest musicians ever. Benny Carter - saxophonist, arranger, composer, trumpeter, bandleader, talent scout - died this morning in a Los Angeles hospital. His recording career stretched back to 1927 and he did it all. I can't begin to summarize what an incredible life he led and what an empty place this leaves in the world. www.bennycarter.com will be the place to check for details on memorial services. Mike

Do me a favor - I doubt she would, but ask if she remembers a bassist who played with her around 1957 at the Red Hill Inn in Pennsauken, NJ - name of Henry Grimes. Just so I can cross the t. Mike

I didn't think so - the date that was mentioned (January 19, 1960) is for the Turrentine. Did someone say that was the date for the Sonny Clark? That's not right. Now I *am* confused on what is being argued. Anyway, all the data I supplied is good. Never mind. ...and another thing - Mike

I have a hard time accepting just the handwritten date on a tape box - that could have been written any time in the past 40 years. The Tommy Turrentine session was not done until Tommy & Stanley had joined the Max Roach group. Do we accept that? Based on what I know, in January of 1959, they had NOT yet joined the group. That happened in early March of 1959 at the Ellis Hotel in Pittsburgh. The band then continued their tour, playing two weeks at Chicago's Sutherland Lounge in mid March. A friend of mine was there and the gig was mentioned in publications of the time. On January 22, 1959, Max was in the studio recording "The Many Sides of Max Roach" with the OLD band - Booker Little, George Coleman, Julian Priester, Art Davis. They then played a gig at the Apollo Theater in NYC in February, and traveled to Pittsburgh - where the entire band (except Priester) quit on Max. January 19, 1960 does make sense in the Roach chronology. This would be between the date of "Quiet As It's Kept" given by Chuck Stewart who photographed the session and when the band left for Europe. I'm not saying I have the definitive answer, but 1959 doesn't seem to make sense. Mike

Oh - sorry, I thought folks here knew. This was a radio festival, not a live performance festival if that's what is confusing. But there certainly was music being played live that was involved. At the end of May 2003, WKCR-FM broadcast 5 straight days of only Henry Grimes - 103 hours non-stop. They played every record he made and then some! Henry, who had just made his NYC performing re-debut at the Vision Festival, was up at the studio every day for hours. Ben Young had him talking, listening and commenting on his records, etc. Other folks from Henry's past like Andrew Cyrille, Billy Taylor, Ray Mosca, Carmen Leggio, and more participated with interviews. Henry also performed several times in the studio: if I am remembering all of them - a couple times solo bass, the reunion of the trio from The Call (Perry Robinson & Tom Price), and with William Parker. I was up at the studio for the last two days. It was a magical time. As things wound down, Ben asked Henry how he would like to end the festival - make a closing speech, play a certain record, whatever he wanted. Henry immediately said he wanted to play. About 40 minutes was allotted before the station would have to (finally) proceed on to other scheduled programming. Henry played and continued for about an hour. Only the first 40 minutes was heard by the public. Only the 10 or so of us at the studio heard everything. But now the recording of the *entire* performance has been put on CD and that's what is being sold. Information on the recent recordings of HG are in the discography at my (new) website - see URL below. There will be more to add since some, if not all of the Iridium gigs were recorded. Mike

It's just an announcement page right now. www.HenryGrimes.com Margaret Davis and I are coordinating it. Mike

I was there for the first night. I agree that there was a pretty big difference between the two groups, but it must be remembered that Ware has had almost the exact same quartet (only the drummer has changed) since 1990! That's over 13 years with Shipp and Parker. Compared to Henry who had a few days before the gig to rehearse with new guys that he had only met when he came to NYC in late May. He had played with Rob Brown at the Vision Festival in an impromptu moment, a trio with William Parker. The Ware quartet has a repertoire and is *tight*! Ware may also have had the benefit of better sound system, sound check, etc. There were some difficulties in miking Henry the night that I was there. He wasn't using an amp, while Parker was. As for the reception, Ware is far more established on the scene and has a following. I'm pretty sure his group was actually booked for the club before Henry came back. Henry is definitely a shy person - I think this was the first time *ever* that he'd ever been billed as the leader of a group for a NYC club. Please don't think that I am downplaying the fact that the Ware band played wonderfully. Matthew Shipp is so good. Important to know that Henry was selling CDs of the amazing finale of the WKCR-FM Henry Grimes festival - the *full* hourlong solo bass performance, not just the 40 minutes that went out over the air. This CD is an absolute collectors item and features hand-drawn art by Henry. Each copy is different. When Henry's website is a little more operational, these may be available to a wider market. I listened to it on the way home from the gig. It's remarkable. Mike

Best stuff in terms of Hill bio research was done for the multi-day Andrew Hill festival on WKCR-FM, NYC - this was maybe 1997 or 98? Andrew was there at the station a few times and Ben Young got a lot of details out of him. I may have taped some of it but finding it would be tough right now. Unfortunately nothing in print. Mike

I think you can find just about every 32Jazz CD issued out there in used bins or online lists. I've picked up many for $5-6. Dreadful covers. Someone figured that because they bought a computer graphics program they could be an art director. As I understand it, Dorn was just running 32Jazz and Label M. He wasn't the money behind them. Hyena is the new label. Not sure if it's the same deal or not. Mike

Ah - thanks. Now, regarding the NYT - in tomorrow's issue (Arts & Leisure) I only see one small correction - where are the many letters to the editor? Were they published or just mailed? Did I somehow miss the big to-do? Mike

Send those good vibrations to Todd Poynor, whose Woody Shaw discography it is. I've just been hosting it all these years. He does all the work. But I'm happy to host only the best. Mike

When last I spoke with Laurent Cugny, he was about to come to NYC to do a strings date for Abbey's new CD. That was - beginning of January. He said the saxophonist would be Julien Lourau. No info on ETA. Abbey & Shirley - the finest! Discographies of *both* on my (new) website. Just a coincidence? Of course not. Mike

Yes, Shirley has seen a lot of adversity. But do not give up hope. She played piano for an encore at the JVC festival. If you haven't already, please visit the SH discography on my (new) website. ----------------- Shirley Horn Tries to Regain Her Other Voice by Lara Pellegrinelli New York Times, June 22, 2003 The last year and a half has been pretty tough for Shirley Horn, the renowned jazz singer and pianist. She lost her right foot because of complications from diabetes. Her bass player of 33 years, Charles Ables, died of cancer, and Ms. Horn recently underwent chemotherapy in her battle with breast cancer. Her record company, Verve, decided not to renew her contract just before she went into the studio to work on her 12th album for it, "May the Music Never End," which is to be released on Tuesday. Yet Ms. Horn, 69, prefers not to dwell on the past. Earlier this month she played four sold-out nights at Yoshi's, a popular jazz club in Oakland, Calif. This week she will perform twice at Carnegie Hall as part of the JVC Jazz Festival: tomorrow she will appear in a tribute to the singer Peggy Lee, which features some 20 singers including Eartha Kitt and Peter Cincotti, and on Friday she shares a double bill with the pianist Dave Brubeck. There was one frustration that she wanted to talk about. "I've got to get back to the piano," Ms. Horn said from her home in Washington. "I'm dying right now. It's rough." The loss of her foot has resulted in what she considers an even greater impairment, the loss of her ability to accompany herself. Her playing relies on the piano's sustain pedal to produce sonorous curtains. The shimmering chords she plays on signature songs like "Here's to Life" and "Estaté" provide the perfect backdrop for the quiet drama of her vocal interpretations. She still struggles with the prosthetic device she uses in place of her foot. "Every piano is different in the distance between the top of the pedal and the floor," she said, adding that a few millimeters can make all the difference. She hopes she will be able to play at least one song on Friday, but won't know whether she can until she actually sits behind the piano. George Mesterhazy, something of a Horn protégé, will replace her on piano; he will be joined in the Shirley Horn Trio by another newcomer on bass, Ed Howard, and Steve Williams, who will play drums as he has done for more than 20 years. Ms. Horn will also find herself in an unfamiliar place: squinting into spotlights, face to face with an audience. Her attention will no longer be split between her hands and her voice, freeing her to explore new emotional depths. What no longer flows from her fingertips sometimes finds an alternative means of expression in a few improvised scat choruses, as it did at Iridium in February. Ms. Horn is determined to work through her recent setbacks and keep making music that she loves. Asked about her future plans, she replied, "Child, I am gonna make a record. And then I'm gonna make another one. And another." ----------------- [Apparently there has been some backpedaling about the canceling of her Verve contract.] ========== (excerpt from: Bittersweet and Serious Blend Without Discord by Stephen Holden, NYT 6/30/03) On Friday Ms. Horn whose right leg was recently amputated below the knee (because of diabetes), had to abandon the keyboard because the surgery left her unable to manipulate the sustain pedal. Only at the very end of the evening did she approach the piano to perform an encore. The question that hovered over the evening was how well the 69-year-old singer would fare without the inspiration and grounding of the keyboard at her fingertips. The answer came back quickly: extremely well. Seated in a wheelchair and facing the audience, Ms. Horn exuded the authority of an amused grande dame, serenely but firmly in charge. If the communication between her and George Mesterhazy, the sensitive, deeply lyrical pianist charged with trying to read her musical mind, wasn't always perfect (a couple of her signature pauses seemed tentative), freedom from the keyboard allowed Ms. Horn to devote a keener attention to the song lyrics. The set was anchored in four elongated ballads, "A Time for Love," "Yesterday" "Here's to Life" and "May the Music Never End" that worked together to evoke a grand, ultimately optimistic summing up of a lifetime's bittersweet experience. Given the roominess of the arrangements and Ms. Horn's dynamic understatement, every accent and detail counted, and the moments she chose to ruffle her own decorum were brilliantly selected. An example was her abrupt, ferocious emphasis on the word "suddenly" in "Yesterday," the Paul McCartney song, to suggest how jarring it can be is to wake up one morning and realize how many years have passed. =========== Mike

Know it, love it. Unfortunately the DVD that came out last year doesn't have all the extra material that was on the LaserDisc. However, I got no use for the bulletin board soap operas. Mike

The Ellington/Condon shot is apparently from a private jam session in August 1939. http://www.jazzhouse.org/jpg/cp/index.php3?2 Mike

Ah - bogus Bird, true Fru. Interesting. Stupidly, the Lord discography does have that footnote - but yet it doesn't include the details of the material in question *anywhere* - and as with Fru, any Schildkraut stuff is certainly worth attention. In a couple of days, I'll have the Fruscella discography online. Mike

It actually is an old Danish folk song called "Det var en lørdag aften" that Rollins learned from his grandmother who came from St. Thomas (the Virgin Islands were Danish until 1917). Mike

To let folks know, Aric Effron has recently been banned from several email lists dedicated to CDR trading because he ripped people off and just accepted discs without fulfilling his part of the deals (and then played ignorant/righteous about the whole thing). Apparently the Money Jungle thing was just the beginning. All should beware. Now he just searches for new places to use his old tricks. He has absolutely no shame and his presence here may well mark the end of my participation. I see absolutely no reason why he shouldn't be exposed as the dishonest person that he is. The constant reminder isn't getting through to some people, it seems. Why he is tolerated at all is beyond me. Would you invite such a person into your home? Mike

I heard it on a radio interview broadcast on WBGO-FM around 1985. I thought it might have been the Ben Sidran "Sidran On Record" show from 11/85 but he published that in "Talking Jazz" and it doesn't mention this. There must have been another one. He also talked a lot about his lyrics to "Joy Spring" - recently recorded on the Manhattan Transfer "Vocalese" album. Mike

Ko-Ko was the name of the Lord High Executioner in The Mikado by Gilbert & Sullivan, set in Japan. Charlie Parker was hip to the fact that the native Americans were descendents from Asians - ergo, the Cherokee/Ko-Ko connection. Or at least that's how Jon Hendricks tells it. Something like that. Mike

Is that Getz/Fru thing the Fort Myers tape from December 10, 1954? Info I have looks like this is a gig, not a jam, but I've not heard it. I'm just about ready to go online with this Fru discography (about half again as many sessions as appear in the Tom Lord CD-ROM), but I'd like to get the OK of the original compiler first. Mike

I think it was Gitler, too. I know *I* don't have them! I'm just glad they weren't destroyed. There's still hope for the future. Mike

I am told the Atlantic session with Moore does still exist on a private tape. Mike

I have a complete Tony Fruscella discography done by Jonathan Kutler. It may go back online in the future. Mike