AllenLowe

just ordered that Rutherford after doing a little reading about it - thanks, Chuck and Larry (it better be good).

"My opinion, generally, is that all music lacks value and humanity and feeling and depth when it's devoid of an audience. " same thing, I would say, with executions.

you gotta know the secret changes - apparently John Lewis (according to Bob Neloms) used to tell people that everybody played the chord of the third and fourth measures of A Train incorrectly, and that only he knew Duke's secret. And Barry Harris used to say that everybody played the wrong changes on 'Round Midnight.

wow - I had completely forgotten about that,

interesting about Zimmerli, in that he was a Connecticut jazz prodigy, could really play when he was still in high school - I checked out his web site a while back and he seems to have become the "accessible classicist" (my term).

hmmmm......I didn't realize I created the impression that this was more than just my opinion; I used to represent the Youth of America, but those days are long gone. and yes, like Mehldau, Hayes, and most musicians, I do believe in my own music. Sorry, these are talented musicians; talented musicians don't always make talented music.

well, I'm a very amateur pianist. Some people play Fantasy Baseball, I play Fantasy Bud Powell.

back in the early 1990s I did a little demo with Kevin, back in Connecticut - he sounded great, brilliantly talented guy, Mehldau is, too, but gets bogged down in some awful, New Age, narcissistic stuff. Zimmerli is a third Connecticut guy, was blowing lots of tenor back then. Now he's a bad but successful composer. that title track is pretty awful, sorry to say. I'm sure it will do well. Oy.

glad you like it - Bob's got something a bit more complex than just 'straight ahead,' though some of that is probably the result of just trying to make a living over the years. He was in the band at a friend's wedding, maybe the middle 1970s - and we played together and had a great time. Nice guy, too.

it was Barry Harris who first told me about him, year ago, he said: "he's got chops like Tatum but he'll never leave Detroit." Glad he made it out.

I did a long intereview with Carisi years ago - if I can find the transcript, it would be interesting to see if I asked him about this -

my favorite review so far, from the New York City Jazz Record: "Blues and the Empirical Truth is a personal project of a different order. A modern day Harry Smith of archiving historic blues recordings, Allen Lowe is an academic as well as accomplished musician who has been cursed by obscurity. He is also, possibly, quite mad."

well, Julius was definitely affected by Dolphy's sound, though Julius wasn't a real chord-change guy like Dolphy (who did, however, more open things as well). I think Dolphy's pervasive influence was emotional, that deep deep feeling he got; Julius had a lot of that "cry" in his sound and also liked to jump around the intervals like Dolphy did.

this is a big topic - I think immediately of a lot of talks I had with Johnny Carisi, whom I considered one of the original avant gardists, but who had no tolerance for much music post-Ornette, which he thought was undisciplined and amateurish. Same with a number of old beboppers, from Al Haig on (Haig thought Cecil Taylor was from another planet; he may have been right); Jamil Nasser gave me a long talk one day on how the avant garde had ruined jazz and scared away the audience. My ears tell me that most of the "free" musicians I admire have various levels of technical expertise; as Dick Katz once said, there is a difference between technique and facility (he was talking about Oscar Peterson). But advanced technique can easily be used in the service of a kind of performance that feigns a certain technical looseness. I was lucky enough to play onstage with Hemphill (and Roswell Rudd, who has a similar power); these guys are pros in very sense of the word, from reading to performing to ensemble ears. And go to youtube and punch in Anthony Braxton, who has technique to spare on some of his solo pieces (also check out his version of Donna Lee, Lee Konitz nothwithstanding).. and don't forget that, over the years, people accused Earl Hines of "sloppiness." A lot of what is heard as technical weakness, I hear as a direct offshoot of a basic, post-African, tonal and rhythmic flexibility.

interesting - no names here, but I just I had a long talk with a fine pianist about a third party, great and very famous jazz instrumentalist, who is a nice person but very intolerant of other musicians who don't have his technical expertise - he tends to miss the feeling for the technique, let us say (which is one reason that, although we have talked about recording together, I may pass). This speaks to larger questions about generations and styles of avant garde jazz playing.

it's ok, just put quotes around everything.

always like his posts - I feel like he thinks so I won't have to.

Joe - I can't remember which Paramount I based it on - I will look it up this weekend - the tambourine was a guy hanging out at the studio that day - we put that together on the spot - Chuck - you can do it. Think of it as the Jazz version of War and Peace. Or maybe, better, Valley of the Dolls (or if it's Sunday, the Book of Genesis). Moms: thanks for the compliment. Given the Blues Politics these days, I'm thinking I should have called it: The White Album.

Loren Schoenberg did the notes - so they'll be excellent.

that's not a cigar -

Cliff - those guys get lumped together because they were all part of the general ferment of "downtown" at the time - not necessarily interactive but each reflective of a particular musical attitude - and McPhee ends up on the list because that's not only when I met him and heard him in person, but also because he was playing in those places at those times and so having a particular impact. And I hear a real connection between the no-Wavers and the jazz guys; they were all around each other, from the Kitchen to (later) the Knitting Factory, and everybody was listening to everybody else. Even James Chance, who ends up, finally, to be quite limited, used the gestures of free jazz to get his point across. you have to think of it like a musician thinks about it - it was just such a complicated range of players. Part of the aural landscape.

yes, I'll be selling mine for $500 after they run out -

I played with Bob years ago, and I'd almost forgotten what a great tenor player he is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzHzCXmyOOw

yes, yes, you are correct.

I have long been an admirer of the French Fremeaux label, which does a great job on sound - good transfers without butchery; their Chicago: South SIde 1923-1930 is to die for - good clean miracle transfers on Paramounts like those of Ollie Powers and nice stuff from Young's Creole Orchestra. Also, Morton/Oliver duet and much much more. If you have any interest in that city's music from those days, get it. Also, an incredible trumpet solo on a Sammy Stewart record from 1924 (what year did Miley do his first growling solo? This one is amazing).