AllenLowe

Bunk apparently had an affair with Bill Russell (not the basketball player, the N.O. historian); and all Larry said was "everybody knew Webster was gay."

a few years ago Francis Davis led a panel on this subject, because it was something jazz people never used to talk about - well, I was speaking to Larry Gushee last night; Larry is the most meticulous researcher in jazz, and was on the jazz scene in the 50s and 60s; he dropped an interesting bombshell - that both Bunk Johnson and Ben Webster were gay,

1) like a prior post, I agree that all of this means nothing without specifics 2) I was recently the object of a pretty nasty attack on Facebook in which it was asserted that my own music indicated signs of mental illness. So I tend to think the rhetoric needs to cool off.

would love to use tape, but only if 1) it was without noise reduction, which defeats the purpose - so it would require 1 inch tape at 15ips to be quiet enough 2) I could be sure the supply of good recording tape would last 3) I had a good repair person nearbye for any issues, including biasing, etc.

if you can, listen to the recordings he made for the Library of Congress (I think for Lomax). One of the most advanced of the old bluesman, a real modernist of the style.

my biggest quibble with academics is how few truly believe in real academic freedom - my personal experience is that they don't just disagree with you but ultimately, if you disagree strongly enough, want to exclude you from the argument. think Burton Peretti, who helped kill my rock and roll history at University of Illinois Press; or the editor (at U California Press) who told me, about the rock and roll book, "I like it very much but it won't pass political muster with my board." it seems I gave white musicians too much credit. As the editor of Duke University Press told me, in almost so many words.

it sounds like a book I was sent years ago to review on the history of rock and roll; it was so badly written and full of errors that I had to decline; I was unable to finish reading it, as almost EVERY page had a mistake or some impenetrably badly written explanation of something - there's just not enough time in the day,

gotcha, and yes, Sherrie Tucker in particular has committed grave crimes against jazz (haven't read the Gennari, based on your prior comments).

I can't get the link to work, but it's important not to depend on the day job for fun, unless you're Clive Davis or John Gotti.

that's really the point though - Armstrong was a very earthy guy who talked about this stuff constantly - Hersch turns this very down-home concern into a psychoanalytical cliche. A typical and very middle class muddle. strangely enough however, I think a lot of the rest of the book is very decent.

he's right, it gets better - or worse - as you read on.

Charles Hersch is the writer - he is in Cleveland, I think. If my Chicago friends have any contacts at U of Chicago press, it might be helpful to point out to them how offensive this kind of thing (I was going to say crap) is.

DuNann is terrific, but I reiterate, it ain't rocket surgery. And it can be relatively easily approximated today, with a good room, decent mikes, and 24 bit recording.,

Kenny Drew was great, but Bish still had something closer to Bud - and the period I am referring to is from BEFORE his quartal voicing - I mean the stuff from the early 1950s, Prestige and, I think, a little later, Verve.

"Armstrong's celebration of bodily functions was not limited to the appetites but extended to the other end of the digestive process - excretion, in psychoanalytic terms. Armstrong rejected the dominance of genitality,,,,reveling in the oral and anal as well...the origin of Armstrong's fascination with excretion is clear...he reveled in his bowel movements; to him they were a source of great joy." and people wonder why I have problems with academic critics (this one, btw, is from U of Chicago Press)

just about Bish, though he adjusted his approach later on, his early work was sometimes uncannily like Bud Powell's in touch and time - no one, in my opinion, in that era, came closer to reaching that feeling (Dick Katz, btw, was the one who pointed this out to me). Great player from day one.

I think we all hope there's something unknown here which will exonerate Bill. But I'm not optimistic.

thanks - will pack -

it's been having trouble - it's yours - use my gmail: allenlowe5@gmail.com. Figure $8 media if you're in Florida - whooops, just cleaned out my messenger -

another great idea gone bad - bought this book for some practice stuff, but like all great plans it has gone astray - I practice constantly but have my own little techniques and just don't have the time to get into this - it's mint, barely opened; $29.95 new, I'll sell it for half price, $15, plus shipping (it's heavy but media mail should work) - prefer paypal, alowe5@maine.rr.com

just had a long talk last night with Larry Gushee (about Buddy Bolden; about whom Larry's guesses and intuitive musical estimation make more sense than anyone else in the world, I think); he'll be very interested in the Morton, which I think I'll pick up and send to him.

damn, chuck, I was about to say that! actually that Morton is making my mouth water.

wait, what's the Oracle Morton release? (assuming that's what we;re talking about) - just found it - so how is this Eekhoff guy, sound -wise?

Dave Schildkraut was in the service - I forget which branch - he told me when he came back he'd been practicing in his head for 4 years and that the first thing he did was go to Mintons to hear Charlie Parker. It was all new to him, he said, but he stood next to Fats Navarro who kept telling him what tunes the heads were based on - "that's Whispering" - my eyes popped out whenever he told me things like that - I heard private recordings he made with Gene DiNovi prior to this, and he sounded like Johnny Hodges. Bill Triglia was on a Carrier that got sunk by Kamikazee pilots - he told me the whole thing one afternoon - people screaming as they drowned - I didn't realize until years later that a lot of Bill's nutty behavior was probably post-traumatic stress. Johnny Carisi told me he spent most of the war stationed in New Haven with Glenn Miller's band, I think. I might be a little off on that, but he was in New Haven. that's all the war stories I know, other than Curley's above.

there was a lot of draft dodging - Curley Russell told me that a lot of the guys in the Benny Carter band took some kind of drug concoction to make their blood pressure go crazy, just before they went to their physical -