AllenLowe

Years ago when I firsr met Ken he said "you know, everybody thinks all I can do is Benny Goodman and Arties Shaw tributes. I have a lot more I can play - call me when you want to record." So I did. I even have some things he did with Matt Shipp.

He’s from Texas, I will talk to him soon. He’s an absolutely brilliant drummer.

I am very proud of this one - it is from one of our recording sessions last spring - featuring the incredible Ken Peplowski on clarinet playing free, yes free. The only parameters are the feeling of the tune - Ken floats through the head, then plays a wonderful solo, though of course he is not the only one - this has Aaron Johnson alto sax; Lewis Porter piano; Brian Simontacchi on trombone; Kellin Hannas trumpet; Alex Tremblay bass; Rob Landis drums, and me on tenor sax. I was making an Ellington reference, of course, but the idea was to expand upon the idea of passing themes, and the master's ability to write melodies which seem, as I once wrote, like one long sentence. We call it Innuendo in Blue.

Dory Previn is on vocals.

There's a bunch of time changes during the playing of the theme which changes the beat somewhat; no exactly sure what to call it but as played by Krestin during the solos it's almost a shuffle with backbeat. But with really a lot more complexity. Hope that helps.

could you clarify? Do you find this performance to be second hand?

I am intrigued but I find his intros....tedious. In terms of sheer pianism, if you had played this for me in a blindfold test, I would say it sounds exactly like Hank Jones in the '70s. But the most annoying thing is that the samples are almost entirely the intros, and fade as soon as he gets to the point.

thanks everyone. Just had what will probably be my last major surgery and my face looks like it's been crushed in a vise, but things are on the mend and hopefully I will be fully functional in 2023 (have a Dizzy's gig on May 3).

this will be out on ESP in 2023 as part of a CD of Americana performances called America: The Rough Cut. This is my sense of the best way to deal with the heavy black roots of American music. Some of you have gotten bugged in the past when I've complained about the sad way in which most jazz bands try to be funky and deep blue. I think this is the way to do it. The band is me on tenor, Ray Suhy guitar; Krestin Osgood drums; Alex Tremblay bass. Enough fake funk; the actual name of the piece is Damned Nation, a lament for the USA:

glad you think it's so funny (that kind of nastiness is one of the reasons I don't spend much time around here any more) but it's absolutely true in terms of timing. Find me another station that was doing AOR in '66 or '67. (and for anyone just reading this that laugh emoji referred to my prior statement) But truly I find that using the laugh emoji when someone is not actually joking is about the lowest form of commentary. In other words, fuck you. This kind of casual disrespect is something I don't find anywhere else that I post. I haven't spent 50 years, sacrificing so much of my life and energy to the music biz, or lived through three years of hell, to sit passively by while this kind of crap happens. And I know it's only a few here, but I don't make up shit or take credit for things I have not done.

not to digress, but I actually invented AOR (Album oriented rock). When I first started listening to WOR, the first progressive rock station, in about 1966 or 1967, they still played only singles. I (either 12 or 13 at the time) wrote a letter suggesting they play all cuts from albums. I never got a response, but about a month later they started doing exactly that. No station had ever done that. I believe they got the idea from me.

I have but they are almost always spoiled by his vulgarisms - read my prior description of his version of Waltz for Debbie. everybody tells me he's the greatest thing ever - maybe not here, but other places I frequent.

ironically or not, I have heard Andre Previn play in a manner that sounds EXACTLY like OP. Which says a lot.

OP drives me nuts, as I have said many times before. His playing actually offends me; it's almost all patterns, and he drives the blue thing into the ground (online there's a version he plays of Waltz for Debbie in which he ruins this delicate melody with a string of idiotic blues phrases). And btw Barry Harris, as he told me years ago, disliked his playing. But the main reason I know what a horrible pianist OP was is that, before I had dual carpal tunnel, I could do a passable imitation of OP playing a blues. Just repeat the same basic blue runs ad-nauseum in slightly different positions. But as a jazz critic (I think Francis Davis) once said: "It's not that Peterson makes everything sound so easy, but that he makes everything sound equally difficult."

thanks guys. Will keep you advised. Hopefully all will be ready next spring.

"Every tour with Benny was like going to Russia" - Zoot Sims

I have about 5 cds coming out next spring, including one with the incredible guitarist Ray Suhy (if you don't know who he is you should check him out. I have never heard a better guitarist in any musical realm, from jazz to rock and roll). This is one cut out for preview, something I call Cold Was the Night Dark Was the Ground. I present it as my own idea of why jazz musicians usually fall on their faces when trying to dip into the deeper aspects of vernacular music, failing as they inevitably do to capture the roughness and edge of the old music. I think we succeed here in ways that others rarely do, plus I try to show how the idea of "free" playing can be focused to show how liberating those old forms are (and this particular cut is actually me on both guitar and tenor):

funny and odd story - and true - I was walking around Brookline, Mass., where I then lived - circa1977 - with my then girlfriend, and we walked past a man walking the other way on the sidewalk. I said to my girlfriend - "is that Neal Hefti?" She said, "who?" I didn't have time to explain, I turned around and went up to the guy (I was about 23 and had seen pictures of him) and asked "Are you Neal Hefti?" And it was, and he was quite shocked that someone recognized him. We talked a bit and I asked if I could interview him for a jazz mag I was working for. He was very pleased, and invited me over to his apartment in Brookline, where he was now living. I went there a few nights later. He introduced me to Francis Wayne, his wife, who was movie-star gorgeous. We had a nice interview (which never got published) and he told me that Francis Wayne had hated Hollywood, and had finally gotten him to agree to move East. They did so, and just a few months later she was sadly diagnosed with lung cancer. We talked, I left, and never saw him again, and was very upset to hear that she died just some months afterward.

if it's from the original tapes and mastered in highest resolution, that is significant. The prior Bethlehem reissues are not bad, but this would be indispensable.

well, as someone said above about Person, "he's taking the load."

if you like Kenyon Hopkins, I recommend: https://www.amazon.com/Rooms-New-York-Kenyon-Hopkins/dp/B002XMGJGC

were these tracks ever Id'd?

just to note what Curley Russell told me about the recording ban - that many labels continued to record but back-dated the recording date so they would not seem to be violating the ban.

when I knew him he was living with his daughter and driving a cab occasionally.

Curley was sorta phased out in lieu of a more modern generation of bass players, post-Ray Brown. Unfortunately. He had great time but it wasn't enough. He just wasn't that nimble harmonically. He was also one of the nicest people I've ever known.