AllenLowe

you'll have to get permission from Gene Lees.

I heard that story more in reference to Paramount and Gennett - and it's apparently true and one of the reasons we don't have things like the old King Oliver masters. The Savoy/Dial stuff is probably still around.

thanks Berigan; re-Medjuck, I always liked Mercer's singing - see the LP with Bobby Darin, for a start. Also, I'm using him in my blues anthology, singing a duet with Nat Cole. Also, book-wise, I would recommend Philip Furia's Mercer bio.

nice - though I think the pic you are using as Nelstone's Hawaiins is actually Darby and Tarlton (I think). Interesting thing about Buell Kazee is that he originally planned to sing more contemporary songs when he first recorded, but the record company wanted to classify him as "old time" and insisted he sing more trad things, This says a lot about the picture we get of old time music, as something never really divorced from the commercial side of the business. Smith is a fascinating figure - you might want to talk to people like Larry Cohn, for whom the Anthology was a deep and life-changing experience. Smith was a genuine eccentric (nut?); also Mary Beth Hamilton's book on the early collectors has upset some people but should be read. I wonder too if Chris Albertson was exposed to the Anthology early on -

book is still available. This book received a glowing review from Gary Giddins, though it is actually just a mediocre re-hash of of other books with nothing new; it's better written than most, so for you English teachers out there this is a bargain.

well, I heard Freeman and Ira Sullivan (separately) on the same night, at the Chicago Jazz Fest, probably some time in the 80s, at the Jazz Showcase, and was overwhelmed - this was a time when all the "young lions" bullshit was going on, and a lot of the early Lincoln Center battles - and here were two guys who were essentially playing bebop, but bebop like you never heard (Sullivan was playing trumpet). Bebop with, as I thought, nothing to prove, no sense that they were plying "the tradition," no sermonizing on the good old days, just some of the most intense and inventive playing I have ever heard. I learned a good lesson that night, though I'm not sure I can explain it. Still trying to translate it to the horn.

well, whatever the reasons, I love dogs (and there's my little friend to the left there) -

Percy France also worked with Doggett, and I can always spot his playing on some of the King sides.

Larry's point is well taken - think of Bud at 17-18, Bird at 20-21, Al Haig at 21; Sonny Rollins at 20; Kenny G. at 8.

what I meant by the Ike Day comparison is that he's a legend, the guy who was supposed to be one of the greats but that almost nobody heard outside of his home town. Whereas a guy like Freeman, who has been heard by a fair amount of people, loses, by longevity, some of the legend.

there's zillions of them for RCA/Victor/Columbia/OKeh, as those companies kept good vaults - and so did Decca, who lost virtually everything, or so we have been told, in that Universal fire. It's very easy to know when a master has been used - if the recording sounds incredibly clear, no high end attenutation, but, when you boost the treble way up, there's virtually no hiss, it's probably from a master. There are many lps like this, even an old EMI I have of Kid Ory and Johnny Dodds, with Lil Hardin/Armstrong from the 1920s. Some of the French Black and Whites were clearly made from masters; a huge amount that ACE in England is putting out of 40s-50s blues and r&B uses masters. Specialty Records reissues are generally good like this - there's lots -

it's a great routine - I just have problems with Mr. Cosby due to his.....amyl nitrate problem.

hmmmm.... this is the kind of stuff that depresses me a bit about jazz; she's fine but not really all that interesting. sorry, but, to me, as horn playing, this is only competent stuff. this kind of jazz isn't dead, it's just run out of ideas -

sold -

nice cd of period African music very influenced by Cuban music; mint shape. the label is: Honest Jon's $7 plus shipping. My paypal is alowe5@maine.rr.com

hard cover, in pretty good shape. $11 plus shipping. My paypal is alowe5@maine.rr.com.

I had no idea it was available - we should check his blog.

Tom, hope you get better - I had what was probably a mild case of the Oink Oink flu and though I've been flu-free for about 8 days the cough persists. I'm living on mucinex and Robitussin; at least I've been sleeping ok. Took codeine for a few nights but it definitely left me feeling a little hungover. but the cough part of this sucks, especially when my asthma kicks in; I'm feeling better but hoping this thing eases up.

yeah but if he'd been hit by a bus 40 years ago and maybe there were a few things around, he'd be like Ike Day. And youse guys got a problem with being NY-centric?

there is no question that Freeman is one of the greatest saxophonists in the history of jazz - and though it's not to say that he has not received acclaim, somehow I think his greatness is recognized a bit less than it might be recognized if he had not lived so long. For better or worse, jazz loves a legend. The reality seems less shiny and somehat less coveted.

glad the obit appeared - I forgot about the Sonny Rollins association - Dick was always frustrated by this, he told me he was hired by Sonny JUST before he decided to eliminate piano.

I've always thought Dick should have gotten co-authorship credit for that book; the Pettiford chapter is him, as is the Kenny Clarke, from what I recall. other things of his to read are his articles in Jazz Panorama on Miles Davis/Walkin', and the Tatum sessions, his notes to the Teddy Wilson Smithsonian LP, and his notes to Too Marvelous for Words (Tatum) in the Smithsonian set. Dick always complained about Martin Williams, who wasn't as musically technically savvy as Martin thought he was. But Williams did get Dick to do more writing than he would otherwise have done (I think he also notated a lot of the Smithsonian piano set).

early '60s Hawk is a revelation - there's a famous Barry Harris quote about working with Hawkins at this time and hearing him play a chorus of "All the Things You Are," and thinking "maybe I had idolized Bird and Bud too much, because here was someone who just kept playing and changing."

he worked a lot at the West End in the late 1970s, with everybody from Dickey Wells to Earl Warren. One night Oliver Jackson was playing drums in the band and he said to Dick after a set: "You know who you sound like?" "Who?" "Dick Katz." Dick was very pleased.

nice, Mike - are you still up in Rochester? Tell Danko I said hello.