AllenLowe

"you're a two dollar whore and here's your two bucks" -Frank to Liz Smith as he handed her the money. I think this was an ad lib -

are you sure it wasn't Etta Baker?

still available: Guitar Slim - the Chronological - Classics. This one is now out of print. Mint. $15 Elvis Costello My Aim is True Rhino 2 CDs $6.50 Marc Ribot Yo! I Killed Your God. Tzadik. $6.50 Thelonious Monk/Johnny Coltrane At Carnegie Hall Blue Note $7.00 Sarah Vaughan EVeryhing I have is Yours Mix of '40s stuff, Auld/Dizzy/T. Wilson/Bird/Buck Clayton Shout/Factory $6.50 Arnett Cobb and His Mob in Concert w/Dinah Washingon (rec. 1952) High Note $6.50 plus a book: Aline Kominsky Crumb's Need More Love: A Graphic Memoir (hardcover) $15 shipped media

all cds, in like-new shape. Prices include shipping conus, prefer paypal - my paypal address is alowe5@maine.rr.com 1) Guitar Slim - the Chronological - Classics. This one is now out of print. Mint. $15 2) Tiny Grimes/JC Higginbotham Callin' the Blues OJC. $6.50 3) Elvis Costello My Aim is True Rhino 2 CDs $6.50 4) Marc Ribot Yo! I Killed Your God. Tzadik. $6.50 5) Thelonious Monk/Johnny Coltrane At Carnegie Hall Blues Note $7.00 6) Sarah Vaughan EVeryhing I have is Yours Mix of '40s stuff, Auld/Dizzy/T. Wilson/Bird/Buck Clayton Shout/Factory $6.50 7) Arnett Cobb and His Mob in Concert w/Dinah Washingon (rec. 1952) High Note $6.50

someone pointed out recently (was it Larry?) about an editor who took the P out of James P. Johnson, saying that they don't do middle initials. Years ago this came up on the Jazz Research list, and I sent a post pointing out that this practice would lead us to the reading of T. Eliot, E. Cummings, E. Robinson, and W. Du Bois - unfortunately my post was rejected.

another interesting thing in the book relating to some of Monk's difficulty getting work is that he was obviously rejected by many of his fellow musicians (even some of whom praised him in later years when his deeper reputation was made, media-wise). This reminds me of the difficulties that Herbie Nichols had and speaks to the conservatism and obtuseness of many jazz musicians, who, though they continually rail about critics, are no better when it comes to assessing talent. I'm willing to bet that, though few would admit it later, many more than we know thought, privately, like Oscar Peterson, that Monk was not a very good "pianist."

this new project is important to me for a lot of reasons - I've rarely been fully happy with my playing on recordings - best thing was New Tango - problem was always composing and arranging these complicated things while working a day job - so my own playing tended to come last. Saxophone-wise, I'm feeling the best I've felt in a long time, though it's still difficult to keep the chops up with no actual gigs, just home-playing. In this case the music is mostly written already, and will only be for one or two voices, so I'm hoping to keep it together instrumentally. Also, loving the alto these days (used to play tenor). It helps to have two musicians who are the most easy-going people I've ever worked with; no b.s., take the music and run with it.

you heard right - I talked to her many times in the 1990s - as I used to mention, all I ever wanted to say was "Goodbye Dolly."

am I missing something here? I don't see a pianist in that pic, only a drummer.

funny, I was JUST watching a movie in which the French girl says to the American guy, "say Merde for luck." the main thing I'm worried about at that time of year is snow. Sheiss.

I once thought of starting a project of reviewing things I hadn't seen, read, or listened to. The idea was to actually see, read, or listen to the thing later and see how close I got. never got around to it; still sounds like a good idea, though - Louise Armstrong is Charlotte Parker's cousin. -

thank you. Spelling is not my strong point - also, big problems with than and then, stationery and stationary (ask Litweiler), principle and principal, horse and cat.

would like to add something that's really important to understand here - unless you've ever written a book, it's almost impossible to understand how easy it is to make extremely stupid mistakes, even when you know better - the whole process of turning out 100,000 words or so entails a certain stream of consciousness that leads to some bizarre things - wrong names, dates, complete non-sequitors, strange intellectual ideas, complete gibberish - I kid you not. And sometimes, no matter how many times you read your work, you miss really obvious things. It may be intellectual overload, I don't know. Add to this the general lack of editing and you have a prescription for some very strange mistakes.

found it - on Volume 3, CD 7 of Devilin Tune I include excerpts from Melancholy Baby/I've Got Rhythm/Nice Work if You Can Get it - all from 1941, clearly Monk and very much in character. These are live shots, Jerry Newman, and I THINK they're from Mintons, but I have to do a little bit more research to confirm -

Medjuck - I don't have it in front of me out now but I included at least two early Monk performances on Devilin Tune that were from that period, and from Jerry Newman recordings, though at this moment I can't tell you what they are (will try and dig it out in a little while) - on the other Minton's recordings (like maybe Topsy) I believe one can hear Monk do some interesting early stuff - as for editing I will say that I didn't pay anyone, but, to my eternal gratefulness, Dick Spottswood read my ms before it went to press, and was extremely helpful. and for a self-plug, I honestly think I did a better job in the book part of Devilin Tune than anyone else out there at balancing the technical with the impressionistic, in terms of descriptions of musical performances. Though I am about to do a re-write to improve things that, with the passing of time, do not look so good anymore.

"Let me get this right, you bought a new Vista machine, didn't work and had it wiped clean and XP installed on it???? How much money did you have to spend getting all that done?? When he reinstalled "everything", was that Vista everything on an XP platform or did he reinstall other old XP stuff on the new XP platform. Did you upgrade from XP to Vista and then back to XP?? That is what it sounds like here?? But it is not clear what you did. Help us out please!" I bought a new laptop with Vista - my tech guy charged me about $140 - everything was wiped and reinstalled on an XP platform, programs, etc etc. Now I am happy. (not sure if I answered all your questions) -

well, you know, I agree, much as I admire the book (still reading through). But this, really, and I'm not just being obsessive, is a problem with the vast majority of academic books on jazz that I read. Fortunately Kelly really, in its essence, seems to understand Monk's music, so in this case it works out. But I was just discussing with a critic (a good one) last night how frustrating it is to deal with the basic lack of exposure most people engaged in jazz and American studies have to broader types of jazz and pop music. It gets downright strange sometimes. You talk to them and mention what you assume are common frames of musical reference and you get blank stares.

yes, I agree, and the point I was making was basically the same as you make at the end of your post - the fallacy of any attempt to narrowly find that "eureka" moment which does not really exist (and which, 60 years later, cannot be clearly defined) - honestly, if I had to made a somewhat educated guess, I would say that Bud Powell was much more influential than Monk in this way - listen to the 1942 recordings with Cootie, for a start - Bud was as harmonically advanced as Monk, and probably more accessible to other musicians - as a matter of fact Curley Russell said that one reason he became so much in demand in the early bebop days was because he was good at reading the chords from pianists' left hands - well, try this with Monk- but ultimately I would go with Al Haig on this who said something to the effect that there were just a bunch of musicians working on similar things in different parts of the country and that it was a mistake to call anyone the first to do anything - HOWEVER - from what Haig told me (and I heard same from Bill Triglia and Schildkraut) - Bud Powell was the pianist that everyone followed everywhere (Triglia and Haig literally followed him from club to club - he was really, to their way of thinking, the source, not just for piano in that era but harmony and rhythm, as much as Bird was) -

thanks, MG. As for Matt on organ, think Ran Blake - (?) just a guess, but give him some standard-like changes, and you can hear the influence. And he knocks me out on everything. Closest I can think of to another pianist who could go in so many directions but ALWAYS remain himself was Jaki Byard. the session we did about 2 weeks ago was about the most enjoyable experience I've ever had. In 15 years up here, I sorta forgot what it's like to hand someone some music and have them transform it in the way he does - personalize it but stay near the essence of the song. Matt is really incredible. As for Roswell, well, to use that worn-out word, he's a genius. I'm gonna write us some very basic blues, very repetitive but tonally ambiguous. We will see what happens.

I don't think Shipton has nearly proved his point - would have been better to have the direct testimony of he musician's themselves - he has an interesting point but his conclusions are much too speculative - I never asked any of those guys the right questions myself (kicking myself now for this) but I do remember Dave Schildkraut telling me that when he got out of the army he went to Mintons and was bewildered by all the new stuff being played until Fats Navarro started telling him what each tune was based on ("Fats would tell me, 'that's Whispering.')" Now this was later, of course, but my point is that Shipton has far too little to go on to say this - think also of the Redcross recordings of Bird and Diz (from 1942?) - this was eomething at least largely being worked out in sessions AWAY from their working bands.

sure - send me an email at alowe5@maine.rr.com and we can make arrangements - I'm a little nervous because I have to write (and practice - will do some on alto and guitar) - but it's a great studio, old-fashioned in the sense that it has great natural acoustics - I also have a vague sense of the historic importance of getting Shipp and Rudd on tape, together - also looking forward to using he organ in a very basic, down-home way - the way Matt plays it should have a nice and odd avant-garde funk to it -

didn't think I could coordinate this, but it looks like it's coming off - thanks to Medjuck, who found me a terrific studio in Williamsburgh (I just did a session there with Matt) - will be a trio of me, Matt and Roswell - this is for a blues-project CD to be issued in 2010. gotta write some down-home stuff. And for all you organ fans out there, Shipp will probably be playing that type of keyboard - going for a dirty, funky thing.

I have no doubt that a great deal of it is composed and improvised according to some system - problem for me is that so many musicians have learned to talk the talk that it obscures how empty so much of the music is - just read Wire for a year or so and than try one of their sampler, Wiretapper, CDs - some of the worst music I have heard, real poseurs -

"Noticing in Shipton's "New History of Jazz" the idea, in his opinion, that more happened to foment change with working bands on the road than in jam sessions" what does he base this on? I have some other problems with Shipton's book. I would question how he could possibly be sure of this, first of all -

to be more specific I had a new computer on which I was running various audio programs - all two track programs, nothing very CPU intensive - at first Vista worked - for about 20 minutes - then it didn't work; than I couldn't get on the **##$%^&^* internet - than I hired a guy to wipe it clean, put Windows XP on it, reinstall everything, of course - now everything works fine. I am happy. Vista sucks.