AllenLowe

"Lots of players just don't like people, period" well, as one pretty famous jazz guy said to me about another pretty famous jazz guy: "He's so crazy there's a good chance he might kill everybody in the room." ***** Now that would bring in a crowd - well, maybe not................................... *****no names, please; I hate lawsuits

great composer - early modernist - I particularly like the quartets and some of the piano music -

Mike was a nice guy with a good sense of humor and was a fine musician as well - not to mention that his mother was one of the most important of American composers, Ruth Crawford Seeger. We were actually talking a few years ago about doing a recording project, which we never got together. Good guy, who did a LOT for American music and recorded a lot of important old time performers.

"You can and do listen with your entire body" my left big toe frequently catches radio signals from Mars - they say they're coming here to dance -

maybe I never really knew him................

one night at the Angry Squire, 1970s, a guy at a table near the bandstand kept singing along with Barry Harris' trio - he would croon the lyrics to whatever standard they were doing - finally, he was singing, in tune but with a silly, deep vibrato: "don't.....blame me..." and Barry stopped the band and told him he "should go to one of them sing-a-long bars." that's how I feel about dancers. They need to go to one of them dance-a-long bars.

somebody need a wedding band?

Al Tinney, by the way, was an early if lesser-known bebopper who hung around Minton's and later taught for many years at the State University of New York at Buffalo. he's dead now.

I've always been bugged by the dance-to-the-jazz-group thing; it's always populated, at least in my experience, with uninteresting exhibitionists. on everything else, btw, I agree with Larry - I'm a deep listener; I stay very still. as for the dancing, how about those without legs? Think how they must feel...........

"Gee, when you put it that way, it's a miracle anybody goes out" they should stay home, as this separates the wheat from the chaff... Max, despite his foibles, always had a strong sense of jazz's essential dignity, both horizontal and vertical. I just think you can't make consistently deep music for dancers; you can make some deep music, but it ends up as a loop. And most dancers are lousy dancers anyway, so what's the point? as Lee Konitz once said, "I save my serious playing for Europe."

"You're a two dollar whore" (not actually a song, but a remark he made to the gossip columnist Liz Smith while handing her two one dollar bills. Frank was a charming guy)

Buffalo, eh? is it snowing now? Ever heard of Al Tinney? (interrogation over)

when I play I don't want people dancing - I don't go to where they're working and start shakin' it - I actually think the whole dance/dj thing is just another musical dead end - like a bunch of lemmings headed to the sea - somehow this whole thing brings to mind a discussion I recently had with someone about what's hip - in the old days the hipster was the ultimate outside - today he/she's the ultimate insider. This kind of thing leads to mass conformity (today known as 10,000 people on a dance floor; such behavior leads to Republicanism; look at all the old 1960s hippie dancers who voted for Bush). by the way, none of the above, as well as my previous comments on this topic, is intended less than seriously. I think much of this whole discussion is missing the point, which only Larry kart seems to have grasped. nothing wrong with dance music - it just ain't jazz anymore - different animal - it's fine for making a living but has real limitations, I think, as music. Which is also fine - but the loss of the jazz audience is not a time for Kenny G, but instead for Max Roach -

ahh, never liked Stevie anyway - his stuff is kinda like Scarsdale soul -

yes, Rainbow Mist - but from what I recall Green actually won his lawsuit and Hawkins had to pay royalties. Green was a difficult guy, but he did send me some sheet music. and let's not forget - Donna is Sweet Georgia Brown. and Relaxin with Lee is - who knows -

I remember that terrible version Quincy Jones did with Roney years ago - I kept wishing they'd used Al Hirt -

yes, Fried Bananas is It Could Happen to You, and yes, Curley told me about Donna Lee being named, in the studio, after his daughter. Years ago I had an interesting correspondence with the composer Johnny Green about using standard changes to re-write jazz lines. He was adamant that the changes to things like Body and Soul and Out of Nowhere belonged to him, no matter the tune, and told me of having successfully sued Hawkins when he did his post- Body and Soul improv without stating the melody. The name Hawk gave it escapes me now, but it's well known - Koester reissued it on Delmark -

once again, jazz is was it is, and attempts to make it palatable, mass, friendly, nice, good, easy, et al will always have limited success (where is our Leonard Bernstein? At least he was open to the odd and different, even in jazz; see John LaPorta's autobiography) - the only way to do anything about it is to take the audience that's there, and make it more there. Create national (no, international) networks that are truly cooperative, places to work, and make them accessible to each other, don't sit on a gig or a venue. And allow everyone in, from Dixielanders to new music-ites. Don't factionalize, organize. And don't be afraid of musicians who have their feet in several musical camps. Anything else is the sos -

"And every time we play someone comes up to me and says something along the lines of, "I don't like jazz, but I like your music!" interesting, because with me it's more like "I like jazz but I don't like your music." but seriously folks, we are missing the damage that Lincoln Center has done - I've posted this before, but I was told very specifically some years ago, by a guy who had previously been able to book avant garde groups into larger venues, that Lincoln Center, with its huge price, basically was wiping out local jazz budgets - think what this means - less concerts, and the ones they book are much more narrow, stylistically speaking. But let me add that I am so completely bored with most jazz, and if this is so, think of the rest of the world who have much less commitment to it. And I don't think that the link Jim posted is the answer - to me that's just more slick stuff - to me the answer is closer to Larry's - accept that this is a minority music but keep looking for creative ways to do it - pure and simple - we try to market it like we're 14, and we fail. Over and over again. beyond this, the answer is to create smaller underground venues - places that, when holding 50 people, look full. Create a true network, of cooperative musicians that help get each other into these venues, and make it nation-wide. And convince jazz musicians to stop loooking only in the mirror, and covering their own asses, because that creates the jealous gig situation we have now. This might actually produce a national creative music movement, but it is unlikely to happen if jazz people remain as they have always been, which is shortsighted and professonially self destructive.

"I'm sure Mr. Rollins will be considering your comments regarding Broom and Watkins soon... " actually, probably not, since Sonny hasn't listened to his rhythm section since, like, 1973....

oh and by the way - I find this sinking state of jazz hilarious because, according to the official arts world propaganda (and Ken Burns), Wynton and Lincoln Center brought it back after its near-death experience. Somebody must have accidentally kicked the plug outta the wall-

I hate dancing audiences, but that's just me. I always find the dancers annoying and self conscious. Of course, these days I hate everyone, so I may not be the most reliable witness. On the other hand, here I am chomping at the bit to get a real band together for the first time in 10 years, I'm actually practicing and composing, and here comes Terry Teachout to let the air out of my balloons. And though those numbers may be off, I think his basic point is sound - to a point - because I do think it's time to take the music in newer new directions - but you know what? The biggest obstacle to this, in my experience, is not audiences, but musicians, who waste their time on crappy gigs and real book jam sessions and never see more than about 2 days ahead. The audiences are as bored as the musicians look. This is all just one angry and tired man's opinion. But the questions persist: why can't singer's sing in tune? why do horn players have trouble playing in the key of E? why do piano players get upset when I call rhythm changes in Ab? answer those questions and you will restore jazz as a viable art form.

I don't know...the softer side of jazz - you guys may need some musical Viagra - or maybe some Organ enhancement meds - suffering from pianist envy?

I saw Baker twice, near Boston, maybe 1975, and at Strykers in NYC maybe a year or two before - he was brilliant both times, with an aggressive turn to his lyric style which was just a wonder to hear. It was as though he'd been somewhat affected by some of the early '60s Miles. In the one conversation we had he was extremely nice (I knew the guy who sold him his suits, who had a little clothing store near Harvard Square) and mentioned Kenny Dorham as his prime influence, which I thought was interesting.

I'm working on a musical about the first Jewish family to settle down there - Rosen in the Sun.