AllenLowe

I figured he mentioned Dexter because Dexter's the only guy he could think of who used more drugs than Metallica -

thanks Larry - unfortunately he doesn't have an email and is not listed on the MSN white pages -

thank you everybody; I'm not really all that depressed, Shawn - there is light at the end of the tunnel - appreciate your good wishes -

breaks my heart to see such stupidity - another good tube dealer, on ebay, by the way, and who has accurately tested used tubes, is CJ's Tube Supply.

well, the gospel stuff is central to Elvis's sense of musical self, let us say - the whole Southern quartet thing lay heavily on his sound - Elvis's whole vocal sound was uncannily like a lot of the old style Gospel leads, and in putting that up front in a rock and roll setting he was truly unique. But Jim's not alone; a lot of people do not find his sound compelling, and I didn't really put any time into it until I was writing my first book - but then it was like a revelation, slow but clear. No one else put that vocal sound in a pop setting; it's a heavy and weighted sound, hard to apply, but for me it works. As for Scotty, it like something I used to call the virtuousity of style; not complex but a matter of invention and then nuance - being the first to come up with a particular and compelling musical angle. The vocal thing, once again, is unique, but I have heard it not only in some of the post-War white quartets, but also in some things by Harmonica Frank from the early 1950s (he was white) - and also Barbecue Bob (who was black) had a certain throaty vibrato that tells me there was something new going on musically that Elvis grabbed and ran with -

well, as Charlie Brown used to say, another year down the drain -

I'm a fan of nearly all things Sun, and have found some amazing things - Charlie Feathers, Pat Hare, Carl Perkins, Warren Smith, the early Junior Parker, Memphis sides with a VERY young Frank Strozier backing blues singers; Walter Horton, Billy Lee Riley (whom I played with about 10 years ago - now THERE's a great white blues singer) - Earl Hooker - and much much more - that Memphis scene, black and white, may just be the most important post-War blues thing ever anywhere - as for Elvis, the Sun stuff, to me, is just raw and open and so damned new it's a little scary. I have some well-preserved bootleg shows he did on the Louisiana Hayride that are also quite good. To me, by the time he hit RCA he had lost the hunger, and it showed -

I saw him working at the mall today - I handed him my 3 bucks; he said: "thank you very much."

thinking of getting that book, bone fried and all - how is it otherwise? (though that quote does give me pause - sounds like Google Translation) -

listen to Blue Moon - most avant garde pop recording of the 1950s -

yes, I am an Elvis fan too - and currently hoping to wrangle an interview with his old crony Jerry Schilling, for my documentary (he's a neighbor of Larry Cohn's in LA) - long live the king!

he may be the biggest idiot in existence - old 7591s are great power tubes and getting more and more expensive (though there is a very good new production one made by JJ) -

they did, indeed, destroy the old tonight show films - though there are extant clips, including a few of Lenny Bruce - also a nice one of Errol Garner in which he plays a long solo introduction during which, if you close your eyes, he sounds uncannily like Cecil Taylor (yeah I know it's the other way around) -

anybody mention Bud Powell? I have an audio CD of his appearance on the tonight show -

interestingly, or not - the central riff of the theme for tenor madness is heard on a Professor Longhair recording from a few years earlier, played by his tenor saxophonist (Lee Allen?) - on Her Mind is Gone -

I actually prefer the early living room recordings to the ones in the place he built - the later ones are sonically more Rudy than the musicians, I always felt - piano too dark, too much stereo separation, too much coloration of the horns -

no -

well, Elliot's rich and famous and I'm up here in Maine - not sure if that's survival -

yeah, Skinny was a sweetheart; I've lost touch but I doubt he's still around - yes, Randy is amazing, good guy, too, played on 2 of my CDs. He can do anything from Bix to bebop to post-bop. One of my favorite nights at the West End had Skinny working with Triglia who loved his playing because he was so old school - perfect time, very basic, great support.

Leroy's great, nice guy - my wedding band (1982) was Percy France, Leroy on drums, Skinny Bergan (used to be with Lionel Hampton) on bass; Dick Katz, piano, Randy Sandke, trumpet; and Joe Albany and Aaron Bell sat in (Joe was a guest; Bell came with a friend of mine) -

I agree, I love Jug but Dexter is a mixed thing for me (but that's an argument we already had here a few years ago). Ammons is amazing, incredible technique and soul, and the last recordings show he was keeping up with the times, but in his own way -

I think the question with Getz/Presley (and I think both are important musicians) is that, because of race, there is no level playing field. So you're right, on a level of talent there is no question - but there is also no question in my mind that these guys had certain kinds of access that a black musician would not get. Of course, to complicate things, you CAN make the argument that Elvis, in the long run, helped black musicians by broadening their audience; I think Otis Blackwell and Ivory Joe Hunter , both of whom sold him songs, would agree. Of course a similar thing happened later with Mike Bloomfield and Muddy Waters and BB King. But still, in this country things are never quite what they seem to be when it comes to issues of black and white -

Bob's semi-retired now, living out in Detroit with his mother. But that was a great little band - I actually booked the other musicians - at first it was Percy, Neloms on piano, and Leroy Williams (who lived in the neighborhood) on drums. Great stuff, as Neloms has an amazing left hand. of course, Schaap took credit for putting it together, but I introduced all these guys, and they had never worked together before - and I think Bob later worked at Tramps with Percy's band backing Big Joe -

I think Mick Jagger will be 80 - and Keith Richards died 20 years ago - at least that's how he looks - BB King will be 84 - John Mayall - maybe 76?

Hadlock is still around, lives in SF. I know what you mean, but a good critic is an artist - witness our own Larry Kart. Jazz Masters of the 20s is just an extremely insightful book; Hadlock (whom I believe is a clarinetist) not only knows the music well but he knows how to write about it. Martin Williams was a major help to me when I was first learning about the music, but the best, in those days, I thought, was Dan Morgenstern (and I never dreamed, as a 14 year old, that I would ever get to know him) -