AllenLowe

arrrgggh y'r all incomp'tnt lame m'rons wid svre cognitive defcts and medcinally chlnged -

well, I wasn't saying there was anything wrong with Tristano's playing, which I love; only that his nastiness definitely got in the way of some critical judgements - and I will say that he frightened me, young as I was (maybe 22) - he had an aura of the kind I've read about but not experienced elsewhere, of the kind cult leaders seem to attain, and I could understand from my brief visit (maybe 2 hours) how difficult to resist or defy he might have been. One had the sense he not only saw everything one was doing, but was something of a mind-reader. As for latter-day judgements, I remember Martin Williams diminishing the whole importance of the Tristano school because he thought it had little influence; aside from the wrongness of this approach to historical judgment, he was plain wrong, anyway; one of the first things Hemphill told me was how much Konitz's playing had meant to him, and I know many others of Julius's generation were listening to Lennie et all (particularly Cecil Taylor, who has come, by reason of racial politics, to deny it) -

what do you consider large?

and as everybody knows, you can ALWAYS trust a guy named Allen - no matter how he spells his name -

I want the magic mouthpiece - but seriously, since the teeth started to fall out, I can't use metal. I think Stan was playing a mouthpiece like Wynton's - where you just blow into the end of the horn-

my general suspicion is that many musicians' critical attitudes are screwy - maybe including my own- though there are also plenty of exceptions. But a lot of times they don't see or understand other perspectives; so a guy who plays with a lot of facility will often not understand a guy who does not, or a guy of one style will miss the importance of another (Al Haig, for example, did not like Konitz or Tristano). I know of one guy, one of the greatest bass players I ever worked with, ideas, sound, time, harmony - who was so good technically that he never understood any musician who was not as perfect as he - and yet, he wasn't a "cold" player, wasn't so perfect as to be boring - it was just the way he saw things from his universe. Bill Evans played one of his best solos with Paul Bley in George Russell's band, but thought it was just "free" bullshit. Johnny Carisi, who I considered a true avant gardist, disliked the whole post-Ornette thing, just could not get it (he also hated minimalism). So we must take it all with lots of salt. And Tristano, on top of everything, was a nasty guy, not above applying his personal conflicts to his artistic judgements. I remember telling one guy, after I met Lennie, that he had gotten fat. "Good" he said, "he deserves it."

interestingly enough, one of the things I like most about Iverson's playing (and I think he's a terrific pianist) is that he tends to play toward the middle of the keyboard, which is also very characteristic of Powell and the early beboppers - it's a sound that I love and I think is very unique -

I don't know the original label; I got it off a British reissue - here's a few additions: 312. Frank Du Pree Blind Andy (Jenkins) 4/13/25 313. I Truly Understand You Love Another Man Shortbuckle Roarke and his Family 11/4/28 314. Shave 'em Dry Blues Ma Rainey Milas Pruitt 8/24 315. Pilgrim's Journey Homer Quincy Smith 12/26 316. Yellow Dog Blues Sam Collins 4/5/27 317. Dark Holler Blues Clarence Ashley 10/23/29 318. Hersal Blues Hersal Thomas 6/25 319. Hard Hustling Blues Berniece Edwards 11/28 320. I've Got Salvation in My Heart Stovepipe #1 (Sam Jones) 8/19/24 321. Can You Blame the Colored Man Gus Cannon 11/27

yes I agree - as for "Bloomfield was the greatest white blues guitarist ever, " no need for qualifiers - he was a genius, I think, and led a movement that did a lot more than copy what had come before, as a matter of fact, the rockers, to my way of thinking, revived a form that was getting a little bit tired with age and gave it new musical life. As for his walking away from fame, he clearly had drug and other problems- HOWEVER - he also had specific principles and did not want to just go after the fame and money (yes, it helped that he came from a wealthy family). He could play anything, and I have even heard some amazing Merle-Travis like guitar. Kooper told me a few years back in an email that there is a LOT of stuff that Hammond Sr. recorded of Bloomfield that he hopes will come out one day, including amazing acoustic stuff. I saw him at the Fillmore East circa 1970 go up against BB King, and he was astounding - kind of played BB's stuff right back at him with odd twists and turns, somewhat taunting and teasing. Amazing night -

she sure looked good in that nurse's uniform, can't remember the show (Emergency?)

you shoulda given him a lap dance -

I don't know, Ron - you might have to return all those CDs -

I think Tristano tended to look at what he perceived was technique - and LACK of technique - as he said to me about 1976 (it's true, I actually met the man, but that's a long and strange story in itself):"John Lewis? He can't play - now, Hank Jones - THERE's a piano player."

historically Pepsi was one of the first US corporations to hire African Americans in executve positions, and not as token blacks - so it is deserving of our respect -

I love LPs - rediscovering them as I work on a new reissue project - they actually do, in terms of older music, reissues, etc, sound signficantly better than CDs - I'm astounded by some of the clarity I'm getting, post CEDAR and with some very significant re-equalization (which is the weak spot on old LPs, probably before the days of commonly accessible parametric eq's, not to mention my current digital eq, which I love; everyone should have one) -

VPI TNT junior -

the other engineer that Schlitten liked (as he told me himself years ago) was Paul Goodman, who later turns up as a re-mastering engineer on some early CD reissues (the good ones; he did some amazing work in the early digital years while everyone else was screwing up) - I think Goodman also did most of the Xanadus -

I THINK THEY'RE FROM JAZZ AT MASSEY HALL

Larry's been jumpy ever since he turned down that cabinet position -

I'll need a credit card number if you want an answer -

STRANGEST i have the biggest font

STRANGER

STRANGE

the later studio was a funny shaped conical thing; I was at one or two sessions there - Johnny Costa was a great pianist; he played for Mr. (Fred) Rodgers' house band until he died. Talked to him once, a very nice guy who was, he told me, no relation to Eddie Costa; I wondered about this because he had a very similar style. He told me when he played with Marsalis on that show that Wynton was surprised that Rodgers had a piano player with real jazz chops -

just an aside, if you can ever get hold of the un-dubbed original it is MUCH better sounding than the one in which Mingus overdubbed - perfectly good sound, IMHO, clear, all musicians audible. A truly great concert recording -