AllenLowe

I'd be interested most particularly in the John Henry Barbee - he made just a few early recordings (maybe 1938) that are very interesting and modern and than disappeared (the name Barbee was itself a new name as he was wanted for some crime); he was rediscovered during the blues revivial but died very suddenly of cancer -

I saw Jabbo play frequently in the 1970s in NYC - played nice horn even then but more significantly had the most expressive singing voice I have ever heard - any vocals on these?

yeah it has music on it -

let's not forget the bovine version -

I used to call it "Stella By Stalagmite" - had something to do with cave romance and swamp gas -

there's some particularly crazy stuff about the Dead Boys (Stiv Bators was one, I recall) and their misadventures including on-stage sex. I believe they also got into a terrible knife fight on the lower East Side in which one may have been killed, or at the least badly wounded, as I recall. Good group, one of my favorites of the whole punk era I saw the band Ten Wheel Drive when I was in high school - also a good group, came out of the whole rock-with-horns thing that started with Blood Sweat and Tears. She was a good singer -

Chris, you know Genya Ravan? 10 Wheel Drive - also she was the agent for the Dead Boys - she actually has an autobiography out -

the solution to the arts problem, which I proposed to the Maine Arts Commission about 7 years ago, is simple, and it has nothing to do with Quincy's bogus idea - arts dollars have to get directly to artists, and stop trickling down through organizations that have a phobia about actually producing arts events (and believe me, I know - I was Director of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events for the City of New Haven back in the 1990s) - to do this, you set up a series of mini-grants to artists, juried on a local or regional basis. You come up with some figure - say, $1000 - which is a substantial contribution and allows the artist to produce an individual concert/event; you set up a financial system in which the $1000 serves as a guarantee against the gate; above a certain threshold, the extra money goes back into the fund to re-endow it. You offer this to performance spaces as hosts, with the money going to artists but a small and resonable amount set aside for rentals - so, for example, a $50,000 grant allows a space to put on 50 performances in one year - you do this in a systematic and regionally organized way - and soon you have a renaissance of arts performances, with artists actually getting paid to do what they want to do - with a one million dollar invesment you can have 20 regional concert series producing 1000 concerts per year. Simple. Too simple. there is more to it, but it is an important start toward re-distribution of arts money. The Maine Arts people told me they thought it was a great idea. That was 7 years ago. Haven't heard from them since-

I think the problem with the Byard album is an out-of-tune piano and very little "presence" in the recording - musically it's quite good - Jaki Byard is GOD -

me too!

Chris - did Bella take off her hat?

my late mother comes to me in my dreams about once a month - strange thing is that these are casual dreams - just little conversations about daily events - and real. I usually wake up talking in my sleep. But there's nothing less than casual about our conversations. though she did once demand an apology from Nessa -

Joe, what it means is that he approaches soloing from too schematic a conception - anybody who plays knows that it's difficult if not impossible, when things are going right, to separate the intellectual from the emotional - each is an aspect of the other. But for some players everything is so technically constructed that the solo becomes like an idea of what expression might be like, almost like a textbook instruction, instead of actual expression -one might admire it from afar for certain technical details or a certain native intelligence but it quickly fades from the mind - as my old friend Bob Neloms used to say "it ain't what you play it's what you SAY."

there's something Martin Williams said about Gerry Mulligan years ago which seems to apply to Marsalis, in a somewhat more subtle way - Williams said, of Mulligan, that he seemed to be playing at playing a solo, rather than getting inside the music. I've always felt the same way about Wynton - a kind of detachment, but not in any interesting or ironic or analytical way - just cold and distant. And a coldness in spite of a very heated attempt NOT to be cold -

hey Larry, I saw Hal Singer at the West End Cafe in the 70's - what row were you in?

1) Original Creole Orchestra, with Freddie Keppard - 2) Buddy Bolden "live" at Funky Butt Hall 3) Wynton plays the Music of Buddy Bolden 4) King Oliver "live" at the Lincoln Gardens 5) Art Tatum: Toledo Beginnings

I think we might say that Wynton is musically bulimic -

is Pell still alive? I went to high school with his niece, who than became a producer (Lion King was one credit); she still lives on the West coast -

I always wondered why there were so many Italian guitarists - until Dick Spottswood pointed out to me what a strong string-band tradition there is from that country -

Cinderella is still living in New Jersey - I spoke to him about 7-8 years ago -

I'll have to take a look and will let you know if they are on this particular lp - just did a few more last night: 306. Off Time Blues Earl Hines 12/7/28 307. Give Me a Break Blues Ida Cox 10/27 308. Nothing But Blues Cleo Gibson 3/14/29 309. Barrel House Blues Rosa Henderson 7/24 310. Midnight Mama Frances Hereford JR Morton 1/21/28 311. Organ Grinder Clarence Williams/Eva Taylor Ikey Robinson! 7/2/28 one amazing discovery is Ikey Robinson's solo on the last one there - first of all, it's not a banjo, as he is usually credited for; it's likely a tenor guitar, I think - and it just may be the first great modern guitar solo - very Armstrong-like. I almost fell out of my chair, quite surprising -

generally I am trying to find recordings that reflect the development of the blues in some way - either directly, as part of the whole historic and musical sequence, or indirectly, as in reflecting common (blues and non-blues) influences. I am trying to show some roots influence as well, like ragtime, gospel. minstrel, and medicine show, or songs that use certain kinds of repeated stanzas - as in songs that are, formally, like pre-blues (as an example, I have found a few 20's performances in which the singer seems to be going through the blues matrix, but never changes chords on the guitar - it's strange but it works) - right now it is somewhat random, as I am doing LP and 78 transfers first; next I will go through CD sources to see what sounds best (for example, the best Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey I have is on CD, so I will use those) -

I do have a recording with Mescheaux on it - will have to browse through my old Bluenote reissues - I think the one I've seen is on an album of mostly Art Hodes groups -

oh no, not another Cliff Englewood revelation - Cliff, go toward the light, I insist -

a few more: 294. Hobron City Stomp Cow Cow Davenport 1945 295. Slum Guillion Stomp Cow Cow Davenport 6/22/29 296. Mon Cherie Bebe Creole Dennis McGhee 1928 297. On Top of the World Hackberry Ramblers 2/19/36 298. I Got to Go Blues Barrelhous Buck (McFarland) 8/34 299. Biddle Street Blues Henry Spaulding 5/29 300. Henry's Worried Blues Henry Townsend 11/15/29 301. Sloppy Drunk Again Walter Davis (Henry Townsend, gtr) 2/5/35) 302. Deceiving Blues Teddy Darby 9/29/31 303. Black Evil Blues Alice Moore 8/18/34 Ike Rogers, Henry Brown 304. House Dance Blues Specled Red 9/14/29 305. Throw Me in the Alley Peetie Wheatstraw and his Blue Blowers 8/24/34 Ike Rogers, Henry Brown