AllenLowe

my dog chewed and destroyed my wonderful Steve Broadus 1930s alto mouthpiece - only time I've ever been REAL mad at him. I was traumatized, I had just recorded with that mouthpiece and it was my favorite. Had to buy another Broadus off Ebay for $75 (now they're about double that) -

hi Chris - working on a new blues anthology/book, and am increasingly impressed by Ruby Smith's singing - found a few cuts I had not heard before (and as usual, since I'm at work, I cannot remember where I found them!) but she has a very nice voice, and a gentler sensibility than Bessie, which I like very much - will still try to locate that info on those vinyl Bessie pressings, hope to search tonight -

and still looking great - I saw him in June and he was healthy and happy -

he was a great guy - when I was working on my jazz history he sent me a CDR of a cut I couldn't find - trasnferred it for me, would not accept a penny -

it is, as they say, a classic - as I work on a new book on the blues, I'm perusing it to see what I can plagiarize -

I'll have to dig out the cds I have, Chris, but they were pressed on different material than regular 78s and so had better sound and less noise - I actually talked to John R.T. about them years ago, and he explained that they were apparently an English production, and there was, as I mentioned, one British collector who had a lot of them -

from my own experience the LPs, as Chris is implying, are hit or miss - however, there are some great transfers on them as well as some lesser sources - I think Doug Pomeroy told me that Columbia had destroyed a lot of the Bessie masters. I also have a Japanese boxed set of the Bessie sides that I have not listened to in some time, so I can report back. The CDs, as Chris indicates also, are a mixed thing - some good, some bad. The JSP Davises is excellent - John R.T. was a great transfer engineer and, most importantly, he had 78s that were in mint shape - also, there is/was a European guy (who I've lost touch with) who had these strange old vinyl 78s that they produced in small numbers back then. There is a whole CD of Bessie material taken from these, and the sound is spectacular on them, best of all sources -

my favorite Bond character is still Alotta Vagina -

well, as Lenny Bruce said, I stopped going to those Civil Rights marches because I was tired of watching Stevie Wonder bump into Ray Charles - ****** *****(actually it was Al Hibbler and Ray Charles; changing for topical reasons)

true enough re-the notes (awful stuff) - however, some of the best transfers of a lot of 78s, plus a whole LP of Lil Green - she used Carl Seltzer, who has since died, and he was one of the best -

you're missing a lot - Casino Royale was great on all fronts - characer, action, plot. A rare thing - highly entertaining AND smart -

gotta say again, get the RCA sessions with Ladnier - the height of psot- N.O. development -

won't make the obvious double joke there - Medwin's a bright guy; I sent him my last CD however, which he told me in an email was "full of shit."

Superb Sidney, as someone has mentioned, is superb. also don't know if the Solal sessions were mentioned; I may, however, be in the extreme minority, as I always though they were not very good and lacked edge.

haven't seen the new Bond, but I never take Ebert seriously; he is a world-class middlebrow and intellectual mediocrity. The last bond movie (Casino Royale) was simply the best ever made, I think, and Craig is the first guy who surprasses Connery. I prefer the new Bond because it has almost a LeCarre feel to the whole texture. worried about the new one because I have heard some other bad things, however -

awright, here's a listing of the worst albums ever, Stevie Wonder-lovers: 1972: Talking Book (U.S. #3) 1973: Innervisions (U.S. #4, UK #6) 1974: Fulfillingness' First Finale (U.S. #1, UK #5) 1976: Songs in the Key of Life (U.S. #1, UK #2) 1979: Journey through the Secret Life of Plants Soundtrack (U.S. #4, UK #7) 1980: Hotter than July (U.S. #2, UK #2) 1982: Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium (U.S. #4, UK #8) 1984: The Woman in Red (U.S. #4, UK #2) 1985: In Square Circle (U.S. #5, UK #5) 1995: Conversation Peace (U.S. #17, UK #8) 2005: A Time to Love

for sound, if you can find the domestic RCA Bechet LP reissue, snatch it up - the best of all sources-

I hate everybody. nothing personal -

thanks - the rhythm section at my wedding (1982) was Leroy, Skinny Burgan (a great bassist who had worked with Hampton's band in the '50s) and Dick Katz; nice group -

I'm afraid to go to sleep at night - who's next?

wilbur ware, wilbur ware - saw him only once, at the Village Vanguard, 1969 or 1970 - but I can still hear that bass -

I no longer take my meds - I wouldn't hurt a fly.... but if Kart doesn't give me back those brilliant rhymes, I may have to kill something larger -

well, you know, I have, sitting in my basement (haven't had a chance to fully play it through) a collection of really old experimental electronic music, from the 1920s on - a few Italians, etc. Will look tonight and report back -

to address the question, if I may, I have been a Bud Powell fanatic since about 1968 - and what I love the best is the ballad and medium-tempo stuff, where you can really hear him think - the mediums of the 1946-1949 studio dates (including the Sonny Stitt Prestige and the earlier Bebop Boys); Bud had the most distinctive and amazing time; he was like a high wire walker who seems to falter and stumble but who is really just playing with the audience - it Bud's case he is playing with the time - listen particularly to Somebody Loves Me from '47; for ballads: Polka Dots and Moonbeams and Over the Rainbow (I actually do not think the Bud of 1947 was a good ballad player - that started in about '49) - but what makes him Bud is his time and his touch. He has a sound unlike any other, dark and percussive (not unlike Monk, interstingly). Simply the most profound jazz musician ever, IMHO -

Stevie Wonder still sucks -