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AllenLowe

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Everything posted by AllenLowe

  1. just bought this, than decided that since I have most of it in good sound on various LPS, I can live without it - even though I figure it'll do the usual Mosaic price-inflation once it's out of print, I'll offer it at $90 plus shipping - only 2 of the CDs are even open - my paypal is alowe5@maine.rr.com
  2. Santa Claus The Craw Santos Trafficante
  3. truth is, speeding can be bad but it is not half as dangerous as many other things I see on the highway, most of which involve following too close and tailgating - problem is, it's easier for the cops to just point a radar gun and get a number, rather than really deal with nuanced issues of public safety; speed traps are like the old-style mass drug stings - cops are there and than gone and everything resumes as before - I will quote a former police chief I used to work with:"Cops are the laziest fuckin' people on earth."
  4. wait - oh, ok, just making sure which finger that is -
  5. still have plenty of these around - Stash put out our Knitting Factory Recording: "Mental Strain at Dawn: A Modern Portrait if Louis Armstrong" - w/Murray/Cheatham/Schoenberg and me given honorable mention as release of the year by the National Assocation of Independent Record Distributors - named CD of the Month by Bob Blumental in CD Review - got a lot nice reviews - a good night with good music - tunes include some standards (Black and Blue, La Cucaracha, Dinah, Chinatown) and amalgams of standards with free composition - $8 shipped USA; my paypal is alowe5@maine.rr.com
  6. I like him a lot - I once gave a lecture at Rutgers during which I played some of his stuff - my comment at the time was that "he has more imagination than taste - which is a good thing."
  7. just to add to the mix here, I will mention that my experience with small and allegeldly honest indie jazz labels has been no better - one in particular (won't mention names here) with a VERY good rep ripped me off to the tune of probably $2500 -
  8. this is why I drive a truck -
  9. of course, I just found this article: The Rhythm & Blues Foundation is a Cover for Record Company Ripoffs….. As much as Ruth Brown, LaVern Baker ("Jim Dandy," "I Cried a Tear") has the right to be considered the Mother of Rock & Roll. Her death on March 10, from heart disease and the complications of diabetes that had cost her both her legs, marks the passing of a truly legendary force. Baker's death came less than two weeks after the Rhythm and Blues Foundation engaged in its annual self-congratulatory spectacle the evening after the Grammys. This year's honorees, all worthy, were given $20,000--$25,000 to split for groups--in "grants," out of a fund established by an endowment from Time-Warner as a means of heading off major litigation over the way the company, and its Atlantic Records division in particular, cheated its R&B artists out of royalties since the 50s. Ruth Brown spearheaded that mid-80s effort, but her great friend LaVern Baker was one of her most important allies. Today, the Foundation created by the work of Brown, Baker, and their peers refuses to address the real needs of this great but rapidly aging group of artists. The Foundation not only wont "get involved" in royalty reform issues, it effectively blocks such efforts by creating the appearance that the problem is solved and that all that remains is to adequately "honor" performers. Indeed, at this year's awards ceremony, current Motown godfather Clarence Avant, whose label has adamantly refused to upgrade its royalty schedules, proclaimed that what R&B really needed was its own Hall of Fame--which would be a massive waste of money given the human needs. Such sentiments brought Bonnie Raitt, long an advocate of royalty reparations as well as the Foundation, to her feet in opposition. Raitt also directly excoriated Fantasy/Stax Records, the company with perhaps the worst royalty track record of any current label. "We don't need another building," Raitt declared, "we need to get these people paid. Show them the money!" For her pains, Raitt was ignored at the ceremony and afterwards attacked, notably by Billy Vera. (Vera frequently writes liner notes for Fantasy/Stax and its business partner, Atlantic/Rhino). In the wake of Atlantic's heralded announcement that it is upgrading "all" of its artists to a full 10% royalty on all future sales, others may believe Vera has a point. In the past, Atlantic has instituted other royalty "reforms" for a group of thirty artists (a group which did not include, for instance, a major seller like Wilson Pickett but did include several blues singers who made only minor contributions to the label.). These have been pretty much meaningless. For instance, Sam Moore of Sam and Dave recently returned from a trip to England with more than $1000 worth of European Sam and Dave reissues that do not show up on his royalty statements. Brown has reported similar problems. What is the real meaning of the way R&B giants are treated? Atlantic founder Ahmet Ertegun showed up at the R&B Foundation ceremonies in a regal limousine, wearing handmade shoes. Even when she was dying, LaVern Baker continued to perform from a wheelchair, because she needed to pay for her artificial legs, not to mention the rent. Among the no-shows at LaVern Baker's funeral was the R&B Foundation's executive director Suzanne Jenkins, whose annual take from the endowment money people like LaVern Baker earned with the sweat of their brows is $75,000 plus benefits, i.e., four or five times per year as much as any R&B artist will receive from the Foundation lifetime.
  10. I have a feeling that Atlantic, if we look closely at its financial practices, is probably like Chess - neither all good nor all bad, a product of its own street-fighting world - and that when these independents were struggling to get going they did what they felt they had to do to stay in business -an d that afterwards they lost touch with the roots of their own success, if in different ways. This, of course, does not justify bad accounting practices and it doesn't help older musicians who never reall collected the rewards for their work. A more constructive thing would be to make sure we look at all the old accounting practices and re-dress them, which I believe the Rhythm and Blues Foundation has done to some extent (I remember that Ruth Brown was one beneficary) - it would be very worthwhile looking at what the R&B Fooundation has to say about all this -
  11. shows why jazz musicians never have any money -
  12. anybody else notice the mistake in the addition? Should be $360.14 -
  13. just checking - did she used to be married to Goldberg? was she kidnapped recently? if not, it's probably safe to go ahead -
  14. let's not forget his masterwork: "Get the Jews out of the World Trade Center."
  15. send me One Million-five and you'll get the wife and kids back -
  16. just spoke to Lewis - who said, in essence: 1) Alice Coltrane probably wanted too much for the material she had, and so held it back thinking it was worth more than it really was worth - especially at a time when the CD business has been on a downward trend - 2) there is not really all that much there - bits and pieces, some cassettes, some reel to reel - but actually very little in the big picture- but not "a treasure trove." 3) it is now under the control of Ravi who, due to his own career, is not giving it a high priority -
  17. anybody know his number?
  18. will try tonight -
  19. I'm late to this, but if it would help, I'd be happy to give Lewis Porter a call to see what's going on -
  20. well, than, I'll give it a try: "crack is wack but needles are quicker"
  21. if you gotta ask........................
  22. well, going back in this thread, if those masters are so damn valuable they should: 1) put them on another reel with dolby sr 2) transfer them into a high resolution digital format and than store the damn things carefully - for all the problems with digital, if the original is a good analog source, the digital copy (with the right equipment, converters. etc) will be faithful -
  23. as I recall it's a lot of fun, especially the way Diz bumps and grinds; I wouldn't call it essential, but others may disagree -
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