AllenLowe

my conclusion is that Buddy Rich was a great small band drummer when he was NOT the leader - saw a Playboy allstars clip once with 7-8 pieces, including Dizzy, with Rich on drums - sounded like Dave Tough -

I'm thinking of putting myself on my own "ignore" list - been posting too many offensive things lately -

add two hookers and a crackhouse, and you have my average day -

believe me, it's still worse in Maine -

you got a problem with salmon?

I wasn't expecting paradise - just some basic knowledge and cultural awareness, let us say, by people who should know better than they do - it's not just me but a constant littany of complaints by some very talented residents. About 3 years ago I was sitting in with someone at a local space, and afterwards someone came over to me and said "did you know there's another guy named Allen Lowe who plays the saxophone?" He was surprised to find out that I WAS that other guy, and asked me what I was doing here - as I had begun to ask myself. Portland prides itself on it's local cultural scene, and its "support" for artists (likes to mention the Creative Economy) and it was discussions about such things that helped finalize my decision to move here - I surmised that I could find just one small place to work, which would have been fine, but that place does not exist - I come from a sense that in order to work in the arts one needs to know what is going on, ones needs knowledge of the cutting edge, of who lives where and who performs what - it's something of a professional obligation (in the same vein of musicians who need, in my opinion, to know about what is going on in their particualr line of work) - if you want to book dance, you learn about dance - same with music, theater, etc etc - I've been somewhat shocked by what I've seen here (like talking to a local accordion player who imagined he was very far into 'new music,' and having him say to me, "Guy who?") it's just gotten too weird and I've already squandered away too much time -

no offense Tom - present company excluded - I just have found the Portland arts infrastructure to be incompetent at best, and corrupt at worst; one particular arts agency has wasted over $100,000 on literally nothing, and has nothing left to show; the city now won't give any money because there's none to give - the audiences aren't much better; the young kids think of themselves as hipsters but are clueless about anything prior to 1990 and the post-40 generation never leaves the house, while all the time complaining of a lack of grownup entertainment; give it to 'em and they don't show up. The younger musicians are extremely unprofessional, don't show up for rehearsals AND gigs; I've been blacklisted at the two prime arts venues in Portland for daring to give my opinion as to what goes on and for sugggesting they raise their artistic standards. I've had a major festival idea I was discussing with a local venue taken elsewhere (they told me they weren't interested and than produced it with someone else). a lot of this is, I am told, just Maine, which is weirdly provincial and insular. But I no longer feel, after producing a significant body of work, that I have to prove myself to 20 year olds who have never heard of Julius Hemphill, David Murray, Roswell Rudd or Don Byron - it's just become too much work -

I'm not saying she doesn't sound great - just that engineers can, in many cases, do a better job of giving her voice dimension -

Alex - don't forget to send in your first year's dues - love Helen Merrill, love Dick Katz (hey, he played at my wedding) - but I've always thought that engineers have rarely understood how to record Merril's voice - given its tendency toward whispiness, it seems to sometimes fade away - this is probably the result of engineers using ribbon mikes when they should always use condensers with her - otherwise she loses some presence - she sounds best on the Mercurys, I think -

I think of Neil Young and Morrisey as the two great whiners of rock and roll - I find listening to either of them like listening to nails on a chalk board-

I also like the way he crawls in through the window of his car -

funny you mentioned that because Philly was our original thought - would love to talk - send me a phone number, if that's ok, to: alowe5@maine.rr.com

tom wopat?

strangely enough, you know who's a great singer in the Sinatra mold? Can't think of his name, but the guy that used to be in Dukes of Hazzard - beautiful voice, great phrasing -

actually, I always confuse Dejohnette and Gould -

you're right - I know too much - well, spoke to the wife last night and the winner seems to be the Boston area (Cambridge, Sommerville, Newton, who the hell kows where) - got at least three years before we can go, anyway, though I had a brief talk with Bob Blumenthal last night - looks like I'm gonna start looking into insurance companies down there as well as academica (Harvard is currently using Devilin Tune in a course; small chance, howevcer, of me ending up there unless I knock up a Radcliffe girl) -

just, whatever you do, stay away from THE SALMON MOUSSE * *Monty Python reference

I know the problem - goes in different ways; when certain musicians I knew well died I couldn't listen to their stuff for some time (but that's a different thing than what you're going through) - I have also gone through a bit of musical burnout, related to Devilin Tune (just too much music to experience with the resulting musical version of PTSD) - one cure (or treatment) is to find oddball and SHORT recordings that are extremely expressive - for me it was 1920s African American gospel of the mad, anarchic kind - short and sweet, people screaming and yelling - cathartic for them AND me. Also certain 1960s rock and roll (try the Animals, or anything by Mike Bloomfield) - but old strange things work best - maybe 1930s Turkish recordings - or singing/yelling preachers -

first you're gonna have to find some Gregorians -

c'mon Chuck, we know you're out there getting older -

they do, indeed, look like their sinuses are clear -

actually, if we want to bring personalities into this, my least favorite drummer is Jack Dejohnette because he was very nasty to me once -

creepy and disturbing - but not as creepy and disturbing as the album Hot Dog -

on the other hand I love French crullers and just saw "Breathless" -

first it must be sauteed -