AllenLowe

I hate compression - I've made 6 cds without using it at all - keys are: 1) a good room with decent but not over-live acoustics 2) condenser microphones 3) a good engineer who can do it live or 4) a multitrack recording made with a natural spread of the band, permitting leakage but allowing levels to be adjusted - 5) get good max levels - I recorded Roswell Rudd "live" to 8 track in Verna Gillis's storage room using a Beyer M500 ribbon and NO compression or limiting and he told me afterwards that it was the best anyone had ever captured his sound - the reason is because prior engineers have tended to compress him to death because he plays with such a broad dynamic range - want good band recordings? Sorry to sound righteous, but I think it can only be done without isolation, no overdubs, no "tracking" no guide tracks, in real time - put the band in a circle and play - UNLESS you are Brian Wilson or Phil Spector and like to use the studio like a canvass - but that's a totally different technique -

Tsuris in Mind

I'm willing to close -

thinking about Evans...and the odd coldness of the later work - made me remember something - in 1979 (I think it was) his wife Nan held a 50th birthday party for him in Branford Connecticut - interesting party, Warne Marsh and George Russell showed up (I attended with my wife-to-be who was unimpressed until I told her that I felt like being at the party was like going to an event and meeting Mozart and Beethoven - sorry, it was the best I could come up with on short notice; she was trying to figure out why I, all of 25 years old, was somewhat beside myself) - anyway, late in the evening Evans sat down at their piano (they had a nice 6 foot Baldwin) and played a beautiful solo version of Stars Fell on Alabama - it was like 1959 again, and I remember thinking at the time that this was an Evans you never heard any more, just playing without any conscious effect, warm and tender and un-mediated by audience or self-expectations. So, he could still do it if he wanted to -

actually, I saw an old lady reading it in the park, I hit her over the head, and ran away with it -

dream number 4: I'm in Synagogue, it's Passover - Rabbi Schwartz begins to talk, and as he does, slowly he morphs into the Reverend Wright - while behind him a Calypso band begins to play, and Wright starts singing a Yiddish version of Jamaica Farewell when suddenly he is joined on the pulpit by Farrakhan, and they start to harmonize, until they morph into Simon and Garfunkel singing "Blessed." And than a curtain opens up, and we're all onstage at the Columbia Records convention, and Chris Albertson is at the podium debating Dan Gould on the relative merits of different brands of oyster sauce, when Gould throws a bottle of the stuff at Chris; I jump in front of Chris, taking the bottle for him, and collapse bloody to the floor, where Patti Page rushes over and begins administering mouth-to-mouth. When I open my eyes she and Irving Townsend are dancing the mambo while Perry Como sings; Gould runs off stage wearing a mermaid suit; Chris chases after him, yelling "screw the Three Sounds." There is rioting in the hall and people begin to fight, hand-to-hand. 15 minutes later the dust clears and everyone is lying dead; the only sound is Hillary Clinton, having sex in the corner with members of The Isely Brothers band - I wake up in a terrible sweat -

no, but I have Pigs in Space (muppets) - not kosher -

Jews in Hell. Jews in Heaven. Jews in Limbo. Jews Doing the Limbo. nahh, not really - just picked up Dirty Laundy 1 and 2, collections on the German label Trikont (careful how you say that one) of black singers doing country music - brilliant suff, with the MOST astounding version of anything I have ever heard, Junior Parker doing Walking the Floor Over You (and Junior Parker is one of the few things Dan Gould and I agree on) -

just to retierate, Jazz I is one of the best books ever written on jazz history - I read it just before I did Devilin Tune, and it was very helpful - II was fine also - he has chapters on everyone from James P to Dickey Wells - so you cannot go wrong. Find it and read it -

dream number 3: I'm downloading some Roscoe Mitchell tunes off the net; Paris Hilton comes into the room, says "Allen, your gonna piss off Nessa." She tells me she prefers the ESP stuff by Marzette Watts anyway, and remarks "I once took a bath with Bernard Stollman." This excites me, and I challenge her to a game of Trivial Pursuits. She says, "Sure, but first let me change into something more comfortable." While she's out of the room I get a phone call from Sonny Bono, who says "copywright, schmopywright, wear a helmet when you ski" and hangs up. When Paris comes back into the room she's dressed as dumpy mama, and is carrying a picture of Sonny Williams, which she than proceeds to light on fire, throw on the ground, and stomp on. Suddenly Jim Sangrey comes into the room, giving a piggy-back ride to Sarah Silverman. He says to me, "Allen, she doesn't know the difference between vertical and horizontal, and I don't like doing it standing up. Please explain it to her." I wake up.

for the record, dumpymama - Sonny Williams was quite thin -

is the sound better than the original OJCs? same? worse?

dream number 2: Anna Nicole Smith and Marilyn Monroe are fighting over me; finally, Marilyn stops pulling Anna Nicole's hair and says: "Ah, you can have him. He's no JFK." I object to this, and I begin to discuss the debate over whether JFK was planning on withdrawing from Vietnam; Anna Nicole points out that the Gulf on Tonkin was a smokescreen; Marilyn begins to act out scenes from the Tet Offensive. Larry Kart comes into the room and starts quoting from some blog about the Iraq war. Both women leave with him.

Ozzie and Harriet Harriet Tubman Tubby the Tuba

being chased by Marilyn Monroe through a car wash while Larry Kart does the hoky poky - and than afterwards Larry tells me, "Allen, that's what it's all about."

I think this belongs in the political forum - everybody knows that Israel's leading export is leather -

I figured there was one thread but I was hallucinating the other -

killjoy

well, if it's solid state, he should get a tube amp -

or MKULTRA (CIA mind control experiment using LSD)

don;t forget owsley -

she probably did good things for Evans - problem was that there was something of a power struggle over Evans between his wife and his manager - can't say much more for privacy reasons, it was just real unpleasant -

tube amp? if so, change the tubes - swap 'em one at a time -

my dream: hot dogs chasing donuts through the Holland tunnell -

not to change the subject, but I just picked up a Trutone archtop off of ebay, though I had sworn off hollow-bodies. The attraction is the Dearmond pickup; guitarists are always talking about getting that "vintage tone" but they are afraid to do what they have to do to get it: low-output, relatively neutral-sounding pickup (6k tops) and low-powered amps (maybe 5-10 watts) with low-powered alnico speakers. I have about 3 such amps and plenty of speakers - will report back whenever I get the guitar in the mail -