AllenLowe

there was a lot going on in Chicago at that time - that's also where Randy Sandke's from and he told me he always used to run into Braxton, whom he likes a lot: "he was always an independent spirit." Randy is also an old friend of Anderson's whom I believe is on some of his more recent recording(s).

I don't think it's a matter of that - any musician (or any artist) who wants to put his work on pubic display can and should be held up for scrutiny - as a musician myself I'm jealous of other musicans who get larry kart's scrutiny - meaning that it's rare for one of us to be examined by a critic who is so aware of the demands and needs of personal expression and who so well understands this musical world. Nothing to get mad about - Larry and I disagree on more than one musician - I happen to like Warren Vache's work as well - but I always find that Larry's criticism of musicians that I happen to like begs my attention and makes personal intellectual demands upon me that should be made - it's not as though he does a "John Simon" on musicians, he's not petty or nasty or overly picky - just absolutely honest -

I once tried to ask Herb Geller about her, and I did it carefully (actually I think he rasied the subject), and though he did not seem offended by my questions he just basically said "she died by accident." I believe it was drug-related.

well, there's compression and there's compression - there's the kind that occurs naturally in tube amplification, and when used in high fidelity playback it arrives as a very warm-sounding and dynamically pleasing effect - however I hate it in my own recordings - through something like 7 CDS I have recorded groups of my own that were dynamically varied and never used compression - just gotta pay attention to peaks and valleys; also gotta know how to use multi-tracking in a natural and room-friendly way - though theoretically compression serves the purpose of allowing the music to "breathe" I think this can be accomplished more naturally and in more sonically pleasing ways - that said, I just remembered; David Baker recorded us "live" at the Knitting Factory way back when, and he DID use some compression - but David was a brilliant engineer and really knew how to do it - it was quite transparent -

but my petty battles aside, I think Ray Anderson is a great trombonist - but there's almost always some point in his solos where I think, all right, I get the point, NEXT -

sorry, not till the fat lady sings -

well, compared to the 1940s beboppers, those guys were old men -

yes, I got to know Eddie a little bit when I lived in NYC in the middle 1970s and frequented the West End Cafe, where he played (trombone) frequently; nice man, though at that point he was alternately coherent and than somewhat confused. I had a very long talk with him one afternoon at a party at Loren Schoenberg's apartment; I think it helped that my very pretty wife was there, as Eddie always liked the girls; I remember he told me about getting a nice royalty check because there had been a disco version of one of his old swing tune/arrangements. Loren knew him a lot better than I did and is always talking about how inventive he was - like, for a simple example, if his car broke down, he would pop the hood and rig something up in about a minute to get it going; he also told us that day he had first amplified his guitar in the 1930s by constructing a resonator for it - He was just a real personable, perceptive guy, easy to talk to - Loren once told me a great story I had forgotten until recently - there was an older bass player who used to work at the West End, a black musican named Jimmy Lewis - he could really play, but he was losing his hearing and kept playing louder and louder. Loren was in a group with Durham and some other (very young and white) musicians; things were getting tense on the gig because Lewis kept turning up his amp and all anybody could hear was BOOM BOOM BOOM from the bass. Loren was getting all upset so Eddie said to him "don''t worry, I'll handle it." Durham goes over to Lewis and says, "hey Jimmy, I think you're playing too strong. These young white boys can't keep up with you." So Lewis turned it down and the rest of the gig went fine -

no no no - the funny thing was that he worked with two blind pianists - Foster and Hayward (who looked nothing alike) - and kept calling one the other on the gig -

well, it's good, but it's no Hot Dog -

not as I recall; maybe very light skinned -

Chicago? isn't that near the Bronx?

Buster was one of the few verifiable and direct influences on Bird, and those recordings are the best evidence -

should mention - based on the tune "You're Driving Me Crazy" -

written and arranged, let us note, by the great Eddie Durham - one of my all time favorite people and major if too-little-known historical figure - though I think he's in episode 27 of the Ken Burns Jazz documentary -

Heyward was an interesting guy, played solo for years at the Town Crier - could really play when he wanted to but tended toward the cocktail, as Larry mentions - though one night I was in there and somebody asked him to play The Lady Is A Tramp and he snorted "that's for squares" and just kept going on something else - another funny story - Heyward was blind (no, that's not the funny part) - one night he was playing wiht Percy's group at the West End, and Percy kept introduciing him as Herman Foster, who also sometimes played there with Percy and who was also blind - there was a group of us in the audience, and every time Percy made this goof we almost fell over with trying not to let anyone see how hard we were laughing - hope this isn't offensive, as I still find this amusing -

Percy was the real thing -

Al Haim, and I think it's the same guy if he plays alto sax, threw me out of his office at SUNY Binghamton in 1973 -

about 6 am when the dog swats me with his paw that he's hungry - feed him and its time to go to work; my wife finds this amusing as for many years, and when she met me, I routinely stayed up to 4 am and slept till noon

well, it's basically available from my basement - if you're interested I can sell it for $6 shipped - my paypal address is alowe5@maine.rr.com - (sorry guys, if this is inappropriate) -

Goldberg Goldberg and Goldberg (hope I'm not breaking the rules; from an old Henny Youngman joke)

yeah, Francis told me recently he was going to stop writing for the Voice and make a go at the Trane book -

conspiracy subliminal hint

just for comparison, Percy France plays a beautiful version of I Should Care on the CD I put out that has him "live" with Dick Katz and Jeff Fuller - perfect balance between the romantic and the aggressive, perfect and unselfconscious phrasing -

allright, now I'm convinced - my next CD will be an organ-trio recording: "Lowe plays Lou" - or: "White Like Me: The Funky Honky." or "The Soul-Way of the O-Fay." now if I can only get Alfredson to take a vacation in Maine -