AllenLowe

I know what you mean, and I became burned out on certain kinds of "background music" gigs, which no longer seem worth it unless there's a lot of cash involved - right now I'd just like to find a consistent place to compose/play -

tempting - a midwest tour - it could happen - let me do a little thinking - as for making our own gigs - yes - working on that now but facing some oddball obstacles - had a venue interested in a little local weekend festival - along comes one of the booker's friends - says, hey, we've got an idea for a little weekend fest - same dates as I proposed - guess who they book? I was ready to strangle the twerp. Another problem is getting local media to cover anything but indie rock, which makes promo difficult - however, I have a few ideas and I am working on it, putting together some alliances with younger guys who have, at least, heard of Julius Hemphill - rocker guys, great musicians, and we get along well. I'm hoping the Braxton thing turns into something. We've been talking for quite a few years; at the least it'll be a nice chance to compare notes -

would like to - problem is finding a new day job at age 53 - I find age discrimination is the new American way - my wife (59) is finding same - given two decent jobs and health insurance and 2 kids and an elderly parent, mobility is limited -

Portland, Maine - 10 miles south of Hell -

haven't had a gig in 5 years - live in a town run by 25 year olds - local bookers don't return my phone calls or emails, yet Anthony Braxton just asked me to come down and see him to discuss a project - what's wrong with this picture? I hate this fuckin' town = AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH feel better now......................no need to go out and kill a kitten -

well, as I recall, Bob James did record, at one point, for ESP -

true - but they do post a warning on the station about listening to it at the same time that you're operating heavy machinery -

well, I stay away ftrom drinking water - for the same reason WC Fields stayed away -

probably no truth to that one - biggest problem I had was soggy sinuses whenever I tried to snort it - also had trouble getting the whole bottle top to fit into my left nostril - was even tougher with the can -

they are also adding channels for: "some jazz," "no jazz," "dead jazz," "what's jazz?" "who jazz?" "why jazz?" and "occassional jazz whenever we feel like it."

kidney stones hurt - only good thing about the experience was my introduction to demerol - one good reason to keep drinking Pepsi is that they were, originally, one of the first American corporations to actively recruit African Americans as both emplyoees and for executive positions - in the early days it was a truly progressive company whose recruitment was sincere and not merely tokenism. So I always try to buy pepsi over coke -

still available - it's really the Marcus Greil -

Jim - are you still getting kidney stones? I ask because I had 'em years ago because of an excess of calcium produced by my parathyroid gland - I had the gland removed and I've been fine ever since. It's rare but not that rare, and doctors almost never know about it - an endocrinologist is the one who suggested it to me - I peed in a jar for 24 hours, brought that big jar over to the lab, and it was diagnosed - and if you don't have that problem, you can always donate the jar to the Republican National Committee -

I'm going back to heroin - I hate needles, so maybe I can put it in a bottle -

I'd accept a job like that as a no-show -

well, you can also find pictures of the Mona Lisa on-line - here's a chance to get the real thing -

1) Charles Mingus and Friends in Concert - Japanese issue of the 1972 Town Hall concert, Gene Ammons, et al. Some scuffing on one CD, plays fine. $25 shipped media in the US of A. Prefer paypal. Email me at alowe@maine.rr.com 2) Charles Mingus: Meditation. French CD, concert with Byard/Jordan/Dolphy/Richmond. Decent quality radio recording. $25 shipped media in the US of A. Prefer paypal. Email me at alowe@maine.rr.com

excellent pianist, funny guy; also worked as a bag man for the mob, according to Al Haig -

yes, I understand that - however, there is a real N.O. tradition of sweet,melodic playing, a whole different aesthetic from the gutbucket sound (see Pops Foster's bio for some discussion of this). I'm thinking of the way that Bunk Johnson sounded on his comeback, also about Kid Ory's 1921 recordings; so I was struck by Armstrong's comment, because Miles was, of course, such a lyrical player - so I question the assumption about Bolden's playing.

are there a lot of dropouts? That's really unnecessary; with digital editing, eliminating dropout is quite simple; I've done it more than a few times myself -

I congratulate them on refusing to do an encore - not kidding around. I think encores are: 1) redundant 2) anti-artistic 3) destructive of performance pace and rhythm 4) bad bad bad glad to hear it was a memorable night - and trust me, they did you a favor by leaving the stage when they did - asking for an encore is like watching a play and than asking the actors to come out afterwards and do another scene, from whatever play they feel like - just my opinion - (the preceding was an encore posting, by demand)

still, btw, gonna insist that everybody read the book Ragged But Right - run to your local bookstore - and don't forget your $75 - I will be posting a short quiz on it next week -

glad Clem brought up the race vs class thing, because, though that's a whole other can of worms, it's a can worth opening - only thing I would add is that in the scheme of things race and ethnic identity often obscures the issue of class and even sometimes alter it - thinking, right away, of Jews in Nazi Germany - the German Jews were largely of the bourgeousie; some thought this tacit membership in the ruling class was protection from the class warfare of the right - obviously it wasn't. Also, many of the Russian Jews who supported the Russian revolution did so as part of a larger ideological belief that since the issue was class, the Russian people, post-revolution, would recognize the united Soviet people's front - didn't work out this way: Jews were purged from the party early on - and many went to live in Palestine and became the first colonists of what would become a Jewish state - which itself was a reflection of a resigned understanding that in light of certain kinds of bigotry, certain people would always remain isolated and separated as objects of distrust. Hence Obama, firmly ensconced in the upper middle class, will still not be trusted by many of his economic peers, simply because he is black. All of which doesn't mean I disagree with Clem, only that this stuff always gets more and more complicated as one looks at it more deeply -

I would question the definitive characterization of Bolden's music as "dirty" - possible, but who knows - Louis Armstrong, for example, said that Miles Davis's playing reminded him of Bolden -

re-Yale and Calhoun - I can understand why that would be controversial - I mean, why would they name a college after Amos and Andy's lawyer?