AllenLowe

I return to some of my original post on this - the key to doing the music right is knowing it, and I don't necessarily mean sociologically, though that helps - and on this I am something of a fey aesthete; play that hillbilly music after you've locked yourself in a room for 5 years with nothing but hicks and other country boys on the stereo (or really the mono) and when that music comes out of your pores than play it. That's what I did. There is limit to what irony can do as a technique, and I think that we, as a creative society, have hit that limit. It's the reason that I don't really like Chadbourne's country stuff, or Camper Von Chadbourne; and interestingly enough, for all his alleged superiority to the material, Zappa did rock and roll brilliantly, because he really knew it and understood it, and I really believe he loved the music no matter what he said about it. When I saw Zappa at Columbia University in 1968 he summoned Sam the Sham to the stage from the audience. He and the band huddled and they did a letter-perfect version of Wooly Bully. For Zappa, that was real truth, no matter what he professed to think of his audience and the music they listened to. So it might be with Iverson, and Bad Plus. I did hear Iverson play solo about 6 years ago and he was excellent, as a matter of fact he reminded me of Jaki Byard at times. and he did a very nice version of The Windmills of Your Mind.

actually, tits to die for - literally -

there is the recording Brown made with Lou Donaldson - in which he skips to the Lou - (or is it the Loo?).

that woman's a fanatical dick-taker -

must have been something he ATE -

only thing I have is a quote from Dave Schildkraut who told me Bird said to him, "you gotta hear this new trumpet player who plays with big skips."

"It's as though someone were making an enraged charge of rape while attacking themselves fore and aft with a dildo -- and doing so in broad daylight right out in front of the local saloon." ah, I see enough of that at home -

well, I'll think about that - interesting, Larry's comments on Harrison's occasional lack of rationality - because this does explain, as I think back, some weird logical glitches that I've always thought I spotted in Harrison's work, but discounted because he seemed so damned smart - another reminder to always look at things with a cold critical eye, no matter how well established the source - so Larry, I am going to have to re-read your book now -

I'm going to say this here, instead of sending Mr. Kart an email; there are only a handful a truly great critics in American culture, at least as I see it, and he's one of them - the mark of how good that article is, is that, as I read it, I kept saying, "crap, he's right - but I would have gone right past that without seeing the point that Larry saw and makes so clearly." there's only a few other writers who tend to inspire that in me - ironically, one is Max Harrison; Richard Gilman was another. One of the reasons that I stopped writing much was that I felt that in order to do it right, one really has to devote the time, and as I've sunk into the abyss of day-job land, I have less and less time. I now feel even more inadequate - thanks, Larry -

and just to add, that, my fellow Americans, is why, if I ever finish my 1950s book, I intend to retire from writing jazz criticism - it is just not a field for those of us with ADD - we (meaning I) just miss too many details -

good stuff Larry, and through the miracle of copy and paste, your review will keep me thinking for quite a awhile - this calls for some concentration and a few private emails-

loved the old match game, and she was great on the old Odd Couple - Reilly I could do without - too predictably "funny," but her I liked - and I had a weird encounter many years ago with Gene Rayburn (circa 1969) and he was one of the nastiest people I ever met -

last words?

make a left at Mars -

well, maybe I'm a little confused. but my CDs kept getting scratched so I got a new needle - didn't help, and the damn things still sound like shit - I'm going back to vinyl -

are you guys trying to make me feel dumb? well, it doesn't take much - I'll have to ask Chewy for a translation -

by the way, I think 'cover" is an annoying and useless term that should be eliminated from the critical lingo - did Sinatra do covers? Astaire? Judy Garland? Doris Day? Bobby Darin? Norman Rockwell?

there's an old joke, too long to tell here, about a strange-looking animal that had a hypodermic on its head, a Furry with a Syringe on Top -

Dudley Moore was a fine pianist, but his jazz playing was unfortunately in that Pete Barbuti/Oscar Peterson realm of, hammer a lot of 'blue' notes and play a lot of scale patterns real fast, and than you has jazz -

I want to put a personal perspective in here - when I first wanted to fuse free jazz and hillbilly/country music, about 15 years ago, a certain record company owner looked at me like I was crazy. When I finally got around to doing this last year, it occurred to me that the difference between my attitude toward the music and someone like Eugen Chadbournes's (and also Frank Zappa) is that while well educated white boys like those two tend to approach this music with a distancing irony, to refuse to engage it on its own terms, I was determined to do the opposite, to play it in the spirit it was created. Their's (meaning Chadbourne and Zappa's) is a classic jazz attitude toward certain songs - to a lesser extent and in a different way with Sonny Rollins and Monk (and I once had an African American musical historian yell at me, when I said I thought Monk did use some irony, that "Irony is a white concept. He was doing the dozens on those tunes." Bullshit, I said than and now, and the truth was that even with this irony, neither Monk or Rollins ever felt superior to their material) - but my point, anyway, is that, whether you like it or not, the Bad Plus deals with those songs in their own terms, as real material without distancing. And this, after years and years of distancing and musically alienating (and now cliched) irony, is completely proper, in my opinion. Problem is, these critics are putting too much of their own snobbery into their interpretation of the group's intentions -

poppa needs some cash - will sell any or all volumes, 1-4 $40 each plus shipping conus ($6 priority, $3 media) email me at alowe@maine.rr.com paypal address is same

c'mon, everybody knows those ain't real - in one I can see a cat crossing the street - also, how did that Howard Johnson's sign get in space?

well, you're right Jim - not a single organist listed iin my old phone book - mostly just dead people - and I'm not feeling so well myself -

I was going through some old stuff recently and found my address/phone book from the lae 1970s/early 1980s - boy was my life different then - the book has the following people in it, most of whom I knew fairly well or had some business dealings with: Harold Ashby Joe Albany Bernard Brightman Ben Brown Bob Cummings (India Navigation records) Doc Cheatham Eddie Durham John Daley (bassist) Nan Evans (Bill's wife) Herman Foster Percy France Panama Francis Lorraine Gordon Sir John Godfrey (drummer for whom Freddie Redd wrote "Sir John") Al Haig Barry Harris Duke Jordan Jack Kleinsinger Dick Katz Carmen Lundy Bob Neloms Mike Nock Claudio Roditi Curley Russell Danny Richmond Dave Schildkraut Jeremy Steig Loren Schoenberg Phil Schaap Bill Triglia Gene Taylor Dickey Wells John Wilson well, I gues this proves that I used to have a life -

Feather, apparently, also managed to kill a recording session that was supposed to take place with Lester Young and Art Hodes, due to his personal feuds, from what I've heard. When I was working on an article many years ago I naively called Feather up on the phone to ask him some relevant question - naive because I assumed he was the benevolent jazz sage who would talk to me. He was obnoxious and nasty for no apparent reason; I found out later from others that that was just him, that he would be that way whether or not he had particular reason. It was very unpleasant - I've made "cold" calls to a number of famous jazz people - Tristano, Rollins, Dizzy, even Stan Getz - and have NEVER experienced anything like that. Some people are wary because they don''t know you, but he was downright abusive -