AllenLowe

these internal jazz fights - of those schooled vs those unschooled - have been going on for some time and are complicated. A good friend of mine, pianist for Mingus's last group, got himself in some trouble for comparing two sets of personnel from that group in similar terms - when, as he said to me, he was making less a value judgment than an objective evaluation about schooling vs self-taught aspects. I don't think that this is what Cuscuna is doing, and he may have his point, though it is difficult without having names to compare. My feeling is that the first generation of free jazzers, for all their mishugas, set a direction and an aesthetic that changed everybody's idea of sound and composition; take Miles, who said they were all full of shit and than started to play the same way as they did, if with different strictures. As for myself, I tend to listen to fragments of all these players, because it is in the fragments that I find the moments of idea and inspiration. But this is a problem that continues to this day, and I know that many people will disagree with me (it's my old argument about formalism, but I won get into that again) -

it's been a while since I returned it, but it has a bit of a guilty-white-liberal tone to it - it just repeats and repeats things which are basically true, and after a while it's like a hammer over the head about the importance of the African-American musical tradition. It's not that this is incorrect, but it has a weird, pandering quality to it in its repetitiousness - Kenny - yes, I have the LP of that band - important stuff, and an important side of the N.O. aesthetic that is too often ignored -

I have a bootleg CD of a rather amazing concert from one of the schools -

yes, amazing book -

bad book, in my opinion; I bought it and than returned it - two problems, as I see it - 1) a bit politically correct - reiterates the same sociological pieties/cliches over and over - but - the biggest problem is that 2) Brothers, who says he is writing the book to help place Armstrong in the vernacular musical culture of New Orleans, knows virtually nothing about that music and culture as it relates to anything other than jazz. I've long thought that to understand New Orleans and it's cultural significance one has to look at the big picture, and not just jazz - Brothers sets out to do that but it soon becomes clear that he knows nothign about the other streams of music, from Cajun to blues and rhtyhm and blues to string bands, that populate New Orleans. Nothing. So he ends up repeating certain cliches about African Amercan culture and history, without giving specifics, because he does not know specifics. Sorry to come down so hard on this book, but in my opinion if you want to get a sense of why New Orleans is what it is musically, the best book I have ever read is Dr. John's autobiography -

careful - once you start downloading Murray's stuff they will up the price in the middle of a download - at least that's what Murray does when he's hired to play a gig - usually during intermission he asks for more money -

I like the Wilder Octets - clever and musically interesting -

actually, I didn't tell the whole story about my meeting Martin Luther King at Coney Island in 1962 - we were talking, and he said, "you know, Al, I have this speech coming up in Washington that I have to make, but I'm just not sure I can do it - I'm just so tired and discouraged." So I looked him in the eye and said to him, "Look, Marty, you can't just do this like the everyday stuff - you gotta dream about it, don't let 'em get you down, you gotta have a dream, you gotta follow that dream." I don't know what happened after that, but it did seem to cheer him up -

and note that Hentoff, in his infinite wisdom, takes no special notice of Schildkraut's extraordinary performance -

when I opened for him at the Stamford Center for the Arts sometime in the 1980s, I made a wrong turn and accidentally wandered into Ray Charles's dressing room. Boy did he look old and shrunken; the Raelets up close also looked tired and bored. better NOT to see your idols up close -

Davey was telling me once about the stereotypes people hold about jazz musicians. and said that about ten years after these sessions he ran into Handy on the subway. Handy said to him, "Dave, are you still on the junk?" Davey never took a drug in his life but figured there was nothing he could do so he just answered "no" - thanks, Larry, for posting about this - on top of everything else, Dave had the most personal sense of rhythm of any player I ever heard. he told me that he always tried to think a few measures ahead in the tune, and that this was something Bird had taught him. I think this accounts in part for how "off" but right his playing sounds -

Larry, I don't know of a reissue version - I have a copyof the 78, which I originally transferred for the reissue that never happened - I'm just setting up my studio again, so if I can find the 78 and if I get ambitious, maybe I can transfer it - it's also possible I have it on a CDR somewhere - will look around and get back to you -

Bradley's was the first jazz club I ever went to - Jaki Byard was the Sunday guy there in the middle 1970s - one night he was playing and Monk came in with Mingus! I almost fell over - Jaki started playing Well You Needn't and introduced Monk; during the whole set, as Jaki played, Monk came over and kept leaning over and whispering in his ear, and Jaki kept cracking up - Mingus sat down and ate a large steak. It was at Bradley's that I got to know Barry Harris very well, as he was the Sunday guy after Jaki, I believe. Al Haig used to pop in, and we had become friends; he told me how Bradley didn't like him because Haig went out with Bradley's wife for a while (before she was his wife) - Leroy Williams used to come and play drums sometimes with Barry and the bassist Hal Dotson (not sure what happened to him - he wasn't very good) - a few celebs used to drop in; saw Alan Garfield a few times. Dick Katz lived down the street and used to come in; also, it was there that I met Nica, in whose house Barry (and Monk) lived- good club; Desmond left Bradley his baby grand in his will, so that improved things. I believe that back in the 1970s there was a $3.50 minimum. I used to count my pennies and order exacly that, but paid the waitress a few extra bucks so she didn't feel stiffed. Also saw Tommy Flanagan there more than a few times, and Ray Bryant (all in the 1970s) -

I met Martin Luther King in 1962 -

I've been away, so catching up here - 1) it's likely Zorn has more than one fee, especially in relation to overseas, where musicians tend to make more $$$$ - he likes to play NYC and the Stone, so probably subsidizes that with his Euro fees. 2) Certainly Ornette does not HAVE to perform - but he has complained continually about lack of bookings and recognition, when I honestly think his fees were/are self-destructing. Can't have it both ways. 3) when I was running the New Haven Jazz Festival, a free outdoor fest, from 1990-1993, we paid most bands bewtween $5-8,000 (examples: Max Roach got $8,000; Tony WIlliams $7500; F. Hubbard $7,000; Moody got $6,000) - I called Dolly McLean and offered her $7500 for Jackie's quartet. Now, remember that a) Jackie lived in Hartford, a 45 minute drive from New Haven; and b) he worked with young guys from his school, and I KNOW he wasn't paying them more than maybe $500/a night; SO - he would have had to be in New Haven by 7:30 PM; would have played from 8PM to 10 PM; would have been home in bed by midnight at the latest; and would have pocketed maybe $5-$6,000. Dolly turned me down; it wasn't enough - and, I will tell you, I've been to Jackie's house; he did not have a lot of money and could have used the cash -

I like the pedals because most have a truly analog sound - the reverb sounds uncannily like a cheesy 1950s echo (think Sun Ra; as a matter of fact on my current CD I recorded Lewis Porter on electric piano with the Dano reverb and it sounds great); the OCtave distortion just goes out of control, unlike digital pedals which are really too polite for me; I use it also on the CD, on several tunes where it has a great electronic wave to it.

I believe it's 1942, but would have to check -

"our friends in Spain are about to release the complete Hillcrest recordings of Ornette and Paul Bley." hmmm.....could this be unauthorized? I know Paul told me he wanted to put them out but couldn't get clearances (the tapes belong to him) - of course, if I buy this IT WOULD BE WRONG, THAT'S FOR SURE* - unless a copy just happens to fall off the truck in front of my house - *R. Nixon, Watergate tapes

not me- I was only 12 - but Nessa's a LOT older than me so he was probably sitting in the back -

just as a footnote - the Dorsey recording of Drop Me Line, a ballad with vocal, contains the opening phrase that is uncannily similar to the intro to Round Midniight and also matches the line "than you would realizze" in Dameron's "If You Could See Me Now" -

actually, Dano's Octave distortion pedal is a great fuzz, analog and out of control; the reverb gives a great 1950s lo-fi echo; and the delay is very good.

Clem is right, if I catch his drift correctly - I know from people who do tours and booking that Ornette has basically priced himself out of a lot of the market - in the same way (though Ornette has done better ) that Jackie McLean (or rather Jackie's wife) priced him into near historical oblivion (as in, how much real recognition did McLean get when he passed?). Ornette's not alone in this; as soon as one gets to know the business in any way that is more than peripheral, one hears the real stories about self-destructive economics -

question is, are they any saxophonists from those days who DIDN'T end up in the East River?

sorry, I shouldn't be so glib - I just find that Santanta's playing uses certain modal cliches but never really gets to the meat of it -

I thought it was pronounced Paul Immodium -