AllenLowe

I think what actually happened is that he went into schock when he got his monthly statement from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation showing how much he owes in back royaltiies -

wait, Dimitry - do mean "hard bop" big bands, or hard "bop big bands," as in groups playing difficult music (or maybe having reached full arousal from the good looking ladies in the front row)?

speaking of guitar, boys and girls, my new CD, containing my debut on guitar, will be out in a month. And just to grab a little attention and get everybody angry (because there's no such thing as bad publicity and nobody's gotten mad at me recently) let me mention that I have a much more convincing sense, IMHO, of American roots music than Nels Cline - and for you gear heads, on the CD I play: a Yamaha Pacifica modded with old goldfoil pickups; a Jay Turser modded with a Melody Maker pickup in the neck and bridge; an old Teisco modded with a Dearmond pickup in the neck. Also an old un-identified thing with an amazing pickup in the neck (probably a Teisco). I play these through a Princeton with a 12 inch speaker, a Thunderbolt head with a Weber speaker, and a Tweed Pro head with a Weber. There's also a solo appearance on two tracks by Marc Ribot - and a duo on one cut, me on guitar, Matt Shipp on piano. Should be available by the 15th of January 2007 - check your local Walmart, as I induced impoverished third-world children to produce the cover art; I figured this way Berigan would buy it.

wait - are you looking for a recommendation of a "classical recording," or a classical recommendation of "a recording" ? If it's the latter, I always recommend the Folkways compilation of FDR's Fireside chats - classic stuff, that -

even more amazing, it needs new pads -

yes, Larry Gushee mentioned the Tristano book to me this summer, and speaks very highly of the author - and Larry has very high standards -

and we haven't even begun to discuss over-priced audio cable -

actually I tried one of those in the bedroom - my wife went wild. I put in two more and I was visited by every chicken within a 30 miles radius. Two more and Lindsay Lohan came by - 2 more and the Bush Twins had their first orgasms - 2 more and Tommy Lee sent me an email -

one Asians, one cripple, and one Jew go into a bar - the bartender says to 'em, "what does this look like, a Safeway?" the Assian says, "sorry, I was having a flashback to 'Nam - INCOMING! the cripple says, "that's how I got this way." the Jew says "well, I had a deferment to attend the Yeshiva." the bartender says, "what's the punch line?"

"im not allowed to make fun of the asians" good point there, Chewy. Add the Jews and the cripples to that, and you're all set -

I'll only go if he promises not to yell at me -

he could play ok, though he was a nasty S.O.B. - I once sat in with Bob Neloms and Percy France at the West End in NYC - and Jackson also sat in - he knew Percy - I played fine, I knew what I was doing, but Jackson was clearly bugged by the white kid on the stand and bothered that he could not have all the solos - also bothered, I think, that the audience, more of a college crowd, was pretty non-responsive to what was at best, at the time, a kind of Hershel-Evans-gets-funky style on his part. Funny thing was, a few years later I met this guy who was a dentist, in a completely different (non-musical) context - he said, "you know, I used to have a patient that was a saxophone player, nastiest guy I ever knew, I wouldn't even treat him after a while. I wonder if you've ever heard of him - Willis Jackson."

"why don't you see if they're hiring?" yes, Chewy would be the perfect tour guide - or janitor -

"Life comes once, doesn't 'keep coming back' " this is news to me, as I expect to return several times before the rapture. And once afterwards.

the most interesting, to me, "live" Bird things are the OJCs where he frequently bursts into the upper register and basically splits notes and stops playing, as though he's hit some kind of celestial altissimo range - this, IMHO, is the Bird who is frustrated with basic tonality, trying to find a way out (you'll have to listen through to find these, but as I recall one of them is Bird at St. Nick's) - I have a feeling he was high and happy for these and feeling expansive. The whole search for the altisimmo range (and I don't think I am spelling that word correctly) was really an early search for freedom, as has been pointed out to me by a few older '50s players (particularly Dave Schildkraut who basically told me that Bird was fascinated by the possibilities and told him so, and that Dave himself was working on playing up there, and that Coltrane discussed with Dave the importance of control in that register and expressed an understanding that they were both working on controlling it - also, Teo Macero is another who was looking in that direction) -

I wonder when the sex tape is coming out -

yes, it was Haig who made the basement comments (also said: "working with Charlie was a pleasure - no problems, no hassles...no money") Joe, on the other hand, enjoyed shooting up with Bird, as he told me - I got to know Joe about 1978 or so - it is interesting, and I will tell you that Joe was always best heard solo in those days - with groups he frequently got lost (which was not new for him- he also gets lost from time to time in the recording he made with Warne Marsh at Donte's in 1957) - clearly this was from years and years of substance abuse; no surprise, as he once told me that his drug of choice for some time was a tranquilizer normally used on horses. Solo he did not have to worry about a rhythm section; I have a cassette somewhere of some solo things from around 1979 that are quite amazing - harmonic density, brilliant lines, freely but amazingly associated -so I would be interested in hearing these. one quick story - one night Joe was playing with a trio at the West End Cafe in NYC; they were playing Ornithology. I was in the front row, the bass player was Jeff Fuller, a good friend of mine. The were doing the closing riff - which is basically a turnaround starting on B minor and descending chromatically until you hit the G chord, which is the tonic - Bird played it this way sometimes, and repeated the riff a few times - on this night Joe just kept playing it, maybe 8-10 times. It was like a stuck CD player. I knew something was off, and I was gripping the edge of my chair tightly, hoping Joe would come back. Finally he did and it ended; Jeff looked at me and said, "I know, I know" - the whole room let out a sigh of relief and Joe just left the bandstand like nothing unusual happened.

I will say that virtually every jazz musician that I've known of a prior generation (born, say, between 1930-1940) told me, at some point, looking at rock and roll's popularity, that they knew they could play in that style and make a million bucks if they wanted to. A bit delusional, yes, and based on a frustrated feeling of superiority, mixed, in the case with black muisicians, with certain racial resentments. So I have a feeling (and this is purely intuitive) that this was as much Ayler's idea as anyone else's-

one thing to understand in all of this is the quartet tradition - the vocal quartet is one of the oldest basic units in African American music, going back into the 19th century - Louis Armstrong and WC Handy both got their musical starts in a vocal quartet. And it's not surprising that the quartet has become the basic group formulation in everything from rock to blues to jazz, though of course we see many variations. There are, actually, "gospel quartets" with 5 or 6 members because it has become something of a generic term (think of Henry Threadgill's groups as well). So Hemphill was really drawing on a very important and powerful black tradition when he devised the sax-quartet-without-rhyhm section, which really does draw on that old vocal quartet ensemble idea. I think this was/is one of the sources of that kind of group's power - its flexibility and strength, ability to be like both a small and large band. And though I understand Liebman's comments (I don't know that particular recording) and I do agree that the "ragged" standards approach has gotten to be a little bit of a cliche, I also think his comments reflect the tension between a so-called "schooled" approach to improvisation and a more instinctive, less ordered approach. I prefer the latter, but I have known some great and very advanced musicians who, while members of an earlier avant garde, really despised the later versions of same (as a matter of fact I once did a talk at a jazz seminar called "Who Hates What and Why") -

it really had nothing to do with democracy in the group - Julius was happy to share the credit and the writing - it was pure jealousy, based on the Downbeat article which rightfully credited Hemphill with the organizing concept - and with Bluett and Murray in particular you had two highly f'd up individuals who were going through particular craziness in their personal lives (on top of their own innate asshole-ness) -

two sextet CDs are Fat Man and the Hard Blues and 5 Chord Stud - both highly recommended - I think they are on Black Saint - as I mentioned, Hemphill thought of the Sextet as a kind of revenge on the WSQ - it was his way of saying, keep your damn quartet, I can do it for six -

I will add ad few things vis a ve Hemphill - years ago I was talking to Vinnie Golia and he remarked that Julius was "the Duke Ellington of the avant garde." I concur - the whole sax quartet concept for the WSQ was initially conceived and executed by Julius - and, when this was acknowledged in a Downbeat article about the group, the other three got together and kicked Julius out. This was a trio of egomaniacs and typical of their actions. Julius was not a guy who promoted himself; he just wrote brilliantly and played brilliantly. I know this story because I was in NYC for a rehearsal with him on the day he received the letter from the group's lawyer. I took him downtown, he went into some office, and that was it. He was quite wounded, but told me he would go them one better, and hence his series of Saxophone Sextet albums, which are even more amazing. If you have not heard them, find them - I will also add that the the Electra CD of his big band writing is incredible, the best big-group writing of the last 30 years, IMHO -

this one's hard to find in this format, in good shape with original cover, first edition - $30 plus shipping conus. Prefer paypal. Email me at alowe@maine.rr.com (which is also my paypal address) -

we do need to avoid certain oversimplifcations, especially per- Jazz Masters of the 1940s - the truth was that things were changing in the early 1940s rhythmically - Charlie Christian was working toward this, Lester Young was a major influences - Rudy Williams (alto, the Savoy Sultans) recorded something in 1942 which is very boppish - Bud Powell's earliest work with Cooties Williams shows that he had some of the same ideas - Nat COle was a MAJOR transitional figure between swing and bop piano, and there were others - but Bird was really the first to put it all together, to take all the new elements - eight-note/triplet rhythms, chromatics, chromatic harmony, more distanct chord subs, etc etc - and put them together into a single brilliant and cohesive/coherent style.

well, I tend to think he was over-rated - but no one has mentioned The Long Goodbye, which is/was one of my favorite films -