AllenLowe

I always thought she was ok but about the same quality as about 15 other singers, nothing special, either as a jazz or r&b singer - and she's no Mrs. Miller -

"Things have changed a lot since the 70's." I didn't work in clubs in the 1970s but 20 years after that - and I know enough working musicians to know that some things have not changed; to quote Gertrude Stein, a clubowner is a clubowner is a clubowner - plead poverty and than drive the Mercedes home to Westchester every night. but to get back on topic - the Vanguard is one of the premier gigs anyone in the world can land - and I have been in that club when it was anything but full, so unless Weiss has a REALLY BIG family, this was a major successful gig -

or, as Henny Youngman said: "It doesn't work? Well it doesn't work again."

or maybe the answer is: 16 - one to hold the Leslie 125, 15 to turn the M3 -

VERY carefully....

something I know nothing about? How many NYC clubs have you played? I lived down there and worked down there (including a regular gig for a time at Sweet Basil) - so stick it and stop behaving like a first-class jerk -

Berton wrote a very interesting autobiography, in which he claims to have had an affair with Bix -

hey, Johnny, if you want people here to respond accordingly you need to respond yourself to queries - email sent about 5 days ago -

"how come he's paying us so little?" because he's a cheap a-hole like all club owners -

well, as long as Lorraine doesn't confuse Mike with Thelonious Monk -

well, we know you're gandmother's hot stuff, but I think you're confusing clubs - there's no runway at the Vanguard -

just found some of his music on the internet - well, he will join Daniel Johnston and Loren Mazzacane as another musician inexplicably granted a hipness quotient by the truly un-knowing -

well, he may not be much of a saxophonist, but I sure like his Sherlock Holmes books -

actually on the Sonys and BMG first generation of jazz reissue CDs the problem wasn't noise reduction but transfer - it wasn't until relatively recently that these companies were using any hiss-reduction; the biggest problem with CEDAR and NO Noise is artifacts, meaning wave distortion, particularly on high pressure sounds of brass (most often trombone and trumpet, heard as a kind of gutteral whoosh) - the lifeless sounds you refer to (the early Louis, most of the Bix) are the result of 25 year old engineers who never heard the music before and did not know how to transfer it, what styli to use, etc. Also, they did not take the time to find good original sources - as any transfer engineer will tell you, condition and generation of original is about 80% of the battle. And, as important was the conversion to digital - it took a while before engineers full understood the need for good outboard converters, to convert the analog sound to digital, and this - bad digitization - may be the major cause of graininess on early CDs. A lot of the problem was also poor equalization - I've mentioned this before in regard to the Morton box which, with a bit of EQ, is incredibly good sounding. Another great sounding CD was the early BMG Johnny Dodds, since we're on that subject - if you can find it get it; some of the 1920s sessions are astoundingly clear, as are the sounds on a BMG CD of early white NY (can't think of the name) - when the companies took the time to find good masters, and transferred them correctly, things were ok.

I don't know that musical well enough - just as an FYI, Citizen Kafka, one of the curators of the Secret Museum series, lives out your way in Brooklyn, possibly Brooklyn Heights (I think) - I've lost touch with him, but he's an interesting guy, though he was quite ill last time I spoke to him -

yikes - too much work - though it would be very interesting to do - Spottswood, who has done many ethnic discographies, would be the man. He's an amazing guy -

I like the book, but will disclose that Francis is a friend, and thanked me in the acknowledgments - can you quote the passages you are referring to?

I don't want to sound mercernary (but I need the money), and a good guide to early jazz of this period are my first two box sets of Devilin Tune - I can probably email you the list of songs as a guide, if you like - I'd be wary of Berigan's suggestions, as he only listens to musicians who vote Republican - (and after all, how many times can you listen to "Pat Boone sings with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra" without getting a little ill?)

Larry, on the subject of book reviewers who have not read the whole book - I've seen many a letter in the NY Times book review from annoyed auithors in which it was clear, from what they were discussing, that the reviewer had not read the whole book - my brother-in-law had a review of his non-fiction book in the NY Times (and it was a generally positive review) in which it was glaringly obvious that the reviewer had not read the whole thing (criticized him for failing to discuss something which was done in detail) - I also remember reading a review of a book on John Kennedy in which the Times reviewer said something to the effect that 'thank goodness the writer has no truck with conspiracy theories' - and than, when I picked up the book in Borders, and checked the index, I found a section in which the author stated, in direct terms, that he believed that there had been a conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy - this all constitutes some kind of literary malpractice, in my opinion - and there's my own personal experience, which I've mentioned here before - Gary Giddins reviewed my book American Pop in the Village Voice, and it was clear that he had read not the book but the liner notes, which contained about 60 oercent of the book - he criticized me for failing to cite a work which I cited very clearly in the index and bibliography and in a footnote - he also went after me for allegedly putting everything in the context of "the first rockand roll record" in a trendy way - when in fact I had taken very specific pains int he book to do the opposite (I even discussed the issue directly) - well, I wrote a letter to the Voice pointing this out, and Giddins said, in response, that my entire book was appropriated from the work of other writers. I wish now that I had sued him -

LOVE Bessie Griffin - my only caution is, before ordering from Roots and Rhythm, make sure thay actually have it in stock - nice people (sic) but I had a distribution deal with them a few years back, and they stiffed me for a nice cool $1500 - no exaggeration, my wife's still mad at me about it -

well, I just sold the Dexter - so the deals off - Dan, you missed your chance -

might be - as there was always a long line at the toilet -

Chewy, you're confusing this band with the Immodium Quartet -

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"Does ALL have a huge temp/humidity vault prepared to store and preserve this stuff?" well, my aunt has one, but she won't give me access to it - but all seriousness aside, Chuck, how about places like the Jazz Record Mart, which carries tons of that stuff? Should we boycott them?