AllenLowe

I worked for Schlitten years ago - middle 1970s - and he told me his favorite engineer was ___ Goodman (can't think of his first name, but I'm at work and he's on the credits to many Xanadu albums) - whom I think work for RCA/BMG (he later did a fair amount of CD reissue work, I think) - someone should check the liners, as I'm not even 100 percent sure I'm getting the engineer's last name correctly - I think he also may have done some work for Riverside - my point, however, is that, knowing Schlitten, while there may have been other factors, he used that engineer because he liked the sound he got on those "live to 2 track" recordings, something which by now is largely a lost art - and that he may have thought Rudy was over-rated -

stay away from the Ross Russell book - it is a work of fiction -

actually, I've got a motorized wheelchair now -

well, I only bought the earlier ones because they described me as a "cult" figure - I figured, being associated with Charles Manson and Jim Jones could only help sales - sad to say, however, I'm not in the latest edition -

I think he learned that rag from Wynton - who, of course, learned it first-hand -

virtually my entire mastering studio is filled with stuff I bought from Vladamir - honest, no problems on returns, no padded shipping costs, really know his stuff.

Ralph, Vic - who can tell the difference in the dark?

well, I was gonna buy the whole lot, but it's Wednesday, so I figure the sale is over -

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?