AllenLowe

it wasn't me -

it wasn't me -

it wasn't me -

Just to revive this, I just sent the following email to Scott Saul: Hi Scott – I’m have been reading Freedom Is/Freedom Ain’t, and wanted to make a few comments. 1) Per Mezz Mezzrow – I think you’re being unfair to ascribe racialism to Mezzrow’s attacks on modern jazz as neurotic, savage, etc – they are not unlike Louis Armstrong’s, who referred to post-WWI jazz as “that modern malice.” It was fairly common to read into bebop as being indicative of modern neurosis, as being representative of a new age’s increasing self-consciousness. Probably much the same would have been said by people like Pops Foster and Baby Dodds. I also don’t know if you’ve listened to a lot of Mezzrow’s music, but his performances with Sidney Bechet/Sammy Price/Pops Foster (King Label) are quite good and certainly not indicative of any ideological confusion. Ultimately the music is the most important thing, I think, and I wish you had considered more of Mezzrow’s; it is relevant because it shows that he not only talked the talk but could actually play the real thing. 2) If you are going to deal with the 1950s and it’s relationship to changes in the 1960s, especially as regards Mingus, there is a whole school of music you have missed. Mingus himself was very influenced by his association with a generation of 1950s avant gardists, including Teo Macero and John La Porta, and was listening very closely to Lenny Tristano, Lee Konitz, etc. Paul Bley would be a good one to talk to about the low-profile modernist concerts of the 1950s, the experimental work being done by musicians who are not normally well-considered in jazz histories (think also Teddy Charles, George Russell, and Hall Overton). Mingus was not afraid to admit the importance of these associations, and Max Roach also spoke about the importance of Tristano and his 1950s progressive movement, which really should have been integrated into the book (see the recording of Ezz-thetic, a George Russell composition, with Miles/Roach/Konitz/Sal Mosca). It also might have been relevant to talk about Dick Twardzik and Jaki Byard; Twardzik was doing advanced work in the 1950s, and Jaki was playing in open forms in the 1950s. Surely this also impacted on the changes in 1960s music, as well as on the development of hard bop. It might have been interesting, as well, to look at Bill Evans’s association with both Mingus and Miles Davis (not to mention George Russell). 3) Per Sam Shepard, I was a little disappointed that you did not mention his association with the Holy modal Rounders, with whom he recorded, Certainly this was an important part of his musical response to the 1960s. Thanks, Allen Lowe

don't forget Triglia - his knowledge of that time and that club (he was house pianist for a while) is essential

Jane is a great player and a nice person - and she's married to the actor Joe Grifasi -

Especially Calculated Music

don't forget Triglia - his knowledge of that time and that club (he was house pianist for a while) is essential -

interesting interview - a little discouraging that the interviewer never heard of Slugs, which was one of the most important 1960s clubs in NYC - does not fill me with confidence about his knowledge of that era -

I'm glad this thread kept going - as, until I read about it here, I was certain that James Spaulding was dead - which he apparently is not - and I for one am glad to hear it -

yes, I did cite her - and if the boxed set ever gets issued that far I used a cut from one of her Okeh recordings-

Mary Ann Mcall was an absolutely great singer - good choice -

yes, we call it the butterfly post -

must have been an oversight - I'll put him in the next volume - or maybe I'll use his Buddy Bolden re-creation-

now, are we talking about records that promote good sex, or records that are "good sex" records? As in breathing heavy, moans, old Lenny Bruce commercials for Zeidler and Zeidler -

This just in: "I am truly astonished. When I first heard Lowe’s previous collection, American Pop from Minstrel to Mojo I thought that it was the finest body of American pop music that I’d ever heard – both in terms of sound quality and choice of music. But now he’s exceeded himself. This new collection is even richer and sounds even better. I know that I’m parroting Francis Davis but he’s right: he has “forced us to rethink everything we ‘know” about jazz” - but I’ll add that he's also forced us to question what we know about pop, country, and the blues as well. He has historicized pop music brilliantly…and the fact that he did it, and not one of the “big” recording companies who are sitting on treasures of American music, is all the more astonishing. This collection should be in every household, or at the least in every library and school. Bravo! Encore!” -John Szwed

nah, I think the kid's got two -

I agreee about Hammond in general but I would not equate him with white-collar liberals - he was really, as I remember someone referring to him years ago, one of the "Rockeller Foundation Communists," a somewhat ironic term but true to so many who populated the Communist noblese-oblige crowd of those days; truly philanthropic but seriously deluded in so many ways (many Stalinists among them) if well intentioned but ultimately very destructive (I'm surprised Chris Albertson, who knows this area much better than I, hasn't come into this discussion) -

never works...

thanks - all good ideas - I've done it before and will probably do a song by song list with commentary - this is one of those crazy complicated projects (2 cds, performers in about 3 cities) - autobiographical, 5 different styles of music - I remember reading something by Donald Barthelme in which he had a quote from some small town newspaper which said of one of his books: "He writes just like Mark Twain only not as good." His publisher wouldn't let him use it as a blurb on the book jacket - but if Gould gives me something like that I'll be happy to use it -

or there's always "You're Having My Baby" - a song that was a new kind of birth control -

I tried "I Can't Get No Satisfaction," but it usually backfired -

or that Condi Rice, Don Rumsfeld duo: "The Two Biggest Boobs in America"

or, "he's all thumbs"

if he's a pianist, there may be some issue about whether he has a good left hand, as it may be impossible to determine which is his left hand - however, he will be a able to give Weizen a real good fascist salute -