AllenLowe

well, yes and no - it is true that the kind of direct protest we may be looking for might manifest itself in songs within certain styles of music - but this is unlikely with bebop, uinless we can find Bird's version of "Whitey You Suck and I'm Taking My Music Back." These musicians were quite personally articulate, and I will tell you that of the beboppers I knew who were really primary sources - Curley Russell, Tommy Potter, Al Haig, Dave Schildkraut, Duke Jordan, and more - not a one, black or white, ever mentioned the possibility of bebop as protest - so I would be interest in contemporary quotes that indicated anything of the kind -

yes, thanks Larry for those insightful comments, as I have not read the book in some time and must admit that not all of that had occurred to me - it does illustrate a problem of history (especially cultural history) being written so long after the fact. I have seen quotes from black musicians like Max Roach describing bebop as a taking back of the music - but ALWAYS from the perspective of 30+ years, a kind of post-era rationale that I am somewhat skeptical about. On the other hand, there was a new racial consciousness coming to the fore (hence, among other things, the adopting by a few musicians of Moslem names) , but I wish there was more contemporary documentation. Now, one might (correctly) make the argument that mass media of the time were not going to write about racial consciousness, and that few musicians would discuss such things publicly. The reality is that African Americans do not speak with white people about many things political. So we should not discount that aspect, I just wish there were more accurate ways of documenting it, WITHOUT the kind of post-1960s militant consciousness that so distorts the reality and the rhetoric -

in other words, like most organized religion - without the child-molesting -

plenty left: Lee Morgan/Best of-Bue Note Years. Blue Note. $6 shipped. Cannonball Adderley. Know What I Mean. OJC. $6 shipped. MJQ. Fontessa. Atlantic. $6 shipped. Art Pepper. Live in Toronto. $6 shipped. Bud Powell. Time Was. Bluebird Recordings. $8 shipped. Bird, etc. Jazz at Massey Hall. Debut Japanese Issue. $8 shipped. Teddi King. In the Beginning. 1949-1954. Baldwin Steet. $8 shipped. Dizzy Gillespeie. Duets (Stitt, Rollins). Verve. $6 shipped. Stan Getz Plays. Compilation of Verve Recordings, w Raney/Jordan/Rowles/Roac. $6 shipped. Dizzy Gillespie Quintet. Copenhagen Convert. Steeplechase, w Le Wright, Junior Mance, Art Davis. $8 shipped. Bob Dorough. Devil May Care. Bethlehem. $8 shipped. Charlie Hunter. Copperopolis. Ropeadope. $8 shipped. Teddy Edwards Octet. Back to Avalon. Contemporary. $8 shipped. Stuff Smith. The 1943 Trio. Progressive. $10 shipped. Hank Mobley. Breakthrough. 32 Jazz. $8 shipped. John Coltrane. Live at the Village Vanguard. Impulse. $6 shipped. Bill Evans. Explorations. OJC $6 shipped. paypal, check or money order. email me at alowe@maine.rr.com

Fats was great, and it's been a staple of revisionist history to say yes, his jive was serious and it's all great music. Still, we can't ignore what Teachout is saying, as there is plenty of truth likely to this, especially based on Fats's own expressions of frustration. One does wish he had lived longer and drunk less but, as one finds with many musicians with substance problems, at some point in their careers they tend to follow the path of least resistance; so it ain't necessarily "the business" or his "management" which is to blame; try managing an alcoholic someday and you'll know what I mean.

nothin sub-par about it - but I found the most interesting thing, musically, to be the drummer - if you want to hear how muich the music was changing (and we're only a few rhythm steps from bebop here) listen to what the drummer is playing, and understand how the things that led to bebop, though a radical change in many ways, were in the air-

personally I go for his haircut -

interesting - the first time I heard that Dameron CD it occured to me - Coltrane blows those notes and wham, I thought Giant Steps - I have a feeling it was, when he wrote it, unconscious -

that's true - with those guys I was never sure if it was surface noise or just an overactive drummer freaking out on the ride cymbal -

well, I think that jazzshrink can recognize the symptoms - I would suggest that Mingus was bipolar, from all descriptions of those who knew him, and he certainly accomplished a lot -

didn't mean to be too flip - it's just true that, as I recall, I frequently had trouble with their pressings - they're sort of the Paramount of LP labels -

or, if you call CSI, and they dust it for finger prints and they turn up as Chuck Nessa's, it's also likely an original pressing -

if it's real noisy, but one gets the impression that, somewhere behind the noise, there's some music, than it's an original Black Lion pressing-

I know I've said this before but it bears repeating - one of my favorite albums is the one Ellis did for Candid with Jaki Byard - I mentioned it to Byard once and he started going on about how great and important a musician Ellis was - but the kicker was when he said: "and do you know why he doesn't get any credit? Because he was white." good old Jaki - honest to fault -

that's what I would recommend -

too bad about the Mc Ghee - but Yazoo is a great label though, as I said, Nevins is a world-class a-hole -

I think Arhoolie has a Hackberry Ramblers CD -

what, no socks and underwear?

make it out to "cash"

I would suggest reading Larry's book, and I will add (and I'm not just saying this because Larry sends me monthly checks) that he is, to my way of thinking, simply one of the most insightfull jazz critics anywhere. I'm always a bit wary of testimony that one cannot understand the music without "living the life" or understanding the blood sweat and tears of it - I'm wary of the anti-intellectualism of this, and because the best jazz critics I've ever known were all non-musicians -

-some kind of Satanic worship -

it's a weird Scandanavian thing -

sorry, it does not matter a bit if you can play the stuff or not, especially when you're a critic of Larry Kart's caliber - and if especially if you've ever read Brookmeyer's assesments of fellow musicians, which are horribly harsh. The truth is the music, and if a critic can give us insight into that, it doesn't matter if he's a player, critic, or garbage man -

plenty left: Lee Morgan/Best of-Bue Note Years. Blue Note. $6 shipped. Cannonball Adderley. Know What I Mean. OJC. $6 shipped. MJQ. Fontessa. Atlantic. $6 shipped. Art Pepper. Live in Toronto. $6 shipped. Bud Powell. Time Was. Bluebird Recordings. $8 shipped. Bird, etc. Jazz at Massey Hall. Debut Japanese Issue. $8 shipped. Teddi King. In the Beginning. 1949-1954. Baldwin Steet. $8 shipped. Dizzy Gillespeie. Duets (Stitt, Rollins). Verve. $6 shipped. Stan Getz Plays. Compilation of Verve Recordings, w Raney/Jordan/Rowles/Roac. $6 shipped. Dizzy Gillespie Quintet. Copenhagen Convert. Steeplechase, w Le Wright, Junior Mance, Art Davis. $8 shipped. Bob Dorough. Devil May Care. Bethlehem. $8 shipped. Charlie Hunter. Copperopolis. Ropeadope. $8 shipped. Teddy Edwards Octet. Back to Avalon. Contemporary. $8 shipped. Stuff Smith. The 1943 Trio. Progressive. $10 shipped. Hank Mobley. Breakthrough. 32 Jazz. $8 shipped. John Coltrane. Live at the Village Vanguard. Impulse. $6 shipped. Bill Evans. Explorations. OJC $6 shipped. paypal, check or money order. email me at alowe@maine.rr.com

funny thing about Dominic Chianese (Uncle Junior) - in the late 1970s my brother and I played country/western music in various bars in NYC, where Dominic was a regular as a singer - very nice guy - terrific actor, too -