AllenLowe

thank you - funny thing about this is that it was so intense for a 5 year period, writing, researching, listening - and almost as soon as I finished I backed away from listening to jazz for some time - and I remember reading a post that Dan Morgenstern made on the Jazz research list, in which he mentioned an early jazz orchestra, and than said something like "no jazz historians ever mention this band except Allen Lowe." And I looked at it and, for the life of me, I could not remember the band - I had to pull out my book and check the index - and there it was -

because they're all for sale on Proper at the Jazz Record Mart -

let's do it here -

well, Clifford's good but he's no Dexter Gordon - didn't use enough drugs -

bumping up because Larry knows what he's talking about and Hentoff is a butthead - can't believe he won that big NEA award -

I can identify as I recently bought an alto, and I kid you not, because it's smaller and easier to bring to the gig with my other equipment than my tenor -

play naked in a toxic waste dump -

I think it was a typo - Larry meant "insane" -

try something you haven't tried before - listen to music you haven't heard, read something you haven't read - I crave novelty as, for me, it's what keeps me going personally and musically. Compose on a different instrument. Write using only one chord. Write with no chords. Play free. Play on chord changes. Just do something different than what you're accustomed to doing -

haven't heard this guy, but for my money Andy Stein is the best "mainstream" jazz violinist around -

the reason she sounds so good on Good Night and Good luck is that the filmmakers leaned on her to tame the kind of embellishments that have ruined a lot of contemporary jazz singing - annoying cliched melisma, bad scat - this was what George Clooney told Terry Gross and it worked, though of course Reeves will probably go back to her bad habits -

he's asked me to act as a third party - I need your social security number, credit card number, and wife's phone number -

I like the Black Notes, but find the Blue Lions problematic - (or is is the Blue Lyons) -

I think what Katz meant was "that's Kenny, he is what he is" - and Dick liked him personally and thought he was a great drummer so was able to overlook certain things -

thanks again - this was one of those projects that, after you finish it, you wonder "what the hell was I thinking?" It took about 5 years to write/collect/master, so I sure hope they get everything out -

probably my closest musician friend back in the 1980s and 1990s was the pianist Bob Neloms, a genius player who worked with everyone from Gene Ammons to Sonny Stitt to Beaver Harris, and who was in Mingus's last band. Bob was one of those players who had to be heard on his own gigs to be appreciated, a master of harmony, full of humor and fascinating musical references (he was also one the first pianists, if not the first, to work for Motown - also of interest to organ fans is that two separate people, without knowledge of each other, have both described Bob to me as "the greatest jazz organist" they ever saw, from his Boston days). Bob and I lost touch about 7 or 8 years ago when I moved to Maine; I started trying to find him again a few months ago, and just got a call back from Detroit, where he was born and raised, and where he has now moved with his wife. Bob is 64 now, has lost hearing in one ear and has some other health problems, but he sounds happy and optimistic; though he hasn't played out in some time I'm going to try to get him to come East to record with me sometime in the next few months. He also wants me to work with him on his autobiography. I just wanted to mention Bob here because I'm sure he would feel good to know that he is still remembered for his great contributions to the music -

thanks! I was told the next installment was at least a few months away - I worry a bit, as it took them about 5 years to get this one out - I will keep everyone informed -

I'll sell my copy if I can find it -

funny that he married a Jew, because he makes some anti-semitic remarks in Notes and Tones - I told Dick Katz about this and he said, "ah, don't worry about it, he's crazy."

it ain't right, please, to call Gene Quill a "minor" figure - he was one of the greatest alto players of that era -

as was said, this whole approach was in the air, manifest in different ways - some of Alan Holdsworth's early stuff beats US-made fusion, and also let's not forget Graham Bond - also Bloodwyn Pig -

Coleman lives in NYC, gigs mostly out of the country - I talked to him a few days ago -

He's also in the film Munich -

I wrote the bridge -

there are early Doris Day Columbias that, in my opinion, make her one of the greatest singers of that era: Day in Hollywood, Day By Night, and Day Dreams - absolutely gorgeous, sexy singing with perfect time that makes her a great neo-jazz singer. Her style changed a little bit later - that warble seemed to reflect some weird, new wholesomeness, and it spoils the later singing for me. She also sings beautifully on the sound track of Young Man with a Horn; check her out, as well, as Ruth Etting in Love me Or leave me (with Jimmy Cagney); these were the days, to paraphrase Oscar Levant, BEFORE she was a virgin -