AllenLowe

those are late recording from Europe - Copenhagen, I think - and were originally on Black Lion but have been reissued in a lot of places -

when I watch these guys - Najee, Allbright, etc etc - on BET, which has them on all the time, the music is the corniest crap you can imagaine - and really no better than Kenny G. I certainly believe that, hidden in the closet, late at night, in their undies and shivering in the cold, Najee and Allbright can play like supermen, but unless they invite me over I probably will never REALLY know -

yes, that's my point - the records are no worse than Kenny G's - maybe they can play, but if they don't show it than I don't know it -

well, yes and no - he sucks, but he's really no worse than Najee or a million of those other guys I hear on BET every day -

Crouch has many problems; he has, however, done a LOT of important research on Bird, research that will likely never see the light of day, as there is little chance that he will write the Bird bio - I have seen some of the raw info, interviews, etc and they need to be available - I am hoping that someday he will publish it at least in its transcribed form -

I wouldn't rely upon musicians who, in my experience, are not the best critics. They put down Duke Jordan because he didn't have "technique", and many did the same with Monk at first; I have heard a very well-known drummer describe Bill Frisell as having "no chops;" Bill Evans praised Oscar Peterson -

"He argues that the quality of the music is less important than what the musician represents. "For me Miles is more a conceptualist than a trumpet player, though you hear Miles long before you hear about Lee Morgan or Clifford Brown. He's important for the social way he took the music, demanding respect for the music and for himself as a black man - that's very important." now that's REALLY a load of crap - Miles was a trumpeter, and if the music sucks it sucks, no matter how much social rationalization we can give - I mean, sociologically, Kenny G probably has had more of an impact than anyone - but who cares...

if you won't give us the label, than spell it backwards -

anybody know where Duke Jordan is these days?

can you tell us the name of company? I don't think it'll do any harm - or maybe the name of the CDs -

he's actually a sideman on the Kid Ory -

based on their obnoxious response I would try to reverse the charges ASAP - let them wait for your money, IF you receive the CDs - if they sent it surface and you paid for air, even more reason to do this -

just waking up, and will have to wait until this afternoon to check on a West Coast source for the book - yes, this project was a lifetime one. Actually, I spent 3 years writing the book, 2 years finding and mastering the sources - as I said, some are pretty rough but I'm happy it's all in one place - and hey, Chuck, this project is for the MTV generation -

the book should be around - I'll check tomorrow and let you guys know -

Zappa was a good blues player, that is true - but, as I said before, if you listen to his guitar solos they tend to be mechanical repetitions of scales -

bumping for the night crew -

yes - Barry is an incredible man, funny and smart and a pianist who has to be heard in person - I got to know him pretty well in the 1980s and have not seen him much in recent years.

I can tell you that Schlitten told me, a few years ago, that the Euro CD releases of the Xandaus were only authorized at the beginning, and that he now considered them to bootlegs - chances are that Barry's not seeing a penny from them -

I'm arriving late to the brawl - one thing that always occurs to me when listening to Zappa's gutiar solos is that they tend to fall into scale/interval patterns - not the work of a true improviser - though I love his music just the same -

hey, if the girl says she's under 12, I walk away -

I'm going to go through Wikipedia and add "pedophile" to all Republican bios - hey, even if I'm right only 80% of the time, it will still help -

also, note that this is not a cut-and-paste from previous projects. This compilation is completely original - which differentiates it from Proper/Definitive. I spent 3 years collating it - so it is no less legit than, say, Frog reissues -

company issuing it is German and all publishing is being paid through Euro channels -

I want to mention something about Xanadu, as I worked for Schltten in the middle-late 1970s; Schiltten, to his great credit, had the company set up so musicians had much earlier access to sales royalties - I don't remember the exact details, but the idea was that they did not have to wait until the company recouped full costs before those royaties kicked in, so in a sense it was a partnership. The prime reason he split with Joe Fields was that he did not think the arrangements with that label and musicians were quite fair and equitable (and I am being nice here) -

translated: "Sly got offstage real quick last night due to years of drug addlement and strange, unpredictable, and violent behavior, personal debauchery, unreliability, and just general fucking craziness"