AllenLowe

thank you -

yes, absolutely, thinking of Gunther Schuller's famous essay on Blue 7 - Sonny at his best had a way of almost juggling the melody, re-organizing it little by little until it was completely his - like Monk; the problem is that in order to do so he needs a real melody to work with -

I had a few conversations with him but he never got into much detail on it - I think it may have been post-mortem regret - a sense, like you have, that he did not sound very good on it -

another digression, but just thought you might find this interesting - I got to know Bill Evans's wife pretty well in the late 1970s, and when he died she offered to sell me his Rhodes for something like $1,000, which I did not have at the time - it's killing me now that I didn't grab it, for both value and sentiment - and as a matter of fact, somewhere in a box is a photo my wife took of me playing that piano - which Evans, by the way, hated -

me like Sonny... how come no complaints this week about Francis Davis's Village Voice review of said concert? Ther must be something wrong with it -

the Gaslight stuff is astonishing for how MATURE a performer Dylan was - I'm just finishing the writing of a history of rock and roll (1950-1970), and though I have a lot of problems with Dylan, I make a point in the book about how musically accomplished he was, even though we tend to concentrate on the "poetry" - in the midst of writing the book I interviewed Ed Sanders (of the Fugs), who told me about a benefit that was thrown, ca. 1963, for the Living Theater in NYC - Dylan showed up, and did a few songs; though he was barely known, the crowd went wild at his charisma, and Sanders said how obvious it was that here was something (someone) special and new and quite important. Another intersting thing about the Gaslight recordings (and his work up until, I would say, the early 1970s) is how well he uses his voice - it's so perfectly expressive, focused, pointed, and modulated. That is something he seems to have lost quite suddenly; the later singing is, to my ears, a parody of the early Dylan, annoying and grating and completely unfocused -

not to change the subject, but just to veer a little off the path; I would strive, in my studies, to make it not only well-researched but readable - I read a lot of academic books, and about 90% of them are just impossible to get through - dense language, bad sentences, impenetrable rhetoric and, worst of all, re-statement of the obvious but in pseudo-intellectual terms. I know this sounds harsh, but the good jazz writers are a precious few - Mike Fitzgerald (and I ain't just saying this 'cause he's here), Dan Morgenstern, Gary Giddins, Francis Davis, Bob Blumenthal, Gunther Schuller, Larry Gushee, Loren Schoenberg, Martin Williams, Larry Kart, John Szwed, and there are more, I'm sure, that I am forgetting - the fact of the matter is that most jazz writing is either pop-bad (like Scott Yanow, who is prolific but mediocre) or fake-smart - or, as in the case of Baraka and even Sudhalter, loaded with politics that distort history -

Gene Taylor on bass - a quartet (Loren played piano) - first and only time I played with Mel - nice guy, great drummer, and he knew quite a few of the guys in the Charles band- it was a lot of fun, I even got to meet the Rae-lette's -

and even tougher to find - a left-handed trumpet -

I'm not certain but I think that was a problem post-1970 - with new tape formulations - also, I'll add, and hope not to offend anyone, that Graham Newton's transfer work is inconsistent -

For stuff as important as this, Chris, I would be careful, as it's irreplacable (as you know), and you want to get the best possible results; I would contact someone like Doug Pomeroy, who's in Brookly and who is a master at transfers of all kinds -

Harvey has gotten a bit isolated and even a bit stranger, I think, since he became famous - he was my pal for a while, calling me frequently, but since the film came out he just grunts when I call; so I don't call -

little personal story - about 20 years ago or so my group (with Loren Schoenberg and Mel Lewis!) opened for Ray Charles at the Stanford (CT) Center for the Arts - I had a nice chance to hear the great man himself warming up - and I was surprised (but should not have been) at the way he warmed up - all jazz chords, classic voicings ala Nat Cole and/or Tad Dameron (a lot of very pretty inversions with the upper intervals on the bottom) - it was quite fascinating to listen to - and definitely another side of his playing -

you think you have problems? Try finding a left-handed piano -

hey Chris - if necessary, I'd be willing to take a crack at digital transfers of those tapes, to see if they can be re-eq'd or otherwise improved -

Proper is crap in every way - aside from the un-ethical concept of copying the Mosaic project, they screw up the sound all the time, too much noise reduction, audible digital distortion introduced by de-clicking - run, don't walk, from Proper -

I once aske Jaki Byard about Ellis - what he said is quite interesting (and this is a direct quote): "Great musician - ignored because he was white."

Different kind of noise: Bob Neloms told me that when he played a gig with the drummer Beaver Harris, Harris and the rest of the band played so loud that, when Bob was introduced after the first song, people looked up in surprise because they hadn't realised there was a piano -

I would look for the Jamal - I have heard only one cut from his Okeh stuff, and it is fascinating, very advanced in terms of voicings and space - I've never liked his later recordings, which, to me, seem to be formulaic and slick, but that early cut was full of possibilities -

just a mild dissent - great but a little bit formulaic, somewhat repetitive, as though Bud was rarin' to go but not really all there - but a must-listen -

Webster is a fasinating figure - I've always felt his playing reflects a strange and unresolved tension between the older style of playing and the new, and that he was never completely formed as a soloist before his early death -

Eric Dolphy, Stormy Weather solo with Mingus on Candid - a life-changing event for me-

I can't argue with that - and must admit I don't know Rouse's non-Monk work well -

as I said, I did not want to start a war - but I do think that Lacy was kind of paying Rouse a left-handed compliment. Now, in saying all this, I'm not denying that Rouse was a very good musician; but technical competence and creativity are often two very separate things. I'm not just saying that he wasn't Rollins or Coltrane, but that he was not a very intersting musician, to my way of hearing. Your own hearing may vary -

interesting, because if you read that Lacy quote closely about Rouse (in the Phoenix piece), he pretty much says EXACTLY what I said about Monk's preference for Rouse: "Sonny Rollins wasn't always available. Whereas Rouse stayed with him. " Sometimes you gotta read between the lines...