AllenLowe

it's called hair spray -

yes, hope to see Dave Gitin in Portland in June - but right now I haven't met anyone - are you guys avoiding me?

per-Julis Hemphill (with whom I recorded twice and performed with once at the Knitting Factory) - Julius was a monster musician, a great composer/arranger, but essentially a "free" player - he was a brilliant soloist and wrote fascinating and original themes, and than improvised on them in a wonderfully organic way. I did discover, however, at our first (of two) recording sessions that he wasn't particularly comfortable with conventional chord chages; on one tune from the session, with a relatively simple set of changes, he sounds stiff and uncomfortable- left to his own improvisational devices, however, he was incomparable.

When I played at the Knitting Factory with my group John Szwed came up to me afterward and told me it must have been a hip gig because Irving Stone showed up - and he introduced me to Mr. Stone, who was a real nice man - I was quite honored -

IMHO: 1) The Bluebird box, if you can find it - contary to what many people have said, the remastering on this is brilliantly done - the problem was in the final EQ before release - just boost your treble and you have incredible Jelly Roll in great sound - 2) Library of Congress - the Rounder stuff has all the music but has, stupidly, cut out all the talk (Larry Gushee told me a few years ago that plans were afoot to release it complete, but were shelved when Alan Lomax died); get the Rounders, but find, if you can, the Swaggie LPs (though they may be expensive thes days); 3) Commodores - the best are the solo recordings, incredible stuff, in full mature flower, but the small group Comodores are way under-rated - 4) The 1923 solo recordings - really should come first, have been reissued in many forms - best sound is on the old Folkways LP with remastering by the late Carl Seltzer, but John R.T. Davies did a fine job also -

Clem - I know it's a pain to keep citing anonymous sources, but I'll have to do one more, because I can't divulge the name, but it is someone whom I regard as one of the pre-eminent jazz historians in the world (and no, it's not Francis Davis) - this historian, who is probably the most careful person I know when it comes to sifting fact from fiction, told me of hearing Phil speak at an Ellington conference and,that, basically, Phil was making things up, citing things as fact that were fiction - I like Phil, personally, and think his heart is in the right place, but he really has gone a bit too far in the last decade or so - -

who's Che?

well, I only did one cut - one thing we should remember, and give Schaap credit for, is that the initial transfers were very good - this is vital, because without that even the best restoration work is limited - I tend to be conservative on these things, but not as conservative as Schaap - I always leave some surface noise, as it is impossible to eliminate without losing the upper frequencies and presence and space - and you would be surprised how much recorded info there is, even on very old recordings -

or maybe it was Dixieland and Zionism - both represent a popular historical movement, both have opened settlements on foreign territory, both have resorted to military action to preserve their gains (you know how those dixieland guys are always beating up beboppers and avant gardists), both advocate circumcision (don't ask how I know this) -

or maybe it was Dixieland jazz and necrophilia - now, that I could agree with -

I think he compared Zionism to Necrophilia -

it's a jazz interpretation because of the way Kenton's orchestra plays it - classically trained musicians would not have made it sound like it does on that recording; that's a prime reason it appeals to jazz people - same, in my opinion, for Ebony Concerto - I like the Herman band's reading -

just to let everybody know that the sample CDRs should be going out tomorrow - if you requested one but don't get it by the end of the week, please let me know -

1) Jim: actually, the cut Mingus was referring to, on which he identified Dave as Bird, was Case Ace, from Handyland - 2) as for no notes on the Last Date CD, this is a long story which has to do with the original intent of those CDs in the series - which were for Japanese release and not supposed to be complete in their current form. Unfortunately some committments and promises were not kept, and somebody ran out of money...

but which one?

well, I guess everybody agrees with me...

last time I was there was circa 1996 and Wayne Escoffery was playing - I lived in New haven for about 20 years and the jazz scene was up and down -

Schneider's orchestral music is one of those things that (with all due respect to the incredibly good muscianship exhibited) I've tried to like but find static, in ways that seem to be unintended by the composer. It just sounds too...conventional to me, too earthbound, lacking in sonic ambition. It sounds too inhibited - and I know that one might say that this is a kind of restraint intended by the composer. Maybe so, but whereas I find Gil Evans's use of static sonorities to be unpredictable and full of ethereal beauty, I find Schneider's to be just...static and anti-climactic -

I'm probably in the minority here, but I find most of his popular-style tunes to lack compelling melodic movement - I do love the octets which are not really "jazzy" so much as they are a very fascinating mating of classical techniques with pop feeling.

as a songwriter I think he's somehwat over-rated (though I'll be Around is a gorgeous tune) - the most interesting things he did, IMHO, are the Octets, quirky and fascinating - two things to read are his book on American popular song and the biography written on Wilder a few years back - both excellent and insightful -

trombone is a trombone - to quote Gertrude Stein -

fastest recording speed is not necessarily the most accurate - as I recall 2x was considered best -

A quick breakdown of LPs/CDs that Davey is on: Last Date (a CD I put out, recorded 1978 in person, I can sell for $6.50 shipped - plug plug) Handyland: George Handy LP initally, was a Fresh Sound CD and LP - Handy By George - George Handy LP - Studio 5 - Ralph Burns date, LP, now a Japanese CD - Johnny Richards - going blank on title, something like, Run Wild...etc - Buddy Arnold - reissue LP Sam Most - Dave plays tenor, reissue LP Eddie Bert - LP (So Cool, or something like that, Hank Jones, piano, Dave plays tenor) - Several Stan Kenton dates, one with Bill Holman arrangements, another with Bill Russo arrangements - sorry about the inexact titles, I'm not where I can look over my collection right now.

I would agree - find the small group stuff with Bix - one good one, a tune called Sorry, from 1927 -

Bill Rank was an excellent soloist -