AllenLowe

uh...I don't want to appear annoyed, but I think you guys are being a bit rude here - I know the guy Cuscuna uses, Doug Pomeroy, and he is excellent, a friend of mine. I, however, have done mastering work for Sony, Rhino, Rykodisc, Michael Fensteon, NPR, Fresh Air, and many others. I made my living at this for more than a few years -

sounds good -

dan- your wife is right - if you can get a good transfer, send me a CDR and I'll put it through CEDAR, if you like - or, if you're not too nervous, send me the 78 and I can transfer it (I have a variety of styli) - let me know - also, I have the VPI and can clean it -

of course there's also Barry Miles; Sylvia Miles; Milo Miles; and my all time favorite, Next Rest Stop, 20 Miles -

Miles was Miles -

are we talking John, Ravi, or Alice?

did I hear Thomas Bernhard? One of my favorites (and a good playwright too) - I like Correction and the autobiography -

there is a beautiful essay by Ralph Ellison (collected in Shadow and Act) about hearing Rushing sing with a megaphone, I think it was, with the early Basie Band (or was it Moten?) - at any rate, this essay is a must if you can ge hold of that collection - incredibly evocative -

if you can find it, get the LP "The You and me that Used to Be" - RCA - late Rushing with a group that includes Zoot, Al Cohn, Frishberg, Ray Nance (I think) - my personal favorite -

the most fascinating of the early stuff, IMHO, is the duo stuff with the guitarist Effergee Ware (spelling?) - ca. 1942, issued on Stash - really allows you to see what Bird was working on - find it!

thanks, Clem - you and I are agreeing more and more these days (I like your comments about Kofsky and Ornette on that other thread) -

ahh, I can't use euphemisms anymore - I hate his playing, it drives me up the wall with its pretensions and mannerisms -

Mike and Jim, thanks for those perspectives - my problem, I think, is that I just find Brubeck to be so amateur in his sound - I have tried very hard to like him, without success - like Jim I appreciate his take on standard harmony, but I just don't think he's up to the tasks he prepares for himself, musically - it's like he's always prepping himself but never actually performing the task - it's like a surgeon who opens up his patient and than passes the scalpel to someone else ("here, Desmnd, make something sensical out of this") -

wel, I don't think he fails to live up to my expectations but rather to his own - my description of what I think he's trying to do is consistent with his own explanations, at least as I've read in interviews -

and I do think he is trying to do those things - to play with form and rhythm, to open up song form, to add dissonance and to take the music both outside and back in - I just don't think he succeeds - compare his playing to that of someone like Paul Bley on standards -

sorry if I misinterpreted, Jazzbo, but to say "so what" negates the purpose of this board, which is exactly the opposite, to engage people no matter their opinions, and not to discount those opinions because they vary with your own -

yes, it does make sense - to address Dizzyspells - but I don't think I'm being elitist in my dislike, even though I may couch it in terms that most people would not use -there is a certain sense that he has made modernism palatable, which is not necessarily a bad thing - Monk is accessible, too - it's just that Brubeck is limited musially. Interstingly, those solo recordings of his in which he just PLAYS without working so hard to sound "out" are good solid examples of mainstream jazz piano -

I actually like the earliest trio recordings, but I feel he just did not (does not) have the personal musical tools to be the "modernist" that he wants to be - I give him credit for having the courage of his convictions, however -

"I like the man's work very much. Sorry you don't, doesn't make a difference." that's the spirit, let's get personal -

I was going to post this on the recent Brubeck thread, but I do not want to be accused of being a troll. Let's all be civilized here and disagree politely - I once described Brubeck's playing as being like someone who's always shuffling a deck a cards but never actually playing cards - I think he is completely sincere in his playing, but does not have the tools to do what he thinks he wants to do, which is to play around with and alter rhythm and tonality. He skirts around the issue, uses a lot of modern mannerisms, but just never seems to get to the point, to develop his ideas or make them into anything interesting - I do like the Octet Recordings, however -

yeah - and he's only got a half-bone on -

a smart thought, Jim - the best writing has a good balance and does not get bogged down in the technical, but uses tech knowledge as a way of expanding on the non-technical - I put Mike in that list because the Gigi Gryce book is a model of good jazz writing -

it'll be interesting to see if it's him and how he reacts - I used to do this a lot in the 1970s, calling musicians out of the NYC phone book to see if they were who I thought they were - made friends with Tommy Potter and Curley Russell this way, and also had a long and interesting (if scary) conversation with Lennie Tristano. Called Gene Quill, talked to him briefly, but he had just had his accident and was friendly but brain-damaged (from a fall) -

well, I'm not crazy about Hentoff's music writing, but for other reasons - but there are numerous writers who deal directly with the music without getting technical, and who do it well: Dick Hadlock, Larry Kart, Giddins, Francis Davis, Bob Blumenthal, Michael Fitzgerald (who does both well - technical and non-technical approaches), Dick Katz, (a musician who writes brilliantly about the music and manages to be both technical when needed, but always accessible), Greg Tate (good writer for the most part), Charles Wolf (country music), Paul Oliver, Dan Morgenstern, Whitney Balliet (who can be annoying and way off base in his descriptions but quite good when focused) -

I will call the NYC Valdo today and report back -