AllenLowe

I thought we were talking about Mrs. Miller, who is one of my personal favorites -

I played with Sparks at a jam session in Bridgeport, Connecituct, early 1990s. I knew some of his playing from records, but what amazed me in person was what a great bebop player he was. He was incredible -

yes, absolutely right - Evans used to come up on weekends to Branford Connecticut and lock himself in his room up in their house - his method of injestion was the classic junkie one, reminding me of what Lenny Bruce was supposed to have said when the cops broke into his room and found needles: Bruce: I never take anything stronger than aspirin. Cop: Than why all the needles? Bruce: I can't stand the taste of the stuff.

"She also managed (and still manages) several jazz musicians, including Teri Thornton (RIP), Howard Johnson, Lynne Arrriale and Jerome Richardson (RIP)" hmmmm....this would make me a little nervous if I were one of her clients...

Per their drug use, "If so, it certainly seemed to have worked that way with him and Philly Joe. " interesting, and somewhat ironic, as I remember Evans's wife telling me, at the time, that he had to stop using Philly Joe because of excessive substance abuse problems -

well, actually there's more - I play occasionals in a western swing band - I lead a jazz trio (on guitar) - I record whenever possible - I consult to the Jazz Museum in Harlem and the Smithsonian on a jazz project or two - I have two unpublished books,with one scheduled for 2006 - I have a large jazz history CD project coming out in May -

I've never made near a living as a musician - my best year, maybe I made $10,000. On the other hand I regard musicians as their own worst enemies. Chuck is right - few have any sense of the larger business picture, they undermine each other, there's no real sense of community. That's why I work for an insurance company, so I can strike back at guys like Chuck - CLAIM DENIED!

well, I just follow orders...

nothing wrong with military intelligence - actually, Lee Harvey Oswald worked for military intelligence - I actually know a guy up in Minnesota to whom Oswald confided this at Balboa Naval base some time in the early 1960s - by day I work for an insurance company. By night I sleep -

hopefully it will also list assaults -

well put!

true, but it sounded like he was playing in the parkling lot -

"Take it outside!! " well, it's a little too cold where I live to do this today - and thanks for your support, Chris - let's just let it ride -

I love Don Byas's version - nice one also by Bird with strings -

well, not exactly, Dan , as you managed to throw in a jab at me related to a post in an entirely different thread; Yanow knows a little bit but not enough, is shallow in his historical analysis, and takes such a generalist approach to jazz history as to make his books virtually worthless. Just my opinion.

just for some historical perspective - in my opinion the further jazz has moved from it's folk roots, the less justified are we in calling in black music. It is not racially or ethnically specific. There's a great passage by Ralph Ellison in which he points out that the music is transmitted culturally, not genetically. Of course African Americans had some advantage intially in the development of the music, but mass distribution has largely taken care of that. Still, we musn't lose sight of the fact (and I'm not saying that we have, here ) that virutally all of the special quality of American vernacular music comes from the contributions of African Americans, at least initially. And I would add that I consider the African American cultural heritage part of my own heritage, as it is very specifically American.

I'm going to remain above the fray here, Dan - let's keep our personal things outside -

god help us if Scott Yanow is among the most influential -

let's not get violent, boys, but part of the problem is that Lou Donaldon plays well, but is basically an uninspired soloist in any context (OK, start the screaming and yelling) -

beautiful tune - but let's not forget Johnny Mercer, who wrote the great lyrics -

there are many problems with his late recordings - first, Tommy Campbell, the drummer, sucks, is way too loud; the electric bass dominates the group. The ironic thing is that Sonny, at one time, was working to unclutter the rhythm section; the late groups are nothing but clutter. Also, I hate the sound of the albums; Sonny started using that clip-on microphone, which is incredibly un-natural sounding. And most of the studio albums were mixed terribly, and sound like they were recorded with complete isolation. Sonny sounds like he phoned it in, and everything is equallly loud, as though they were fantasizing they might get some commercial air play. Sad stuff -

"the roots of jazz in america are in the blues" - unproveable and basically untrue - though I agreee that jazz and all of American pop music comes from the musical habits of African Americans - but there's a lot more to it than the blues -

I remember he always used to appear on the Alan Burke Show during the 1960s -

Forget about Oprah and jazz - I heard that she was somewhere accepting an award at the same time as Sonny Rollins - and it turned out she had never heard of Sonny Rollins!

Kenny- I was just goofing - I'm sure Melbourne is fine, as is your station. WKCR just has a particular history -