AllenLowe

Hey Marcello - in 1967 when I was 13 years old I attended a music camp in Delhi, NY called new York State Music Camp. There was a young kid pianist (I'm not sure how old he was than) who was blowing very nice solos even at that tender age - it was, of course, Barry Kiener. I'll say that we didn't get along real well (he was kinda cocky), but I was schocked years later to be watching the Tonight Show to see him play. I thought he played great, if a little "Oscar Peterson-ish" for my taste. His death was quite shocking -

And just to add to the above - Williams also felt in a similar away about someone like Lee Konitz, and in this he also missed the boat on influence; I remember thinking this when Julius Hemphill told me how important Konitz was to his playing -

Yes, Williams definitely had some real blind spots - also he, like a lot of other critics, tended to regard something as less important if he didn't think it was broadly influential (of course Tristano WAS widely influential, but not in the same way as Bird, Prez, Armstrong etc). This is a real problem in a lot of histories, as musicians tend to be ignored if they are not part of the template, in the conventional sense. I got to know Evans a little bit, through his wife, after 1980, and he had two personalities that I saw - one in which he was open, friendly, generous and articulate, and another in which he was self absorbed, addicted, and self pitying. With a little bit of a stretch I think you might say that these two sides of him were reflected in his up and down musical efforts -

Willard was a former head of the National Jazz Service Organization, from which he was fired; if you get a weird vibe from him, it's becasue he's weird - and he hates my guts -

shades of Salvadore Dali -

Larry - are you familiar with Evans's first recordings (maybe 1956) in which he's still heavily under the sway of Tristano? Though they are often dismissed, I like them very much and consider them to be very individual interpretations of that style -

Dick Katz once told me that he didn' like taylor because he tended to rush the time - and sure enough, I remember listening to one of those Live at the Bohemia recordings - and on one cut he practically doubles it -

well, I'm getting old - just hope I don't run out of ink -

well, in order to get the stair attachment you have to prove you have stairs -

Yes, and especially discouraging given that I'm using the biggest pen I can find -

In response to Chris -Early's books are quite good, essays full of interesting and not obvious points. He's refreshingly non-doctrinaire and very open. Some of his best work are his pieces on Baraka - he's also written a great essay on the Harlem renaissance -

I think the point with the Manne Act is that it was selectively applied - especially in this case -

This was a rather historic CD recorded at the Knitting Factory, a modern tribute to Louis Armstrong, called: "Mental Strain at Dawn" - it was my own group, with Doc Cheatham and David Murray, Loren Schonberg, John Rapson. Got 4 Stars in Down Beat, CD of the month in CD Review. Notes by Dan Morgenstern. Selling for $5.00 plus $1.50 shipping, domestic ($5 to Europe) - act quickly, as I only have about 300 of these left - also, first 100 calls get the stair-cleaner attachment - email me at alowe@maine.rr.com

When I read Larry's work I sometime feel the way pianists who listen to Tatum feel - it makes me want to give up the pen for reasons of gross inadequacy -

Early's got two collections of essays in book form - one is Tuxedo Junction, the other, I don't recall the title. Find them if you can; he's incredibly insightful -

Hey, let's not insult Gerald Early, who is one of this country's finest critics -

and, seriously, I think we do have a lot of info about Monk, Powell, and Young, enough to get some accurate impressions from afar.

you know what I do? I fill out the fake forms with fake passwords and lots of obscenities - like my pass word is: gofuc*yourself - it doesn't really do any good but it keeps me amused -

Mike - you're crazy - .........(LOL)

well, I do account for cultural bias -

Give me your password, bank account number,and credit card number and I'll take care of it for you -

I sort by eye color - within that, by SAT scores -

Nice first post! Beginner's luck - just kidding, really, and I agree completely - it's interesting to see that autism is mentioned - there is a relatively newly defined disorder called Pervasive Development Disorder (PDD), which encompasses symptoms seen in everything from classic autism and aspergers to ADHD. It's a complicated suject, and I have a foortnote on this in my jazz book, That Devilin Tune. Suffice to say that many many many creative people are symtomatic in this way, including some of out favorite misfits like Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, and Lester Young. A very common trait is a kind of social retardation, inability to read social cues or work in socially conventional ways (think Benny Goodman) -

I agree with John, and would add that, while I personally tend to prefer certain kinds of approaches to open soloing, that I would not reject less conventionally organized solos - I have heard Joe McPhee, eg, play many times in a manner which is much different from, say Ornette; the good improvisor creates his own frame of reference. I like the concept of noise and pure sound, but I also feel that many of the possibilities inherent in it have been played out. Where I object is in the confusion of mannerism with style; I also have the sense that the avant garde has now defined it's own brand of cliches (it's been, lets face it, almost 50 years since this approach was first clearly defined);The burden of the improvisor is to say something new within these new kinds of confines. I also have issues with length of performances, and the inability of many musicians to self edit -

yes, he died of prostate cancer - and, somewhat ironically given his stern opposition to drug use, Zappa was a heavy smoker -