_forumlogo.png.a607ef20a6e0c299ab2aa6443aa1f32e.png)
AllenLowe
-
Posts
15,402 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
4 -
Donations
0.00 USD
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Posts posted by AllenLowe
-
-
Chris, I'll save you a seat by the fire...
-
I hear more than one old bebopper say that, great as Goodman was, the clarinetist they admired was Shaw -
-
Not colorful but interesting:
" A lot of people consider Chan to be Bird's wife, but I consider that to be Doris. I knew her as Bird's wife. She came over here all the time."
(responding to the controversy over whether Chan or Doris's wishes should have been followed per-Bird's funeral)
-
Yikes, I may burn in hell. Don't know what else to say...
-
Fascinating article, primary source, actual history as it happens -
-
Well, I started this elsewhere and want to get some second opinions:
there is just too damn much that is released these days. I have a theory that the advent of independent publishing was, by and large, a bad thing for jazz. When musicians found out they could form their own publishing companies and not share mechanicals with large conglomerates, they decided that they should compose all, or nearly all, the pieces on their CD projects. This had the added advantage of making it much cheaper to release a CD (no Harry Fox agency charges). That, on top of the fact that everybody and his brother (and sister) has decided they need to put a CD out (or, rather, 10 CDs) has just flooded the market. It's like baseball after expansion - who can keep track who's on what team and who is playing what and who is any good any more? Is this the Joyce Carol Oates syndrome?
I say this, as well, as a musician who threw up his hands and stopped recording about 8 years ago. I am, however, about to release a CD with nothing but my own compositions - hypocrite that I am. But I work a day job, have two kids and a dog and just cannot keep up anymore. For those old-timers out there, was it easier in the 1950s and 1960s? Or am I just hopelessly out of touch?
-
They should put it out with notes by Valerie Wilmer -
-
Lester Bowie -
-
Per Larry, previous page: I, too, don't get Mabel Mercer - as a matter of fact I HATE MABEL MERCER, though some people I respect actually like her singing, so who knows? And I heartily agree about GerryMulligan as a soloist - never did like his playing - I actually think it was best said by Martin Williams, who pointed out that Mulligan doesn't appear really to be playing a solo, but playing AT playing a solo - exactly my sentiments - I'll take Lars Gullin any day -
-
I'm out of my depth here but I second Gershwin's Concerto in F - especially if you can find the old Oscar Levant recording. The piece to listen to if you feel, as I felt, that Gershwin's aspirations to "serious" music were doomed -
-
I will add that, much as I thought he was a great musician, that he did protest a little to much about his own fame and fortune - instead of complaining he should have just formed his own record company, recorded what he wanted to record, and distributed it himself. He certainly could have afforded to. I think, in reality, he relished the fame, and could not face the obscurity of just doing music on a serious and non-national/international level. Also, he had intellectual aspirations that he could not really satisfy - I've read The Trouble with Cinderella and it is rife with sub-middle brow Freudisms and pretensious philosophizing. I also tired of his railings against rock and roll.
But did I mention that I loved his clarinet playing?
-
When I hear Shaw's name I always think of the Lenny Bruce routine about joining the army and meeting the Sergeant who was dying to meet Shaw because he "wanted to shake the hand that patted the ass of Lana Turner."
-
All right, I confess, I haven't really read the book - that Slugs quote is interesting, sounds like typical musician trouble, if I may say so. Slugs was the first jazz club I ever went to, at the tender age of 15 and 16. It had a lot of interesting people hanging out - apparently Genet was there about the time I was (!) and I remember seeing Mingus and Ornette on separate nights, and Mingus's son showing people his paintings. I don't know if it was a musicians' hangout, as I didn't know any musicians back then, but the price was cheap and the pressure low to buy drinks - nice little club in a hairy neighborhood (full of Hell's Angels back then) -
-
Last one, I promise - but I cannot stop reading this bio:
"It is also little known that Shorter invented one of the most famous characterizations of Miles Davis's playing. He went to visit Miles one afternoon shortly after being hired for the band. Davis was having a lot of personal problems, and his apartment was a mess, full of old food and drink and thousands of cockroaches. Shorter was grossed out. As Miles went througfh the kitchen Shorter heard a loud crunching under his feet. "Miles," he exclaimed, "this is disgusting. You're walking on eggshells."
-
good point about leaving the remarks unedited - I was just very disturbed by the various anti-semitic remarks of, as I recall, Roach, Hubbard, and Kenny Clarke - they were just unworthy of such great artists -
-
well obviously no one else is reading this book as closely as I am - another tidbit:
"Shorter and the group did a concert in Dallas on November 21, 1963, after which his former namesake, whom few people knew was a rabid jazz fan, sought him out for an autograph. Lee Oswald came up to him in a local nightclub, the Carousel, where Shorter was drinking afterwards, and introduced himself. Oswald asked Shorter if he knew that the President was visiting the next day. "Shoot," Shorter responded, "do I look like a depository of ignorance?" Though he never really knew if his remarks effected the following days events, Shorter has felt guilty ever since."'
Would someone please pull my computer plug before I write any more of these? I hate bad jazz writing -
-
I enjoyed Notes and Tones but was alarmed by the number of unchallenged anti-semitic comments -
-
problem is, how many saxophonists are named Noah?
-
Some more excellent research from this bio:
"Few people know this, but Wayne Shorter's birth name was Edward Kennedy Ellington Duke Parker Charlie Evans Bill Lateef Yusef Lee Harvey Oswald. When he applied for membership in the Philadelphia musicians union they advised him that his name might create confusion with royalty checks. So he changed it to Irving Mills."
I didn't know this -
-
Well, it's not all bad: now check out this passage from the book:
"Many people have asked Shorter how the group got the name Weather Report. Shorter has pointed out that when he lived in Philadelphia in the 1950s he used to watch the Weather Channel 10-12 hours a day. This inspired him, when forming the group some years later, to use that initial exposure. At first he was unsure of what he should call it - Weather Retort? Weather Remark? Leather Resort? He went to a Gypsy woman and asked her what to do. She looked into her crystal ball and said: I see miles of footprints. I see parpahanelia. I see Japanese American woman weeping in the aisles. I see a better Morgan (suddenly lapsing into German); that is the end of my report. Whether you pay me or not I don't give a shi*."
wow, this is good stuff...
-
Also, Mike, remember - the kid may have been a premie -
-
"The entire band left the country in tears." Now, does this mean they were crying when they left Japan? Or that they said something to upset the Japanese people, leaving throngs of weeping Asians in their wake - and was it some mean spirited reference to Pearl Harbour? I mean, this is quite hypocritical, especially since Shorter later played with an Austrian -
-
I checked Switchboard, and there are 20 John Bothwell's listed in the US - anybody feel like hitting the phones?
-
wait - how about saxophonists named Sonny: Rollins, Stitt, Criss, Simmons, Fox, Von Bulow -
Too Much Stuff Out There
in Artists
Posted
True, but making an educated choice is harder. Money is an issue - as is, in my opinion, quality, the necessity for individuals to properly assess their own talents and not exceed their own artistic grasp -