AllenLowe

leeway, I will definitely be at some of those; not exactly sure of everything, as these kind of fests tend to make me dizzy; but I have a beard, am 5'8", 165 pounds and am frighteningly good looking. Or frightening looking, not sure which.

john was a crusty guy; got to know him in the '7os at the West End where he used to play with Dickey Wells. Very much in command of the time.

In Maine the prime cause is boredom.

it also might be the sound balance in the recording.

I wouldn't know where to start; he growled rather than talked and just grimaced and went on and on; he was relentlessly critical also of anyone else who was on the band stand. Truly he was mentally ill, far from rational. Nasty, mean, nuts.

mine is on the way.

I did see Haig contantly approached by people who wanted to talk about the Royal Roost in 1948 - and this did wear him down somewhat. But he was always polite; he was also always trying to get away.

I too will be wandering around but as usual, when faced with these kinds of programs, I tend to end up doing little; it's a great fest but I hate to run in circles.

that quote from Ross Russell about Bird himself wanting to get away from the frantic stuff is highly suspect. More likely Bird was thinking maybe he should do some ballads to appeal to a wider audience. That makes sense. But just about everything in Bird Lives that Russell wrote that I asked some of the survivors about - Haig, Curley, Tommy Potter, Maggie - was labled by those guys with complete derision. So I would generally ignore what he says, though Myers clearly has used those quotes as a base.

hey, look, even Lennie Tristano - a legendary schmuck - was pretty nice to me. But then he expected me to behave in a robotic way.

well, Motian clearly had that somewhat narcissistic sense of self; a little Aperger's-ish as well. The article was self deprecating but Motian was clearly, at least to me, unnecessarily contemptuous until the guy who wrote the piece was in the company of someone Motian considered to have a high enough hipness quotient. I find that a bit obnoxious.

Brando won an Oscar, and one might argue that he ate himself to death,

truth is that most musicians are extremely gracious and happy to know they are appreciated, and if they behave otherwise they tend to be a-holes. This has been my experience starting in the '70s when I began to approach as many as I could because I was so interested in their lives - even guys like Duke Jordan, a mean s.o.b. at times, was easy to approach - but I can think of a list of great players - Budd Johnson, Harold Ashby, Earle Warren, Dickey Wells, Eddie Durham, Bill Triglia, Bob Neloms, Barry Harris, Chet Baker, Carmen Leggio John Orr, Art Pepper, Dick Katz, Jaki Byard, Curley Russell, Tommy Potter, Jamil Nasser, Paul Bley, Bill Barron, Charlie Banacos, Neal Hefti, even Al Haig, weird as he could be - who were all basically gracious and polite, never dismissive, and all people I had substantial conversations with and some with whom I became friends. And probably many more that I could think of (Mary Lou Williams was stand-offish but nice; Sam Price was a schmuck but played great; Jo Jones was an effin' maniac; Roy Eldridge ignored me). I mention this only because I don't want all the old guys to get a bad rep. Personally I respond to everyone who sends me emails, or even phones me. People have different motivations in wanting to talk to musicians - they admire them, they've listened to them, they want to play themselves - so I never dismiss anyone. You never know someone until you know them. And all the guys I've mentioned above changed my life (for the better; to me it was like getting the chance to know James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, and Harold Pinter), so I keep this in mind within my own limited circle.

thanks, interesting to hear.

sorry, not to answer that - but I saw Dave Schidklraut play clarinet once and his wife told me "Buddy Rich said Dave was the greatest clarinetist he ever heard after Artie Shaw."

if we are talking clarinetists other than DeFranco - and modernists - Danny Polo. I also like Rod Cless. though the greatest I ever heard was Art Pepper. He was astounding. And more boppish on clarinet than on alto. No fake Trane-isms. Boston in the '70s during his comeback tour.

Buddy was great, and I always thought he had some untapped possibilities - listen to the Capitols - like Bird in Igor's Yard, or the small group things with Raney on guitar; he will occassionally stretch himself chromatically and seem to be heading elswhere. And then the bebop playing - perfect lines, perfect lines. what a player.

be careful what you woosh for......

it's weird why they make it so difficult to purchase this thing. That's what bothers me.

yes, Francis is obviously a man of taste and discernment; doesn't mean we agree on everything.

just to correct the record and re: the somewhat snide reference to JFK above; the rumors of his dalliances while in the White House are just that; there is really no credible proof, and most of the sources for such originate, and I am not kidding, from CIA-related sources and assets. And JFK was at odds with this wing of the government from nearly the beginning of his term. Judith Campbell Exner? A liar with no documentation or third-party confirmation that she ever even met JFK; even stupider was the woman a few years ago who claimed, as a teenager, to be sitting by the White House pool listening to JFK speak about his political problems. sorry to digress but this stuff needs to be corrected.

am I projectng unfairly when I critcize a politician for making poor choices and decisions? and that's only politics; this is music. Way more important and lasting.

he probably downloaded it off youtube.

well, if they don't want to be judged they should allow their creations to remain......internal. we do this in every aspect of life, from politics to relationships. And it is a high calling; ask any critic worth his/her salt. I've learned more from Larry Kart's writing than I have from Sonny's playing in the last 30 years.

I wouldn't say greedy; but he has disappointed us; and really, I think, let himself down. And just re-above, if our desires are that he reach the heights once reached, what's wrong with that? And iff we can't impose our desires on externally creative people, then why do anything, listen to anything, attend anything?