AllenLowe

ok - Larry - how about this from 1972? interesting because, in light of what you said here earlier, I do hear a real difference between this Montmarte session (which I love) and the later/later McLean.

I still blame it on the Yamaha....... and my mother and I got a divorce a long time ago.

can anybody figure out if and when JD Allen is playing? I was told he was, but I don't see his name; this whole thing sounds a little annoyingly zoo-like to me, but I guess it works for them. well, I see his name. Do they ever post exact times and places?

I'll send you a note tonight -

I have played Bundy altos and tenors (older, '60s models) that were quite good. And legend has it that Wayne Shorter played a Bundy for a while.

Larry's points are really interesting and will probably take me back into that music - and the Euro recordings that I used to like very much but have not listened to in a long time (Das Dat, etc). I repeat my previous; I'd be willing to bet Jackie is playing a Yamaha, which gives a sound that a former repairman of mine once referred to as a "kazoo." In a way this is the "professional Jackie;" a lot of players were switching to those horns because they played so easily, great action, easier to execute. Big difference sonically from the Selmers, Conns, Bueschers, etc. and I still think this is one of the reasons later Jackie satisfies a bit less. Let me add something about Jackie's later career, which was a mess - not due to substance abuse but bad management. He was sorta teaching and sorta involved in the black arts scene in Hartford Connecticut - I say sorta because he deferred to his wife's poor choices and cliquishness, and she had made a conscious decision to keep him only sporadically available for bizarre amounts of money. So he rarely worked (though he also told me he was ok with this, and he was still bitter about his Prestige years). And he farmed out a lot of the educational work (he offered me a job doing some of it, which I declined). it was just a bad scene of misguided non-professionalism, fake community, lots of not-so-good feelings. And I don't know, but maybe this rubbed off on the work, this world-weary, 'if I can't sell it I'll sit on it' sense. Also I should add, that whole b.s. clique scene was Hartford in the '80s and '90s and, from what I have heard, remains so. And I liked Jackie, btw, a warm, smart guy. I just think he was getting bad advice.

I could be wrong, but something tells me he is playing, in those later years, a newer horn like a Yamaha; this is based on that buzzy sound. Which is, to my ears, not as interesting as his earlier sound.

I was excited when I thought this referred to live recordings from the Beehive; as a label, it's ok but I don't really understand why Mosaic picks this one and not 20 other better things to reissue. JLH has a better model.

Chuck is essentially right about the drug thing/red herring; but it is true that McLean very specifically (at least when I knew him) didn't want to talk much about those days; his thought was that Weinstock had taken advantage of the drug problems of these musicians and had gotten them to record for very little. Of course one might say it wasn't Weinstock's responsibility to make sure their lives were in order. He offered, they accepted. And McLean is absolutely brilliant in those years, providing, inadvertently or not, an emotional template for a lot of post-bop saxophonists (as Larry has implied). and as for taking financial advantage, Dolly made sure he worked with young guys whom he did not have to pay much. So I guess he learned from that business model....

1) I'm not really sure which are BACM's most recent; but I've received 3 recently that were just disgusting - 2 hillbilly gospel and a '30s Bluebird country collection. Never again, 2) I do remember the thrill of the search but ultimately the bigger thrill is finding recordings I thought I would never see or hear, from Bert Williams to original masters of Gus Cannon to Tony Fruscella; geez, in the 60s and 70s we couldn't even find the Bud Powell Roosts.

on a good day Evans, even in the midst of his late drug addiction, was clear headed and articulate. I only had one such conversation with him (at his 50th birthday party), and it was very interesting.

just to advise; the older BACMs are fine; the recent reissues are un-listenable due to some of the worst de-hissing I have ever heard from a serious label.

I don't know if it's duplicated on any of the above, but my favorites are the things from the late '40s reissued on a Savoy twofer called Southern blues. This was put out on a domestic Savoy cd but de-noised rather stupidly (it's the one produced by Barry Feldman). It is, however, available on a Euro release in good, untouched sound.

his late drug of choice was coke, which he was mainlining; nothing was stranger than getting a phone call one afternoon in the late 1970s, when I lived in New Haven, and hearing a voice on the other side of the phone say "hi Allen, this is Bill Evans. Do you know where I can score some cocaine?" really did happen, as he I knew his wife Nanette. Somewhat disconcerting.

just about everything has been reissued, I have a feeling, though what we could use is a real inventory from the majors so we know what little treasures they have and what's a master or a test pressing or whatever. It's a national scandal (that few people know or care about) that so much important music in first generation sound will likely never be inventoried or released. I do a lot of my own work, but my thing is really to take all that's out there and organize it intelligently or originally; a guy like Rich Nevins (Yazoo) is a fine transfer engineer but also something of an idiot. It's a harsh thing to say, but he has no real historic sense (try reading his liner notes) and he is arrogant to boot; a dangerous combination. There are ways to do this kind of reissuing, but it takes something of a new business model. There's still a collectors world and some lables out there with guys like Mike McGonigal and Ian Nagosky and a few labels doing nice work, but it's also a very cliquish crew and they've never really accepted my work.

yeah original keys can differ - Body and Soul was in C, Like Someone in Love was in C; East of the Sun in G. Sonny Stitt had a rep for making his rhythm sections play in weird keys, but Bobby Buster told me it was because Stitt often knew the tune in one horn's key, decided to play it on another horn, and didn't want to transpose (so Body and Soul would end up in Gb when he played it on alto).

1) I think bands like Moten's are very country - in sound, expression, rhythm. So I want to count them as such. Especially given the ties of ragtime to the South. One characteristic of this kind of of country playing is what I call passive sophistication; too laid back to be self conscious of its own musicality. 2) I think a lot of the early string bands just sound alilke - less so the ones with heavy black influence - 3) I regard Cajun, yes, as a form of country music.

I do repeat my question, whether this was the same Jim Andrews who supplied a few of the Xanadu records tapes - Fuerst and 2nd Set, and a few more. also, just an aside, wait about 10 years and the cds you own - as permanent storage, not downloads - will become very valuable.

yeah, I have queried them but they seem to ignore me. My biggest problem is defining the parameters of country music; I am going to define it and then put in a few unusual things (early Moten band, the Missourians, some early southern Black quartets, early country gospel black and white; Al Bernard, some early 1900s minstrel); I think for reasons of sanity I may try to keep it to 12 cds, but I don't know yet. Subrosa was interested, and I like them, but no go right now. Biggest problem is how much of it sounds alike at some point, with '20s string bands. Have had a tough last 6 months keeping things going, running out of steam a bit, but I want to get this done, do about 4 more recording projects of my own, and then nap for a while.

well, I didn't say I'd know the answer..... but I have spent about 30 years dealing with obscure sheet music and lead sheet and fake books. I do once remember reading Steve Kuhn complaining that Benny Goodman "played the sheet music changes," but I did also notice that sometimes Monk did the same (check out More than You Know, with Rollins, or Monk's solo version of Dinah). It's good to know both sheet music and fake books because, when you re-harmonize, it helps a lot to see what the original composer was thinking.

the blues thing I have only issued as CDR; also have a book with it. It has paid for itself. No exposed nerves here; I just think that if this were left up to the majors we would know virtually nothing about our musical history. And it is not as though Sony/BMG or Bear Family are paying the Ma Rainey and Charley Patton estates. and, as I said, it is the little reissue labels - the OJLs, collectors classics, Arhoolie. Yazoo, et al, who have kept the market alive. There is no doubt of that.

ask me.

well, hats on to the little indie labels who have been reissuing this music for 50 years and creating the audience that allows Bear Family to exist.

this is one they won't touch because they don't do public domain projects. And Mikelz777 I will put you on the list.

I am just starting to assemble a history of country music, probably 1900-1950 or 1960; I am thinking it will be 15-18 CDs which I would like to issue 3 at a time; I've lost the label that I used to work with, and am looking for a Euro label that wants to issue this. Any ideas, let me know either here or at allenlowe5@gmail.com my hope is to do the sets with the notes either as small 30 page booklets or as online links (probably will go with booklets). Also, as real cds, not CDRs, and to pay for each 3 CD set (to meet costs I only have to sell, I think, about 50 of each set, and my mailing list is pretty solid) and then do the next. My definition of country music will be broader and more complex than most, I believe, and will contain African American contributions, though with an emphasis on the way in which white performers have built from a complex Southern cultural heritage. Also, there had been some queries about a music set to accompany my rock and roll history. This will likely encompass that as well. I am willing to enter into some kind of partnership with a Euro label or individual, so let me know if you are interested.