AllenLowe

wait, the lamp is flashing, the door just shut by itself; I feel a spirit; here it comes: from John: "Hello, all. A few images here I thought you might enjoy. One is a picture of Wilkerson that Caitlin took when she visited him and his daughter a couple of months ago in Houston. The second is a pic of the Ray Charles poster (showing the lesser-known Wilkerson) that Rick Mitchell kindly shared, mentioned in my last message. The third is an article from the Los Angeles Sentinel, 1979, announcing an upcoming gig by Don Wilkerson's Tympany Five. It's at the very end. I'm trying to find out more about Jerry Don White. It seems from the info presented on the other forum that he's gone, but his wife, Geraldine, may still be alive. Would be interesting to know more about this small label, that put out a small number of interesting records, and what Brother Brown had to do with it all. Dan Gould, I would forgive Shelley Carroll or anyone for having confused these two men. It's such an extreme case of two lives overlapping to an uncanny degree. Especially when you consider that the lesser-known Wilkerson was also a good player (not on the level of the better-known, but good enough to make us wonder)." unfortunately I cannot get pictures to post these days; if someone out there can, I can forward them from John's email -

I just got an Ipad. I love the thing.

love Moholo; I think I saw him once but I was so young I didn't realize it.

well. I have use for them, but not for a while.

I feel like a medium here. Hopefully if John sees this and has any answers he'll email me.

John Sullivan asked me to post this here: "Hello, all. John Sullivan here. Just wanted to say thanks for the thoughtful comments and criticisms, and make a few things clearer that were left ambiguous in the essay through unavoidable cutting for space. First, about Marybeth Hamilton: couldn't agree more re the importance of her work. The only reason I didn't name-check her here is that the last thing I wrote on the pre-war blues (for Harper's) was largely about her book. Even so it would have been good to mention her in the paragraph on James McKune, since she more than anyone is to thank for resurrecting that weirdly compelling figure, at least outside the circle of 78 Quarterly readers. (Incidentally: I found some new material on McKune, including another photograph of him, from when he was a kid, along with biographical info that clears up the uncertainty around his origins, some of which is included in the expanded version of the essay that'll appear in Revenant/Third Man's upcoming Paramount Vol. 2 set.) Second, the mystery of Don Wilkerson(s). We did a lot of digging on this, and got some research help from Alan Govenar ("Texas Blues") and Rick Mitchell ("Whiskey River"), plus the NY Times Mag's fact-checkers. Turns out the answer to the question, "Is it really possible that there could be two African American male saxophone players from Houston named Don Wilkerson both of whom played with Ray Charles?" is, Yes. There's Donald A. "Don" Wilkerson, born in Louisiana and moved to Houston as a teenager. He's of course by far the better known of the two. Made albums for Blue Beat and played on some of Ray Charles's earliest 45s. Died in the 80s. Then there's John Donald "Don" Wilkerson, Houston born and bred, the lesser-known of the two, but he too played with some serious people over the years, including Big Joe Turner and T-Bone Walker. Both Don Wilkersons seem to have played with Amos Milburn at different points (trying to nail that one down now). The latter, lesser-known Don Wilkerson made that Tomel 45 we know about, in California in the 80s. (Robin Wartell, from the article, lived with him out there for a period and worked in his shoe shop.) In the early 90s this same Don Wilkerson shared a bill in Houston with Ray Charles. Rick Mitchell was there that night and sent me a phone pic of the poster. It's this second Don Wilkerson who knew L. V. and remembered Geeshie/Geechee, and he's still very alive in his mid-nineties (even blew some notes on his horn for Caitlin, though as mentioned, his memory is much diminished). His sister, Dalia May or Dally Mae Wilkerson, died only a few years ago. Everyone in the family agreed that the revelations about L. V./Elvie would have meant more to her than to anyone, because she looked up to L. V., and had been her caretaker at the very end, and she (Dally Mae) had lived a very tough life. Anyway . . . Neat to see Allen Lowe here--Allen, I've learned a lot from yr work. JSngry, you're dead on about Shepard/Jordan feeding into Don Wilkerson's record, but does that mean L. V. and Lillie Mae's earlier version hadn't predisposed him to the song and delivery? A man can dream! Thanks again to all of you for reading. John S. PS. Another thing that was left out of the edit: Don Wilkerson (the living one) told us that L. V. was always trying to get him to switch to guitar, from the horn, but he "didn't take to it for some reason." His daughter, Jana, had very vivid memories of going to "almost like a juke joint" in Houston with her father, her mother (Elnora, who sings), her father's mother, Big Mama, who played piano, and Auntie L. V. She even said she had a distinct memory of L. V.'s having played the drums at one of these sessions. That I didn't include because it just seemed too far out! I couldn't square it with the woman we'd come to know from Mount Pleasant Baptist. Would have needed corroboration first, at least. Jana has promised that she'll keep needling her father about L. V. and Geeshie during his lucid moments. I am hopeful that there will be more from him."

I order too many of these and I have an extra package of 100 of the plastic outer jackets. I paid $25; you can have the baragain of a lifetime - well, maybe just a day. $20 plus shipping USA, email me at allenlowe5@gmail.com

if you read anything Marsalis says or has written in the last 10 years (pr more), IMHO you can hear Crouch's voice; it is not blatantly anti-white; that part comes up only when convenient - when they encounter white musicians (like me, as in my Marsalis interview) who have serious disagreements. Then it becomes a matter of racial insufficiency (to him I was a white academic ensconced in theory and not the actual playing of the music. So he has his own stereotypes). But they like white people so long as they agree with their pronouncements and build up their egos.

my set of PSB bookshelves; work great, not a lot of hours on them (I would estimate under 25) $125 plus shipping USA; don't really know how much it will cost to ship these babies, but I'll take a guess depending on where you are and then refund the difference if it's too high - email me at allenlowe5@gmail.com these are $299 new

just as an addendum - many years ago Mack McCormick told me that he had, in a closet somewhere, a Peck Kelley acetate; I was never, however, able to get him to get any more info or to produce anything. Given, however, that he is a recluse and a pain in the butt, but NOT a bullshit artist, I have a feeling he still has it.

thanks Moms for mentioning the failure to mention Mary Beth Hamilton, which is problematic, though I loved the article.

well, who knows? I met him when he was playing at Harvard with Ros Rudd, maybe 10 years ago; maybe it was the Harvard effect; he was just so full of himself that I had to walk away. Left a bad taste.

Douglas is another of those players who made a bad first impression on me, and that I should go back and listen to again. It also didn't help that he's the most self-important musician I ever met; you get the sense he's always looking at himself in the mirror.

the key to the Chubby Jackson stuff are any Tiny Kahn arrangements.

mention my name, and he'll throw in (and I mean THROW) Kansas City Lightning.

geez, we have the same books. I recommend all of those; buy 'em folks, you can't go wrong.

I don't question that he's written a good book; my question is, what has Szwed copied? I've seen no examples.

I wouldn't believe that; there is NO documentation there of the alleged plagiarism, which is a pretty serious (and potentially libelous) charge; I know John pretty well, and that's also a very unfair characterization of his take on Miles; methinks Tingen may be jealous that Szwed got more attention. But until I see relative passages and proof of this I honestly don't believe it. And btw, look at Tingen's web site; you can't even determine his name from it; I searched and searched. Doesn't give me much faith in the detail of his work.

it's a strange feeling. I look in the mirror and I see - 59 and 1/2.

the label is Gambit. 2 cd set classic era Sonny; I have doubles of this for some reason; recorded live, and the sound ranges from fair to good. $12 plus shipping in the USA (figure $4 first class) cd box has a scratch, but the CDs themselves are mint. my paypal is alowe5@maine.rr.com

well, to quote Rodney Dangerfield, at my age, if I take very good care of myself, I'll get very sick and die.

I actually think Dexter was high 24/7; it just seems not to slow him down here.

possibly; that's where he graduated from. Major folklore program.

It's acutally pronounced Z-wed. John's an old friend, just talked to him last week. and Alan - he's actually living in Philly now.

do you think so? I kind of agreed with him. On top of which, my situation feels very strange and even more outside these days; without mentioning names, more than one musician who might be said to reside in the 'free' camp won't give me the time of day, gig-wise. I think that they think I'm too musically conservative.