johnlitweiler

Me too. Re the Time-Life research department aiding the annotators: For the Lester Young box, their lawyers used the Freedom Of Information Act to gather the testimony at Young's Army court-martial. McDonough reprinted that material in Down Beat and the booklet.

Thanks for the links, Larry. They led to a nostalgia orgy of old Robins - early Coasters songs tonight. How did people live before Youtube?

"Stormy Weather" is a veritable history of jazz up to 1943, with Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, Lena Horne, the spectacular Nicholas Brothers, etc "Underworld" By Oscar Micheaux, from 1937, is a drama but it has almost non-stop music including a choir and a swing band playing 1 or 2 Fletcher Henderson pieces, among others. I'd dearly love to know who the musicians are, especially a tenor sax soloist. A film scholar from Northwestern who is writing her PhD. thesis on Micheaux mentioned that lists of who worked / played in his movies are non-existent. A couple months ago Doc Films, here in Hyde Park, had a series of movies, mostly musicals, with African-American casts, some with black directors, and "Underworld" and "Stormy Weather" were among them. Another was "Go Down Death" directed by Spencer Williams (born the same year and same state as Spencer Williams the songwriter, no relation). That one also had plenty of music. The last movie Williams directed was "Juke Joint" in 1947, made in Dallas, I believe, and including a bandleader named (in the movie) Red Calhoun. I'd love to see that, in hope that Red Calhoun is a misprint for Red Connors. Yeah, I know, far-fetched, but they're both Red.

Thanks, Durium. I too heard that Neptune Jazz Band of Zimbabwe in 1981 - they played the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage fest. Six nervous black and white male and female teenagers playing a bouncy almost-trad jazz. Surely Buddy Bolden was smiling down on them.

I sorta doubt it. Some of Keepnews' reissues were mighty sloppy jobs. Two that come to mind today are his Victor Barrelhouse Boogie piano CD with one track repeated verbatim and his Victor JRM Centennial with 'Original Jelly Roll Blues' repeated except the alternate take has one note edited out.

His jazz series was mostly a swing-era series anyway, and I thought a lot of it was fun. His baseball series, with his New York-Boston obsession, pissed me off. He ignored an awful lot of interesting / important stuff. Almost entirely off the subject: In Harlem, NYC, on the hill overlooking where the Polo Grounds used to be, across the river from Yankee Stadium, is Jackie Robinson Park. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that. Where, if anywhere, is Willie Mays Park?

One of the things I like most about "The Long Goodbye" is that in it Chandler more or less painfully confronted many of those "unpleasant personal quirks," if I understand what you mean by that (e.g. the character's implicit prissiness?). In any case, the Marlowe of that book is a Marlowe who has absorbed all the experiences of the previous books, like an aging boxer who has taken too many punches.

I've got a 45 RPM single from that session - picked up at the Jazz Record Mart in Chicago. I agree with your assessment: good, but not earth-shattering. A shame the tracks are abbreviated on Initial Visit - slightly longer tenor solos on McDougal's other LP, Blues Tour. McDougal was a very melodic post-Pres man who liked to stretch out and he was a joy to hear.

Thanks much, Jeff. I have 11 American Musics and would certainly suggest AMCD-3 Bunk Johnson - 1944 for the Best Of list. Kid Shots sounds so bright and energetic on the 1944 George Lewis CD that it's a shame there isn't more of him on record. As a generalization, the Bunk Johnson recording sessions for American Music and elsewhere produced far, far better Bunk than the concert and broadcast recordings. Even though the concerts etc. included people like Bechet, James P. Johnson, Kid Ory. Chris, thanks for the Bill Russell article. He and GHB are more people with saintly qualities.

Yes. And Farewell My Lovely has the most diverse characters and wildest scenes of all Chandler's novels as well as perhaps less of his unpleasant personal quirks. I'm a fiend for this stuff. Re Nero Wolfe, there's quite a post-WW2 darkness and gloom about the 3 Zeck novels. Dancing Bear by James Crumley is terrific and chapter 3 is the best writing of any American crime writer. Crumley's The Wrong Case and, for much of the way, The Last Good Kiss are also xlento (Hank Mobley's word). Great plot in Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson. I like the tension of Maigret at the Crossroads by Simenon - it was made into one of Jean Renoir's first sound movies - wonderful, no English subtitles but perfectly clear if you read the novel first. Don't miss A Coffin for Dimitrios (The Mask of Dimitrios) and Journey into Fear by Eric Ambler. For that matter, don't miss the Sherlock Holmes short stories.

Brute, I meant to criticize the Reich book. I wasn't criticizing you. John

Quite the contrary, not excellent and not recommended at all. The book is largely a rehash of Lomax, whom Reich claimed to despise. Most of the new parts of Reich's book are, he claims, based on Bill Russell's collection and Russell's interviews, along with Morton's letters. Morton's words (in Russell's collection) refute plenty of Reich's assertions and what Reich selects to quote are quite misleading. You can read Morton's letters in the huge Bill Russell volume "Oh Mr. Jelly" - expensive to buy, but it is widely available in libraries. Duck Baker wrote a thoughtful review of the Reich book in Jazz Times and I reviewed Russell in Signal To Noise - both books appeared about the same time. A large part of Morton's conspiracy theory was, he believed that Jews and, to a lesser extent, Communists were out to destroy him. Reich omitted that part but bought the rest of JRM's conspiracy theory. Like other jazz musicians of JRM's generation, he was just beginning to recover from the Great Depression in 1938 when Lomax, an $18-a-week employee at Library of Congress, conducted those wonderful interviews. A few months later JRM was stabbed near his heart and nearly died. His progressive decline after that (including complications of asthma) caused him to not show up for some important many gigs or recording sessions. This caused people like John Hammond to consider him unreliable. Reich calls Anita a usurper and condemned her white successors for being JRM's heirs. Morton, who like Anita passed for white at times (including the near-classic NORK session), called Anita "the only woman I ever loved." Contrary to JRM's Jewish conspiracy theory, he gave his weakest, most archaic, latter-day big-band charts to Goodman, which may be why Goodman never bought them - the best of them, "Gan-Jam," which Goodman never saw or heard, eventually got played on a Randy Sandke CD. One of Reich's sillier insistences is that JRM was born in 1885 despite the proof he was born 4-5 years later. These are just a few examples that come to mind this noon. The other extreme from Reich is analyzing reasons for JRM's lifetime of erratic behavior. "Dead Man Blues" by Phil Pastras is a basically valuable book marred by stuff like Pastras' idea that JRM was a repressed homosexual. The U. of CA edition of Lomax, with afterword by Larry Gushee, is the one to read.

arrived late on Wed., had to miss the 1st set w/Brotz.-McPhee-2 basses. I'd had a rough week prior to going to NYC (moving furniture, books, lps, etc.) and was so physically beat that I fell asleep at times on Wed. and Thurs. What I heard of Brotz. and Adasiewicz, they were an odd couple together but Jason's attack(s) and harmonies were vivid. Mars Williams and Ken Vandermark sounded a lot like their Witches And Devils group. Kidd Jordan's set was a highlight. He and Dave Burrell responded to each other, Jordan developed a lot of feelings in his hour. And lyrical. The long break between this set and the next were because a dancer who was supposed to dance with Patricia wasn't present, so she cancelled the set. I'd been looking forward to Evan Parker and Matthew Shipp and thought Shipp played especially well at the start, but I nodded off then. Skipped Friday but heard Saturday and stayed awake this time. Good to hear Burton Greene, he was eventful but not very melodic. Connie Crothers was a power - too bad Richard Tabnik was under-miked, but Crothers seemed to overwhelm him anyway. Rob Brown played some sweet sax among other good music in the Mystery Sextet. It was unusual to hear Sonny Simmons apologize to the audience for his poor playing. Also interesting that they started with 2 Monk songs and that Francois Tusques was so Monkish. Actually, his solo "sonata" and one of the duets partly redeemed the set. 16? violins, 3-6? violas, 3? cellos, 6 basses, plus horns and percussion in the Billy Bang pieces - a rousing way to end a festival. Like Slim Gaillard's Sunday jam session on the moon, all wailing at one time. Seriously, now I'd like to see the film about Bang's return to Vietnam. Missed Steve Swell on Sunday noon but heard Grant Stewart Quartet at Small's Sunday night. A somewhat unusual selection of bop and standards incl. "Theme for Ernie" and Rollins' "Paradox." Stewart was crafty, of course, and got more and more melodic as the evening went on. Back home now and the workmen are still pounding holes in the walls.

"All What Jazz" by Larkin is certainly worth a read. There are a goodly number of lines like comparing Howling Wolf to a demon lover at midnight calling for his mate. Read him for his love of Bix, Bechet, etc., but also for his fierce prejudices, his psychoanalysis of bebop and later psychoses.

The best Phil Cohran recordings are the earliest, from the late 1960s with the Artistic Heritage Ensemble. Lots of 1-chord modal music. The brown-cover CD "Philip Cohran and the Artistic Heritage Ensemble" (Aestuarium Records) has his frankiphone showpiece "The Minstrel" - the frankiphone must be heard. Those older CDs have really eager, hungry, knockout rhythm sections and good playing by Gene Easton (tenor sax), Don Myrick (baritone sax), etc. - there's a bit of wild early Pete Cosey, guitar, too. Maybe I'm nostalgic, because these CDs really do bring back an era.

Happy birthday, Chuck - you too are off to a great start. (from a fellow beginner)

I actually read a great deal of Trollope in my early 20s, perhaps a bit too young to fully appreciate it, but I did start to get into the pacing about halfway into Can You Forgive Her? I suspect someday I will read through the Palliser novels again, though I am fairly unlikely to read Powell's Dance to the Music of Time for a second time. I'd really like to read The Way We Live Now, but I have stashed it away in storage, but maybe in a year or two... Curiously, I never read any of the Chronicles of Barsetshire books, so that is something else I have to look forward to. Am mostly done with Karinthy's Metropole, which successfully conveys the overwhelming, pressing nature of this overcrowded metropolis the narrator has landed in. It actually is making me a bit claustrophobic. A couple years ago, after Larry mentioned how he liked the Palliser novels, I read The Eustace Diamonds and liked it a lot. Read 3 more with diminishing appreciation - by The Prime Minister it looked like Trollope actually admired his protagonist and had no more sense of irony. Time to return to Dickens and Fred. Engels.

I'll be there for the last 4 nights - looking forward to Evan Parker, Sonny Simmons especially, along with the usual gang (Wm. Parker, Rob Brown, Connie Crothers, Kidd Jordan, etc.). This will be one of the few times New Yorkers will get to hear Jason Adasiewicz, who is a wonder, not to be missed.

Yes, happy birthday, Larry - you're off to a good start in life.

Mixed feelings. Liked her melodies at first hearing (concert), was badly disappointed by the (first?) Sticks and Stones CD, liked much of her dramatic 'Coin Coin' performance (free-jazz, folk-jazz) in Chicago but thought it lacked variety after the first hour (she did not stretch out nor extend ideas very far), and was disappointed hearing her play standards in a trio about 2 years ago. Still, so much promise that she should be heard.

Me too, dammit - going for 4 nights of the Vision Festival beginning Wednesday, May 8. Le Poisson Rouge is a big place but it was packed for Braxton last year.

I'm playing 'Dynasty' tonight, a favorite - did SG ever play more dramatic solos? Eddy Louiss is a good scenery-chewer, too.

Congratulations on your first 50. Looks like quite a party.

headache

Bless you for that, Larry. "Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you." - Ford Madox Ford "All civilizations are kleptocracies." - William Gibson?