davidsherr

Not much help, but he recorded with Sonny Criss.

I was wrong about Pete Christlieb. He knew Sonny before I did. Sonny encouraged him, invited him to gigs to sit in and was somewhat of a mentor.

Sitting next to Perk on a commercial record date in the 1970s and the leader asks him for "one of those 'woofy' (?) solos like they used to play in the 50s," and Bill leans over and says "I think he's talking about me." Years later he told me, "people get angry when I don't play the same way I used to."

What did I say about being annoyed by Clare? Not a lot of people respond to a compliment with a "bitch." Too much time "listening to black players..."? Like Armstrong, Bird, Pres, Plas, Hawk, Byas, Moody, Tatum, Criss, Wilson, Davis, Webster, etc., etc. etc. Yeah, I avoid them like the plague.

Hey, if Michael Weiss isn't chopped liver then neither am I.

I studied alto and clarinet with Russ Cheever. Great guy, as was Jack. I never met Bill or Morrie. Both were well liked by their peers.) I worked with Jack Dumont at the very end of his career, in a theater- in-the-round. He later became a union business rep. I know of only four records, of which I have three. There would seem to be a market for them, but who knows what record company people are thinking?

That's also my favorite version of the tune. I have seven recordings of Byas playing All The Things You Are. Two of them are from the 1940s, the others around the same time as the Americans in Europe. In the 40s, each solo was unique. The latter ones were all variations on the same elements. The one on the JATP in Europe seems to have scared Getz; he enters tentatively and sounds pretty intimidated. I guess following Hawkins and Byas will do that.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Both, actually, for Byas, but for the thing with Getz, yes. I thought Getz sounded pretty scared having to play after Hawkins and Byas. Most anyone would have been. Don's solo on All The Things You Are on the American Jazzmen in Europe is fantastic. Mostly he was fantastic.

I'm pretty sure it was Columbia Records but might have been RCA. When I am in LA (maybe Dec., maybe sooner) I'll see if I still have my 1968 calendar. It sounds as if Everett Brown might not be well enough to be too much help, but Dick Nash and Pete Christlieb are still very active. Sonny and Dick were old, close friends and there is hardly a trombone player in Dick's class. I don't know Lester Robertson's playing. I don't know how much contact, if any, Pete and Sonny had other than that session and as I mentioned earlier, Pete played a solo that never made it to the record or the cd re-release with its alternate takes.

I got Songs of the Unsung yesterday and am up to page 90. Apparently he was considerably more volatile than I perceived. At school and on the gig he seemed pretty mild-mannered, easy-going. But I met him a lot later than the incidents he recounts that involved fighting, and the environment at LACC, ca. 1961, was pretty collegial considering how competitive musicians (especially young ones) can be. He was well accepted by then. He seems to conflate his two experiences at LACC. He attended in the early 1950s and again in the early 60s. He implies that his bad experience with Bob McDonald and his good one with Dominick DiSarro happened at the same time, but they were not there at the same time. McDonald left CC after the 1957-58 school year. DiSarro arrived for the 1958-59 school year. McDonald returned in the mid-1960s but by that time Horace was well into his career. I still can't make heads or tails of the Sonny's Dream session story, a complete fabrication.

I am at a loss as to what all this means. (Incidentally, I ordered the book which is supposed to be delivered on 8/28.) Nothing like that happened. There was only one day and it began at 1PM and ended at 7PM, right on schedule. No one from Horace's band showed up except Everett Brown and Ray Draper (thanks for the clarification, Nico). No one "went off" on anyone and Sonny did not get drunk. No "crazy" no "screaming" no "hollering". No one walked out of the studio. As I have said, Sonny, not Don Schlitten, hired the band. Horace was thoroughly professional throughout the session, although clearly not an experienced conductor. I remember him, head down, leafing through the scores, grinning nervously when the union rep showed up. Horace must have been paid pretty well for his work. ("We had paid bills and got out of some problems.") Remember that he was not yet established ("We had rehearsed every day, all day, because we had nothing but time. There wasn't much else going on for us during the day.") and the opportunity to have his work recorded on a recognized jazz label with a soloist like Sonny (and well known jazz musicians like Tommy, Teddy, Al, Conte,) must have been a big boost. Horace was a nice guy, quiet, a little shy. I knew him from LACC and a few dance gigs we had played (and ridden to) together. He seemed slow to anger and when he did it would simmer rather than erupt. Maybe I just didn't know him well enough to see another side to him or maybe there wasn't any. I don't know what to make of the passage quoted above.

I listened again and I think it was my evaluation that was off-base. There is a lot of variety there and some tricky stuff with tempo that must have been a real challenge. We finished on time and mostly used the first completed take, so I guess any trepidation on Horace's part about people playing his music for the first time were unwarranted. Incidentally, if he was worried it sure didn't show. He handled the whole thing like an old pro, although at that point in his career he could hardly have done a lot of recordings with ensembles or this size.