bertrand

Which came first - the Ernest Hemingway or the Herbie Mann?

Googling Dan Skea, I found out: 1) He moved from Vegas to Vermont and is actively playing and recording (CDs on CD Baby) 2) I found this article: http://www.seanemulholland.com/brian/BlueNotePaper.pdf which mentions this board, as well as the legendary Lee Morgan/Webster Young/Evolution thread. Interesting. Bertrand.

His name is Dan Skea. I was in touch with him and gave him a little bit of info, but we lost touch. He never migrated over from the BNBB. Bertrand.

I will be at Carnegie Hall on 12/2 for the Wayne Shorter gig. Is there anything going on afterwards in the clubs other than the 'major' ones? The only thing I saw at the 'major' ones is Grant Stewart at Smalls'. If there is nothing else in some off-beat place I'm not familiar with, that's where I will go. Thanks, Bertrand.

Jackie McLean might

I did go on Friday and Saturday. It was fantastic. Particularly good were the Gigi Gryce/Clifford Brown talks and Lewis Porter's talk. On Saturday, there was a panel with Jimmy Heath, Lou Donaldson and Benny Golson, three musicians who actually recorded with Brownie. There was a also a panel with family members, and several showings of a great new documentary on Brownie by Don Glanden who organized the conference. Particularly hilarious moment: Heath telling one of the two others about how killing the Roach/Brown Beehive set is, and when the other said he didn't have it, Jimmy said: 'I'll burn you a copy'. Coming in on Halloween day was a fucking nightmare. They had the parade for the World Series, and Broad street was packed - 2 million people. It took me an hour to cross from the West side of the street to the East side. And the cops weren't doing shit. It's amazing no one died that day - everyone was getting crushed. I snuck in through a back door of the building. Bertrand.

If all potential buyers had the same attitude as you, then there would be no problem. Bertrand.

You may be onto something there. Normally, I would say 'who cares', but we all know that in this shallow, instant-gratification society, people look at the star rating, and ignore the text. So a non-inquisitive jazz listener will see the three stars, think 'never heard of them' and move on. Had he read the text, he might have been curious enough to seek the record out. Downbeat is doing musicians a great disfavor by this inane star rating. Drop it altogether. If a reader can't be bothered to read the text, so be it, but don't give the lazy reader extra tools encouraging his laziness. My two cents. Bertrand.

The review is positive in every way, but does not explain why they give only 3 stars, not that it really means much. But the tone of the review suggests that it deserves one of their 'four-star' ratings. Bertrand.

This just came up on my radar screen. Hank Mobley and Lucky Thompson are on the first four tracks. Does either get to solo? Thanks, Bertrand.

This Sunday 11/16 at Twins at 8PM, Brad's sextet will play the music of Freddie Redd, mostly (but not exclusively) focusing on the 3 Blue Note albums. Hope some of you can make it. Bertrand.

Any chance of something coming out officially? Bertrand.

Nothing urgent - I was just curious. I'm definitely interested in hearing what you think. Bertrand.

There are some problems with the Mingus And Friends, but there are also some excellent tracks. Also interesting to hear Joe Chambers play in a big band setting, and with Mingus. Anyone ever noticed in the track with Dizzy how they mention that Lee Morgan is in the back but too sick to come out? This was just a few days before he was killed. Bertrand.

Man, I'm really sorry I'm going to have to miss this, but I already went out of town last week-end for the Clifford Brown symposium in Philly. I know from previous concerts that David has put together that this is going to be great. David - are there any similarities between Wayne's arrangement of 'This Is The Life' from Golden Boy and the version that appeared later on Lee Morgan's Standards (which also had Wayne) - I assume that arrangement is by Duke Pearson? Obviously there are some differences in the instrumentation, but would it have been possible to use Wayne's arrangement with adjustments made for the instrumentation, or was it simpler to come up with a new instrumentation? Lee is smokin' on the Colpix version. Bertrand.

Keep us posted on his gigs - I want to come down at some point. An earlier article mentioned that new compositions would be commissioned. If you live in Wilmington, NC, did you know that that is also where Helen More (the woman who shot Lee Morgan) lived until her death in 1996? Bertrand.

My friend Brad Linde will be performing at Twins in D.C. this Thursday with a nonet, performing the music of Gigi Gryce, Tadd Dameron, Elmo Hope, Freddie Redd and Lucky Thompson. Heads up for Sunday 11/16: the Blue Note recordings of Freddie Redd (in a quintet/sextet format). Probably the first time some of the tunes from the last session will be played since they were recorded. Hope some of you can be there! Bertrand.

I join in a bit late to wish Guy a very happy birthday indeed. Bertrand.

There's organ on several Miles dates (In A Silent Way, Directions), and on Native Dancer as well. But he never did a Hammond-b3 combo thing. John Patton told me he was supposed to play with Wayne once, but it didn't materialize. Bertrand.

Up - anyone going?

Anyone else planning on going to the Clifford Brown conference ('Brownie Speaks') in Philly next week-end? I hope to be there 10/31 and 11/1. Among other things, Noal Cohen and Mike Fitzgerald are presenting a talk on Gigi Gryce and Clifford Brown. I made a tentative hotel reservation at the Sheraton at 17th and Race. However, it is two miles from the school (320 South Broad). I hope to avoid the $34 hotel parking. I will need to park at the school on Friday and Saturday during the day, and around the hotel at night. Any ideas on how I can do this without paying the crazy hotel fee? I may look into closer hotels with deals with the conference, although I doubt I will get a better rate, and they will still have the parking issue. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks, Bertrand.

Pardon my ignorance, but what is a slate in this context? Thanks, Bertrand.

The Blakey tribute is at Iridium, not Birdland. How many opportunities are you going to have to hear the music from this obscure Blakey record performed live? I am going to contradict Marcello and strongly recommend this gig. Bertrand.

Chuck, Were you able to identify any song titles at the time? I know that Michael was sending tapes to people around at the time, since he didn't have Alfred's session logs yet. In this case, wouldn't it have been easier to just ask Hank, assuming he could track him down? He more than anyone would have known the titles. Bertrand.

There's also one track from an ENJA compilation of live tracks (one tune by Shepp, one Bill Evans, one Karin Krog). It's an 18 minute version of 'The Creators' with Hal Galper on piano, live in Yugoslavia in 1970. You can get it on iTunes. This tune seems to be the only officially issued live track by this group (and the postings above show how many times they were recorded). Considering Medina/Spiral were unissued at the time, the only studio sessions of the Land/Hutcherson/Chambers group are Total Eclipse and Now, and the former has Chick Corea, which changes things, and of course the latter has the vocals, so it's not really representative of what this group was about. The sessions under Land's name don't have Chambers, so that's not the same thing either. What this group was about is some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard. It's astounding that they did not make more studio dates. Word on the street is that film exists of the Antibes gigs... Bertrand.