JPF

There's a third one, also: Journey Home How nice to watch someone who actually knows how to conduct an orchestra (and is so cute, too), as opposed to standing off to the side, snapping one's fingers and trying to look relevant. I've seen very few "leaders" who actually led - among them, Thad Jones, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Gil Evans, and the finest I've seen, the criminally underrated Herb Pomeroy. If you never got the chance to see his band in person, you've really missed something.

Thanks for the info; sounds like it's worth getting, even with the minor sound problems (and who was still recording in mono in 1964?). Now I have to decide whether, considering I have 10 Mingus CDs, 3 double CDs, 2 box sets, 3 DVDs, and 2 books, I need yet another CD set. But then, can you ever have too much Mingus? By the way, the Jazz Icons website has a promotional video for their upcoming September releases and the Mingus concerts have very high quality video and audio. There goes some more money!

Thanks for the review; is the sound indeed in mono, not stereo, as I've heard?

I remember meeting Marcus in 1961 at Shelly's Manne Hole in LA. He was playing in a group with Victor Feldman, Emil Richards, Milt Turner on drums, and some others I can't remember. I introduced myself to him when he was taking a break outside between sets and we had a nice discussion about my memories of hearing him at the American Woodmen's Hall in Dallas in 1960 when he used to play in the house band, which was essentially Ray Charles' small band without Ray. He's a nice guy, and an excellent trumpet player. Happy Birthday!

That's a new name to me. Who is he, what did he do, and why was he valuable to the company? He's a tape archivist and producer, one of the main people responsible for the recent Miles Davis "Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions" box set, among many other projects. He's extremely knowledgeable and a classy guy, also. Some other company should snap him up in September when he's free. Mosaic, maybe?

I've written to Netflix about carrying the Jazz Icons series and gotten no response at all. Maybe if a few more people wrote, they'd start listening................? I'm pleased to pass on the information that Netflix is now carrying the whole Jazz Icons series.

Maybe there was. I'll never forget Steve Allen telling this story (on someone else's show) some years ago: A few years after his show ended, realizing that the tapes of his shows contained an invaluable record of 1950's culture - not only all the jazz stars he featured, but people like Lenny Bruce, Jack Kerouac, etc. - he went to NBC to ask if he could buy the tapes from them. The woman he spoke to said she'd check on it; she came back in a while and said, "Oh, we threw all those out. We had to make room in the warehouse." Think of it - without even asking Steve if he wanted them, those morons threw away one of the greatest treasure troves of music and entertainment in existence!!! I watched all those shows as a teenager and I still get furious when I remember that story.

Read this posting from Doug Ramsey's Rifftides blog. Essential piece about WC.

Thanks for refreshing my memory, Stereojack. I was at that gig, also, with a group of friends. I had always thought that was later in the 60's, but if, as you say, this was Coltrane's last appearance in Boston, then it was the same gig. I remember being surprised that it was a sextet, and then being really surprised at the music. Because I hadn't been following Coltrane's recent records at that time, I was expecting the quartet's classic sound and this was, to say the least, different. I frankly found it unpleasant, as did everyone I was with. It was painfully loud, maybe the loudest acoustic music I've ever heard, and seemed like six people screaming at each other in a night-long argument. Garrison and Tyner could hardly be heard at all, especially Garrison. Your phrase, "sonic assault," is right on the money. Fortunately, I had heard Trane's quartet in 1962 (or I should say quintet, since he had Eric Dolphy with him). It was in Germany when I was in the army. It was just excellent - I remember being particularly impressed with Elvin's drumming. I recall Dolphy seeming much "farther out" than Coltrane, and I think I remember there was some scattered booing from the largely German audience. By the way, Coltrane was not the main attraction; he opened for Dizzy Gillespie, who had Leo Wright, Lalo Schifrin, Bob Cunningham on bass and, of all people, Mel Lewis on drums. And going back even further in time, I should be able to say that I saw Coltrane in Miles' group in 1959, but I can't. Miles was scheduled to play at Music Inn in Lenox, MA, one night in August. We drove out there almost 100 miles for the gig and Miles canceled at the last minute. However, the management threw together a last-minute replacement group consisting of teachers from the Lenox School of Jazz - a sextet featuring Jimmy Giuffre, Herb Pomeroy, Jim Hall and Bill Evans! Not too shabby. It sure would have been nice to see the Miles/Coltrane group, though.

I've written to Netflix about carrying the Jazz Icons series and gotten no response at all. Maybe if a few more people wrote, they'd start listening................?

I've suggested something similar to MC re: the EMI Pomeroy holdings. "Risky but tempting" was the reply; I think there's concern about how well it would sell. They did recently reissue the Irene Kral album with Pomeroy backing her, and that's a fine one (part of the "Great Jazz Vocals" series). I've been bugging him for years about a complete Pomeroy set, with no success, and I had pretty much given up. Now it seems like the door is, if not wide open, at least cracked slightly. By the way, are you Pomeroy fans aware of two sets which are hard to find - "Herb Pomeroy Live At Sandy's" (Red Rose Music, SACD only), and "Pramlatta's Hips - Live At The El Morocco," (Shiah) an LP set never issued on CD? Essential.

Actually, his real name is Nabil Totah. Knobby, or Nobby, is his nickname. Here's his website: http://www.totahbass.com/ Couldn't get that website to load. Anyone have any success accessing Totah's site? That's very strange! That website existed on 2/17, the day I posted about it. I know because I was looking at it that day. So it has disappeared sometime between the 17th and now; as I said, very strange.

Actually, his real name is Nabil Totah. Knobby, or Nobby, is his nickname. Here's his website: http://www.totahbass.com/

From the Boston Globe: Dick Wetmore, 79; was adventurous player of jazz violin By Bryan Marquard, Globe Staff | January 15, 2007 A pioneer of jazz violin, Dick Wetmore took his instrument to places it had rarely ventured and took his audience along for the ride. "What he could do with that violin would blow you away. He would pluck it and get sounds out of the violin that people didn't know existed," said Mary Lu Wetmore, who is married to Mr. Wetmore's nephew. "I've seen him play many times. He used to describe it as he doesn't even know what he's playing -- he just plays by feel and from the heart. . . . You were in awe of him when you listened to him play." In a performing career that began when he was in elementary school, Mr. Wetmore played clubs in Boston and New York City in the 1950s and '60s with some of the greatest names in jazz. A multi-instrumentalist, he was as at home with horns as he was with strings, and also composed. Mr. Wetmore, who lived and performed on Cape Cod for two decades beginning in the mid-1970s, died Jan. 4 in St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital in Indiana. He was 79 and had been suffering from heart ailments and emphysema, which prompted him to move recently to Kokomo , Ind., close to his wife's family. Jack Chambers, a University of Toronto professor who writes about jazz, called Mr. Wetmore "a jazz chameleon with professional skills on both trumpet and violin, and equally at home playing Dixieland or bebop or cool jazz." The mid-1950s album "Wetmore Plays Zieff," Chambers wrote, is "beautifully crafted, and it stands as one of the most obscure great records in modern jazz." Richard Byron Wetmore was born in Glens Falls, N.Y., into a musical family. His mother played banjo, cornet, and piano, and his sister played piano and organ. His sister gave him his first violin, a metal contraption she bought at Woolworth's, when he was 6. By 10 he had composed and performed a piece for violin and piano that he dedicated to his father. His family moved to Newton Center and he left high school to serve in the Army. Because violins weren't needed in the military bands, Mr. Wetmore taught himself to play cornet. He later said that he learned to improvise while playing in an Army band. "He tells this great story about a trombonist called Moe Schneider who would stand behind him and kick him until he improvised," said Mr. Wetmore's great-nephew Jamey Wetmore of Tempe, Ariz. "Basically the pain would become so intense that he would start improvising without thinking about it." Back in Boston, he got his high school diploma, and studied violin and composition at Boston University and the New England Conservatory of Music. During the 1950s and '60s, he played Boston clubs such as the Hi-Hat, Pioneer Club, and the Savoy, and also at venues in New York City, backing up musicians including Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Sarah Vaughan, according to Jamey Wetmore, who compiled information about Mr. Wetmore's career. Mr. Wetmore expanded his range of instruments during those years, sometimes out of necessity. "He picked up numerous other instruments," his great-nephew said. "As he put it, there was so much alcohol and drugs around that it wasn't uncommon for your bass player to pass out during a set." Not immune to the substance abuse that was common among musicians on the road and playing clubs, Mr. Wetmore struggled with alcohol until "he sobered up in 1972," Jamey Wetmore said. "He used to say the only reason he lived so long was because he was afraid of needles." More than 15 years ago Mr. Wetmore was at a family Thanksgiving gathering and met the mother of his nephew's wife. "We just sort of clicked," said Marge Wetmore, who lived in the Midwest at the time. "We had a telephone romance because we talked on the phone every day. And then we decided we could afford that," she said, laughing, "so he proposed over the phone." They married in 1993 and she moved to join him on Cape Cod for a few years before they relocated to Naples, Fla., where some of his jazz colleagues from the 1950s were living -- along with his former audiences from up north. "He carried the amplifier and I carried his violin," his wife said. "So I was what was known as a roadie, and I liked that." Emphysema curtailed his horn playing, but Mr. Wetmore continued to perform on violin into his 70s, sometimes as often as seven times a week. "Regardless of what kind of music was playing, he had a very important stage presence," Jamey Wetmore said. "He enjoyed chatting with the crowd and interacting with the crowd, and presenting the music in a way that I don't think we get any more. . . . A lot of people would come up to him late in life and say, 'You brought something to me that I haven't seen or heard in 50 years." A memorial service will be held on Cape Cod in the summer. © Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

Nice post, FM, very nice. Welcome. Would that there were more posts like yours and less like...........never mind. Keep posting.

The Marsh/Konitz footage is from a series broadcast in 1958 (not 1954, as the tape indicates) on NBC-TV, called "The Subject Is Jazz." The host of the series was Gilbert Seldes and the musical director was Billy Taylor (seen in these clips). It lasted 13 weeks and explored various facets of the world of jazz. I remember one show was an entire half-hour devoted to an analysis of Bird's famous break on "Night In Tunisia"! It featured Tony Scott. Another show featured a "cutting contest" (my characterization) between Billy Taylor and Bill Evans. Can you imagine one of the four major commercial broadcast networks airing a 13-week series on jazz nowadays? Hah!! The producers of the Jazz Icons DVD series should try to get their hands on this stuff, quickly, before it disappears like so much other historical footage.

New release date -- August, 2006. We'll see. Where did you get this information ? Last week I called the publisher to inquire about the book's availability and found that the phone number was ' not in service ' . I then called the publisher's distributor and was given a different phone number , but that number was also ' not in service ' . I guess I should try and contact Jack Chambers directly , but the only email address I have for him is at the University of Toronto from which he recently retired I believe . I was getting my information from the Overstock.com website, from which I had ordered it. Their new release date is September, 2006. Right. I canceled my order; I'll wait until it's actually published. I think it'll come out about the same time Peter Keepnews' Monk biography comes out.

I thought about going to see the trio at Birdland last month when I was in NYC last month, but didn't go... Now I regret. He'll be at Birdland again on Sept. 20 - 23, although not with this trio. It's part of the Coltrane 80th birthday celebration. Some people may not know he was the first pianist in the Coltrane quartet. I caught the Kuhn/Carter/Foster trio 20 years ago at the Regattabar in Cambridge, MA, when they toured behind their first recording together. Outstanding!

For anyone in that area, the film is being shown as part of the upcoming Newport, RI, Film Festival. I don't know the date.

I've had the Twardzik book on order for about a year; the most recent release date I've been given is June, 2006. I'll believe that when it's in my hands. jpf, thanks for updating. hard to wait so long ! keep boppin´ marcel New release date -- August, 2006. We'll see.

I have #1320

From the Chet Baker list, posted by Jeroen de Valk: The actual personnel for the Swiss date is CB, Elsie Biachi (p), Siro Biachi (b) and a drummer who's name sounds like 'René Kneflis'. On recordings circulating of this concert, Chet is heard announcing them. There is a possibility that the date is earlier, and that Chet worked with this band because his own sidemen hadn't arrived yet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FWIW, I own the CD and it sounds like "Rene Kneflis" (sp.?) to me, too.

I've had the Twardzik book on order for about a year; the most recent release date I've been given is June, 2006. I'll believe that when it's in my hands.

I'll PM you.

FWIW: As I've posted before somewhere, Stuart Kremsky, the producer of the new set, has told me that all the studio chatter that was on the original records, but was eliminated from the Chronicle box set, is back in. I love it!