sgcim

Sure, Gil weren't no "Py-ano virtuoso", but his solo on the Astrud Gilberto rendition of "Look To the Rainbow" keeps playing in my mind for years now, and that's all that matters. Any duo with Martial Solal is worth picking up- an absolute genius at the art of duo playing

Sounds like a string quartet doing an arrangement of some rock tune, most likely comprised of younger players who are trying to say, "Look, we can play your "Jimmy"(sic) Hendricks" (sic) and your Fred Zeppelin- we rock!

Just aim your mind at EC's response to Hawk's melodic genius, and you'll be zoned for hours! I should thank you also for turning me on to Eddie Higgins, and I look forward to hearing his interactions with Hawk. Both EC and EH epitomize EC's only printed verbal quote, "GOOD JAZZ MUST SWING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Hawk seemed to seek out accompanists like them- Hank Jones, etc... Both Hawk and Clark Terry showed up at EC's Memorial Concert.

I've read a few things about about this phono pre-amp, but not being a UK resident, have not heard it. What's a good used price for it? Would I be better off getting the more recent upgrades Tom Evans has created? What amp, turntable and speakers does it work best with? TIA Forget about it, I bid $400 for it on ebay, and was just edged out by someone who bid $1,136!

I bought the "Moodsville" Hawk w/ Eddie Costa and Thad Jones on vinyl years ago, and the sound was so bad, I never listened to it again. Just recently I heard the CD of this 1960 date, and couldn't believe how great it was! The contrast of Thad and Hawk was fascinating, and hearing EC with Hawk was better than hearing Monk with Hawk. EC's comping for Hawk sounded so spontaneous AND matched to what Hawk was playing, that you felt like they did a vulcan mind-meld! They even got another pianist to comp for EC when he played only vibes.

First Jess Franco, and now the screenwriter for Russ Meyer's "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls"? Who's going to be left to make bad movies?

The best thing i ever heard at Smalls was the Eyetalian alto sax player, Luigi Grasso. Do you know if he's playing there anytime soon, regularpepsicola? I know his bro played there recently.

Never saw that one. thanks for the heads up!

Franco started out as a pianist/composer, and featured mediocre European jazz in many of his flicks of the 60s. i just saw "The Awful Dr. Orloff"(1962) on TCM, and it featured his dubious practice of splicing in nude scenes of actresses who weren't even in the movie- right in the middle of a scene! TCM (the last bastion of esoteric film- now that Sundance and IFC have succumbed to the ineveitable pressures of capitalism, like Bravo, A&E and all the others) recently showed Franco's "Venus In Furs" (1970), which stars James Darren as a jazz trumpet player. Manfred Mann is featured in one party scene, and most of the music is pretty good in this one. RIP, master of Eurosleaze.

Just to annoy Frisell fanboys and put things in perspective, I remember reading a review of a Frisell concert in the New York Times where Frisell tried to play acoustic guitar, and the reviewer said he sounded like a beginner- just technically unable to play the thing. I heard an NPR feature once on him playing with Jim Hall, and he was again featured on what sounded like an archtop guitar. I can only concur with what the reviewer said. Sure, I know he usually plays a Fender with lots of f/x, and he's achieved some type of Krishna-consciousness where he's able to play with no ego, and he wins all the Down Beast polls , but that doesn't mean his music neccessarily 'speaks in a very special way' (as we were taught to say in graduate school) to me.

But this one is much worse: Even my wife knew that was wrong, Coltrane as bebop pioneer. The Times is pathetic. Gotta agree with you there. The New York Slimes has become just as repulsive as the Daily Snooze and The Post in its own Bloomberg-butt-lickin' way. The only time they write about jazz is when Wynton writes a new ballet about cotton pickers in the South.

Yeah, that was completely Phil Ramone's idea. They had the tracks recorded already, and Phil called Phil W. up and asked him to drop by the studio to play a solo on JTWYA, and Phil nailed it on the first try. BJ never met Phil Woods or even heard of him. I think he knew Phil from Julliard, where PR was studying the violin and PW was studying the clarinet. It's sad that another recording guy who actually knew something about music has passed, but we all know some genius homeperson with a keyboard is gonna keep the shit alive.

As to whether RRK had ever been in a fight, Andrew Hill was working with him in Rochester at the time of the church bombings in Alabama, and RRK said some things in a club that caused the police to meet them at their hotel. Andrew recalled: "The next thing I knew the police were there with attack dogs, trying to take us off to jail. RRK fought with them. He could handle himself anywhere. He gave them a few "bright moments" to remember... just about broke one cop's neck! They took us all off to jail, even those of us who weren't participating. He kept sayin', ' They won't put a blind person in jail!" The next chapter goes on to tell the story of how he was arrested at Cleveland'sHopkins International Airport for plotting to hijack an airplane! They caught him going on to an airplane with a tear gas pistol and a knife, and held him in jail for two days. It wound up they dismissed all the charges, and gave him some hush money.

Speaking of celebrity death matches, there's a story in the book told to the author by a musician from the Mingus big band of 2000 (when the book was written) who wished to remain anonymous, about Mingus cursing RRK out at a rehearsal because he didn't like the way RRK played one of his charts. Mingus then walked over to him and shoved him. RRK said, ' What's your problem? Pushing around a blind man!" Mingus then ordered the band members to draw the shades, cut the lights and blindfold him. Mingus then nailed RRK in the jaw, and kicked RRK's butt, blindfolded. As far as Miles' electric shit, according to one of his bios, most of that shit was put together, Frankenstein style, by Teo Macero in the editing room.

I haven't finished the book yet, but: "Undoubtebly, Kirk felt betrayed and disgusted when his labelmate at Atlantic (whom he had jammed with many times during his early days in Chicago), Eddie Harris, plugged in his saxophone. 'Man, i don't like all the electricity the cats are introducing these days- electric pianos, amps, fender bass, synthesizers. i like jazz clean and straight-ahead. I don't like to see it made too easy. I like jazz that sweats. As far as pluggin' in my saxophone to an amplifier, that's not my cup of tea. Most of my music is natural and acoustic. Hell, if you pull the cord out of the socket, these bands are out of business.'" Then, RRK is quoted from the Keystone Korner telling Miles Davis; "Miles, like y'know, why do you use all those electronics? i don't dig that stuff too much. Y'know, I like that mute. You quit usin' that mute. YOU MADE A MISTAKE, MILES!!!!" then, whispering in an imitation of Miles' shredded larynx, he said, "Roland, everybody got to change. What do you want me to do about it? So what!" Don't ask me to explain those last two words.; - )

This was obviously written by a tenor sax player trying to avenge the wounded egos of his many sax playing brothers whom RRK savaged.; - ) In one chapter RRK rips through Sonny Red (RRK sat in with him, and drove him out of his own gig leaving RRK to finish the gig!)John Stubblefield, Dexter Gordon (in Copenhagen, RRK sat in with him and wound up replacing his whole band with the Vibration Society, while Dexter went off to get high),Zoot Sims, Phineas Newborn, Freddie Hubbard (at the Paramount theater, RRK played back FH's entire solos, while playing something else at the same time with his manzello or stritch!), George Adams (at Carnegie Hall, he did the same thing that he did with FH, except Andy Statman said RRH was mocking GA), the band Stuff, Jon Hendricks, George Benson, Stan Getz (at Avery Fisher Hall, he was so annoyed that they put the two blind black men-him and Al Hibbler- in a tiny dressing room, a long distance from the elevator, while Getz got a huge room right next to the elevator, that he copied everything Getz was warming up with, and kept circular breathing when Getz stooped to take a breath), and finally, all the people who sat in with him at the Village Vanguard. He'd blow his siren on them if they went on too long, and when one woman tenor player started squeaking and honking, he reached out and ripped out her neck and mouthpiece- while she was still playing! I think I know why no library in NY has a copy of this book- you and all your friends have probably had it banned from said libraries! ; - )

"Electronics have programmed the whole society. Electronic music has brainwashed us, and if we don't come to grips with ourselves, we're gonna walk around plugged in! The great musicians who have played the electric guitar- Django Reinhardt, Wes Montgomery, Oscar Moore, Charlie Christian and others- brought us beautiful music. These masters controlled the electronics, made the electronics work for them. We must not be psyched out and think the new sound is really something new. Most musicians haven't done enough research to know that the "new age of electronics" is really something that's been going on for years. All you have to do is trace back to European people like Edgard Varese, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio. These people were writing beautiful electronic sounding music back in the 30s. Everyone is getting on the electronic bandwagon, and consequently, pretty soon everything is going to sound alike. When a man runs a vacuum cleaner, he can't produce his own touch on that vacuum cleaner because it's an electric thing. It has its own built in sound. What this electronic phase is doing is completely wiping out the identity of anyone playing creative black music (jazz). This is a genocide of the music!" From "Bright Moments"- a bio of Rahsaan Roland Kirk- by Jon Kruth.

We're currently in post-production on a sequel: "Jazz Under The Bloomberg Regime". ; - )

I worked with him pretty steadily at a big theater in NY where we were part of the house band back in the mid to late 70s. Charlie Fowlkes was his buddy on bari, George generally played tenor. He was a beautiful cat, walked with a severe limp, I don't know what from. I always looked forward to talking with him about some of the bands he played with, and the records he played on. We were working together the day Oliver Nelson died- he was shattered. I remember he told me that Eric Dolphy played out of tune on purpose on his flute solo on "Stolen Moments" because ED said that was how the flute players in Africa played. I talked to him about that incredible Teddy Charles Tentet LP, and the fantastic part Jimmy Raney played in its creation, and he said JR used to act tough during the session so people wouldn't hassle him about those impossible guitar parts. He told me a hairy story about when he was touring with the Quincy Jones band, and their plane started to go into a nosedive, and pulled up just in time before they were going to go into a snowcapped mountain somewhere in the North (Alaska?- I forget). He always played with a strong, soulful sound. RIP, George.

It's got some great Dick Garcia on it.

I remember seeing Braith playing on the streets of NYC when I was a wee laddie. I remember thinking, "What the hell is a motherfucker like this doing playing on the streets?". After I gave him some of my hard-earned bread, I told him how great I thought he sounded, and asked him if he was playing a manzello or stritch. I'll never forget his reply, ' No man, this ain't no manzello or stritch, THIS IS A BRAITHOPHONE!", as if it were common knowledge. Speaking of Rahsaan, I've finally located a copy of his bio, "Bright Moments", and just from the first few chapters I've read, I think it can be said that there will never be a person like him again. And the world will never be quite the same without him...

Another interesting keyboard player Zappa had in the MOI for a short time was Bob Harris in 1971. In Zappa circles he is called Bob Harris(1), because Zappa had another Bob Harris in the 1980s (Bob Harris(2)). Bob Harris(1) was on the Fillmore LP (the "Vaudeville" Band), and has a good Wurlitzer solo on "Billy The Mountain" from Playground Psychotics. I got interested in BH(1), because he did most of the arr. for Judee Sill's sublime first LP. They were married for a few years, and lived in a 1950s Oldsmobile for a while(!) They were both life-long junkies, so that didn't help their careers, but I acquired a tape of him at a session in N.Hollywood, and he was a straight-ahead bopper, highly influenced by the Detroit jazz scene. He toured with Ray Charles for a few years, arranged for The Friends of Distinction and played with Gabor Szabo.

Great stuff on "The Real World"- that'll keep me busy for a year or so!

Frank Strozier used Howard Johnson on his "Remember Me" LP.