sgcim

Beautiful playing! Yeah, I've seen that before. The only one I know is Mike. We played in some college groups together back in the 90s. Wonderful player and wonderful guy. If I heard Wynton play one solo as musically satisfying as Don's, maybe I could understand what's going on in NY, but I haven't heard it yet. But that goes for the musically bland "jazz revival' crowd, also.

Alright Nino- I can take a hint. I'll just spit out what I can remember. He always said Don reminded him of a tall David Niven. In his Wikipedia entry (which was poorly written by what seemed like a well-meaning friend of Don's), it said that DJ was a full-time teacher at a Catholic HS, but actually, he just helped the band teacher out a little with the trumpet players. he didn't seem capable of holding down a FT job of any kind to my friend, who used to drive him around and help him out. The SI musicians worshipped him, and he'd sit in on their gigs, but his chops were not in the greatest shape. Sadly, one younger SI musician, Drew Francis, who was in that crowd, also picked up on DJ's junk habit, and OD'd at a too young age. Drew played both the piano and tenor equally well, and used to be consulted by Michael Brecker on sax matters. He was also a gifted composer. A terrible, terrible loss... Don was subject to panic attacks when driving over bridges or tunnels, and couldn't fly. He was supposed to play the trumpet solo for the Jackie Gleason Show theme, but he couldn't take a plane for the session. I think Jimmy Nottingham played it. One time Don was going to a gig with a friend, and they had to drive through the Holland Tunnel to get to NJ. He got so frightened, he just bolted out of the car before they entered the tunnel, and left his trumpet in the car, never making the gig! I opined to my friend that maybe DJ's junk habit was self-medicating for his case of Panic Disorder, but my friend started describing DJ's descriptions of the rush that he got from shooting up, and I dropped that line of reasoning pretty quickly. My friend asked Don how he could achieve success as a musician, and Don's answer was, "YOU GOTTA GIVE IT YOUR ALL!" He and Don used to listen to an older Italian concert pianist whose name I can't recall, all the time. DJ also worshipped great prizefighters. DJ had replaced his junk habit with alcoholism, but then replaced alcoholism with a deep religious faith (it was either Mormonism or Jehovah's Witness), and was intensely neurotic about it. The whole SI crowd he'd play with seemed to be on the Chuck Wayne LP "String Fever", along with Eddie Costa. I wish i could've asked Don about that fellow jazz genius (EC). This was back in the 80s, when I used to play in a band with said friend, so it's kind of hazy, but the last thing I can remember was his account of Don's funeral (he died of a sudden heart attack). It was very solemn, until an older woman who claimed to be either a former girlfriend or wife of DJ walked in, looking like a reincarnation of Chan Parker(!) and started telling funny stories about DJ that had everybody laughing their heads off, making it into a joyous affair! I haven't spoken to my friend in about fifteen years, but maybe I'll give him a buzz.

Thanks, I'll pick up the CD, if it has alt. takes. A friend of mine who used to hang out with Don on Staten Island didn't seem that excited about that LP, because he thought Don had done his best playing in the 50s. He had some interesting stories about Don. I'm having trouble posting on this board.

Clark Terry admits that he had a severe gambling problem in his autobiography. He lost many a gig's pay in crap games in the back of the bus. One musician friend of mine said that Matt Matthews had so many gambling debts, that he had to get out of NY before you-know-who would do him in.The same person claimed that gambling debts were also responsible for the disappearance of Dick Garcia from the NY scene, although Garcia still lives in NY.

I saw this in a used record store today, but I wasn't sure I wanted to pay what they wanted for it. Does anyone have it? Is it worth getting? TIA

TV Time- They had an old Jack Benny episode with Wayne Newton swinging his ass off on a ridiculously uptempo version of "Falling in Love with Love". He sounded like Dinah Washington! Then he did some hokey Al Jolson thing, but he played the trumpet, violin and banjo pretty well. Who knew? On WNET, they featured a retrospective of some of their old programs, and they showed a few excerpts from the program "Soul" from the 70s. There were some good R&B acts, and then they had The Max Roach Quintet playing. I know I saw Roland Kirk destroy a chair on one episode, but were there any other jazz things anyone remembers?

Check out the harp solo in "Eye Of The Devil", one of my faves. I still can't find the documentary on him anywhere. Has anyone seen it? The musicians back then loved him. Clark Terry talks about how much he loved his music in his recent autobio, "Clark", bemoaning the fact that he was poisoned. Thankfully, the sicko that (inadvertently, he claimed) poisoned him is rotting in hell. I've worked with two musicians who recorded with him- Gerry Sanfino, double wind player on "October Suite" and Joe Cucuozzo, and they get all choked up when remembering him.

See, this lady (she looks like she could be a variant on Chan Parker) is trying to enjoy life, take it to a higher plane, but the spaghetti of life won't let her, it is too much the boss of her and slaps her every time she starts to partake. She feels overwhelmed and needs an escape so she can get to her own special place. So she takes the Tums heroin and chills that shit right down so she can go about ruling life the way only a hip chick with a belly full of Tums heroin can. The Tums heroin puts her life where she wants it to be and now she can stare down the spaghetti life and it just limps out. She is free, at least until the Tums heroin wears off. And it always does. I mean, if you can't understand how Tums heroin works, are you sure you're ready for the real thing? Now see here; I just read "My Life in Eb", and Chan never once mentions being hooked on Tums (or junk, for that matter) . She seemed to be a real boozehound, though.

Please, tell me that's a manip! I

One great LP that may never make it to CD is Jimmy Raney's "Strings and Swings". His son said that there were legal problems regarding the extended piece of music that Raney composed, "Suite For Guitar and String Quintet" that may never be settled. It's a shame, because it's a historically significant piece of music that combines Bartok and jazz, and has some great Raney solos on it. The other side is a regular jazz quintet recording featuring Raney leading a group with Bobby Jones and Dave Lahm, live in Louisville KY. It's also excellent. If you have that LP, consider yourself lucky.

Whoops, that was Harold Arlen's jazz musical "Free And Easy"- Quincy Jones was only musical director.

A good place to look for info on this band was Chan Parker's "My Life in Eb", as she was present for as long as Woods was in the band. They tried to perform Q's jazz musical "Free and Easy" for French audiences, but the language barrier, and other things made them give it up after a few days. Was "Free and Easy" ever produced? It seemed like members of the band appeared on stage.

Wow, Jazztrain, that's enough info to send me out looking for that LP; thanks! Ron used to be a very good trumpet player. He's featured on the LP "Compositions of Bobby Scott", and he sounds like a Fruscella/Joseph/Chet Baker-type player. When I was doing gigs with him back in the 80s, he had switched to piano, and he had some great re-harmonizations of standards that have stayed with me to this day. He was starting to gain some noteriety on trumpet (he placed in a DB Poll) when he had some type of injury that ruined his trumpet chops. If you know of anything else he arranged on, please let me know.

Anyone have this Bethlehem LP, BCP 18? It's a Sam Most LP with Oscar Pettiford on one side, and another group with Burger Jones(!) on bass. I read online that Ronnie Woellmer, a trumpet player, arranged the four or five cuts with Pettiford. Can anyone verify this?

This was an attempt by leftist Barcelona composer Amargos to leave the conservatory and write music for the masses back in the 1970s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVJO6BJFj-g

Yes, she had a glib style that started to drive me crazy after a few chapters. I think this was written before "Death of a Bebop Wife", so her perception of Haig as the lunatic he seemed to be was pretty right on. I think we've got a new genre here- "bebop wives tell all". There's even a book about Bill Evans that was written by a woman who had a short relationship with him, towards the end.

They don't do that anymore? That's all they do. I didn't know you were the guy that Steve Post and Bob F. used to talk about on their shows. Is it my imagination, or has NYC become a cultural cesspool since the glory days of BAI and channel 13 in the 60s? I know this was after your time at BAI, but what ever became of John Fisk? He used to play some great Clifford Brown things. That's probably why they fired him.

Eastwood probably chose the love angle to make the film a commercial success. He called her, she didn't call him. I couldn't stand the film, but I wasn't expecting much from a Hollywood actor. I guess you could say she was trying to exploit her marriages with Bird and Woods with her two books, but I doubt she made any money with this one. Her endless descriptions of her depressions from the death of Bird and the end of her marriage with Woods made it a real downer. Still, if you're as fascinated with these two alto players as I am, her brain cells didn't seem to be as fried as some people have claimed they were, and you do get some insight into both of their careers that you might not find elsewhere.

I knew she wrote a book with the title, "To Bird With Love", which I've never seen, but I think this is a different book. It's an autobiography; I don't know what "TBWL" is. It covers four parts of her life- 1) Her pre-Bird life 2) Her life w/ Bird 3) Her life w/ Phil Woods 4) Her life after PW. PW has a DVD out called "A Life in Eb", which is interesting, considering her unflattering portrait of PW after their 17 year marriage broke up. Some things I found interesting were: She said Bird was annoyed at people saying he was influenced by Lester Young. She said he didn't like playing behind the beat or rushing. He felt the placement of time right on. He claimed that Buster Smith was his main influence. When Bird was in Bellvue, he was visited by Sherry Martinelli, who called herself "The Needle Lady". She was the woman William Gaddis modeled the character Esme after, in "The Recognitions". After Bird's death, they held a benefit concert for him at Carnegie Hall without her approval, that featured Sammy Davis Jr. She thought that PW was a more likely successor to Bird than Jackie McLean or Cannonball.

He also played on some of those LPs with Phil Woods as part of his European Rhythm Machine, when Gordon Beck wasn't doing it. RIP GG

I was at that concert in Central Park. I remember thinking, " that can't be the same Tal Farlow who played on all those Verve records I have..." Tal went through a lot of changes back when he was on top.

Thanks for all the info on Sam Thomas. I saw his name on Klemmer's first LP, and tried to find out who he was, but to no avail. Who or what is DG?

This new book by Steven Roby is a compilation chronologically of JH's interviews. The only jazz content is JH talking about how much he dug Roland Kirk, and the fact that he jammed with Kirk at Ronnie Scott's (March 8, 1969- Vernon Martin-Bass, Jimmy Hopps-Drums, Ron Burton- Pno.) Jimi on the jam: "Oh yeah. I had a jam with him (Kirk) at Ronnie Scott's in London, and I really got off. It was great. It was really great. I was so scared! It's really funny. I mean ROLAND (laughs). That cat gets all those sounds. I might just hit one note, and it might be interfering, but like we got along great I thought. He told me I should have turned it up or something."

Thanks! My fave vinyl with RT was the live session with Bobby Jaspar on Mole in 1962 in Paris. One obscure record he did that I haven't seen mentioned was "A Milanese Story" by John Lewis on Atlantic from 1961. It was an Italian movie soundtrack that had Bobby Jaspar also on flute and tenor and Buster Smith on drums, plus a string quartet.

I avoid those concerts like the plague, unless it's something that can't miss. My only positive experience was seeing Phil Woods and the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Ensemble recreate Gil Evans' "New Bottles,Old Wine" (Phil played the Cannonball parts- you can't go wrong w/ PW). On the rock and/or roll side of things, I saw "Forever Changes" by Love recreated by Arthur Lee and Baby Lemonade, but maybe that doesn't count, because Arthur Lee was the original vocalist with Love.