sgcim

He looks like a Latino there, but he was of Southern Italian background. I remember I used to play in a big band in NY where it was said that Chick played the piano chair (probably for five seconds). I was a kid back then, so I thought, "I'm playing the same charts Chick played" (they stopped using piano by then, and I'd play the piano book).I used to tell all the new players in the band, "Yeah man, Chick used to play in this band". One of my best friends became a Scientologist, and made a videotape of him and Chick playing a four-hand piano duet that they played at his funeral service/wake. He died when he was 35. I worked in a band with another Scientologist piano player who worshiped Chick. I met him a few days after L. Ron Hubbard died. When I asked him about it, he said Hubbard didn't die; he was just away on research. R(esearch) in Peace, Chick...

It should be noted that the OP wrote a great book on the Stars of Jazz TV program. Thanks, James!

Beautiful Don Joseph solo on Mullenium! Thanks! There's not that much available of his playing from that period, other than the Chuck Wayne String Fever album. He was severely limited in his career by panic disorder, which was an unknown entity back then, and he literally couldn't cross bridges or go through tunnels due to panic attacks. There was one story about him getting a lift from another musician to a gig where they had to go through a long tunnel. While they were on line to pay the toll, the anticipatory anxiety of having to go through the tunnel was too much for him. He bolted out the door, and ran off into the night, leaving his trumpet behind! He never made the gig. He told my friend about the high he got from heroin in such ecstatic terms, that my friend didn't think he was trying to self-medicate; he thought DJ was using purely for the pleasure he got from it. Who knows? Woods' relationship with Mulligan was another great part of the book. He had to change chairs with Zoot Sims on a Manny Albam recording session, because of Mulligan's obsessive questions about phrasing! The story about Quill slicing his eyeball on a reed on a Birdland gig, because he turned his head too fast, resulting in Woods to drive from PA to NYC to sub for him in Mulligan's Concert Band was typically bizarre for Quill. Woods got fired by Mulligan that night for, to quote Woods, "Something about me being another drunk Irishman. Like calling the kettle green!" Mulligan re-hired Woods the next day. Mulligan booked the Woods Quintet to play at the Ravinia Jazz festival, which Woods had played many times before, and elected not to do a soundcheck. Mulligan balled him out at the hotel over the phone about how unprofessional he was. Mulligan was concerned about the cymbals' sound on the picnic grass... Later, Mulligan called Woods to play on the "Rebirth of the Cool album, and Woods answered, "No way", due to the balling out Mulligan gave him over the phone about being unprofessional at Ravinia. Mulligan couldn't get Konitz, so he was desperate, and Woods made him apologize before he took the gig. Mennini. That doesn't surprise me as much as it would have if I didn't find out that Walter piston was actually Walter Pistone.

You don't know the truth about Don Joseph as a HS teacher, because you didn't live in Staten Island, where DJ and my friend lived, and you didn't act as DJ's unpaid chauffeur, driving him to his AA meetings, Mormon church services, and clubs, where he'd sit in with his friends, as my friend did, or attend the HS where Don worked.. You could be right about the spellings, but they were the exact spellings given in the book (BTW, I spelled it Bleier not Blier). It was published by Cymbal Press, and they might not have had the best proofreader a larger press would have had. The editor was Mary Dorian.

I thought I posted this comment on the PW book a few weeks ago, but it turned up when I wanted to make a new post today: , There's a part where PW went to a Woody Herman dance/concert, and was dressed in a laughable zoot suit, and asked the guys in the band for autographs. When they saw how this little kid looked in a zoot suit, they started putting him on, and signed their names as old swing musicians to put him on. When he realized what they did he started crying. He later confronted Neal Hefti years later about it, and Hefti apologized and signed his name as Don Joseph! Woods said that DJ was a marvelous trumpet player who wound up teaching music at a High School in Staten Island. I asked a friend of mine about that who knew DJ, and he laughed his head off. My friend went to the HS DJ "taught at", and said DJ wasn't a teacher there. DJ would just come in once in a while and get a few bucks for helping out the trumpet players! Some other comments on the book (this could take some time, there's no football on today) are: There was always something funny about Vinnie/Jimmy Abato; a friend of mine said he always tried to sell his students used sax cases for extra bucks when he was studying with him. Phil laces into him during his time studying with VA/JA at Julliard, and finally clears up the mystery about the Jimmy vs. Vinnie credit listings on his studio work.He re-prints a touching obituary notice about the great WW player a few pages later. Phil's comments about Henry Brant being afraid of UFO parts falling on him are priceless. Phil immortalizes a local LI alto/flute/clarinet player (he played them all equally well) named Chasey Dean, who used to tell us stories about his times with PW on breaks. CD went to Julliard with Phil, played in the Barnet band with him, and helped him and Chan get a place in Brooklyn. CD played on some albums with Matt Mathews, before getting a HS music teaching gig. RIP, Chasey.aka Charles DeAngelis. I never knew PW studied composition with Peter Menin. The "Birdland Stars on Tour album in 56 was actually recorded in a studio with canned applause (except for two cuts)! PW closes the case on Gene Quill, without telling the real story of his death. If PW didn't want to tell it- I sure ain't.. PW never explains why he never doubled on flute. He only did ONE Broadway show, Ballet USA, which was a concert dance piece, composed by Robert Prince. On the album "More Blues and the Abstract Truth", PW said that the band thought they could juice and cut it on sight. On the title tune, they screwed it up royally, getting Oliver Nelson .quite angry, and PW claimed it was the only time he ever saw a NY. studio band have to take the music home and practice it to record it the next day. If you ever tried to play that chart, you'd know why. On the record, Phil sound like he's the only one who played it perfectly. On the Quincy Jones tour of Europe, PW learnsjjk that besides teaching Ben Webster to play the saxophone, the great Budd Johnson also taught Prez how to roll his first joint! It seems that Billy Byers did a lot of the writing for the musical they were presenting, "Free and Easy". There are a lot of great stories involving members of Q's band that are too numerous to go into here. PW reveals "Greek Cooking" to be an idea that Bob Thiele had, because he thought Greek music was going to be the next big thing. It wasn't. "The Rights of Swing' was part of a tax write-off scheme Archie Bleier had, because he had too much money. Although Woods loves the record, he said it was left to drop like a bomb, with no promotion. The head of Candid Records (the label it was on), Nat Hentoff,said one of PWs records had no development in a review. Woods was given the assignment to write ROS by Hentoff, and he said to him, "I got your development right here, Jack". PW regrets writing the pedantic liner notes for ROS. When he moved to Europe, he tells the story of having to play a piece commissioned by the German Radio Workshop, with music arranged by Tony Scott. Woods called Scott a fine clarinetist, but not a very good arranger. He was only able to write everything in unison, and the great band consisting of Clifford Jordan, Jimmy Owens, Sahib Shihab,Ake Persson, Steve Kuhn, NHOP, and Aldo Romano dropped out, one by one. Woods walked out of one rehearsal, telling Scott to "stick his arrangements up his unison ass", and hit the bar. In the end, Scott's 'history of jazz' lasted only 38 minutes... Woods tells stories of his group's (European Rhythm Machine) rocky road to fame, meeting with hostile audiences, putting down the "long-haired US studio man", and then giving them three standing ovations by the end of the concert! Another Pop Festival in Palermo attacked the one jazz band the day before with bottles and soda cans, but after The ERM's set, 30,000 people were cheering "Phil Woods! Phil Woods!" The headlines the next day read, "Jazz Comes and Conquers!" Bill Evans encouraged PW to return to the US, and the last ERM concert was opposite the Bill Evans Trio. They worked together (besides the numerous studio dates they did in the 50s and 60s) again on the Claus Ogerman record Symbiosis, and discussed doing a record together, but it never took place. PW's solo on the Billy Joel song Just the Way You Are, was actually an edit by Phil Ramone of six different Woods' takes. Joel listened to them all, and thought they were all great, but Phil Ramone decided to make an edit of all six.

Yeah, she was great in that movie! Great B&W cinematography, and some wild dialogue and acting. I wonder if Miles ever had to get on his knees and crawl to a booking agent like Sammy Davis Jr. did in that flick? It is believed that the scene where SD Jr. completely freaked out and started playing loud wrong notes and then started banging the hell out of his trumpet, inspired both the free jazz movement of the 60s, and Peter Townshend and Jimi Hendrix's destruction of their instruments at the Monterey Pop Festival... Great story of that "awful little man" by your parent's friends!

Moderna has repeatedly made the official statement that the first dose is only 52% effective.

I got the first dose of the Moderna vaccine Wed. night. I spent four hours on the computer before I got an appointment. I already made an appointment at the same place for a second dose, but de Blasio wants to use the saved second doses for new first doses, so he can get re-elected next year, so my second dose is not a sure thing. The doctors are telling de Blasio that you have to have two doses for it to be fully effective, but he doesn't care. He figures the more people he can get injected, the more votes he'll get. Science is meaningless to him. The only side f/x I had were pain in the injected arm, which has completely gone away by now, and sleepiness that threw off my sleep pattern for a day. Trump left nothing for Biden in regards to a vaccination plan. Good luck, everyone.

Yeah, that documentary surprised me. Jerry was very humble when it came to his improvisational gifts. His sight reading/technical abilities are so respected, Wynton had to call Jerry in to play lead alto for one big concert at a JALC concert, because his 'young lion' couldn't cut the part. That's why Phil Woods was such a freak. He was astonishing in his ability to both sight read anything, and equally astonishing in his improvisational ability. It was ironic that Phil happened to be staying at Jerry's house when Jerry got the call for the Live at Jimmy's gig. Jerry had another gig, so he said, "Phil Woods is here. Do you want to use him for the gig?" Legrand agreed, and that gig literally saved Phil's career! I posted previously about Woods performance of "You Must Remember Spring" with Legrand at Carnegie Hall. It was unlike anything I've ever experienced before. It was like my two friends (an alto sax player and a trumpet player) and I were pulled by some gravitational force out of our chairs and started banging our hands together like a bunch of stumble bums! We just couldn't believe the emotional power that Phil had exerted over the entire concert hall. We couldn't even articulate it. We didn't say a word to each other. We just looked at each other in disbelief. I've been to a million concerts/clubs, and had the experience of yelling out, "Yeah!", and then saying to a friend, "What a great solo!", but this was something different; beyond words.

Sounds familiar. I'll have to check it out. Thanks!

Dodgion has always been kind of a mystery to me. I did a Union Trust Fund big band gig with him in the city, and he sight read the book perfectly, but when he had a solo, he either gave it to the other alto player, or played a kind of weak, blues scale solo. I saw a documentary with him (I think as subject?), and he admitted he wasn't a strong jazz soloist, and he considered himself a blues player(?) when it came to improvising. That said, he's a legendary lead alto player/technician, who played the schlitz out of those incredible Thad sax solis that leave me in awe every time we play a Thad chart. Phil Woods was upset that he didn't get the call for lead alto on the Thad and Mel Band, but I think Thad wanted someone who could double on flute, and Woods never touched the flute.In the Mosaic Thad and Mel set, there are a few cuts with Woods on alto that I'm dying to hear. As a leader or co- leader, Dodgion only made two records before 2004, two tracks in 1955 for Fantasy Records with Sonny Clark on piano and an album in 1958 for World Pacific together with Charlie Mariano. Dodgion's first true release as a bandleader arrived in 2004 with an ensemble called The Joy of Sax, featuring saxophonists Frank Wess, Brad Leali, Dan Block and Jay Brandford, pianist Mike LeDonne, bassist Dennis Irwin and percussionist Joe Farnsworth.

Jerome was a sideman on a number of records I have, but he was mainly reading, with no solos. Then I watched the Quincy Jones Big Band DVD "Live in '60, and his playing was fantastic!

"All Hallow Eve" is recommended.

She claimed that she was friends with every major jazz musician who came to NYC. Cool person, NYC personified.

Just finished Charles Williams' "Descent Into Hell". Strange Christian/Occult novel by one of the Three Inklings.

Very sad to hear. RIP, Junior.

A big blow to big bands. RIP, Sammy...

Yeah, unless someone's done some major crossover work with rock people, it's doubtful NPR is going to do a feature on them. Terry Gross did a full hour with Louden Wainwright, and his new album with Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks ("I'd Rather Lead a Band"), singing standards by Loesser, Berlin, etc..., and then played the entire thing again on New Year's Eve (or day). I like Loudon fine when he's singing his own songs, but hearing that thin, warbling voice sing Frank Loesser is another thing entirely. But hey, it's crossover!

It does seem like a misleading title for the article, "The Real Swinging London: The Legacy of Brit Jazz". Other than the first three tracks by Harriot, Tubs, and the Neil Ardley cut, there's very little 'swinging' going on. A better title might be "The Roots of Progressive Jazz in London: The legacy of Brit Progressive Jazz and Jazz-Rock". It was interesting hearing Jon Hiseman trying to swing a big band.

Holy shit! You must mean Infinity Records! I've been going to Joe's for over 40 years, since he started out in Wantagh off Sunrise Highway, then moved to Seaford, then moved to Massapequa. Isn't he in Massapequa Park now? I've bought 100s of records from Joe, plus all the other stuff he's got there.My turntable, DVD/VCR player (he gave me for free), and music magazines He even had a jazz record I played on there, and I showed him my picture on it, and said, "Hey man, that's me!" Did you shop there when Demian and his Corgi were there? Wild dude! I'm glad he's still open, but I'm too chicken to drive out there from Queens, and risk getting covid. I'll wait till the weather warms up, and he can get some ventilation in there.

Wow, what town in NY?

Very sad to hear. He seemed to be playing with everyone in NYC 'back in the day'.I saw him with Gil Evans at Lincoln Center at the famous recording of "Zee Zee" featuring Hannibal. My fave album with him was Frank Strozier's "Remember Me", where he was featured on even fast tunes playing tuba! I'll never forget the blend of Tuba and flute counterpoint on Frank's beautiful waltz, "Neicy". RIP...HOJO

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/miya-ponsetto-forcibly-removed-from-vehicle-and-arrested-after-viral-video-caught-her-falsely-accusing-black-teen-of-a-crime/ar-BB1cAD1Y?ocid=ACERDHP17

They just ID'd the young woman as Maya Ponsetto. She's got a history of causing problems at swanky hotels, getting arrested for drunk and disorderly at a big LA hotel recently, and then being busted for drunk driving a day or two ago. When asked if she was a racist, she answered "I'm a Puerto Rican!"