sgcim

Completely through my myopic, solipsistic, personal (you get the idea) lens, the only 'explosion' that happened in 1971 in 'rock' music was the release of Judee Sill's self-titled album.

I finally got my hands on the book I mentioned above, and there is no doubt that "The Big Note" will be the definitive resource on FZ in the 21st Century. It is 740 pages of exhaustive research on every aspect of FZ's 60 commercially released albums, and even information on the 40 bootleg albums still circulating. The central thesis of the book is FZ's contention that his entire output is interrelated, and one can listen to his last works, and still find connections to aspects of his first album "Absolutely Free", recorded in 1966. FZ called this "Project/Object" Just reading the introduction, I learned that musicians as disparate as Don Ellis, Van Dyke Parks and Jim Fielder were involved with the early MOI. When I finally finished the 35 page Introduction, I encountered the basic outline of the whole book. Each song on each album is analyzed musically, lyrically, and historically, with FZ's incredible use of quotes from pieces such as 'Agon' and The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky, coupled with obscure 50's R&B songs, current hits, and of course, "Louie,Louie"! Every interview with FZ is used as commentary on musical, social, historical aspects of the song, and respected musical theorists, former band members, and FZ family members are also quoted. The fact that my name is mentioned in the Acknowledgements section will firmly cement my street cred in the quickly aging (if not already dead) world of FZ groupies.

RIP. There was a good documentary film on him a while ago.

Was Claude Bartee still around then? An ex-GF used to live with him and KG, a pianist with a 'habit' we've mentioned before. Don't wanna get too specific here...

Very sad to hear. He always used top notch swing players on his records. I did a great gig with his touring drummer, Giampolo Biagi,, and he said playing with Leon was a gas. RIP, Mr. Redbone

All the Packers were nice guys. They even had "The Golden Boy". How could you beat a team with Bart Starr and The Golden Boy? When Hornung got suspended for gambling, it shattered my conception of the world.

One of the all-time greats, RIP.

He sat in with this band I was playing in, and on the break, he went up to anyone in the band who was near him and said, "You sounded pretty good; how did I sound?" The last time I saw him was about ten years ago. He was playing a small group concert outside a library, on one of those stages on wheels, and he was trying to play the tenor sax for some reason. He sounded so bad, I had to leave. He could probably still play the clarinet, but I couldn't handle his tenor playing. RIP, Sol...

Just saw, "Karaoke Terror- The Complete Japanese Showa Songbook". It was written by the same guy who wrote Miike's "Audition", so I knew we were gonna be in for fun and games. It didn't disappoint. Imagine a 'gang war' between six middle-aged Japanese women, who are Karaoke enthusiasts of pop songs from the Showa Era, and six twenty-something Japanese slacker guys, who are also Karaoke enthusiasts of the Showa Era (1926-1989). All I can say is it escalates a bit...

That sounded a lot like Clark Terry. Even that great descending/ascending run he started off with on the break was something you'd associate with CT more than JW. My brother, a CT freak, yelled out , "Clark Terry!", when he was listening to the solo. He was playing all of CT's little 'bends' of pitch on the intervals that CT used them on, he was playing with CT's fluidity and rapidity of thought. I never associated JW with CT, but they must've influenced each other a great deal.

As far as a bio goes, I'd say the Pettinger book was best. As far as his music is concerned, there are many PhD dissertations on that subject. In France, there's even a Bill Evans Piano Academy, that a friend of mine wants to visit.

Thanks for posting that. From that interview we can assume that Miles left Bill's name off as composer (or in the second case, co-composer) of two songs on Kind of Blue: As composer of "Blue in Green", and as co-composer of "Flamenco Sketches". It's also interesting to hear Bill's opinion for the first time of Miles' music 'meant to reach a larger audience'. I think it's not a stretch to say that he didn't think too highly of it...

When you have a Hellview in Bellvue, it doesn't matter what you play.

I read about it in the book that was written about Ornette's first gig in NY I think it was called "1959: Ornette Coleman In New York" or something like that. One thing I noticed after I wrote about some of these violent episodes with jazz musicians; they all involved drummers or trumpet players doing the aggressive acts. Clifford T. even mentioned an incident with Richard Williams. I think that ties in with Larry's impression of some musicians as being similar to pro athletes. The trumpet and the drum set are the most physical instruments to play, and according to the multi-instrumentalist, Bob Bruno, there is no more volatile personality than the lead trumpet player in a Latin big band.

Tal was one of the nicest, humblest, ego-less guys I ever met. I could've been eating with my plumber.

Buddy went way beyond verbal abuse. A close friend of mine, Joe Dixon, was BR's roommate when they were both on the road with Tommy Dorsey. They had some type of argument about something, and Buddy knocked Joe out with one punch. Max Roach came down to Ornette's debut club appearance in NY in 1959, and after hearing him play, went back stage, and knocked him out with one punch. Then he was waiting at the place where Ornette was staying, and beat the crap out of him again! One member of Jaki Byard's Apollo Stompers was notorious for going psycho when he drank too much.I did a gig with him where he was bugged because this very annoying trumpet player kept laying out on the ensemble parts on this one chart, because he wanted to save his chops for his solo. He kept telling the trumpet player, "Quit laying out!", but the guy kept doing it. Finally he had enough, and picked the guy up, and flung him across the room, right into the wall. I watched the audiences heads follow the trumpet player's trajectory! The same guy who threw the trumpet player was on the road with the Lee Castle Band, and because he didn't own a car, he had to get a ride with a friend of mine, who also has a very short temper. Somewhere on the NE Turnpike, they got into an argument about trumpet playing, and they started socking each other back and forth, as they were stuck in a traffic jam.. Finally, my friend managed to open the door of the car, and literally kicked the guy out of the car, and left him on the Turnpike. Finally, my friend with a short temper got into a fight with Jerry Weiss, the trumpet player from BS&T's original band, right on the stand. My friend kicked the shit out of him, and they had to carry Weiss off the stand. Weiss, a diagnosed schizophrenic, came back to the same gig the next week, and had no recollection of the event! Larry has mentioned that jazz musicians remind him of pro athletes, and I tend to agree with him.

Yeah, I once took Tal Farlow out for breakfast after he came down to hear me play at a club. I still have the bill from the diner somewhere! A lot of those cats from the Dead, the Airplane and the Doors, 60s bands were heavy into Kenny and Wes. I remember reading an interview with Jorma once, and he said he saw Kenny in a club rolling around on the floor when he was playing!

I guess we did do threesomes, if you count the guitar...

We didn't do threesomes...

It didn't go that far, but the guy told us we were morally bankrupt (well, he was half right), and we just laughed in his face!

I thought Kenny only sent that message to me! WTF? I want those outtakes!!

Any film that states that the portal to hell is located in Brooklyn Heights is perfectly fine with me. My GF and I got thrown out of a bar in BH for lewd behavior.

I thought Kenny only sent that message to me!

Ten points for alto boy, and ten points for the demon.