Hot Ptah

Lyndon Baines Johnson Lady Bird Johnson John Coltrane

William Holden Audrey Hepburn Paul Desmond

Robin Roberts Robin Leach Cary Grant

Rep. Andrea Wyatt (D-Md.) John Wyatt Wyatt Earp

Beatiful trhing you bought!! I bought 2 of Trane's music manuscripts, a deed to his house in Philadelphia, and a tux that Dexter Gordon wore for the Oscars ceremony in 1986[?] when he was nominated for his role in Round Midnight. One day I'm planning to donate this stuff to the Smithsonian. The American Jazz Museum at 18th and Vine in Kansas City would appreciate them a lot more. This museum has a room devoted to items like that, including a letter from John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman's early music book, Benny Goodman's hat and appointment book, etc.

Oddly enough, it is a very young Wynton Marsalis.

chewy challenged him in a post to come forward and say how he knew about what he said. He has not come forward with any more posts. In my opinion, he should explain his sources of information.

Joey Baron Charles "Baron" Mingus Dennis Charles

I am not interested in the sexual issues, but I do think it is interesting that Sun Ra was able to keep a band together, both on the road and for recordings, for decades. Few bandleaders were able to do that from 1955-90. The fact that many band members lived in the same house may have had something to do with that, and that interests me. I doubt that the band members were sticking with Ra for some great amount of money, and none of them were getting very famous, even in the jazz world--so why did they stay in his band for so long? These questions have been explored with Ellington, Kenton and others, and it is just as valid to ask them about Sun Ra, in my opinion. As there are virtually no big bands now with longevity, these questions are perhaps more interesting today than they would have been 40 years ago. From what I have read, some of the leading musicians have claimed that Sun Ra's compositions and overall musical vision was so strong and interesting that they could not find musical satisfaction elsewhere. If that is the only answer, that would be fine. I suspect that there is something more to it, something compelling about Sun Ra's personality. Are the facets of his personality that kept the band together also involved in his forbidding Gilmore to do outside work? I find that interesting, because Gilmore deserved more exposure and it would have been very interesting to hear his contributions to other musical situations in the 1970s and 1980s. He was one of the leading tenor players on the scene then, in my opinion. What might he have done with McCoy Tyner or Cecil Taylor, for example.

Thanks for the post of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys in front of their bus. Any jazz fan who gives an honest listen to their music will find some seriously swinging big band music with compelling solos. Their "Big Beaver" is to me one of the best swing big band recordings, by anyone. This was a heavyweight musical organization.

Dr. Zachary Smith Dr. Lonnie Smith Lonnie Liston Smith

I was a member for several years. I almost quit many times, but then they would have one album I had never seen anywhere else and had to have--a Meade Lux Lewis one year, a Pete Johnson the next. Finally I did quit. I found the mailing in of the reply cards each month just one annoyance too many in my life.

Carole Garagiola Carole King King Wenceslas

Times have changed. I came across a stack of National Lampoon magazines from 1972-78 recently. I was struck by the fact that most of the print ads in them were for tobacco or stereo speakers. Most of the speaker ads touted the fact that the speaker in question was bigger and louder than any other speaker. Young people today don't care about that. If it's bigger than an Ipod, forget it.

Harsh. Did you know him? What's that based on? It is based on my personal understanding of music and the value system commonly accepted/adopted (by me at least). I had a nasty personal relationship with him and still don't like his music. Had "nasty relationships" with a few other artists and still love their work. Please advise me of his "masterwork" so I can see/hear what I missed. To me, if he has a "masterwork", it is Uncle Meat--in the original LP version, (not the CD version with the really long, unlistenable film dialogue plunked down in the middle). It may not be a masterwork on the level of the great masterworks of world musical history.

I had always imagined that Neon Park, the artist, had dreamed up the entire image for that cover, out of his imagination.

It would be interesting to hear from some musicians who lived at the house whether it was cult-like, or more of a crash pad next to the rehearsal space for musicians who were not making much money and welcomed a cheap place to stay. There were musicians who entered Sun Ra's orbit and did not stay in the house. For example, bassist Richard Davis played with him in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and again in the Sun Ra All Stars of the mid-1980s (on the Stars That Shine Darkly albums--Don Cherry, Lester Bowie, Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, Richard Davis, Philly Joe Jones and Clifford Jarvis--I may have left some out). Richard never lived in the house as far as I know, although he spoke warmly of Sun Ra as a musician and as a wise, helpful person in the early 1950s. Roy Haynes once mentioned in an interview that his son was a drummer with Sun Ra for a long time. I wonder who he was--sometimes the musicians with Sun Ra took on other names. Someone like Roy Haynes would probably have good insights into the Sun Ra house. I bet it would be difficult to get anyone to talk much about it, though.

Mitch Watkins Barbara Dennerlein Horst Weber Anton Weber Eberhard Weber Eberhard Faber Fabian George Bernard Shaw Bernard Shaw Bob Shaw Juan Marichal Gaylord Perry

Mitch Watkins Barbara Dennerlein Horst Weber

Leroy "Hog" Cooper Hargus "Pig" Robbins Porky Freeman Joni Mitchell Mitch Mitchell Mitch Miller

S.J. Perlman Minnie Pearl Minnie Driver Donald Driver Donny Anderson Anderson Cooper

Nelson Rockefeller Gaylord Nelson William Proxmire

King Pleasure B.B. King King George III

T-Bone Walker Hugh Walker Ben Dixon MG Bill Dixon Billy Bang Junior Walker

Duncan Hines Gregory Hines Mr Bojangles Mr. Clean Mr. Miyagi Mr. Mom Moms Mabley Hank Mobley Hank Aaron