Christiern

I can vouch for the fact that Humphrey cannot improvise. When I did my "Jazz Set" TV series, I was bamboozled into devoting one show to her--what a terrible waste that was! The only saving grace was that she had a good band that included Harold Mabern. She, herself, was mediocre and unable to add an extra chorus when I needed her to do that.

I have only gotten drunk twice in my life, the first time was when my closest buddies took me out for a night in Copenhagen to celebrate my 18th birthday. Several cabs refused to take me when they decided to bring me home. The second was a snowy winter evening in Scranton, PA, when I MC'ed a concert by a band that included Budd Johnson, Elmer Snowden, Jo Jones and Milt Hinton. We left NYC early in the morning, in Ray's van and did not have time to stop for breakfast. Unfortunately, there was no food at our destination, just all you could drink. Well, you can imagine the rest. I don't kow how I made it through the concert, but I did. Next thing I know, we are somewhere on the road back to NYC, stopped at a diner, and Ray is literally carrying me (Frankenstein style) in for a cup of coffee. I was okay by the time we reached NYC. Ray is truly a great guy. Did anyone here know that Ray and his brother, Tommy (uncles to Kevin Eubanks, I believe), had music lessons from Elmer Snowden? He also used them on local Philly gigs and when there was no piano, Ray became the drummer. Somewhere in the Fantasy/Concord Iron Mountain stash place there should be tapes of a couple of unissued 1961 Snowden Riverside sessions I did with Ray, Garvin Bushell, Gene Sedric, Jimmy Rowser, and Mickey Roker. The only sessions I ever abandoned, the album was meant to be a follow-up to "Harlem Banjo", but--through no fault of the musicians--it just didn't have the sound I was after. I love Ray's solo Prestige work.

If either MS Word or Mariner Write are installed, Mac has no trouble opening up a Windows Word file. Since I always have Word and/or Mariner Write installed, I have never had those files come up in TextEdit, but I think BB is correct. I have been using a Mac for over 20 years and I have never needed a right ckick on the mouse. I am curious to know what program asks you for that.

Competitive, indeed. Reminds me of a night when a friend and I spotted a great table. We decided to take it if it was still there when we returned from the movie. It was, and two families were engaged in a heated argument about it. We decided to solve their problem and walked away with the table.

That used to be common in NYC of the 1950s/60s. People threw away really good pieces. I actually furnished my first apartment from the curbside stores, except my bed--there is a limit.

Even back in '59 and '60, when I was on WHAT seven days a week, Sid had his "Friday with Frank," which the rest of us thought inappropriate for a 24-hour jazz station. Sid was also full of himself, he called himself "the Mark of Jazz" and yet he knew so little about it. The local distributor for just about all the jazz labels was a great guy named Ed Cohen. One of his favorite Sid stories was about the time he took him to lunch. An elderly lady at a nearby table kept looking at Sid. "That old lady is watching you," Ed told Sid. "Yeah, I know, ever since Dolly started running ads with our pictures, the ... oh, she's coming over here--you got a pen on you?" The lady reaches their table and bends over Sid. "Say, aren't you the Fliegelman boy?" He was. Dolly, btw was the owner of the station, Dolly Banks--a true racist. The FM was all jazz and all white, the AM was all gospel and r&b and all black. She would not allow blacks on the FM (except as celebrity guests) and whites were barred from appearing on AM. One day, when the AM newscaster was taken ill, she called me into her office. "Can you speak like them?," she asked. "What do you mean?," I said. "Ed's out sick and we need someone to read the newscasts, no one can understand a word Lloyd (Lloyd Fat Man, the AM dj) says, so can you speak like a negro?" I just said no and walked out in utter disbelief. I don't recall what she ended up doing. Anyway, there are many stories about Dolly, but Sid will never tell them, he was close to her. He probably didn't even recognize much of her racism, like the fact that she had two cockers, a black one and a white one--they were named "AM" and "FM".

Sid was never much of a jazz dj, but he did know how to read liner notes.

What's your point?

Sad to say, Quincy took credit for more arrangements than he actually wrote himself. I wonder if the liner notes will be honest enough to point that out?

I agree that Charlie Rose can be annoying and uninformed, but he has good guests and often handles them well. Looking back, my favorite interview show was one conducted by Bob Costas. He was always well-versed on the subject and he asked intelligent questions. He was up there w. Linda Ellerbee when it came to taking care of business, imo.

I used to think that Cavett was the "hippest" of the talk show hosts, but then he had Stan Getz as a guest--it was embarrassing. That's when I discovered that Cavett's questions were often not really his own (I later saw some scripts that confirmed it). Anyway, he asked Getz questions that clearly had been written for another musical guest--I hope that show was preserved, because the embarrassment of yesteryear is probably hilarity today. That particular show stuck with me more than any other, and I was a regular viewer. Anyone else recall catching Getz on Cavett?

I believe Melba wrote some arrangements for Quincy Jones (who didn't?) when she was with his orchestra in Europe. She was the first black woman I recall seeing with an afro--she and Odetta were ahead of the trend.

Bob Weinstock was well prepared for Miles' departure from Prestige. He made sure that he had a lot in the can, then he took advantage of Columbia's promotions, spent some extra money on color covers, and tied his albums to Columbia's PR tails. He told me that himself and I never heard anything like Bob Porter's story when I was on the Prestige staff.

I express my own feelings and nobody else's--if that goes against your grain, I am sorry. When I make my own departure, I certainly hope that anyone who regards that to be a good thing is not afraid to say so.

Dying is something we all do, eventually, and I have never seen any reason why that final event in one's life should be cause for reverence. The fact that he was a very average sideman on sessions that rose above his talent does not make his demise something to mourn--the fact that our population now has one less bigot could, however, be seen as a good thing, imo.

I don't mean to make light of the situation (or maybe I do) but the vision of an enraged crowd trying to defend the honor of Jim Nabors by rushing the stage to attack Boots Randolph and his yakety sax makes me giggle like a school girl. It was not a matter of defending anyone's honor and I didn't mean to imply that the audience was ready to rush the stage, but a couple of performers waiting to go on all but had to be restrained--so I heard. Anyway that one-hit pop saxophone player disgraced himself on that night.

Many of us booed him during Columbia/CBS Records' annual convention at L.A.'s Century Plaza Hotel in the early Seventies. He led the band for the closing banquet, a gala affair that traditionally featured performances by some of the label's biggest stars. The reason for the boos was his referring to Jim Nabors (who was present) and Rock Hudson as "the dairy queens." It was an out of place and bigoted remark that came close to his being rushed on stage--he was lucky that we only booed. Frankly, good riddance.

I wouldn't worry about lost posts--the Bushie-Cheney-Gonzie gang probably has copies of everything.

The new look is great--no more pink, peach, whatever. Now we need to send in some bucks! I'll check my wallet. Thank you O guys.

I haven't heard Bill Dixon perform in about forty years. I hope his playing has improved.

Received this in my inbox this morning: I guess it is proper that I disclose my authorship of the liner notes.

Almost 60 years ago, I was a Copenhagen teenager surfing the dial of my Philips radio (very similar to this one) when this voice penetrated the grill cloth and went straight for my sense of the beautiful. It was Bessie Smith and two minutes or so of her singing hooked me on the music.

Actually, when Karl died, Storyville was bought by Wilhelm Hansen's music publishing co. A highly respected old firm, it is affiliated with (perhaps owned by) Schirmer. Mona Granager, who was Karl's right hand for decades and knew as much about the company as anyone else (other than Karl himself) is still there, so is Anders Stefansen, a man upon whom Karl relied heavily. These two people are in charge and they know the catalog as well as Karl's wishes. The new owners, not having been in the record business, leave things up to Anders and Mona, more or less. I feel very comfortable with them at the helm, as long as there is no serious interference from the new owners. So far, so good. I think Karl's son and daughter made the decision to sell--neither of them has any real interest in the record business. Of course, things will never be the same without Karl--he was Storyville and no one worked harder. I had know Karl since 1953, when he founded the label with the release of three vintage jazz 78s, (Clarence Williams Blue Five, Ma Rainey, and James P. Johnson)--the sound was dull and the discs were thick, but we Danes were starved for something to sip onto our turntables. Karl was a workaholic who got things done. The last time Karl was in the U.S., he stayed with me (as he often did). It was the week of 9/11--we watched it together on TV as it unfolded. A fax come in from Fantasy, offering Karl a million dollars for his company. He wisely turned it down. As things have developed, we now probably stand a better chance of seeing Storyville products released in the future than we would have if Fantasy had eaten up the label. What is missing is Karl's constant, exhaustive search for something new to license and release. We will also miss the film and literary side of his endeavors--would we ever have seen such books as these (see below) without his labor of love? And let us not forget that the discography he published (first Jepsen then Raben) were the most thorough works of the genre covering the post-war years. Unfortunately, Tom Lord came along and ripped this work off to produce his own, sloppy, error-ridden discography. In the process, he (Lord) made it impossible for Raben and Karl to continue Jazz Records 1942-80 beyond Vol. 8 (Fre-Gi), which was only released in CD form.

If you really wish to hear Oliver's horn, and don't have the vantage point Lil had on June 25, 1921, y'all might want to consider this new set: Archeophone Here's the whole picture, as Lil had it on her living room wall for many, many years: Check out the back, complete with Lil's Scotch™ tape work and id of musicians.

How do they taste?