Christiern

I watched Steve Jobs's presentation (keynote address), this looks like a cool item. Millions of high-priced iPods have been sold so far, I can just imagine how the shuffle will go. The new Mac is also interesting, especially the idea that it was designed for people who have a PC and are lusting after a better machine. I understand that it will accept input from PC peripherals (keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc.) so the $499 price is good. There is a large segment of PC users out there who have been looking to get away from Windows.

I don't recall what year it was, but down beat gave me an assignment to do a cover story on Bobby Colomby, the BST drummer. It was an unknown group then, its first album was yet to be released. They were playing in a small Village club and when I told Bobby that I was doing a story on him and the band for down beat, he went became more excited than a housewife facing Bob Barker's Plinko board. He told me that he grew up on down beat and just couldn't believe that he was going to be mentioned in it, much less that he and BST would be the cover story. I mentioned that I needed to interview him, to which he replied, "Tell me where to come, I'll go anywhere." He came to my apartment a few days later and I eventually got to know the whole band, because I was producing records for Columbia (i.e. in the same building) when they made their second album. These were a bunch of jazz fans--I recall that they loved Bill Evans, for example, and Colomby's interest in jazz was by no means coincidental--his brother, Jules, was Monk's manager. I must admit that it bothered me to see Miles opening for BST at Madison Square Garden, but I understand that it was the group's idea to share the bill with him and--they having by then soared to popularity--they felt it might, ironically, give him a boost. He was, after all aiming at a younger audience. BTW, I had no idea that BST still existed, I thought they disappeared decades ago!

I think Organissimo members (wives of, that is) have babies approximately 9 months after the board has suffered a breakdown. What else to do? Just a theory, mind you--no scientific data.

Interesting. Thanks for posting that.

How do they get these books out so fast?

BTW Mike, has anyone done a similar (albeit much shorter) list of jazz writers' pseudonyms? I seem to recall that Dan Morgenstern was Michael Morgan. I was Fred Nurdley, and there were quite a few more.

I am so glad that Down Beat didn't forget Rudy Van Fielder (see sidebar). He really deserved this award.

While he remains well known and highly acclaimed in blues circles, I think Lonnie Johnson's influence on guitarists tends to be overlooked.

I don't know much about grammer, but I thought her grammar was excellent.

Sorry, sar, that it appeared that way, but I wasn't putting your post down, just bemoaning the fact that the grid, which looked so perfect in my e-mail, couldn't be moved intact. Thanks for the URL, Michael--that's what I was talking about.

George e-mailed this to me the other day, and it came up on my screen as a perfect, very readable grid. I subsequently attempted to pass it on, but gave up since it always ended up looking like the post at the top of this thread.

I am half finished with "Eats, Shoots & Leaves," a fascinating book by Lynne Truss. You wouldn't think that a book about misplaced punctuation could be funny--much less, absorbing, but it is. Anyone else read or heard of this book?

One more thing...liner notes give the label another chance at a Grammy. Apropos endless credits, has anyone noticed how "God" has had his/her hand in tons of bad albums--he/she seems to favor hip hop.

We didn't use tape back in the good old cylinder days--hell, we didn't even use microphones, or, for that matter, make pressings. Every little cylinder was a beautiful original. Now, if you will excuse me, I'll get back to the liner notes I'm writing.

They got smaller and smaller in point size, eventually making a large segment of liner notes readers half blind. There simply was no point in keeping up the practice.

It will be Chinese tape, of course! You know, red tape.

This is how her listing looks in the 0riginal Encyclopedia of Jazz. She was dropped from subsequent volumes. CARSON, NORMA, trumpet; b. Portland, Ore., 1922. Worked w. Ada Leonard, Sweethearts of Rhythm, Vi Burnside; from 1952 free-lanced in Phila; married to tenor player Bob Newman. Inspired by Gillespie and Davis, she revealed considerable talent in the Cats vs. Chicks album on MGM, but has remained in relative obscurity. Addr: 902 Brant Ave., Clark, N.J.

Unless you're creating it, nothing beats listening to music.

The only time I heard and met Norma Carson was on May 24th, 1956 when she brought her quintet to Keflavík Air Base (Iceland). The quintet consisted of Norma, Bob Newman, tenor, Paul Bley, piano, Jimmy Bonds, bass, and Al Levitt, drums. I have a lasting image of her playing the trumpet as she stood on chair, wearing a tight dress with a zebra pattern. She told me that her favorite trumpet players were Fats Navarro and Miles, that she lived at 5278 Parkside Avenue, Philadelphia. She also told me of an EmArcy album by "Paul Bley Quintet featuring Norma Carson" that would be out in October of that year, but I have never been able to find such a release. Sorry, that does not answer your questions, but it's all I know (don't ask me how I came across my 48-year-old notes so readily).

But only in passing.

What I think we need less of is pompous analysis of jazz performances. Listen, enjoy, comment--if you wish--but don't strain yourself to figure out why. I think jazz critics should express their own opinion, view performances from a perspective that only years of broad, eclectic listening can form, and do this with one aim: to guide the less experienced listener to a vantage point from which he or she can form their own opinion. During my 28 years as a reviewer at Stereo Review, I assumed that readers eventually developed a pretty good picture of my likes and dislikes, and that they read my opinions with that knowledge to guide them. Reviewers have an enormous advantage in the fact that they are able to listen to virtually every available release--they should share that advantage with their readers/listeners. Just some hastily entered thoughts.

medjuck: "Monk once physically attacked Leonard Feather, accusing him of taking the food from his family with his criticism." A pantry raid?

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all at "O"! Chris

So it's: Ralph 15 Orrin 18

That's so typical of Orrin, How many "I"s are there in that letter?