Christiern

Chuck, when I said there was less to catch up with, I meant that in 1947 I only had to go back 24 years to get to the Oliver sides. Today, 24 years only takes you back to 1980, and with the advent of LPs, the volume of recordings went up considerably, so the annual output of old is nothing compared to what it became. Ergo, more to catch up with now than when I got started--right?

I totally agree, Al. Heaney is a low-life and Randy was wonderfully balanced and civil. Heaney's infantile Wynton nonsense wears thing rather quickly, but one can dismiss it. In my case, the last straw was when he posted venomous non-reviews of my Bessie Smith book on Amazon. They eventually caught on to him and removes the review, and the second one he posted was deleted in short order. I have been posting at AAJ recently, but he is now back there (and Mike seems to welcome him). I don't respond to any of his nonsense, but the vibes at AAJ are not good, so I will probably do as you have done, and, instead of ignoring Heaney, simply skip that board.

I agree with you Chris. I am guilty of listening to a very narrow slice of jazz, but that is more to do with my severely limited time for listening than anything else. If I just didn't have to sleep or work, I just might be able to sneek a few hours away from "family time" to listen to more music. That's one of the reasons I come to this forum when I have a few mintues here and there-to check out new releases, recommendations, etc., hoping for some directions to take my listening to next. That's good, and understandable, Greg. At least you are not closing your ears to it. I think that even the most broadminded of us have a narrow time slice or two that we favor--my point is that we can enjoy those slices even more if we see the whole pie. As I said, I came to jazz when there was a lot less to catch up with, so I understand not having time to take it all in. I think a good approach is to read jazz history narratives and make it a point to hear any artist who pops out at you from such texts.

Perhaps he means kartoffel. As in "Kartoffel Kopf Blues."

And here is Jimmy Cobb at the same festival...

Here's Red Rodney--same place and date:

Here's a photo I took in Perugia, Italy, during the Umbria '84 Jazz Festival. It is of Johnny Griffin relaxing during dinner time in the garden restaurant of the Hotel Rosetta, where most of us stayed. Ah, those incredible truffles-covered pasta dishes!

I´m sure you have at least three of them... This is my largest one, but I have the equivalent of 2 more. As for ladder, I have a 2-step folding step ladder from Woolworth (so you know I've had it a long time!). EKE BBB did you get my PM on AAJ?

Thanks, Dmitry, I never saw that card before. This was taken in my Philadelphia apartment in 1959 when I brought Elmer Snowden and Lonnie Johnson together. Left to right: Lpnnie, yours truly, John Hammond, unidentified drummer (Elmer worked with him), and Elmer. John was there (as was Orrin Keepnews) because I hoped one of them would be interested in recording Lonnie and Elmer (or at least one of them), but while both showed enthusiasm, no recording contract was pulled out of a pocket. When I took the tapes made that day to Bob Weinstock, a series of Prestige albums resulted.

While I dig up and scan some photos, here's an interesting letter I received from Bernie Nierow (aka Peter Nero) when I wrote that a sadly commercial George Benson LP was, after all, better than any by Peter Nero.

I fully understand where Chuck is coming from. I, too, have been surprised to find how many jazz enthusiasts limit their listening to a very narrow time slice. When I became interested in jazz, in the mid to late 1940s, swing was still predominant and bop was coming in (this was post-war Europe, so we were catching up), but it seemed natural to take it all in. When the music took new turns, it seemed just as natural to explore those paths. And, BTW, I never understood why so many jazz listeners ignore the blues of people like Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson, Champion Jack Dupree, et al. It all belongs together, IMO, and I can still enjoy most of it with undiminished awe.

How about more shelves? This one holds 4,128 CDs/

Since when does someone's death put a cap on telling the truth about them? I have a feeling that the reason why you are so opposed to political threads is that they generally go against your own viewpoints. how does saying "good riddance" tell a truth about someone? Show some respect is all I'm getting at. Chris, you are not always right. I was referring to another Johnny E post, which brought up legitimate negatives re Reagan. "Good riddance" would not be something you would hear from me. The man is gone--and has been for a few years, actually--so his dying changes not a thing, which makes it neither good nor bad. "Good riddance" might have been appropriate when he left the office of the presidency. IMO, that sentiment would be highly appropriate at any time when it comes to Bush, who was never elected to the office he so resolutely is tearing to shreds.

Since when does someone's death put a cap on telling the truth about them? I have a feeling that the reason why you are so opposed to political threads is that they generally go against your own viewpoints.

The Yanow books I have seen have been assembly-line type stuff. He seems to love compiling trivia-type lists.

Perhaps I should have asked: he? she?

Marquette was generally believed--by me and others--to be a male, but I have heard many people who worked with him/her say that this was a woman posing as a man. Not having seen Marquette sans clothes (tux or ridiculous Hawaii Kai costume), I cannot say for sure, but while it may be nothing more than a rumor, it surely is within the realm of possibilities. Hmmmmm

He?

Addey's work is no better than Dave Jones' on the Riverside N.O. "Living Legends" recordings--in fact, I really thing Dave did a better job. That said, I think one should base one's decisions on the music rather than the engineer.

She was a nasty person, and Lon is right, she deliberately mispronounced musicians' names unless they gave her money. After Birdland closed, I used to see her in front of a tourist trap restaurant, Hawaii Kai, hawking to lure out-of-towners in.

This airs at 4:30 NYC time:

I hope politics does not determine the decision, as it did in the case of "Blood on the Fields." It will be a long time before the Pulitzer people live down the idiocy of bypassing Ellington and awarding the prize to the laborious, pretentious Marsalis crap.

How would you compare the Atlantic N.O. recordings to the "New Orleans: The Living Legends" series I did for Riverside in '61? BTW I regret that I did not include a marching band.

"In addition to his professional worries, Lil was threatening to sue for alimony, which enraged Louis, seeing as she was profiting from his compositions (she had patented them under her name)." This is pure nonsense. Lil wrote compositions (BTW one does not "patent" songs), she did not take credit for any written by Louis. Also, she never threatened to sue him for alimony. The truth is that Alpha threatened to sue Louis for breach of promise if he didn't marry her. In an effort to get out of it, Louis asked Lil not to grant him a divorce. Angry at him for being unfaithful, Lil granted him a divorce to spite him. In the rest of this piece, the facts are dwarfed by the writer's wrong and, frankly, ludicrous assumptions. The passage about non-racist England is naïve. For example, in the early 1930's, Duke Ellington was turned away by a London hotel because of his color. They changed their mind when they found out that he was not a West Indian. I accessed the site but was unable to get beyond the opening page--whoever is responsible for it is guilty of distorting facts--and as much information as exists about Louis, there simply is no excuse for publishing such misinformation.

Thank you.