Christiern

He did his best to destroy a Weather Report concert I attended at the Beacon Theater. Sad to say, he was quite successful.

There is sad word that Freddie Hubbard was admitted to ICU at Sherman Oaks Hospital yesterday. Does not sound good. Please post anything you find out about this.

Back to letters and memos of yore... Coming up: Edward R. Murrow and ...

Back from the DEEP-Z dive... That's DEEP and I... And here are DEEP and Z... We had a good time, as usual. Back to Glaser, et al in a moment...

I recall having lunch with Lester Wunderman, who was said to have invented the club. I'm not so sure that the club came in under Lieberson.

Lieberson was the head of the entire record division, not just Columbia. Fer Urbina: "It actually does look as if it opened up indeed, see here" Sure did! Thanks.

Yes, I have seen that—the exploitation continues, shamelessly. Glaser owed everything to Louis. Correct me if I'm wrong, Ricko.

Coming soon, Mrs. Cudahy has her way and Helen does a jazz narrative. But first, a little diversion. Some of us have been enjoying photos from Life magazine on another thread, so isn't it a coincidence that I came across an issue of Life in my apartment. It is the November 10, 1941 issue and it is no coincidence that that was the week I arrived in New York on this freighter, the SS Godafoss: If you squint, you might be able to see me (Gunnar Albertson) listed among the aliens on the ship's manifest As I have mentioned in another thread, I think, our convoy was attacked by U-Boats and one of the U.S. Navy ships, the Reuben James, was sunk with a loss of 100 lives. Woody Guthrie wrote a song about it. Be that as it may, my ship, the Godafoss, brought me back to Iceland in June of 1944 and was sunk 5 months later... Getting back to Life, as it were... Gene Tierney was on the cover... and while there is a story inside about U-Boat attacks on the North Atlantic, our not-so-pleasant adventure was covered in the following issue (mainy because of the Reuben James, of course). Inside this issue are also reminders of past insensitivities... and great-looking gas-guzzling cars... Why was that ride not 30% smoother?

I interviewed Armstrong's maid in the early 70s. She was convinced that Lucille deliberately had not seen to it that his oxygen tanks were renewed. She was very serious about that. Somehow, it did not surprise me.

Interesting, but that collateral story is Driggs bullshit. He simply stole whatever he could get a hold of at Columbia, the Schomburg, Time-Life and, very likely other companies and/or institutions whose files he had access to. Not to mention people, like me. Thanks for that info.

Nice photos, where did you find them? Sorry for the modification, they were kinda too blue.

Thanks, Marcello, I'll do a print-out for Oscar junior.

It took two years of pestering to get the Columbia go-ahead and I also had to do a lot of convincing (with John Hammond's help) to get mono approval—the powers at Columbia were certain that phony stereo was called for. They were proven wrong, the albums sold beyond any expectations. Thanks for the good words.

They are great computers and that 24" screen is very handy for my work, which often requires that I have two pages up, side by side. My old Mac is still working fine,but I have been using it for 5 or 6 years, so it was time. Are you pleased with your iMac?

The only thing I came across today was this: My new iMac! As you can imagine, it is requiring (and getting) all my attention.

There is only one Christmas recording that I truly take seriously as going beyond the emotions this holiday so readily stirs up. (sorry to be so terse) It is Mahalia Jackson's original (Apollo label) rendition of "Silent Night." No Columbia Records chorus, just Mildred Falls at the organ. It is, IMO, a work of art.

Not jazz, but I stumbled upon this photo of my uncle (father's brother) while searching Life... Iceland UN delegate Kristian Albertson applauding enthusiastically after hearing Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower's speech to the UN. Location: Washington, DC, US Date taken: 1953

Apropos great photos online, I also recommend Shorpy. Be sure to click on "full view" to see the hi-res versions. Here are 3 more or less random samples: Calvin Coolidge w. boy scouts on the White House lawn in 1921 Whitehall Street, Atlanta, 1864 The Tennessee Troubadour, October 1935 - photo taken by Ben Shahn

Peter, whom I first met when he was a kid, is indeed sharp and a very nice guy. He must have a difficult time dealing with Monk and having to somehow work around his father's exaggerations re role played with same. Ratliff, well, I don't think he has ever written anything that didn't give me unintended pause (I'm being nice). Ratliff obviously continues to be in Wynton's pocket. Here is a different take on that concert. I, wisely, it seems, declined my invitation.

Sure, Allen, I'll take a request....but first,here's a letter I wrote to the NY Amsterdam News, which they printed in their August 14, 1976 issue. After some 32 years, my outrage lingers on... They printed my letter in full, but this remains an embarrassing publication.

Thanks. That's exactly what it was, I just couldn't think of the term.

First let me say how great it is to see you pop back in here, Brownie. Arnvid was someone I knew fairly well. He played a trumpet with odd, old-fashioned valves that turned rather than plunged, if I recall correctly. We met when he was in Torben Ulrich's band at Torben's Blue Note club (in Copenhagen) and I (with Karl E. Knudsen) was among the operators of a rival venue, the Storyville Club. It was a friendly rivalry. Torben was a Danish tennis star as well as a clarinetist, so he was well connected (his son would make an entrance a few years later and found Metallica, the group). Never heard of this box but I am delighted that it exists and I have to wonder how it eluded me since it appears to be affiliated with Jazz Special, a great, beautifully designed and informative jazz publication whose co-editor is Arnvid's son, Cim Meyer. I have Googled in vain, cannot find mention of this particular set, price, etc. A recent issue of the magazine had an article on Arnved, who passed away not long ago, and I'll have to take another look at that—I probably missed a mention of the box set.

If you are saying that Louis' demeanor was different when the audience was non-white, you are very wrong. I also don't for a minute believe that he worked on a "routine". Louis was just being Louis. The difference is easily explained: Armstrong ad Patton were two different people, each with his own personality. Louis did not expend energy nor did he concentrate on working up "routines". Like I said, Louis was Louis, a man of great talent—as a musician and entertainer—one might argue that he wasted some of it on inferior (but popular) material, and wish that he had concentrated more on jazz, but I think that is selfish. Artists aim to please audiences and when they can do so while at the same time creating as much great music as Louis did, we should be thankful for the legacy.

Louis was the consummate performer. What he did with his face in front of an audience or camera was Chaplin's derby, Groucho's bopping eyebrows, Jack Benny's tilted head stance, etc. In short: show business. It was also, to some degree, a part of his personality. I don't at all liken it to Mantan Morland's fright face, which was decidedly a race-based device, but it made him a very rich man.

It looks like the worst kind of random mish-mash. Why would anyone want this box? What is the target market?