Larry Kart

Also, the offer right off the bat to pay for information makes one uneasy/suspicious. Urgent questions, relevant to this group's likely body of knowledge, have been asked here before and answered quite readily without money being waved around. One wonders whether this is an attempt to eventually glom onto personal information or something else nefarious.

You might be asking in the wrong place?

Highland Park, Il. -- northern suburb of Chicago. Last night it was about -18, today about 3 above. Windchills more than -50 last night night and the night before. About a foot of snow on the ground. Would be at least two feet, but the previous big batch melted in about two days a few weeks ago, causing fairly widespread flooding. Left the house today in a pure burst of cabin fever. Paid for it when I somehow left an expensive library book in a grocery store shopping cart. Returned 30 minutes later and no one had turned it in. Maybe it'll get returned to the library.

Thanks, Hot Ptah -- that helps.

Also, the Blakey "Hard Bop" is fine. I've enjoyed the Curtis Amy and the John Patton, though one of the Amy dates (I think the one with John Houston on piano) is a cut below the others. But everyone needs to hear "Katanga."

Forgot about the Bechet. Definitely go for it if you're a Bechet admirer, but it's not the first Bechet set I'd get.

Among the sets, I can endorse the Pacific Jazz Trios (the Twardzik material is essential, the Clare Fischer is close to that), the Mulligan, and the Dizzy Reece. Not all the Mulligan material is a total success, but the mastering on the sax section date is a huge upgrade. The Brookmeyer I've been waffling over getting, in part because I already have a fair bit of it but also because I recall not liking the date with the Big Miller vocals -- not for Miller's presence alone; the feel of that date just seemed rhythmically loggy. There's also something a bit loggy (at times) and also "twee" about the "Traditionalism Revisited" date IMO. On the other hand, I've always wanted to hear the "Street Swingers" material, and that may push me over the edge. I would like some advice myself about the Andrew Hill solo set; the sound samples I've heard sound like he's in a nice place or places, then breaks continuity to the point where I can't figure out what he's thinking. I know, it's probably my problem, but I've heard lot of Hill before, and this left me befuddled. Of the singles, the Bud Freeman is fine, as is The Brothers, if you like those guys. I've been enjoying the Art Farmer more than I thought I would -- the Art of that particular period is not my favorite Farmer (very flugelhorny, if you know what I mean), but it's a good group, and the live setting definitely helps; there's some electricity in the air. Haven't heard the Mosaic version of the Wiley album, but have the old RCA LP and that's fine Wiley. Likewise with the Buddy Rich, if you like that band. By contrast, the Slide Hampton was a disappointment, a kind of "off," nervous/unsettled atmosphere on most tracks. Also, though I haven't heard the Mosaic version, I recall from way back when that the Braff album was kind of a dud -- and I say this as a Braff fan. I think it was an unhappy day in the studio, though on paper the band looks top notch. Maybe Ruby was put off by the Berigan premise -- he seems to be straining at times to sound "hot" and brassy -- though no doubt it didn't take much to put Ruby's back up.

I see the La Times obit mentions Montalban's role as a undercover Mexican law enforcement official in Anthony Mann's "Border Incident" (1949). That's one hell of a movie, with one of the most harrowing death scenes ever filmed (won't say who gets it or how so as not to spoil things). Also, Howard da Silva is terrific as the chief villain.

In the late '70s or early '80s, I saw and reviewed Montalban in a Chicago-area production (somewhere in the suburbs, might have been a dinner theater) of Samson Raphaelson's 1935 comedy of manners "Accent on Youth" (Raphaelson also was an ace screenwriter -- "Trouble in Paradise" and "The Shop Around the Corner," among others), and while the venue might have been modest, Montalban gave one of the most delightful, stylish, committed performances I've ever seen anywhere. And it was not a star turn; he made it a true ensemble affair. Montalban had chops, wit, and intelligence; all thoughts of "rich Corinthian leather" vanished immediately. BTW, I see that "Accent On Youth" is going to get a Broadway production this April, with David Hyde Pierce in the role that Montalban played: http://www.mtc-nyc.org/current_season.asp

"Bela By Barlight" (on an album by The Mastersounds)

Slide Hampton

But even that 5 per cent probably won't go to artists like you. Also, once shit like this is up and running, and almost inevitably being run by people who know little or nothing about jazz anymore (Quincy Jones?) or who never did, if you aren't part of their machinery, if your name isn't on their lists or their radar screens, you won't exist practically speaking. A jazz ghetto, or worse, is what you'll get. Further, as Marty Khan explains (not that he's the only one with a brain and a plan here), there are other ways that actually work and leave the artists themselves (and and their potential audiences) more or less in control of their own fates. The way the Chicago scene has worked over the last decade or so seems remarkably healthy to me. A lot of people have done and are doing a lot of extra-musical hard work there, but the result is that the scene in most aspects belongs to the musicians, and the resulting spirit certainly has a positive effect on the audiences. I'm not saying that this is paradise, or that there aren't elements of potential fragility here, but stuff gets noticed and adjusted all the time -- and sensibly so.

I agree. You'll just have an idiotic layer of "you scratch my back" etc. bureaucracy, and little or no dough will get to the people or organizations that deserve/need it. See the latter stages of this interview with Marty Khan: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=16904

Sometimes. Given the prices, I guess it's worth the wait. Do they send shipping notices? Yes, I got one on Friday, but then I don't recall getting one every time. Nothing I've ever ordered from them has failed to arrive. Yes, there's Andorran junk there, but they're not really a jazz place. Almost everything I've ordered from them over the years has been classical. In that area, it can be a gold mine at coal mine prices.

Sometimes.

Jim - your comments on Mulligan reminded me of a recent e-mail I got from a friend - hope he doesn't mind me quoting him: I think describing Mulligan as "limited" is perfectly fair. Sometimes that "limited" thing absolutely hits the spot for me, sometimes it doesn't. From having transcribed some of his quartet arrangements, I have to say that it's one of those cases where, as Mark Twain said about Wagner, "His music is better than it sounds." Every time I do one of those transcriptions, I gain more respect for Mulligan as an arranger, but even so, it's a sound you either like or you don't, and most people don't do their listening with a pad of manuscript paper in front of them. (Believe me, I don't recommend it!) I think that Mulligan became much more relaxed as a player in the last decade or so of his life (and thus less schematic -- at times I even thought that in his '50s heyday he was a bit corny/two-beatish in rhythmic terms), but for me it's his composing and arranging that were his major contributions. His chart on "All the Things You Are" for one, featuring Don Joseph, is sublime, and many Mulligan compositions have a notable lilt and charm.

"Earth was being attacked by apparently unstoppable swarms of insects (locust-like, but they also had the ability to directly harm human beings with stingers and such)..." It's the insects that "had the ability to directly harm human beings with [as in "by means of"] stingers and such"...

Sounds like Larry is onto Plan A. Quick scramble and implement Plan B. (By the way, anyone read Chester Himes' Plan B? Wild apocalpytic stuff.) I did have one of those dreams when I was considerably younger. I dreamed my cat had died. It was incredibly vivid and it took quite a while to wake up and recover. Actually, now that I think of it, my ultimate "do something" response in the dream was to say "Well, I'll guess I'll go to work" (in the dream I still worked at a newspaper) -- which kind of made sense but also didn't; made sense because newspapers still try function under conditions of disaster, but it didn't make sense because how did I think I was going to get to the newspaper office under these conditions? Also, saying this was very poignant, because it seemed so likely that these would be last words I'd say to my wife and son -- on the other hand, we all were sure there was no help, so why not? It was, we felt, almost arbitrary -- like the difference between waiting to be killed and being killed while charging the enemy.

Had one of those last night and wish I hadn't. Earth was being attacked by apparently unstoppable swarms of insects (locust-like, but they also had the ability to directly harm human beings with stingers and such) that may or may not have been controlled by intelligent aliens. In response, our government had rounded up lots of their own people -- including myself, my son, and my late wife (who was alive in the dream) -- and was holding us in very crowded conditions, not enough room to lie down, etc. -- and soon it dawned us that probably we were all going to be killed by our own government, either in an attempt to appease the attacking swarms or to relieve the government of the burden of our presence, or just out of sheer fear and craziness, and that this was going to take place by having the floor under our feet drop away, dumping us into some medium that would kill us. And all the while, new swarms of hostile destructive insects loomed on the horizon. Through all of this, given what seemed the likely outcome, my wife and my son and I were in effect saying our good-byes, while I wondered whether there was anything I could do, other than just wait for the inevitable. It all felt very real, especially because I kept waking up and then going back into the dream when I fell asleep again. Help.

Don't know how often he played there, but we could have been in the same audience -- sharing, in effect.

Oh my God, yes -- "needs [that are] shared/mutual [and] fluid." I think I will go away for a while. To the Indiana Home For The Dangerously Self-Absorbed -- I'm told that their cure rate is quite high.

Oh my God, yes -- "needs [that are] shared/mutual [and] fluid." I think I will go away for a while.

I'm not talking about "products" but acts of personal expression. That latter can be products in the sense that one is sometimes rewarded financially for producing them, but.... And, it's not about filling "a need on somebody else's human needs shopping list," it's about honest conversation; among friends, the needs are more or less shared/mutual -- fluid, yes, and not always in the foreground but ... I almost can't believe that we're having this Martian conversation.

If you enjoy that, get the Hal Singer Prestige date for more fine Shavers. I heard Singer one night in the '70s, I think, at the West End Cafe. He was in great form.

Well, yes, but I still say that if a friend of yours came up to you with his hair dyed green and a nail stuck through his tongue, your first reaction would not be to judge those choices on aesthetic grounds and maybe cut him some slack because he's your friend but to wonder what the heck was going on here (unless that's how your friend looks normally). Play Wynton's "Cherokee" and tell me that it's Booker Little or Lee Morgan, and I'm thinking, "What happened [to them]?" I'd feel the same if you picked, say, a really good Bobby Hackett solo and told me that the player was Little or Morgan -- "What happened?" Your friends are your friends in part because you know who they are. That's my point, exactly. That friends get more leeway than non-friends, simply because we know them. So if this wynton thing comes over as is, as by Wynton, we think "ugh" w/o qualification, and without qualification, because Wynton has not been the musical (or otherwise) friend to most of us here. Whereas if we get it as if by somebody who is our friend, we're much more likely to think "WTF happened?", cut slack, allow for shit happening (as shit does) and then come to an "ugh" that is decidedly more tempered than the one we do for Wynton straight up. Well, it's not my point -- which is that it's not because we know them per se that we'd surprised and dismayed if Little or Morgan played this "Cherokee" solo but because we know who they are when they play the damn trumpet. To put it another way, I have a friend who is an all-round great guy, but the initial and lasting basis of our friendship was that I loved his writing (mostly, but not exclusively, about jazz), which clearly is an essential expression of who he is as a human being. If he suddenly began to write like, say, Ben Ratliff, I would give him a pass to the extent of trying to find out what had gone wrong, but the nature of our friendship would if anything deepen, not lessen, my sense that something had gone wrong here. In other words, no leeway, only concern. Giving him "leeway" would amount to treating him as though he were something less than the person I'd known him to be, and that wouldn't be good for either of us, or anyone else.