Larry Kart

A book that corrects the errors of Phil Schaap -- that'd be a best-seller. Seriously, Michael Fitzgerald attempted something like that when faced with Nick Catalano's appalling biography of Clifford Brown, compiling a multi-page list of as many of the book's significant goofs, mis-statements, and outright contradictions as he could bear to type. It ran on for maybe single-spaced four pages and was inadvertently almost funny at times but obviously of interest only to people like us, certainly not to the editorial staff at Oxford University Press, which published the book.

I hope the website will remain: http://www.thepilgrimtraveler.com/about.html I just took a look and felt that a man of great wisdom and kindness was talking right to me. There's lot there to take in.

EDC -- The idea that Chris is jealous because Schapp " usurped a position (in public consciousness) [that Chris] once held" comes from what planet? You need to stop smoking those funny cigarettes.

Did I post it twice? I did not know that. Sorry. Three times. Stuff happens.

Just got rid of the two duplicate posts of the Schaap article 'cause I got dizzy, too.

The clip on Jennifer Pike's site http://www.jenniferpike.com/ of her playing the opening few minutes of Saint-Saens' Introduction and Rondo Carpiccioso is pretty stunning IMO.

Do they actually share a birthday? In any case - I haven't caught any of this on TV this year, but it's a great competition. Some truly phenomenal talents. I assume that Bianca S. is saying that 12 is 12, while the BBC is now breaking it down to month/day of birth because that makes this year's winner special.

I recall reading that of drummers who arguably were very good, Shelly Manne was the ultimate set-your-watch guy.

And Jennifer has come a good ways since age 12: http://www.jenniferpike.com/

How is he the 'youngest ever' winner when he is the same age as Jennifer Pike was when she won in 2002? Bianca S, Maidenhead, UK Yeah -- what's up with that?

Probably more the latter IMO. Lord knows she could swing and improvise. On the other hand, all this was heavily conditioned by her natural Country flavor (Southwestern variety). There's a 1975 Starr album with Jimmy Rowles and Red Norvo, "Back To The Roots" (GNP) that's a great one: http://www.musicstack.com/album/kay_starr/back_to_the_roots

I have the Doris Day album - its better than you'd expect. The album Dan refers to probably is the one Day made with the Andre Previn Trio (Red Mitchell, Frank Capp) in 1961, but from the very first (her Les Brown recordings in 1944, when she was 20) there was a considerable overlap between Day's virtues as a singer -- great, flowing time/phrasing; subtle control of her innately attractive vocal timbre; genially sexy, witty warmth of interpretation, etc. -- and what were at the time common jazz virtues. On the two-CD Sony anthology "Doris Day: Golden Girl," there are a number of performances from the late '40s, early '50s (in particular, "It's Magic," "That Old Feeling," Again," "The Very Thought of You" and "Too Marvelous For Words" --those last two with Harry James and small groups drawn from his band, from the film "Young Man With a Horn") that withstand comparison with, say, the ballads that Stan Getz was recording for New Jazz at the time. In fact, Day probably was more rhythmically relaxed than Getz was.

Mighty Amazon's.

My copy is on the way.

Thanks for jogging my memory. I'm pretty sure they said the same thing to me about the index being limited to a small number of pages. Also, I'd already had to trim about 40,000 words from the manuscript to make it fit their strict word limit/page count (all of this having to do with the number of signatures, a big cost factor) and was worried that with an index I'd have to cut more text. (BTW, in order to lose those 40,000 words, I didn't cut any pieces internally, just removed whole ones. The other way, I would have gone mad.) I agree about the need for indexes, but now that I think of it, I guess I was finally a bit numb about that problem with my own book because I knew/know myself where everything in it is. In fact, I can read almost any un-indexed book (e.g. a novel) and for some time afterwards find almost any memorable (i.e. to me) passage pretty quickly because I remember whether it was on a left- or righthand page, on what segment of the page it was, and in roughly what segment of the book that page is. Weird how that works.

But I didn't know you then.

I'm sorry, Jim. Your loss clearly is great, but it seems clear that was in part because there was so much shared good there. That doesn't make things easier, I know, but all that he gave you is in you, and most or all of it can be kept alive.

No index? You must have gotten the wrong copy. Seriously, my recollection is that Yale said that it was not within their budget for a general interest book of this sort to have it indexed, though I could pay someone to do it or do it myself. The latter was tempting, but then I realized that indexing is a special skill, which I could of course acquire, but I probably couldn't acquire it and do the index for my own book within the time required. As for the first alternative, I'd already been told by Yale that they don't proofread manuscripts (at least of my sort), but that they could recommend a freelance proofreader who I would have to pay myself. That I did decide to do; the fee was maybe $800 or $1,000 and well worth it; he caught a lot of stuff and even said he enjoyed reading the book, though he wasn't a jazz fan. Even then, I might have sprung for an index too, except that I rightly figured that I'd never make a penny beyond my advance, and the money I'd spent on the proofreading had eaten up the advance. Also, I knew from experience that there are good, thorough indexes and just bald lists of names, and I didn't know how to ensure that I'd get a good one.

"Two Jims and a Zoot" is at times a bit too bossa-nova-ish and laid back for my tastes, but there's some great playing here. In particular, Hall's tune "Movin' Out" has some of best Raney there is; I've virtually memorized his solo without intending to but am thrilled anew each time I listen to it. The young Steve Swallow is a big asset.

Well, considering that there have been many psycho-acoustic studies that demonstrated that human acoustic memory is only about 10 seconds, you would be a supreme human specimen to hold an acoustic memory for as long as 120 to 200 amp conversion would take. If you're listening to same very-familiar-to-you recordings on either side of the conversion? No problem with me either way the science goes -- the upgrade was for other reasons. I am, however, now having my own personal power plant constructed in the backyard.

To change the tune just a bit, what about the possible effects on your system of having your household power upgraded from 120 amps to 200 amps? I had that done recently -- to make possible a potential kitchen remodeling among other things (a good many of today's appliances need more than 120 amps) -- and I thought I could hear quite a difference. Of course, that was as close to a without-controls, wishful-thinking "test" as could be, but what about the science of the effects or non-effects of such an upgrade? Sense or nonsense?

That's good news. About when was that, if you remember? Right when it came out, as far as I can recall. That's what I thought. I'm just glad that there was a stack of copies somewhere. One reason I was happy that I had that (I think) marvelously atmospheric snapshot of Ira Sullivan, Johnny Griffin, and bassist Nevin Wilson to give them to use on the cover is that I thought it made for as good a cover as could be for a jazz book, and that if I worked in a book store, I might put the book on display for that reason alone. As one musician (saxophonist Tim Armacost) said of the cover after I'd sent him a copy of the book: "Nice shades."

On those Fantasy LPs, Strand played the Baldwin organ FWIW. I assume that the Baldwin and the Hammond B-3 are two very different animals.

Never heard his records -- there were two, I think, for Fantasy where I assume he got to do things his way (or if I did hear them, I don't recall them) -- but the Chicago-based Strand certainly had a good reputation. Actually, I do vaguely and unreliably recall that Strand might have been a bit like Joe Mooney -- very sophisticated harmonically, with a light touch and a setup on the instrument that was easy on the vibrato.

But what about Irene Young's "Rhythmic Movements"? On radio?