Larry Kart

Some of the best "collaborations" I've ever had were with people who were dead at the time.

It would be worth it for a hot minute, just to see and hear those first few press conferences and public service announcements.

Of course, any encounter between a professional entertainer (or a professional anything) and a journalist (thus another professional of sorts) is governed to some extent by the professional roles of each party. But the one particular encounter I had with Bennett that I'm thinking of -- and given Clem's he ain't worth "jack fucking shit" attitude toward the man, I think that telling that story here would be way "too much [of] a s-t-r-e-t-c-h" -- found Bennett behaving in what seemed to me to be a remarkably selfless, kind, thoughtful manner. Also, the nature of the incident was more or less private and had nothing to do with "showbiz cordiality," unless you stretch that concept into the fourth dimension. You'll have to trust me on this, but at age 65, and having spent some 25 of those years yacking with, bumping into, and writing about showbiz "celebrities" of many sorts, I think I can be trusted. Also, unless you're naive, dim-witted, or very inexperienced, there are no great mysteries when it comes to who's real and who isn't, especially (oddly enough) in show business.

I believe that while Concord issued those fine Kamuca recordings, the rights to them belonged to Kamuca, not the label, and thus are in the hands of his estate. Who is in charge there, I don't know, but assuming that someone who knows what's up is, I would guess that if the right party approached that person or entity with a reasonable offer, something could be worked out. On the other hand, what are the odds that some person or entity who knows what's up is in charge? Likewise with the location and condition of the tapes. About Bennett -- while I'm not crazy about any of the recordings he's made after his "revival" (or whatever you want to call it), are you familiar with the two Rodgers & Hart albums he made for his own label (later reissued on Concord) with Ruby Braff? The version of "Lover" there is amazing IMO. As for Tony being or not being a nice guy, based on several personal encounters (one of them in which both he and I were under considerable stress), if he isn't a very nice, I would say preternaturally empathetic, guy, he's one of the greatest actors/con-men in the history of the planet. (If it's the latter, I've never met anyone else who's close to that good -- or that bad. I will stipulate, though, that he might be capable of behaving rather differently toward women/girlfriends.) And Bennett's obliged to do what in and about the streets of Queens, based upon the fact that he grew up there how many decades ago? If he showed up there today, he'd probably be jeered at or worse, with Clem in the vanguard.

And die? 75. The Pinetop Smith legend, disproved by Down Beat’s bizarre 1939 story, I Saw Pine Top Spit Blood and Fall, appeared last November in Sigman Byrd’s column in the Houston Press. Byrd, who goes under the title of “The Stroller,” got his story from a Buster Cartwright who runs a gin mill and plays blues piano in Houston. The legendary tale revolves around how the boogie finally killed Pinetop. Cartwright knowingly told Byrd how Pinetop was born in New Orleans (he was born in Troy, Ala.) and wondered if Duke Ellington would play Smith’s boogie at a forthcoming Houston concert. Cartwright’s story goes as follows: Pinetop had a gal named Bessie Rose who lived in Galveston. The Boogie Woogie was dedicated to her and she was “the little gal with the red dress on” in Pinetop’s famous lyrics. Fact is, Buster averred Pinetop had only two numbers in his repertoire but could play them all night. One of these was Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie and the other Jump Study. The latter was incorrectly titled Jump Steady. It seems that one hot summer night in 1929 Pinetop was playing at the Naked club in Galveston. Bessie Rose hadn’t shown as yet. Pinetop usually reserved the Boogie for her as she insisted he sing it just for her. On this particular night another gal who had been picked up by Smith’s roving eye inspired him to go into his Boogie. The new chick, a fancy light-brown gal, followed up and stood by Smith’s piano bending close to his ear whispering, “Play it for me Pinetop.” He was averring that was what he was doing when in walked Bessie Rose. When Bessie surveyed the situation she right then and there drew her West Dallas Special out of her purse and opened the blade. She walked straight towards the piano where Pinetop’s back was turned to her and buried the blade in the Boogie King’s back. He fell over on the piano and every white key turned crimson with his blood. That’s the legend. For those who didn’t see or don’t remember Down Beat’s 1939 story, we’ll repeat the death facts uncovered by Sharon Pease. Pease obtained a copy of Smith’s death certificate bearing out the truth that Pinetop Smith was killed by a pistol bullet, quite by accident, in a Chicago west side dance hall. Two men whom Smith hardly knew got into a scuffle and a third ran towards them with a pistol. Somehow or other Pinetop was pushed in the line of the third man’s fire. This happened in March 1929.

I also saw Pinetop spit blood.

I saw Fud Livingston with the Charleston Chasers.

If you keep going on like this, you're going to forfit both your "E" and your "D." As before, when you brought up Russell Procope, Earl Warren and Spaulding are no more comparable that are Arthur Whetsol and, say, Louis Smith. James Spaulding>Larry Elgart?

I was that poster who mentioned Spaulding on that Murray thread, and I do still think that Spaulding is a worthwhile musician. Sorry, if anything I said above implied the opposite, but if it did, that might be because this whole thread seemed to spring from the belief on the part of at least one poster early on that Spaulding was an unjustly neglected master. I think he was a quite distinctive player who at his peak (and I think he caught him "live" at what must have been one his peak nights) could take the paint off the walls. On the other hand, he seems to have had a sideman's mentality (no blame there, just the way some players are), and I don't recall that any of the album's he's made under his own name (I think I have most of them) are up to the best work he's done with other people. Also, in terms of inspiration, there seems to have some leveling off over the years, but I'm not as spry as I used to be myself.

I don't see how anyone could claim that the "All Night Session" were more accessible in any way than Hawes' other Contemporary dates of the time. Stylistically, they were all pretty much in the same bag. The problem with "All Night Session" (for those who have a problem with it) is that there's something about those four players on that night that didn't click rhythmically. My guess is that the rather four-square time feel of Jim Hall of that period (and I like Jim Hall of that period) was something that seemed to infect Hawes' own normally fluid playing -- on this night, for some reason. On the other hand -- and go figure -- that same quality in early Hall certainly didn't inhibit Carl Perkins on Hall's own Pacific Jazz album of about the same time; in fact, that's some of best Carl Perkins on record. As always, YMMV.

A link to online ticket agencies: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=c...G=Google+Search That way, you know what you're getting, are probably paying the market price, and you've got your tickets beforehand (allow enough time for them to get to you). I wouldn't recommend scalpers near Wrigley Field for two reasons: 1) Some such tickets are forgeries 2) If the cops are cracking down, as they sometimes are, both the seller and the buyer are nabbed, which would really spoil your day.

On second thought, "plodding" would be better.

Also IMO -- and I'm a Hawes fan -- a fairly lifeless batch of music. Timewise, Hawes and Hall just didn't mix, at least not on that day.

You're kidding about Pete Brown, right? Two utterly different people of the same name, but then again you're just being EDC? Procope? I don't see that at all -- Spaulding was an improviser, Procope a nice sectionman, color-maker within an orchestral frame, though he could play some. The contexts are way too disparate. Spaulding and Irving Fazola? Ronnie Matthews is worth mentioning. Heard him lots on record over the years, always to medium to null effect, then caught him as a side man on (I think) a latish Teddy Edwards disc and was beguiled by his lovely, loving comping and quite good solo work as well. Went around for a while thinking how wrong I must have been all these years, then decided that it's quite possible that both things were true. Which bring me back to Mr. Spaulding. I heard him live one night in 1969 at Ahmad Jamal's club in Chicago, the Tejar, with Freddie Hubbard, Kenny Barron, Junie Booth, and Louis Hayes, and JS took the paint off the walls. One night of glory, and as a sideman to be sure. No doubt it wasn't the only such night and that there were others not like that night.

Maybe it's not a perfect parallel, but where is Pete Brown's "Day Dream" or "Relaxin' at Camarillo"? Some distinctive players have a nice run for a while, and then, for any number of reasons, that's about it. In that respect, and also because there are stylistic similarities, I'd lump Spaulding in with, say, Frank Strozier and Bunky Green. Green I've always found fairly boring -- that aggressive harmonic system! -- though there is one album where it came together for him IMO (on Vanguard with Randy Brecker); Strozier had his own thing but eventually gave up the alto for the piano, then I believe left music entirely; and Spaulding is Spaulding. I'm feeling kind of tired myself.

I definitely agree. That's a great record! Who's the vocalist on "April In Paris"? One Jean Louise. Talbert: "Jean Louise was so great; she had perfect pitch. You could write any kind of intro you wanted. I think she was married to the piano player Frank Patchen [later of the Lighthouse All-Stars]. She played piano as well and was working as single when I came back to LA in the 1970s." Quote from Bruce Talbot's fascinating bio "Tom Talbert: His Life and Times" (Scarecrow), which I picked up as a remainder a few years ago. I recommend every Talbert album, especially his 1956 Atlantic classic "Bix Duke Fats." The bio BTW comes with a CD of previously unreissued Talbert tracks.

Isabella Rossellini as the Baroness?

It's a flageolet? Actually, looking at what Hogarth did, don't you know exactly how it sounds?

To quote from a post on another list: > Will Friedwald (New York Sun) wrote: > > In 1942, Mercer (1909-76) had been living in Hollywood for about six > years, and though he was a few seasons away from winning his first > Academy Award (for the original song for 1964's "Charade") "This is five times wrong. Mercer's four Oscar-winning songs all came before 1964: On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe (1946), In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening (1951), Moon River (1961) and Days of Wine and Roses (1962). Charade was nominated in '63 but didn't win." What the hell was Friedwald smoking?

Check out the clips from the album (and elsewhere) on Brown's site -- the most effective in excerpt probably being "The Lighthouse" (written for Greg Gisbert) and "The Touch of You." Be sure too to click on the links in which Brown gives some background for each piece. Also, while these performances were done in the studio, they were, out of economic necessity, all complete unedited takes.

Not to play one woman off against another (which I don't think I'm doing), but one of the most impressive big band albums I've heard in recent years is this 2003 effort from Anita Brown, "27 East": http://www.anitabrownmusic.com/ First, Brown (who happens to be the daughter of vaunted Tristano-ite tenor saxophonist Ted Brown and Phyllis Brown, also a onetime Tristano student) draws on the some of the same pool of NYC freelancers that Schneider does. Second, Brown's music is also fairly programmatic at times, though IMO she's one those rare composers who language gifts are spurred by programmatic setups (references to the sea, lighthouses, etc.) rather than being illustrative of them. Finally, (again IMO) she has a much more adventurous, sharp-edged musical mind than does Schneider, plus a wider range of colors and moods. And her band plays its collective ass off for her.

Hi Joe -- Was just thinking today whether to order it, but my current Mosaic buy (the John Patton Select and Blakey's "Hard Bop") led me to hesitate, plus a partial re-listen to MS's "Concert in the Garden" left me with much the same feeling about that one as before, and I gather that the new one continues in that vein.

Not exactly our kind of thing, but this documentary about recording the soundtrack for "The Incredibles" is interesting and includes some pretty remarkable playing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgl2g0XhBTE

I like what I've heard of Farinacci and Intorre with Krivda on record.