JSngry

appetite appropriately whetted!

Ok, so who taught whom a lesson, and about what?

ouch....

Not sure, but there was a late-era "Savoy" (meaning that they were then owned either by Arista or Muse) series of LPs that reissued the complete broadcasts? Not a set, mind you, just a series, of double and single LPs. That era of Savoy was just gloriously wonky about shit. I mean GLORIOUSLY. Worth looking at to see if it would fit your needs.

Seriously, I am long-ago imprinted on Louis' playing and his singing. But when I heard him speaking, speaking his natural way, just him and people, no show, on that alligator story, hey, THAT pulled it all together and put all the pieces together. So, more of Louis just talking, please.

color me curious.

Do the alternate stuff include a lot of Louis talking? The might get me in if there's a lot of that. We still don't have enough of Louis talking, for real.

Condolences to Ben (whose bubblegum card I also had) and all the others.

You fight for your life. You do indeed.

George Hoefer?

None needed. God bless the child, etc. And those that do are few and far between, if we're honest about it. #leanonmeastupidsongbutstillspeaksacertaintruth

I think I hear what you're trying to say, but is there maybe a different way to put it? Just saying, the people who forget those who stood by them when things are really at the lowest, those are what we tend to think of as "real assholes", correct? Or is this one of those "artist" things Larry's talking about? Seriously, when it's all over, if you can own your decisions and their outcomes, hey, you win. That shit is personal and not for anybody else.

him and Blythe Danner were/are jazz fans. They used to incorporate scatting Billie's Bounce in one of their bits. I think he did it on his own before she joined him. a bit of extreme arcana there....

god, that is such a beautiful record. Talk about singing your song....

There's a story here that is not yet being told...surely?

Or after some point and after reaching some destination may be. I mean, really, "artist", bullshit. There are creative people engaged in the marketplace, period. some more creative than others to be sure, but this "artist" crap....that's past it's sell-by date. To the extent that "artist" gets you a viable position in the marketplace, hey, groovy. To the extent that it precludes you finding your own normalcy and inner peace and makes creativity that reflects that new place unviable in the eyes of the consumer, then fuck it. That's a devil's deal. as it pertains to Jackie, yeah, after he "retired" and then came back, there was a, for lack of a better word, "edge" that went away and never came back. But what was left was solid as a motherfucking ROCK, impecablle logic, flow, and execution, and maybe there was a certainty (certainty, not complacency) there that was not there before. It was still unmistakably Jackie McLean, person and musician. His life changed, his playing changed, still totally honest, never anything but Jackie McLean speaking his truth. Works for me.

Jesus, people just want to live. Sometimes that "drama" shit is no longer wanted nor needed. We should be thankful that in this case it appears that one person was able to get there to at least some extent. Good life, good gig, somebody to run interference so he could have a life that was somewhat his own. Sorry if the records don't work for everybody. They work for me as them NOT being like the other ones. They seem totally honest about all of that, which really, what else would you expect from Jackie McLean?

That Danny Pucillo record is from 2003 and had limited (probably no) distribution. I got it from Pete Gallio, who got it from Perkins himself when Pete met and got friendly with him while spending some time in LA working with either a Kim Richmond or Mike Vax project. He was totally blown away by Perkins' humility, honesty, and depth of insight about all things. A really thoughtful person who understood that decisions had implications and was careful about the decisions he made. Pete said that Perkins took whatever gigs he got because, obviously, to get paid, but also because he simply loved playing, period. It sounded like gigs were not always profusely available because Bill Perkins always brought Bill Perkins to the gig, and you know some people don't get it, they don't want you, they only want "you", and that was not how this guy rolled. Sounded like a really, REALLY together guy, comfortable with his choices and comfortable just being him. That Pucillo record's a gem of a different sort altogether, but suffice it to say that if you consider that Perkins solo a gem (and it is,) then look around for that Perkins/Clay record. $50.00 is WAY higher than it ought to be, although it's won't come at a bargain either. Perkins is DELIGHTFUL on that record, all of it, and Clay is Clay. Sometimes, Clay sounds like the "old guy", Perkins is so spry and fresh-thinking. But JAmes clay wasn't fucking around, so....damn good record. I really don't know what Perkins that is being referred to when it is talked about that it "doesn't fit" or whatever. I get that he decided that he had a need for something different and went about getting it. "Growing pains", yeah, but Bill Perkins was too sharp a mind and too honest a player to get all trifling about shit or to settle for the okie-doke of grafting some "modern" touches on and letting that be that. I take his playing at all stages very seriously, and in a way I don't for most of his "peers", not the least reason being that this guy was deep in the belly of that particular beast (so to speak) and to question it's meaningfulness to him also implies that he did not really feel comfortable continuing to be simply "one of them". And, you know, good for him, because I TOTALLY get that. Good call, Bill Perkins!

Jokes don't have to be faced in fact to work.

and to bring this all back on point - you may HATE the Perkins solo, but one thing you can NOT say is that is the the sound of a man who just learned how to play one way really well and let that be what he did all his life, ALL of his motherfucking life. That one way, that one way. You can certainly NOT say that about Bill Perkins. But you can say that about Eric Alexander. So...here's to the people who go where they go instead of staying where they are.

Anxieties? A guy who sat on the bus with a raincoat pulled up over his head? I just don't see THAT, LOL! You make it sound like pondering one's place in the world is some kind of a drawback when it takes their music someplace that you like less than what you liked before. Well, that's your issue, not somebody else's. As a person, we all have our right to like what we like. But if we don't like it, that's as far as it goes, period. Anything past that...too creepy, like Bill Perkins had something weird about him becuase he has thoughts about how much uit would matter to be a coollschooltenor player, which was actually a VERY good question, because unless you wanted to be Brew Moore (and unless you WERE Brew Moore, why would you want to be Brew Moore, especially if you were Bill Perkins., the factual answer was not very fucking much. The world was/is changing, and Bill Perkins was not the only person who wondered about what it all meant and what do I going to do about it? So he got busy thinking about shit and figuring out what it meant to him. Oh well, sorry about that if you don't like it, he was still Bill Perkins and for all the easycheap talk about Rollins/Trane where he ended up for quite un-Rollins/Trane because, you know, if you live long enough and keep yourself open until the very end, hey, you might be surprised who you run into as it leads where it leads, especially if you're lucky enough to run into some of your other selfs and they start coming along, the more the merrier! I don't hear any whiteangst shit here, I just here a guy who thought about a lot of shit, thought it through, and landed here pretty comfortably actuallu. Bill Perkins, one HELLUVA tenor player, one HELLUVA self-challenger! I laugh at that sentence, sorry. Like, every day is a day, of course - how could it not be? But some days are more life-successful than others. Uh, yeah, ok, so...forget the bad ones? Figure out how to not wake up for the bad ones? Maybe just forget about having or letting any of them be different? Seriously dude, it that was the best thought you could have about Bill Perkins,...well, I hope it's not, because I bought your book, ya' know, and not on a whim either.

"Pres-like" Perkins...yeah, whatever. How about Perkins-like Perkins, there THAT is.

If i was A Comedian With No Conscience, who just took the jokes as they came, no matter, I could do a line about Jackie McLean's "Tune Up" never getting released - BECUASE IT NEVER HAPPENED!!!! ...but that would get a laugh from the wrong crowd and then as soon as they laughed I'd go all rage-y on their asses and tell them to go fuck off and die in hell. Come to think of it, though, there's a market for that type of thing, right? Especially a post-retirement guy playing to nihilistic ironists? Maybe this Social Security won't be so important after all, eh?

Then that would have been it then.

Well then, somewhere on latter-day Contemporary there's Bill Perkins playing in his "latter day" style that is a stone gas! Maybe it was a Bud Shank record. I think he's a hoot, because he still sounds like bill Perkins, just like a bill Perkins who had went around the world a few times and came back with a braoder perspective than he had when he left. And then...there's some totally off0-the-wall obscure indie-produced record by some dummer(?) htat's all Mingus compositions only played like in an extreme Giuffre chill-chamber style, Perkins is all up in htat, playing very, VERY deeply, but not at all like his 50s style. I think Bill Perkins was probably a pretty deep guy from jump and no doubt went therough some changes along the way. but I dig the guy's tenor playing, always.