patricia

At the risk of suffering the slings and arrows of the masses, I nominate "Jailhouse Rock". The sight of Elvis, dancing around the tiers of cells, singing this ridiculous song, haunts me to this day. Keep in mind that I speak as a rabid fan of "The King", when he was at the peak of his career. In fact, my older brother once reduced me to tears by derisively telling me that I was "not really an Elvis Presley fan".

Exactly. But, it seems as though jazzers were pikers, with regard to nicknames, compared to bluesmen. Almost ALL bluesmen had nicknames and even those who could see perfectly well, sometimes took the names "blind-boy" or "blind..........." whatever their name was. But jazzers, I think, had more interesting nicknames, compared to their real names. You have a point that for example, "JIGGS" WHIGHAM sounds better than Haydn Whigham would have. Would you have remembered Joseph Matthews Manone?? WINGY MANONE is certainly more descriptive. PECK KELLY is cooler than John Dickson Kelly would have been. DAVE TOUGH is more memorable, and oddly perfectly descriptive of the drummer whose real name was David Jarvis. Is it any wonder that basing a thread on the nicknames that jazz musicians had bestowed upon them occurred to me?? Shakespeare had it all wrong. A name, particularly a nickname, is not meaningless. ------------------------------------------------- Sometimes artists have changed their nicknames, depending on what was going on in their life. For example, the pianist, composer, Indian-African-flute-player, soprano-sax player, who also plays the cello and, if that weren't enough and Lord knows it ought to be, also sings, Adolph Johannes Brand was first known, professionally as "DOLLAR BRAND". He later converted to Islam and took the name ABDULLAH IBRAHIM. Because he did have a nickname, he can be included among our merry group. Ibrahim was born in Cape Town, South Africa and learned to play piano as a child. His early years were filled with the hymns, gospel songs and spirituals of the American-influenced African Methodist Episcopal Church, but he also grew up with the sounds of Louis Jordan and The Tympany Five hits, that the ice-cream venders blasted from their vans. This artist's first paid work was with a vocal group, The Streamline Brothers and he sang traditional songs, pop songs, doo-wop and also spirituals. He also played piano with the Tuxedo Slickers and then with the Willie Max dance band in the late fifties. This was followed by his own band, which he led in 1960 which was the first black group in South Africa to record an LP. Ibrahim moved to Europe in 1962 and for two years, he played at the Cafe Africana in Zurich. He had been seeing a lovely girl, Bea Benjamin, who had connections to the jazz world, which led to Ibrahim being given the opportunity to be heard by Duke Ellington. Ellington was so impressed that he sponsored Ibriham in 1963 at the Antibes, Juan-les-Pins and Palermo festivals. Then, in 1964 he appeared at the Montmartre in Copenhagen. Ibriham moved to the U.S. at Ellington's suggestion, in 1965 and played at the Newport festival that year., staying on in New York for three years. His accomplishments since then span from his switching in the mid-sixties, to free-jazz, to his re-embracement of his African heritage, musically. In the mid-seventies, he organized a South African jazz festival, paying no attention to the rules of Apartheid, still in place, which was a huge success. He did however, leave South Africa three days after the festival to settle in New York. He continued to perform, often with his wife, Sathima [the afore-mentioned Bea Benjamin, who also converted to Islam]. Ibrahim wrote and performed the music for the enormously successful French films, "Chocolat" and "No Fear - No Die". Find the 1969 "African Piano" collection [Japo}, if you want to hear a beautiful example of Ibriham's work. It combines traditional jazz with his South African roots and is mesmorizing, at least to me.

Very nice, Noj. Thank you for sharing your work with us.

Well, berigan, your standards for stupid-looking are quite high. As my late mother used to say, "Stupid is as stupid does". A pair of bookends. Whew.

Thank you, EKE BBB. Bubber looks FINE. ........................... Next we have "BUD" [Lawrence] FREEMAN, who was born in Chicago, in 1906. Bud played the C melody saxophone initially, but changed to tenor around 1925, after about two years. Apparently, Eddie Condon heard Bud play what Condon described as "a saxophone green with corrosion, which sounded the way it looked." However, between the time that that rather unflattering comment was made and a year later, Bud's sound had matured and refined itself, becoming much more impressive. Presumably, he also acquired a saxophone that was more up to snuff. For nine years, Freeman worked with a truly stellar list of famous bandleaders, including Red Nichols, Meyer Davis, Roger Wolfe Kahn, Ben Pollack, Zez Confrey, Joe Venuti and Gene Kardos. He was regularly recording by now, and one of his more well-known records was "Sugar", with the flip-side being "Nobody's Sweetheart" in 1927, by the McKenzie/Condon Chicagoans, which was the Chicagoans' first recording. The next hit came in 1933, which was "The Eel". Freeman then worked with Joe Haymes' band, which featured a young, up-and-coming trumpet player, Pee Wee Erwin. He then went with Ray Noble and played New York's Rainbow Room in July of 1935. 1936 found Bud playing in Tommy Dorsey's fabulous band, after which he moved onto Benny Goodman, staying with him for about nine months in 1938. But, the grueling work schedule got to Bud, working nine shows a night and he left. Falling on his feet, he fronted the legendary Summa Cum Laude orchestra and did hotel work, as well as filling a spot in "Swingin' The Dream", which was a musical that closed soon after. This show was based on Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". When the war came along, Bud joined the military and led service bands. After the war was over, he made regular appearances at Eddie Condon's, starting in 1945. Although Bud is frequently heard on records with Condon, Freeman was actually carving out a solo career during that period and he did many recordings under his own name. Interestingly, Freeman did solo work in Peru and also in Chile, as well as leading his own bands in New York and Chicago. Apparently, having more hours in a day than most of us, he also found time to study with Lennie Tristano. As time went on, during the 1960's he was travelling all over the world, soloing and also creating best-selling records. In 1968 Bud was a founder member of The World's Greatest Jazz Band and was with them for three years, but then went back to solo work. As a soloist, in the seventies, Bud lived in London for a while, then moved back to the U.S. and settled in Chicago. He didn't retire then, but continued to perform right into his early eighties. But, his failing health eventually forced him to slow down and he did finally retire. Bud Freeman's style, along with that of Coleman Hawkins, is probably the most recognizable turning point in the evolution of the tenor saxophone. Much as Bix Beiderbecke provided an alternative to the style of Louis Armstrong, back in the twenties, Freeman did the same for the vocabulary of white pre-bop tenors, contrasting with the style of Hawkins. His influence is still being felt as evidenced by the work of Eddie Miller, Boomie Richman, Nick Caiazza and Tom Pastor. BUD FREEMAN died in March of 1991, at eighty-five years old. You might want to hear one of my favourite collections, which is "It's Got To Be The Eel: A Tribute To Bud Freeman" [1939-1940 Affinity] which contains classic titles played by the "Summa Cum Laude" band. The collection also includes Muggsy Spanier's Ragtimers and Bob Crosby's "Bobcats". A really interesting singer, Teddy Grace, also appears on this collection. Another, I think, exceptionally good album is "Bud Freeman 1928-38 1939-40" [Classics 781/811] which includes in it's personel, Bunny Berigan and Bobby Hackett, as well as Gene Krupa and the great Dave Tough. Look for this, listen to it and love it, as I do.

In 1903, in Aiken, South Carolina, "BUBBER' [James Wesley] MILEY was born. Bubber played trumpet and was also a composer. He played in clubs and caberets around New York and also toured with the blues singer, Mamie Smith in the early 1920's. While Bubber was on tour with Smith in Chicago, he chanced to hear King Oliver and was so taken with him, that he went back to listen every night, for about two weeks. In 1923 Duke Ellington was at the basement of the Bucket of Blood club on 135th Street in New York and heard Miley, who was performing with trombonist, Charlie Irvis. Miley was offered a job with Elmer Snowden's Washintonians, which was playing at the Kentucky club. Well, Miley was a huge, huge hit and spies, including Paul Whiteman, along with his featured trumpeter, Henry Busse slinked around to the club, to listen............and to steal. Miley's style was revolutionary. He had a very unique, growling quality to his playing, which was different than what the other trumpeters were doing at the time. Bubber was a good-looking, good time kid whose joy was his music. He also loved to battle with his competetors. Miley and "Tricky Sam" Nanton, in Ellington's new band made a great team. According to Ellington, "They were always blowing for each other and getting ideas for what they wanted to play." Bubber Miley was a valuable member of Ellington's team, helping to develop many of his compositions. Unfortunately, Bubber was a heavy drinker and when he drank, he became unreliable to the point that even when he did show up, he was unable to play. Cootie Williams took his place with Ellington in 1929 and Bubber left the band, to freelance in Europe. While in Europe he worked in France with Noble Sissle and came back to the U.S. from time to time, working with Zutty Singleton and Leo Reisman. Although Miley did record, his recordings made in the late twenties were disappointing, showing a definite decline in his talent. But, he was playing for revues and one of those revues was Roger Pryor Dodge's "Sweet And Low", as well as another pruduction by Billy Rose, "Third Little Show". Later in 1931, Bubber had his own show, "Harlem Scandals", which was created around his band by Irving Mills, who was Ellington's manager. Duke Ellington said of Bubber, "Our band changed character when Bubber came in. That's when we forgot all about the sweet music." True enough. When Bubber was with the band, it had a much harder edge. Unfortunately, he was struck with tuberculosis, while on the road with his show in 1932. Sadly, BUBBER MILEY died in May of 1932. He was only twenty-nine years old.

VERY nice, EKE BBB. Again, I thank you.

And now we have the clarinet and saxophone player, "MEZZ" MEZZROW [Milton Mesirow], who was born in Chicago in 1899. Mezzrow was the butt of Eddie Condon's sarcastic sense of humour, due to his rather limited musical ability, but his preoccupation with black players and his determination to identify with them, resulted in his being called "Southmouth" by Condon. Sidney Bechet said of Mezzrow, rather unkindly, "When a man is trying so hard to be something he isn't, then some of that will show in the music. The idea of it will be wrong." But, as the years went by, Mezzrow's career progressed and he put together bands which included Benny CArter, Pops Foster and Teddy Wilson and he achieved a certain measure of success during the 1930's. However, Mezz was somewhat undisciplined and his bands didn't last long. Apparently, he developed a fondness for drugs and was a major marijuana supplier. Eddie Condon recalled an important audition for a Bond Bread commercial this way, "Mezz got a big band together to audition for some Bond Bread commercials. We all assembled and the bakers were sitting there waiting for him to give the downbeat. Just before he did Mezz turned and said, 'Man, am I high?'. We didn't get the job." But, Mezzrow did very well in the years that followed, leading a big band in 1933, sessions with Frankie Newton and near perfect sets with Tommy Ladnier. He also did a memorable set of what are considered masterpieces for Hugues Panassie in 1938 on the King James label. I have those sessions on vinyl and they are wonderful. On that set of records, it's clear that Mezzrow had a deep feeling for the blues and displayed what has been described as well-thought-out lines and very appealing acid tones. In 1948, Mezzrow appeared at the jazz festival in Nice and became a huge star in Europe. He toured regularly with Buck Clayton, Gene Sedric and Jimmy Archey and recorded in Paris, with Lionel Hampton. He also, not leaving behind his past completely, served as a marijuana supplier for Louis Armstrong during those years. Check out "In Paris 1955" [Jazz Time] which were Mezz' last major sessions. The collection was originally titled, "A La Scala Cantorium" and consists of two extended 12 bar improvisations. Also included are a few bonus titles from a few months later. Interesting and quite enjoyable, I think. MEZZ MEZZROW died in August of 1972 at seventy-three.

Yesterday at my favourite used vinyl emporium, way downtown: "Kings Of New Orleans" - Pete Fountain, Jack Teagarden, Eddie Condon, Earl Bostic, Pee Wee Hunt. This is on a small label called "Design" and I gather that it was so low-end that it doesn't even have a track list on the cover, just an ad for other artists they've distributed on the label. $5.00 "Cozy Cole and other All-Time Jazz Stars" This is Cozy, behind Coleman Hawkins, Rex Stewart, Tyree Glenn, Claude Hopkins, Billy Bauer, Arvell Shaw, Bobby Byrne, Eddie Safranski, Pee Wee Erwin, Cliff Leeman, Peanuts Hucko, Billy Maxted, Will Bradley, Trigger Alpert and Lou Stein. Again, another el-cheapo label, "Colortone", an offshoot of Sparten Records, track list on the front, no cover notes, just advertising for their other releases on the back of the cover. $5.00 And, I saved the best for last, "The Individualism Of Pee Wee Russell" with Ruby Braff and Red Richards, recorded live in Storyville, in 1952!!! WOW!! It's a two-record set, immaculate condition and it has a super kick-ass version of St. James Infirmary that sends chills down my spine. $20.00

Zora is a beautiful little girl. Warm congratulations to your lovely wife and, of course, to you too, Jim. Both my children are girls and they seem to gravitate to their dad. Little Zora will do the same with you. You will be the example of what a husband and father is. Big responsibility for you, but it'll be different, and more rewarding than anything you've ever experienced. Wait for it.

In 1899 in Royville Louisiana, FRANK "BIG BOY" GOUDIE was born. I profiled Bunk Johnson, a few back and Big Boy was a trumpet student of Bunk's. He worked in Papa Celestin's Tuxedo Band, starting in 1910, amazingly, at eleven years old, if my dates are right, and played in New Orleans for ten years. By 1921 he was touring in minstrel shows, until he moved to Paris in 1925. While in Europe, Goudie played with some very famous leaders, including Noble Sissle, Sam Wooding and Willie Lewis. When the war broke out, Big Boy headed for Brazil and Argentina, until it was over. In 1946 he moved back to France and worked for Arthur Briggs, Blyn Paque and Bill Coleman. The fifties came along and they found our guy in Berlin. He spent a few years there, but moved back to the U.S. in the mid-fifties. In San Francisco, where he settled, he went on to play with a variety of bands. But, his main source of a living was a furniture upholstery business, which he ran from his house. FRANK BIG BOY GOUDIE died in January of 1964 at sixty-five years old.

And now we have MAJOR "MULE" HOLLEY, born in Detroit in 1924. Holley first played violin. He then switched to tuba, while in a navy band, finally settling on the double bass, having studied at Groth School of Music. His list of musical achievements is long, and he played with Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald and one of my favourite pianists, Oscar Peterson. From 1952 he did studio work for BBC TV and became very well-known and very well liked there. Mule moved back to the U.S. in the late fifties and worked for Woody Herman, the Zoot Sims/ Al Cohn quintet, as well as with Duke Ellington in 1964. He then freelanced for about three years, then taught music at Berklee College in Boston. In the seventies, Holley was the house bassist at Jimmy Ryan's as well as playing festivals, concerts and jazz parties. He also recorded, both as a leader and with artists such as Rose Murphy. During that period he also toured with Helen Humes and the Kings Of Jazz. As recently as 1981, Holley made a wonderful appearance on Bob James' "Sign Of The Times" album. If you can find this collection, there is something very interesting on it and that is Holley's long-established trademark of singing and bowing the bass. This is quite similar to what Slam Stewart used to do, except that Holley didn't sing an octive above what he was playing, the way that Stewart did. I find that the album I like best is "Midnight Blue" [1963 Blue Note] which, as the title suggests, is a blues collection and very moody and beautiful, I think. It includes in the personel, Kenny Burrell and Stanley Turrentine and the rhythm section is straight-forward, no-foolishness on Holley's part along with Bill English on drums and Ray Barretto. Worth looking for. MAJOR MULE HOLLEY died in October of 1990 at sixty-six years old.

Gotta love Harry!!! He looks like he's having such a good time that you can't help having a good time too. Great pic, EKE BBB!!!

Thank you for the great picture of Honeyboy. I saw him perform the other night and he looks good and sounds good too. Electrifying bluesman. My apologies for breaking my own rule. Back to JAZZ. Next we have HARRY "THE HIPSTER" GIBSON [Harry Raab]. Harry, a wonderful pianist, was born in New York in 1914 and played first at the Yacht Club in New York, as an intermission pianist for Fats Waller. Later, he formed a double act with Ruth Gibson, a singer. He then went solo on 52nd Street and played clubs like the Hickory House, the Onyx and the Three Deuces. Although Gibson was a top notch jazz pianist, he made his name with novelty songs like "Handsome Harry The Hipster" and another, "Who Put The Benzedrine In Mrs Mrphy's Ovaltine?". His voice was closer to a black, rather than the white hipster, having a very rich deep timbre. As the 1940's rolled in, Harry was huge in New York as well as on the West Coast. In 1947 he was on the cover of Down Beat, but he fell off the jazz map in the very late forties. Of course, gossip abounded and it was said that he became a conductor of the female prisoner's wing, during his sojourn there for various drug offences. He was also said to have written a hymn accepted by the Vatican to be played during the Marian Year. My favourite is that he was involved in a car crash on an Indian reservation and married the chief's daughter, who was a compulsive shoplifter. In any case, during the seventies, Harry led a family band which included his sons, but after that he didn't play at all. HARRY "THE HIPSTER" GIBSON died in May of 1991.

OK. As I said, when asked by I believe, Pete C, that if I were posting a bio, verbatum, I would say so and give credit to the source, I will. As well, this item, which appears in today's "Calgary Herald", written by Bob Clark is about a bluesman, I don't want to go back on my "only jazz bios" guidelines, but this is an exception. So, to carry on, this item is about DAVID "HONEYBOY' EDWARDS, who is appearing locally at Kaos, which is a jazz/blues venue, here in Calgary. I think you may find it interesting. .................... LIFE'S STILL SWEET FOR HONEYBOY "Delta bluesman David [Honeyboy] Edwards has done it all in a career stretching back to 1932, when he left his MIssissippi home at age 17 to hit the road for Louisiana in the company of the legendary, hard-drinking but combative guitarist Big Joe Williams. 'I went to New Orleans with Joe, and he met a Creole woman with a past down there who had a lot of nice clothes he could wear.' Honeyboy says. 'He'd start puttin' on those suits of clothes, drinkin' that wine- and he'd want to fight every night'. Sometimes he'd want to fight me, even though I liked him and knew he liked me from the get-go. I'd just get out of the way.' Honeyboy criss-crossed the South by train, hitchhiking, walking, as well as in his own cars, between the year he spent playing with Williams and the mid-1950's when he settled in Chicago. He recalls that he always carried a pair of dice to supplement his income. 'I'd go to levee camps - they built levees to keep water out of farmers' crops - on a payday and start playin' the blues. People would give me nickles, dimes and quarters, and I took what they gave me and started gambling with it - and I'd make myself a couple of hundred dollars.' During that time, Honeyboy performed with some of the biggest blues names of the era, including Tommy Johnson, the first to play guitar and rap simultaneously. Johnson wrote the haunting O Brother, Where art thou? 'I knew Tommy back in Mississippi,' Honey boy says. 'We used to drink canned heat together.' Canned heat, made from Sterno - and don't try this at home - 'looks like jelly in the can, 'cept it's pink' Honeyboy says. 'We'd put the jelly in a clean handkerchief and strain it down - milk all the good stuff out of it. Then we'd get two big orange pops, pour it in, stir it up, and we'd be ready to drink it.' Another famous bluesman Honeyboy played with was his close friend, Robert Johnson, the blues guitarist rumoured to have made a crossroads pact with the devil to have acquired his fabled licks. Johnson died in 1938 at the age of 27, three days after being either poisoned or stabbed at a house party. Honeyboy, weo was performing with Johnson at the time, attributes the death to lack of adequate medical attention. 'At that time, black people couldn't get any good doctors down there [Mississippi] because they didn't have any money,' he says. 'If they sent a doctor to us, that doctor probably didn't know anything.' Honeyboy recalls linking up with another big name in blues, B.B. King, [10 years his junior] at a club outside Memphis in the mid-1940's. 'We didn't have but two pieces - a drummer and a bass,' Honeyboy recalls. 'I played second guitar for him for awhile, but he didn't make enough money to pay me back then. He didn't make any money until they went to California in the '50's and made those hits - Sweet Sixteen, and stuff like that.' " From The Calgary Herald, April 23 Bob Clark ----------------------------------- Now, back to JAZZ...

Very nice Bunk, EKE BBB. Very dignified. Thank you.

Our next honouree is the great trumpet-player, "BUNK" [Geary] JOHNSON, born in 1889 in New Orleans. Bunk started playing in and around New Orleans with the legendary [literally] Buddy Bolden, Adam Oliver and Bob Russell and was usually second trumpet. When Bunk first started playing, the job would sometimes involve playing for as long as six hours straight and the second trumpeter was not just for show or to enhance the main guy. He worked as hard as the first trumpet, because he actually took over, when the first trumpet needed a break, usually due to exhaustion. Louis Armstrong said of Bunk, "Bunk always stayed behind the beat - he wasn't quite the drive man that Joe Oliver and Freddie Keppard were." Bunk wasn't ever described as being a punctual or a reliable show-up for a gig. For example, he would take on jobs from Red Duson's band agency and just.............disappear, taking the advance and forgetting to play the job. But, his career was pretty steady and by 1915 he had played all kinds of jobs, with all kinds of artists, including Louis Fritz, Ma Rainey and Julia Lee. Then, in 1931 Bunk was standing next to Bandleader, Evan Thomas and Thomas was stabbed to death, right on the bandstand. This marked a temperary, but traumatic fallow period in Johnson's musical career. He was already suffering from severe dental problems and this incident seemed to hit him quite hard, understandably. Bunk settled for a time in Iberia and worked at various trades, such as caretaking, truck-driving and, according to some, working in the rice fields. But then a fortuitous thing happened in 1939. Two writers, Frederick Ramsey and William Russell, were researching for their book, "Jazzmen" and noticed references to Johnson by Clarence Williams and Louis Armstrong. The writers managed to find Bunk and begin a correspondence with him. They became quite close to Johnson to the point that Russell, in 1942, supplied Johnson with new teeth. [Little bit of trivia, Sidney Bechet's brother, Leonard made the plates for Russell]. There were then recordings made, produced by David Stuart, in a studio above Grunwald's Music Shop in New Orleans. In two years, between 1944 and 1945, Johnson recorded nearly a hundred sides. These recordings were so good that they rivalled the popular music of the day, which was Swing. Although Johnson's work was essential to the revival of jazz in the early forties, he still held daytime jobs. He also started to drink even more heavily than he had years before, and that was a lot. Sidney Bechet said of Bunk, during a Boston residency at the Savoy Cafe, "Bunk really got bad on my hands, full of liquor all the time. There was just no music to be gotten out of him." Johnson was replaced there by Johnny Windhurst, who completed the season. But, Bunk bounced back in 1946 with a band, opening at the Stuyvesant CAsino in April. This band reads like a list of the greats of the day, George Lewis, Jim Robinson and Baby Dodds. Johnson, however, hated the sound of his sidemen because he couldn't hear his trumpet over the sound of Dodds' enthusiastic and ferocious drumming. Not being too diplomatic, apparently, he drank even more heavily, and often swore at his men, onstage and once even locked them out of their living quarters. Like many problem drinkers, Johnson was a Jekyll/Hyde, charming as the dickens when sober, as Nesuhi Ertegun said, "He was intelligent, gracious and sensitive", but totally different when he was in his cups. The group disbanded and Bunk worked as a solo act in New York, Louisiana and other cities, returning to New York in 1947. He then appeared in a Hollywood film, "New Orleans" which starred Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday, although only one scene included Bunk, the rest being cut. Then an ex-GI, Harold Drob helped Johnson to put together a band of swing-based players which included Ed Cuffee on trombone, Garvin Bushell on clarinet, Don Kirkpatrick on piano and the great Alphonse Steele on drums. Steele's work suited Johnson in that he was much more discreet than Dodds had been. This band, as well as playing at the Stuyvesant, also recorded in late 1947. Bunk had finally come full-circle and was content. Sadly though, the years of hard-living caught up with him and soon after moving back to Iberia, he died, in July of 1949, after a series of strokes. He was only fifty, but looked older. Look for "King of the Blues" [1944 American Music], my favourite. It has thirteen tracks by Bunk's Blues Band and includes previously unissued takes, as well as notes by William Russell, who recorded the originals.

I don't think that the ranks of artists, writers and musicians are populated by a disproportianate number of jerks, just that we are touched by their art and are more disappointed upon the discovery of their asshole-ness. My own thought has often been consternation over how a person who creates such beauty, which moves me, sometimes to tears, has no heart in real life. A shame, but it doesn't alter my appreciation of the magic they create.

I've posted on other boards and I do find that Organissimo is very diversified and, for the most part, forgiving. As those who know me know, I have gotten myself involved in discussions in which I ended up painting myself into a corner, mostly due to my stubbornness about being the one to cry "uncle". It's not about having to have the last word, but rather showing any sign of retreat. Being raised with three brothers who hated me and no sisters, I'm a belligerant cuss. I've enjoyed my time here and intend to stay as long as the rest of you will have me.

Lord, if only you had been joking...... I heard it and it was, to be kind, unremarkable.

Again, thanks EKE BBB. Terrific!!! The Croce picture, particularly, is wonderful.

Now, I'd like to talk about one of the most under rated jazz pianists of the fifties and sixties, who has been described by many as a genius of the hard-bop era. He was the fabulous "SONNY" [Conrad Yeatis] CLARK. Sonny was born in 1931 in Herminie Pennsylvania and played for the first time, professionally on the West Coast with Wardell Grey in 1953. He was the regular pianist with Buddy DeFranco, having replaced Kenny Drew. Sonny had moved to New York in 1957 and did several albums for Blue Note. While in New York he worked with vocalist, Dinah Washington and led various small groups, one of which included John Coltrane. His reputation as a stellar musician was recognized by other pianists, including Bill Evans, who composed "NYS's No Lark" in memory of Clark. Clark's style was reminicent of his two heroes, Art Tatum and Count Basie. He played with a very succint and melodic way, that seemed to draw from wind instruments as much as stringed ones. His right hand carried most of the magic, with his left using an almost constant one-note approach, which was very unique and beautifully elegant. Unfortunately, Sonny's career was cut short when, in an attempt to counteract his heroin dependancy, he replaced the drug with alcohol abuse. SONNY CLARK died in January of 1963 at only thirty-one years old. There are some memorable albums that Sonny recorded, among them, "Dial 'S' for Sonny" [1997 Blue Note], "Oakland, 1955"[1995 Uptown Records] and "Leapin' And Lopin" [1988 Blue Note] which I think is his best. This last is a record which Sonny made with a quintet which included Charlie Rouse and trumpeter, Tommy Turrentine. Listen to "Deep In A Dream" which has a gorgeous solo by production assistant, Ike Quebec.

And now we have "DEE DEE [Denise Garrett] BRIDGEWATER whose last name is that of her husband, trumpeter, Cecil Bridgewater. Dee Dee sang with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra in the early seventies, as well as appearing onstage with "The Wiz" in 1975. She had a hit record with Ray Charles, "Precious Thing" in the early eighties. She went to Europe and appeared in the jazz show, "Lady Day" and re-established herself in the jazz genre. Since then, Dee Dee has appeared at jazz festivals in Europe and sings regularly with her own trio. Her talent is not limited to jazz and she has also teamed with opera singer Julia Migenes at live appearances. Bridgewater names as her chief influences, Nancy Wilson, Nina Simone and Tina Turner. As Dee Dee says though, "Jazz is my soul, my roots - it's me". He version of "Mack The Knife" was used as the inspiration for the Canadian ice-dance pair, Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz in a very memorable program that I saw recently. Beautiful, sultry voice. Very nice.

Many of you are familiar with Jim Croce, the singer who was famous for "Don't Mess Around With Jim" and other pop hits. I found it interesting that his son, "A.J. [Adrian James] CROCE is an acommplished jazz pianist, singer and composer. A.J. was born in 1971, and was a week short of his second birthday when his father died in a plane crash. Croce took up piano at six years old and performed, professionally for the first time at thirteen. At fifteen, he was enrolled in San Diego's School of Creative and Performing Arts but dropped out in his final year. A.J. was first inspired by the stride pianists and blues shouters which formed a large part of his father's record collection. He quickly developed his own style which is jazz-based and combined the sound of stride pianists, jumping and humourous jive that reminds me of Louis Jordan. He reminds me most of the emotional blues of the young Ray Charles. That is not to say that he is mimicing any of his influences, but rather developing his own musical path, based on established legends and making it his own. Croce's writing has drawn critical praise and he follows in the footsteps of, but in a contemperary way, great writers, such as Dylan Thomas and Mark Twain, as well as e.e. cummings and the great Chilean, Pablo Neruda. It is truly unique. A.J. CROCE's debut album is "A.J. Croce [1993 Private Music] and has witty and unusually personal songs, featuring Croce, playing terrific piano and backed up by a hard-swinging band. As one of the up-and-comers in the new jazz scene, I predict that A.J. will take his place among the greats and do his father proud.