garthsj

I certainly agree with you .. he was an "edgy" player, who could really hit the mark, and had great emotion, but there are a few places where he is not quite up to it. I often wonder why he did not record more .... I particularly love "Out Of The Blue" (BN 84032) ...

UBU, and Larry .... Thanks for the tip about the Per Henrik Wallin CD .. but I was not able to figure out what label this is on. Could you please let me know... Thanks.

I think that your keyword here is "most" .. because not all books about "performers" or "artists" are of that "fluffy" nature. Perhaps it is because I am an academic who has read many incisive biographies of film people -- directors, stars, moguls, etc. -- or perhaps it is because I have also read many jazz biographies that do attempt to evaluate the artist's work within the context of his or her environment, that I find this book very unsatisfactory. Wayne Shorter is considered by many jazz scholars, and just plain fans, to be one of the most important artists in this field today (an opinion that I do not necessarily share, by the way), and as such he deserves more than the somewhat shallow treatment accorded to him in this biography. Look, based upon personal experiences with my own work, I am always suspicious of reviewers who attack one's work because you did not write the book they wanted you to write. Yet, it may appear that that is exactly what I am doing here. Not really. An author deserves to be evaluated on what they actually wrote; and that is where this book is deficient, for all the reasons that Mike Fitzgerald indicated above. The book pretends to offer far more than it actually delivers, and for this the author, and perhaps also the editor and publisher must be faulted. I could go on forever in presenting this quasi-intellectual literary critique; far better that you look at Mike Fitgerald's book on Gigi Gryce to see an excellent model of "what might have been." Basically Wayne Shorter deserves better, and unfortunately the publication of this particular book may preclude the publication of another, more incisive biography for quite some time ... (As an aside ... the reviews of this book that I have read so far indicate that the reviewers are not as knowlegable or perceptive as members of this board. They appear to be ignorant of the book's serious deficiencies).

Just a note to say that Larry's book received a very favorable review in the February issue of Jazz Times by Ron Wynn (Yes! I still read that suspect magazine) ... and speaking from personal experience, any good review, regardless of the source is very welcome, especially one with a significant readership of potential purchasers. Good on you, Larry ..

Yes.. The Jan Johansson trio stuff is wonderful ... The CD site Jazz Baby used to have several of his albums available.

Ghost .. almost all of it has been reissued on the various Dragon, Phontastic, and Caprice CDs. You have to match the albums (I once owned four of them ... I could have retired on those alone if I had held out .. they tend to go for around $250-500 these days) with the CDs. For instance, the five volume Gullin set contains all (I believe) of the sides that were released on Prestige, and also one 10" album that was originally released on Contemporary Records (this is also a rare album), plus the Atlantic material, including that weird album with the Moretone Singers. I am not quite so certain of the material which was released under Ake Persson's and Bengt Hallberg's name. I would have to check through my CDs .... perhaps someone who has ready access to Lord's discography can tell us the answer.

All of the Chubby Jackson material, together with the radio announcements, is conveniently available on Dragon DRCD318 - "Bebop Enters Sweden 1947-1949". This CD also contains material from Dizzy Gillespie's Orchestra, and three cuts of a James Moody jam session with Swedish musicians. I hope you can read this scan ....

It is Saturday afternoon, and I should be writing as I have deadlines to meet, but here I am ... currently listening to "First Walk," Vol. 5 of the Lars Gullin series on Dragon records ... and enjoying the hell out of it! For reasons known only to something so deep in my psyche that even I do not understand it, I have always had a "fondness" for Swedish jazz ... particularly the "cool school" stuff from the fifties featuring Gullin, Arne Domnerus, Bengt Hallberg, Ake Persson etc. I was influenced when I cousin gave me a "Jazz From Sweden" 10" Prestige album way back when. (Three years ago I sold this gem for more than the large iPod is worth today) ... Now through Dragon, Phontastic and that wonderful set of Swedish Jazz History CDs on Caprice, I have been indulging myself in recent years. There is a lot of fine music here; yes much of it is imitative of Konitz, Getz, and the Miles Davis "Birth of the Cool" material ... but it is nearly the equal of what was being played in this vein in the U.S. at the time. Gullin and Domnerus are particularly outstanding, but I am gaining much respect for pianist Bengt Hallberg. These were also very young guys ... 19-24 ... Anyway .. is there anyone else out there who has this guilty pleasure for Swedish jazz of the fifties? Garth The Cool ....

I owned two of those albums which I originally picked up in cut-out bins (Aaaaah! Those were the days!). The had interesting covers, and his piano playing was somewhere between Monk and Elmo Hope at their most "out." It certainly was "avant garde" for the period, but not Cecil Taylor!

There are some fine names that have been thrown out so far, but coming to this thread late in the day, I was surprised that no one had mentioned Claude Williamson. He is certainly one of the best following in the Powell tradition, but with his own technical brilliance thrown in. From the west coast group we also have the brillliance of Russ Freeman, and Pete Jolly, One pianist who is widely recognized for his seminal contribution to jazz, and yet never really gets the attention he deserves as a pianist is John Lewis! Whenever I am feeling the need to lose myself into jazz improvisation, I listen to John Lewis.

I just LOVE declaratory statements like this .. I have to wonder how many jazz acordionists you have listened to? .... Pete Jolly played a very fine jazz accordion, and we should not forget the great Tommy Gumina.. His work with Buddy DeFranco on a series of albums in the sixties and seventies, that deserve to be reissued on CD, shows what can be achieved ... By the way.. the word is spelled accordiOn, not accordiAn ... Oh my - such intensity of feeling ! Gee! And I thought that I was being rather subdued ... for me!

For what is was worth .. large quantities of Concord albums turned up at Barnes & Noble stores in the last two years .. selling at $4.98 ... The selection was usually spread over several stores, so that in my case I had to travel all over Houston (the largest geographical city in the country) to see which store had which albums. I did over 120 miles of travel in one day, and I acquired about 45 separate albums. At this price I could sample several artists whose work was not well known to me, and I did find several gems that way ... But I also notice that about half of these albums are now in my discard list ... not keepers. Anybody want some Randy Sanke or Jeff Linsky albums? Garth.

I just LOVE declaratory statements like this .. I have to wonder how many jazz accordionists you have listened to? .... Pete Jolly played a very fine jazz accordion, and we should not forget the great Tommy Gumina.. His work with Buddy DeFranco on a series of albums in the sixties and seventies, that deserve to be reissued on CD, shows what can be achieved ... By the way.. the word is spelled accordiOn, not accordiAn ...

This letter was posted on the Jazz West Coast list today. I thought that many of you would be interested: Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 14:52:58 -0500 From: "Wayne L. Wright" Subject: Fwd: Artie Shaw Funeral Just got back from Artie Shaw's funeral, which was held indoors in the chapel of the Pierce Brothers Mortuary in Westlake Village because of the pouring rain outside. Services were supposed to be public and held at graveside, but because of the weather, guests were limited to family, friends, press, and a few acquaintances (that's where I came in). It was a nice service, filled with funny stories, "Artie-isms," and of course, music. The coffin was flanked by an early photo of Artie at the beginning of his career and a more recent picture of Artie in his library, looking either pensive or annoyed. Both of these pictures were included in the program. If anyone is interested in scans of these, I'll be glad to send them as an attachment to whoever wants one. There was also the award presented by the NEA to Artie on Friday and a framed letter of congratulations from President Bush, dated November 30, 2004. There was a succession of speakers at the service, which was led by Larry Rosen, Artie's longtime secretary. As he introduced each speaker, we got an impression of a man who was not a curmudgeon, but someone who was a Renaissance Man, a true genius, and a perfectionist, expecting no more than the same from people he knew. His motto: "Good enough is not good enough" sums up his sometimes abrasive personality and mindset. Although there were many funny stories told, I couldn't commit all of them to memory, but here are a few highlights: The man whose job it was to catalog Artie's massive collection of over 10,000 books reported inscriptions in the front of three books in the library. One was by Albert Einstein, one by Sigmund Freud, and one by another famous author, whose name escapes me now. The handwritten inscription in the front of the Einstein book read: "To Artie Shaw, with profound admiration and respect." In the Freud book, the inscription read, "To Artie Shaw, with profound admiration and respect." Not only did the third book have the exact same words, but the cataloguer noticed that the handwriting was the same on all three. He asked Artie about it and Artie replied that he had written them himself, to identify the books in case they were ever stolen. As we speak, Artie's book collection is still at his house. The shelves are reportedly completely full and stacks of books are on the floor and even piled on the stairs of his staircase. Musician Tom Rainier chose to play two musical selections, which were played on Artie's own boom box that was brought to the chapel. One was a 1938 radio broadcast of Artie's hot big band playing a song that I believe was called "Everybody's Jumpin'." Artie wanted that played because it was five minutes long and gave the soloists a chance to spread out (Artie hated most of his studio sessions because of the restrictions in time). Artie took two choruses, another was by Georgie Auld, one by Tony Pastor and I couldn't identify the others. The other song was the result of an interesting experiment in which Rainier took selected snippets of Artie's playing, reassembled them and inserted them into a new recording of Johnny Mandel's "The Shadow of Your Smile." The intent was to predict what Artie would sound like if he had continued to play after 1954. The result was actually pretty amazing. Buddy DeFranco finished off the piece with an Artie-esque 8-bar cadenza that brought tumultuous applause throughout the chapel. Artie himself had admired the work and approved of it. Then Dick Johnson, leader of the Artie Shaw Orchestra for the past 20 years, played a poignant a cappella performance of "I'll Be Seeing You." Eighty-five-year-old comedian Red Buttons talked about meeting Artie for the first time. "It was during the War," he remembered, "and we were both in uniform. Artie was in his Navy uniform and I was the bellhop at the Astor hotel." Buttons recalled that Shaw's first words upon meeting him were, "What kind of a name is 'Red Buttons'? Who in their right mind would give anyone that name?" To which Buttons reported that his real name was Aaron Schwat, to which Shaw immediately responded by calling Buttons "The Sultan of Schwat." Sid Caesar was scheduled to be there and speak but he couldn't make it because of the rain. At that point, Larry asked if anyone else had anything to say about their relationship with Artie and there were a succession of very funny stories. I told of my nerve-wracking first broadcast with him in 2000 and then my final meeting with him in 2003 to discuss Bix Beiderbecke's 100th birthday. Artie's admiration of Bix was not because of the notes Bix played or his technique, it was the sound he produced on his cornet. Artie rhapsodized about this sound and the fact that it could only have come from Bix. Above all, Artie admired the individual and hated when people said they tried to play like Artie did. "Play like yourself," he'd say. When I asked him to comment on Eddie Condon's oft-heard description of Bix's sound, which was likening it to "a girl saying yes," Artie paused, shook his head and said, "Poor Eddie...He must have been pretty hard up." The end of the service came after the playing of Gershwin's "Someone to Watch Over Me" as sung by Lee Wiley, Shaw's favorite singer. It was an unusual recording, recorded in 1939, in which Wiley was accompanied by Fats Waller on pipe organ (Liberty Music Shop L-282).

The much awaited biography of PAUL DESMOND by Doug Ramsey is now up for ordering. Doug is a fine writer, and he has spent a long time researching this book, so it is high on my acquisitions list. Here is the basic information: http://www.parksidepublications.com/takefive.html

This is the top end storage on the market .... expensive, but reasonably attractive. http://www.can-am.ca/ I would love to change to sleeves .. but like Chuck, I am concerned what those finding my body would do with 4,000 CDs in sleeves ... what is the point of taking the CDs out of their jewelboxes and then keeping them??

Hell, my wife curses my collection while I'm alive. (At least she doesn't curse me.) Every so often, she threatens to get together with my best friend's wife and sell both of our record/cd collections at a yard sale for 10 cents a piece. I just hope that she waits til I'm gone. Worse yet, she could get together with her girlfriends when you have taken your mistress (or whatever) out of town, and switch all the CDs around into different jewelboxes !! "Hell hath no fury ...."

A Google search indicates that he is now largely a drama teacher ... It appears that he did a few small parts in movies until the late 80s, and more recently he is listed as a drama teacher/scene coach in quite a large number of online actor's resumés ... "those that can't .... " I also could not find a picture, other than that scene that you found ... but it appears as if Wally Cox, William Daniels and Stephen Strimpell all look very much alike .... or they did when they were young!

Geez Jim, You really know how to hurt a guy! There is such a thing as breach of promise, you know? But, I am glad to be of help .. now play something for me .... what is the "Stairway to Heaven" for jazz guitarists?

Thanks for the marriage proposal Jim .. I am single, quite presentable, and financially secure .... what do YOU bring to the table?? Hmmmmmm .. well you might be a professional guitarist, but I am a professional communications historian ... seriously, I teach communications at the University of Houston, and my specialty is media history ... BUT, I will not lie.. I actually remembered the William Daniels series, and looked up the dates in "Les Brown's Encyclopedia of Television" ... I had forgoten about "Mr. Terrific" ... and VCRs were not readily available in those days to allow for recording of similtaneous shows .... so I did not see much of it. BTW, the Brown Encyclopedia can usually be found used for a good price ...

William Daniels, who looked a lot like Wally Cox, starred as "Captain Nice." This series and a remarkably similar one on CBS called "Mr. Terrific" (1967) which starred Stephen Strimpel, both debuted the same evening, 9 January 1967. Both aired their last episode on 28 August 28 1968. Neither was a big enough hit to justify being renewed for a second season. I actually enjoyed "Captain Nice," and William Daniels is a very fine actor ...

In the mid-fifties, when I was just beginning to discover girls, we in far-off Cape Town used the term "bopping" to describe what had previously been known as "jiving." Dancing was done to a mixture of things ranging from Benny Goodman's "Lullaby of the Leaves" (his flirtation with be-bop) to Presley's "Hound Dog" ... so it was a transition period. The fifties are a rich period for the study of cultural transition, especially because it was fueled by the political tensions of the Cold War. I have spent a lot of time researching this issue of "social control" of media for various books and government reports I have written. I can recommend one good overview of the subject ... James Gilbert, "A Cycle of Outrage: America's Reaction To The Juvenile Delinquent In The 1950s" (N.Y.: Oxford U.P., 1986). I once gave a special lecture here at the Museum of Contemporary Art on the subject of "Cultural Choices in 1950s: To Be 'Cool' or 'Hot'?" My premise, illustrated with lots of personal photographs of my teenage years, was that some of us were faced with sticking with Gerry Mulligan ('cool'), or going with the Presley tidal wave ('hot'). The iconography and styles of these two "schools" were quite different ... of course, in Britain it later manifested itself as the battle between "mods" and "rockers". Interestingly, there really was no similar division among American teenagers. Rock just became so dominant, and teenage jazz fans were too few to constitute a serious movement, or to even be noticed! Garth.

He has now responded to a query, and yes, it is the complete 4-CD set ... This seller is obviously not too familiar with Mosaic ... I wonder how he acquired the set ...

Wally Cox was the voice of "Underdog" ... 1968-70 seasons ... "There's no need to fear -- Underdog is here!" He starred in two earlier shows .... "Mr Peepers," 1952-55; and "The Adventures of Hiram Holliday," 1956-57

Maybe they were appealing to the over-40 crowd & didn't one them to have to put on their reading glassing to browse their releases! DAMNED RIGHT!!!