medjuck

For those of you in New York, there's a documentary about Chick Webb being shown as part of the NY Film Festival.

I agree about the first concert film. I remember that I hurt rom laughing when I first saw it.

I have a plug -in (probably not the technical term) hard disc that I transfer my iTunes library to every couple of months. My family would inherit it but I'm not sure any of them would care except as a momento of my playing music that sometimes drove them nuts.

Left hand side margin where it says mp3 zip.

You can download 5 episodes here: http://archive.org/details/PeteKellysBlues

I've been listening to a lot of old radio shows recently. I especially find the detective ones entertaining though they really don't compare to movies or books of the period. I just came across Pete Kelly's Blues, 13 episodes of which were broadcast during the summer of 1951. It appear that there are only 7 of the episodes still extant and i've heard 6 of them. They're definitely a rung above other radio dramas of the period. It's set in Kansas City in the early 20's. Wikipedia describes it as follows: "Pete Kelly was a musician, a cornet player who headed his own jazz combo, "Pete Kelly's Big Seven." They worked at 417 Cherry Street, a speakeasy run by George Lupo, often mentioned but never heard. Kelly, narrating the series, described Lupo as a "fat, friendly little guy." The plots typically centered around Kelly's reluctant involvement with gangsters, gun molls, FBI agents, and people trying to save their own skins. The endings were often downbeat. The supporting cast was minimal; apart from the off-mike character Lupo and occasional speaking parts by the band members (notably Red the bass player, played by Jack Kruschen), the only other regular role of note was Maggie Jackson, the torch singer at another club (Fat Annie's, "across the river on the Kansas side"), played by blues singer Meredith Howard. In one episode, Bessie Smith is mentioned as the singer at Fat Annie's instead of Maggie Jackson. Boozy ex-bootlegger Barney Ricketts would show up occasionally, an informant not unlike the character Jocko Madigan on Webb and Breen's Pat Novak for Hire. The episodic roles were filled by William Conrad (as various mob bosses), Vic Perrin, and Roy Glenn, amongst others. The music dominated the series. In addition to one song by Maggie Jackson, each episode boasted two jazz numbers by the "Big Seven." The group was actually led by Dick Cathcart, the cornet player who was Pete Kelly's musical stand-in. The other members of the group, all well known jazz musicians, included Matty Matlock on clarinet, Moe Schneider on trombone, piano player Ray Sherman, bass player Morty Corb, guitarist Bill Newman, and drummer Nick Fatool. The show's announcer was another frequent Webb collaborator, George Fenneman, who would open each show with "This one's about Pete Kelly." " Most crime radio shows are full of pseudo Chandleresque metaphors and snappy dialogue but this is the only one I've heard that actually pulls it off. The music is good too. Highly recommended. Apparently there was a tv series a few years later and an easily seen film that features Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald.

There's a Daniel Lanois DVD entitled "Here is What I am" that has a lot about Brian Blade and (IIRC) Blades' father in it.

Ry Cooder's" Los Angeles Stories". A series of (sometimes interlocking) stories set in downtown LA in the '40s and '50s. Noir with a bit of magic realism. As you might expect there's a lot of music. (John Lee Hooker makes an appearance in one story.) This is fine literature not just something from a celebrity dilettante. (Is Cooder even a celebrity?) I may have enjoyed it more because I was briefly living in downtown LA when I read some of the stories-- the first one takes place exactly where I was living-- but I continued to enjoy and admire it when I returned home to Santa Barbara.

Once saw Long Tall Dexter carrying his saxophone through LAX. Very stately looking. Saw Anthony Braxton on the streets of Paris once. Wanted to tell him how much I'd liked a solo performance of his in Toronto a few months before so I walked toward him. As I approached he waved his hands and said "Sorry I don't speak French." I was happy that I looked Parisian. Sat next to Annie Lennox and Elvis Costello at a restaurant in London. We ignored each other.

Are you talking about A Drum is a Woman? I understand the reference to the 2 cd (Schaap) version but what is "the studio material presented falsely as live"?

There was a cd of Indigos also. I have all of these on cd and I expect that most of them are the same releases as in the box set. However I'd like to get any new masters. Does anyone know of they'll be offered separately?

How old was he when he started? And ended?

But you need Cookin'

Gil Evans plus 10. (I think that's what it's called.)

I saw him with Mingus a couple of times in the mid-'70s. Knocked me out. Even his theatrics (spinning around at the climax of solos).

And do the records companies which had contracts with the artists at the time of the performance have any rights? (As I write this I suspect not or the Monk/Trane club performance wouldn't be on Blue Note.)

Don't they say it's "less than $3 a month"?

They just added Miles at Newport in 1967.

The correct (mono) version was also on a compilation cd called "Ralph Ellison: Living With Music", which I suspect is now OOP. I've always thought Sony should at least make it avaialbe as a download considering the the liner notes of the Such Sweet Thunder cd make a big deal about it.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Chuck Berry. I Keith Richard's autobiography he talks about seeing the film for Chuck and how (to him) the jazz musicians accompanying him seem to make fun of it all. I'be always thought the Chuck Berry performance was one of the highlights of the film.

Happy B'day and many more!

Happy B'day and many more!

Sorry, trying to say the last sentence outside the quote but late at night on an iPad can't quite figure out how to do it.

Chuck: I'm curious. Do you make less on a downloadn(if you offered them) than you do on a cd?

Elvis on Ed Sullivan in 1956. Also saw him on the Dorsey Bros show but it didn't impress me the same way.