medjuck

Just finished reading the complete published (in book form) works of Frank Conroy-- a total of 5 books, four of which are pretty short. "Stop Time": a rather disturbing memoir. "Body and Soul": One of the best novels about music I've read. "Mid Air": A collection of short stories. "Time and Tide": a book about Nantucket, part of the "Crown Journeys Series". "Dog's Bark, but the Caravan Rolls On": a collection of articles and essays several about music and musicians in which we learn that Conroy sometimes supported himself as a piano player who jammed with (amongst others) Mingus, Paul Desmond and Charlie Watts. He writes that after Mingus had "...once again sat in with me. "What's going on, Charlie? You're the best bassist in the world and I'm a putzer." "You are," he said expansively, "an authentic primitive. That is true." He leaned forward and lowered his voice. "But you swing." He does indeed.

Who wrote them?

I remember McLuhan saying (never seen it in print) that prIvacy was a 19th Century invention: it didn't exist before and hasn't since.

Why? (I always think everything in Maine should be compared to the neighbouring province New Brunswick, where I'm from. )

The one I owe is the Columbia. Worth getting for Lost in the Stars alone.

The Tony Bennett record with Basie is great. (There's probably more than one, but I only own one.)

This was a really helpful post. One quibble: weren't any of the Mulligan or Shankar releases big sellers?

Whose version? Prestige held off releasing most of them until the Columbia promotion machine kicked in-- the last of of them didn't appear till 5 years after it was recorded.

How are these holding up a year later?

Help! I seem to have blown through my second set of computer speakers in this decade. Any one have any suggestions for replacements? They'll sit on my desk and shouldn't be more than about 8 inches square. Are there good Bluetooth speakers? It would be nice to get rid of some wires. Also, how many watts do I need for reasonable sound? (You can see I don't know much.)

Hey, where you been for the last 12 years?

Robin Kelly (who I presume wasn't there) quotes some less than generous reviews, but I heard this when it was on Wolfgang's vault and I thought Monk sounded good. Maybe not essential but definitely worth listening to. Actually mhatta (who he?) put it very well in 2009.

The guy who wrote this article managed to be wrong about almost everything.

Just skimmed a book about him which seems to say he played with Don Byas! Long before he played rock'n'roll "In Denmark, Watts would sit at an unfamiliar kit behind fast US saxophonist Don Byas..."

Not legally. It's a separate city but it is in the surrounded by LA .

I had tickets to see Mulligan do it live w (IIRC) Konitz replacing Woods but a friend chose the same date to get married. Arghh.

Quincy?

Own 5 different versions of KOB. Also several versions of Portrait of Pee Wee on cd. But I do try to stick to one only.

I think it was around that time he did an interview for Coda and gave his version of the Koko session.

Looks like it's on the set of Jammin' The Blues.

i saw him with a local Montreal rhythm section in the early '60s. Interestingly the rhythm section was guitar bass and drums: The Charlie Biddle Trio whom I also saw back Art Farmer and Jackie McLean.

I've heard from at least one other prolific poster that you were why he left.

Was he one of the guys Jim drove off the board?

He was pretty well known amongst jazz fans when I started listening in the early '60s. I Remember Clifford, Whisper Not, Along Came Betty and Killer Joe amongst others by him were as close as you got to "hits" in the jazz world.

The notes go on to say that Curson even took up the piccolo trumpet "to fit the bill". But the notes also quote him as saying "I think (Don and I) were trying to come close to each other. I don't know why, because all we ever talked about was Dizzy."