Dan Gould

Well Tampa is pretty much out of the cone for a direct hit but I just looked at that interactive forecast track page and if you look at the area of hurricane force winds it stretches at least across the width of the cone when it gets near us. The only potential saving grace is what I said yesterday: weakening by the time the worst winds get here. Forecast says 80 right now and we've dealt with an 80 mph max-sustained wind hurricane before. The being on the NW side is helpful too, before the storm blew up overnight it had a windzone that was very asymmetrical and wider from eye to the east than eye to the west edge. Maybe that will resume when it makes landfall and the weakening starts.

Storm surge is not a concern when you live at the far eastern edge of Hillsborough county. The worst long-term rainfall event has put water into the garage, right by the garage door and no more than a centimeter high. I am not concerned for being washed away. Am concerned for being blown away, for the safety of the horses should the barn roof fail in anyway, and for TTK's concern - tree damage. Edit to add: Loving the 5 pm update, with landfall moving further south. The center of the cone is no longer so close to the house though obviously its very difficult to avoid serious impacts from this one, not to mention the fact that there is so much uncertainty still. Then again, right now Clearwater is barely in the cone, and that city is just north of St Pete/Tampa.

Thank you, and yes, max sustained winds (I think its one minute increments that they use) of 85 is what is forecast at this moment for its closest pass to us. Gusts will go higher. I think the damage from gusts come after the sustained effect of winds but I feel like 85 mph sustained is something the house and barn will withstand (the barn isn't a closed off structure, winds go thru one side to the other. Although there is a gable end) without too much trouble.

My wife hasn't even considered it, I have no idea if there's another location built to hurricane standards, and the drive north won't get out of the way of the storm without making it impossible to get back and do it again. Time has run out for that course of action. By the way, current track actually has 85 mph winds when directly over us, per our local news. Even as a direct hit I'd take that over a major hurricane churning thru Tampa Bay and coming that close to us. On the 8 am scenario we'd have 110+ winds. The further south it goes the better the chance that its a strong cat 1 not a cat 3 when the worst reaches us.

Not with six horses and a trailer that takes three at a time. There was a place close by that rented stalls out and is rated for a Cat 5 storm but they closed. In fact before they closed I think they got dinged by the state for price-gouging. We used them once or twice for less threatening storms but unless we can get horses safe somewhere close we're in it for the duration. As I said I just hope that the track keeps moving east and south and it ultimately passes us to the east.

I don't expect a miracle like getting out of the cone. I'd love a trend toward landfall south of Sarasota which would likely make max sustained winds maybe 100 mph here - and its usually considered the NE quadrant is the worst spot to be other than a direct hit by the eyewall. Further south means its more likely to pass to the east.

11 AM update has shifted southeast again, with center not hitting Tampa directly. OTOH the center of the projected path is maybe 2 miles to the southeast of us now. So basically this trend better keep going. My wife is barely on the controlled side of hysteria.

I know TTK is in Tampa not sure of other regulars in the path of this beast. It is far and away the closest and most frightening storm we have dealt with since I moved to south Florida 25 years ago. The black diagonal is the forecast track as of 8 am today. I've helpfully added a yellow blob for the approximate location of the homestead. There's hardly any time left for this to move in such a way that it remotely minimizes the threat we are facing.

For those of us in the Tampa area this looks g-damn ugly in a couple of days (not to mention Cuba very shortly).

I am laughing that is Harold Mabern, tall but not quite so tall that he's all hunched over on the piano.

Percy France lives on Wikipedia. The draft article was regarded as "marginal" for appropriate notoriety but they published to "let the community decide". It had issues so I've now edited it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_France I am interested to see how it goes from here. I am a bit pissed that in the Project Jazz page discussion someone wrote The website in his own name looks questionable; it could be used as a way of identifying information that can be found in a better source. Much better sources are available. Like, WTFF?

I haven't paid as much attention to this go-round however I second Peter's comment and, scrolling backwards on the blog, I may have pegged this Dan fellow's tastes as a little more outside my wheelhouse than it truly is.

Allen, how exactly can you take credit that as a 12 year old your letter (unanswered, mind you) led to AOR programming? How do you not know that some other 12 year old wrote the same thing, before you did, and you only reinforced the possibility that such a format would be successful? Or that the adults in charge didn't give a shit what a 12 year old wrote and had already been considering the same change? Correlation is not causation and if I may say, it takes a 12 year old to be certain that a major radio station changed formats because he wrote a letter.

I would think so.

January 5, 1961 DB has a profile of Elmo Hope. Bagby is mentioned and quoted - Hope's newest group was a co-operative quarter with Bagby. Page 11: https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/DownBeat/60s/61/Down-Beat-1961-01-05-28-1.pdf#search=%22bagby%22

Gotta say I am surprised there was basically no reaction to a link to Kenny Dorham talking about his career but whatevs. From the home page of that site, here is Bed Sidran interviewing RVG: http://jazzstreams.ddns.net/www/KCHO/KCHO-Evening-Jazz-1987.mp3

Beautiful post by Joe Alterman on FB about his friendship with Ramsey: “Life is good.” Always said with a smile that I could clearly hear and feel over the phone, this was Ramsey Lewis’ motto - the line he said nearly every time I asked him how he was doing. He often repeated it twice, the second time with even more enthusiasm: “Life is good. Life is GOOD!” And life for Ramsey sure was good. As he often told me during these past few years, “I’m at the ‘do what I want when I want to do it and if I don’t want to do it I don’t do it’ phase of my life.” Life was so good, in fact, that he often told me to “take care of yourself so that one day you can enjoy life at 87 as much as I do. The air is good up here.” One time he added, “Wait until you’re 87,” to which I replied, “I’ll wait,” which cracked him up. Ramsey has always been one of my biggest piano heroes. I’ll never forget the day I got my driver’s license. I drove around all afternoon by myself listening to “The In Crowd” with the windows down. Man, I felt cool! In getting to know Ramsey over this past decade, he’s become one of my biggest life heroes too. I’ll never forget the first time I began to get a feeling for the gentleman behind his iconic piano playing. It was the first time we met, at the 2010 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Awards where I was working as a student volunteer. That morning, I was tasked with greeting the Jazz masters as they arrived for brunch. Within a fifteen minute period, I welcomed legends including Dr. Billy Taylor (who postponed greeting his old friends to ask me what I’ve been practicing), Jimmy Heath (who asked where the restroom was. “Time to see Mr. Pickle,” he said.), Gerald Wilson (who, after shaking my hand asked me to “please, pardon my glove.”), Nat Hentoff (who told me he felt like he was at a family reunion), Yusef Lateef, James Moody, and so many others. As each master got off the elevator, I’d introduce myself, point them in the direction of the brunch and tell them that if they needed anything to please let me know. While everyone was kind and gracious, no one, except for one person, introduced themselves back to me after I introduced myself. “Hi, I’m Joe,” I said as Ramsey Lewis stepped out of the elevator. He approached me with a big smile on his face, his hand out to shake mine, and in his slow, cool-tempered voice said, “Nice to meet you Joe. I’m Ramsey Lewis.” Just like everyone being honored that day, he must’ve known that all of us student volunteers knew who he was, but he went that extra mile, and I left that day with a greater appreciation for Ramsey Lewis, the person. Three years later, I was incredibly fortunate to have my first opportunity to open for him, at New York’s Blue Note. At the end of my set, Ramsey’s manager approached me and told me that he wanted to see me in his dressing room. Oh shit! Anxiously awaiting to hear how badly I’d messed things up, I nervously entered his dressing room - and thankfully, how wrong I was! The first words out of Ramsey’s mouth were, “I’m sure glad I got here early tonight to hear you. You can really play.” I told him that his influence had a lot to do with that, but he shooed it off. “No man,” he said. “You’ve got your whole own shit together. Keep at it!” He then handed me a piece of paper with his email address on it. “Email me,” he said. “Tell me what you're up to. And I will write you back.” I did just that, and so did he. I sent him a thank-you note a few days later, and inspired by hearing him talk on stage that night about his love of Nat “King” Cole ballads, I attached a recording of me playing the ballad, “I Guess I’ll Have To Dream The Rest.” He responded soon thereafter, with “Ah hah! How beautiful. You are a romanticist too.” One of the many things the two of us bonded over over the years is how, while we love to swing and get funky (although Ramsey didn’t like the word “funk”; to him, it implied gimmicky riffs), what we both really love playing are romantic ballads. One month later, after the sustain pedal of a piano broke midway through one of my performances, I reached back out to Ramsey (who I then addressed as Mr. Lewis), to see how, if possible, I could be prepared for such a disaster. A few days later my phone rang. I didn't have his number yet and in a rush to class didn’t answer. I checked my voicemail after class. A voice just began talking: “So I’m playing at the Banbarks in Denver, Colorado. It’s a little nightclub. And I’m showing off, and we’re playing so hot - a trio in those days -, and we’re getting to the end of the tune, and there’s to be a big glissando from the top of the piano down to the bottom of the piano and then a big chord. I started to glissando from the top of the piano, and as I got down to the bottom of the piano I slid off the bench on the floor, under the piano. That was the big finish. No doubt we got a big applause. I don’t know if it was from the glissando or from me falling on the floor. Joe, it’s Ramsey Lewis. Sorry I missed you. I will call again. Just bear with whatever it is, man. Go with the flow. You know how these pianos are. When you get to a certain level you can demand a certain piano and those kinds of mishaps won’t happen, but nothing’s 100 percent. I wish you all the best. Talk to you soon.” And that was the start of a beautiful friendship. I’d mail him interesting books and albums, and he’d share the same with me. I remember him calling once after I mailed him a Luckey Roberts album. He was touched by the gesture. “You are the best”, he said in his voicemail thanking me. And then, through noticeable tears, “You’re one of a…one of a…very special guy…one of a kind.” I opened for him a few more times over the next three years. One night, he enthusiastically met with my whole family, praising me to my parents, which meant a lot. I found it amazing that my Dad had introduced me to Ramsey’s music, yet here I was years later introducing my Dad to Ramsey. Ramsey was touched by my eventually telling him that, adding that he had had a similar experience with his father and Count Basie. I’d often sit with him in his dressing room during his set breaks, where he’d tell me stories about Oscar Peterson, Count Basie, Buddy Rich, Billy Taylor and more. He was an open book, always ready to talk about whatever was on my mind. While I learned something from nearly everything he shared with me, I never once felt like he was talking down to me. He made me feel very comfortable talking to him, almost like it was just two Oscar Peterson fans on the phone together. The then 78 year-old Ramsey Lewis reminded me of every 18 year-old college Jazz student I’d met at NYU who had just moved to New York and was excited about studying, learning and listening to this music. He always made me feel apart of the club. Not just the Blue Note, but Ramsey’s club, or the In Crowd, as some would say. Once, he introduced me to a friend of his in the dressing room: “Joe’s a fantastic piano player who plays his butt off”, he said. Then he got excited and began to talk louder and faster. “He can play everything. I mean everything. Solo, trio, you name it.” I was speechless and said something about how much that meant coming from him. Then he looked at his friend and said, “And he's humble! Which makes it even hipper!” Once I called and asked his advice about talking to the audience on the microphone. At the time, I felt very uncomfortable on the mic. His response: ”If you were faking it you'd have something to worry about. But you're not faking it. You play the f*** out of the piano. So, when you pick up the mic you need to say to yourself, I’m Joe Alterman and I play the f*** out of the piano, motherf****.” He told me how Billy Taylor had helped him feel more comfortable on the mic, adding, “I noticed that the more comfortable I seemed, the more comfortable the audience became.” As our relationship developed and our conversations deepened, I began to see Ramsey not only as a music mentor, but as a life one, too. 
Once I called him asking for dating advice. At the time, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to date a musician or not; dating a musician often became too much, and dating a non-musician often became too little. “Joe,” he told me. “You’re not my son but I speak to you like you’re one of them.” As we began to speak with more frequency, I’d hear that quite often. “You’ve got it all wrong. Instead of looking for people who check off your check list, look for someone who simply loves you enough to want to explore and discover the things that are important to you.” Ramsey composed a piano concerto and performed it with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on his 82nd birthday. Shortly after, I called and asked how it went. “Joe”, he said. “I’ve got to tell you what happened: I wanted to take piano lessons as a youngster, but I grew up in a very poor family and even though my Dad was a great lover of music, piano lessons cost 50 cents and we couldn’t afford it. Finally, I made so much noise around the house that they relented and got me lessons. I had hopes and dreams of becoming a classical pianist, and very studiously went down that path for many years. I was a teenager, maybe 15, 16 years old when my teacher told me that I had the talent and the skills to be a concert pianist, but that it would never happen for me; there simply weren’t any opportunities for Black people in classical music at the time. That’s when I discovered jazz. Anyway, nearly 60 years later, I’m turning 80 years old and about to debut a piano concerto I wrote with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Me playing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra? In my Dad’s wildest dreams. Anyway, there’s nearly 18,000 people in the audience. I’m about to walk on stage and the lady backstage says that I can’t go on. ‘Oh no!,’ I thought. ‘Are my dreams shattered?’ “No” she said. “We have a surprise for you.” All the sudden, I look up at a big screen on the stage, and President Obama’s face comes on it. He gives a whole speech about how I’m a national treasure, wishing me a happy birthday. Joe, I couldn’t become a classical pianist because I’m Black. Now, at 80, I’m finally realizing those classical music dreams and the Black President comes on the screen to wish me a happy birthday.” Then, through tears he told me, “I just wish my Dad could’ve been there.” One of the most powerful stories I’d ever heard, I asked Ramsey if we could turn it into a short story, which we did, and that process brought us even closer. I began thinking about moving home to Atlanta in early 2016 and was nervous for my career and the regrets I might have leaving New York. While many people told me leaving New York would be devastating for my career, Ramsey’s advice brought me home, literally. “It sounds to me that what you're saying is that you have a lot of people down in Atlanta who make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Some people spend their whole lives looking for that, and never find it. And some people don't find it until they're 50. You're lucky to have found it at 27. We only go though this one time. Life's too short. My advice to you: get on that plane tonight! And don't worry about not being in NY. You play your ass off - the word will get out. I hope next time we talk you say 'I'm moving’.” A few days later, I called him back to tell him that I was moving. However, a few days after that Paul McCartney showed up at one of my gigs - which I took as a sign that I shouldn’t move home, and I shared that feeling with Ramsey, who put things in perspective for me. “Imagine that Paul McCartney comes to every one of your gigs,” he told me. “It wouldn't be so exciting after a while.” I moved home two months later, but shortly before doing so, I went to hear Ramsey play at an auditorium in Brooklyn with plans to visit with him after the show. However, maybe three minutes before the show was supposed to begin, Ramsey called me. It was a rainy day and he said that because of the weather, he was going to have to head back to Chicago right after the show. However, he wanted to see me, so he asked me to come backstage right then, which I did, and he postponed the concert by ten or so minutes just so that we could spend some time together. After moving home to Atlanta, we’d have many special phone conversations. Lots of laughs and deep talks about music, politics, life and so much more. Referring to our chats and to his wonderful wife Jan, he once told me, “Sometimes when you and I get off the phone Jan comes in the room and says, ‘You must've been on the phone with an old person.’ I say, ‘Nope, that's little Joe.’” One time he cracked me up when he called from Las Vegas joking around: “Hey Joe,” he said very quickly. “I just won $4 million dollars at the slots, so I’m going to go get myself some new friends. Sorry, bye!” I once asked him if he ever got nervous before a concert. “It’s not nerves,” he corrected me. “It’s professional anticipation.” I loved that. Another thing that really impressed me about him was that he seemed to have a reason for everything he did. He told me, “I’m mindful of where I am, who’s standing next to me, how I feel, at all times. Be mindful of where you are at all times. I’m that way everywhere.” In regards to practice, he said, “I always practice with a purpose.” He was always so encouraging about my music, which he often called “happy serious music,” a phrase that I love. One of the most profound things he ever told me was an off-the-cuff comment: “Music is man’s contribution to nature. Like nature contributes to flowers to help the landscape, man contributes music to help our daily life.” Ramsey always answered the phone with the same greeting: “Joe Alterman! The people’s choice!” Our conversations always ended with me feeling better than when we began. I’ll miss those.

If you've heard this does it really sound like BN/Prestige or are Da Bastards blowing hardbop sunshine up our collective skirt?

I think we're talking about US BN release brought to them by Zev.

I am sure I am an extreme minority on this but for me, 20+ minute tunes with a Coltrane-era tenor is not a recipe for "gotta get it," the tune selection notwithstanding.

I definitely cannot recall seeing this before. Courtesy of Organissimo member Tom in RI via Facebook post: http://jazzstreams.ddns.net/www/KJAZ/KJAZ-Jim-Toman-Kenny-Dorham.mp3 More: http://jazzstreams.org/KJAZ/KJAZ-index.php?fbclid=IwAR2ityG_DrQcr7-UDCfOfq7zHOivju7869JnQV2yilQmKXr-EZgVvQj-Unc

I'd suggest using the email that is posted above - info@philschaapjazz.com - and asking them directly. I would bet that it was all given to surviving family and isn't for sale anymore but its the same webmaster, designer, digitizer. They'd know.

Good news from Facebook - Philschaapjazz.com not only lives on but a concerted effort to continue to digitize the archive is underway ... https://www.philschaapjazz.com/ The announcement: Phil Schaap’s first radio broadcast took place on February 2, 1970 (initially supposed to be about Fletcher Henderson, it ended up being about Joe Henderson due to a scheduling mixup), and his final broadcast took place on April 4, 2020 (a Traditions in Swing program on the two tenor tandem of the original Count Basie Orchestra). In the intervening 50 years, Phil became and maintained his position as one of the preeminent Jazz radio personalities in the world, largely hosting shows at WKCR in New York City. Of his numerous Jazz activities throughout his career, these radio broadcasts ended up being Phil’s most consistent and long-term project, and his shows were the place where his voice and message were most easily and widely heard. In around 2010, Phil and a group of his students embarked on a project to create a website that would serve as an archive and repository for his past broadcasts. Although the website continued to serve its purpose, the site’s original framework struggled to keep up with the large quantities of content that were regularly added over the next decade. Now, as we approach the first anniversary of Phil’s passing on September 7, 2021, Phil’s students are pleased to unveil a whole new PhilSchaapJazz.com that will preserve this legacy for years to come. The new website features all of the same free audio and written content of the original site, but with an improved user interface, a new search function, and show organization and filtering tools, all built by Ben Heller (who helped design the original website). A big thanks is also due to Matthew Rivera and Susan Shaffer for their help in the transition. In addition, to mark the launch of this new website, over 50 of Phil’s archival broadcasts have been newly transferred, edited, and uploaded to the site by Charles Iselin. New website features are in the works, and a steady new flow of Phil Schaap broadcasts will be uploaded in the coming months. Many of these shows will also appear on WKCR as part of their continued archival programming. We hope that you will find continued education and entertainment in these shows. If you spot any issues or have any requests for new features or content, please email info@philschaapjazz.com. Charles Iselin and Ben Heller

Has anyone else received an odd email from Allan? As in, he's-probably-been-hacked kind of email? "Hello, Sorry to bother you, do you order from Amazon? Thanks, Allan" Wasn't going to even reply, but ...

First owned is simple: November, 1987, I was in my first semester in grad school at Washington University in St Louis. I found myself invited to a small gathering hosted by a friend of my older brother. There were three couples and I didn't know anybody, making my natural shyness more pronounced. I did know the record they played - Ella and Louis - which my parents owned. I enjoyed it more than I recalled enjoying it at home and within a week or two my mother called to ask for Christmas requests. I told her I had no idea what I thought I might like but that I was starting to think I might enjoy some jazz. The same brother secured these two LPs https://www.discogs.com/release/4340072-Various-Columbia-Jazz-Masterpieces-Sampler-Volume-I https://www.discogs.com/master/528035-Various-Columbia-Jazz-Masterpieces-Sampler-Volume-II I transferred them to cassette to take with me to St Louis (no TT at the time) and the two LPs stayed at the house in CT until it was emptied in 2013 when Mom moved to Naples, FL. First purchased - I have no idea now, though I do know that I started buying feverishly at a couple of places in U-City which were about a 5 minute walk from the apartment.