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JackTracy

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  1. JackTracy

    Roger Miller

    I think his Kansas City Star lyric is brilliant--he was a helluva talent with a great wit. Jack Tracy
  2. Please remember that this album was recorded more than 40 years ago and was only one of many that I produced at that time. As best as I can recall, and not having seen or heard the album in at least 30 years, I don't believe I edited out any organ solos when we made the master tape. If any of the solos were cut, I am assuming it was done when the tapes were being prepared for CD release or for reissue. To those of you who ask, let me ask you: Are there any obvious splices or places where an organ solo was omitted or shortened? Jack Tracy
  3. I can confirm that it's the same Johnny Board...I was the producer on the album, and I agree that it would be a valuable addition to any Stitt collection. I guess the trouble is that Sonny would record with anyone who'd come up with a few bucks, so consequently there was just too much product out there for any one of them to do well. Plus which it came out at a time when the jazz market was in a woeful state. Jack Tracy
  4. I guess the sessions we did that I will never forget were in November of 1963. The first date was set for 2 p.m at New York's A&R Studios, which were on the second floor. Just as I was getting on the elevator to go on up, I heard a voice on a radio that was on in the cigar stand on the first floor saying something about someone getting shot. When I got into the studio I learned that it was President Kennedy who had been shot in Dallas. We sat there almost in disbelief as the story began to unwind. A decision had to be made: Should we call off the session? A double date was scheduled for the next day (three three-hour recording sessions were customary to complete an album in those days that resulted in about 35-40 minutes of music), and then the band had to leave on a long road trip. After conferring with the band members, Woody made the decision to go ahead and record so that the album could be completed in time for the company's scheduled release date. We did three of the sides that day. Not long after the date began came the news that Kennedy had died. There were a lot of grim and sober faces in that room that day, and the professionalism of everyone who was there was taxed. The recording engineer was Phil Ramone, who had done a lot of personal work for Kennedy and knew him well, and I'll never forget the stricken look on his face when we heard the news on the TC set in the control booth that JFK was gone. The album was completed the following day, and I know that those of us who are still around (the list grows short) will always recall where we were when it was recorded. Jack Tracy
  5. I am a fortunate man; I was an active participant first as a fan, then as a writer, editor and later a record producer while the glory days of the big bands were still with us, and I got to hear them all, some of them many, many times. Ellington, Basie, Herman, Kenton, Lunceford, Shaw, Goodman and on and on. There was nothing like it. I once wrote a booklet for one of the Franklin Mint Record Society history of jazz volumes that was devoted to the bands of Basie, Herman and Kenton. A portion of the introductory paragraphs went like this, and I hope you won't mind my repeating them: Those who may not have experienced the electrifying shock of hearing a great jazz band up close are to be pitied. Concert halls are fine, and jazz festivals blast throngs of listeners with huge sound systems, but unless you've had your head in the lion's mouth at a Blue Note, a Birdland or a Crescendo you don't know what it was really like to physically FEEL the energy being generated and to be absorbed right into that sound. On a good night the band would come at you in waves, and you couldn't do much but sit there helplessly. You knew you were being had, and you knew you were being stripped of all propriety, but you didn't care. There was a joy unmatched, and somehow you had shared something deep and unspoken with those men on the bandstand that you'd never forget. It was thrilling, and if it has never happened to you, I'm sorry. Basie and Herman and Kenton provided many nights like that for uncounted thousands of people, and even though the voices grow fainter through attrition, if you listen closely you can hear an echo of the cry, "Bring back the big bands!" As we knew them, they are not coming back, not ever. They are a vanishing breed, like condors or orangutans. But neither will they ever be totally dead, not so long as there is a leader with the courage to form one, knowing full well the rewards will be small, and so long as there are still some hearts around that beat a little faster (in 4/4, of course) to five trumpets, four trombones, five saxes and four rhythm. Jack Tracy
  6. I was the editor of Down Beat in the 1950s, and after I left it to become a record producer I continued to read it for several years. But somewhere along the line they lost me. I don't believe I've seen more than two or three issues in as many recent years. It's a lot prettier now, and they have four-color pictures and a far sleeker look than we did, but I miss the humor and raffishness and delight we all took in talking about jazz, in reporting its participants' whereabouts in regular reports from cities across the country, in the personal opinions of regular staffers and contributors such as Ralph Gleason, Nat Hentoff, Leonard Feather, Mike Levin, and John S. Wilson, and in the record reviews that covered the entire jazz spectrum from Bunk Johnson to Charlie Parker. It was during my stretch there that we started such annual features as the Jazz Critics Poll and the Jazz Hall of Fame and tried to stimulate reader response by encouraging a lively letters to the editor section (Chords and Discords, it was called). We were the first to realize and encourage and report on the great impact such educational bases such as North Texas State, Eastman College and Berklee were beginning to have on our music. And I think we had a tone and attitude that reflected jazz itself pretty well--we improvised a lot, even if sometimes it didn't come out too well; we tried in various ways to increase the size of our audience, so sometimes the purists moaned that we were selling out; we often tried so hard to be heard that we lost some of the crowd; but we always did our best to let you know that we absolutely loved what we were doing, that our best interests were on the side of jazz and its makers and that we wanted our audience to know it. And above all, I think we exemplified the belief that although the music we so loved and espoused was serious and of infinite merit, we could write about it with a grin and pop a few balloons along the way. You must remember, however, that I am now an official old fart who is talking about the good old days and you should take everything I say with a grain of salt. Or with a shot of scotch. Jack Tracy
  7. Thank you all for your welcome--it's nice to be remembered and I'll try to live up to the high standards this group has set for itself. I enjoy it immensely and hope I can make soome positive contrbutions to it. Jack Tracy
  8. Los Angeles has two brilliant young guitarists in Larry Koonse and Anthony Wilson. Koonse is the son of veteran studio and recording scene maven Dave Koonse, and Anthony is the son of bandleader Gerald Wilson, and can be heard at present accompanying Diana Krall. Larry seems to be the guy everyone wants on their gigs, and the experience he has gained playing with a variety of groups (including a unique trio of Bob Florence, piano, Kim Richmond, alto sax, and Larry) stands him in good stead. I think he has a huge future. Jack Tracy
  9. Charlie Shavers did indeed have some great moments in his work with the Kirby group (he also arranged many of the tunes they played), but don't go to sleep on Billy Kyle, one of the most overlooked pianists of his time. His time, phrasing and harmonic concepts were an inspiration to a lot of other pianists, including the early Bud Powell. Jack Tracy
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