fasstrack

I never heard of the group. I like Ellison's writing. His views on jazz are partly based on having grown up with Charlie Christian, and playing the trumpet (one can only wonder how well...) I liked reading his criticism, even if I didn't agree with his views sometimes. His political views are his own affair. I read Ralph Ampersad's (sp?) bio, which was excellent. In it, he describes a scene during the height of the black power movement where Ellison was getting an award or something, anyway a public gathering, and a militant came up and really trashed him. Called him an Uncle Tom. Then the guy, according to the story, took off into the night on a Harley or something. Ellison was very upset according to the bio (who wouldn't be) and was about in tears repeating 'I'm not an Uncle Tom'. I only know his writing and won't defend or detract, but will say he was only a man with human frailties like us all, and also anyone with that good a mind and the soul and imagination to write Invisible Man must've come to his positions after a lot of thought, soul-searching and also in reaction to personal experience---also like us all.

How about 'music'?

There's a reason they're played 'over and over': They're good. And they speak to people, so they listen. Nothing wrong with jazz tunes, or any other kind of tunes. But don't expect people to love or understand you if you don't play anything they can relate to. Maybe play the standards first, then your favorite jazz numbers, obscurities or your originals. Anyway, it works for me.

Amen on that...after you learn how to play! And that takes years. Might as well never play Porter or Berlin while we're at it..................... I understand what he means, though. Better to learn the standards and Duke and Strayhorn. Do that before learning these cats, even Monk. That's where they came from. They'd be the first to tell you, I guarantee it. Anyway, no musician will work much without knowing 'bread-and-butter' tunes.

Nah, I just took you off. Forgive and forget. Now behave yourself Jared grauated to duos with Biden. I told him to get the hair plugs now that he has the gig. 'Hale fellow well met', and all that. That and 'where's my gig at the White House, MF? Cough it up....' Needless to say, he really appreciated the latter importuning especially............... (What do you play at a Biden event, anyway? Bernstein said he was pro-middle class. The Good Life? I think the late, great Allan Sherman---jesus, am I dating myself---beat me to the punch with the immortal 'Here's to the Crabgrass')

He had the big Afro and the whole '9' . I remember seeing some of his LPs when I first got interested in jazz guitar---I rode my dinosaur over to Sam Goody and there they were. I thought his name was funny (whaddaya expect from a 17-year-old? Maybe I was 20...). But when I finally had ears to hear him----'nuther story. He can play. Hope he's alive and well. Speaking of 'ain't but a few...', I heard my man Michael Howell the other night in good form. He was playing with a good singer named Andrea Wolper and Harvey S. (who wound up driving me home, since i live on the way, and my car is in the hands of the White Plains PD---too much info, I know). all sounded really nice, not loud, just musical. It was a pleasure to hear. Michael gets a clear, nice, almost acoustic sound and is a total pro. Harvey can play his ass off. I was unfamiliar with Ms. Wolper but asked a friend to introduce us. There's still good music out there---every night of the week---and it's important to remember this.

Did anyone ever hear of this O Donnell Levy character I mentioned earlier? He really was a good player. Wonder what ever became of him. 'Ain't but a few of us left'.............................Milt Jackson

Today I was walking in the street in a hated shithole known as White Plains, NY---after 4 fruitless hours in court trying to see about getting my car back from an impound. You can imagine the mood I was in. I walked toward the library looking for a friendly face (I remember I took a class once from the children's librarian*). I heard a church pipe organ---or maybe it was bells. It was just regular backgroundy kind of stuff announcing the hour, I guess. I was trying to figure out where it was coming from (I didn't see a church steeple) when suddenly whoever was playing shifted into "Cheek To Cheek". I swear............ * I did see her at her station. Nice enough lady.

Somebody should get in touch with a guy named Dave Ellson. He plays vibes and drums and used to live in Bogota, NJ. I haven't seen him in years. But he used to know Triglia well and told me some funny stories. The only thing I know is like almost thirty years ago Triglia and Eddie Diehl called me shit-faced to say how much they dug a demo Eddie, me, and (now Biden's chief economist, then a bassist) Jared Bernstein made. They woke my father up at 3 AM----and I have a funny feeling he didn't much appreciate it (insert smiley----no emoticons on 'fast reply').

Great player. Or very good, anyway. Sort of Raney meets Django meets Grant Green with his own shit, too. I liked him with Chet, Sonny, and especially Stan Getz on Dynasty. Good stuff.

The nice thing about Hampton Hawes is that, unlike a lot of pianists his age on both coasts, he didn't shut his ears off after a certain period. The last recording he made, As Long As There's Music, is one of my favorite b/c his harmony had matured and he had listened to some players younger then himself and put what he could use in a funnel while still being Hampton Hawes. He never lost the blues or swing, just kept growing.

The bass player on that is also a guitarist, and I think a good friend of Raney's. Jon could tell you more than I. His name is Jack Brengle, that's all I know. There was some clip of them talking and maybe playing on a website called Classic Jazz Guitar or something, under Raney's name. They have little bios of the cats. I don't think it's up anymore.

I'm with you all the way on that one, brother. They didn't grow on trees like him even in his day, and no one comes close to him nowadays. Not just his comping and his tune knowledge, which he was known for. His time was phenomenal, and his solos were witty as hell and with a nice touch. A musician with a capital M. I even dig his singing.

Jimmy's a good player. Maybe better than good. He took Wes somewhere. A lotta guys just copied. He has a good feeling for blues and he sings well, too. I always enjoyed him. There's another guy I heard years ago who impressed me and you never hear about him anymore: O Donnell Levy. Anyone know anything? Black guy with a Jewish surname, Irish first. He did Tommy Flanagan one better.....

Hey bro whats up. I've actually been to Toronto a couple of times since I saw you. Playing to empty houses unfortunately. My man Keita is always trying to get me up there usually incurring huge financial loss for him, so I guess when he replenishes his coffers I can come up and tilt at windmills some more. Glad to hear things suck all over Shit, I thought you were answering me. Now excuse me. I'd say I'm going back to cry in my beer---------but I can't afford one......

Nice record. Jimmy plays nicely on Dolphin Dance and also does a very good job with Enigma. Al Haig was playing with a harder touch then for some reason but plays good for sure. They still made a good team. I think the problem with the bass was the recording, Jamil sounds fine and so does Frank. Choice recordings always sound the worst and you can't judge a group's sound by them. The music was good, and that's the main thing. That was Al's working group, I believe, with Jimmy as add-on. I should say Jamil was Al's regular bass player at a gig at Gregory's. I think Eddie Diehl was on the gig on guitar. 70s sometime. Chuck Wayne also played in that group but I'm not sure who played when. The record reflected a reunion of sorts. There was another record Special Brew and a concert at Carnegie Recital Hall that I was in attendance for (I was 12). At that point Dad and Al were pretty friendly and resumed their long piano hopping walks where Al would drop in on all the showroom owners and play. Al also gave Doug his first playing opportunities at Gregory's. Doug sat in on Strings Attached on "Out of Nowhere". My father didn't want him to do it because he thought it was too early in his career to be recording (he had only been playing jazz for a few years at that point). In agree with the assessment of the sound. Not good engineering on this one. Although I find the recording of bass on records in the 70s generally to be lousy. This was during a period in the 70s where bassists were demanding a lot more solo time cranking up their amps, and engineers were also cranking them up in the mix and not getting a good balance. It always sounds like TWANG. TWANGLIA etc to me. It really bogs down the swing in my view Yo, Jon. Emailed you a week or two ago. We'll meet soon. Glad we hooked up. It's sad about Choice: He made some very noble attempts to record very deserving artists, then buried them in the wort sound in recorded history. It couldn't have been on purpose. Honestly I didn't like Special Brew that much. It just didn't come off to me. Maybe Al playing electric piano or something. Didn't click for me. I like Strings Attached much better. Everybody was on there.

Goooold! You old sea dog....Joel Fass here. Haven't seen you around lately. Saw Farber Thursday. Study with this guy. He's good.

Thank you. The shows were mostly overpriced 'theme' things with big names, ill-conceived, and poorly brought off. I know some or the musicians weren't happy with them. Go to Smalls instead. Real, unpretentious jazz by players as good or better than the hot shots can be heard every night, plus you get to stay all night for 3 bands for a lousy $20. Or Jack Kleinsinger's occasional things. Wein had his day, though, and did a lot of great things. He probably figured he had to dumb down to survive. Cold business.....

I taped it when they did a show on John Carisi around '93 on WKCR. Loren Schoenberg interviewed James Chirillo. Carisi was gravely ill, and I could tell by their hushed tones he wouldn't be around much longer. They played that Showboat record and the 5 guitars also included Tony Mottolla I think. The rest would be a guess. They also played a Carisi piece I like a lot: Counterpoise #2. I saw the guitar part on that one at Carisi's before he got sick. I'm glad it was James, not me . He said he sweated it. I wanted to borrow the part but I don't think he had a copy. I also asked Don Leight, who was his roommate for it. Barry galbraith was Carisi's best friend and could read and play anything possible on guitar---and if it wasn't he'd tell him, and back to the drawing board. An interesting thing about Carisi's writing: he 'borrowed' a lot from himself. (Puts him in good company with Handel, etc.). He had this plagal cadence Gospel thing he used in that duo piece and also somewhere on Into the Hot (the record with Gil Evans on the cover but his work nowhere to found inside. Or was it Out of the Cool? The one with Cecil Taylor on the other side). He really liked this 2-chord thing and played over it a lot.

Aw, I bet you say that to all the nut jobs.............

Nice record. Jimmy plays nicely on Dolphin Dance and also does a very good job with Enigma. Al Haig was playing with a harder touch then for some reason but plays good for sure. They still made a good team. I think the problem with the bass was the recording, Jamil sounds fine and so does Frank. Choice recordings always sound the worst and you can't judge a group's sound by them. The music was good, and that's the main thing. That was Al's working group, I believe, with Jimmy as add-on. I should say Jamil was Al's regular bass player at a gig at Gregory's. I think Eddie Diehl was on the gig on guitar. 70s sometime. Chuck Wayne also played in that group but I'm not sure who played when. Al made another record, same guys but with Eddie Diehl instead of Jimmy. It was released as Manhattan Memories---and the tune they called Manhatten Memories was actually written by Eddie as BeBu, for Bu Pleasant, and given that title and credited to Haig. Typical. Nice record also, though: One side trio, one with Eddie. He's featured on two ballads: Nuages and My Little Brown Book and gets a nice solo on a Cedar Walton tune, but the tempo drags or sounds weird on that one as I remember. Al just sounds funny to me. Nice tunes and worth having though, as is Strings Attached. Actually, I'd like a copy. I have it on cassette. PM me please, if anyone wants to unload it or knows where it can be gotten.

Andy is very heavy. I should only be lucky to have him sing one of my songs. His band is a MF too. If you get a chance to see him perform drop everything and go. He's a master. He can swing a band with just his voice, has a great range with his falsetto, is musical as hell, has an amazing instrument. He also is a hell of an interesting piano player, and a 'wise old man' of the scene. Look into it. Andy is deep.

Way back when his writing mattered, Christgau talked about how the music we were drawn to was that which reflected what we recognized as the rhythm of life. I'll try to find the exact quote at home, somewhere is his book of 70's Record Reviews. I get him mixed up with Lester Bangs. Which one died? Maybe that's why he can't write anymore, he croaked. To quote that nonpareil actor Billy Crystal in a great and cruelly neglected dramatic role performance in the American classic tragi-comedy, Throw Momma From the Train (supported by an equally unforgettable performance by Branford Marsalis): 'She's not answering the phone 'cause she's dead! 'You don't answer the phone......when you're dead!!'

I don't know how 'marvelous' I myself am, but I am one of those people. Gonna go back, oddly enough, to teaching. Mostly to stave off having to eat Alpo when I'm 68 and shit. The 'business' is a wonderful way to die young, pissed off, and spent. That's how I knew........