fasstrack

The Warne Marsh biog, An Unsung Cat, is Scarecrow, right? It's around $40 (and worth every penny, IMO). I guess they sell so few they have to make up costs some kind of way.

You are lucky. I question the taste of some of the overbaked shows I've been seeing clips of. It's as if he became a Texan---where the 'do everything big'.... Um, Sangrey, after you shoot me for saying that you can raid my Wonderlove collection. It's in my will........

Cool, man... all the best to you too! When's your next gig in NYC? Please let us know so I can tell some of my friends to check out your show. Cheers, Shane Thanks for asking. Next firm date is Fri., May 29th at Smalls. W. 10th st., just west of 7th ave. South---early show:7-9:30, w/Tim Givens, bass/cello, Vanderlai Perreira, drums---and guests 2nd set. Am working on getting some nice material to feature everyone. Both these guys are wonderful players and folks. Why, I'm even planning to bathe

You're kidding, right? To me, the picture represents music as an IV to the soul... something that provides nourishment to the living organism. If you've chosen to view it in another way, that's certainly your choice... but that's just it, your choice. Joel, I have tremendous respect for you, your work as a musician, and your posts... so I have no intention of a flame war with you at all. I hope you understand where I'm coming from on this. Cheers, Shane Me either. Just my reaction to that particular picture right where it was. I guess I got it wrong. Everything's cool. All the best JF

Gonna limp along doing bullshit jobs and playing when I can until a find a job teaching kids---then hold on for dear life for ten years so I'll have what to retire with. That's my plan. But I have to stop the bleeding first. Like Scarlett O "I swear I'll never be poor again"....

It's OK, I did a lot of R&D with the drinking for years before stopping in '07. It probably would have killed me. Anyway...my automatic reaction when I first heard Raney was a combination of Bach 'n' Bird. I have a few albums on vinyl I haven't heard in years. He was high on Bartok, too. Wouldn't stop talking about him... I was in touch with his son Jon, a pianist-composer today. He may well check in here with a comment.

Denis, there's a video on youtube of the Woody Herman Herd with all those guys, Stan, Zoot, Al Cohn---if I remember right they all get a solo on Northwest Passage. There's a guitarist shown briefly and not featured. He looked like Jimmy but I wasn't sure. He had a crewcut, which threw me.

He's not that obscure. Guitar players of taste know him and love him. well yeah, we know that! He went into retirement for a while and didn't record. He also had Meniere's Disease and went deaf (maybe this helped push him into alcoholism). For ever value it might have: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Raney It was the other way around, if anything. He had a middle ear infection. I don't know what caused it, but he had those problems way before he went deaf. He was mostly in Louisville since the 70s, where he did concerts and had friends like Jack Brengle, guitarist/bassist, and some things with Cal Collins (which are up on youtube). Went to Europe, too. I know he went with Attilla to Germany a few times up through the 90s when he got sick in '93, so he wasn't quite retired, but not in the greatest shape either b/c he really was nearly deaf. He still could play and watch a foot pat and hear close to him on the stand. He was pretty close to his mother and either lived with her or an aunt Lil that he mentioned. I don't know, and don't claim to have known Jimmy well beyond those times in '79-'80, or even then---and that was a hell of a long time ago. I was a student and he was passing through. I knew Attilla a lot better. He was a great guy too, and talk about underrated... Anyway, I'm sorry I brought it up now, though it's a matter of semi-public record. We should stress the good things and he was the artist he was and set a very high standard to aspire to.

Thanks for that info, Chuck! I was reading the liner notes yesterday and was going to post a question as to who the dismissed bassist was... now I have the answer. I love this board! Cheers, Shane Picture (omitted here, not by my choice, scroll up a few posts): not funny, and IMO in very bad taste...... The picture you are referring to is in his (Indestructible's) signature file. It's not related to the post at all, and shows up in all of his posts if you do a search. Weird coincidence, then---and still not funny......

Definitely. And Hawk played well for very much longer than Pres. As one liner note writer said in the 60s "he hasn't peaked yet." (Mark Gardner, I think.) Try his three recordings with Kenny Burrell on Prestige. If these had been Blue Note sessions, I think they would have received a lot more attention in recent years. Is there not a "Fantasy syndrome", that is, do we tend not to buy many OJC CDs "because they are not limited editions and I can order them later after I rush to grab the Blue Note, Mosaic and Japanese CDs before they disappear"? I have definitely been that way. Anyway, I heard a sampler CD of Burrell a few years back and there was this lovely track "Tres Palabras" with Bean (also featuring Tommy Flanagan in great form). It made me want to get all the Burrell/Hawkins albums. The titles are "Bluesy Burrell", "Soul" and "The Hawk Relaxes". Another superb collection, some of these not often mentioned, are Bean's Impulse albums. "Today and Now" is very good, as is the bossa album "Desafinado". The better-known one with the Duke (no, not John Wayne) is a gem, partly because it gives a unique opportunity to hear Bean in a small horn section with Ray Nance, Rabbit, Lawrence Brown and Harry Carney. The more the merrier. Hawk invented the tenor solo in jazz, Pres took it poetic. Long may they live......

Thanks for that info, Chuck! I was reading the liner notes yesterday and was going to post a question as to who the dismissed bassist was... now I have the answer. I love this board! Cheers, Shane Picture (omitted here, not by my choice, scroll up a few posts): not funny, and IMO in very bad taste......

He's not that obscure. Guitar players of taste know him and love him. He was received like a hero in Europe and Japan. He may be underappreciated and not a name like George Benson, for example (nothing against George, I dig the hell out of him, too). Them's the breaks. Jimmy never entertained or played the game politically or otherwise, just sat quiet with dignity and played his ass off. That doesn't always get the bacon here in the land where jazz was born...... He also was, candidly, an alcoholic, and that couldn't have helped.

Not feeling all that hopeful right now. I've met a lot of nice people in this crisis, and that's good. But they can't pay the bill. Without money you are shit. Period. That's what America is about and I admit I fucked up. The people I've gone to for legal and housing help too have basically told me to take a hike, I don't qualify, etc. I'm in a real spot and really scared. So I try to remain hopeful, but: bottom line, give this bitch his money yesterday or get put out. He doesn't give a shit about hope, or anyone's problems, dreams, good points, honesty, hardworkingness, or---especially---hard luck, just money. I'm pretty damn hopeful usually, and known to be a striver. Not today.

Yeah, they're pretty much all great tunes. You & I is one of my favorites---among many favorites. On Talking Book the wind up just gives me chills: his singing, the harmonic turns (deceptive cadences). This performance is so understated---no Cow Palace here. I can't handle those Big Events with all the pomp and a million people onstage. That's mostly how you hesar him for some time now. This is such a sweet alternative.

I'm in Yonkers now. NYer my whole life. I lived in Holland twice, and should have stayed the 1st time, in '01. People warmed to me and my playing and were offering to help get an apartment for me. There was a nice jazz scene and it would have been easier to emigrate than the last time I went, in '07. That was a big mistake and the beginning of my troubles. No, I haven't considered living elsewhere in the States, as my whole social network and all my friends are here. I just had a setback landlord-wise, I'll leave it at that, and just say that it sure didn't help. I started working today and got my car back. I plan to work 15-hour days to get healthy, but this is a bad scene with this guy. I thank all of you for your responses and concern. I would like to hearmore of people's stories, especially w/happy endings, but all. Let's look at how strife shapes people's thinking and actions, makes them stronger, pushes them over the edge, etc.

I should start out saying I believe in personal responsibility. I chose to be poor in many ways. Now I want to choose not to be b/c it's slowly killing me: the stress, the worry about people always breathing down your neck and a roof over your head. In the last 5 years I had to ask for grants from charities 2 or 3 times just to make my basic rent and utility bills (I was sick the first time, so I don't beat myself up. The other times were different). I'm about to again, based on being out of work the past 2 weeks. I have a landlord ready to try to evict me based on being late one lousy week (I'm not worried about that, as I know my rights, and how long the process takes---it's just that I killed myself to get from a room where I was robbed every day to here, and I really like the place, just got a piano here), a car that was towed and I had to fight to get it back (it's still not back, hopefully today it will be). I was able to sabre rattle and tell my councilman's aide it was b/c I hit a pothole that the wheel came off and I would give them a hard time if my car wasn't returned free of charge. The cell is off due to non-payment and I've had to use unreliable pay phones, which I don't even have access to sometimes. My car is uninsured. You get the picture. The thing is I really hate and am ashamed of being a deadbeat. I would like to be comfortable enough to enjoy my simple life of music and friends through my own earnings and not fear homelessness, but being rich doesn't appeal to me. As long as I work hard and pay my way and not have to go through the humiliation of being a hard luck case I'm happy. But I can't seem to get there, to get healthy. I realize there are people in as bad or worse shape. I think however, though I have to own up to why I'm always behind the 8 ball, we are a rather heartless, money-driven society, and it disturbs me greatly, for example, how cities just screw the poor in every way, especially milking drivers with tickets, towing, and fines. I've thought often about being, with my passion and energy, an activist for the poor. A more realistic plan, I think, is to stop being poor. I am resolved, b/c I simply can't and won't live like this anymore. It's too hard, too stressful, too depressing. My plan is to go back to teaching music in the public schools under a new program that's more lax on credentials. If I can get in a charter school, even better, they don't break your balls as much over education credits, at least in NY. I'm hoping to get on that track by September, while still pursuing performing and composing. I finally realized that at 55 my next birthday I damn well had better put away something for the future, b/c if being a hard luck case now is bad, it's painful to think what it's like when one can't work anymore. Any thoughts about poverty? Any stories, especially about climbing out?

Where's Teasing the Korean from? Does it have to do with Harold Sakata? Isn't he Japanese? Answer these or tell me to f%^k myself, but you have one of the funniest Internet handles ever. The other was so good one I actually wrote a tune on it: a guy on Branford Marsalis's forum calling himself Funbags McCracken. Your name is more interesting to me than Jeff Beck, so please indulge me..........

No cigar there either IMO. He has the licks down but plays over the time and never settles in the groove, another thing I remember about his playing. Just sounds kind of 'white boy', sorry to say.The tenor player blew him away in every way musiacally. Nice sound, though. I appreciate a guitarist that can get a sound from the instrument. He showed he can do it quieter and probably would do the same w/acoustic. I give him credit for that and appreciate it.

Maybe that's b/c it's just something Dizzy made up and we're all second guessing and thinking too much. (I've heard Bird actually wrote this and wouldn't be surprised. Even Dizzy said, I'm fairly sure, Bird wrote at least the intro).

You got me, MF! I actually clicked on the link, expecting to find something. Touche!

It was last year, actually, but I wanted to recommend Ralph Ampersad's (hope I got his name right) first-rate biog of Ralph Ellison.

Watching this I have to honestly say---with all due respect to Beck---I'm really glad I made a left turn into Charlie Christian, etc. at the end of my teens. He gets a good sound, nice sustain and all, but for one thing I find it rather light on content. A lot of guitar tricks and licks, as I remembered earlier from the mists of youth, though I do hear the blues roots. The other thing that's personally disconcerting to me---and perhaps me only---is a thing that's often, for some weird reason, confused with 'showmanship' in the rock/pop 'bigtime': this prancing around the stage, dramatic gestures, profiling, etc. It's really annoying to me. I watched a bunch of Stevie Wonder videos, and I love Stevie, big fan---especially of his writing---and had to just close my eyes and listen, b/c there was so much musically unneccesary shit coing on around him, all the singers, dancers, pomp, moving around by everyone, volume, etc. Finally I found a beautiful video of him performing You & I from an old PBS show---just voice/piano---and I could finally hear Stevie without all the window dressing. Back to guitarists: Wes sat down and played, as did every guitar player in my more mature tastes. You can be entertaining as hell sitting on a stool. Anyone remember Shelly Berman, the comedian? I'm not saying there's anything wrong with show biz. It used to be exciting to hear these guys live (the rockers/bluesers). I used to hear Hendrix at the Fillmore and he was an amazing showman (though probably half-deaf). B.B. King was entertaining as hell with Sonny Freeman & the Unusuals, besides playing his ass off as Hendrix did. But with a lot of these rock acts if you got down to brass tacks you'd see some musical weaknesses. With Beck on the video there wasn't all that much content to hold my attention, and all the strutting around and tomfoolery ain't gonna fix that. Just my opinion, and I appreciate the man's time put in and mastery of his style.

Bump. Hope some of those 43 hits were people that actually watched this w/o comment. It is really nice....