fasstrack

Which would you prefer, sir, Jones, Park, or Jimmy Dean? In case that was a serious query this thread is awaiting transport to live with its biological parent, Artists.

All 3 Stooges, plus Shemp, Joe Besser, and their funniest buddies you never heard of couldn't lay a glove on Lewis at physical comedy. The only one approaching his level today is Jim Carrey.

The Kent! I saw at least one Allen premiere there. Also a wacky comedy about, Scout's Honor, a Gentile in hiding disguised as a rabbi! I think Randy Newman had me and Pete in mind in Good Old Boys when he sang 'I saw Lester Maddox... on TV by a New York Jew'

Any particular favorites? 'The earlier, FUNNY ones'. And Crimes and Misdemeanors. There's a book by Richard Shickele (sp?) Woody Allen on Film-or something close to that. The closing chapter is a long and revealing interview. He talks in depth of his love of Hope and how his character is basically Bob Hope, just not as good (speaking of self deprecation). He also expresses great admiration for Chaplin (the model for the Sleeper 'bot), (Buster) Keaton-though none fos Harold Lloyd.

There was also an outtake of Buddy (on vibes) trading w/Wes on Stella. Great stuff. Don't recall the reissue that one turned up on.

Pt. 2 (and administrators: clearly I goofed. Please move this to Artists)... When Wes doubled the melody an octave down they got something of that sound, but I heard them as less controlled, funkier, harder swinging. I never felt they were cashing in either. They may have gotten record company pressure, given the instrumentation. (No knock on the great Shearing or his groups, BTW). Finally, I found Buddy personable, warm, and funny when we met.

While on the topic of pianists and having been on a Chris Anderson listening spree, another pianist I've come to admire is Buddy Montgomery. As with Chris I was able to spend a little time and sit in with him-in '91 at the Parker Meridian Hotel, so I was able to check him out up close. He was overshadowed in fame by Wes-but to me Wes never sounded so good, or so HAPPY, as w/Buddy and Monk. They had a magical wavelength. Buddy's ears were phenomenal, and he neither took a backseat to Wes or many other pianists in originality. He voiced chords, wrote, used blues materials, and interpreted bebop in personal ways. You can hear Buddy and Wes trading on Straight No Chaser on the recently issued Echoes of Indiana Avenue-2 exciting, creative minds at work. I've heard his trio work too, and it is strong-he can hold your attention on even a long ballad. When he played vibes w/The Mastersounds or Montgomery Brothers there were comparisons-not totally warranted-w/ the George Shearing Quintet. True, sometimes when the mel

Is Inverted Image available? Was it ever issued on CD?

You mean WithOUT Feathers.

A great life well spent. I've been immersing myself in his old pal Chris Anderson's music lately. Any jazz musician who learned to play in Chicago ought to be proud.

Thank Jerry-and his multiple heart attacks amassed doing numerous pratfall sight gags. Stella Stevens said he had one before her eyes after climbing a steep stairway in a scene. So call the man an egotistical asshole (he once told a VV reporter he granted an interview 'if you make me look bad I will hurt you') but never say he's not a trouper.

Lewis's shtick was never self-deprecating to me (unless you view playing the 'monkey'-his term-w/ Dean as such. He is super cocky and sure of his talent and place in entertainment history. He never did the Woody Allen self-doubt schtick, or Jackie Mason-stye heavy-handed Jew/Gentile bits. Like Red Skelton, Carol Burnett, and Chaplin, he is a physical clown, IMO of genius (he claims as his heir apparent Jim Carrey, and I 2nd that). What clown would be funny w/o a little clumsiness, a little exaggerated nerves, a little shlamzel-like spilling of the soup on the unsuspecting schlemiel-with the audience going apeshit at said schlemiel howling in pain? Lewis is a 80+ year-old professional shlmazel. Long may he reign!

Thanks for the Jerry Lewis link-which I can't open til sitting at a PC-but at least it righted this thread's (now known as The Wackiest Ship in the Navy) course. Re the last several pages: in the words of Lenny Bruce as Lawrence Wick (Welk) responding to the junkie mumbling 'hip talk' trying to get the gig: 'Vot da hell are yot talking about?'...In other words, 'darling kiss me'... no, wait-in other words I'm a wee bit disappointed in ye, lads...

Wow. This is out! What the H-E-double hockey sticks happened to this mild-mannered thread?

Time to raid the Performing Arts Library. Who's got accross-the-years suggestions?

That MomsMobley guy, him mo like Keith Jarrett much. Wow. I hope my work pleases him a little more if encountered, as the water poured on poor Keith gave even me ass scald. Gee, I think I coined a phrase there-an absolutely USELESS phrase...

Geez, what a snoozer this book turned out to be. I'm not sorry I read it. It whet my appetite to hear some Kenton, so I can't say it wasn't effective. But this writer, to me at least, didn't in the long run have the spark to keep me interested in all the minutae of this band, this arranger, this chart, that tour. Thank goodness there were interviews with the cats or I'd have chucked the droning narrative chapters ago. In fairness, you have to admire Sparke's fan's enthusiasm, research skills, and desire to be comprehensive in giving the history of a band w/a long life. But, damn, this is dry stuff! I can't imagine anything but total ennui as a reaction from anyone but looney musicians like me (though ennui has taken a firm grip by now) or rabid Kenton fans-who must mostly be dead, or, worse, attending the U. of North Texas (; What was the title of that other bio by a woman that someone mentioned was better-written. Thank you, Mr. Sparke. We will be in touch...

Alas, it seems it ends badly. I'm into the last chapters now, covering ca 1970. Kenton's health is in decline, but naturally in his mind THIS band is the greatest and the Road Father must shepard the flock. Don't tell me-his 18th marriage, to 19-year-old Consuela from Decca publicity, which the lovebirds KNEW was made hn heaven despite that pesky 89 year age differeoce fails. Kenton is inconsolable, and spends his lasw days at Lester Young's old room at the Alvin drinking Old Kushemacher and staring wistly at a B&W pic of a skeletal Bob Graettinger reflecting off the red ceiling light. Inebriated, he won't see friends, but stays in bed muttering 'why'd he do it? Why...' Wait, that was The Valachi Papers' Disregard and have a BLESSED DAY!!

I don't think KJ's a good and dear friend of anyone but KJ. I really don't give a rat's ass-joking aside-of what people choose to look like. That's personal and only the outer layer. The only important thing is how they treat others. Everything else is as inconsequential as the wardrobe.

Freelancer: I didn't write the dashiki comment-only laughed at it. Baraka lives his own life and he's entitled. Obviously he's super intelligent and capable of soul-searching. But speaking of Dashikis, Blacks and Jews-you haven't seen nothin' till you've seen Bob Mover (don't get ideas. He's an old and dear friend) show up at Sweet Basil to play with the Kenny Barron Trio in paisley Dashiki and Jew-fro. Hey, it was the 70s! Reminds me of when Sonny Fortune hosted a show at WBAI, looked his face on an album cover and said 'wow, look at those long sideburns! I was definitely trying to figure it out'

I think both Baraka and Crouch, the poles apart politically, know stirring the pots and acting menacing in print or person is good for business. Never met Baraka but Stanley's a very decent guy. Knows where his bread's buttered so he's invested in 'did you hear Stanley punched so-and-so'. As far as his writing I believe he means it. We've debated things he espoused in The Sell-out of Miles Davis and he held his ground, citing interviews w/ guys in the band who said Miles did it for the money. I reread the piece and I do agree Miles cheapened himself w/an embarrassing theatricality. But I wish he'd stop 'showing off' with clumsy, ham-handed prose like 'he swung his inky tail off (I guess he takes it for 'clever'). And 'negro' every 5 words. Stanley, they won't throw out of the Black Conservative Mensa Club for saying ass, black, or black ass... Did Stanley work to de-throne Miles to clear the way for the Wynton coronation? Only their hairdressers know for sure. I like Stanley and enjoy his Daily News pieces.

Now I carefully reread Larry's post and it had to be the same person, Burton Greene. It doesn't help that I don't know anything about either's music. Never touch the stuff-but that doesn't give me the right to misqoute and do sloppy research. That privilege belongs to bottom feeders like Howard Mandel-who actually gets paid and is given awards for his ca-ca. (his notes for David X. Young's Jazz Loft are riddled w/arrogantly served innacuracies and I find him generally lame, full of shit, and yet another climber on the backs of musicians and jazz. An airhead jazz Matt Lauer) That's his readers' misfortune though. I'm not a journalist by trade, but I care about the veracity of what appears in print under my name. So I apologize for an honest mistake.

I originally wrote in parenths that it might've Burton Greene, but had to edit for space using the limited cell phone. I should have left them in. Damn. The Amsterdam thing threw me too. Which is the one who showed Baraka Amsterdam (recounted in my last 2 sentences)? I'm totally confused now-and embarrassed b/c I thought it was a funny story. BTW Burton Greene is on the cover of Jazz Jews and looks so much like Ronnie Cuber it's uncanny.

I had a chuckle today in Loren Schoenberg's National Jazz Museum. I live close and it's a nice oasis. They have a nice library. I've been reading Jazz Jews by Mike Gerber (I highly recommend it). There's an interview with Ran Blake, who responded amusingly to Baraka's slamming him in a review in, I think, Black Music. Baraka was saying how Blake must've crashed, didn't deserve the gig, etc. After correcting the record (he was invited by Marion Brown, the piano he had 'banged on' had mostly broken keys, etc.) he cleaned Baraka's clock: (I'm paraphrasing) 'he came from a well-to-do New England family... So he breaks up with his Jewish wife, a painter, and presto turns up in Newark with the shades and Dashiki-like he was always there and about that. Called him a phoney in print! Coda: I read that Blake and Baraka and their wives spent some pleasant time in Amsterdam. Blake lives there and was showing them the sights. Finally the article was brought up. 'Don't take it personally. It was just Black Nationalism'!!

Maybe it was Benny. I'm going on memory of a video I saw twice in the last decade-and my memory has dulled with age. I remembered Carney when it was Hodges. I do remember thinking it looked like Fathead. I've also never heard Maupin other than with the Headhunters, save for a one-time listen to Lee Morgan at the Lighthouse from around the period of the Memorial. I couldn't pick him out of a police line-up. Sorry I couldn't help.