fasstrack

Did Ouzer take that picture of Wilder, head in hands, in the shadows like Barrymore contemplating as Hamlet? It's a classic, and as revealing as the letters.

This is getting to be fun. I haven't picked up a troll so persistent since Chuck Nessa. But he does it with surgical precision, God love him. In and out. For the 2nd time yes, I read the whole thing. Now can I go out, or should I have my P.O. check with you first?

I think Eddie largely undered his own dog. Doing better now. Jim Hall kept working partly by playing on Merv Griffin. Sad times for jazz.

I don't have to try. You're trying for me. VERY trying...

I remember exactly what he said on that liner: that Jimmy was 'the only guitar player that could do things like Yard did'. B/c they hung out.

Uh oh! Stan-uh-ley! This is gonna get good NOW!!

It's true, Larry. They DID ask him. The ego surfaces IMO when he talks about himself and how no one's making recordings or doing projects like him-also the tone he takes talking about others. I like his anbition and follow-through. He has a lot of product out there. And it's all interesting, stimulting stuff. Maybe a little pride IS in order. I'd like to hear the Rodgers and Hammerstein stuff, esp. after just finishing Rodgers' (disappointing, sorry to say) memoir. I heard his Mandel project, it was pretty nice. I just don't remember it. Marc Copland I like. Originally a sax player, I heard. Sean Smith was high on him when we played a lot in the 90s. I went to see them at Cleopatra's Needle then. I remember they played I See Your Face Before Me, which hit the spot b/c I was really into Sinatatra's In the Wee Small Hours recording then. Hey, I'm a Romantic too.

Looks like a few voices of dissent have been aroused. 'I die happy' (;

I AM myopic. And opinionated. But also willhng to listen and admit I'm wrong. Rehash if you have the energy, or add the link. I think part of this is a sort of defense of the underdog. Eddie Diehl is a friend for years. I played with him a lot (never met Grant Green) and just found him way more interesting an improvisor-he reacts to what you play and jumps into pretty deep water himself-and just as swinging. He ran with the same crowd but didn't get the record dates, etc. Part of it was a difficult personality. It's not a matter of who's better-they're both good. I went through a phase listening to Grant. I dug him so much I told Raney he was one of my favorites after he slammed him (Clarence Darrow in action again (; ). I still like hearing him, just think it was kind of a waste he didn't go further with his thing-exploring the instrument chordally, for example. It would've went great w/his sound, and given another dimension to offset the single-string stuff.

Pt. 2:...a loftiness and a lot of ego. A profile in the NYT even had associates commenting on his huge ego. He does a lot of teaching. Maybe he views himself as a guru. Having said this, it doesn't matter that much. I never met the man and have nada against him. His triumph over health battles is heroic. It's just that ease in going for the jugular is a bit of a turn-off. Bob Brookmeyer-a big hero I had some minor interaction with-was just as bad, way worse really, on his infamous blog. He had major bugs up his ass and his inveighing made a monumental talent look bitter, maladjusted (well, OK, artists are), and petty-a jazz Pat Cooper. That's it, done and out of breath.

I'll try one last time and that's it. There was a recent blindfold test where he trashed a Horace Silver recording, saying how he 'wished Horace sat on his left hand or something'. About the solos (one played by Woody Shaw) he opined 'nothing special, just jazzy jazz'. He concluded with 'I'm sorry to diss Horace, but it just wasn't that good'. That actually cracked me up. Then he parsed Bill Evans, saying he was a good, not great, solo player and that he was kind of worked out. Fair enough, though Evans at the end really let it rip on Nardis, and the live versions were very different from each other. And all the pianists he reveres-Monk, Erroll Garner, Earl Hines-had worked out arrangements. It's hard not to go through a solo gig and not have at least some. Even Cecil Taylor had little motifs he returned to. I heard Hersch even light into Tatum on a WKCR interview, saying he'd rather hear Earl Hines. You could say OK, the guy's opinionated and a thinker. Maybe that's somewhat true but I always got a loftines

It's not worth it. I see where it's going. You're trying very hard to provoke me with personal insults and I'm just not getting into a pissing contest with you. Not going there. Instead I'll just listen to all these great players and find the good. Hersch too, who I enjoy. Have a good one.

I like the fact that he didn't get too attached to his works, once finished. A bit too unattached, it turns out: I had studied with Bill Finegan in the 90s and we stayed in touch almost to his death. He was a great man and, like Wilder, a largely unheralded contributor to American musical history. He and Wilder were friends, as were he and Strayhorn. I attended this ambitious Ken Peplowsy concert at Merkin Hall. Peplowsky commissioned pieces from some reputable writers, who mostly rose to the occasion. But the only piece that really sang and made the sun come out for me was Wilder's Clarinet in Springtime (I was since told written for but rejected by Benny Goodman). I told Bill this when I reported on the concert. He said Wilder had stored a trunk with him. He opened it and found that score. He called Wilder to tell him and ask if he wanted it back. Wilder said 'yes, would you send it?'. So it barely escaped spending eternity in a trunk! And Peplowsky's chops are reportedly still on the floor of Merkin Hall.

That's it. I quit. For the record I did read it all the way through. And even agreed with some of it. He's a very smart guy, and an astute commentator, just a little bitchy for me, and lacking in manners and humility. Sorry you have such a problem with it to the point of getting personal. I'll not respond and leave your comments about me to the 4 winds. I'm done with this.

Well, Barry-God love him-is full of opinions. I'm surprised he was that high on Grant, b/c he hates laziness and musicians that don't progress, and Grant was pretty lazy-and to me anyway stayed pretty much in the same place musically, just didn't seem curious enough. But very talented. He did have a good melodic sense, also a great sound, and could swing you into bad health. His hero on guitar, BTW? Jimmy Raney! (whose view of Grant was not as high as Barry's).

Wow, Big Wheel, did you actually use the word 'omerta'? That's funny. I think you said 'bullshit omerta'-funnier still. Now find a rhyme for omerta and I'll REALLY be impressed!

Walter Bolden can play. Is he still alive? Probably not. I knew him in the '80s. Nice cat. He used to hang a lot at the Jazz Cultural Theater-always looking for Cliff Barbaro, and he came to a gig I was on at the West End. I have no comment on Vishnu Wood... (; (that's one way to do it...) (;

(This is the closest sub-forum I could find for this) I read this a few years back and found an updated and annotated (by David Dempsey) version. I've always enjoyed reading musicians who express themselves in print with artfulness, passion and humor. Wilder is to me one of the best. He's a pretty complex character, a classic wounded Romantic who just cannot adjust to the changing world, a musical Miniver Cheevey. He, like Cheevey, 'kept on drinking', but also chasing the demons by riding trains, (fortunately for us) writing music, and baring his soul and inveighing in print. As with most curmudgeons, probe a bit and you'll find the tenderest of souls. It turned out that many of the unmailed 'letters' were re-creations, a not-uncommon literary conceit. These missives are very candid and touching-and one way to be cathartic w/o starting real-life fires. There are some beautiful notes to children I wish he DID send. My favorite line: (from a largely bitter note to Sinatra) 'Frank, we're growing old'.

In every interview I've read or heard on radio with Hersch he's been very full of himself, self-absorbed and self-promoting, and uncharitable in his opinions of other players, esp. pianists. That's no knock on his talent, just a drag to be exposed to that kind of relentless self-absorbed negativity. Maybe he's different in person. I hope so anyway. Yes, he's entitled to his opinions, you to yours. This is mine, that's all.

What exactly did Barry say about Grant? And BTW I know Barry respects Jimmy highly, and we've spoke about him many times. I've heard his public comments too. He was saying Jimmy sounds like he hung out with Bird and learned something. He said that many times, not that Jimmy was in the same league as Bird. Barry has a thing about musicians that hung out or played with Bird, how enlarging an experience it was. He says he always can hear it, like with Chet baker.

Fred is quite the little bitch with his snotty remarks about great players... Did we read the same interview? Sure, and I stand by what I said. It's mean-spirited, unnecessary, and shows no class the way he bitches out everyone's time feel, etc. and talks about himself with great importance. In fairness, he bitches himself out too, but it's the other side of the same coin, and just as boring, just as narrow a world view. And I'm not crazy about Iverson's obsequiousness here either. I just get tired of the arrogance of a lot of musicians, especially in the last 10-20 years. The music is self-involved and the egotism of a lot of people in interviews is a turn-off. It's not that you can't have opinions. Talented people are bright, perceptive and super-sensitive. But have a little class. Chris Anderson, who had pretty big ears, would never talk this way, not publicly, anyway. I find Fred's comments about rhythm and swinging amusing especially, and the way he holds himself up as an example. Music speaks loudest, and it's the best way to give opinions. But I guess to each his own....

Fred is quite the little bitch with his snotty remarks about great players, frankly far greater than he. It seems every interview I read with him it's the same thing. Not the classiest. I just get tired of musicians with big egos that figure they're 'holding court' in front of a mic. And I question how much he swings, though he talks about it here like he's an authority. I never got that foot pattin' feeling from his playing. I like Fred's music, it's an interesting blend of influences, and he has a beautiful touch. He's a real good musician, too, rounded and can write and orchestrate, etc. But please, Fred (and Lee Konitz, though he does it with way more class, no meanness, and it's more a case of over-thinking), enough already bitching everybody out. Life is short, (you, more than most, ought to know this with what you've been through) and it comes out really mean-spirited. Worry about your own thing. And learn a little humility. It might help you swing more.

People who aren't restless spirits-whose minds can keep still are lucky in that they get more peace. I don't fall into that category, so to keep myself anchored I try to stay in tune with the basics. There's a reason Woody Allen in his primd or early Bob Hope are still loved: it's funny b/c all the basic truths are there. Your head is always going to be in different places, as I said. Maybe that's good b/c you'll see something in your current state you couldn't before. Art works, especially ones preserved for future viewing or hearing, don't change. WE change. Somebody once said 'we don't look at art. Art looks at us. And now someone should send this thread and my ponderous post to Adam Sandler. So he can open a brew, fart, say WTF?

...und ve have intellectual discussions, und...

PUT ze kendal BECK!!