Don Brown

No, it was Chaloff. After hearing the story, Joe Venuti scolded Woody about what he'd done to Chaloff, telling him that that was the sort of thing he might have done to someone who'd pissed him off but that Woody was far too nice a guy to have done something so outrageous.

The Stein Song?

My email address is: 2donbrown@rogers.com

Any chance these titles could come from the three CDs on on the Consolidated Artists label? This material was superbly recorded during the band's South American tour by Dizzy's old friend Dave Usher

That Bennie Wallace is a killer, Peter. More folks should know about it.

Thanks to GARussell for his explanation of the use of the word hooker as a synonym for prostitute. I found his story interesting so decided to investigate further. Logging in to Dictionary.com I found this word history from the American Heritage Dictionary: "In his personal memoirs Ulysses S. Grant described Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker as a dangerous man...not subordinate to his superiors. Hooker had his faults. He may indeed have been insubordinate; he was undoubtedly an erratic leader. But "Fighting Joe" Hooker is often accused of one thing he certainly did not do: he did not give his name to prostitutes. According to a popular story, the men under Hooker's command during the Civil War were a particularly wild bunch, and would spend much of their time in brothels when on leave. For this reason, as the story goes, prostitutes came to be known as hookers. However attractive this theory may be, it cannot be true. The word hooker with the sense "prostitute" is already recorded before the Civil War. As early as 1845 it is found in North Carolina, as reported in Norman Ellsworth Eliason's Tarheel Talk; an Historical Study of the English Language in North Carolina to 1860, published in 1956. It also appears in the second edition of John Russell Bartlett's Dictionary. "Etymologically, it is most likely that "hooker" is simply one who hooks. The term portrays a prostitute as a person who hooks, or snares, clients."

Lois Maxwell's father was my Grade 7 teacher at Davisville Public School here in Toronto. I still remember Mr. Hooker as being a stern and rather overbearing figure. The only time I can recall any touch of levity in his classroom was when I asked him where the name Hooker had come from. He smiled and suggested his ancestors may have been pirates. I'm not sure whether or not the term hooker was being used at that time (1945) to describe "working girls".

Worlds Records in California - worldsrecords.com - carries the complete Lonehill catalog.

Just received the following email from Ted Ono: "Will you let them know the following: I am preparing to begin producing a new series of Baldwin Street Music releases and continuing the Lee Wiley Completists' series on Tono (including reissuing the first four volumes). My new website www.tedono.com will be launched in September. Thanks"

Rights of Swing by Phil Woods on the Candid label. In the liner notes Woods tells how when he was a boy there was a 78 rpm album of the Rite of Spring in his parents' record collection. He really loved the music and would often play the several 78 sides out of sequence. This childhood experience inspired the music he wrote for his Candid album.

Brilliant Corners. Especially the original recording on Riverside where it sounds as though Sonny Rollins has managed to blow his tenor inside out.

And we musn't forget Benny Carter/Phil Woods - My Man Benny, My Man Phil on MusicMasters 5036-2-C. Also the great CD Phil made with Claude Tissendier for the French label IDA.

Never thought I'd see Mosaic going for the lowest common denominator.

Yesterday's future now the past.

Check this week's New Yorker. There's a long piece - A Boy's World - on the 100th anniversary of Tintin by Anthony Lane.

It's great to see you back, Chris.

In the early early 1960s Buck Clayton brought a great little band into Toronto's Colonial Tavern for a week-long engagement backing Jimmy Rushing. Earle Warren was on alto, with Buddy Tate, tenor; Sir Charles Thompson, piano; Gene Ramey, bass, and Jackie Williams, drums. At the end of the first evening's last set my wife and I had a pleasant conversation with Rushing. At one point I told Jimmy what a treat it was to hear such a great band. "All that's missing is Jo Jones," I commented, at which point Jimmy said, "If Jo was here I wouldn't be. Don't get me wrong, Jo's a dear friend, but I can no longer work with him. If he was on the bandstand he'd be telling Buck what tunes to play, what tempo to play them at, and me what to sing. He's absolutely impossible!" A few years later, trombonist Marshall Brown, who was here with Pee Wee Russell, told me that Jones suffered from congenital syphilis and that in recent years had become totally unpredictable and unmanageable.

I highly recommend the performance on DVD conducted by Pierre Boulez. It's a knockout - great sound and great camera work.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes has always knocked me out.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes has always knocked me out.

The reason Ornette titled one of his pieces "Science Fiction" is interesting. It's actually a bit of an "homage". Apparently Ornette had become friendly with well-known science fiction writer Judith Merril sometime in the 1960s. Not long after, Merril, who was so fed up with what was happening in the U.S. at the time, moved lock, stock and barrel to Toronto. In early 1971, a friend of mine took Merril to the Colonial Tavern on Yonge Street to hear Coleman. The saxophonist immediately spotted her from the stage and said "Hey, it's the science fiction lady", then introduced her to the audience. The following September he recorded "Science Fiction" for Columbia Records.

I really don't understand why anyone is concerned about paying a little more for quality. Criterion, in my opinion, is in the same position as Mosaic Records. Both companies issue quality material for small but discerning audiences. This material has to be licensed, which does not come cheap, experts have to be hired to write notes, and technicians found to restore or remaster the discs or films. I think the results are well worth the higher cost.

I picked this one up last week. Haven't had a chance to listen to it yet but reading the booklet I learned that Teagarden was suffering from laryngitis the day of the concert and was unable to sing.

Just heard from the local supplier of the Classics labels (the Complete Chronological jazz series and the Blues & Rhythm series) that they are no longer available from his source in Los Angeles. Are the labels dead or in yet another hiatus?

I remember talking to Terry one night at Bourbon Street, a Toronto jazz club. What a character! He cracked me up with stories of his bandmates in Woody's Second Herd. Apparently Shorty Rogers, who spoke very slowly, would tell Terry what he'd like to say to his mother, then get Terry to make the long distance call for him. With his machine-gun way of speaking it would take Terry about a tenth of the time it would have taken Shorty to pass on the message.