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Night of the Cookers


Brad

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Guest youmustbe

Seeing that he turned down 2 week tour of Europe with the Cookers, so he could play 3 days in NYC at a small venue with Billy Bang might tell you something about his state of mind.

Years ago, when George Butler was free with the Sony money, I got someone a deal for 75000 plus Sonny Rollins on one track. That musician would have kept about 25000 for themselves, after the cost of the recording, plus there might be a long term contract because George was crazy about that musician, wanted to 'discover' and 'make a star', like with Wynton, with that person. That person, who had not made a date as a leader before, tiuned it down, and went on to record with Muse and a 3000 budget.

People do what appear to be contardictory things. They want to be up there in the bright lights, but when offerred, shy away. That's just the way it is, even with people that you respect and might have idolized

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Hey everyone, I'm going to try to clear a few things up here for whatever it's worth. I've asked the Organissimo guys to remove any references to monies paid etc on this thread because it is simply no one's business and should never have been posted here. For those of you who saw that and responded to it, hopefully you can erase it from your minds and certainly never discuss it.

We are working on a European tour but as to who is going or not going, that has not been definitively decided yet. I suspect I know who youmustbe is but don't know how he gets all this information, some of which was correct and some not so much. I guess the jazz world is small and everyone talks, one would hope there are some secrets.

The idea to put this Cookers thing together was indeed mine and my main reason for it was that James Spaulding and Pete "LaRoca" Sims are two of my favorite musicians in the world and I thought they should be out here much more than they are and if I could do anything about it, I should. I don't think there is an alto player out there now I would rather hear than James Spaulding and would just like more people to hear what I've been hearing. Pete "LaRoca" Sims is one of the greatest drummers ever to me and that he hardly plays at all anymore is criminal to me. I also wanted to play with them as often as I could; my own little selfish motivation.

I can't go into the reasons why James didn't make this gig, it's not my place to say, but if he indeed feels "ripped off by Yoshi's" I feel horrible about that because I believe this would fall on me, not Yoshi's who has been fair from the outset and very understanding and sympathetic about having two guys drop out.

I can tell you why I didn't make it. I have a broken arm and just had surgery this past Friday to have the 5 pins removed from my arm that had been in for 6 weeks. One of the fractures (out of 4) did not completely heal and besides the intense pain and not being able to walk more than a block without even more pain, I have to keep the arm immobile and in a sling for two more weeks in the hopes that this last fracture heals. I was really looking forward to this gig.

I'm sure this gig will still kill and I hope all you guys in the Bay Area go check it out. I heard it was fantastic last night.

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I suspect that James Spaulding had something to do with putting this together as he is the common thread between the original and this show.

This is trumpeter David Weiss' gig, who is the groups weakest link.

Thank you

Everybody has opinions, David. Don't pay it no mind.

Sorry to hear about your problems. Hopefully things will get better soon.

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I think that's great David put this together with James and Pete. It's always been my concern that there are MANY such jazz greats that are just not getting the work they deserve. These guys won't be around forever and hopefully, gigs like this will become more commonplace.

David, please try and bring this group down here to Texas. San Antonio has been bringing in acts such as these at the Carver Center for the Arts at Trinity University. Would love to see ya'll play down this way.

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Thanks for the insight, David.

I hope it didn't hurt your arm any more than necessary to type that out. :o

Get well soon and come on out when you're well.

I've become quite the one armed typist (almost two months of practice at this point) so it's not so painful. Hopefully it will go well this week out there and we can try it again in the future with the full band and you get the best of both worlds.

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And hey, in a group along with James Spaulding and Pete LaRoca it's not so bad to be the weakest link.......

Mike

I never said he was wrong, just wondered in the back of my mind why someone would bother to say such a thing. I usually am the weak link on these things (though I think I do bring other things to the table like making the gig happen in the first place, writing arrangements and picking material etc, etc) and I wouldn't have it any other way. Nothing like being challenged by some of the best musicians out here.

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