Frank Sinatra and Bud Powell

[DMP]

I can almost believe Sinatra hanging out with Lester Young, but Bud Powell? (This from the notes to the "Paris Sessions.") Now, don't tell me he was at the Five Spot with Monk and Trane...

[Teasing the Korean]

I can almost believe Sinatra hanging out with Lester Young, but Bud Powell? (This from the notes to the "Paris Sessions.") Now, don't tell me he was at the Five Spot with Monk and Trane...

Why can't you imagine someone as hip as Sinatra hanging out with jazz cats?

[medjuck]

I have a memory of Sinatra's paying for a jazz musician's funeral. Willie Dennis maybe?

[gmonahan]

I have a memory of Sinatra's paying for a jazz musician's funeral. Willie Dennis maybe?

I think he paid for lots of them, along with hospital bills (including for Mildred Bailey, whom he never even met), tax bills, and other charities. His rule in general was that his gifts be anonymous. He really was an interesting character.

greg mo

[Niko]

I have a memory of Sinatra's paying for a jazz musician's funeral. Willie Dennis maybe?

that one i remember, too (something like morgana king remembering that after dennis' death sinatra called to ask if she needed help...)

[AllenLowe]

just a point of info, she was married, if I recall correctly, to Tony Fruscella - and did not treat him well -

and I remember Sammy Price saying, back in the 1970s, that he was gonna try to get Sinatra to help Jo Jones - though Sammy was such a bag o' wind I have no idea if this was even a possibility -

Edited September 10, 2009 by AllenLowe

[Niko]

just a point of info, she was married, if I recall correctly, to Tony Fruscella - and did not treat him well -

the "did not treat him well"-part was new to me... in the childhood autobiography of fruscella's sixties girlfriend's son it is mentioned that fruscella was still regularly making calls to king (from his girlfriend's appartment) which the latter never answered (or the like) at that time (1965?)

[AllenLowe]

my source is Bill Triglia, who was quite vocal on the matter, basically saying that she walked away when he needed her help, and than would not help with expenses when he died - of course, there may have been much more going on, on a personal level, between them - Bill's position was that once she became famous she did not want to be associated with her old jazz friends -

[Niko]

didn't fruscella have some sort of army funeral? at least that's what i recall from that book (and that only stella waitzkin and the trumpeter the army had sent were there... but that is second hand information iirc (from stella to her son) and badly remembered by me...) when did morgana king become famous (and forgot about her jazz friends)? did bill triglia mean her becoming "mama corleone" or did she become famous like that earlier...? (i mean, she was married to jazz musician dennis until 1965, mama corleone was in 1972)

thanks for sharing these memories!

Edited September 10, 2009 by Niko