Chuck Nessa

AND they may have the same hair.

When I recorded Eddie Johnson, Stanley Dance contacted me to suggest a "Johnson & Johnson" date with Budd. Listening to Duke's "Far East Suite" tonight made me think of the Paul/Von combo. Maybe we'd need 3 pianists with all the instruments tuned differently.

I wish I could get nessa.com from the "broad" named Vanessa who owns this address.

Why on earth would you try to sell such crap on this board?

I have a battered lp. Let's talk.

All the pre-Take Five stuff is dandy. Go for it.

Way to go big guy. If it is of any import, I only had trouble for about a half hour this morning - around 8 o'clock, if memory serves. All has been fine since - earthlink dial-up and IE 5 point something.

Malachi had health problems on and off for the last few years. He had recently been in and out of the hospital with some frequency. He told family and friends he had a stomach infection. This way he avoided pity and covered the cancer. I've heard both stomach and pancreatic cancer - don't know the answer. I may get details, whether I want them or not, at the funeral on Thursday.

Another neat story about Malachi. At some point in the '60s, my wonderful wife Ann gave Malachi a cutting from a plant he admired in our apartment. In the mid '70s Malachi (again at our place) thanked Ann for the plant and said he still had it. He had taken it to Europe and brought it back. He still brought this up in 1998 at the re-staging of The Maze and LRG at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Shrugs, at the risk of seeming really anal, I went to my "LRG/Maze" file and discovered I still have such things as toll receipts from the journey. To put stuff in perspective, Ann and I stayed at the Gramercy Park Hotel for two nights and the total bill was $101.60. The Ryder truck contract reveals the breakdown of the odometer (1062 miles out, 562 miles back). I was charged for the "reading". Messing with all these details reduces the pain and brings back pleasure.

Been thinking of Malachi all day and the following incident keeps popping into my head, but it needs a bit of a “set-up” from me. When we recorded Roscoe’s “The Maze” for 8 percussionists Roscoe rented a 19 foot Ryder truck to drive all the equipment from Madison and Chicago to Woodstock, NY for the rehearsals. We had arranged for the Creative Music Studio to house and feed the musicians for a week of rehearsals. Then we went into NYC to the CBS 30th Street studio for the recording. Afterwards Malachi drove the truckload back to Chicago. I met him there to help unload the stuff, return the truck to Ryder and pay the final bill. On the way to the Ryder location Malachi started complaining about the truck and how it was “unsafe to drive”. He wanted to vent to the Ryder people before I paid the bill. He kept repeating that the engine kept cutting out on the highway, endangering his life. It turns out the truck had a governor on it to keep it from reaching a certain speed and Malachi repeatedly hit the limiter. The thought of him barreling through the hills of Pennsylvania in a truck loaded with drums, bells, gongs, etc. brought a smile to my face.

Sorry to say it is true. I received a call early this morning.

HMV UK lists a new release of Von Freeman's Serenade and Blues. They currently have no details on the site, but I would like to know the source of the lps. Should you encounter one of these records, please look for anything indicating the origin of the product.

I missed all this stuff. 45s, lps, reel-to-reel, 78s, cassette deck (1979), etc - thats me. I missed the cartridge era. Now we be into exabites.

Don't know who Electric Bill is, never heard his music (you're not confusing him with Upright Bill, I hope), but go for Blue. Since I have not heard of Electric Bill. he must be one of those many utility players while Blue Mitchell is FINE.

VME usually stands for Verve Money Extractions. They are yet another reissue of stuff already available, while hundreds of unreissued titles remain in limbo. This is a series aimed at bit counters as opposed to music fans.

I think Brenda mentioned this when we were there.

You are my GOD!

BFD!

Sorry to expose myself as a charter of the "jazz elite", but I think the quality of this music falls far short of Mosaic standards. I never buy a McCann disc unless someone much stronger is on it.

I have fond memories of Jack - another "true American original". I'm also old enough to have memories of his late night predecessor called "Broadway Open House" hosted by Jerry Lester. Ah, I had dreams of Dagmar.

I wondered about the 2 myself. This was from a "scrapped" session and none ot the tunes were issued at the time. This take surfaced on lp in the '70s. Maybe the take number was assigned then. Rust shows no take letter/number for this session. Both Bruyninckx and the Classics disc list it as 2.

Neatwork includes the following alternates: C-1939-C Four Or Five Times C-1940-C Every Evening C-2258-A Apex Blues C-2268-B Sweet Lorraine Classics includes an extra version of Oh, Sister (C-2112-2) from a June 23, 1928 session. The correct date for the last session is August 25, 1928.

I always enjoyed his Charlie Brown soundtracks.

When this lp was issued in the late '50s, I was pissed because it was a "desecaration" of the original. The "original" was just fine, but Duke took tons of bumps. Check out the original on Fantasy's Carnegie Hall series. I still live with the 40+ year old lp (CS 8015) and consider it an ok late '50s Ellington record, but have not bought the cd version. Mahalia is very fine. No arguement from me, and the band plays well - but it ain't BB&B. The recommendation of the "Private Collection" disc is seconded by me, but hear the original.