AllenLowe

I have remastered quite a few things from LPs - first thing is to get a good turntable transfer, and then get rid of the LP crackle, which is generally easy to do these days, though you have to be extremely careful not to degrade the sound. After that is the more straightforward part, which is to EQ it, because this is where the original engineers usually had no idea what they were doing or, at the very least, knew very little about frequencies. I used to do this for a living, and listeners were often shocked at how sonically improved the re-master was. I assumed this was a prostate issue.

Armen can play, and years ago when I knew him he used to complain and complain about not getting gigs. So I hired him for a Sunday lunch thing I had at Sweet Basil, a good, high-visibility gig that paid well. And guess what? He never showed up. When I called him up the next day he was not apologetic or regretful but completely indifferent; not the first musician I've known whose lack of work was not difficult to understand.

if you can, find his comments on Charlie Parker, who he thinks was just a harmonic trickster, essentially, who was a virtuoso but, to Freeman, uninteresting. How can anyone who thinks that be taken seriously as a critic? Here is from my Substack column about Freeman: " 1) He says: "He (Byas) came up in the 1930s, when tenor players were supposed to be just one part of a big band, taking the occasional, short solo without disrupting the action on the dance floor." This is a pretty bizarre claim; horn soloists, as Lester Young said frequently, were early on inspired by and offered their own prompts to the dancers. Lester said specifically: "The rhythm of the dancers comes back to you when you are playing." And he was far from the only one; there was Dick Wilson with Jimmy Lunceford’s band, Johnny Hodges and Ben Webster with Duke Ellington’s band, all of whom were public soloists for dancers. And more. Phil, try listening to some records. 2) He compares Byas' tone to Lester Young, which is….well, strange. Byas’ tone was not anything like Lester Young's but related to that of Coleman Hawkins, who was his prime early influence. But strangest of all was Freeman’s comments about bebop, which he doesn’t like much, and Charlie Parker. What he said about Parker was really a disqualifier; how can someone who does not understand basic musical principles write about jazz ? Freeman tells us, in reference to a bebop recording: “Anyway, listening to this mostly makes me think about why Charlie Parker’s music has never had the impact on me that it has had on so many others. Like, I can hear that he’s a virtuoso player, and I acknowledge his influence — he changed the way players after him approached composition, improvisation, and even their tone on their instruments. But any time I read about Parker being called the greatest saxophonist ever, or whatever, I always think Sure, for one particular value of “great.” “His melodically and harmonically adventurous, chord-flipping style (which he famously described as “playing clean and looking for the pretty notes”) is one way to play jazz. But it’s not the only way, by any means. Personally, I have always been more drawn to players with more rawness and grit to to their sound. And I don’t just mean free jazz.” "

I won't mention any names but Phil Freeman is a know-nothing, with a vengeance.

it's the new me. Angry tenor....

I've been working on the cues for the new documentary, musical interludes to be inserted into the film. This is called Do Not Go Gentle Into that Operating Room; me on tenor, Ethan Kogan drums, Colson Jimenez bass. All freely improvised:

never mind....just figured it out -

I should add that, after my first 12 hour surgery I stopped sleeping (this was 2021). Six months went by; I was sleepless and suicidal until I discovered THC which, in small dosages, has kept me sane since September 2021. Thank goodness it was legalized and I recommend it; it kept me out of the looney bin (so far at least).

Just turned 72; I would say the cancer thing aged me about an extra 10 years. It's strange getting old; I can out-play and out-compose most younger musicians, but the industry sees me as aged out, nearing some kind of unofficial retirement age. But after almost dying and then losing about 5 years I am just getting started. Though I am going to start liquidating my CD collection (though I don't know, yet, how). PTSD after 25 surgeries is the killer, night terrors, waking up; then being told that Chemo damaged my inner ear and is why I tend to get dizzy - so another thing is trying not to fall. Which is also a little scary, especially since I am in NYC a lot climbing subway stairs. But musically: fuck it all, there is a documentary coming out about me, I have a 3-CD set coming out, and a new group called the Avant Roots Quartet that is as good as any in the world. Really. So I am not going gentle into that retirement home. Gigging maybe 4 times a year, which sucks, but that's the way it's gonna be.

I hear Texas has enormous cockroaches.

well....I downloaded a sample on Kindle, maybe 40-50 pages worth and I think it's pretty awful. The intro is a waste of time, and the first section makes the same mistake every author, unedited, seems to be making these days. The writer has mistaken research for writing, and it is so overloaded with detail about - well, everything, Texas insects, the family history (could have been cut to about 3 pages), land deals, political battles - everything but Kenny Dorham himself. And written in a totally dead style, like a listings section of a newspaper. Sorry, this is probably not a popular opinion, but this weirdness is everywhere in current jazz bios and music bios in general. The writer(s) seems to thing that merely describing something is the same as having insight into it. I just am so tired of how badly music bios are done - unless they are by Robin DG Kelley of John Szwed. I gave up on this one (and I haven't even described one particular howler of mistake, which may be an editing mistake, but that just shows there was probably no editor).

Zieff was brilliant; he used to call me every once in a while and complain about a critic I knew. By far his best work is on this: https://www.discogs.com/release/14448931-Bob-Zieff-The-Music-Of-Bob-Zieff can't get the picture to appear, but that's the CD to get -

Try the Strings Attached record he made with Jimmy Rainey. Al aways had a beautiful touch but he just didn't get modal playing like some others of his generation.

I love Mary Lou, but playing that solo she reminds of Al Haig when he was trying to play in a "contemporary" way - the line never gets going and is built around repeated patterns. For her best playing I always go back to the '30s and '40s. She was always, harmonically, the hippest of the hip, but to my ears she never successfully made the rhythmic transition from swing to bebop to post-bop. the energy us unfeigned - this was where she was comfortable. and here; she was picking up the harmonies, post-Tatum, but when it came to line she needed the old-style feel:

I admire Bickert but don't know enough about him to be of much help, but no one seems to have noticed that he played a Fender Telecaster, which is extremely unusual for a jazz guitarist. It is more likely the choice of a rock or country musician. Different kind of sound (potentially).