bertrand

I wonder if William Parker will hear this recording...

This was probably suggested three pages ago, but is it possible that it said Denis on the tape box and Huss was a last-minute sub? I agree that Zev certainly had no idea who Huss was. Neither did I before you clued us in, but I don't claim to be a Jazz Detective nor do I make a living in this field.

Glad he liked Grant which is how I have a copy of the rejected KD session. I am sure the McLean was AWL before he started copying en masse.

Wait - you are saying that Huss is mentioned the booklet? What page? I missed that. If so, then there goes my theory that Zev said it was Denis because he did not know who Huss was and perhaps assumed incorrectly that the beginning announcement (not included on the CD) was garbled somehow. Denis may well have played with KD a few times, but where and when? Not on this date in any case.

Belden was who I was referring to. I suspect he did not have the Jackie or it would have circulated by now. I remember reading an article about Bob near the end when he was really going through hard times and there was something about a storage unit he got locked out of.

Everybody, leader and sideman, or their estates, has to get paid. Zev has boasted in the past that he makes sure of this. He even thanked everyone in the booklet and dedicated the releases to those who were deceased. Everyone has to OK the release as well. He is less rigorous about that now. Neither Charles brother gets a dedication here. Good point about big bands. Uptown did not get approval for the Duke Pearson big band Left Bank date from most of the band members or estates. Jerry Dodgion did help out, but Lew Tabackin was complaining on Facebook about it. In fact, he did not know it was being recorded. The Left Bank guys told me they always got permission from the leaders but I am skeptical. In fact, Uptown needed clearance from Blue Note since Duke was signed to them. I am sorry I hooked them up, other Left Bank tapes (more Pearson, Grant Green) are now AWL.

It is possibly out there but much harder to find since the person who was the source for many of the Blue Note dates that got leaked does not seem to have made a copy of this one before it got lost.

You are suggesting the interview might not be an accurate transcription of what Drayton actually said? Would this have been out of sloppiness or a disingenuous attempt to further muddy the waters and advance the faulty Denis Charles narrative? I can totally see the latter, except I do not see the actual point of it. Claiming it is Denis rather than Huss will not move an extra 500 copies. Could it be that the error was discovered after the Denis estate had already been paid? Do estates get one flat fee in this situation and then it is over?

I totally believe it is Huss on this recording. I am just wondering if it is true that KD and Denis ever played together on other occasions. It just seems very odd that Drayton would make a point of connecting KD to Denis.

The interview with Drayton seems to suggest that KD and Denis Charles were tight at the time, which I assume means they played together on occasion. Do we know of one instance where they played together?

Correct! I saw him at the NEA Jazz Masters concert. Who was the pianist before him in the Arkestra?

Yes, that has been the story for years.

I had never heard about Michael giving the tapes back to Wayne. When I was working on the list of compositions for Michelle Mercer's book, I asked about the composers for the 5 compositions on that record. Wayne said he did not remember the session at all, which is of course inconsistent with the previous story that Wayne hated the session and blamed its failure on Duke Pearson. But there is a third story: a guy I knew got a copy of the date and told Wayne. Wayne said: 'is that the one where Miroslav does all that bowing?' This does not seem like 'not remembering' to me. Can't blame that on Pearson. No producer would go up to a sideman in mid-session and tell him he was bowing too much. That would have to have been a conversation between Wayne and Miroslav. Anyway, I gave composer credit to everyone in the band as if everything had purely been improvised in the studio. Highly unlikely, but no alternative was offered. Cryptically, Duke Pearson's session notes say 'Universe' at the top. In any case, I have never heard of Wayne asking for the tape back. It is true of Horace and it may be several dates. I asked Michael when I last saw him in 2014 about the McLean date. He did say the tape was lost.

The Melissa Aldana records are great as well. And my friend, trumpeter Brandon Woody just got signed.

So E1, E2 and F2 are three new tracks with Tina, and A1, B1, B2 and C1 are the ones that were previously releases? IIRC, Tina barely plays on Lover Man.

I'm still a bit confused. There are 6 new tracks. Which ones have Tina Brooks and which ones don't?

I am a huge fan of the two Lee Vee-Jay dates. They are a little different than the Blue Notes from that era, not sure how to describe why.

Good point. The Sonny Stitt booklet that did not mention the second sax was a farce. Wasted paper. For the record, I LOVE Sonny Red.

I agree that they probably settled on Denis as he was a 'Charles' people would have heard of. Not sure how much it would have helped sales. Adding a comment with no proof that Denis and KD were tight seems like a red herring. In the past, Resonance booklets made a big production about how all the estates were involved and gave their blessing. The Denis Charles estate is not mentioned as far as I can tell. I agree the booklets are pure padding. The notes here contain a doozy: they claim the Olatunji gig was Coltrane's last. The last was Left Bank 5/7/67. Zev must know about it since he has been deeply immersed in Left Bank. I am sure he would tell you it was not recorded, an obviously unverifiable fact.

I got the CD. First, my apologies to the drummer. His playing is not at all pedestrian. The drumming sounded intrusive on the radio, but not on the CD. Not sure why. As for who the drummer is... The announcement which I have heard and definitely says Huss Charles is not included on the CD. It is 74 minutes so space was not an issue. There is no mention of how it was decided Denis was the drummer and not Huss but the possibility that it was Huss is not mentioned at all. Bernard Drayton does suggest that Denis was one of KD's guys but what does that mean? Did they gig together a lot? How much gigging did KD do at that time? He had health issues and was barely recording. Finding proof of this claim would involve a deep dive to find gig listings. Very labor intensive. Using RIPM Jazz would help, I think, but I have yet to see it in action.

So how is the book? I am actually organizing a KD tribute on 7/26 at the Arlington, VA Library with the Army Blues small group and I wanted to suggest some books to the Librarian that she could put on display.

This is a huge topic of discussion. Artists are encouraged to highlight their originals and the media does its part to help, but as Jim suggested, not everyone is a Horace or Wayne. The argument 'not ready yet' is a valid one, but the guys from the 60s were hardly veterans when they wrote songs that became classics overnight. What is the difference? I have been struggling for years to figure it out.

Heard a track from this last night - the drumming was rather pedestrian.

Unless Resonance gives an unimpeachable explanation as to why it is Denis and not Huss despite the announcement, I will assume it is Huss.

Right, Denis was out there way before 1962. So the question is when did Frank/Huss start becoming active? A few weeks ago we were thinking late 60s, but now he goes back to 1962.