ValerieB

i absolutely loved this man. i am indebted to him for some of the most memorable moments for me in film. thank you, thank you, mr. noiret. there will never be another like you.

bookie was my friend mostly in the '60s and '70s although i saw him a few years ago and from time to time. i have many wonderful memories of these years. he was sweet, charming, warm and totally fun-loving. and, of course, last but not least, a very talented musician. he gave his all to every performance. he was married to a friend of mine for years and they produced a magnificent son who is at this moment touring with sergio mendes. my best memories are during the years bookie was with cannonball. whether it was in ny, l.a., s.f., we partied hearty! i often reminisce with zawinul, george duke or roy mccurdy, who i plan to see tonight to celebrate his 70th birthday. we all loved bookie. you couldn't help but love him. he had all the attributes of the loving saggitarius he was. i'm sure he's already got the party started up there! party, on, my friend.

she was a very special and talented lady. i will always remember her as i'm sure many will. her nephew in the l.a. area writes a jazz column.

that's exactly what i've been thinking. given how she lived, it was definitely a miracle she was with us for so long!

A Tribute by Garrison Keillor Robert Altman was 79 when I met him, and he had just finished shooting "The Company" and was happy to sit down with me and talk about doing another movie, "A Prairie Home Companion." We did that, and when I saw him last, in New York 10 days ago, he was tickled pink that he'd gotten financing for a new picture and was in pre-production. He loved working. He loved almost everything about it: the long brooding over casting options ("casting is 90% of my job"), the scouting of locations, and the hubbub of the movie set with the crew, the extras, the people with the headsets and clipboards, the stars and their hairdressers. He could get impatient -- "What am I waiting for?" he'd holler over his god mike from the command post -- but his set was pretty loose because he loved actors and wanted them to be happy. "A Prairie Home Companion" had an all-star cast simply because everyone wanted to work for him. Meryl Streep signed up almost before there was a script, and that put us on the map. Kevin Kline wanted the detective part, John C. Reilly and Woody Harrelson wanted to be singing cowboys. We shot the picture in July 2005, and Mr. Altman seemed so frail when I met up with him, I said, "Are you sure you really want to do this?" I had seen him walk gingerly across the floor, arms slightly out, as if he were on a tightrope, an assistant walking close behind him, and I felt sorry for an old man facing the long uphill march of a movie and wondered if maybe he'd just as soon sit in a sunny garden in Malibu and do the crossword. He didn't wonder about that at all. "I want to go out with my boots on," he said, "I don't want to sit around and wait for it. I want to be missing in action." He seemed to thrive on work and got stronger through five weeks of shooting, winding up with an all-nighter at Mickey's Diner in St. Paul, shooting an interior scene and then a Hopperesque exterior with Kevin emerging, lighting a smoke, and crossing the rain-soaked street. When the movie wrapped, Mr. Altman retired to his editing room on West 56th Street in New York, and a month later he called everybody to come see the rough cut. He loved sitting in that little screening room in the West Village and watching the thing over and over with other people. When he was working, he was in heaven. He had figured out how to live without regrets. Each time he saw the movie, he saw it new and fresh. He was a very young bomber pilot in World War II, and perhaps that's one reason he didn't fit into the Hollywood system. When you've flown through clouds of shrapnel and survived, you have less respect for the corporate point of view. And he was a smartass, and that didn't help. But what really made Mr. Altman an independent was the fact that he wasn't about long-term planning or risk management, he was about doing the work. He believed in taking big chances and doing it with a whole heart. He didn't mind being talked back to. He said, "If you and I agreed about everything, then one of us is unnecessary." But he was the captain of the ship. He didn't care for meetings in which people discuss the arc of the story and whether we need a conflict at this point or not. I had first tried to interest him in making a movie about a man coming back to Minnesota to bury his father, a winter movie. "There haven't been many movies made in winter," I said. "You would quickly find out why there haven't," Mr. Altman said. He declined. "In the end," he said, "the death of an old man is not a tragedy" -- a line so good, I wound up using it in the movie we did make. He died in full flight, doing what he loved, like his comrades in the Army Air Force who got shot out of the sky and vanished into blue air -- and all of us who worked with him are left with the clear memory of seeing an old man doing what he was passionate about and doing it at the top of his game. In my memory, Meryl and Lily Tomlin are on the set, sitting in front of a long mirror, and Lindsay Lohan is reclining on a couch, and Mr. Altman is sitting in his high canvas chair in the shadows, having just instrued Bobby the cameraman on the timing of the dolly shot, and he says, "Let's do one." A distant warning buzzer sounds, and the assistant director calls out, "Quiet on the set." Mr. Altman leans in and peers at the picture on his monitor, and here we go again. This may be good. This may be the best yet.

we've lost another legend. she lived her life to the fullest. party on, anita!

Reggie Johnson's wishes are also in the book (his third one being to play with Miles'). There's a photo of him playing bass. I remember Reggie as the young man who played impressively with the Marin Brown trio (Rashied Ali was the drummer) when Marion played a concert in Newark back in the fall of 1965! PM me if you need help with Amazon.fr! your offer is very generous, brownie. i appreciate it. i'm hoping a girlfriend who is very fluent in french will help. but, if not, you'll hear from me! sounds like reggie may not have gotten one of his wishes!

Valerie, easiest way to get the book is to order thru Amazon.fr: http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/2283020387...2490924-9864161 They don't have the book yet but it should be available after November 23, the official publication date. Will be ready to help if you cannot get it thru Amazon.fr or any other outfit! For your information, here are Walter Bishop's three wishes (rough translation): 1- Have my mind at ease 2- Contribute to jazz 3- Help others His answers come after Bobby Timmons' and before Paul Chambers' thank you so much, brownie. i went on amazon.fr and managed to get as far as being acknowledged with a correct mailing address but, with my very poor command of the language, couldn't figure out how to actually place my order. i'll have to have someone on this end help me. thanks too for listing walter's "three wishes". are these lists in the book? i spent the day yesterday with the bassist, reggie johnson, who was at our wedding in 1967! i don't think i had seen him since he lived in l.a. in the '70s. i believe he's been living in switzerland for the past 20+ years. we had a lovely reunion. thanks again. best, valerie

brownie: will you take an order?!? i'd be willing to pay for your time as well as the expenses!! truth in jest, as they say!

i just received the two copies i ordered from amazon today. i'm very much looking forward to this read. this lady has known everyone in jazz and everywhere else too! the back of the book has blurbs from Ahmet Ertegun, Bill Frissel, Bruce Lundvall, Charles Gwathmey (architect), Wynton Marsalis and Joe Lovano!

thank you so much for taking the time to write, Tom. i'm really looking forward to reading the book. i'm sure it will bring back lots of wonderful memories for me and be educational as well.

but wasn't that valerie wilmer's faux pas and not the author of this current book?

Just as a point of information, Lee Morgan didn't have a "process". That was his natural hair. do you really know that to be a fact? i'm sure he did "something" to it, that's for sure. I was in his company on occasion and saw him several times. I know a "process" when I see one, I've been around that all my life. Several of my friends, who happen to be black, have hair just as straight as Lee. Also, I knew Billy Higgins and Billy and Lee were very tight. Billy said it was natural. well, i think i have the definitive answer to this from a really good friend of lee's bennie maupin says it was definitely not a "process" but a result of lee's indian blood. i believe that but still think he did some "plastering" with the style to cover the scar. boy, talk about a trivia discussion!!

two enormous "amens" to that! i thought the personal reminisces were best of all, including wynton's. it's obvious that of all the "60 minutes" journalists, steve kroft was the closest to ed. i am hoping to be able to get a program book from friday's funeral since a friend of mine is part of the team that is coordinating it.

Just as a point of information, Lee Morgan didn't have a "process". That was his natural hair. do you really know that to be a fact? i'm sure he did "something" to it, that's for sure. That wavy shine was not natural. Lee did "something" as she said. i remember he nodded out on a radiator and burned his head/forehead once. as i remember it, that's why he plastered his hair down to cover the scar.

Just as a point of information, Lee Morgan didn't have a "process". That was his natural hair. do you really know that to be a fact? i'm sure he did "something" to it, that's for sure.

fyi: jazz was a part of ed bradley's life from the time he was a young man. he was even a jazz dj for some time. he was always at jazz festivals and jazz clubs. he was very involved with jazz at lincoln center.

i would just like to put a very large "amen" to what you've said. he was the best, the very best. my heartfelt condolences to his loved ones. we have lost a very special human being.

i believe llew is based around the los angeles area. if you e-mail me, bertrand, i'll try to get more specific info for you. best, valerie

you are really a died-in-the-wool jazz fan, allan! houston is also playing at vibrato two nights next week but i really hate that club. people just don't listen or go there for the music and their food is really expensive! don't know what kind of cover they're charging for this gig. i think he's playing with llew matthews, pat senatore and ralph penland.

Yeah, but how much great music have we heard week after week at Charlie O's with ZERO cover? I've been to Charlie's at least 100 times and I've paid a cover excatly TWICE-- Once for Freddie Hubbard and the other time for Pete and Conte Candoli. And to hear Houston Person with John Heard and Roy McCurdy is gonna be a GAS. So Houston Person puts some cash in his pocket at the end of the night? OK by me!! Charlie has the best jazz club in L.A. I'd much rather go there than to Catalina or the Jazz Bakery. i appreciate your opinion, allan, but i still think it's way too steep a price to pay! the drinks and food are not cheap there either. i've probably only been to the club two handfuls of times in the past as it's not as convenient for me as the bakery and catalina's. it is a really good place for jazz though.

i, too, would recommend this gig except i was very surprised at the very high entrance fee: $30!!! way out of line as far as i'm concerned. catalina's and the jazz bakery very rarely even charge that for much bigger names!

i had never seen this before! thanks, Randy!

i know 89 is a pretty ripe old age but i hated to see this headline. he was one in a million and i'm fortunate to have seen him in action many times in the '50s at boston garden games. what a wonderful character!

i guess it's obviously a personal thang but i can't imagine passing up an opportunity to hear mccoy!