Christiern

We were there in '55, stayed at the Hotel Atlantic. We had fun--you're right, it was bawdy but not sleazy back then.

Weizen, would you believe that I spent my honeymoon in Hamburg?

Listen weizen, we live in a country where a guy can't even have a little innocent fun in his own office without someone forming a committee on the Hill! Legalize sex in the Oval Office! Think how much money and time we would have saved.

I recall a recent time when suddenly, with the stroke of a pen, one of my favorite albums became conspicuously dated.

You mean to tell me that Rudy's studio wasn't black & white? Who knew! Well, Jim--they were black, Rudy and I were white.

Thanks, Lon. I just wish I had learned to master a light meter back then. The ladies looked better in focus!

I rather like this one, taken in Paris in the late 1920s. The three ladies (l to r) are Bricktop, Mabel Mercer, and Alberta Hunter.

There you go, Lon....Una Mae with Pat Flowers at WNEW:

Early photo of Bessie Smith

Alberta Hunter, Victoria Spivey, Lucille Hegamin at entrance to Van Gelder studio, August 16. 1961

Woody Allen was a great stand-up comic. My favorite monologues are Ruth Draper's--most of them are available on a double CD, and I highly recommend this set. Anyone here ever heard of Draper? I also like Anna Russell, Mort Sahl and Lenny Bruce a lot.

Haven't missed a show. Great writing, casting, acting. IMO

Thanks Rooster Ties, I thought it was somebody of imprtance in the industry, but it's just another nutcase. It always amazes me when hateful people go out of their way to label themselves Christian! Thank god I'm an Atheist! BTW I may see Bruce Lundwall in about a week--if so, I will ask him about this character--he certainly isn't doing Norah Jones any good with his nonsense. As for his protecting children, damn, if this creep is out to protect children, I fear for them.

I knew that Miles was a blond chick, but I don't remember Percy Sledge looking like that. Thanks Lon.

Aretha! Aretha! Aretha! Aretha! Aretha! Aretha! Aretha! Aretha! Aretha! Aretha! Aretha! Aretha! Aretha! Aretha!

Here's a close-up of the flyer...

In the early to mid Sixties, when I was managing WBAI, I put together a benefit (for the station) at the Village Gate. It was a madhouse, because it never occurred to any of us that so many people would buy tickets. Expecting good but not turn-away sales, we did not number the tickets. When I reached the Gate, about an hour before the scheduled start time, the Gate was full to capacity and the street was packed with angry people wanting to be admitted. Fortunately, there was nothing goi9ng on at the Top of the Gate that night, so Art d'Lugoff (the proprietor) suggested having each artist perform twice, once in each room. That worked, but let me get to the point here--as I stood by the door, calming the crowd, a young blind man, carrying a guitar, approached me. He loved WBAI and wanted to perform. Like most people at that time, I had never heard of Jose Feliciano, but that's not the reason I turned him away, we simply had too many performers already. BTW, those included Clark Terry, Jimmy Rushing, Bobby Brookmeyer, Kenny Dorham, Betty Carter, Al Cohn, Jimmy Rushing, Jim Hall, Charles Davis, Zoot Sims, Joe Williams, Sonny Rollins, and Thelonious Monk. At my suggestion, Jose later came to the station and, as it turned out, lit our fire.

It was taken from "The Jazz Set," (PBS) a weekly half-hour show that I co-produced and hosted in 1971. There is another fragment from that show in the Mingus documentary, the group playing--my show featured only a brief interview (there wasn't much more than you saw), the bulk of it was music. The set simulated a club (with audience) and, apparently, was so realistic that we used to get letters from people around the country asking for the address, because they were planning a visit to New York. We actually taped the shows in the Trenton, NJ studios of New Jersey Public Television.

Christiern is the actual spelling of my first name. Yes, Mingus could be intimidating, but he was super congenial on the day we taped that show. I little difficult to interview. however.

No, that was not another AMG gaffe, although they are plentiful (I think they have me producing a 1920s session). I just couldn't recall which selections that particular set contains and I was too lazy to look for it. I have now looked it up and I think it will serve well as an introduction to Bessie's recorded performances.

I don't know about Canada, but it will be released simultaneously in the U.S. and UK, which should be this coming week I don't know what is on the 2-CD set, but there were 160 released Bessie sides, and only a handful were less than good, so I'm sure this set will satisfy. The Columbias have good sound quality, but I am told that the recent Frog (UK) releases--remastered by R. T. Davies--are even better. Lon should be able to address that.

Many years ago, I had a landlady with a 4-Excedrin head and no body to speak of. She didn't scare me, however....well, perhaps on the first of each month.

Would you believe, between hopeless bouts with Greg and silly pixel tags with Heaney--all on a BBS far, far away--I have been updating, fattening and translating into less embarrassing English my 1972 biography of Bessie Smith. This edition has new material, an added chapter that deals with the aftermath of the book's original publication, and more illustrations. Pardon me while I brag a bit, but the original edition was so well received that I am inclined to think that some reviewers went too far in their praise B): The Washington Post called it "A landmark in the writing of jazz history." In The New Yorker, Whitney Balliett deemed it "The first estimable full-length biography not only of Bessie Smith but of any black musician." Leonard Feather wrote in the Los Angeles Times: "The most devastating, provocative, and enlightening work of its kind ever contributed to the annals of jazz literature." The publisher is Yale University Press, and if any of you should read it, I would greatly appreciate feedback--even if it's negative.

How about struggling writers?

I am really surprised that they are that petty.