Christiern

As you probably know, I have plenty of thoughts on that subject, Joel. The situation is indeed grave and there is in my estimation not much hope for WBAI's survival as a listener-sponsored station. My WBAI blog will give you a good idea of where I stand and what is happening within the station. There are forces within who are trying to convert WBAI into a black/latino outlet and—sad to say—they are aiming low, intellectually. Here's a link to my blog. So, Joel, except for "the faction wars used to be fun," I agree entirely with your last paragraph. BTW, jazz was well represented on WBAI when I was the General Manager, many moons ago. This Village Voice ad is from 1965:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/meuwKhPGItk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> The quality of this YouTube upload isn't even close to the original. Larry Hiller and I were amazed when we first heard it while working on the Columbia LP reissue. Considering the equipment used in 1931, those Columbia engineers were capable of some truly impressive work. BTW, Allan, where/when did you find "Shave 'em Dry"? There was a really good master at the old Columbia plant. Larry Hiller and I made it better with his half-Dolby method and I placed it (as well as a straight transfer) in Columbia's Iron Mountain vault, but—for inexplicable reasons—the Legacy people never used it. Ditto the entire Bessie Smith output—it was there for future reissue engineers to use as raw material. Listening to the Legacy CD releases, they obviously didn't.

He did not hate jazz, but he deplored the way some treated the piano. He and Ellington were very good friends who worked together,

The Schaap-produced Mosaic Bird box box easily gets my vote for the second-most ludicrous reissue ever (His Benedetti box, containing everything but a coffee-stained set of menus, was a masterpiece). Hope you enjoy the "recently discovered" 48-second intro of Ella F. or the 5-second "previously unreleased" rehearsal coda to My Melancholy Baby or the "previously unreleased" and "incomplete" 1st take of Leap Frog — a quick hop, it runs 27 seconds, but don't worry, there are many other snippets of this selection, ranging in duration from 18 to 43 seconds. My favorite is the 23-second one. Then there is that wonderful 8-second false start of Relaxing with Lee, the 10-second false start of I'll Remember April, a true classic! If you're into latin rhythms, try not to miss the 4-second false start of Estrellita or the generous 10-second La Cucuracha. Many, many more great, speedy snippets for Bird lovers on the run, so I am only scratching the surface* here, as it were. Finally, as if that isn't generous enough, Schaap—a lover of the spoken word—also clarifies the chatter: * Metaphorically speaking, not the way Schaap scratched Benny's Carnegie Hall concert.

I recall Mingus asking me to pass the salt. I think (but I could be wrong here) that his exact words were: "Got any salt over there?" As I say,he might have worded it differently, but that was the gist of it. Then, as he savored the last bite of his dessert, he beckoned the waiter over (we were on an Amtrak to Trenton), made a circular gesture at the table, and said, "Let's do that again." Did anything like that make it into the book? If so, was it credited properly?

NO

Nobody has suggested that the label is new, but the releases are—so what's your point?

I received these today:

Apropos, "well, it's an honest living," I remember when Timmie Rosenkrantz, Jeff Atterton and Harry Lim worked at Sam Goody's.

Here's what songwriter Andy Razaf, who collaborated heavily with Fats Waller, used.

Thanks for the list of employees. Now that I see his name, I realise that it was Johnny Kendall. He begged me to sell him one of the shirts Lil Armstrong tailored for me. I wonder what became of him.

Maya Angelou, like Nikki Giovanni, is a highly over-rated writer who (in terms of writing skill) can't hold a candle to Alice Childress and Toni Morrison—although I'm sure that there were times when she wanted to. She is the Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, Sammy Davis Jr. of the moment, a black person whose name white media people know and therefore give the first call when they need someone of that race. As for jazz divas, I really think was one lady who qualified as such: Sarah Vaughan. She had that air about her and I heard her in person countless times, but never more diva-like than one Sunday evening when she performed, surrounded by an abundance of flowers on the stage Perugia's 18th century Teatro Del Pavone.

When I finish writing the notes for a 8-CD George Lewis box, I will turn to something completely different: the New York Art Quartet set I just received...

It was a weekly half-hour show taped in Trenton, NJ. 13 episodes were purchased and carried by PBS. Apparently, it also ran in Japan and perhaps elsewhere. I have always been a very poor business guy, so I don't even get royalties on my audio albums. Here’s all the info I have on “The Jazz Set” TV series—a few shows are missing. Dan Morgenstern sat in for me on the first one (Randy Weston), because I took ill (auspicious start, eh?). The dates are taping dates (I was wrong, it was 1972, not ’71) and the personnel is in some cases incomplete: February 2, 1972 Randy Weston February 7 Roy Haynes Hip Ensemble February 15 Larry Johnson (Blues singer/guitarist) February 22 Clifford Jordan Jordan (ts); George Coleman (ts); Stanley Cowell (pno); Bill Lee (bs); Al “Tootie” Heath (dms); Sheila Jordan and Dee Dee Bridgewater (vocals). February 29 Joe Lee Wilson Accompanying group included Rashied Ali (dms). March 6 Jimmy Heath All-Stars Jimmy H. (ts); Curtis Fuller (tbn); Kenny Barron (pno); Bill Lee (bs); Al “Tootie” Heath (dms); Mtume (congas). March 14 Rashied Ali Quartet Carlos Ward (tenor sax); Dave Burrell (piano); Sirone Jones (bass); Rashied Ali, drums. March 21 Ray Draper and the New Island Social Club Ray (tuba, baritone horn, vocals and perc.); Atlee Chapman (valve tbn); Clive Stevens (sop and ts); Bu Pleasant (organ and voc); Stu Williamson (bs); Richard Crooks (dms). March 28 Irene Reid Don’t have info on accompanying group. April 11 Sam Wooding Wooding (pno); Louis Metcalfe (tpt); Jimmy Wright (ts); Jimmy Shirley (gtr); Al Drears (dms); Rae Harrison (voc). I later did a one-hour special with Sam and his big band, which was mostly an informal interview w. Sam. April 11 Charles McGhee and The Gap Charles McGhee (tpt). Don’t recall the rest of group. April 18 Keno Duke Keno (dms); Frank Strozier (ts); and others. April 18 Joe McPhee McPhee (tpt and ts); Clifford Thornton (tpt); Mike Kull (pno); Harold Smith (dms). April 25 Lonnie Liston Smith LL Smith (pno); John Gilmore (ts); Jazzbo Alexander (flute); Cecil McBee (bs); Norman Connors (dms); Ná Ná (congas and birimbau). April 24 Jeremy Steig Steig (flute); Gene Perla el-bs); Don Alias (dms). May 2 Ted Curson Curson (tpt and piccolo horn); Bill Barron (ts); Lee Scippers (vibes); Sam Jones (bs); Freddy Waits (dms). May 9 Charles Mingus Sextet feat. Charles McPherson Mingus (bs); Lonnie Hillyer (tpt); Bobby Jones (ts); McPherson (alto sax); John Foster (pno); Roy Brooks (dms). May 16 Ray Bryant Trio Bryant (pno); Harold Dodson (bs); Leroy Williams (dms). May 23 Bobbi Humphrey Humphrey (flute); Harold Mabern (pno); Bob Cranshaw (bs); Mickey Roker (dms). May 30 Bill Evans Trio Evans (pno); Eddie Gomez (bs); Marty Morrel (dms). That’s all the info I could dig up. I don’t know how many of these tapes still exist—I only have a few, but I believe that PBS still has the master dupes of the 13 aired by them.

Well, that is certainly humdrum news.

Are you sure it was a woman in that men's room?

I would guess that the source for these recordings is DK (Radio Denmark). I was there for many of these concerts, albeit sometimes backstage.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: Correction: April 7, 2013 An article last Sunday about efforts to revive the jazz scene in Harlem erroneously included one musician among those who jammed and experimented in the neighborhood in the early 1940s. The musician, John Coltrane, did not arrive in New York until the late 1940s, so he could not have played with musicians like Dizzy Gillespie earlier in the decade.

A very gentle, soft spoken man. I did two interviews with him, one of which was in my apartment. He brought with him an instrument that seemed as long as he was tall. I hope he had a good life.

Many moons ago, in a land far, far away, I spent about three years playing 78 rpm discs on a floor model HMV gramophone, using my right index finger. The spring had broken and people has gone to electric turntables, so replacing it was beyond my means. I found out that if I pressed hard, the record could not spin any faster than 78 rpm. It took some practice to avoid bumping into the tubular arm, but it became second nature to me. The advantage (yes, there was one) came from not being able to get up and walk around whilst the music played, so I absorbed every note. Of course, this method of playback soon wore all my labels down to an unreadable state, so—and here's where the expertise comes in—I committed to memory the matrix numbers and learned to identify individual sides by the look of the grooves. I recall, for example, that Woody Herman's "Happiness Is Just a Thing Called Joe" was instantly recognizable because the brass built up in the middle of Frances Wayne's vocal. That created a grayish ring that to this day is as familiar to me as Rembrandt's Mona. Then, of course, those damn LPs took over—I felt cheated. BTW, the callus on my index finger is long gone, and some collectors might have wondered how the record they found in a second-hand bin became so oddly worn. I am not making this up.

I paid Doug's wonderful record shop many visits, starting in 1953. I haven't seen any mention of Johnny (don't recall his last name) who was an exuberant young man behind the counter. I think he knew every record in that store. Around the time when the Bruce Turner session was filmed, Timme Rosenkranz and I set up a record session for Doug in the basement apartment we shared on West 84th Street. It was for Doug's new label, 77 Records. I wrote about it on my blog and here's a direct link. Anybody here remember Johnny?

....and the hype goes on.

I think you have a little black book full of them. As a disc jockey in Philly from 1958-60, I saw the bastard up close and knew some who had been in his way when he clawed to the top. I'm sorry that I intruded on yet another of JSngry's YouTube franchises.

If you want to hear Archie talk, here's a New Year's Eve 1969 interview.

Fortunately, I had my little B&O recorder with me in the control room. This is a direct line feed, but I was running quarter track on a 14" tape at 3/8 i.p.s.. so this speaks well for Bang & Olufsen. DivShare File - Outhouse C_ Jordan 4.mp3 DivShare File - Highest Mountain - C_ Jordan 5.mp3 DivShare File - Malice Toward None-C_ Jordan 4.mp3