Larry Kart

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-terry-teachout-250000-conservative-bradley-foundation-prize-20140429,0,5073673.story#axzz30TcSAilF

David Vital's "A People Apart: The Jews in Europe, 1789-1939," for the second time: http://www.amazon.com/People-Apart-Europe-1789-1939-History/dp/0198219806 Having spent ten days in Israel about a month ago, I need to return to Vital’s vast, brilliant book to get a better grasp on some things that now seem fresh and crucial to me, and so far in my re-reading I’m finding what I’m looking for. Strange, less than a month before I turn 72, how much room there still is or seems to be for learning. Main thing I’m thinking/wondering about is my memory (from a previous reading of Vital) that Zionism was a movement that not only was born of the desperately fraught state of the Jews of Eastern Europe (Russia especially — after Alexander II instituted extremely harsh anti-Jewish measures in 1881, immediately following a wave of pogroms, no less) but also involved (perhaps even was inseparable from) a fundamental and far from incidental turn away from traditional Jewish ways of life — the arguably unworldly devotion to religious study, etc. — because those ways of life were felt to so unworldly. This came to mind because of the clash in Israel these days between the predominantly secular modes of life of most Israelis and the rapidly growing size (and thus the growing political power) of the extreme Orthodox segment of the society. Certain paradoxes seems to be at work here, no? But I need to find out much more about the 19th Century foundations/background.

Not that it is terribly important, but FWIW Nat King Cole first recorded with the trio in 1938. The weirdest drummerless group has to be Benny Goodman's orchestra, on September 25, 1941. As in "The Earl". F The circumstances behind "The Earl" were a bit odd -- according to pianist (and the composer of the piece) Mel Powell, a dispute between Goodman and Sid Catlett led Catlett to leave the studio -- but the performance itself isn't weird; it's superb and swings like crazy.

Just found out --- that Iwo Jima book is: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-99M80AdLxBs/UI8HO4W5TeI/AAAAAAAAAZw/iYl5JYOghLA/s1600/assaunt-book-iwo.jpg "The Assault," by Allen R. Matthews, from 1947. That's why the narrator's buddy calls him "Mattchu." I see now that book is not a novel but a memoir. A review: http://www.unz.org/Pub/SaturdayRev-1947jul05-00021?View=PDFPages

In the Iwo Jima novel, unless I'm confusing it with another book, the main character either has a friend named Matthews whom he calls "Mattchu" (that is, his pronunciation is rendered that way) or he himself is named Matthews and is called "Mattchu."

I recall back in the '80s reviewing a Crystal performance that included a good-sized routine about his young days among great jazz musicians I(he's probably been doing it for years), but a portion of it involved him impersonating one or more of those figures, in dialogue with his young self, and those impersonations found him using Black dialect in a broad, mush-mouth manner that seemed rather creepy to me. Yes, on the face of it, if you're going to try to talk like, say, Sandy Williams or Hot Lips Page, you're not going to sound like yourself, but these impersonations struck me as very "tourist-y" and sell-serving, which IMO wouldn't be out of the norm for Crystal in general.

The Komandorskis one is Martin Dibner's "The Deep Six," I've been told.

Yes, Artie Anton.

Trying to find two World War II novels I read some time ago (probably in the late 1950s) whose titles and authors I've forgotten. One was a very grim, close to the earth paperback (probably a so-called paperback original, from Signet perhaps) about the battle for Iwo Jima. The other was about a U.S. cruiser, probably based on the Salt Lake City, that takes part in the inconclusive Battle of the Komandorskis during the Aluetian Islands campaign. As in real life, IIRC, the captain of the ship is accused (rightly or wrongly, I don't recall) of having behaved in an inept and cowardly manner in the course of the battle.

In a similar vein, Zo-Ko-Ma: http://www.discogs.com/Attila-Zoller-Lee-Konitz-Albert-Mangelsdorff-Zo-Ko-Ma/release/1860151 Zo-Ko-Ma is a great record but there is the fact of Stu Martin's drumming that would probably keep it out of contention for the OP... Oops -- I forgot.

In a similar vein, Zo-Ko-Ma: http://www.discogs.com/Attila-Zoller-Lee-Konitz-Albert-Mangelsdorff-Zo-Ko-Ma/release/1860151 In some ways, "Texas Moaner" (see posts #24 and #26) is the "bluest" jazz recording I know. Also, in case anyone thinks that jazz in 1924 still was in some primitive state of being, I'd say that it doesn't get much more sophisticated, in any meaningful sense, than this.

Surprised that one of Root's finest outings has not been mentioned, his solo with Lee Morgan, Al Grey, Billy Mitchell, Wynton Kelly, Paul West, and Charlie Persip on the great "Dishwater." Dig the ensemble shout that links the end of Morgan's solo (he's age18!) to the beginning of Root's, and the terrifically loose, swinging feel of the whole track.

In a similar vein, Clarence Williams' Blue Five, with Bechet and Armstrong, "Santa Claus Blues" -- that Bechet solo! And the Blue Five with the incredible "Texas Moaner"

Leave us not forget the excellent and almost forgotten Clarence Profit Trio, which I believe pioneered the piano-guitar-bass format. Nothing on YouTube, but some of the group's work can be found on Spotify. Profit was a very "advanced" player, as they say; dig him on "Tropical Nights," for example. Intimations of Monk at times. New York, February 15, 1939 Clarence Profit Trio: Profit (piano); Billy Moore (guitar); Ben Brown (bass). Don't Leave Me There'll Be Some Changes Made I Got Rhythm Down Home Tropical Nights Tea For Two New York, November 29, 1939 Body and Soul The Blues (rejected) New York, January 5, 1940 Body and Soul I Didn't Know What Time it Was New York, September 11, 1940 Jimmy Shirley replaces Billy Moore Dark Eyes Times Square Blues Hot and Bothered Azure The 9/11 session was for Decca, the rest Brunswick/Columbia Clarence Profit was born in New York City on June 26, 1912. Herman Profit, his father, played piano professionally, his cousin was pianist Sinclair Mills. Clarence was only 3 when he began playing piano and he led a 10-piece band while still in his teens; they played various New York venues, such as the Bamboo Inn, the Alhambra, and the Renaissance. He worked with guitarist Teddy Bunn in the Washboard Serenaders group during 1930 and '31. One reason why he is relatively obscure is that he visited his grandparents in Antigua in the 1930s, remaining in the West Indies for 4 or 5 years. He led his own band in Antigua and Bermuda, among other places, returning to New York City in November, 1936. There he formed a trio which had great success at clubs like George's Tavern, New York (1937-39); the Ritz Carlton, Boston (1938); and, back in New York, the Yeah Man Club and Café Society (1939), the Village Vanguard (1940 and 1944), Kelly's Stables (1940-43), Performers' and Music Guild Club (1942). Profit also co-composed "Lullaby in Rhythm" with Edgar Sampson. He died in New York City, Octiber 22, 1944.

One of my favorites is the Lucky Thompson Trio on ABC- Paramount (LT, Oscar Pettiford, and guitarist Skeeter Best). Another nice one with Pettiford is the Teddy Charles all-Ellington-pieces trio date on Jubilee, with Hall Overton on piano. Jim Hall's own first album on Pacific Jazz with Carl Perkins and Red Mitchell is a gem. Beware the version where Dick Bock had Larry Bunker dub in drum accompaniment.

Maybe so.

As I read the article, the feds and the bootleggers eventually came to be locked in a struggle to see if the feds could actively pollute the alcohol the bootleggers were stealing in such a way (and the feds tried several ways) that the bootleggers couldn't detect that it was polluted and/or couldn't find a way (or, if you will, a cost-effective way) to purify it enough that drinking it would not be fatal. Eventually the feds found a way that worked from their point of view, thus all the deaths. I suppose there's enough blame to go around among alcoholics, bootleggers, and the feds, but I don't see how the feds were not key players here -- again assuming that Bix drank polluted alcohol and died sooner than he would have because of that.

Many thanks for this.

Thanks again, mjzee. Done.

Just to be clear, those are my suppositions, not Randy's. And you're probably right. OTOH, having spent the majority of his life as a jazz musician, I'm sure that Randy has run across more than a few addicts and alcoholics, though "to know" is not necessarily to understand.

IIRC, Bobby Hackett was a lush in the very top class. And let's not talk about Pee Wee Russell. But no one, governmental or otherwise, made available to them any booze laced with methanol. Also, in college I ran into a guy who tried to interest me and my roommates in shooting up with methamphetamine. Don't think I would have been interested anyway, but when he rolled up his sleeve to shoot up himself and I saw what his arm looked like, my "Fail Safe" switch went right on.

No, just an IPhone 4 and my IMac computer. There's a Kindle app for the iMac (free, available through the App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kindle/id405399194?mt=12) and for the iPhone; I wouldn't recommend the iPhone app, as the small screen size makes reading a bit tedious. Thanks mjzee. I just downloaded the app, downloaded "Wail" for $9.99, and am in business. A separate Kindle might make sense later on for vacations and the like.

No, just an IPhone 4 and my IMac computer.

I need to get a Kindle of some sort, I think, because I want to read a book (Peter Pullman's Bud Powell bio, "Wail") that is available only in that format and figure that once I get a Kindle, I'll put it to good use otherwise down the road. So, any thoughts about which Kindle to get? Bells and whistles not needed, unless someone can tell me why I do need/might enjoy them.

I take the point of the article to be something like this: Bix's early death has typically been regarded as very sad event, both in terms of his own life and also in terms of what we all lost by not having the music he almost certainly would have gone to make had he lived longer. But that sadness is tempered by the common belief that Bix's early demise was essentially, even solely, the result of his longtime alcoholism, however one regards alcoholism: as a disease, as a matter of conscious individual choice, etc. But if (repeat "if") Bix died as a result of drinking alcohol that deliberately had been laced with methanol, one can be fairly sure 1) that he would not have drunk that alcohol if he knew what was in it, and 2) that if he had merely continued along the path he had been following, he would have lived a fair bit longer and left more music behind. Think, by contrast, of the death of gifted trumpeter Sonny Berman at IIRC age 21. Berman, a heroin user, died because an air bubble got into the syringe he was using and traveled to his heart, which stopped. Very sad, for the same two reasons that Bix's death was very sad. But if Berman had died from a so-called "hot shot," and if that hot shot had gone his way for malicious reasons, which typically would be the case, we'd have a rather different story, no?