Larry Kart

What? I have to keep a continuous record of my opinions? The unusual depth and strength of tone, plus, as Ralph La Lama put it, "Gary's ability to stack chords on chords," and I would add make that all come out as coherent lines. About Woods I've testified/explained at length here many times. After about 1958 , lead work aside, IMO it often became bells and whistles, snorts and chortles. P.S. I love Cuber.

I'd add that when I first heard Smulyan he pretty much sounded like a Pepper Adams clone to me.. Over time I think he's grown much more distinctive.

I have an album by the Australian trombonist who made the Buddy tapes. good player.

I've now become a Smulyan fan, despite my former comments, which you recall accurately. We live and learn. I should add that IMO Smulyan has grown a fair bit over the years.

Jack Montrose played there for a good while.

Wirth Rich Perry, Ralph LaLama, Dick Oatts, Billy Drewes., Scott Robinson, Mike LaDonne, Dennis Irwin, Kenny Washington. Bob Belden arrangements. Smulyan gets most of the solo space, but there’s some terrific spots from Rich and Ralph.

Frank Strazzeri was Elvis' pianist of choice.

What I have against Chambers, here and in his Miles Davis bio, and James Gavin too, in his Baker bio, is that their presumption of being on the inside is highly dubious and leads them to make errors of fact and emphasis that then can become part of the "real story.".I've mentioned some of these here from time to time. Also there's Gavin's obsession with Bruce Weber and gay politics.

Zieff wasn't the writer. The error was the product of Jack Chambers's brain or his fingers.

No, that was at Chicago Fest, where Frank's voice pretty much suddenly gave out and he sang for only about 40 minutes and got into his helicopter to O'Hare. This after we had sat in the summer sun for several hours and after Royko and Co, were ushered into front row seats by Mayor Byrne. That review almost got me fired.

One difference is that Frank's fans could almost be Elvis like. I caught him live at the Chicago Stadium in the '70s and the intensity of the female fans was extreme. I remember several young women staggering toward the stage with totally dazed expressions on their faces.

I didn't really get how great Tony was until I saw him live. The unforced immediacy was something else. Wish I had my old Tribune reviews of him. My vague recollection is that he inspired me to say some good things in a good way.

My Tony Bennett story: I had reviewed Tony several time for the Chicago Tribune with much enthusiasm, impressed above all by the emotional immediacy off his singing, I remember in particular early on he was singing "Sophisticated Lady," a song where the title words don't appear for a good while, and the performance was so spontaneously immediate that I thought for a crazy moment "Is he making this up?" Likewise, like Errol Garner perhaps, he'd often begin a song out of tempo and in a wandering rubato manner and only launch into the song proper after a while. I asked his bassist of the time, it might have been John Beal, how the rhythm section knew when to come in, and he said, "Man, it's an adventure every time." So after that roster of great reviews Tony became quite friendly and we even had dinner a few times. Then there was a performance in Chicago at the DruryrLane Water Tower Place. Tony seemed quite lost -- musically and otherwise -- it was horrible. All I could do was record what I'd heard without being nasty, but still I felt terrible. I get into work the next day and I have a message to call Tony Bennett at the Ritz. Tony answers the phone and says, "Hey Larry, I don't think I was that bad, but you had to write what you did." Clearly he was concerned about my well being. I'm thinking he's either the great guy I already thought he was or a sublime con artist, leaning toward the former. Eventually I found out what had gone on. Tony's pianist conductor Torrie Zito was going through a terrible divorce and was having a nervous breakdown that night. Tony who liked to take a toke or two before performing took way too many that night in an attempt to calm down and deal with Torrie's trauma, and by the time he began to sing he hardly knew where he was. Thus the performance I heard.

Ted Giola compiles a list of Tony's greatest jazz collaborations and somehow fails to mention Tony's sublime collaborations with Ruby Braff! WTF?

I was just pointing out an aspect of my taste in fairly young trumpeters that seemed odd to me. I never would have come to a similar conclusion about fairly young tenor players, pianists, bassists , drummers etc. and wondering why that might be. You'll have to trust me that my tastes aren't based on race, never have been.

Allison was an interesting accompanist, which must be why he was with Al and Zoot. IIRC he was particularly effective on that excellent Coral album with Cohn and Bob Brookmeyer.

Whichever one has "Willow Weep For Me" is my favorite. Sinatras reading the lyric is to die for. The way the links those vowel sounds!

Longtime mainstay and a moving force in the Chicago jazz community and a dear friend to me and many others for many years.

The book contains one of the funniest typos or outright errors I've ever seen. At one point Bob Zieff is quoted as referring to someone as "a "bone-fried bebopper." Yeah, there were a lot of those around. Try "bona fide."

Fine backup band: the drummer is a gas. This may have been Fusco's final album. a great loss.

I had fun reviewing Mathis witn enthusiasm back in the day. My recollection ia that the more or less orchestral timbres he could come up with in live performance were almost unreal.

Who did the arrangements?

Any thoughts?

It's Matana, not Mantana.

Me too