Larry Kart

I'm pretty familiar with Deacon's ravings on Rec.Music.Classical.Recordings, and schadenfreude doesn't begin to describe the pleasure I and others feel about what's happened/is happening to him in the wake of the Hatto hoax. It's so perfect that at first I had half a thought that this whole thing might have been cooked up to entrap that rat bastard. The great thing, as Clem said, is that Deacon's prior words are out there -- effusively praising Hatto; attacking (among other things, Deacon likes to tell Jewish RMCR contributors he doesn't like that they're revealing their "ethnic heritage") those who had any doubts about the provenance of Hatto's work; and of course, again as Clem points out, there are most deliciously his prior harsh assessments, in posts over the years, of the very pianists he went on to praise when their work was issued under Hatto's name. I think at one point he tried to explain this by saying that the various digital manipulations (e.g. speeding things up a bit without changing the pitch) that were used to somewhat disguise the original recordings when they were pirated and put out under Hatto's name amounted to striking improvements.

I should have said "the Hatto craze that preceded the exposure of the Hatto hoax." The hoax in its hardcore sense was at work all along and in the softcore sense as well.

It's a bit more complicated than that. All the records Gramophone reviewers, and others of that ilk, get their hands on are freebies, so that in itself is not a motive to puff this recording over that one. Instead, the Hatto craze that preceded the Hatto hoax was a blend of a bizarre, sentimental human interest story (remember David Helfgott and "Shine"?) about a prolific, gravely-ill little-known and/or forgotten recluse; plus the deeply ingrained chauvanism/little island-boosterism of British classical music journalism; and of course, the clever-creepy fraudulence of whoever was engineering the hoax (Hatto's husband, one assumes). That is, knowing that he could play on the first two factors as givens, the perpetrator picked genuinely quite good recordings to fiddle around with and pirate. It's as though he went to school on the Helfgott affair and realized that the big flaw there was that Helfgott could no longer play very well, if indeed he ever could.

and a lot of high-flown classical reviewers are going to get their asses handed to them: http://www.gramophone.co.uk/newsMainTempla...newssectionID=1

Had a similar experience, though my connection to what Lewis is writing about is degrees less significant than Chuck's is. The original contact came from Lewis, maybe three years ago, saying that in particular he wanted to talk about the early critical reception to the AACM and what might or might have been at work there on a personal and social level. Because I reviewed several of the early Delmark AACM albums for Down Beat back then -- Jarman's "As If It Were the Seasons," Muhal's "Levels and Degrees of Light," Braxton's "Three Compositions of the New Jazz" -- in addition to Roscoe Mitchell's "Congliptipous" (Nessa), and had been to quite a few early AACM concerts, gigs etc., I thought it would be a good idea to talk about this. Never heard from Lewis again, though, and I believe I sent him an e-mail after about six months asking what was up. On the other hand, if that's the way to put it, what I've read from Lewis on the subject has been excellent (though not entirely free from academic jargon), and I've heard nothing but good things from people who have seen portions of the manuscript.

Yes, Van de Leur did play a major role in those Dutch Jazz Orchestra Strayhorn albums, which are excellent. In fact, the way the DJO plays that music shows up almost every American big band I've heard that tries to take on a re-creative role (that is, work in a prior muscial style).

If I were a Strayhorn scholar myself (I'm not), I might have been a bit suspicious of that aspect of Hajdu's bio anyway before I read Van de Leur's book (and I did read Hajdu first), because I recall thinking that Hajdu's approach to the music in general and to the clearly tricky question of attribution seemed rather superficical, if that's the right word. But when I did read Van de Leur, whatever doubts I might have had while I read Hajdu certainly crystallized. On the other hand, Hajdu's focus as I recall was more on Strayhorn the man and his milieu, and my recollection is that he was quite good there.

About Strayhorn: First, we need to straighten out what Duke composed on his own, what Strayhorn composed for the Ellington band on his own (a whole lot more than used to be thought; on this, see Walter van de Leur's authoritative "Something To Live For: The Music of Billy Strayhorn," not Hajdu's bio, which is however good on the man), and what they did together and how they collaborated (again, see Van de Leur, who makes it very clear that Ellington and Strayhorn's musical habits/fingerprints were quite different). As for Strayhorn's stature on his own, as much as I admire his music, I'll always have a problem with "on his own" because as different as his methods might have been from Duke's, he essentially used Duke's "instrument" (i.e. the Ellington band) and was shaped to a great degree in his musical thinking by its pre-existing, continuing presence.

Here's a link to those Plummer albums: http://db.cadencebuilding.com/searchresult...;offset_count=0

If you have a bad back, like Jim does, it's not too much money. Chronic pain is a bitch, and avoiding more expensive medical treatment, if you can, is a good thing.

Good as Plummer was with Russell, he became an even better and more individual player over the years, based in Indianapolis. Don't know about their currrent availability, but he made two fine CDs with Cincinnati-based drummer Ron Enyard for Cadence and an earlier quite magical one, an LP, with keyboard player Steve Corn. Last I heard, Plummer sadly had his lost teeth and had to stop playing.

Aeron. Worth every penny IMO.

Rudd's Nichols notes are wonderful and unlike any writing on music I know. Schonberg's Herman notes are very insightful, especially good on Dave Tough; S. did a lot of careful listening there, almost hyper-listening at times. Dan Morgenstern's notes for H.R.S. box are full of warmth and savvy, as usual for him. Sadly, I missed my chance to get the Commodore box way back when; I do have the non-Mosaic Keynote box, with more fine writing from Dan, but the Commodore box probably is the mother lode. I think I did a good job on the Tristano-Konitz-Marsh notes, though it was a close-run thing. I came down with a bad case of the fever-and-chills, can't-even-stand respiratory flu within the shortish time frame the notes needed to be done and was close to deciding that I'd have to back out altogether or ask Mosaic to add another few weeks to their deadline. As I recall, I asked Chuck whether he thought that either of those alternatives would put Cuscuna and Charlie Lourie in a bad place, and he said probably yes -- after which adrenalin kicked in just in time. Max Harrison's Condon set notes were a pleasant surprise; I wouldn't have thought he'd be fond of that music. Bill Kirchner's Mulligan Concert Jazz Band and Jones-Lewis Band notes are excellent; in the same vein, Bert Primack did a nice job on the Ferguson Band set -- lots of interesting info there about that slice of the jazz life.

I knew of no alternative.

You've got something precious. I've heard about Gourley's Singer tapes but assumed that after all this time there was primal barrier to their emergence. Singer was a Chicagoan; he and Raney came up on the same scene there (along with Gourley), and those who heard Singer later on in NY (Ira Gitler most notably, also Dan Morgenstern) have told me that Singer was his own man and just amazing. He and his wife committed suicide together, stuck their heads in a gas oven. Sorry about the bluntness of that, but that's the story. Clearly theirs was not a happy family.

I have a good friend who used to be (and I'm sure still is) ga-ga over Nina Simone. To me, she was and is kind of like a humorless Eartha Kitt.

No, it says "Jack Monterose" -- a step in the right direction but not far enough.

And it's Wade Legge on piano, not "Wade Lagge".

Lee's October 1957 quartet album for Norman Granz has been packaged (by an EU outfit by the name of Gambit) with Lee's superb May 1957 quintet album "Very Cool" (with Don Ferrara -- his only substantial outing on record AFAIK -- Sal Mosca, Peter Ind, and Shadow Wilson). "Very Cool" I've known and loved since it first came out, but "Tranquility" (I'm semi-embarrassed to say) was new to me. A beautiful date, with some of the most relaxed, lucid Lee ever. Interesting originals (Lee's "Stephanie," Bauer's "Jonquil") and interpretations (a very down tempo "Sunday," a medium-up "The Nearness of You") as well. BTW, does anyone know who the Jack Fuller is who wrote the liner notes for "Tranquility"? It's a new name to me, and phrase or two gives me the feeling that it's Whitney Balliett writing under a pseudonym. (I do know a Jack Fuller who is interested in jazz -- the former editor of the Chicago Tribune, who wrote a novel about a Coltrane-sh figure -- but that Jack Fuller was in high school in 1957.)

I agree that lateish Al was almost uniformily superb -- got to hear him pretty much every year at the Jazz Showcase in the '80s (until his death), paired with Zoot, Lee Konitz, Allen Eager, Clark Terry or on his own -- but one middle period Al Cohn disc that should not be missed is the one he did for Coral with Bob Brookmeyer that Verve put out a year or so ago. Backed by Mose Allison, Teddy Kotick, and Nick Stabulus (in a neo-Blakey groove), both horn soloists are in great form. Some nice discreet writing -- charts and originals -- too. I'm especially knocked out by the performance here of "A Blues Serenade." A lovely day in the studio. Only possible drawback is 12 shortish tracks (maybe nothing as long as 4 minutes), but on the other hand, the need to get it said within those frameworks seems to stimulate everyone. I've loved this album since it came out in 1957 or so. Grab it before it's gone, if it isn't already.

You're right, there. I'm told you can get it elsewhere for about $10-$12. But I like your title better than mine.

Hey, wise guy -- Jack Nimitz was/is a good, distinctive player.

I'm there. What a strange album this might be. I'm reminded of a non-existent album that I "listened to" in a dream as an adolescent -- the frontline consisted of Jack Teagarden and Paul Desmond, with the former stating and embelishing the melodies of standards (e.g. "Stars Fell on Alabama") in relatively slow motion, while the latter circled around him.

Maybe I've just been lucky, but so far everything I've bought from Caiman (through Amazon) has arrived as quickly and cleanly as anything ever does. On the other hand, most of what I've bought from Caiman happens to have been Lone Hill type stuff; perhaps it's like buying stolen goods from an outfit that steals from thieves.

King U -- What I wrote above was "the band in general, with the exception of Land, is in fairly tepid form..." That is, Land IMO is in very good form on "More Live at the Beehive," while the rest of the band is not.