Larry Kart

I'm told there are photographs.

It's the ones whose wives look like Elvis Costello that you need to watch out for.

Whitney Balliett sure is fallible. For example, in the liner notes he wrote in 1956 for the Pacific Jazz album "Grand Encounter -- 2 Degrees East, 3 Degrees West," with John Lewis, Bill Perkins, Jim Hall, Percy Heath, and Chico Hamilton, after praising the certainly praiseworthy Perkins for his gentle lyricism, Balliett went on to say this: "There is [in Perkins' playing] none of the hair-pulling, the bad tone, or the ugliness that is now a growing mode, largely in New York, among the work of the hard-bopsters like Sonny Rollins, Hank Mobley, and JR Monterose."

As for what Stanley could have been thinking there, I know that he very much disliked what he thought Goodman's music was and what he thought it represented -- slick white commercial swing unfairly edging out/feeding on the superior, genuine black music of Ellington, Basie et al. -- and then this was 1940, at the end of decade in which it was not uncommon at various times, both on the Left and on the Right, to link Jews and rampant commercialism. (I'd assume that Stanley was on the Left in the '30s; maybe Chris can enlighten me there.)

That should be "...seeking recreation in the music."

That's how I took it, because while Benny the bandleader could be said to be literally a business man, his being a "usurer" (and the rest of the band, too?) as well as a musician can only be figurative, and usury (lending money at exorbitant rates) was perhaps the chief crime or sin, actual and symbolic, with which Jews traditionally were tagged in anti-Semitic lore. Stanley certainly was angry there; the full quote is: "I find Goodman's actions [in hiring Cootie Williams away from Ellington] as contemptible as his clarinet playing. Evidently the 'King of Swing' has no artistic conscience whatsoever. However, I have no doubt that in comparison with the Duke, Mr. Goodman's band will continue to sound like a bunch of tired business men and usurers seeking recreation the the music. The trouble with jazz today is that there are more business men than musicians engaged in it."

Speaking of Dance, who contributed a great deal to the music and also was in my experience a very nice man, I just ran across a rather startling quote from him in a letter he wrote to Down Beat in 1940, about Benny Goodman's "contemptible" hiring of Cootie Williams away from Ellington: "...I have no doubt that in comparison with the Duke, Mr. Goodman's band will continue to sound like a bunch of tired businessmen and usurers seeking recreation the the music." Usurers?

Apparently I'm missing something obvious here. Help me out.

I would guess the "undisguised" was decided by the label, not Mulligan. I don't see why. They play the melody of "Love Me or Leave Me" straight out, not the "Apple Core"/"So What" line.

Always wondered what would have happened with it if we hadn't had the Hawk's classic one. Was the Eldridge-Berry the first one with one chorus (or was it just the bridge?) played uptempo? F That's the one. Lee Konitz adapted and played Roy's solo on his 1969 Milestone album "Peacemeal," having first asked Roy for permission. I'm pretty sure that Eldridge solo was one that the Tristano-ites pored over.

Yes, that's it -- "So What" is "Apple Core," on "Love Me or Leave Me" changes. Mulligan clearly liked them; he recorded "Love Me" undisguised with Brookmeyer in concert in Paris in June '54. That affinity reminds me that some of Mulligan's musical instincts, rhythmic ones especially, were rooted in the '20s.

Can't put my hands on the LP right now, but IIRC "So What" is a typically catchy Mulligan line on "Love Me or Love Me" changes.

Great story, Randy. Cuts several ways at once.

Yes indeed.

The definition of "trollish-ness" is in large part saying something in an attempt to wound and thus provoke to anger someone else. As for the intent to provoke -- Do you think that Yanow would have sent the same "private," supposedly "in jest" message to Allen if he didn't know that we all participate in this public forum? That e-mail is private in the same way that someone kicking you under the table so no one else at the table can see it is private.

IMO the private e-mail thing is a crock. The point of this little note can only have been to stick a finger up Allen's nose in an attempt to provoke him. Pure trollish-ness. Witness the utter disingenuousness of this: "I just wanted to thank you for all of the kind words that you've said about me on the Organissimo threads. It's greatly appreciated." And of this: "I'm just curious as to the strategy."

Eaton was at Indiana Universitry from 1971 to 1991 or thereabouts. He's written a lot, but I don't know how much is microtonal. He did make use of synthesizer called the Syn-Ket that has microtonal capacities.

Clem -- Threadgill would be a fine choice. The point is (or one of the points is) to give the dough (a) to someone who's really good and (b) who probably has ideas/plans that without the dough he/she couldn't realize to the same degree or even at all. Threadgill has (a) in the bag and probably (b) too. 7/4 -- Eaton (b. 1935) is a prominent microtonal composer but from another part of the cultural forest than Partch or Young, so if you dig them, it's not unlikely that you wouldn't know of Eaton. He also made a jazz album for Columbia in his 20s.

I like Al Francis's "Jazz Bohemia Revisited" a lot and reviewed it for the Chicago Tribune when it came out, which led to a friendly phone conversation with Francis. Sadly, I lost track of him.

Winter/Spring '62 for Dylan/Zimmerman's visit would fit. Actually, Spider John Koerner and Dave "Snaker" Ray had been around the U. of C. campus (singly or together, I can't be sure) shortly before or after Dylan/Zimmerman arrived. IIRC they made a better impression musically, but because Big Joe Williams was also present fairly often, certain differences were clear.

Top clear up any confusion, I meant that the guys that Dylan played with that night were much better musically than he was IMO.

I heard Dylan play in a University of Chicago dorm room back in 1960 or '61, when he was still Bob Zimmerman. The U. of C. had a very active folky scene back then, which gave rise to the justly celebrated U. of C. Folk Festival, and a lot of those players were very good, doing their personal offshoots of stuff on the famous Harry Smith Folkways label anthology -- much better musically than Dylan-Zimmerman, I thought. On the other hand, the guys he played with that night sounded noticeably better when they played with him than they normally did, which even then I assumed he was somehow responsible for. On the other hand, not one bit of Dylan's own songwriting, lyric writing, playing, and singing that has crept over my transom in all the years since then has appealed to me in the least. In fact, if the CIA wanted to get me to talk, twelve hours of Dylan would do the trick, easy.

Paul, I know that Earl Warren intro, and I think it's being puritanical to call it "corny." For one thing, Warren's '30s lead alto timbre and time-feel work perfectly in the context of the arrangement IMO, in terms of setting up what follows. I doubt that's an accident. I think of Warren's intro as a salute to the vintage of the tune itself and its ballroom dance team associations before Thornton and the band swing it so damn hard. BTW, isn't it great how much rhythm momentum she develops while IIRC never deviating from the long-meter format?

Whittle, who's English, made his name with Ted Heath in the 1950s. I know him from a Johnny Keating record on Dot (Keating was a Heath arranger, the band is mostly Heath's) from about 1957. Whittle IIRC struck me as pleasant but rather faceless; I preferred the album's other tenorman, Duncan Lamont, woud sounded like "Long Island Sound" vintage Getz might have if he were sucking a lemon. Ot to put it another way, not unlike Gil Melle on tenor. Attractively weird.

As further testimony to Teri Thornton's genuine hipness, a composition by her ("Teri's Tune") can be heard on Johnny Griffin's "Way Out" (OJC).