Larry Kart

Thanks, Alankin -- I like those Mobley pieces. For me, listening to Hank is always an on-the-edge experience. The surprises never stop being surprises, even when it's a solo you've almost memorized. That's a rare thing, I think. Terry Gross also enjoys jazz critics. As you probably know, she's married to Francis Davis. I asked the publisher sent a copies of the book to Davis and to Gross's producer. I have my fingers crossed.

And while I'm thinking of it, Peel me a grape.

When it was hip to be hep, I was hep.

I'd like to get to other cities -- New York, D.C., Boston, the San Francisco area, etc. -- but illness in the family (my 92-year-old father) may make it impossible for me to get away from home base for a good while. I'm trying to think my way through this though, aware that emotional inertia/stress plus ignorance of how to go about things in the promotional realm may be contributing to my sense that my feet are pretty much nailed to the ground right now.

The set Milt Jackson had with the Gillespie big band?

For those in the Chicago area, I'll be signing the book at 1 p.m. until... on Saturday, Nov. 27, at the Jazz Record Mart, 444 N. Wabash Ave. Hope to meet some people that I've only know from their posts.

Seek out if you can The Bud Powell Trio Birdland '53 Vol. 1 (I have it on Fresh Sound, but these airchecks may have cropped up elsewhere too), with for the most part Haynes and either Pettiford or Mingus. Bud is in great form, and Haynes takes a long solo on "Salt Peanuts" that may be the most amazing thing he's ever played -- about two-thirds of the way through there's a moment when it sounds like he's thinking "I can't believe this shit!"

As I think I said on another thread (though not the one linked to above), I heard the "Captain Marvel" band during its 2/72 Chicago engagment at the London House. That was some amazing stuff, and the record is a millimeter below that level. Especially agree with what Jim S. said on the other thread, about this being one of the last times to hear vintage Tony Williams in full flight and about the absence of that "mooing" faux bluesiness thing that Stan used to get into at times. No room for that here.

A listener who is well-disposed toward Taylor's music (and a serious student of it) and was at the concert made this statement on another board this year when I asked whether others thought the concert was a disaster (my inital reaction was akin to Chuck's): "By the way -- please let me know whether...you hear a tape delay on Taylor's piano, and his piano only, or whether he was abnormally interested in playing every note twice that day. I honestly think that a technical glitch keeps us from hearing the performance properly." I listened again and, embarrassingly, can't be sure one way or another, though there are moments when I think he may be right.

John Litweiler's notes to Ben Webster's "Did You Call?" (Nessa) may be the best he ever did, which makes them among the best, period. Intellect, soul, wisdom -- the whole package. I'll always have a soft spot for J.B. Figi's notes to Roscoe Mitchell's "Sound" (Delmark). Poetic, precise, and right on the mark right out of the box -- when that music was brand-new.

I have very fond memories of Eva Marie Saint's performance in a 1976 made for TV production of George Kelly's 1947 play "The Fatal Weakness," described below (note that for the purposes of this board, the music is by the composer who shared a Columbia album in the 1950s with Teo Macero). Further notes: This is a remarkable play -- in the Philip Barry vein ("The Philadelphia Story," "Holiday") but deeper; Kelly was Grace Kelly's uncle; and as I recall the summary below doesn't quite get to what the play is about -- the well-off, rather buttoned-up heroine's "fatal weakness" is that she thinks of sentiment, partiularly romantic sentiment, as something that people like her typically don't get much of a taste of; therefore its presence in her life (when the subject arrives, fortuitously, in late middle age), and the resulting opportunity to muck about with it, can't be anything but a good and especially blameless thing. Saint's ability to bring this decent, foolish, tender-hearted character to life was something else. The Fatal Weakness By George Kelly Music by: Robert Prince With: Eva Marie Saint John McMartin Gretchen Corbett Dennis Dugan Charlotte Moore Sara Seegar Academy Award-winner Eva Marie Saint stars in this comedy about a hyper-romantic woman who receives an anonymous letter disclosing her husband’s infidelity. All seems well for the middle-aged suburban couple who are the protagonists of “The Fatal Weakness”…until the letter arrives. It then becomes apparent to the woman that her daughter’s marriage is falling apart as well. The resulting action – which includes a good deal of totally cockeyed detective work – produces a genuinely funny evening of entertainment. Miss Saint has stated that the woman she plays “could be any well brought up girl who suddenly realizes that marriage can become nothing more than a habit. In a sense, she is a woman who becomes liberated. The play was written in 1946,” she added, “ but it’s so little different from what we go through today.” Directed by Norman Lloyd

I used to work at the factory where they make hydrants but you couldn't park anywhere near the place.

Jim -- Who wrote that Mobley appreciation?

Here's an email exchange I had back in 1999 with the fellows at Vanguard about the Mel Powell "The Best Things In Life Are Free" reissue: Very much enjoyed the music on "Mel Powell--The Best Things in Life Are Free," but there are some nasty errors in the booklet. Several tracks that are said to be performed by the ensemble from the album "Out on a Limb" that includes Oscar Pettiford and Skeeter Best (for example, track 5, "Beale Street Blues") in fact feature the Powell, Ruby Braff, Bobby Donaldson trio from the album "Thigamagig." Track 13, "You're Lucky To Me," is said to be played a group, from the album "Mel Powell Septet," that includes Buck Clayton, Edmond Hall, Steve Jordan and Walter Page, when in fact the piano, guitar, bass trio trio heard on this and the following track consists of Powell, Pettiford and Best, and the Clayton, Hall band is nowhere to be heard on this CD. This last goof could really spread misinformation, because "You're Lucky To Me" includes an agile, boppish Pettiford bass solo the likes of which the otherwise estimable Walter Page could never have played; one imagines an unwary listener rewriting jazz history accordingly. Also, the tracks from the album "The Mel Powell Bandstand" clearly feature solos by an uncredited tenor saxophonist on several tracks. I don't have a discography at hand , so who is he? Bob Wilber? I suppose it might be Chuck Russo doubling, but an alto saxophonist solos on one of the tracks that includes a tenor solo, and Russo, who is credited as playing alto and other reed instruments, is unlikely to have taken two solos on one track. Again, I'm grateful for your reissue program and have already ordered the second Powell album, but you need to run a tighter ship, especially when the "The Best Things in Life Are Free" booklet rightly emphasizes the quality with which Vanguard operated in the 1950s. Dear Larry, Your e-mail regarding the Mel Powell package was forwarded to me. Needless to say I am concerned if, in fact, these errors prove to be substantiated. Sam Charters, a noted musical historian, first developed the idea of re-releasing the John Hammond Jazz Showcase about 10 years ago. However, this idea sat on a shelf until last year when I arrived at Vanguard. I also thought that we should research the series. Though I knew Mel Powell and even contribute liner notes to the second package I told Sam that I would have to rely on him for the identification of musicians. I have forwarded your e-mail to him for response. Unfortunately much of the information in the files regarding these sessions in the 1950s is sketchy at best. For each project all we could do was go to the files and see what musicians were listed for that particular album. In other words the album Mel Powell Septet that you sited only lists as musicians: Edmond Hall, Buck Clayton, Henderson Chambers, Steve Jordan, Walter Page, Jimmy Crawford and Mel. These are the only musicians listed in the session books from the 1950s as well as on the actual EP jacket released in 1953. I can address a couple of your comments. You stated that several tracks are said to be performed by the group from the album Out On A Limb. As an example you give "Beale Street Blues" and say that it is, in fact, from the album Thigamagig. I believe you are incorrect. Both our files and an actual jacket of the album Out On A Limb confirm that "Beale Street Blues" is indeed from the album Out On A Limb. Again this is confirmed both by our files as well as an actual jacket. You are correct that the Mel Powell Bandstand tracks feature a tenor sax player who is not given credit. Though our file notes do not list a tenor sax player the original jacket does list Boomie Richman on tenor sax. This one certainly slipped by everybody. As I have said I am forwarding your notes to Sam and will get back to you as soon as I have more information. Thanks for your interest. Best regards, Steve Buckingham Senior Vice President Vanguard Records Me again: I heard no more from Buckingham or Charters, but I have a friend who knows Charters who said that he was mad as a hornet that someone had made trouble for him at Vanguard over this. Don't know Charters myself and have no particular reason to wish ill to him, but in this instance he acted like a lazy screw-up. Did he even listen to the CDs once they were assembled? If so, he would have spotted these goofs. (Yes, I did goof myself, or at least I think I did, on the album "Beale Street Blues" came from, but the main point is that the liner notes have got the personnel wrong here; "Beale Street" is played by the trio of Powell, Ruby Braff, and Bobby Donaldson, not [as the notes have it] by those men plus Skeeter Best amd Oscar Pettiford. Again, listening would have made that obvious.) The other Powell ("It's Been So Long") and the two Braffs are the others in this series that I bought. Anyone find any other errors? Of course ( or maybe that should be, perhaps) the most troubling aspect of these Vanguard reissues is that they cherry pick from albums that should have been reissued in their entirety (e.g. Powell's excellent trio album, "Borderline," with Paul Quinichette and Donaldson).

Seems like there was a Cinderella interview once at the Classic Guitar Jazz website -- a guy referred to it in a post on a jazz guitar group once, even gave the name of the interviewer (search under "Joe Cinderella" on Deja News and that post will turn up) -- but it's not in that site's article archives now. You might try sending an email to the guy who runs the site.

Right! Now I remember. The thing just took my head off.

Thanks, Chuck -- coming from you that means a lot. I've forgotten about that phone call, though, I guess because once you've known someone for a long time it's hard to remember when you didn't. Did I call about "Sound" or "Congliptious" or something else? Don't remember when and how I met John (Litweiler) or Terry (Martin) either, except that it was around that time and it had to do with AACM doings. I do remember, though, how startling it was to discover that John was about my age. I'd read some of his record reviews in Kulchur, the literary magazine that Le Roi Jones and his then-wife Hettie Cohen, put out, and kind of assumed (because their tone was so relaxed and authoritative) that they must have been written by some scholarly, middle-aged gent who was sitting in his book-lined study in front of a crackling fire with an Irish setter at his side. Oh, right -- that was John McDonough.

"Here's a thought - how about an online index?" Let me think about that. Time and/or timing might be a problem for two reasons. First, I'm concentrating right now on figuring out what I need to do to support the book from a promotion/sales perspective (if in fact it turns out I can do any of those things and still be me); second, I've got an illness in the family situation (my 92-year-old father) that takes up a lot of time and can explode into urgent action status at any moment. On the other hand, putting together a comprehensive index might be just the right sort of relief from all that. I'll go to the library today and find something on how to do an index (of course I know how a good one works or should, but there must be handy tricks and short cuts).

"My copy arrived yesterday. I may never get off the john." Good to know it's having its intended effect. From now on, like L. Armstrong, I will sign copies "Swiss Krissly yours..."

Alankin: Sorry, no index. As I recall, I was looking forward to doing (or trying to do) that myself (because that was the only way I could be sure it would be done right, and also because I thought it might be fun) but Yale strongly "suggested" that they didn't think the book needed an index -- I think, but I'm not sure, because it would have added too many pages to a book that was at the upper edge of the number of pages it could be and still stand a chance of being profitable from the publisher's perspective. Economies of scale are a big deal for them. For instance, the manuscript had the dedication (to my son) on a separate page, but they moved it to the top of the copyright and credits page to save a page. Perhaps in all this the need to avoid another signature was what was at stake. Looking at the finished book, the lack of an index doesn't bother me now, but then I know what's in the book.

Yeah, those threats -- in response to two different pieces from the mid-'80s, one called "The Death of Jazz" (essentially about the burgeoning jazz neo-con movement, but the title [my editor's, not mine] really freaked people out), the other a mostly negative piece about Bill Evans -- were kind of funny. At least as I recall things, it was the Evans piece that inspired much more ire. Somebody told me that pianist John Campbell (a good player) wanted a piece of me, and I was in a record store when I overheard bassist Mike Arnapol (I think he's now with Patricia Barber or was at one time) say to someone that what I'd written about Evans made him so mad that he wanted to kill me. I went up to him, introduced myself (we'd never met, but I knew who he was), and after a while we agreed to disagree. (Arnapol, while very angry, didn't strike me as a Mingus-type personality; otherwise I probably wouldn't have done that.)

Thank you, Mike. I'm especially pleased that you like the way things are organized. But dig what my horoscope said yesterday (I'm not kidding): "Today is a 6 [out of 10]. Finally the moment you are worried about is here at last. Your work's being observed by somebody you admire."

"Please amplify. I have not paid attention for about 20 years. Ralph Moore distracted me for a while so I didn't notice Ricky's absence, then ............ I do have to say Ricky played the "Ralph role" when Schnitter evaporated." That's so "inside" that it frightens me to think that I pretty much understand it.

No problem -- I've been disappointed before.

Sorry again. I meant to say "Wynton's problem FOR folks like me..." -- not "with folks like me." Make of that what you will, Dr. Freud. P.S. I remember that Jimmy Smith jam session set. It was something else. The drummer was Mickey Roker? I vaguely recall that whoever it was, getting that person in the drum chair was part of the "story."