Larry Kart

Frigo also published a book of his poems.

Fruit of a library sale -- Benny Goodman's "Air Play( CSP) -- 23 airshots (small group and orchestra) from 1938-39. Really good stuff; Hampton and Teddy Wilson in great form, as is Goodman, and I'm struck by the swinging inventive efficiency of the band charts by both Hendersons, Mundy, and Edgar Sampson, plus strong solo work from James, Bud Freeman, and Stacy. Not to be passed up IMO.

Roscoe Mitchell paints

Good one. Fine Bill Pott charts.

arrived yesterday. I'm enjoying the heck out of out. Sipiagin and Strickand I knew about; Michael Dease, Diego Rivera, and Will Bernard are new to me and very good. Am I allowed to say that Organissimo the band -- Jim, Joe, and Randy -- still lives in my heart.

About Fischer's combativeness, IIRC he got into a brawl after challenging another motorist re: a road rage incident on a L.A. area freeway and sadly got the crap beaten out of him. The effects of this on his mental and physical well-being were I believe fairly severe.

Fischer frequently made racist remarks in front of witnesses, but then he was known to be a pantsonfire asshole in many respects, as well as an immensely talented musician, so most people left that stuff go. In particular he claimed that white jazz musicians like himself were more or less ignored as part of racist conspiracy on the part of critics and black musicians. He was only something of a racist because he confined himself to scurrilous remarks, stopping short of, say, cross burning and white hoods.

Why is that sexist? Dmitry -- You're beginning to sound like a nut job. BTW, Fischer was something of a racist.

Even Mildred Bailey? She was a real jazz singer and a great one.

I think the former but don't know for sure. As you can see, the personnel of the band I heard differs a bit (bass and drums) from the band in the film and on the record.

Another great gig was in a loft above the Village Vanguard in 1964 by, in effect, the New York Eye and Ear Control band -- Don Cherry, Roswell Rudd, John Tchcai, Albert Ayler, Louis Worrell, and Milford Graves. This was the only time I heard Ayler in person, and I was astonished. His sound seemed come up through the floor and exit through the hairs on my head.

What I recall about Rosenthal's book is that he didn't pay much attention to at least one key figure IMO -- maybe Hank Mobley or Jackie McLean.

He was Daiv Rosenthal a classmate at the University of Chicago, son of literary critic M.L. Rosenthal, and later on author of a book on Hard Bop. Don't recall when he stopped beating his head on the bar, but he must have. Years later a friend of mine mentioned that Daiv was immensely popular among the girls in our co-ed dorm. I found this hard to believe because Daiv was literally obnoxious -- he seldom bathed and smelled pretty bad. My friend explained that Daiv, having been trained in adolescence by the family maid in giving advanced cuninlingus, went about dispensing orgasms to all the freshman girls in the dorm who had not yet had one -- word of mouth, so to speak. Daiv later died of a drug overdose, doing research for his book perhaps. IIRC it was not a very good book. He was Daiv Rosenthal a classmate at the University of Chicago, son of literary critic M.L. Rosenthal, and later on author of a book on Hard Bop. Don't recall when he stopped beating his head on the bar, but he must have. Years later a friend of mine mentioned that Daiv was immensely popular among the girls in our co-ed dorm. I found this hard to believe because Daiv was literally obnoxious -- not a nice guy, he seldom bathed and smelled pretty bad. My friend explained that Daiv, having been trained in adolescence by the family maid in giving advanced cuninlingus, went about dispensing orgasms to all the freshman girls in the dorm who had not yet had one -- word of mouth, so to speak. Daiv later died of a drug overdose, doing research for his book perhaps. IIRC it was not a very good book. BTW, "Mr. PC.' was Trane's weapon of choice at that point. The typical version went on for 35 or 40 minutes -- McCoy would drop out after a while and it would be just Trane and Elvin until the end.

Coltrane at Mckie's Disc Jockey Show Lounge, circa 1963, Seated at the bar, my face was about three feet from Elvin's bass drum, sound waves bounced off my chest. At one point on "Mr. P.C" I hear a thudding sound. The guy to my right was beating his head on the bar. Seemed to make sense.

Henry has a way with words as well as with music.

Of all the Mosaic sets I've bought, this one may have surprised me the most. LOTS of fine music here.

I like Stillman, and Versace and Juris provide heady, empathetic support. Juris was quite a loss. III

👍 I was there when it was recorded.

The cause, I'll bet, is almost certainly that over time there are fewer projects left that would appeal to many customers. Take a look back at a chronological list of Mosaic sets and see how many of them were virtual slam dunks for one reason or another.

Dmitry -- re: Mosaic's" fatal mistake," I could be wrong but I don't think that "everybody else" (on other labels) who "got into" vinyl at that time did so because that thought it would become a "new" hot medium;I think it just happened that way, and rather faddishly so I believe. Again, who predicted it?

Evolving the audience as the music itself evolves sound lovely. But I still haven't heard one word about how to do that from any of you; and I, as a not wholly unplugged-in guy, sure don't know down which alley I should be sniffing. Names please, or even genres? A Monday Minchuro Mosaic? I am fairly sure though that this "evolving" music is about as stable as a greased eel. And you're telling me, if I'm Mosaic, that I should bet my supposedly wobbly enterprise and probably diminishing bankroll on somebody's spider sense!!!

You can argue that their target audience is now too narrow, but what about then? You haven't said (unless I've missed it) how you'd widen their audience now, but I'd be willing to bet that if it had been widened in that way or those ways twenty years ago, Mosaic would now be long out of existence. Mosaic was designed to fit a particular perceived and then already existing niche or niches, and it did so very well for a long time. If those niches are no longer viable, so be it, but so far I've seen no substitutes being put forward. "Wider" in itself strikes me as virtually meaningless. P.S. Speaking of niches and the sound quality of the first disc of the recent Tristano box, anyone who is enough of a Tristano admirer to buy that set almost certainly is in one of the tightest niches there is in jazz and would be willing to put up with those sound issues in return for what can be gleaned from those recordings nonetheless. ('m one of those people.) It's not like we weren't warned upfront.

I find Vanessa to be a more attractive figure than her sister Virginia (Woolf). i

B Bought it because my copy of DMC somehow disappeared. SITN is a worthy follow up. BTW who was Larry Wilcox? Thornton is SO hip.

Dan pretty much speaks for me on this "issue." Why is this Mosaic's responsibility?