I spoke to a relative of Wayne Shorter at work!

[CJ Shearn]

no lie at all, a woman named Gwen Shorter called in to pay a bill at work tonight (I collect for MCI) and since Shorter seems to be an unusual last name, I asked very professionally if she was by chance related "to the saxophonist Wayne Shorter" and said "yes, as a matter of fact, my husband is his cousin" (the dude's name was Rick Shorter) and I said "you've gotta be kidding?" and she said "nope". Anyway I briefly said how I listen to records like "Speak No Evil", WR, that I'm a big Wayne fan. Then I collected the payment as usual, but I thought that was just really amazing. If I wasn't in the dept that gets QA'ed I would have asked if they know Herbie, and knew Tony when he was around, I'd be very interested to know what the extent of Rick's relationship with Wayne.

[Rooster_Ties]

This is barely related at all (other than my question is, in fact, about "being related" to a famous jazz musician)...

But I occasionally wonder what happened to Leon Henderson, Joe Henderson's brother - who played tenor on those two Kenny Cox BN albums in the late 60's. Were Leon and Joe at all close, and whatever became of Leon?? He was at least a decent player on those Cox LP's (and I think he was pretty interesting), and I would have liked to have heard more from him.

The AMG only lists him as having played on both Kenny Cox LP's, and (straingly enough) one MC5 LP ("High Time", from 1971 --- BTW, I'm totally unfamiliar with MC5), and that's it. It also mentions that Leon worked with Kenny Cox, Charles Moore, Daniel Spencer, Ron Brooks, MC5 --- but it's too late for me to look up Moore, Spencer, and Brooks - to see if Leon is mentioned in any reviews of any albums of theirs (maybe I'll check tomorrow).

Edited September 20, 2003 by Rooster_Ties

[Jim Alfredson]

Ron Brooks owns the Bird of Paradise in Ann Arbor. I can ask him in Oct. when we appear there if he knows what happened to Leon.

Danny Spencer sometimes comes out to my blues band gigs and sits in, although I haven't seen him in about a year.

[Guest ariceffron]

charnet moffets brother owes my friend like 200 bucks

[Alexander]

This fuck-all to do with anything, but recently I had a patron (a white guy) here in the library who gave his name as Richard Davis. Now most of the time I would refrain from making a comment, since Richard Davis (the bassist) is a VERY obscure figure, and the patron would most likely not have the faintest idea what I was talking about. But this time I figured, "What the hell?" So I said, "You know, there's a great bassist named Richard Davis." The patron leans forward, very excitedly, and says: "I know. In fact, I met him once! I'd gone down to the Vanguard, and a friend of mine introduces me to the bass player. He says, 'Richard Davis meet Richard Davis.'" It was pretty funny, since I'm sure this guy thought he was the only one who knew that there was a "famous" Richard Davis.

On a related note, a friend of mine (who is a bassist for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra) was flying to an audition several years ago. When she reached her destination, she went to the baggage claim to pick up her instrument. Now she flies all the time, and on any given flight she's the only person travelling with a bass violin. So when she sees her bass coming out, she's surprised when an older black man standing near her walks over to get it. She stops the man, and when he sees that its her bass, he apologizes. Turns out he's waiting for his bass too. They talk for a while as they wait for his bass to come out. She introduces herself, and he says, "Pleased to meet you. My name is Ray Brown."

[.:.impossible]

That's a great story! Was your friend familiar with Ray Brown, Alexander? Wow.

[Soulstation1]

aric ripping on somebody that owes somebody else money

i've heard it all............