Who Killed Tina Brooks

[CJ Shearn]

http://chass.utoronto.ca/~chambers/tinabrooks.html apologies if this has been posted before, but this article is very interesting. The author seems to suggest that the majority of Brooks' albums being unreleased at the time was b/c of his addiction and Blue Note knew that so they kept the albums shelved. I don't buy that, b/c Hank had an addiction, and they released his stuff, not only that but the groups on Brooks' records are impressive. Something about Alfred Lion and Frank Wolff not caring about Brooks seems kind of strange to me. Edited December 23, 2008 by CJ Shearn

[John Tapscott]

Yes, I think we had a thread on it back when it first came out in Coda. Chambers can be a good writer at times, but I believe (and I think this was the general consensus ) that he missed the mark on this one. Rather superficial, actually. BTW, I couldn't find Lee's and Cuscuna's comments nor Chambers' reply.

[Daniel A]

Here's the previous thread:

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...=0&p=371898

[paul secor]

Shouldn't the thread title be - Who Killed Tina Brooks, CODA article?

[CJ Shearn]

I put this in the wrong, oops. I just read the other thread. Really, a whole lot of theories in the article are BS. I mean, when did Alfred or Frank ever sabotage talent? I can't think of any instances. edit: I guess Freddie Redd and Grachan Moncur according to Jim Sangrey.

Edited December 23, 2008 by CJ Shearn

[JSngry]

Well....if you can believe Ronnie Boykins, Lion dropped Horace Parlan because Boykins insisted on keeping the publishing for one of his tunes on a Parlan date. I guess Parlan wouldn't intervene or something...

[JSngry]

I can't think of any instances. edit: I guess Freddie Redd and Grachan Moncur according to Jim Sangrey.

Not literally according to me, just according to my recounts of things that the two men in question have said, same as with the Boykin/Parlan story above, which, if memory serves, can be found in an old Coda magazine.

[CJ Shearn]

wow CODA ssems to have issued a lot of dirt. Not surprising Scott Yanow writes for them, given his penchant for dismissals of many sessions and musicians.

[John Tapscott]

wow CODA ssems to have issued a lot of dirt. Not surprising Scott Yanow writes for them, given his penchant for dismissals of many sessions and musicians.

Haven't seen too many articles or reviews by Yanow in recent editions of Coda. My appraisal of his work is quite the opposite. I tend to think he's too superficially un-critical.

[Christiern]

Marathon runners have no time to take in the scenery. That also applies to a writer bent on writing and hearing it all. If you ask the runner to describe sights along his/her route, the response you get will be just as satisfactory as a Yanow review.

I was not aware of his contributions to CODA. I hope that problem has been resolved.

[Swinging Swede]

Art Blakey

[Dave James]

It's easy in our ardor for the music to overlook the fact that these two guys were running a business. That being the case and as much as we'd like to think otherwise, it wasn't always about the music. They had a bottom line to attend to and while in retrospect, some of their decisions may seem to be short sighted or even biased, I'm sure they were making their calls in the context of what was best for their business. Does anyone really think that they would have sat on Tina Brooks' unreleased sessions if they thought they would sell well enough to justify their release? The fact that "True Blue" didn't do much probably justified their decision, at least in their minds, and that's all that really counts. Sure, we'd all like it if things had turned out differently and Brooks had been as prolific as a Hank Mobley or a Freddie Hubbard, but it wasn't to be. Bottom line, I think it's a mistake for anyone to draw conclusions fifty years after the fact especially when it involves decisions and justification for those decisions that we no way of knowing much about.

Up over and out.

[RDK]

Art Blakey

Blakey killed Tina brooks?!

[JSngry]

He killed Bird, didn't he?

[ghost of miles]

He killed Bird, didn't he?

I hear he shot J.R. too.

[JSngry]

And he shot the man in Reno, just to watch him die.

[Adam]

but he didn't kill the radio star; video did.

[Nate Dorward]

Yanow was doing some reviewing for the magazine under Daryl Angier's editorship. I haven't seen the most recent issue or two--I no longer contribute to it, though I did send in a year-end top-ten anyway--but my recollection was that Yanow hadn't been seen in its pages for a while. Ken Dryden, Ken Waxman, & Kurt Gottschalk seemed to be some of the main contributors.

[JSngry]

Maybe you should change your first name to Knate?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Maybe you should change your first name to Knate?

MG

[.:.impossible]

He killed Bird, didn't he?

I hear he shot J.R. too.

Monterose?

[Swinging Swede]

He killed Bird, didn't he?

I hear he shot J.R. too.

Monterose?

Yes.

And it has never been possible to establish exactly where he was when Wardell's body was found in the desert. And who pushed Brew down those stairs? And who secretly put the bullets in the gun Maini had seen empty the day before? Someone didn't like saxophonists, I'd say.

[Guest Bill Barton]

Yanow was doing some reviewing for the magazine under Daryl Angier's editorship. I haven't seen the most recent issue or two--I no longer contribute to it, though I did send in a year-end top-ten anyway--but my recollection was that Yanow hadn't been seen in its pages for a while. Ken Dryden, Ken Waxman, & Kurt Gottschalk seemed to be some of the main contributors.

Yes, it's been awhile since his byline has appeared.

Kbill

[Jazzmoose]

Art Blakey

Blakey killed Tina brooks?!

No, his albums were kept off the market by Blue Note. That's why there's only two or three of them.

[Dmitry]

I'm late to the party, just read this article, and a dozen years later it's still a p.o.s. 

All conjecture, no facts, no journalism. He didn't bother interviewing any of Tina's siblings. Some, perhaps, are still living. Eight of them should've produced a few children of their own, who knew uncle Tina full well.