REKOOPERATION

Your article [by Roger Hahn] regarding Child Is Father To The Man was right on the money.

That album is superb. I recommend Soul Of A Man which is live Al Kooper circa 1994. Al did a week at the Bottom Line in NYC with a reunion of B, S, & T (they could not call themselves that due to Bobby Colomby so they called themselves “Child Is Father To The Man”), Blues Project and The Rekooperators. The disc is 5 stars.

Also, I picked up a Japanese CD of I Stand Alone, Kooper’s first solo album. That, too, is excellent.

I first met Al in 1967. He was my first radio interview for my college radio station. I’ve seen him and spoken with him several times since. In fact, for a few years, I produced and managed an exceptional slide player by the name of Howard Emerson (formerly with the Billy Joel Band circa Turnstiles). Howard appears on Soul Of A Man replacing Steve Katz in the Blues Project (Katz wanted too much money upfront so Kooper cut him out and replaced him post-production. Kooper is a wonderful musician and arranger but as a human, he is one prickly bastard. I’ll listen to his music any time of the day but for conversation, I’ll pass).

I once sat in on a conversation between my old friend George “Shadow” Morton (the Shangri-Las, Janis Ian, the New York Dolls, Vanilla Fudge, etc.), Michael Kamen (Orchestrator: Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton), Mick Jones (Foreigner), Billy Joel and Al Kooper in East Hampton, New York. With the exception of Jones, all were involved in New York music of the ’60s and early ’70s. It was amazing to be a fly on the wall and to listen to these stories. Anyway, during the course of the event, Al alienated everybody. Kamen and he argued vociferously over something that happened in 1968. Billy got pissed off and went home. Finally, Al left in a huff and everyone else was quite relieved. You should have heard the comments fly after his departure.

Thanks for the great piece.

–Richard Arfin, President, Long Island Online Services, Inc.,

Hauppauge, New York

FLAWED READING

Although this seems highly unusual as I am a contributor to OffBeat, I feel compelled to respond to Roger Hahn’s flawed historical reading in his review of the boxed set Rhapsodies in Black. Hahn, inexplicably, seems to think that the artists of the Harlem Renaissance can’t stand alone on their considerable talents, but must be propped up through the denigration of the dominant culture. Why else would he describe Harlem as some African-American Eden consisting solely of artists, while white folks checked the stock ticker during rest periods in their decade-long bacchanal. To get to that point he writes “Read a few lines of F. Scott Fitzgerald and it quickly becomes clear that for white people the main attractions of the Roaring Twenties were accumulating money, experimenting with drugs, especially alcohol, and loosening the social prohibitions regarding sexual behavior.” I would remind Mr. Hahn that Fitzgerald wrote fiction, and point out that the loosening of racial prohibitions is a more important feature of New York in the 1920s than the loosening of sexual ones. Wasn’t it the Serial Graphic and Vanity Fair magazines that were the first to bring the writers and artists of Harlem to the wide audience they so richly deserved?

In a recent New York Times article about Harlem’s Lenox Lounge nightclub, Harlem historian and preservationist Michael Henry Adams speaks to this point; to quote the article: “He (Adams) said that the Harlem Renaissance, the explosion of cultural life that began in the 1920s, could not have been accomplished without the patronage of whites who flocked nightly to Harlem.”

In a forthcoming biography, Gary Giddins writes of Bing Crosby’s initial successes as part of a duo with Al Rinker: “These two clean-cut white boys, bringing a variation on black music to the vaudeville stage with panache and charm were the Jazz Age personified. They represented something borderline radical: a trace of danger, a current from a generation that threatened to bust out of old and settled traditions” (my emphasis). The historical record shows that a recognition of African-American culture (a post-war busting of old traditions) was a chief feature of the Roaring Twenties of which Hahn is so dismissive. I would also add that artistically, Gershwin, Berlin, Donaldson…these were pretty fair composers, and further, if he cares to listen, Mr. Hahn will find, for example, Frank Trumbauer in the playing of Lester Young and Trumpeter Rex Stewart as an admirer of Bix.

Finally, and most troubling in the context of this magazine, is Hahn’s comment regarding the treasure trove of music contained in the Rhapsodies set which were recorded in the first third of the 20th Century: “wouldn’t it be amazing to hear them (the songs) recreated under modern circumstances.”

Although in my view one can’t “re-create” Armstrong, Bechet, et al., there are scores of musicians in this town who not only record the music of this period exclusively, but who play it live on a nightly basis. For whatever reason it seems Mr. Hahn has chosen not to listen.

–Jon Pult, New Orleans, LA

PANIC ATTACK

Just wanted to let you know that your JoJo [John Hermann of Widespread Panic] interview was excellent. You are very knowledgeable and obviously did your homework. Keep up the good work. I wish everyone else in print had a clue. By the way, I just got back from Memphis and the boys truly do sound as good as ever. They were absolutely smokin’.

–Kevin Hansen, Columbia, SC

CRITICS’ CHOICE

What happened? Nicholas Payton’s excellent release Nick@Nite [sic] is nominated in the Best of the Beat’s Contemporary Jazz category but doesn’t get a mention among the Critics’ Choice of the Best Louisiana CDs of 2000. Payton, of course, was also named in the Best Contemporary Jazz Band or Performer and Best Trumpet Player categories.

–Geraldine Wyckoff, New Orleans, LA

This is a good illustration of the phrase “democracy isn’t perfect.” We agree that Payton’s release is one of the best of the year, not only in this region, but nationally. Somewhere in the elaborate process, with various writers nominating and voting, Nick@Night fell through the cracks. Maybe we should go back and check for dimpled chads? Fortunately, we were able to recognize several less famous jazz artists, such as Herlin Riley, Peter Martin, Joshua Paxton, Roland Guerin, Quintology and the Marcus Roberts Trio. –Ed.

BELLY RUB

I liked the enthusiasm of your article [by Roger Hahn] and your thesis that Lead Belly was a cultural conduit for Louisiana musicians. At his January 28, 1950 memorial tribute seven weeks after his death, many Louisiana jazzmen (S. Bechet, Pops Foster, Lips Page, etc.) genuinely paid their respects.

But I regret you didn’t contact me before you went to press in order to eliminate some basic factual inaccuracies. I know you cite the Wolfe/Lornell bio, but by their own admission it is not a definitive work.

The quarterly Lead Belly Letter started in 1990, is definitive as are the 3 or 4 sets of liner notes released over the past 5 years. The LB Letter, which has been regularly sent to OffBeat, lists the nearly 50 CDs on the market of LB’s music. The Jazz Archive at Tulane, LSUS in Shreveport, and Shreve Memorial Library also have extensive LB holdings provided by the Lead Belly Society, which publishes the LB Letter. Popular magazines like Guitar Player, Living Blues, etc. have carried LB pieces in recent years.

Your two most vivid flaws are LB’s name and birthdate. They are correctly depicted on his monument in the cemetery at Shiloh Baptist Church in Mooringsport, and on his life-size statue in downtown Shreveport.

His given name was Huddie William Ledbetter, born January 20, 1889. He tells us this date in his own voice on a 1941 Library of Congress recording.

If the Louisiana Office of Tourism intends to publish a volume of “Masters of Louisiana Music,” I’d be quite willing to help you make needed changes rather than see the 11/2000 OffBeat piece re-appear verbatim.

–Sean Killeen, Editor: Lead Belly Letter

THANKFUL

On behalf of Isaac’s Guns, I’d like to thank everyone at OffBeat for recognizing the hard work that went into our CD, ChaCha DeAmor. Being an unsigned band, awards like these (Best CDs of 2000) give us the confidence and determination to keep making music in this city which is usually more likely to support and promote zydeco, jazz or blues groups. Thank you so much for the support!

–Mary Lasseigne, Bass Player for Isaac’s Guns

Thanks very much for the nomination of Paul Sanchez: Sold out at Carrolloton Station with the Sonoma Valley Boys, as this years Best Folk/Country disc. While I’ve been nominated as a member of Cowboy Mouth, it is my first solo nomination. That it is from a publication I read and respect, in a category whose traditions I’ve held dear all my life makes the whole thing that much cooler. Merry X-mas and Happy New Orleans.

–Paul Sanchez, New Orleans, LA

ALL JAZZ FESTS NOT CREATED EQUAL?

An open letter to the Neville Brothers: I’m just recovering from a related raging hangover and I’m still mad about last weekend. I was dancing during the Neville Brothers outdoor performance during the Jacksonville, Florida Jazz Festival. One of JAX’s finest asked me to sit down so everyone could see. Someone complained in the back that they couldn’t see and “no one else is standing up.” Can you believe it? Surely, we were the stiffest audience that you ever had to play for.

You guys were funkin’ it up as always and we were sitting on our rears. I guess that all jazz fests are not created equal (but what can you expect from a festival that invites the Rippingtons?). Anyhow, I just wanted to apologize on behalf of my hometown for being lame concert-goers. You guys still kick ass even if we can only sit on ours.

–Bo Lewis, Jacksonville, FL

METRONOMIC

While I am one of the local Meters fans who did not make the pilgrimage to the Left Coast for the reunion and therefore can’t take issue with Ms. Diettinger’s review, I am tasked to point out a factual oversight any Meters geek would feel obligated to correct.

“He Bite Me” was recorded by the Meters, is included in the 1990 Rounder Records release “Good Old Funky Music” and is credited in BMI’s catalog to Modeliste/Neville/Nocentelli/Porter. I have vivid and distinct memory (well, as close as possible given time and circumstance) of standing dead center in front of Muddy Waters’ stage week after week at early ’90s Runnin’ Pardners shows with friend, drummer and fellow Meters freak Eric Flint at my side calling for George to play “He Bite Me,” which we had not heard after attending many Meters and Runnin’ Pardners gigs. Being a recent Meters disciple at the time, I had to have heard the song somewhere, which means it could only have been on CD in Tulane’s freshmen-inhabited Sharp Hall.

Thanks for the review and for forcing me to revisit such great memories of my early exposure to the Meters canon. When–not if–the next reunion takes place, I will be there. Yours in funk.

–Alex Oliver, New Orleans, LA