To let the 'cat out of the bag' a little...

Dennis & I have just started the ball rolling on an attempt to get YAE out to Nocal this coming summer!

Your good thoughts and prayers are welcome, to be sure!

Mike, thanks for starting the new thread...what a surprise. And Moné, you get a grand prize for being the 1000th poster on the old DG Thread. You gotta e-mail me though!

And according to what Mike says, I'll have more to share on that as time goes by.

In the meantime, enjoy the new thread and I will begin with a new URL to explore!

http://www.dennisgonzalez.com/htmlfiles/magic_of_words/nosoundnolights/nearing_coombs_creek_bridge.htm

I was beginning to come out of my self-imposed exile back in 1998, and I wrote the words you will read!

YO YO YO DENNIS!

LONG TIME NO SEE! What up buddy?! *MMMMWWWWAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!*

Hey, the Dennis thread made it to 1000! In jc terms, that's like being a made man.

Good luck with getting YAE to Califas, guys.

JoJohannes! Are you officially hitched? I hadn't heard from you in soooo long! (Though I did get a photo in my e-mail of you and Joe McPhee kickin' ass.)

Omar, thanks for the congratulatory note...and we hope to finally make it out to Califas too, with Brackeen in tow!

Yells At Eels Next Event:
http://members.aol.com/dennisgonzalezx/Events.html

Dennis--I don't especially feel like "talking" right now, but thank you for the URLs in #2 and #6 and congratulations from me too on the unspooling of thread II. Your multitalentedness is awesome to contemplate!

Do you want to tell us what Moné won?

I would love to tell you all what Moné won:

If you will all go to jazzfolio.com, you will see the wonderful, humorous jazz caricature/drawings of British artist Alastair Graham. Click on the "shop" link, and then go to the T-shirt link...Moné won one of the Miles Davis T-shirts!

I think the shirts are fabulous, as are the prints and the book. This is the type of art we jazz lovers should all go out and support.

Whoa! From England, no less! Highly cool!

Hey Dennis,

CONGRATS on reaching the 1000 post plateau!!!
I didn't check but I think you did it much faster than either of the two times my thread reached that point.

You obviously have created a nice vibe here that people enjoy participating in. Please continue and keep up the good work!

-Robin

Thanks Robin, for your encouragement and good words. It's been great fun and a learning experience to be involved with this Crew, and to be associated with your talent in this forum. Sounds like an awards speech, doesn't it?

And the beat goes on!

And bluenoter, I hope more people have gotten a chance to check out Alastair Graham's work. It's quite worthy of inclusion in the jazz-based pantheon of artists and photographers who've chronicled this great musicform.

Yells At Eels did a series of 4 workshop performances at the Highland Park Literary Festival, about an hour each...that's 4 hours of music and readings for four different groups of listeners. First group was about 90 strong. Second group, right before lunch was 140 audience members, with about 20 of them on the floor by our feet. Third group overflowed as well with about 110, and the last group, which is usually the hardest to keep attention wise, was the quietest and most attentive...and about 95 strong. Most of the audience members were between 14 and 19 years of age and very interested in these "new sounds".

The three of us asked pianist Art Lande / Fred Hersch protégé Scott Bucklin to join us, and he was nothing short of amazing. The music centered around Hymn for Julius Hemphill, The Matter at Hand & Old Time Revival (new unreleased music written for the New Southern Quintet), Ganesha the Spy, and Victor Jara's El Derecho de Vivir en Paz.

Soon as I get the web page up, I'll post the URL.

>Soon as I get the web page up, I'll post the URL.

Thanks, Dennis. I wish I could have been the oldest of the floor-sitters on the 27th, and I'm glad that the events went so well.

However, I was looking around at the YAE website and came across some not-so-great news:

>The March 2003 recording of Charles Brackeen with Yells At Eels has been put on hold indefinitely.

Sorry to hear it.

What a weekend it's been...Thursday, we did the workshop series at the Highland Park Literary Fest with our friend Scott Bucklin on piano, and we played for about 450 students (updated numbers). We braved the 5 inch ice on the roads to reach the high school where we played. Then a drive to Centerville and back - 4 hours total on Friday afternoon. A lonely drive to a very bittersweet family reunion - for my aunt's funeral - in Abilene, West Texas - where I played 3 hymns on my horn, just me. My aunt had told me a few months ago that she wanted me to play for her funeral service, and I jokingly told her to call me when she needed me. Alas, the day came too soon!

And yes, blue, we're trying to digest the bad news about a postponement once again. It's a long story, but basically, Brackeen is just getting back on his feet financially - says he's "very glad to be alive" - and has no money to overhaul his horns or even to buy music manuscript paper. He lives in a small, borrowed room in the back of his sister's house and does not have the freedom to practice there. If we had the support of a label (such as Silkheart gave Brackeen in the 80's) he could find a place of his own, get his chops together, get his horns together, and be allowed by his boss at his newly-found job to take off a week for a session in Dallas. It's apparent from what he says that his boss has no idea about Charles' legendary status...

So we continue...

Go to: http://members.aol.com/yellsateels/HPHS.html

What a crime.

Those workshop pictures are excellent, Dennis. Thanks!

I hope that bad news will stay behind you for a long time now.

Thanks blue...funny, I just wrote an e-mail to someone with just that message! What a wonderful wish. I think the kids at the workshop will be thrilled when they see themselves on a website, 'specially a "jazz" website!

Sisco...yes, indeed, what a crime. Billions thrown away for transport and deployment of a war machine, and one poor living jazz legend can't know the luxury of casting his spell on us with his music!

Nor even to have a working horn or a place to play one.

Major felony.

Dennis -- Find out how much he needs to get his horns working. This shouldn't be.

So am I the only one who thinks Dennis and Robin would make a good match?

Get Ellery and others involved! I'd say it's high time for a JazzCorner All-Stars jam session. :-) Proceeds to JazzCares (and Charles Brackeen's horns)

Walt! Welcome back to my thread! Funny, all the oldsters seem to be contacting me again. Makes me happy...Just heard from Erik Lund by phone. Actually Carol took the call. I thought Erik was fat, happy, and married...but...

Ellery and me and the boys have come close to doing a gig or two...It'd be awesome. And Robin, holy shit! What a duo of great instrumentalis/composers - Ellery and Robin. That's scary, actually.

If somebody wants to put it together, you know I'm down.

And Gary, let me attempt a deeper explanation of the cost of getting Brackeen's horns together:

I asked Brackeen how much he though re-padding and overhauling the two main horns - his soprano (you heard his ECM album with Motian and Izenson?) and his tenor. He said that the lowest price he could find in LA was $500 per horn. I told him that if he decides to ask his boss for time off, he can come stay with me for as long as he wants, have the house to practice, and I'd have a friend of mine do his horns for him, and my friend and I would take care of the expenses. He replied that even if he got the horns re-done, he couldn't find (or rent) a place to practice his newly-redone horns, and again, he's afraid to ask time off for fear of getting fired...sounds like a vicious circle to me. No job -> No bread -> No horns -> No recordings -> No money -> No lodging -> No practice space -> and on and on.

Sucks, man.

Dennis, that's fucked up re: Brackeen. It's not right.

if I get my bonus this year (should know within a couple of weeks - I'll start with a small contribution.


there must be something that can be done



Namesake - for those who have never heard the tile track - lord, my lord

or Story - with maybe the most incredible Charles Brackeen statement of them all

Where does Charles live? Maybe we can use the back-channel of musicians and presenters to hook him up with a place to practice.

Thanks for your sentiments and expressions of wanting to help. Part of the reason I feel so helpless is that California is so far (physically) away, and any moves I could make on his behalf would require that I take off from my life for a month or 2 just to help guide him into a new situation. So, yes, walt, your idea of the network of musicians in the L.A. area helping him out would be great, but I think an added bonus could be somebody like that NY lady - can't remember her name, who finally got it together enough for Henry Grimes that he had a bass donated, fixed, shipped, and anything he needs, there is a fund for.

Brackeen is in the same kind of boat as Henry was until the world showed up at his doorstep to help. And then, Brackeen is as wary, or shy, or untrusting, as Henry Grimes is.

And, good cats (as Fluter says!) thank you for coming back to my thread for a spell. Bluenoter had kept me going for a while, Bless Her Heart!

Aw, thanks, Dennis.

I think that the New York lady that you mean is Margaret Davis (as I recently had occasion to learn). I didn't think that a link to the following would be reliable, so I've taken the liberty of posting the whole "Henry Grimes story"--the story of how help came together in his case. (I found it through a Google search.) Maybe some of these steps, or analogous ones, could be taken to help Charles Brackeen in whatever ways seem appropriate.

From the message board at freejazz dot org:

>Henry Grimes, Alive and Well
Posted by KiNG PLaZNo (Tuesday January 21 2003 @ 11:52PM MST) views: 413

Many of you have wondered about Henry Grimes. For those of you who don't know already, here's a message from Margaret Davis in NYC.

Back in December, a few of the list participants (Michael Fitzgerald, John Chacona, Nick Wrigley, & friends) posted messages about the rediscovery of master bassist Henry Grimes, who had disappeared from the music world more than 3O years ago. At that time, I promised to post a little report about him as soon as I cleared it with someone very deeply involved in the story, & I've done that now. So here is some amazing reading for you on what feels to me a very appropriate day, the great national holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Last fall I received the great news that Henry Grimes had been found in good health (though pretty much destitute) living in a single~room occupancy hotel in South Central Los Angeles. He's been living in the same room for the last 2O years but had long ago sold his bass for survival needs & has since contented himself with writing poetry, trying a bit of acting, doing odd jobs, & surviving on Social Security. The person who found Henry Grimes is a wonderful young social worker & writer named Marshall Marrotte, who himself lives in Athens, Georgia.

When Marshall Marrotte found Henry Grimes, Henry told him that he very much wished he had a bass so he could start playing again. Here we have a supreme master musician who went to Juilliard, who recorded & played brilliantly with musicians as diverse as Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Benny Goodman, Roy Haynes, Lee Konitz, Steve Lacy, Charles Mingus (yes, Charles Mingus), Sunny Murray, Perry Robinson, Sonny Rollins, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner, & many more.

For me, a planet where the great Henry Grimes does not have a bass is not a place I want to be, & being unprepared for space travel at this time, I took it upon myself to stay here & begin a month~long nationwide search for a bass for Henry Grimes. I wrote to, called, or otherwise contacted about 5O of the musicians Henry played & recorded with before he disappeared, as well as many bassists in good standing today who would know him as a music hero, even if he was before their time. I put particular concentration on the West Coast because shipping a bass is a big expense in itself, & I also thought the Western music community would want the opportunity to gather around him, & I thought it would be easy especially for those connected with academia or major cultural institutions out West to hook him up with practice space & an instrument to play, at the very least. So with Marshall Marrotte's approval, I put the word out far & wide, & then we waited for offers of a bass for Henry Grimes.

For quite a while, nobody moved.

Slowly a few people began to say they'd be willing to do something ~ make a donation, hold or play in a benefit concert, contribute a bow ~ kind, good offers, but not a bass for Henry Grimes to play. A couple of afflicted souls responded negatively, cynically or with hostility. Most just didn't answer at all.

Then, just when I was beginning to despair ~ just when I began to question my lifelong belief in the term "music community" as something more than a concept or an ideal, but as an actual living entity that embraces & sustains its own ~ the great William Parker came home to New York City from another of his tours, took a couple of days to relax, began to read his accumulated Emails, & called me up to say he would send a bass & a bow to Henry Grimes. First he wanted New York's great bass specialist David Gage to make a small repair, & then David's shop would build a shipping crate for the bass & arrange & pay for the shipping. One of David Gage's employees, a bassist called Sprocket, even put up $1OO of his own money to help with shipping costs, while Wendy Oxenhorn of New York's Jazz Foundation stood prepared to cover shipping if needed, & was happy to learn she could keep that money to help another musician in need.

Henry Grimes received the bass William Parker named Olive Oil (more, I think, due to the greenish tinge of her finish than for Popeye's girlfriend) on December 16th, 2OO2, & we've been in touch with Henry, & he is ecstatic to have Olive Oil & has been practicing happily ever since. In fact, he recently was heard to wish for a pickup & an amp so he can go out to play!

This leads me back to those offers of donations & benefit concerts & such. For all those who wish to help Henry Grimes on his road back into the music, here are some suggestions:

(1) If you were a close friend, band mate, or family member of Henry Grimes, please contact me or Marshall Marrotte & we will give you Henry's address (subject to prior agreement from Henry). Henry has neither phone nor Email.

(2) We're starting a fund at David Gage's shop so that Henry Grimes will be able to call & order anything he needs for his bass ~ pickup, amp, new set of strings, a wheel, gig bag, some resin, etc. If you'd like to contribute to this fund, please make a check to DAVID GAGE STRING INSTRUMENT REPAIR, mark somewhere on the check FOR ACCOUNT OF HENRY GRIMES, & mail the check to:

Mr. Marshall Marrotte
4696 Tallassee Road
Athens, GA 3O6O7~2229.

Marshall's Email address is kennedymarrotte@hotmail.com.

This is so that Marshall can tabulate the amount of the fund, & he will then immediately send the donations on to David Gage.

(3) Those who want to send donations, letters, cards, or gifts to Henry Grimes directly rather than to the David Gage fund can mail them to Marshall Marrotte (as above), & Marshall will forward them to Henry Grimes. Marshall has been serving as Henry's mentor & protector through all this, & we are being careful not to overwhelm Henry with strangers & fuss, so that he has time to work on playing at his own pace & can make his way back into the music when & as he wishes. He is a shy, gentle, very sensitive person, & we certainly don't want to drive him back into hiding.

(4) People who want to hold or play in concerts to honor Henry Grimes, please go ahead & do so! Some of us are planning such a concert here in New York, & I think it will be huge & very, very beautiful. Whether Henry Grimes will attend or participate will be entirely up to him. Meanwhile, funds raised can be handled the same ways as described above.

Thanks to all for caring!

Yes, exactly...that's the kind of action needed on Charles' behalf. But then agai, how many musicians are in that boat?

Thanks again, Blue!

We should do what we can to take care of our own. The cats have given me the most of any group of people on the planet. I'll give what I can back.

The backchannel to LA musicians for practice space is a good idea. They are probably as unaware of the situation as anyone else, if he's been living that obscurely.

If he can get practice space, I'm sure there are enough good people around the jazz world to take care of getting his horns in shape.

Unfortunately LA is one place where I don't think I know anyone.

Dennis, maybe you can give the Clines a call. Even if they can't help, they might know someone who can. This really could be something very informal like a small rock club owner letting Charles blow for an hour before the bands do the soundcheck, or a record store with a basement, or a college kid with the keys to the school's rehearsal space. Somewhere in LA, there's got to be a room that nobody's using for an hour or two every day.

Has to be. All the musicians there are in LA? Between the studios and the jazz scene? Gotta be.

I know the sister of one of the cats who lives in LA; she came out to one of my dj gigs to give me a couple of his CDs for my radio show. I'll ask her how to reach her brother next time I see her. He lives there full time and is a piano player. He has to know of rehearsal space.

Anything left of the collective scene around Tapscott?

Unfortunately, I only really know three cats in LA well, and I doubt if they are in the position to really do much for Charles. They live from gig to gig, and have themselves and family to support. I will try to contact Alex and Nels Cline and see if they can help with contacts and such. Brackeens "mentor", Billy Higgins, I know did what he could, keeping him in playing shape and a rehearsal space, but with his passing, the help disappeared. That's when Brackeen got "lost" again for the umpteenth time.

I know that World Stage could do something, if they are still around, but I don't know who to contact. Any hints, West Coasters? (or anybody?)

I only know one Tapscott protégé, Michael Sessions, who played on The Desert Wind with Brackeen and me. I think he's still in LA, but I've not heard from him in a long time. Weren't David Murray and Arthur Blythe part of the Tapscott legacy?

Sorry, Dennis, no West Coast ideas.

To change the subject, if only briefly:

"Sid"?

Is there a shareable story behind that one? And how about the story of the dent in the wall?

Jim cut right to the heart of it all...the middle name I don't like anybody but family call me - and Jim's family - so that's that.

And as for the wall story: We'd just moved to our house where we've lived 25 years, and I started having jam sessions which, eventually, a lot became daagnim records. There was a group of us going at it, and we'd reached a particularly fertile point in the session with everybody wailing, and Jimbo didn't want to wail on his tenor anymore. So he was standing by my mail slot, which has a nice little door on it, and he started slamming the door in a wonderfully percussive way against the wall...we didn't notice in the ecstasy of the situation that the little doorknob was putting a dent in the sheetrock of my new house. We kinda laughed about it, but Carol didn't like it too much. I sorta painted little artistic colorful squares over the area. They're still there today, only it doesn't really look like there's a dent there unless you look real close.

How about the time we were coming from a gig in South Dallas, Jim, and you were driving. I told you to exit on Colorado, which is a real tight little curve, and which you took at about 50 miles an hour. We almost flew off the exit, even though I'd sorta warned you to slow down. When we came out of the curve you sternly told me, "Next time, Dennis, you gotta tell me 'Goddammit, motherfucker, slow your ass down!'" I laughed my ass off. Carol and I were just talking about that last night when we were coming up from South Dallas.

Dennis;
I'll get on the case.
There's a cat in San Jo, who spent major time in SoCal that started the center with Higgins and others which he and the center are still quite active.

Dennis;
I'll get on the case.
There's a cat in San Jo, who spent major time in SoCal that started the center with Higgins and others which he and the center are still quite active.

If Charles ever makes it to Dallas, y'all should look into having Ken Beeson in Lewisville work on his horns (if that's not who you have in mind already). Ken's one of the best sax repair guys in the world, period. Works ONLY on saxes, is a player himself, respects the instruments as MUSICAL instruments, not just commodities, has his own machine shop to make replacement parts if needed, has factory specs for all horns, old and new, knows the quirks of all the different brands, EVERYTHING. Ken gets your horn into BETTER than new condition. He's a true artist.

He's not particularly fast, but he's better than great. $500 per horn might be right around what Ken would charge, but the job would be done as good as it could possibly be done (and if you call ahead and explain the situation, you MIGHT be able to get a better deal. But I can in no way guarantee that). For that matter, if Charles couldn't make it out here, he could try and get the horns shipped to Ken directly, a slightly tricky but not uncommon proposition. Of course, he wouldn't be around to do the post-repair tweaking that Ken does so well, but hey...

Yo what up Dennis? So let's get this trip to Dallas in motion, huh?

Thanks, Mike. Much appreciated.
Thanks, Mike. Much appreciated.

Yup...Brackeen has not been here in 14 years, and I'm hoping it won't be much longer that he'll be wingin' his way down Dallas way, but I can't say. Certainly appreciate the tip on Ken Beeson in Lewisville. I'd been thinking of the in-kind repairs done by a band director I work with, since shoestring's the word so far, but if we get any label support, I'll get Ken's number from you...coupla private e-mails had mentioned him. And I don't know that Charles would trust the shipment companies at all with his axes, but I'm working on that.

Yah, Lund, you talked to Joe McPhee yet? Yells at PheeLund? I do think so!

Hey Robin...re: your post #10 on this thread, I checked it out and I have some fascinating figures.

You reached your first 1000 posts after 1 year 7 months and 24 days. (I may be off a bit...but not much)

I reached my first 1000 posts after 1 year 7 months and 1 day.

You are, however, the king of the posts. You will have in the very near future 2,430 posts! Awesome, dude!

Yeah, man, and Robin had another very long running thread before his current one, that was called "The Future Of Jazz."

I've heard people talking about the thread...didn't know it was his. Maybe we can send Reid over there to revive it. How many posts did it rack up? I guess I *could* look it up. huh?