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Just finished it, another good book recommended by our esteemed member sgcim. Didn't even know it was published before he gave a heads up.
Last edited by wintermoon; 03-27-2021 at 10:50 PM.
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03-27-2021 09:27 PM
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Originally Posted by wintermoon
Another item on the list of Books To Read.
The older I get the more I realize, with an increasing chill, that I'm never getting to the bottom of this list!
Or is it the top?
If one imagines the list as a regular list, then the most recent additions would appear on the bottom, but I tend to imagine this as a pile of books I'm meaning to read and thus the latest additions would be on top. Not sure why I do that.
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Thanks for the 'head's-up' on this.
Thought of Woods when I saw that Selmer had just introduced a new alto,
though I think Woods played Yamahas.
Don't need a great new horn to miss Woods, though.
Supreme alto | Henri SELMER Paris
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When I told a sax player friend of mine I bought it, he asked me if he could borrow it.
I told him, "This thing ain't leaving my home; besides you still got my Mel Lewis autobiography that I loaned to you six months ago!"
Woods is surprisingly mellow about his jazz career, considering he and his buddy Gene Quill had the reputations as being hot heads, and had to pay a lot of dues to survive as a jazz musician.
My two encounters with him didn't go so well. After a concert at the Jazz Museum in NYC, a HS friend of mine (who had been annoying PW on the break) decided he wanted to introduce me to him, so we went back to his makeshift dressing room, and as my friend introduced me as the 'best jazz guitar player in the world' (we were still in high school!), and Phil just yelled out, "Get the feck outta here!", and sent a can of beer heading in my direction!
There was no mention of the fact that some of the members of the Oliver Nelson Band sent ON death threats if he didn't fire Woods, the only white member of the band, and no mention of Wynton putting PW down on the mic on a jazz cruise, without knowing that PW's daughter was in attendance.
PW's daughter made Wynton apologize publicly on the mic for the absurd comments he made.
Even though PW had an incredible career as a jazz musician (he played first alto/jazz soloist with Dizzy"s Monk's, Quincy's and Oliver Nelson's big bands, played on literally countless jazz records- never playing even one mediocre solo on any of them- , was able to keep his own group together for over 30 years-winning a ridiculous amount of jazz polls/awards, all anyone will remember him for is playing the sax solo on a Billy Joel record.
If you still want to have a career as a jazz musician after reading this book, more power to ya.
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"When I told a sax player friend of mine I bought it, he asked me if he could borrow it.
I told him, "This thing ain't leaving my home; besides you still got my Mel Lewis autobiography that I loaned to you six months ago!"
I lent a drummer friend the Burton book and he took very good care of it so I told him he could borrow the Woods book. well, he forgot to take it home the last 2 gigs we've had and I'm not going to remind him anymore
I don't tend to keep many jazz books after reading them, but I'll probably keep this one and the Burton book. I've given away a few copies of Art Pepper's Straight Life but still have one here.
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Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
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Originally Posted by sgcim
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Phil Woods was a great player, and a big part of what i remember him for is playing with Harry Leahy, one of my guitar heroes, and I think he also taught Richie Cole, another local hero.
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Originally Posted by AKA
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Originally Posted by JGinNJ
Harry had never had sake before, and got smashed on it at dinner. They had to help him up to his hotel room, but then he disappeared.
They got a phone call from the police at 9am the next morning. Harry was found in someone's house in Tokyo, playing with their kids!
In his inebriated state, he thought he was at his grandparent's house, playing with his nephews. He couldn't find his shoes, and the kids had painted his nose blue, so he looked like Bozo the clown.
Cole was a student of Woods', and I just transcribed a solo of his where he sounds exactly like Woods.
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Originally Posted by Doctor Jeff
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Originally Posted by sgcim
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Originally Posted by wintermoon
Woods then remembered he had to get to the studio by 9:00am to play the solo.
He went into the studio,hungover, and Walter Becker was waiting for him.
Woods listened to the tape, played his solo, and Becker said, "Great", and that was it.
He walked out of the studio with a check that was more than he made in a year, for 15 minutes work- one take!
That freaked me out about how Phil Ramone edited his JTWYA solo, too. I never had a clue!
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Ah, now I remember the story, you did relate it before. But yeah, no mention of it in the book and surprisingly very little mention of his protege Richie Cole
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Originally Posted by wintermoon
RIP Nick Gravenites
Today, 05:48 PM in The Players