lethin@yale.ARPA (Richard A. Lethin) (04/11/85)
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To Tom and the other, unnamed friend who responded to my plea for
word that there are civilized people on this network:
It was good to hear from youse. The last time I heard Sassy Sarah, Tom,
was here in New Haven at the newly renovated Palace Theatre, with her
trio. She was wonderful; in particular, she did a blues called
"East of the Sun and West of the Moon," with just her and the bassist,
that had grown men fainting in the aisles. Oscar is my hero, my idol;
my favorite single recording in the whole wide world in Sandy's Blues,
which is on a Trio album reissue entitled "The Way I Really Play."
Being relatively young in the world, I have heard the Man live only
once, at the Lincoln Center in 1982 with Joe Pass; it was stunning.
So, for that matter, was Joe. I have read many times that in the 1940s,
top jazz pianists and Vladimir Horowitz used to go listen to Art Tatum
at a club, and come out of the place muttering about giving it all up
and taking up the trombone. As a semi-pro jazz pianist myself <see below>
I can well understand the feeling; both Oscar and Art can give it to
me.
To my man who is into bluuuzey jazz: so am I, amigo, so am I! As to
your query about whether Yalies jam, well there are damn few of us,
but there are a few of us. I have been playing around campus with
my current group <the Jazz Machines, which feature bass, piano,
trumpet, and sometimes drums and guitar> for about two years, and of
course we jam amongst ourselves all the time. We are, alas one of
only two active groups on campus at the moment, the other having
begun playing a couple of months ago; there arent usually more than
two or three at a time active on campus. There is enough interest
in the music <we play straight-ahead "Real Book" stuff, with
a smattering of stuff we steal off current albums or write ourselves
mixed in-remind me to tell you about this wild tune in 6/4 I wrote
recently> to give us several gigs a semester, but these people are
still far too interested in people like Madonna for my taste.
And now, for anyone who's interested, here's a pop quiz about
my other passion in life:
QUESTION: In what part of what city was I born?
HINT: Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Koko Taylor, Son Seals.....