P.O. Box 240 Ojai, Calif. Jhiigzletter 93024»-O24-O November 1995 ' V01. 14 No. 11 and accurate archive of Gilis music and related materials. They Mail Bag are looking for scores, parts, audio and video tapes, photos, In setting up my will, I found my two sons fighting over who gets correspondence, and mementoes ofany kind The material will be my complete set of 29 Super Bowl Programs. (I’ve attended them credited toathe source, acknowledged by the Evans family and all.) returned to the donor on request. This material should be sent to The way to resolve this family conflict is to prevail on you to the librarian of the estate." make me a copy of Vbliune l, Number 4, of the Jazzletter. With that issue, I would have a complete set of Jazzletters and my David W Morgan musician son in Kauai would happily accept that as a substitute. Estate of Gil Evans I’m not looking forward to my will being probated in the near 561 Hudson Street # 65 future, however, so keep those Jazzletters coming. New York NY 10014 ’ Bob Cook, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Fax 212 206-7473 Done. I've sent Bob not a photocopy but the original. And one of the subscribers is trying to locate Harold S. Kaye. Does anyone have a phone number? Thank you for the enlightening article on Don Thompson, gifted composer, marvelous player. You have given us insight into yet Thefollowing letter was dated November 18, 1995. another talented, dedicated jazz musician. One of my favorite I am a dedicated jazz fan, a seasoned record collector, and a bit musical moments of recent years was hearing Don play piano on of a writer on jazz myself in a local music mag. I have also his composition Days Gone By with Rob McConnell and the Boss collected a small but select jazz library over the years, but it is not Brass. We in the Detroit area can often catch Don with various even close to what I’d like it to be. There are many marvelous groups via Canadian broadcast stations. books and mags and other kinds of literature created by jazz Lorraine M. Hannah, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan enthusiasts and connoisseurs in America and all over the world, but of course you can’t have them all. I regret that until this very day Thanks for turning me on to Richard Halliburton, of whom I I wasn’t in a position to obtain some of the major ones but I never was oblivious. I’m finishing Jonathan Root’s biography of him give up hope, no matter if I’d have to read and enjoy at least one now. of them in my dying bed. The article on Don Thompson reminded me that George To fiilly enjoy that marvelous and most original and most Shearing has been seldom mentioned in the Jazzletter. Perhaps you creative music of all, jazz, one needs to read about it and its don’t dig him, but he has been one of the major influences in my creators, as much as one can, besides listening to the records and ‘an life, especially the quintet. attending live playing or watching it in movies and TV. Reading What is siuprising is that George, though bumt out with the about it, one also learns about it. quintet sound twenty years ago, has recorded a new album of the Of course, there is no need to tell you that for a jazz fan living format (That Shearing Sound, Telarc CD 83347), which, for me, in this part of the world, in social systems and under living surpasses everything he has done. conditions such as they were here and still are, obtaining a record, Though it begins and ends with two of his most popular hits a book or a mag has never been easy. Thus it brings more pleasure and does not much evolve them, his treatment of the compositions and joy when I manage to obtain it from time to time. But things of DeRose, Kreisler, Silver, and Bill Evans are ecstatic. The young are much worse and more difficult now due to this miserable members of the quintet have inspired him to new heights. situation in my country. Ogden Plumb, Streator, Illinois Due to this horrible civil war and the effects and hardships it caused, isolation and embargo, devastated economy, unemployment Could you possibly put a notice in your Jazzletter about a and deep poverty, hyperinflation, lack of all the essential things project I am working on, collecting Louis Armstrong’s letters? The that make a decent life, mental frustration and depression, loss of letters are mostly in private hands and thus are hard to locate. The any prospects of future, we face a very cruel reality, with many of notice should say that I’m interested in photocopies, not originals. us literally on the verge of survival. For a situation when most Roxanne Orgill important social and human values are being destroyed and all 1249 Bloomfield Street moral principals violated, when people are deprived of ordinary Hoboken, New Jersey, 07030 human needs and simple, small pleasures, it really is hard to make some sense out of life and find something that could be called the I have a similar request from Anita Evans, GilIs widow. She future. Many people here could not and that’s why we have so and the estate are making an extended effort to built a complete‘ many suicides in our midst. To escape the cruel reality, I try to forget with the help of things I love so much, like books and jazz, Copyright 1995 by Gene Lees I which would at least for a couple of hours, before I’d have to go murder; and imposed starvation that killed 200,000 persons and out and face the reality, transfer me into another world, far better made two million refugees. A recent five-part TV series called and more pleasant than this we live in. Yhgoslavia: Death of a Nation included a moment when the voice But the last four years, since the misery started, I hardly had the ofthe Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, tell his men on the hills chance to obtain and enjoy a new book on jazz, or a record or above Sarajevo, “Shell the presidency and the Parliament. Tlzrget magazme. Muslim neighborhoods — not many Serbs live there. Shell them till A while ago I found out about your wonderful publication, they ’re on the edge of madness. " Jazzletter, which to my surprise was founded in 1981. I admit I As a Serb, Markovic Miroljub experienced nothing like the didn’t lmow about it. I also knew very little about your other horrors of the people of Sarajevo. Interestingly my friends wife activities in jazz. told me, "Miroljub has a meaning. It means peace-lover” Even There is no need to tell you how much I am interested in your the Serbs suflered, she said, fiom a ruined economy and complete Jazzletter and how much I’d love to be a regular subscriber to it. economic and cultural exclusionfi'om the rest ofthe world. But the But even if I could afford the price of the armual subscription Serbs killed 17,000 children in Sarajevo alone. (which is a small fortune in these hyperinflation times) there is no Can you imagine a sniper looking through the scope ofhis rifleU way or means of sending the payment abroad, due to all the at a little child and calmly killing it? connections to foreign countries broken down. But, she said with a tone of bitterness, “Why did the Serbian I also learned about your published books of essays, which are people do nothing to stop Slobodan Milosevic? Remember, they re- also of great interest to me. But in a present situation I can only elected him. " dream about them. Or dare to hope that you could spare me a New lbrk Times columnist Anthony Lewis wrote recently: promo copy of Meet Me at Jim and AndyIs, which you might have "Western politicians and commentators who wanted to close as an extra copy for your private library maybe. their eyes to the horror in theformer Iiigoslavia often said that it Can you imagine what it would mean for a deprived fan like was caused by ‘ancient hatreds '. Americans, they said — or me, hungry for quality serious jazz writing? I pray for the day Britons or whoever — should not get involved in such impenetrable when this country will return to normality again, so I could be in ethnic-religious conflicts. a position to subscribe to Jazzletter or obtain your books in a “But it was not ‘ancient hatreds’ that produced ethnic cleans- regular way. " ing, rape, and concentration camps. It was men: ambitious men I hope the current peace talks in Dayton, Ohio, bring some who stirred up extreme nationalist emotions as a way to power: It progress and improvement from his misery, but there are so many was one man above all, Slobadan Milosevic ofSerbia. " obstacles on the way to final and lasting peace in this land. They This exploitation of nationalist and separatist sentiments is can sign anything but the reality after that is what matters. It will going on in French Canada right now with the people being take along, long time before we recover as a people, as a society, manipulatedby ambitiouspoliticians such as Jacques Parizeau and as a coimtry. The damage done is enormous, the wounds are deep. Lucien Bouchard. American writers and columnists, including“ God help us all.