Whitehead did an excellent job of covering events in the Dutch improvising scene in his book, I thought, though his focus on the key years of 65-72 was somewhat skimpy. I would love to read a comparably detailed book on the London scene, from say 65 onwards. And, for that matter, another one on the Berlin scene over those same years.

Martin Davidson should handle the London one. As far as Berlin, hmmmmm.

Maybe Jost Gebers could write about Berlin? In related matters, anyone know when George Lewis' book on the AACM is finally coming out?

I'd wager it'll drop before Olewnick's opus on Rowe.
:)

I met Kevin in 1998 in Palermo. He tried to offend me by making negative comments about Charlie Haden and Ron Carter, that did not work and we got along pretty well.
That said, I have to disagree with his assesment of Altena in NDS, he tries to make him out to be a second rate player when in fact he is one of the absolute greatest. He wasn't playing so much bass when Whitehead was writing the book, but his old recordings are incredible even from a purely technical stand point.

Hey, Damon, I’m spinning Piccolo right now in your honor ;)

I like Altena a lot in certain settings (duos w/ Kowald, Pisa 80, etc.), but I have three of his Hats and have never been able to warm much to them, though admittedly it’s been years since I spun ‘em. Too dry & compositionally brittle, iirc.

I actually appreciate both Carter and Haden, they both have some incredible moments on record.
The records you mention are the ones, the duo with Kowald, Pisa, Duo with Lacy, Weavers with Christmann and Lovens, Porto Novo, his solo bass lps are the best ones.

New Dutch swing is a great book; the format whitehead uses is a perfect way to review music on fresh air.

in person he's quite a drip. and by that i mean he is addicted to throwing zingers, which usually just drip to the floor.

i got the feeling during a writing about improv music class he conducted at athens, ga in 2004 that the only people he thought worthy of writing about jazz/improv were himself and john corbett.

he complained and complained about the state of improv writing, but was completely discouraging and unsupportive.

I sat in on that “writing about improv” class in Athens on a whim and agree that it was pretty mediocre in terms of content. Corbett had some funny anecdotes, but the “lecture” part fell flat. The best thing by far was the in-classroom performance by Dave Rempis & Tim Daisy that the students were instructed to write about.

I found Whitehead much more personable at the ACME Fest and had a couple entertaining conversations with him. During the course of one he mentioned that he’d been really impressed by a review of one of the Fest performances written by one of the students in the class. His musical endeavors (captured on the slipshod Starship Beer disc in the Unheard Music Series) are entirely other matter- yuck!

The Joe McPhee seminar offered around the same time was a trip. The prof kept expecting Joe to “lecture” and instead he just improvised it, riffing about his youth in Poughkeepsie and his adventures in Europe. Half of it was him playing selections from a copy of As Serious as Your Life borrowed from one of the attendees on the auditorium A/V equipment. The bewildered, but curious looks on a lot of the students’ faces during “The Death of Miles Davis” were really inspiring. The next day I gave Joe a copy of Robert Pete Williams S/T album reissued on Fat Possum, which he graciously accepted. I still think the two could be brothers in terms of looks.

Actually, that ACME Fest was one of the best I’ve ever been too, primarily because of the truly unique vibe it sustained throughout: Vandermark’s crew, Brötzmann, Joe Morris, the Maneris, just too cool. Everybody running into each other & hanging out during the days. It’s a damn shame it ended up being a one-time-only event.