[Dixielandjazz] OKOM Reviews

[Charlie Hooks]

on 6/29/02 11:40 AM, JimDBB@aol.com at JimDBB@aol.com wrote:

One prominent jazz musician quipped Hoard Reich as the '3rd Reich'.  This
caught on and Reich found out who originated it.  Now he never mentions this
artist or the club where he works.


Maybe you've heard:  Tom Hope (one of Chicago's top jazz pianists who knows
every OKOM turn and also every bebop line, every Monk tune, every--you name
it and he plays the hell out of it!)  came into Andy's looking really morose
a few years back. 

    I said "Why the long face?" and he asks, "Charlie, has my playing really
fallen off lately?"

   "Lord, no, Tommy me boy!  Why do you ask?"

   "Because," he frowned, "Howard Reich just published a review
complementing me."

   (Reich is the guy who complemented Cecil Taylor on his ability to shift
quickly between jazz fingerings and classical fingerings.  I wrote to
clarify this distinction, and he wrote back defending them as different.
Tom Hope is still laughing about that one, and I'm still curious; the
distinction appears to consist mainly of certain contortions needed to
perform avante garde music, but I'm still not clear.  Anybody out there use
fingerings for classics different from those for jazz?)

charliehooks@earthlink.net