Hey Fellas: A little note here OSCAR PETERSON, on the the great jazz piano plyes pssed away in Canada yesterday I was fortunate enough to see him play with Ray Brown,Joe Pass and Barney Kessler. Thank Oscar you brought a lot of joy to my life

Muddy

Muddy, driving up to my sister's house today, I spent the hour listening to his classic album with Joe Pass and Nils Pedersen, The Trio. It was one of the first jazz albums I bought 30 years ago, and Peterson's technique blew me away. I had a chance to see Joe Pass at around that same time in a small room. He walked in with his guitar in one hand and a small amp in the other, then sat down on a chair and played alone for the next 90 minutes or so without saying more than a few words. I never saw anyone get so much out of a hollow-bodied electric guitar before. He would take a sappy song by Bread and improvise it into a masterpiece. Now that Oscar's gone, the entire trio from that classic The Trio album is gone. Sonny Rollins is one of the last of the old greats left.

I *** your having seen Oscar.

Hey Norm: I saw Mr.Pass many times he was the greatest wasn't he? I once saw a promotion for an album that Guitar Player Magazine had put out, I think it was at City Center. Joe Pass and Barney Kessler hit the stage, together, and they took 2 tunes: Tea for Two and Bye Bye Blackbird and for over an hour took those 2 simple tunes to the srtatosphere and back. Then they stood up, unplugged said thank you an left the stage. 8-)

Pass & Kessler: you're a lucky man, Dom.

When I saw Pass play in 1972 or 1973, I thought I knew how to play the guitar a bit. Seeing him disabused me of that notion real fast. His solo albums are a wonder: Virtuoso, recorded in 1973, has got to be one of the two or three best jazz guitar recordings ever. Among the amazing things about Joe Pass was that he was a heroin addict for so many years; how he produced that kind of work while struggling as a junkie is beyond me--maybe you can understand it better than I can. The other amazing thing about him was that he used zero tricks. No fuzz box, no distorting sound, maybe and rarely a little reverb, maybe. Just pure sound.

Back to Oscar: my nephew, who's a jazz pianist in New York, went to a tribute concert for him a couple of months ago. He said Oscar's wife was there, but he never showed. She said his back was bothering him, but was probably just covering up for how bad he was.

By the way, I'm planning on being in New York on March 6 for my nephew's gig at the Kitano hotel. It's a quartet, and includes Billy Pierce, who played tenor sax with Blakey's Jazz Messengers and also played with Max Roach and Tony Williams. On drums will be Billy Drummond, who was part of Horace Silver's sextet for years and also played with Sonny Rollins. If you're in New York then, maybe we can hook up there. My treat.

10-4 I have a buddy from way back when Brian Lynch who played trumpet in the Messengers with Blakey< Stay in touch never know I may just be in NYC then