Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
<150>
And what are its virtues? I've never played one, maybe never seen one.
  

    
They're D-28 copies, hand-made with more care than Martin was using at the
time.  This was 67-68, and between the Great Folk Scare, and the British
Invasion, the quality guitar companies (Martin, Fender, and Gibson) were
letting the quality slip while trying to keep up with the demand.  Roy's
guitars had the kind of mojo that vintage instruments did, and Craig did a
good job of repping his stuff to the aficionados that were hanging out at
the Ash Grove and the Troubadour.  Pricey, too.   A new D-28 was going for
$300, and Nobles were $350.
  

    
<152>
Yes, I've heard that Nobles are great guitars but a tad pricey. Good
for you that you got a relatively early one. I trust it has held up
well.
  

    
Well, we had a bit of a tragedy.   I still have the carcasse.   My current
love is a Santa Cruz D/PW.
  

    
Say, Bill -

I enjoyed your story re Al "Jazzbeaux" Collins. Growing up I would hear Jazzbeaux on the 
radio (I think on KEST-AM), and occasionally listened to him on KCSM 
in his late years.  As a kid I was not aware of how unusual he was as a DJ, as certainly 
a lot of DJs have created eccentric personas - but he seems to have been more the 
blueprint for them, and few have gone so far into creating their own worlds.  

I did not realize he used to have people like Art Tatum dropping in.  I believe you 
also wrote that the Basie band played on the show. 

Man, those were different days for radio!

How did they fit the Basie band in?  Was it a smaller ensemble or the full group?  

I do miss hearing Jazzbeaux's voice on the radio.  I guess Mal Sharpe is doing stuff that 
is somewhat related.  
  

    
<155>
Well, Al was never clear to me about how many in the Basie band were
there that night, or in what year it took place. I'd like to think it
was the full big band, but, ... who knows. I do remember that Al was
tickled pink they were there, and putting them on for 2 1/2 hours
straight certainly attests to that. Yes, radio has certainly changed.

Al was a gentle soul. He was a great joker, and we shared many laughs
together. I missed him when he was gone. His wife has a biography of
his that she has the rights to and would like published. I'd like it to
be one of my upcoming projects. It could be the biography has more
details about that. I'll check with her.

BTW, I met Al at a big band show with three bands including Full Faith
and Credit, which I was playing with at the time. Al was the M.C. So,
after he had introduced the first band he was back stage relaxing. I
approached him and thanked him for all the great radio he had given us
over the years. I don't like to take famous folks time -- they get too
much of that -- so I then started backing away. 

He said, "Wait a minute young man, who are you?" I told him my name.

He said, "Don't you play bass on some Grisman albums?" I was just
stunned that he had pulled my name out of the air like that. He plays
thousands of albums a year, and yet he remembered my name and
associated it with the group. What a memory!
  

    
Well, it's not like there are hordes of Amatneek's running around, you
know. I'd be happy to help edit that Ms., if you'd like. 
  

    
<157>
Thanks for your kind offer, Ed. I'll let you know when the time comes.


BTW, did I read you are interested in leaving Berlin? Where to? And
what projects are you working on now?
  

    
I'll send you an e-mail. Don't want to contribute to drift...
  

    
I'll bet McFarland would publish the biography of Jazzbeaux. They've done a
lot of other radio-related books, including a bunch of biographies.
  

    
Say, Bill, I was curious - you played in Beach Blanket Babylon, which I am guessing is a 
heavy (music) reading gig.  I would think most of your other gigs don't require much 
reading, even the big band stuff.  How do you keep your reading chops up?

Also, I'm always surprised by how much even other musicians assume their peers play one 
style of music or instrument, and I see you play electric bass as well.  Did you ever find 
you lost a gig because somebody assumed you wouldn't, say, play electric bass?  
  

    
<160>
Well, I think Al's widow has promised that one to me. I'm looking
forward to publishing it, though not til '05 probably.
  

    
BBB was big time reading. Very taxing. I keep up on reading by playing
with big bands. Half or more of the charts are written notes, the rest
chord symbols. You're right, Kurt, reading music is a skill you can
lose if you don't keep up on it. 

To my knowledge I've never lost a gig because someone assumed I
wouldn't or didn't play electric bass. But I have given away electric
bass gigs. I don't keep up on the instrument and I don't have a
particular feeling for it. To me it seems to be a different instrument
than the upright. I don't think I've played it since the New Riders
tour which was probably in the early 80s or late 70s.

If someone I knew and enjoyed playing with asked me to play it on a
gig, I guess I'd dust it off (again) and try my luck. It's just that
there are so many folks who play it so much better than I.
  

    
How did the book come to be published?  How did you get from having a bunch of stories 
to a published book with your name on it?
  

    

I had big band rehearsal the other night and Bill, Rich Bice was playing in
the horn section.
  

    

  (Reminder to those reading this off-Well: you can e-mail questions
   and comments to be part of the conversation to inkwell-hosts@well.com)
  

    

Bill, I don't know if it's a faux pas to ask a storyteller what happened
AFTER the end of a story, but, I'm curious what happened after some of
your stories!  Specifically:  Were you able to write up that Aretha
interview, or was it a lost cause?  And what did Mary think of your
story, beyond her approval of the title?
  

    
<167>
I wrote up something about the Aretha encounter -- can't remember what
-- but it was never printed, that I remember. The only thing about her
week-long visit to S.F. that was printed in Rolling Stone, if I recall
correctly, was an Annie Leibovitz photo of her backstage at the
Fillmore sitting at a table with Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder.
Although Ray appeared with her at that date and was recorded on the
live at the Fillmore album, Stevie did not, unfortunately.

Don't really know what Mary thought of the story, though I'd imagine
she liked it because it's about her, her beauty and attractiveness. It
puts her center-stage in the story, and in the group. 

I decided to get the group's blessing for the story and sent it to all
of them. I also had to get their collective and individual permissions
to use their photo on the cover. I'm imagining that Mary was the force
behind their final OK on both counts, bless her heart.

I asked her via letter to join me in a recording of the story, with
her singing on "Leaving on a Jet Plane," but she declined. John Denver,
the song's author, had just died, and she didn't think it would be a
good time to exploit his name, she said through a go-between. I wrote
the piece way before John died, and did not think that I was exploiting
has name, but I accepted her answer.
  

    
<164>
There are 5 ways to publish a book: 
1) Self publish - for short runs meant for family and friends, and not
for commercial distribution. No ISBN number -- the number that
uniquely identifies the book to the book trade, and which is obligatory
for commercial distribution -- is on the book. The book will not get
reviewed, most likely, due to lack of an ISBN; 

2) Independent publishing - this is what I did: I bought 100 ISBN
numbers, created the book and cover, sent out for printing bids, had
the book printed, and now have the task of marketing and selling it.
BUT I own every penny of every sale, less, of course the cost of
printing the book. This is a good choice if you plan to publish other
books, your own or of other folks' authorship; 

3) Co-publishing - the author hires a publisher to design, layout and
typeset the book and to have it printed. The book has the publisher's
ISBN number, and the author is responsible for marketing and selling
the book. The author takes all the proceeds from his/her sales. The
book is commercially viable, and capable of getting reviewed in the
press;

4) Vanity publishing - the author pays a so-called vanity publisher to
lay out the book and print it. THEN the author pays the vanity
publisher for the books. The book will NEVER be reviewed by the
magazines, because they never review vanity books; and,

5) Find a publisher to publish your book - I knew I didn't want to do
this. You end up with 5% to 15% royalties on the price that the
publisher sells the book to wholesalers, retailers and book clubs,
which itself is 40% to 65% below list price.

I decided early on that I wanted to publish the book myself. I have
other books in mind; I think of myself now as a publisher. I joined
BAIPA (the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association) and started
studying book design, layout, and typesetting with Peter Masterson and
Steve Rennick. I went to book conferences and workshops, and took
classes in PageMaker, a page layout program.

I strongly suggest 2) and 3) to folks who have written a book and
would like to see it in print, but cannot get it published by a
publishing house, or are not interested in that route. Sorry if I'm
running off at the mouth here, again, but I'm passionate about
publishing.
  

    
<165>
Ned, if you go to that rehearsal again, please say a big hello for me
to Rich Bice, who was Full Faith & Credit big band's director.

BTW, which big band was that?
  

    
re 169

The difficulty with self-publication is, I would imagine, marketing
and distribution.
  

    
<171>
For indy publishing, yes, marketing and distribution are the big
issues. There's a saying in the indy book bidness: "You think writing
the book was hard? You think typesetting the book was hard? You think
printing the book was hard? They're easy. Selling the book is hard."

Marketing, distribution, and selling is a 24/7 gig. If I had an
assistant, it would be a 24/7 gig for both of us. But I knew I had that
task before me, and I'm enjoying it.
  

    
How did you learn the ropes for independent publishing?  Are there reference books you 
like?  

Now that you've done some publishing, are you considering doing it for others?
  

    
<173>
I joined BAIPA, a GREAT resource full of knowledgable, giving folks.
They meet once a month, on the second Saturday of each month at Redwood
High School in Marin County, California, 9am-12pm.

I went to conferences/workshops, and yes, I read books. The big one in
the industry is by Dan Poynter. It's called the "Self-Publishing
Manual." It's in its 14th edition, I believe. $19.95 retail. 

There's another called "The Prepublishing Handbook" by Patricia J.
Bell. The subtitle is "What you should know before you publish your
first book." It talks of the risk and rewards of indy publishing, the
costs, tasks and roll of the publisher. A good book for helping you
decide if indy publishing is right for you.

>Now that you've done some publishing, are you considering doing it
for others?
Yes. I have been approached by some people who would like me to
co-publish their books, and books have started coming to me "over the
transom," that is, unsolicited. I have three books lined up that I
would like to publish next, none of them by me. Initially, I'd like to
put out a book a year.
  

    
<129> and other posts related to the Clarence White Martin. This from
Craig Alyn:

"Clarence met Roy thru Doc Watson and Al Ross who was manager of Eagle
Music, a very forward thinking music store that took up a small
section of the Ash Grove Night club in Hollyoowd that catered to Folk
Music.

The soundhole on the original guitar had been damaged from agressive
picking on Clarence's part and cigarette ashes and burns, Clarence was
a chain smoker. Roy just made it as big as the hole on the original
top. 

Clarence White's Martin was repaired when Roy had his shoppe in the
garage behind his house on Le May Street in Van Nuys. That's the same
shoppe that burned down and with it all of Roy's records and stacks of
brazilian rosewood and german spruce tops and all Roy's tools. It
basically out him out of business.

It wasn't a Gretsch neck, merely a Gretsch fingerboard, it was the
only ebony fingerboard Roy had around the shoppe at the time , so on to
the neck. The other guitar Roy built for Clarence White had Gretsch
cloud inlays on the fingerboard I think that Chuck "aka the Duke of
Pearl" did the inlaying."