ONOFFON

[sgs4u]

Quote:Have you heard James Jamerson's son!!!??? JD, are you Jamerson's illegitimate love child? I wonder. Has he been involved in anything I might have heard? Ray Brown must have had kids too. But I have listened to Von's band, and Von, you're a stunning bassist! As with the many excellent musicians I've been lucky enough to work with, I thank you for getting so damn good, 'cause it makes my own life better. Music will always be a special language to communicate with. All this focusing on forwards, deals, credits... wreaks havoc with my mental state. Playing music in a band, or alone with a singer, even just listening to music - is my place of worship. That must be why I do so terribly with Taxi. There's very little instant gratification. I don't think I'll ever be a focused - "just the facts," kind of guy.

[onoffon]

Thanks so very much, Steve... you and people like you on these boards... Nomi, Vikki, Drew, Dave, and many more... you inspire me... your inspiration feeds my drive and belief in myself and what I'm doing. I have to tell you, I couldn't be so dedicated to this mission without the love and support of my lovely wife, Renee. She has the unenviable curse of loving an artist and his dreams. I know it's not easy for her sometimes and no one deserves my successes more than her...As for my boys, I don't know what paths they will choose. The older is an independent pragmatist - the younger, a pure artist with his head in the clouds. Whether or not either will follow a musical course remains to be seen. I remember my dad introducing me to his friends saying, 'no matter how hard I try to talk him out of it, he wants to be a musician'. He said it with pride but I know what he meant... and my younger son is starting to pluck around on my old Gibson Ripper.As for success or failure with TAXI, neither defines who we are as musicians. What we do when we write and perform - that's when we become who we are and say what we came to say. I like your statement about your place of worship. Playing music is as close to God as I'll ever come.And it would be a pleasure to play with you sometime...

[onoffon]

Here's one that gets put into the "Ironic" file...For those that don't know, bassist Oscar Pettiford is another GREAT bassist from the big band and bebop eras. In fact, for many years, he was credited with pioneering pizzicato jazz cello until time and recording dates proved my father was the true pioneer of the instrument's inclusion to jazz.Taking nothing away from Mr. Pettiford - the man was incredibly talented and wonderfully innovative - and my father looked up to him and highly respected his musical abilities. In 1953, the two men got together and formed a group, played around Los Angeles, and recorded a four song EP on Imperial Records they called Oscar Pettiford and his Jazz All Stars. This album is one of my personal favorites - it features both my father and Oscar playing duet cellos, with a supporting bassist freeing up the cellos to play full time melodic harmonies and solos. What an INCREDIBLE recording!!!! The sound has never been duplicated.Anyway, I mentioned four songs - Just Too Marvelous for Words and Blues in the Closet, both arranged by Oscar Pettiford - and Monti Celli and In a Cello Mood, both Harry Babasin originals, written and arranged by my father. Now, to the ironic part. Fresh Sound Records, out of Barcelona, Spain, recently released a compilation CD digipack of Oscar Pettiford music - a very good retrospective of definitive Pettiford throughout his career. It's called "Oscar Pettiford - In a Cello Mood". Not only does it include the four songs from the Imperial EP, including my father's originals, they even named it after one of my dad's songs!Go figure. And they didn't even pay any licensing or royalties to my mom for the use of my dad's tunes or performances... but that's another story...

[sgs4u]

Don't know if I'd call it "Ironic." Theft is more the word I'd use. Is there anything you can, or even want to do about it?

[onoffon]

The sad truth, Steve, is that it would probably cost more to pursue it than the actual worth of the royalties. Our family just doesn't have the resources and they know that. Record labels even screw artists after they're dead... In some sense, it's a lot like all of us. We're just supposed to be happy that we're getting some exposure and our music is getting heard.

[sgs4u]

Quote:The sad truth, Steve, is that it would probably cost more to pursue it than the actual worth of the royalties. Record labels even screw artists after they're dead... So true, you can bet the "nice guys" that rereleased your Dad's songs without permission, are counting on that very fact.

[onoffon]

And my mom, who is 78, on an extremely fixed income, and severely emphysemic, could certainly use any money that should rightfully be paid to her.When all is said and done, the only thing left a composer is what they actually have writing and publishing credits on, and then it's a struggle to see that those are paid as they should be.

[onoffon]

Well.... this is an interesting development. Not about any of my projects - but about this board.When this board was first set up, the view counter would turn over at 4,000. That happened twice during the existence of this ONOFFON SSP thread. Now, that has changed since the board was recently updated. I knew this because the counter continued above 4,000 for the first time ever. I was anticipating when there might be a cutoff and it would turn over again - I thought possibly at 10,000.Now, something very curious has occurred. Last night, when I visited this board, the view counter read, 9,440 views.This morning, it now reads 1,442!What could this mean? Did the counter turn over at 10,000? Does that mean this thread received more than 2,000 views overnight? If that's true, then we've received 19,442 views of this thread and it would appear that many more people are learning of Harry Babasin and, of course, ONOFFON....On the other hand, if it's simply a computer glitch, then I'm all giddy for nothing... Either way, I sincerely thank the good people at TAXI for allowing me to be a part of this community and hosting my "Blog" here on the TAXI boards. This is the closest thing to a blog I've ever taken part in and the support from so many Taxians has been truly wonderful...Here's to the journey...

[onoffon]

Back to history -Here's another book I found on Google Books that has quite a bit of information about my father. It's called Texan Jazz, written by Dave Oliphant. I contacted Mr. Oliphant quite a few years ago, before he wrote this book so Harry was a natural inclusion. I'm not leaving the URL - it's huge - but the book can be easily found in a Google search. This is the first paragraph that first mentions Harry -Texan Jazz by Dave Oliphant Page 282 "Whatever Babasin's motive, this bass player and two of his fellow classmates would figure in some of the major events of and developments in jazz on the West Coast. Born in Dallas on March 19, 1921, Babasin was raised in Vernon, and after studying at North Texas State in the early 1940's, he left for New York, where he worked with such big bands as those of Gene Krupa, Boyd Raeburn, and Charlie Barnet. In 1945, Babasin set out for California, where he recorded with Woody Herman and Benny Goodman, including a September 1947 session with Goodman that produced "a quintet version of the bebop anthem" Cherokee. More important, Babasin began performing and recording with many of the progressive West Coast players, most notably in 1946 with Dodo Marmarosa, in 1947 with Wardell Gray and Dexter Gordon, in 1952 with Chet Baker, and in 1953 with Laurindo Almeida, Bud Shank, and Shorty Rogers."It's so rewarding for me and my family to see these wonderful references to my father's impact on jazz, most notably, West Coast Jazz.The journey continues...

[onoffon]

I found this listing for my father on the French version of Wikipedia - here's a paragraph of his listing -Harry BabasinUn article de Wikipedia, l'encyclopedie librehttp://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Babasin"C'est de 1948 que date la premiere seance d'enregistrement sous son nom, mais la seconde quatre ans plus tard reste fameuse par la qualite des solistes, Charlie Parker et le tout jeune Chet Baker. Il forme un groupe, les 'Jazz Pickers', construit autour d'un trio d'instruments joues pizzicato (guitare, violoncelle, basse) avec lequel il enregistre quelques disques en 1944 et 1947, parfois sur sa propre marque (mais ephemere) Nocturne. Mais il devient de plus en plus un bassiste 'free-lance' (sans orchestre attitre), sur la Cote Ouest et, de plus en plus, a Hollywood, participant a maint enregistrements en petite formation, avec Laurindo Almeida, avec lequel il introduit (avant Stan Getz) le rythme de bossa-nova, Bud Shank, Bob Enevoldsen, Herbie Harper, Art Pepper."They have some of the dates wrong - Nocturne Records wasn't formed until 1954 and the first Jazzpickers album that was commercially released on Mercury/EmArcy Records wasn't until 1956. And the Charlie Parker/Chet Baker recording didn't happen until 1952. Other than those slight mistakes, they have quite a few correct listings, mostly the big bands he toured with in his early years.The various accents didn't copy over into the TAXI boards so there's a little lost in translation... but you get the idea...