Happy Saturday. Hope it’s going well.

I just wanted to make clear that Report From Over Here is not designed as a paid subscriber endeavor. Of course, I appreciate paid subscriptions. I see them essentially as donations, not as price of entry. My posts are all free to everyone, every time.

That’s it.

Hello good people,

I am finally up with a second writing, more of a continuation of the introduction from over a month ago.

As I have said, my topics will range from jazz to cancer recovery, and I want to include pieces that I have written in my jazz writing career, and recorded interviews that I have as yet determined how to get up here. Working on that.

What seems clear is that I will pretty much let things flow how they will, just writing what’s on my mind, which may, often perhaps, have a memoir kind of approach, which would touch on encounters that come with a long writing career.

And I think I would like to include a musical anecdote culled from my many years of writing about jazz. As I have said before, I saw each interview with each player to be part lesson and I have some of those quips lodged somewhere, he said hopefully.

So here’s one for those of us who have transcribed solos from our heroes: the tenor giant Lew Tabackin told me that it was baritone high priest Pepper Adams’ philosophy that if you copied several solos by different people, it was research; when you learned the solos of only one player, it was plagiarism.

On another Pepper front, Elvin Jones told me that He and Pepper both moved to New York from Detroit and got a place together. “Pepper cooked, I cleaned up,” Elvin said.

That’s life in the jazz lane. Okay, off for now. Find something good to listen to. Like this (and I apologize for any ads you might have to hit ‘skip’) wonderful Gil Evans minor blues, “Las Vegas Tango,” with solos from Gil, trombonist Jimmy Cleveland and guitarist Kenny Burrell, underpinned by a sizzling rock-ish beat from drummer Elvin Jones, held steady by Ron Carter’s fat bass lines.

Hope today is a decent day.

Today is the launch day for my Substack column, Report From Over Here. As the banner says, this will cover a lot of things from jazz and spirituality to cancer survival, the arts in general, and who knows what else. Some core aspects will be addressed: my collection of interviews I did over the course of my 35 years as an active jazz journalist; occasional sets of liner notes, both current and past; articles that I wrote over the years, some in original layouts, some just font; reports of my 26 years of surviving oral cancer and the changes that has brought into my being; my practice as a Vajrayana Buddhist, and how that has shifted my life in a positive direction; hopefully some let’s call them Radio Hours, where I play recordings from my still healthy collection of both LPs and 78s; some days where I read aloud, could be anything, really; offerings of some of the photographs I took back in the day of both the big names and the local heroes, mainly in Los Angeles; and more.

I want these writings to be free. Substack asks you to embark on a paid subscription, and you are more than welcome to do so. I see a paid one as a kind of donation or offering to my alms bowl. I think I can be allowed to not charge anyone and to not deprive anyone who doesn’t subscribe of anything. We’ll see how that goes.

As to the regularity of posts, that also will be seen as it occurs. I know most folks up here post regularly. I will do my best.

So, thanks for reading, look forward to saying something that might be of interest. We’ll see.

All the best,

Zan