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Michael Sly's avatar

Great story! I had the pleasure to hang out with Joe Pass for a day with my guitar teacher who was a friend of his. This was probably around 89 or 90. He was a warm person and so down to earth. Saw him play that night in the Blue Note in NYC with Monty Alexander. I sat at a table with Milt Jackson and George Benson. I rember this day like it happened yesterday.

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Steven Cerra's avatar

My goodness Michael, Joe Pass AND Monty Alexander sharing the same bandstand. And table sharing with the legendary Bags and George Benson. Memorable evening, indeed!!

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Michael Sly's avatar

I also got to hang out with Cecil Taylor for a night when I was at a house party when I was attending Berklee. Interesting cat! I consider myself lucky to meet and converse with some legends.

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Augustine Riley's avatar

I briefly met Joe in my late teens while he was touring here in the UK in the mid seventies with Oscar Peterson, they both signed my program which I still have, GREAT night!

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Steven Cerra's avatar

Thanks for reminding me about Joe's time with the great OP, Augustine. I'll have to dig out some of those recordings. And thanks, too, for becoming a paid subscriber. Greatly appreciated. Kind regards, Steve

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Augustine Riley's avatar

Thanks, Steve, and great site by the way! Call me Gus :) Cheers and will be catching up previous material and keeping up with new material, looking forward to the ride! Cheers from England. :) Gus

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Dan Dolby's avatar

Stephen,

I like balance in life. Chuck Dederich did wonderfull things...and then went off the rails. We all have feet of clay and his later activities do not reduce the good he did with Joe and others but should be mentioned. It's not fair to Joe to, one, not show the whole picture and, two, keep him from being painted with the broad negative brush of those who know Chuck's end results. Joe was an innocent and is not culpable. He should be described as such and not lumped together with what became the Synanon tradgedy. The whole story is best in this case, a line of two mentioning this would have sufficed.. I am a recovering junkie of 40 years. I thoroughly enjoy your posts, thank you. Dan Dolby

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Dan Dolby's avatar

I am a grateful paid subscriber. Keep up the good work.

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Steven Cerra's avatar

Thanks for the support, Dan, and for the encouragement. Compiling, annotating and self-publishing six anthologies in a little over a year while bringing up posts on my JazzProfiles and Substack blog has certainly been a challenge and then some. People like you make it all worthwhile. Kind regards, Steve.

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Steven Cerra's avatar

Thanks for reaching out, Dan. Of course, you are right. There's a much larger picture as regards Synanon and its history. My intention was to provide an "early days" snap shot involving Joe Pass and to tie it in with my work with patients at the residential treatment center who had similar problems with substance abuse.

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