Larry wrote:
"Toots was very unhappy about being made to play with Howard and was very unhappy with the arrangements and dressing room situation - however, once he hit the stage, he was the consummate professional."
That's wrong Larry.
His arrangements were actually the same as when he always played in MN for any other club except I picked him up at the airport rather than allowing him to take a cab. That was quite a ride... I had Rob Paparozzi, Bernard Purdie, Toots and his manger in my car. It was a great experience. Toots told me during that ride that I was a very good whistler and I should do something with my whistling skills.
The whole Toots - Howard thing is where the summit went wrong for me and the reason the event lost money. Everything was fine until something happened in rehearsal - I'm NOT going into details. The same BS continued over the next day and up to the performance. It had absolutely nothing to do with the arrangements and everything to do with clashing personalities... I however was NOT involved in the clash and did everything I could do to mend it.
So I don't know what or where you heard such things but I know that I and two other people are the only two people that were there when everything happened. I know from letters afterwards from Toots that he was vary gracious for what I did. And I know the event was remember years afterwards and whenever Toots came to town I was invited to be his guest at the show and played with him each time.
I don't even know how the summit was brought into the SPAH conversation as the event continues to remain the king of ALL harmonica events to this day. I lot of work was put into making that event happened. Nothing is ever perfect. I gave everything I had and afterwards, lost my wife and all the money I had plus a lot of other things. That's how passionate I am about the harmonica. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?
Remnants of the Summit exist today in the Twin City Jazz Festival that has grown from the Summit into one of the largest jazz festivals in the world. _______________________________________________ Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l