User talk:Cnairn

Welcome!

Hello, Cnairn, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! Arbiteroftruth 06:51, 13 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Earl Hines

Can you please indicate what you're using as a source for the changes you're making to the Earl Hines article? Thanks. -- Rick Block (talk) 22:04, 13 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sure Rick.

I made an hour-long film with Earl Hines in Blues Alley in Washington in 1975 over about a week. I must have done about 3 hours of "interview" with Earl but his playing was so just great that in the final film, we didn't - just didn't have time for - use much of the interview stuff. I've still got the transcripts of it and the film itself [with all the other unused numbers we recorded] is in the BFI [British Film Institute] library. They don't keep many things but wanted this.

Hines then used to come and stay with me when he was in London and he was a great talker.

Making it with him does remain one of the great experiences of my life. I feel I've met three people who I'd call "geniuses" in my life and Earl Hines was sure one of them.

c.n.

Wow, I'm so jealous. I "discovered" Hines in the 70s and have lots of recordings that were available (including the Master Jazz ones). I saw him only once, in Ann Arbor in the late 70s. He is perhaps my all time favorite pianist, certainly in the same league as Oscar Peterson (I actually think Hines took more risks than Peterson). Note that Wikipedia articles have to be verifiable. If the transcripts are not published, then it's difficult (perhaps impossible) for anyone else to verify the article content so I think unless you can verify from another source you should be very careful about what you use from them. Please see Wikipedia:Citing sources as well. BTW - is the film available? -- Rick Block (talk) 17:23, 14 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It is available in that it [+ all the other numbers recorded/filmed, approx 25 more not in the film] are in the British Film Institute[BFI] Library. It was made for ATV['Lord' Lew Grade] in 1975 but its copyright has been repeatedly sold back & forth over the years as happens with so much made-for-TV material. And of course I've got 16mm film & Beta versions of it "under my bed". Oddly it was the first stereo film ever made for British TV. If you've got Hines on Master Jazz you may well have Cliff Small's [Hines' favourite pianist, unsurprisingly] on the same LP - I have. Whatever happend to him? I think there were 5 Master Jazz LP's with EH? Thanks for Wikipedia guidance - I'm new!

Well, "c.n.", or "Cnairn," I think I have figured out who you are and what you have done. <wink> I can see why you have such fond memories of your encounter with Earl Hines. I regret that I never saw him when he performed locally at New York University back in the Seventies (that was before I developed a strong interest in jazz). If somehow your film of Hines ever becomes available on DVD, that's something I would love to have. I appreciate that you took my editing in the right spirit. (I worked professionally as an editor for some 15 years, so that's one of the main ways I try to contribute to the Wikipedia.) It's clear that we are all contributing to the Hines article as a labo[u]r of love, including not only Rick Block, but various others, including Infrogmation, who started the article. It's a pleasure to be contributing in this kind of friendly, cooperative environment; since I started doing things here a couple of years ago, I have tried to avoid the "edit wars" and "flame wars" that are rampant in many controversial areas.

As for Dance's book, I believe that you are correct. I think that that is the most authoritative and complete book on Hines. Eventually I hope to read it, use it to add a little more here, and then list it as a reference.

Since you appreciate help as someone new around here, I will just suggest that you sign all your comments on talk pages (especially when not writing on your own) with the customary four tildes, which are automatically converted to a user-plus-date-and-time stamp. Without this, it gets confusing as to who said what when. Regards, Alan W 01:48, 16 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

On the signing thing - what we're saying is you should type ~~~~ (four tildes) at the end of your entry. The software expands it to your signature and includes the date. For example, in this message what I actually entered at the end is "-- ~~~~". The software replaces the four tildes with all the stuff that shows up following the "--". -- Rick Block (talk) 16:41, 16 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Rick. I'd reached the age of 63 without yet knowing what a "tilde" was! I'm slightly ashamed that I started "fiddling" before I knew what I was doing but I'll get my head round it some wet day which means [in Highland Scotland]....soon! "<cnairn>-- Cnairn 16:50, 27 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, again, Cnairn! You must have quite a collection of Earl Hines recordings there. But, good, you're adding a lot to the article. I do have a question (which is I why I'm using your user talk page — to get your attention). You specify that Hines started his own band "on his 25th birthday". He apparently was 25 years old, but do you know for a fact that it was exactly on the day of his 25th birthday? Remember, he gave out his birth year as a couple of years later than what it was found to really be, so it is not likely Hines himself who would have said anything about that.

Also, you really should be using round brackets ("parentheses") instead of square brackets — [] — for your interpolations. I keep having to change them. The square brackets are appropriate within parentheses or in quoted text for editors' comments. I think that British and American usage are the same in this. Regards, Alan W 23:54, 3 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]