I’m especially alarmed by those strange playlists—filled with mysterious artists who may not really exist, or almost identical tracks circulatin

"This Is a Hell of a Statement I'm About to Make—But He Superseded Miles"

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2024-02-10 02:30:06

I’m especially alarmed by those strange playlists—filled with mysterious artists who may not really exist, or almost identical tracks circulating under dozens of different names.

I’m supposed to be a jazz expert. So why haven’t I heard of these artists? And why is it so hard to find photos of these musicians online?

I listened to twenty different tracks. There’s some superficial variety in the music, but each track I heard had the same piano tone and touch. Even the reverb sounds the same.

Imagine if you ran a medical office with physicians’ names on the door, but patients never got a glimpse of a flesh-and-blood doctor. Or a law firm gave out legal advice, but no lawyers were ever seen in the office.

A few days ago I published part one of my account of the mysterious jazz trumpeter Dupree Bolton—who shook up the LA jazz scene in the early 1960s, and then vanished.

In the meantime, check out this amazing account of Bolton from Curtis Amy, who hired the trumpeter shortly before his disappearance.