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Unknown: Letter to Frank cofsky, dear Frank, I got your short note in the photographs, and they were very good. You said something about having even better ones,

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and if you can dare to part with those, or at least the negatives, so that we could have some prints made, I deeply appreciate it. We've been pretty busy here, Judy and myself working as

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usual. We did a concert at Hunter College, which was very well received, and the performance was very good, and the material was very

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good. I i find that looking for an apartment, trying to stay alive, trying to do my music, has almost made it impossible for me to write letters. That's why I'm sending you this tape. I

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I saw your last article in the current issue of Janis magazine, and you were, as usual, your old provocative self. It's always good to know that someone's willing to speak out

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for those things that I think most people intrinsically know or just refuse to face. I don't know if many people understand what you said about Archie, because I don't think they want to understand.

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Do but then, even if they did understand, I don't know if that would change anything either, all the people I know are in favor of a civilian review board. But you see what happened

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in the election? I You said something about wanting to do a story or an article or a paragraph or a sentence or two on my work, and I was very pleased I haven't had any stories done on my work,

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and a lot of my lesser contemporaries have had, as far as I'm concerned, too much paint space. So I'll give you some information, which you may use

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in any matter that you see fit, I trust your judgment. Biographically, I was born in Nantucket or on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts, October 5, 1925, my family came to New York when I was quite young. I spent two

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years at Boston University, not as a music student, as a student of painting. I went into military service, served in World War Two, the segregated unit, and with the

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benefit of the GI Bill, which I was entitled to, was able to study music for four years in a conservatory, and for another four years with a composer, a DR Carl Bowman here in New York, I've done the usual music jobs, playing in the mountains,

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playing for weddings, playing for social dances, playing for rallies, playing commercially, a little symphonic work that kind that speaks out to most Negroes. And finally, I started to play for myself. It wasn't until 1962

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that I gained enough confidence in my own music to start to play it exclusively, although, for. 1948, up to the present time, I've written about 500 pieces of music. Of course, a piece of music for me can be two bars. If I call

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that a piece of music, then that's a piece of music. I've also had a couple of string quartets, couple of brass pieces, a couple of quintet wind quintet pieces, and in 1953 I had the first section of a symphony. Dig that

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way for form. As far as music goes, I like all kinds of music. Frank doesn't make any difference to me. I don't even say if it's good or bad, because I don't see how

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there can really be bad music. There can only be bad people involved in the music. And I don't necessarily mean the commercial people that bleed the creative people dry. I mean people with bad feelings who do music,

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people talk about or try to make me believe, at least that crow Jim is just as bad as Jim Crow. I don't believe that in this instance, the chicken or the egg did come first.

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And you don't have to be a Rhodes scholar to know which did come first. Sometimes I get very, very bitter. I haven't received very much attention, even among my contemporaries.

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A whole lot of people have studied with me too. Line of notes rarely mention anything that I've had to do with any of the people that are sort of achieving some of the things that they so richly deserve. But I think we

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all deserve something, and if you don't deserve anything, they just, should just line us all up and shoot us be easier. I don't even know if I believe in education anymore. A person is allowed to learn something, and then everybody

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sits on your neck and tries to prevent you from doing it. That's another story. I I'm now playing and writing better than I've ever done in my life. I feel

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more positive about my work than I've ever felt in my life. I and I guess that's why it's it's difficult to not be angry about certain things I years. Judith Dunn and I have been working together for a year now. We've produced quite an eloquent body

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of work by anybody's standards, and I do believe that my standards are the most important I'm more critical of myself than anyone ever could be. Judy, I don't know if you know. I should tell you this, because we are

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partners in what we do. Was with Merce Cunningham for about five years, I only tell this to people so that when they see her do something, if they have to, they can at

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least understand that she does do it by choice. One of these days, I won't even tell them that I we work independently and collectively. It's never music accompanying dance or vice versa. It, but at

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the same time, it's both. As I said at Hunter College the other day to the students, after the first piece had been played, I told those students, I said, I really don't care how you view

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the music and how you see the dance. You can make up stories for yourselves if that's what makes you comfortable. And you can find the music programmatic, if you want to. I really don't care, but it isn't done that way. The product, the music and

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the dance, are simply what they are. There are no stories. There are no symbols. One of these days, I guess we won't even have any titles. I don't know if there's anything else I can tell you. As far as

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credits go, I have the outstanding collection of material recorded, of which it consists of one record, quartet record with Archie Shep on Savoy, which I think you know,

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Savoy, mg, 12178, and then I have a half of recording also on Savoy, Where I used, I think, seven musicians, seven pieces. I says, Savoy, mg, 12184, I am now recording for RCA victim, and I hope the recording will be released

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at the earliest possible time. I don't believe any creative person lives in any kind of ivory tower. I would like for people to accept my work.

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I'll go a step further. I would like people to enjoy my work, but I don't expect them to I don't do it for that reason. I do expect them, though, to keep quiet about their ignorance when a man like Dan Morton stern

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can use the printed page as a weapon against me and try to reduce my performance at the Newport jazz festival as an amateur venture and make the analogy of my approach to music and trumpet playing as something that is akin to miles

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Davies, I deeply resent that. I also deeply resent when I performed at the Judson or at Judson Hall as part of the jazz composer skill with four days in December. I resent a writer like A B Spellman saying that on the night that Cecil Tara and I

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performed, that ceaseless was the work which was the important work, I deeply resent my colleagues in music who do not rise To defend their brothers in music or in art, because you see, we are all people, and we are all

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scuffling. And one of these days, the only final thing that is very apparent to me is that we will all be dead. So I resent being trod upon. I don't like it one bit,

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but others have been trod upon. Schoenberg resented the attention that Stravinsky got, and he goes ad infinitum, if you want, I can send you a photograph,

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and I will try to follow. This tape up with a written letter, sorry I took so long to answer, but the struggle seems to take most of the time sincerely. Building. PS, Frank, this is the long awaited tape that you are

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now receiving. I have spoken with Pauline that's Judy laughing in the background. I've spoken with Pauline, and she is agreeable to the use of your taped interview for a serialization in jazz magazine. I also told her that I was

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interested in her doing it in as concise a way as possible, so that it wouldn't be stretched out over too long a period of time. And she was also agreeable to that you might mention to her in your letter, that she might even devote an issue for that

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Ha, ha ha, so frank, I would suggest that you get off to her a letter, and also a copy of the tape so that she can have it transcribed. I would also like, if possible, Frank for you, to send me a dub of the actual tape, since I never heard it

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myself, you mentioned something about having photographs. If is it, if it is at all possible, I would like to see some of the photographs I have a good side and a bad side photographically. And it isn't every day that one gets to have a story done on one

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hahaha. I don't know if there's anything else that I can tell you, aside from the fact that we are working feverishly here, Judy and I in New York, and hoping that things will get better. Smile. So that's just about it. Let me hear from you

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as soon as possible. Don't take as long as I took to write sincerely. Bill Nixon.