About Lugnut -- Patrick Malone


Many of us have come to know Patrick Malone (Lugnut) as a friendly, helpful, knowledgeable and kind individual. He is a frequent and enthusiastic contributor to our analog discussion forum. He has initiated only 17 threads, but responded to 559 threads. I would guess that many, if not most, of us can recall a time when Pat replied with helpful advice to a question we posted or helped us track down a rare recording. I have come to love Pat as a friend, and to respect him as a man, and I suspect many of you share those feelings.

Today I write to share difficult news with you. Pat has been diagnosed with an aggressive stomach cancer. It has yet to be determined whether surgery will even be worth it. If surgery is performed, most or all of the stomach will be removed, and Pat would face a difficult and long post-op period in the hospital. The medical course is still uncertain, but will be determined soon. Whatever is decided, it will not be easy or pleasant.

Something may be planned in the future to assist the family. For now, Pat could use some of the friendship he so often and willingly showed us. You can email Pat at: lugnut50@msn.com. You can also mail cards, letters ... or whatever. You may email me for Pat's mailing address. My email is: pfrumkin1@comcast.net.

I hope to spend a few days with Pat in Idaho or Nebraska (from which he hails) soon. Between this news, my legal work, getting ready for family arriving for the holidays, Audio Intelligent, and trying to make plans to visit Pat, my head is spinning. If you email me and I don't respond, please understand that I am not ignoring you, but rather simply do not have time to reply.

Pat may or may not have time to respond to posts here, to emails, or to cards mailed to him. But he has asked me to convey to each and every one of you that he has cherished your friendship, your comradery, and sharing our common hobby on this great website.

As we prepare for our holiday season celebrations, and look forward to -- as we should -- enjoying this time of year, I ask that you keep Pat and his family in mind ... and softly offer up, in quiet moments in the still of night and early morning, prayers for Pat and his family. God bless.

Warmest regards to all,
Paul Frumkin
paul_frumkin
Pat- I'm gonna come outta da closet and admit that I too struggle with Coltrane. I find that I quickly lose interest in it- versus the work of say Miles Davis.

I also find that Coltrane is just trying too hard to make sound. I know you guys think I'm nuts, but something about the guy doesn't cut it for me.

You may now begin to stone me.
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Hey guys I would have been right there with you a few months ago but after reading the book I feel compelled to understand at least somewhat. The crux of the story is that John Coltrane was extremely spiritual. He grew up the son of a minister and was a choir boy as he learned to play in a middle class black life in the south. Throughout his youth he was never without an instrument and practiced every spare moment. He studied different religions and came to believe that all of the worlds religions were worshiping the same God. He had run religion through his personal filter and came to much the same conclusion I have come to during this phase of my life, well kind of anyway. That's the draw for me; the parallel thoughts to a degree. His belief was that God loved us with all his heart and wanted us to love him the same as well as each other. At this point he was becomming more and more popular as a band member finally becoming a part of the great Miles Davis variations. He did develop a heroin addiction, was fired by Miles Davis, eventually quit cold turkey and began writing music to honor this God he worshipped. His music is an attempt to convey perfect love to our maker. The music needed to be perfect to honor Him. Now I don't understand music well enough to explain how much of what sounds as mass confusion to me actually makes perfect musical sense in a way that was never expressed before. To the men in his band and others of like talents this was blazing a trail of monumental importance. They got it so why can't I? A few years ago Carlos Santana and someone else were getting ready to do the reading of the nominees for the best instrumental album of some sort at the Grammys. During the reading of the names Santana blurted out that A Love Supreme is the greatest instrumental recording ever made and the co-host agreed. I remember the cameras panning the audience and many of the greats stood up and applauded. This whole thing went over my head until I read this book. The story is amazing. I want so bad to just get this one recording understood. The prayer he has written in the liner notes is understandable when he is playing the sax. The grunts, squeeks, squwaks and such are the sounds he is making to express perfectly the love he has for his maker. I'm convinced that he was sincere in what he was trying to do and too many great jazz men have put him on a pedestal for the work for me to think that it doesn't warrant a sincere attempt at understanding it. Man, I thought that some of this thread was deep but this concept of creating perfect music to honor the only perfect entity scares me that I might need be perfect to get it. If so, I'm out of luck on this one. Now, the intro to the Twilight Zone please...
Pat I am mostly a Jazz-fusion and straight up Jazz as well as Big Band kind of guy. Coltrane and Miles Davis Bitches Brew is kinda like Sun Ra to me. Avant-garde is ok in small doses but not the whole LP. I am going to buy A Love Supreme because I am intrigued about this LP and want to share my impressions. The main reason is because of your reasons, but this was the kicker for me

"Santana blurted out that A Love Supreme is the greatest instrumental recording ever made"

Man what a statement buy a guy I really respect.
Jphii said above he's sending you A Love Supreme that he got off ebay. You might be interested to know that critic Robert Palmer has written (in his liner notes for a reissue of Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue):

"...The one group I never missed [at the Fillmore East] was The Allman Brothers Band. More specifically, I went to see their guitarist, Duane Allman, the only 'rock' guitarist I had heard up to that point who could solo on a one-chord vamp for as long as half an hour or more, and not only avoid boring you but keep you absolutely riveted. Duane was a rare melodist and a dedicated student of music who was never evasive about the sources of his inspiration. 'You know,' he told me one night after soaring for hours on wings of lyrical song, 'that kind of playing comes from Miles and Coltrane, and in particular Kind Of Blue. I've listened to that album so many times that for the past couple of years, I haven't hardly listened to anything else.' Earlier, I'd met Duane and his brother Gregg when they had a teenage band called The Hourglass. One day I'd played Duane a copy of Coltrane's Ole, an album recorded a little more than a year after Kind Of Blue but still heavily indebted to it. He was evidently fascinated; but a mere three of four years later, at the Fillmore, I heard a musician who'd grown in ways I never could have imagined..."

I'll send you dubs of key tracks off these and maybe some other Coltrane records you don't already have. Together with the copy of A Love Supreme you're slated to get, his greatness and influence might reveal themselves to you more fully in that light.