Robbie,  Thank you so much for copying me the fascinating corres-
pondence between you and Bob West.

Bob is absolutely right, Chittison was one of the very best, a giant
among jazz pianists. He possessed a formidable arsenal of ammunition --
big left-hand tenths, advanced harmonic progressions, death-defying
runs, etc.,  etc. -- but had the bad luck to be active on the scene at
the same time as Art Tatum, who eclipsed everybody else in the game.

As Bob said, there is a Chittison CD available, in fact it was released
by IAJRC in 1993.  Sadly, it does not do Herman full justice, a large
part of the program was recorded in 1967, a few weeks before he died of
lung cancer at the age of 58, and he seems to be coasting along on
undemanding ballads.  Nevertheless here are the details :

    IAJRC CD 1006 "Herman Chittison : P.S. With Love"

If there is a problem finding it in a specialist store try

  The International Association of Jazz Record Collectors
  P.O. Box 75155, Tampa, FL 33605

who also published a 142-page Chittison monograph around the same time,
"Herman Chittison; A Bio-Discography".

Apart from this CD there have been few reissues of Chittison's work.
A great pity,  I for one would dearly love to get my hands on and my
ears around more examples of the astounding keyboard pyrotechnics for
which Herman Chittison had quite a reputation among his peers.

Never one to pass up an opportunity, I have written to Bob asking him
to tape for me the collection of 78s he owns (I'm envious to the point
of burglary).  If he is kind enough to oblige then without question
I shall be busy converting some of them into piano rolls.

Thanks again,

John Farrell