Ken Dryden

Love his albums One Foot in the Gutter and Two Feet in the Gutter, along with his Gerry Mulligan records.

Good lucking cats, our first, Mingus, lived to be 18.

I was surprised when I brought up Richard Bock's editing of tapes with Gerry Mulligan in a 1995 interview. I recall that Mulligan was not in favor of restoring the edited portions, as Mosaic did for the boxed set of the early quartet recordings for the label. The mess that Bock made with Jim Hall's LP, particularly adding Larry Bunker's overdubbed drums for a later reissue, was a travesty, along with his discarding of the master tapes of Chico Hamilton's The Ellington Suite with Eric Dolphy, who was inspired on that session.

Lively discussion. Ellis acted from the beginning like he was forced to do the interview and it just never got off the ground. Previn was a jerk, he only wanted to give ten minutes, not enough time for the word count I needed. His publicist interrupted my dinner with an angry call about contacting his bassist for the gig, which she called “her artist,” like I violated rules by emailing him without going through her. If it hadn’t been well past the deadline for a cover story, I would have told her and Previn where they could go. The funny thing is the cover feature was completed and published, then Previn got sick and missed the gig.

One of my favorites was my second Clark Terry interview, which began at 1 am due to his having company stay later on a weeknight. But he made it worth it when I asked him how he premiered his routine of alternating between trumpet and flugelhorn during a solo, something that wasn’t included in his autobiography. I never know when a question will strike gold but even with a veteran interviewed many times over the decades, it does happen. I will have to admit that both Herb Ellis and Andre Previn were miserable experiences. I erased Ellis’ tape without playing it. Previn’s demands were ridiculous and he postponed scheduling it so long that the magazine couldn’t substitute another cover feature. But everyone else has been a joy and it helps when they are well represented in my collection. I know in advance that jazz books don’t generally make a lot of money, but that’s okay. It’s not like I am expecting a university press to publish it.

Good advice, usually I only interview artists of interest to me who are well represented in my collection, though there have been exceptions, especially for Hot House features. David Liebman posted a longer edit of my interview that initially was published in The New York City Jazz Record on his website, I was happy to send it to him. http://davidliebman.com/home/interviews/new-york-city-jazz-record-ken-dryden-2016/

It is a valid point, I am not thinking of including lesser known regional musicians or those primarily known as sidemen, unless the pleyer is an NEA Jazz Master. Here are few, though the recordings aren't all in one place to jog my memory: Toshiko Akiyoshi, Howard Alden, Geri Allen, Kenny Barron, Ruby Braff, Bob Brookmeyer, Dave Brubeck, Gary Burton, Eliane Elias, Art Farmer, Maynard Ferguson, Don Friedman, Milt Hinton, Hal Galper, Terry Gibbs, Benny Golson, Jim Hall, Chico Hamilton, Gene Harris, Jimmy Heath, Fred Hersch, Dick Hyman, Marc Johnson, Steve Kuhn, David Liebman, Susannah McCorkle, Gerry Mulligan, Marian McPartland, Joe Pass, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, Ken Peplowski, Michel Petrucciani, Sonny Rollins, Bud Shank, George Shearing, Lew Tabackin, Clark Terry, Bobby Watson, Phil Woods and Denny Zeitlin. This isn't by any means a complete list, I've even run across a few whom I had forgotten that I had interviewed. Publications are generally more specific with the artists they want to feature, but I had complete freedom for my radio show. Any feedback is welcome,

After several decades of doing interviews for radio, printed media and websites, I am considering transcribing some of my interviews for a book. The challenge is which artists to choose, as some were more talkative than others and I don't want to include only artists who have been so frequently interviewed that there may not be much new to share about them. I have them scattered on CDRs, cassettes, digital files, webcam videos and even a few that are stuck on old ten inch tape reels that I may have a hard time getting around to getting dubbed. Some are as short as twenty minutes or so, while there are others that are over an hour and a few musiicians whom I interviewed on several occasions. I am not sure how many different artists I've interviewed, as my list on etreedb is not accessible at the moment. There are some great moments, like NIels Pedersen explaining how he became aware of a singer that he used on a recent CD and Clark Terry's priceless description of how he premiered his routine of soloing while alternating between trumpet and flugelhorn. Any thoughts shared are welcome. One thing I've learned from reading other jazz books, I've got to get knowledgeable proofreaders, as typos and factual errors drive me crazy.

Just hard to find reasonably priced on CD.

This live music was restored from a soundboard cassette requested by a member of the band and issued by Amoeba Records as a 2 LP set for Record Store Day. The sound is pretty good, though the announcements are at low levels due to Gram Parsons' soft speaking voice.

I enjoyed Larry Coryell's duo LPs with Philip Catherine, wish I could find the CDs to replace the LPs!

I never got to see Larry Coryell live, but I did get to do a phone interview with him for a Hot House feature a few years before this death. Interesting guy...

Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope all of you have an enjoyable day with family and friends.

I ordered this one in hopes that it will work fine. I can always return it.

The issue remains I like to play new CDs in the car, it knocks out some listening for me. II am always a minimum of 1200-1500 CDs behind in my listening and if driving for an hour or two day can help me get a couple more of them heard, it's great. I have no desire to be exploring digital options when there is something new that I own that I want to hear. I previously had a portable CD player with an adaptor that fit the cassette player (which I never used) for our 1992 Camry years ago. I never had any issues and waited until I was stopped to change CDs.

When you have been driving as long as I have, you will still look back before backing up, etc. The safety features are a bonus, not a substitute for driving cautiously.

Eubie Blake gave 1883 as his birth year, but after his death in 1983, research verified he was born in 1887. As I remember, Tadd Jones was the one who uncovered Louis Armstrong's true birth year of 1901 in baptismal records, though he used 1900 throughout his career.

Much as I detest the lack of the cd player is a pain, I do enjoy the safety features, which I've never had in a car that I've owned and driven (my wife got the last 2021 new car purchase). I figured that at my age, they will be of help, particularly with the number of idiots who run lights, change lanes mid-interseaction and various other stunts.

It wouldn't be a problem for me without it, as the music would play straight through. When my wife joins me, she likes to skip around and untitled tracks are of little help. The other issue is when I trips taken on short notice,(like when my wife says "You drive" at the last minute), i don't always have time to load unheard music onto a flash drive. It's not the cost, I have a bunch of them, including a few that I received as an Amazon Vine reviewer. The funny thing is I have never activated a Sirius trial with a new car. I like choosing the music, not allowing someone else to program it. Plus I don't want to have to remember to cancel the damned thing.

There are times I want to hear a specific cd and don’t have time to load it onto a flash drive, especially new purchases. Then there’s the problem of having to take time to enter track titles and such. i was suspicious of the no name brands on Amazon and suspected many were junk. LG has been reliable for electronics in the past.

Of course, that’s why I mentioned it.

I finally took the plunge and bought the first new car for my use in my lifetime. The lack of a CD player is a pain and I wonder if anyone has a recommendation of a good CD player with USB to connect to the vehicle.

I grew up with cats and have had them in every home we've owned, so that's thirty three plus years of having anywhere from one to six cats. We're at four now and I doubt we'll add any more, they tend to live fifteen years or more, with a couple of exceptions. They are entertaining and good company, though they aren't allowed in my music library, two floors above where they live.

That's probably a wise move. New owners have often screwed things up royally, although some did it for years and should have been relieved of their teams for their gross cheapness.