T.D.

I shudder whenever Jersey City shows up in USPS tracking. All of my weird USPS routes and long delays have featured that hub. Nothing to date has actually been lost, though. FWIW. Vendor Tommy's Jazz? I recall he's in the Southern Catskills, Sullivan Co. Agreed not his fault.

To be fair, I fished out the most recent printed 100% cotton T-shirt I acquired (OK, was comped) a few years ago. Can't make out the thread weight, but looking up the mfr. (Next Level), I figure it's 4.3 oz., close to the Etsy seller's (though I don't know the brand they use). It's pretty decent: nice soft fabric, definitely on the light side but cooler for hot weather wear. Won't last nearly as long as Beefy-T blanks, but by no means crapola.

According to the Etsy listing page: 100% combed ring-spun cotton (which is a plus), 4.2 oz (which is a minus - "standard" weight is 4.5-5.3oz) See also https://kalamazoospiritshoppe.com/fast-guide-common-t-shirt-fabric-differences/ For reference, "Hanes Beefy-T", which I've always considered the gold standard of printed T-shirts, seems to be approx. 6.1 oz combed ring-spun cotton. So fabric weight seems lighter than preferred. Can't speak to the logo, but that looks risky for the designs I like (posted above). More reasons to hold off for now. IMO, at around $24 per shirt they oughta use Hanes Beefy-T blanks.

Holy crap! They have RRK The 3-sided dream in audio color and KD Matador!!! But I don't really need T-shirts and am too effin' cheap to pay $23.98 a pop...

I use the discogs site to research album art credits, though I don't trust them 100%. Hermansader is credited for design of (at least one release) of Volumes 1, 2 and 3: https://www.discogs.com/artist/1915387-John-Hermansader?page=1 and has many Blue Note credits. George Wright has only four Blue Note credits according to discogs (and the Freddie Roach seems questionable): https://www.discogs.com/artist/2421433-George-Wright-7

As far as I can tell by zooming on images of the "bird" cover, Design by Reid Miles, Drawing by George Wright. But it's hard to make out and I could be wrong. George Wright is credited for Painting on the bird cover of Vol. 2: https://www.discogs.com/release/3378729-Art-Blakey-Quintet-A-Night-At-Birdland-Volume-2

Well said.

RIP with due respect. But his writing always had a really strong "fingernails on a blackboard" effect on me, so I never read much of his work. A number of starts, but always failed to finish.

If someone digitized a whole bunch of Sonny Stitt* (for example) solos and used them to train a big neural net or AI-type program, I wouldn't be surprised if the program produced some kick-ass solos that could impress people. *Nothing against Stitt; he recorded prolifically and had a big "vocabulary" of licks.

Excellent. I remember Rod from the (long defunct) rec.music.classical.contemporary newsgroup more than 25 years ago!

Agreed on "all-star units" (italics added). I prefer Out Here Like This to Unforeseen Blessings, but enjoy both. Truth is, I only got these two due to their inclusion in the Bowie Black Saint / Soul Note box (of which The 5th Power is the star entry), but I don't regret the purchase and frequently listen to the whole box.

The two albums I know of on Black Saint are good IMO, though Allmusic doesn't rate them highly (see below). Second and third discs of this: Can't speak to the other issues. For what it's worth, the Allmusic entries on the band are rather dismissive. See for instance https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-leaders-mn0000076409/biography

That'd be the day! Somebody's Nabokovian fantasy. I might have sprung for some of the short sleeve tees, but XL were all gone.

PM

PM on Dave McKenna Live at Maybeck Recital Hall Vol. 2 (promo/no rear insert) Concord CCD 4410 $4