Kevin Bresnahan

Ellis started a Pledge Music fundraiser (https://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/ellismarsalis) back in 2017 to fund a release of his 80th birthday celebration, recorded live... somewhere (it doesn't appear to be listed anywhere on the artwork). It just arrived today. I haven't spun it yet but I figured I'd post it here for anyone who might be a fan.

Yeah, but Art takes the high road (sometimes a little too "high"). Simon has been the petty a-hole about that particular song. Always has been and probably will be until he's gone.

I'm sorry, but watching Simon doing this song is just like seeing him give the middle finger to Art Garfunkel. As in, "Hey, my last performance on SNL so I'm going to do your signature song even though I cannot sing it well and never really sang it well. Fuck you Art". He could've done 100 other songs he wrote but he picked this one. Brilliant musician. Absolute asshole.

So Peplowski has fully recovered from his injury earlier this year? That is great news! He was unable to play for quite a while. I was worried after they had that fundraiser for him earlier this year that his playing days might be over.

I just saw Bobby last week when he played with Ralph Peterson's Messenger Legacy band and he is still playing great. It still messes me up a bit how old he looks these days but then I look in a mirror and... well, I guess he doesn't look too old. BTW - don't miss his latest recording, "Made In America", on Smoke Sessions, one of my current favorite record labels.

As I mentioned above, the material on the label side of a CD is very thin. As such, you really shouldn't be using any chemicals that can eat through the thin layer of lacquer. From https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/sec3/ : "A very thin lacquer layer is applied to the label side of CDs to protect the metal from exposure to the environment. (DVDs have no such protective lacquer coating.) That layer also gives some limited protection from writing on or labeling the disc. However, the CD is more sensitive to damage on this side than on the polycarbonate side. Since the metal layer is so close to the surface of the label side, pointed objects can easily damage the CD by deforming the metal or exposing it to the environment. Some solvents can also affect lacquer coatings and expose or react with the metal. Once the metal is damaged, the laser cannot read data in the damaged areas." Back in the days of CD-Rs, I only used a special felt marker made for writing on CD-Rs because there was talk that Sharpies could eat through the lacquer. I still have a couple of them around here somewhere. I used to buy them from American Digital.

I laugh after about 3 or 4 minutes into it every time. This is some seriously bad singing.

It also happened in Japan, where labels often added extra tracks to the Japanese CD so that Japanese fans would not import the cheaper US version.

This was an incredible show. One of my favorites in a long while. To see these old Messengers playing those tunes... Wow. Having never seen the band when Art was behind the drums, this was nirvana, especially since Ralph Peterson had many of Art's pet licks down pat. If you live in CT, this band is playing at The Side Door in New Lyme, CT tonight & tomorrow. If you can, check it out. Rehearsal:

A computer does not pull the data off of the disc once. It pulls it off as many times as necessary to get valid data, just like your hard drive. If you use Exact Audio Copy, it defaults to multiple reads just to be sure that the data is correct. A CD player is a "one shot" digital read mechanism. If it fails to read the data in that one time and error correction fails, it won't play.

Normally I'd jump on this, but I am not a huge fan of Adderley's work of this era. I keep trying to like but something about it just doesn't work for me. I used to have "Radio Nights", which is from this time period and I just didn't dig it. I also remember buying "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" and hating Zawinul's electric piano sound. Maybe that's all it is?

For a VG/VG LP with "REVIEW COPY" stamped on the back? That's nuts.

Tonight's the night.

Does Roberta leave the NYC vicinity any more? I can't remember the last time I saw her in a band coming through Boston. It had to be close to 20 years ago.

My local Bull Moose has a buffer and they don't charge much to buff a disc. It was around $1 last time I paid them for it. I have used toothpaste and it did work but don't expect a pretty looking CD afterward. Toothpaste does not have a fine enough grit, so you wind up with a hazy look. It will probably rip in a PC and may play in some CD players, but some players might not be able to read it. BTW - if you ever pick up a CD and it's badly scratched on the label side, those scratches can go right into the Aluminum layer and obliterate the playback. You can usually see these types of scratches in the metal. No buffing will save those.