Ted O'Reilly

Hearing the whistling on "The Moog And Me" reminds me of a little dribble of trivia: Dick Hyman is the whistler on the hit recording by Johnny Ray of "Just Walking In The Rain"...

The Toronto bassist Steve Wallace has written a lovely tribute to Geri on his blog... http://wallacebass.com/?p=5761

Pressing plants? In Canada, they close (https://www.thestar.com/business/2017/01/04/canadian-vinyl-record-pressing-plant-closes.html) and a week later another opens (https://www.thestar.com/business/2017/01/11/burlington-record-plant-presses-on-with-vinyl-preparations.html).

Sure, you just have to listen almost two-and-a-half times faster that the turntable's turning. It's kinda like speed-reading, but with your ears.

...especially when there's a microphone malfunction, and the sound in the studio is unchanged. And, there are two very distinctive microphones in use, but they sound exactly the same. It seems the whole thing is a promo video to sell the Original Soundtrack Recordings. I'd buy if they issued only 78s, just like the real thing.

Glad you like that one... I recorded that album, and it's one I take off the shelf for my own listening. It's a nice, intimate performance by Harold -- he could be in your living room, playing just for you. (BTW, track 9 and track 10 titles are switched in the lineup, as I'm sure you noticed. 'Thou Swell' is 8, 'Pent Up House' is 9.))

Maybe Trane: "Sheets Of Sound" meets "Wall Of Sound"!

...Very well could be. I'm sure Barney was on lots of Spector's sessions. I've never heard of Specotr having any particular interest in jazz though. I wonder if he did?

That's been around for several years, on Gambit. The original 1965 LP release on Emerald is tracks 1-7, with Jerry Scheff on electric bass, and drummer Frankie Capp. It was a very fine record, but I don't think Spector had anything to do with it other than his company distributed it. There are 3 sessions added to that: Kessel and Larry Ridley (b) and Don Lamond (d) from 'Denmark' on a single track, likely during a George Wein tour. There are similar others, but all done in England, so Denmark may be a pirate's diversion. Kessel is heard on three tracks from a Swedish TV show but the bassist and drummer are unknown. At the same time he recorded with Sture Nordin on bass and drummer Pelle Hulten so they're probabilities, I'd suggest. A final track has Burrell and Green joining Kessel at Ronnie Scott's in 1969 for a scrappy seven-and-a-half minute blues that I'd say is for fans only, I'd say. It would have been fun to be there, but...

...and Al Harewood. Under-recognized!

I called my label (with a partner) Unisson. We added the extra "S" because we couldn't copyright a word, but strangely in the bilingual country of Canada, in French it means unison. So we copyrighted a French word in English. "Together" seems a good label name for jazz.

Am I misremembering that George Kelly also was a pianist, who spent a long time on the road as music director for one of the old vocal groups, like The Coasters, or the Platters, Flamingos, Drifters or one of those pop groups?

Wow! AerOwax...that's a name from the past! Today's AerOwax seem to come from United, not a game show. (And BTW, Dina Merrill was -- in my opinion -- one of the great American beauties.

As it says in the English lyrics to Django's Nuages, "It's the bluest kind of blue"!

At a glance, it seems to be all commercially available material, with Mr. Niven acting as a d.j. for his own amusement. It appears to be compilations all reduced to cassette, then digitized. No doubt valuable to his family, but...

...also better the first time. ;-)

...and of course, when that US$300 hits your Canadian credit card, it'll be over C$400...

Q: Who is the patron saint of accordionists? A: "Our Lady of Spain" (I haven't been able to use that one for years.)

No Vol. 2? Good news. Let's see what Laurie releases.

Are you sure it wasn't Bourbon St., or possibly even Lytes? I don't recall Barney at the Bermuda Onion... There ARE 'jazz clubs' that are lamented, but I wouldn't put the Onion among them. Glitzy, odd-shaped, oddly-located and -operated, so....

Wow, thanks... Brownie, "one of our members"? Hmmm....very bootleg.

Y'know something Soulpope? In a way, it was just another booking at Bourbon St. Toronto, at that time, had several very active clubs bringing in top-rank players and we had great local musicians, so while it was great that Art Pepper was there, it seemed normal, and he'd be back another time; Rob McConnell's Boss Brass was roaring; next week Ruby Braff would be playing with Ed Bickert; Woody Herman's band was going to be at the Imperial Room following Peggy Lee; Anthony Braxton was recording up the street, and, and, and...... I was doing a six-day-a-week jazz radio show, going to all the clubs and concerts and interviewing the artists, and it was never going to end. It seems it has. As to the rhythm section, trumpet player named Paul Grosney was booking Bourbon Street at that time so he would have been the guy who put together the rhythm section, and it was great! Terry Clarke is one of the best damn jazz drummers I've ever heard, Bernie Senensky a great pianist (still!) and David Piltch was a teenage phenom, possibly not old enough to be allowed into licensed premises... But if it wasn't that particular trio, it could have been any other three great players available in a city of great players. I never heard any visitors complain about their accompaniment. In fact, you'd hear things like "what a relief to come to Toronto. You won't believe what I had to work with last week in ******..."

I must not have been clear about payment. I never saw any money from either of the LP issues, but that's okay...at the time I thought it more important that the music was issued. I kept ownership of the masters. Years later, I was approached by a third party on Randy Bachman's behalf. Bachman had been a fan of Breau's in Winnipeg, and was aware of the LP issues and wanted to buy the masters and release it all. A modest sum was agreed upon, with the understanding that the three sets of music would be issued in order as played, no edits, and that the Breau estate and David Young were satisfied with the arrangement (and they were). All was fair and professional in every way, though I never did get the 10 copies I was promised. I think there are actually two releases of that 2-CD set, on Guitarchives and then on True North. As to the "masters disappearing", that happened the very day the digital recording was done. The radio station had an early Technics machine that recorded on VHS video tapes, which believe it or not in the early '80s were quite expensive, and we only had a few around the station. The night of the recording I made 15 ips analogue copies to take home (to listen to on my own equipment, and make cassette copies for Lenny and David), and when I came in the next day found that another staffer had erased and recorded over the music I had recorded the night before. All Breau/Young issues have since come from those analogue copies.

Not a ground problem. Just too much bass, but that can be equalized down. Art was HOT. He was in town for 2 weeks, and I was there most nights. Somehow, some of that material came out. with really bad sound, on an odd Japanese label (Norma?) which must have been recorded by someone off the air. The only copy I ever made was for Art (Laurie...).

I'm pretty sure that's a recording I did. I know I recorded that band, and Laurie (some time later) asked for a copy, so I'm thinking that was my taping for a radio broadcast. Art was knocked out with Bernie Senensky's work, and wanted to take him to NYC for the Vanguard gig, but as Bernie didn't have work papers... If there's too much bass on it (and the sample says yes) remember the quartet is on a bandstand is about 10 by 15, with the bass amp right behind Pepper. No isolation whatever.