Ted O'Reilly

Good clip -- and no music! I guess when you play the book long enough, you remember the charts... I remember Supersax doing a Toronto concert sans music when the book went astray on a flight. Seemed to make no difference.

I'll be landing at Heathrow on the morning of The Wedding (couldn't get an earlier flight, so I had to RSVP "Sorry, Wills...") on my way to Norwich for the Jazz Party. Jerry Brown assures that "All sorts of very tasteful souvenirs are being imported especially from China to enchant all our overseas visitors!" so I'll still be able to pick up an Official Royal Wedding tea cup set there... I wanted to check if it'll be okay to travel on a passport that's due to expire in September (many countries now want a 6-month buffer to the expiry date) and found this Official Advice from my Canadian government: The British government's terrorism threat level for the United Kingdom is rated as "severe." This is the second-highest alert level and suggests that an attack is highly likely. Additional security measures are in place throughout transportation networks, including at airports. Travellers may experience delays. More information on these measures, including specific restrictions for carry-on-baggage, is available from the British Airport Authority. I guess it's wise to avoid large crowds (a good target for some...) that day. No problem! I'll be at a jazz gathering.

Is the source of the Ronnie Scott's album a radio recording, by any chance? I remember from 'way back an hour-long BBC transcription recording of Blossom that was terrific...really showed her personality and comfort on stage. I'd love to hear it again.

And as long as he stays retired, the "PED investigations" will be on hold. Mind you, they should suspend him if there are questions, not let him off the hook.

The Dutch broadcast system is one so complicated as to be misundertood by anyone not a native. "Sesjun" is not a station, but a series, presented domestically by TROS radio with some funding by the international broadcaster, Radio Nederland. RN then distributes it around the world as a representative of Dutch culture. Sesjun was an excellent series, which I presented on CJRT-FM for at least 15 years. They'd do about 26 shows a year, a mix of Dutch bands, international artists with Dutch accompanists, and sometimes complete touring bands. There was no bias either: traditional, mainstream, contemporary jazz was all represented. The smaller groups were almost always recorded at Nick Vollebregt's Jazz Cafe in Laren, but they'd tape at concert halls too. I remember once they did a bunch in Curacao...must have been winter in the Netherlands, and the Caribbean looked inviting for the production team. The shows were live-to-air, and taped for reuse and international distribution. The recordings were all first-rate -- Radio Nederland had/has a wonderful recording truck. And the people there were very co-operative. They would send me the raw material (even warm-up sets) and allow me to produce my own local version as long as they were given proper credit. I should have kept the CDs of all the shows, as there were some dandies there! It's good to know there are some more releases coming out -- they must have an incredible library after all those years. I had a hand in putting together the late John Norris with RN, with the resulting release of "Echoes of Spring" by Red Richards with Norris Turney, Claude 'Fiddler' Williams, Dave Green and Joe Ascione. It's Sackville SKCD2-2049.

Elmore Leonard's The Hot Kid, set in the 1930s, has Jay McShann as a passing-through character! I've been cooling it a bit on some of the hard-bitten types lately, and have enjoyed the Andrea Camilleri "Inspector Montalbano" series from Italy. Excellent translations that capture the Sicilian-to-English slang especially well. Best to read in order, starting with The Shape of Water. http://italian-mysteries.com/ACAap.html

More accurately, wouldn't they be 16 and 2/3 (16.666)? Half of 33.33, which would make it easier to manufacture/convert the playback machines. I think there were Caedmon spoken word recordings at that speed.

Getz sounds great, but Astrud is impossibly stiff, and has no sense of time. And this must be one of the worst lyrics ever written/translated: “...she looks straight ahead, not at he?” C’mon...

I have a few Universal/Verve 3" promo CDs -- a Diana Krall, Jamie Cullum...that sort of thing. Quick Chewy, are they collectable???

...and Don Brown comes out as "still loves Ellington".

The label he started was called "Improv". Interesting, considering many think he lacks that particular quality...

Nice city, Melbourne. Went there a couple of times for Bob Barnard's Jazz Party. Good music... Where will the performances be held? Are they all in Halls, or will club sessions be included?

Now, THAT's about as good a descriptor as I've seen...

But does it sound like a Cuban band on a bad day?

http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&source=hp&biw=1060&bih=792&q=playing+bass+and+singing+at+the+same+time&aq=1b&aqi=g-b2&aql=&oq=%22playing+the+bass+and&fp=87c8eca960d3be59 ...and Bob Haggart could whistle and play the bass at the same time! Amazing...

"...labels either currently owned by Sony Music (Banner, Brunswick, Cameo, Clarion, Columbia, Conqueror, Domino, Harmony, Lincoln, Melotone, OKeh, Oriole, Perfect, Romeo, Velvet Tone and Vocalion) and BMG (Bluebird, Signature, Victor and “X”). We have also included sessions that currently have no ownership and are in the public domain (Baronet, Ca-Song, Continental, Manor, Regis and Selmer)" says the link. Hmm...does this include European stuff for Euro labels, then leased to Americans companies? As in for-Swing, released-on-Victor? And look out, Andorrans! Mosaic is getting into Public Domain sessions...

"...Norman Granz...English-only speaking..." Is that so? Maybe not a fluent conversationalist, but there are some recordings I've heard of him introducing concerts in German. He may have learned the words/sounds by rote, but to my English-speaking ears, he sounds comfortable enough. And, he did live his last years in Switzerland...though in French-speaking Geneva.

Not only Kenny and Johnny (sic), but George Chisholm -- he who recorded 6 sides with Fats Waller back on August 21, 1938. And they all sound fine together... "Styles" be damned. Jazz is Jazz.

I first recall Mars in a short-lived c. 1967 TV series, He And She. It starred Richard Benjamin and the scrumptious Paula Prentiss, and Mars was a fireman in the station next door to their apartment. IIRC he'd always enter their place via a window-to-window plank... A funny man -- RIP.

How about the uncategorizable Scots clarinetist Sandy Brown's "Hair At Its Hairiest" (Fontana SJF 1921)? Quite a band, with Kenny Wheeler on trumpet, George Chisholm on trombone, Johnny (sic) McLaughlin on guitar, Lenny Bush bass and Bobby Orr on drums. Issued on CD as Lake LACD 160. Quite a cover shot (which I don't know how to include) of Brown in a sporran and naught else but the bass clarinet he's holding. At least, I think that's what it is. I HOPE that's what it is.

received today already halfway in - lovely stuff! Given the discussion elsewhere, that's pretty good mail service. Ordered Feb 1 from Toronto, arrived in Zurich on the 10th... And I'm delighted you're enjoying it. I've had a couple of buyers come back to me for another copy -- they want to get a copy for a friend. Now THAT'S a trend I have to encourage.

That's true, John. Maybe somebody could seize the opportunity, and open a street-front retail outlet that sold "jazz discs" of some description...call it, I don't know, maybe: "Jazz Record Store". You walk in, see what you want, pay CASH maybe -- no PayPal or Visa -- and take it home that artifact (not a download) immediately. Could this theory actually work, I wonder?

I couldn't help but think of Kenny Guh today when reading this: Michael Ruhlman, an expert in meat curing who is writing a book on Italian salumi, doesn’t flinch from calling pepperoni pizza a “bastard” dish, a distorted reflection of wholesome tradition. “Bread, cheese and salami is a good idea,” he said. “But America has a way of taking a good idea, mass-producing it to the point of profound mediocrity, then losing our sense of where the idea comes from.” ...from the NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/dining/02pepperoni.html?ex=1312261200&en=c23f3fe2da5eae47&ei=5087&WT.mc_id=DW-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M187-ROS-0211-HDR&WT.mc_ev=click

Received mine in timely fashion. Now you have me worried! Realize I am on the other side of the pond but would like some confirmation that the disc is on its way here... Same here in old Europe! In Brownie's case, the PayPal authorization hadn't gone through, delaying the order getting to Jim...the system seems to take a bit of a while. I've sent a PM to you, EKE.

He pulled an Eddie who? (playing french horn with a sax mouthpiece?) Or what? You're thinking of Eddie Harris, right? Played a trumpet with a sax mouthpiece... I think Watkins simply played the tenor part on the horn. I remember a period when Duke Ellington had two trombones and six reeds, so Norris Turney went into the trombone section and played a trombone part. These guys are good enough to transpose on sight...