Hot Ptah

They have those at La Cucina de Mama in Kansas City, a small restaurant in the Brookside area. They just call them "rice balls" on the menu. They are stuffed with ground beef, peas and cheese and fried until crunchy and golden. They are in fact really tasty!

Wow, Captain Walter Dyett at DuSable High School had such a positive effect on so many musicians who went on to great things.

No, not James Brown and Eric Dolphy playing together. I have a copy of James Brown's "Soul Pride: The Instrumentals 1960-69", with the CDs, box and booklet in excellent condition. This is out of print and sells for $45 to over $100 on amazon.com. I also have a 3 LP boxed set of 'The Great Concert of Eric Dolphy". The records have never been played. I bought it brand new just before receiving the CD box of Dolphy's recordings, so I never played the records. I will trade for anything cool--CDs, LPs, DVDs, books, whatever we can work out.

Happy Birthday, Chuck. The albums you have released are a continual source of enjoyment and inspiration. Here's a blast from the past:

Allen, I have heard two songs which are possible candidates for your Blues Project, and thought I would mention them. I know that you posted lists of possible songs at one time, and I admit that I did not go back over the lists to see if you already listed them. The two songs are "Hillbilly Boogie" by the Delmore Brothers, recorded in 1946, and "Mandolin Boogie" by the Armstrong Twins, from about the same time. The two songs are nearly the same, with minor changes to the lyrics, but the performances are quite different. I find the different approaches to the song quite interesting. These are energetic, tight blues performances by country artists of that time frame. The lyrics refer to the fact that as the singer is from the country, he does not have access to a piano like the boogie woogie musicians in the city, and so he will have to make do with playing boogie woogie on his guitar (or mandolin, in the case of the Armstrong Twins).

Serge Savard Bobby Orr Glenn Hall

This LP was displayed above the cash register at the Wazoo record store in Ann Arbor, Michigan,for years. It's great to be able to see a film of the group in live performance at last!

I did not think you were a drag. I can easily see how her music would generate diverse reactions.

Buddy Montgomery was also a nearly one man jazz scene in Milwaukee from 1969 until about 1981. He played all the time at the nicest rooms in the big hotels. You knew that there was one excellent jazz concert available in Milwaukee, always. Often he was the only major jazz artist playing in town for long periods of time. He founded the Milwaukee Jazz Alliance, which provided performing opportunities for musicians and did a great deal of work with young musicians. His volunteer work for jazz and for young musicians in Milwaukee was remarkable.

I found a copy for $15 on ebay today.

For those of us who never heard him, what was his approach to jazz radio, what made him special?

O.K., that did it, I had to order it today.

Could be the General's old copy Or the beginning of a list of other organists whose LPs the owner wanted to get.

My favorite writing on a used album is on my vinyl copy of Sun Ra's "Lanquidity." Across the front cover, in black magic marker, is written: "WORT-FM. DO NOT REMOVE!".

Looking quickly through my Music Exchange sale purchases of last year, I see that on many albums, the following ink stamp appears on either the front or back cover: Jerome R. Duff, Sr. 1215 Park Ave. Kansas City, MO 64127 Jerome R. Duff, Sr., you had a great music collection! Unlike Arthur C. Gordon, Jerome R. Duff, Sr. only stamped his name and address on each album cover once. However, on one album which I picked up at the sale, Jerome R. Duff, Sr. went wild. This appears to be a unique aberration for him. On his copy of Buddy Rich's "Big Band Machine", on the Groove Merchant label, in addition to stamping his name and address on the cover, he cut out three large pre-printed individual letters on very sticky white plastic. The letters are in caps, bright blue, one per sticky cutout. He stuck them across the front cover: J R D I cannot begin to pull off these sticky plastic letters. They are stuck on there real good. What got into you that day, Jerome R. Duff, Sr.?

Also in the Music Exchange sale--the same person wrote little notes about each song on his or her albums, in neat cursive writing, very faintly, in black ink, next to the song titles on the back covers. This person's handwriting is distinctive. No name was ever written or stamped on the covers. Typical notes by this person, written next to every song title, would be "quiet", "Bossa", "nice instrumental", "saxophone", "swinging".

Cap Anson Ted Danson Marilyn Manson

Kansas City's Music Exchange reportedly had about a million vinyl albums in stock when it closed. After its owner died, several hundred thousand albums were sold very inexpensively in a warehouse sale last year. At the end, the albums were going for about 10 cents each, then for a few cents each if you bought entire pallets of boxes of albums. In the hundreds of albums I purchased, there were several of these stamped names on many album covers. In fact, I see the Music Exchange inventory reappearing in Kansas City's other used music stores now, and one of the tell tale signs is to see the frequent appearance of the stamped on names.

I used to read about this U.K. scene in Wire magazine, although I don't recall a comprehensive explanation of it. It was more like snatches of infomation about young people dancing in clubs to Art Blakey albums on Blue Note. I remember reading that information with wonder, certain that nothing like it was happening in the U.S. It would be interesting to read a good, full length book about how this U.K. scene happened.

I find their flute-piano duet recording on the title track of Lew's "Rites of Pan" to be very compelling. If the new album is anything like that, I will want to get it.

Joe Morgan Sonny Jackson Bob Aspromonte

I like her music a lot. In concert, it made more sense to me. She gets more intense and compelling, the slower and softer she plays, in my opinion. She has her own style which I connect with. Just wanted to let it be known that not everyone out there has a negative or lukewarm view of her music.

I am not sure what to think about this thread. However, I think that we have all read a highly sanitized version of reality in the big jazz magazines over the years, in which every jazz musician is a happy, wonderful person who was influenced by the same giants of the past and who loves their audience, their record company, their gigs, and everyone in the whole wide world. Everything is sunny and happy. There is no group of people in any walk of life who are really like that. The sanitized presentation of reality is not unique to jazz. The film "Bull Durham" illustrated how a young baseball player was explicitly taught to mouth happy inane statements instead of being candid, which was humorous because we have all heard national sports figures talk the same way many times. I have often read about business people in my community who are being profiled in the local newspaper. I know that they are not very nice or ethical people, and the entire business community thinks of them very poorly. Yet in the newspaper article, you would think they were Mother Teresa from the glowing remarks made by other business people in the community. Everyone presents a happy talk version of reality in print. So when you read some truly candid remarks about any public figure, it often seems remarkable.

Dean Stone Gene Conley Bob Friend

Zappa expressed thoughts similar to yours on "Make a Jazz Noise Here", although his were more succinct.