Hot Ptah

This mid-1950s vocal album has two notable songs, "Christmas Gift", which was one of the earliest soul music recordings, and "Christmas Tree", which must be heard to believe. It is one of the strangest, most manic recordings of all time, in any genre, in my humble opinion. I marvel at the sheer insanity of "Christmas Tree", in the midst of otherwise rather stodgy vocal numbers.

Doesn't almost all recorded Christmas music blow?

Cannonball Adderley--Black Messiah (2 LP live set; $3.98 at Half Price Books)

I won the Heisman Trophy. Other than that, not much.

A 1967 release.

I want to shop at your local stores. We've got nothing like that in Kansas City.

And don't miss the Trunk of Funk!

MG, That would be a truly niche area, album covers with upside down maps on them!

Wednesday Addams Lurch John Kerry

I really love "Swing That Music," "Lyin' To Myself," "Jubilee," "Even'tide," "The Skeleton in the Closet," "My Sweet Hunk of Trash"--just off of the top of my head. There are more great songs from this era on Decca. No opinion on whether they constitute great blues. I just know what I like. I like 'em.

I have noticed that Max Roach's "The Loadstar" is now listed in an ebay auction for $29.99, with no bids on it. I saw Sam Rivers this summer at an outdoor festival. He was autographing items afterwards. I had him autograph his Horo album. He had a conversation with his daughter about whether they owned a copy. They weren't sure.

I have had only great experiences with this ebay seller. Never a problem.

There have been photo-filled magazine articles about the people pictured on the Woodstock LP cover and what they are doing now. As I recall, the men were mostly bald and a bit overweight, and everyone seemed to have a normal middle class life. No one was a CEO or in prison--everyone had a routine type of life. There was a big media stir in either 1989 or 1994 at either the 20th or 25th anniversary of Woodstock, and that's when the articles were published. I can't remember whether it was 1989 or 1994. It was enough of a media blitz that younger people I knew asked me often about Woodstock then.