Hot Ptah

This cover always creeped me out It seems to regularly make lists of the "worst album covers ever" or the "strangest album covers ever."

In case anyone in the Kansas City area has not heard, the Music Exchange's vinyl collection, which was always advertised as 1 million strong, is being sold for $1 per album by an auction company. The albums are in complete disorganization, as if all one million of them were dropped at once from a great height, were not damaged and then were put back at random into boxes. The sale is taking place in a warehouse in the West Bottoms with no air conditioning or ventilation generally. It's a hot, sweaty job to paw through the albums. Many boxes of albums have not been opened yet, I noticed. The sale is going on for about ten days. I went today, the first day, over my noon hour, got 50 great jazz albums, and then stopped. I picked up some great Pablo gems, a whole section of Teddy Wilson, and assorted great items from a variety of artists. With the extreme disorganization, one will be flipping through yet another box of mediocre 1970s hard rock, country, show tunes and oddities, when right there is a Pablo gem in mint condition--the only jazz album in the entire box. Why is it there? Those finds gave me the strength to continue. There is a lot of classical music in the boxes. Oddly, I saw virtually no blues. The Music Exchange always had a large blues section. The blues may be in the boxes which have not been opened yet. One example of how odd this sale is--in the midst of an area of boxes of Christmas music, rock and country, which were not very inspiring, two of the old box set appeared back to back in perfect condition--Fletcher Henderson, "A Study in Frustration". It was as if a god had dipped a finger covered in gold into the middle of some muck and left the gold there.

What bugged me about Green's writing is that it presented its author as a knowing, literary, intelligent guy but then did not fulfill its own presentation, in my opinion. I would start out thinking, this is going to be good, what a well rounded, sophisticated writer, but then there would be not much substance there.

Aaron Rogers Steve Young Danny White

For lightly scratched CDs, with sound that skips or is otherwise compromised, I use a bottle of CD cleaner that used to be sold at the late lamented Music Exchange in Kansas City. The stuff comes out of the bottle in a thick white consistency--it looks like Elmer's Glue (but is not sticky, obviously). You wipe it off thoroughly with the soft cloths that come with the bottle. Almost every CD has come out perfect. It has to be a really deep scratch to resist the benefits of the cleaning. There is no buffing or mechanical aspect to it. It has also been a godsend on scratched DVDs, restoring some entire scenes that were otherwise being skipped over.

I always wondered if those red, white and blue Pablo covers with only words on them, with recordings from the Montreux festival, were a highly cynical attempt to cash in on the Bicentennial and the surge of buying of cheap patriotic products that came in its wake.

I like his Maybeck solo piano album a lot.

Chris, I love the letter from Norman Granz. Amazing that someone in his position would take so much time and energy on something like that. What I found to be even more amazing about Pablo's lack of album graphics was the the series of albums that looked like this: This was in an era before CDs, where there was much attention paid to LP cover artwork by even small indie labels. The complete lack of effort by Pablo seemed at times to be a willful design statement of its own, much like the punk rock albums of the time rejecting fancy color artwork and going for crude black and white, amateurish covers as a statement of rebellion.

I often had the thought after reading Benny Green's notes, of "what did I just read, now?" I came to marvel at how he could fill the back of an album cover with virtually nothing.

Totally agree ! Very fine 2LP set, will dig it out. This is one I don't have. I ordered it from Newbury, through amazon--it's only $6.99. What is the title in reference to? Something Brazilian--Bossa? Blakey's nickname was Buhania, which is close--he's not on this album, though, is he? I think it refers to Dizzy's Baha'i faith--he was reportedly devout and it was a major part of his life after 1970.

The Wayward Wind--Gogi Grant Huh? I've never heard it, or of it.

It may be a great album. No value judgement on the recording in my post, but players with styles set in the '40s and early '50s, while grafting on modal styles from the late '50s, recorded in the mid seventies are conservative to me. Had nothing to do with what I recorded. I don't expect/demand players change, I do expect a clear headed view of the evolution of music. In the mid to late 1970s I was heavily into my first huge jazz record buying binge, and I thought that one of the strengths of the period was that there was so much available at once. I was buying all of the Nessa, Horo and India Navigation albums I could find, some of the ECM releases, the Columbias of Dexter Gordon, Woody Shaw, and others, Sun Ra on Saturn records, all of the Blue Note and Impulse reissues I could find, the Prestige "two-fers", the Milestones of Mc CoyTyner and others, the A&M Horizons with their great packaging, the great Arista Freedom releases, and then there was Pablo. I knew that Pablo was conservative and the home of the "old masters" who were still active. I didn't expect anything different from Pablo. I thought of it as the oldest, dampest wing of the mansion which I was investigating from basement to attic. I wasn't going to find super hip avocado green/harvest gold decor in the Pablo wing--it would be more like slightly musty old stonework-- but there would be some good listening anyway. I did not spend all of my time, or dollars, with Pablo, by a long shot, but I liked the ability to check out the older musicians.

I listened again to George Benson's "Tenderly" album, from about 1989 to 1990 (I don't have the case with me here at work). All standards, with McCoy Tyner, Ron Carter and either Louis Hayes, Herlin Riley or Al Foster on drums, with some strings in the background. This is a straight ahead jazz album, and it's quite good. George plays some fine "real jazz" solos. It's pretty music, and Mc Coy does not let it rip like he did on his 1970s Milestones, but that would be out of place for what the date seeks to accomplish. It's a good jazz album, not earth shattering, but it is a jazz album with integrity. Those who have said that "everything" that George did after CTI, or after Columbia, or after some point, is "no good", should really listen to this much later album. P.S. I found it in the clearance bin at Half Price Books for $1.00.

Other Pablos which I especially like include: Zoot Sims' "Hawthorne Nights" Harry "Sweets" Edison's "Edison's Lights" (with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Dolo Coker or Count Basie on piano, John Heard, Jimmie Smith on drums) Benny Carter Big 4 at Montreux 1977 (with Ray Bryant, NHOP and Jimmie Smith on drums--Benny plays some fine trumpet solos as well as alto sax) Oscar Peterson Big 6 at Montreux 1975 (with Toots Thielemans, Milt Jackson, Joe Pass, NHOP and Louis Bellson. Toots' harmonica solo on the first cut is the hottest solo he ever recorded, to my knowledge) Joe Pass--Portraits of Duke Ellington (with Ray Brown and Bobby Durham--this is my favorite Pass album ever for listening, as opposed to appreciating or becoming awe-struck)

Here's one for Allen Lowe's next T-shirt:

Dan, I mailed my payment yesterday. Do I get a gold star-or I will settle for first crack at your collection on Horo Records.