Hot Ptah

I wonder why it is hard to imagine the band ever playing together again, if it went well. Especially if there could be some money in it. I think you could infer that it DIDN'T go well. "Well enough" is not exactly a rave review. I have a friend who was there and said as much. "Well enough" hasn't stopped a lot of other 60's bands from coming out of retirement. Especially if they have only one original member, and even more so if that one original member was a very marginal member of the original group.

I've overheard some record store owners talk of their customers as addicts. The owners would talk about how they gave up collecting and only SELL. If they were to pick-out the gems, the customers wouldn't get anything. I have also heard used record store owners refer to certain customers as "the pawers". The owners describe "the pawers" as people who simply MUST paw through bins or boxes of albums regularly. One of the stores in Kansas City held a big discount sale, out in their garage area, of thousands of really marginal albums in all genres. 99 % of the albums would never sell to virtually anyone on earth. I asked the owner why he bothered. He said, "oh, the pawers will be here in droves. They'll buy some things."

Hey! Hey! I'm over 50. I'm not ready to do that yet. What do you think, that 50 is OLD or something? I can see it at age 90, though. When I am 90 I may feel quite differently.

We sang "Dominique" from that album almost daily at my Catholic grade school in the 1964-65 school year.

Overtly playing on the addictive nature of music collecting, one of the used music stores in the Kansas City metro area is called Need More Discs. The owner is actually a nice, down to earth guy. I don't think he was trying to suck addicts even deeper into their hellhole with the name of his store.

There are other irrational, emotional aspects to some of my meaningless jazz CD purchases. I like hanging out in used music stores. I enjoy the atmosphere of them. I like a good used book store too. I just feel happy being in them. Since I go to the same stores often, the owner and staff are familiar with me--sometimes they get to know me and we develop a type of commerce-corrupted friendship. In that circumstance, one can't repeatedly hang out there and buy nothing. On some of the visits at least, you have to buy something, even if it is not something you would objectively choose to buy otherwise. I say commerce-corrupted friendships, because if the store disappeared, we'd never see each other again. In the context of my "good customer" status, we speak in a friendly way, and talk intelligently about music which is obscure to the general public. There's a certain amount of fun there--again, all ultimately based on the fact that I will be giving them money. I also have my online "commerce-corrupted friendships." I have found a few regular ebay sellers of hard to find jazz CD gems. I follow their auctions all the time and bid on some things in most weeks. After years of doing that, these ebay sellers and I have exchanged many emails about the arrangements for the purchases, and have added exchanges of ideas on the artists and albums, and some personal notes. I would miss these people on some level if I stopped bidding on their auctions. I have never spoken to them or met them in person, but they are "friends" in some way. So jazz CD purchases have provided some emotional, or phony emotional, experiences, which are pleasant. I have certainly bought more CDs than I otherwise would have because of this added component. I imagine that some alcoholics keep drinking because they enjoy seeing the "ol' gang" at their favorite bar. If they started drinking Diet Cokes at the bar, or didn't go to the bar at all, they would lose those people from their lives.

That is hilarious!

I wonder why it is hard to imagine the band ever playing together again, if it went well. Especially if there could be some money in it.

The last few posts assume that spending is the problem with the jazz CD addiction. I believe that the problem with an addiction is the addiction itself, the fact that the addiction exists at all. Other things, such as too much spending, lying to significant other about the addiction, time stolen from work or family--those are byproducts of the addiction, to me. So to say that it is not as expensive to buy beer instead of whiskey/download live shows instead of buying new CDs, misses the point somewhat. The point remains that the addiction is still there, whether you are cadging free beers or finding free live show on the net.

However, if there was a 12 step solution for addicted jazz album buyers, the market share for jazz might plunge from its current 1 % to a number best viewed under a microscope.

For every problem, there is an opportunity for an enterprising business person. A 12 step program with a specific focus on addicted buyers of recorded music--there's a niche market that is screaming to be filled.

This sounds to me like an alcoholic who moves his bottles of whiskey out of the kitchen and into the basement behind the furnace, to "improve the situation." We are all clinically ill addicts, myself included, for sure. wondering how many of us are simultaneously alcoholics, both practicing and nonpracticing. I'm not. Caffeine and jazz albums are my addictions. So what if I lick the inside of empty cans of Diet Mountain Dew to get a little more caffeine out of them, I can stop anytime. And I work hard--I deserve to buy some jazz CDs and caffeinated beverages. Anyway I have stopped buying box sets and just buy individual jazz CDs, so I have the situation under control. I bought 549 jazz CDs last week--but NO box sets! So everything is under control. I get annoyed when people mention that I might have a problem--they are the ones with a problem, not me. There was a thread on another jazz board on this very subject of "why buy so many albums", and it was striking how often one could substitute the word "alcohol" for "jazz CDs" in the answers and see that the situation was really addiction. For example: "I have solved my problem, I don't drink hard liquor any more, just several cases of beer and wine per week/I don't buy many CDs any more, just downloads of live shows mostly."

This sounds to me like an alcoholic who moves his bottles of whiskey out of the kitchen and into the basement behind the furnace, to "improve the situation." We are all clinically ill addicts, myself included, for sure.

I can't play any of my music for nearly all of my friends. There are three or four who enjoy it all, but they now live in distant states. Otherwise there is not a single album I would think of playing for anyone.

It's an addiction, which is out of control. No different than alcoholism or any other addiction.

BUCKLE UP It Makes It Harder For The Aliens To Suck You Out Of Your Car Honk If You Love Peace and Quiet

Mangione actually did some of his best work with Blakey.. Ever listen to "Buttercorn Lady"? Yes,, and that's not my point. Put another way, how many of us would list Chuck Mangione and Wynton Marsalis in the top ten of Art Blakey sidemen? I think the first ones to spring to my mind would be Benny Golson, Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley and Curtis Fuller. But so many played with the Jazz Messengers...even Jackie McLean was with Blakey for a little while. Have to admit, though, that Mangione and Marsalis are probably the names most well known by the general public. Agreed. 90% of the general public have never heard the names of Golson, Shorter, Morgan, Mobley, etc. Hell, maybe 95% or better... In the U.S., try 99.9 %.

C.J. Wilson C.J. Chenier C.J. Cregg

Jose Cruz Cesar Cedeno J.R. Richard

This situation involving live performances has taken place in Kansas City, with the Harriman Jewell Fine Arts series. This is a high quality subscription series of arts events, which has been around for decades. It features mostly classical music, with a few notable dance and other performances. It has included only a few jazz concerts in the past ten years, and all of them have featured a Marsalis. Wynton and the LCJO was featured in the series about five years ago. In December, 2005, Ellis and Branford Marsalis played a duet concert in the series. Now I have received my 2007-08 brochure for the upcoming series and Wynton and the LCJO is featured again, with most tickets priced at $70.00. That is an unprecedented high price for a non-benefit jazz concert in Kansas City, where the tickets are ordinarily priced in the $20--30 range. I was curious, so I checked the online ordering status for the Wynton/LCJO concert. It is almost sold out at the Folly Theater, even at $70. Meanwhile, the Folly Theater presents a series of national jazz concerts every fall and spring, and does not come close to selling out. This series is priced at an average cost of $20 per ticket.

Only two years ago Kansas City had two great used vinyl stores. The Music Exchange, with over 1 million vinyl albums, closed its doors, was going to reopen in a warehouse area, but the owner died by choking to death on his food while in the warehouse alone one night. The million+ records are still apparently stored in the warehouse, with the widow unsure of what to do with them, from what I have heard. Anyone interested in buying an instant great used vinyl store? Recycled Sounds was not as big but was of very high quality. The owner, Ann Winter, decided that she was tired of running the store and took an office job downtown. She sold off her inventory in a blow out sale and vacated the space. Now, Love Garden in Lawrence has the largest selection of used vinyl within easy driving distance. Zebedee's and Vinyl Renaissance are worth checking out, though. Both have many vinyl gems, depending on what you are looking for, and moderately large vinyl collections. The other Johnson County store, Need More Discs (love the name) has very little vinyl, but has a nice selection of jazz CDs. It is near 75th St. and Nieman Road, quite close to Vinyl Renaissance. There is a flea market vendor in the Waldo flea market, just east of 75th and Wornall, with a surprising selection of jazz vinyl and CDs, together with 8 track tapes and cassettes in a variety of genres.

I saw him live last year. He was in very good voice and his performance was very enjoyable.

Vinyl Renaissance on Shawnee Mission Parkway in Shawnee, Kansas is worth a visit. Some interesting older jazz vinyl.