Ken Dryden

I remember reading a book review of one of Kurt Vonnegut's volumes, titled "Vonnegut Turn Deserves Another."

I don’t know how close John Clayton’s friend Jeff Hamilton lived to him, I am concerned.

I saw a Canadian drummer named Jeff Hamilton at several jazz parties, he was not the one who worked with John Clayton and also Oscar Peterson.

Most of the rest (if not all) of the issued recording consisted of vocals.

I recorded the music from The Classic Concert Live, featuring Mel Torme, George Shearing and Gerry Mulligan, when it aired on NPR’s Jazz Alive! When I got the liner note assignment out of the blue years later, I was excited, since I had listened to the concert many times over the years. Unfortunately, Concord Jazz chose to omit some great music, including all three Mulligan big band instrumentals, especially a killer version of “K4 Pacific.” There was also a fine piano-bass duet of Sam Jones’ “One For Amos.” I understand why they likely omitted the Willard Robison medley, due to the goofy ending to it by Torme. I posted the unissued songs on archive.org long ago and it is unlikely that this music will ever be officially released. I also have two or three songs from the live Kenny Barron &. John Hicks concert issued by Candid that were not released, but aired on NPR.

On’t overlook his final CD with his New Life Orchestra, which consists of his originals and arrangements, written after cancer treatment damaged nerves in one arm.

I've seen Harry Allen several times over the years, including as a member of Newport Allstars (Howard Alden, John Colianni, Oliver Jackson, Randy Sandke, Frank Tate), plus sets with Judy Carmichael and Chris Flory and one at Feinstein's with Rebecca Kilgore. He's an underrated songwriter as well and a delightful interview. It is amazing how many recordings he has made for release in Japan and Europe.

I only dubbed part of it as it aired live, I remember I ran out of tape during at least one song, while some excerpts were eventually rebroadcast, possibly on Jazz Alive! I still don't have it all recorded. This day was easily one of the highlights of Jimmy Carter's administration.

I am finally getting around to hearing this set:

I did a pair of interviews with Pete, I will have to see what he said about Basra. He deserved more opportunities to record.

Years ago I was told by a then-Concord publicist that Harold Mabern had recorded a solo set at Maybeck but it didn’t turn out well enough to be released. I have long enjoyed the Maybeck solo and duo CDs and appreciate Joanne Brackeen making the effort to get the label to record her to start them. I can think of many labels that put out a lot of forgettable recordings that I disposed of but see no benefit of posting about them. Nearly every musician I have interviewed has pointed out that jazz is about taking chances in improvising, one quoted Art Tatum that there was no such thing as a wrong note if you follow it with the best choice.

I am very sorry to hear of Peter Leitch's passing. I interviewed him after he had undergone hellacious cancer treatments that resulted in nerve damage to one arm, so he focused on writing and arranging. Not long after our chat, I traveled to NYC to hear the public debut of his big band, which played his charts. They made one studio recording, which is worth aacquiring.

Masters of the Air, Chapter 5, on Apple +

I'm in the midst of transcribing interviews I've done since 1987 and ran across Bob Brookmeyer's remarks about Herbie Hancock's Gershwin's World and Wayne Shorter's solos on that CD, they were not positive. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but writers may want to avoid becoming the butt of jokes, like John Tynan's "anti-jazz' labeling of the early 1960s work of John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy. Their music has stood the test of time better than his writing.