Ken Dryden

Mr. Bean Orson Bean Orson Welles

The Thin Man Herbie Mann Shelley Manne

Charlie Weaver Doodles Weaver Arthur Penn

MacDonald Carey Harry Carey Harry Caray

Sid Caesar Cesar Romero Romero Lubambo

The Lennon Sisters The Osmond Brothers The Mamas and the Papas

Eileen Farrell Joe Farrell Joe Dimaggio

Rooster Cogburn Norm Sieburn Norman Rockwell

What is always odd to me is when I no longer receive service from a particular jazz label, then I find a current promo copy of one of their CDs in a local used bookstore. There aren't any jazz stations here and as far as I know, no one else who regularly writes about jazz in the area.

J. J. Johnson B. B. King H. H. Humphrey

Bear Bryant Ray Bryant Ray Draper

Zack Brock Lou Brock Lou Donaldson

During a recent interview, Harold Mabern told me of another pianist on the Memphis scene who deserved wider recognition, Evans Bradshaw. He recorded a couple of LPs for Riverside, though his career evidently never took off. I don't know if you've ever run across him, but he is worth investigating.

Money Johnson Dick Johnson Philip K. Dick

Norm Cash Johnny Cash Johnny Carson

I need to make a trip to Yankee Stadium, something I've never done during my visits to the city. Evenings are reserved for jazz or Broadway (if my wife is with me, I could care less about attending a play in most cases). I hope Judge continues with his success, he's exciting to watch and doesn't seem to be an egomaniac.

I was doing an interview with Sonny Rollins prior to his 50th anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall. He delighted in selling the bootlegs of his performances as downloads and I can't blame him, he's had enough music stolen by them. I also sent him CDRs of a number of good quality broadcast recordings that I had acquired over the years.

It is fun to imagine what individuals recorded off of television and radio broadcasts that aren't widely known. One of the oddest things to happen to me occurred right after I began writing my Not For Sale column for AllAboutJazz.com. I had written one column and before I could begin on the next one, Concord Records contacted me about writing liner notes for an unreleased concert featuring Mel Torme, Gerry Mulligan and George Shearing at Carnegie Hall in 1982. My response was "I know that concert well. I recorded the Jazz Alive! broadcast of it back in the fall of 1982." Unfortunately, they omitted all of the Mulligan Big Band instrumentals, it deserved to have been a two CD set. Though this anecdote has nothing to do with Ray Nance...what can one expect at this hour?

I think it was some of that stuff that appeared on Solid State, then maybe was reissued on LRC and Blue Note. Nance also is a lot of fun on Jaki Byard With Strings!, though Fantasy screwed up the CD reissue by alternating tracks between it and Solo then deleting Hello, Young Lovers from the solo LP. As Frank Zappa would call it, "Cheepnis..." As you can tell, I didn't click on your link. I had the CD, though not in front of me...

Thanks for sharing that memory, Peter. No wonder Ray Nance's nickname was "Floorshow."

I was not aware of the Complete Charlie Parker Records CD set. I own a few of the LPs. It was a shame that Anthony Barnett discontinued further new releases on AB Fable, but he was having problems with others bootlegging the rare jazz violin recordings he was issuing.

I sold a CD through Discogs awhile back. After putting stamps on it and mailing it, the buyer informed me after a couple of weeks that he still hadn't received it. Since it was media mail, I asked him to allow a couple of more weeks. It didn't arrive and I gave him a full refund. Then something like two months later it shows up, with the stamps unconcealed. That taught me to take it to the post office to at least get a tracking number. I returned 4 CDs to ImportCDs a month ago with they prepaid return label. Unfortunately, the USPS would not give me a tracking number to trace it and I have yet to have my inquiries answered by them. It may be my last order with them if they don't get on the ball.

The binding came apart on my copy as well. Destined to hold up about as well as those deliberately shoddy Neil Young LP jackets in the 1970s.