Ken Dryden

Well, Bill Evans is missing from the Smithsonian box as well, so I don't think it was personal on Williams' part to omit Jamal.

My recent travels led me to hear: 6/10 Bobby Watson & Curtis Lundy Two days later I was in NYC: 6/12 Dave Brubeck Quartet 6/13 Junior Mance 6/14 Ayako Shirasaki at the JJA Awards (I left to go to dinner, so I missed the remaining acts following the awards) The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra 6/15 Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band (featuring Roy Hargrove, Jimmy Heath and Roberta Gambarini, among others) Now its back to months of no live jazz...

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Too bad this Ellington set never appeared (this amusing piece first appeared on Bret Primack's Bird Lives site, for those of you who don't like AAJ). http://www.allaboutjazz.com/birdlives/bl-33.htm

I worked in a "fine dining" restaurant where the cheapskate owner tried to put bread returned from tables back into the warming bin. We would trash it when his back was turned. He also bought a Kenny G live cassette to play over the sound system, but I would hide it any time I heard it. The only thing worse was his Liberace live cassette. He was very white, but I won't get into his specific ethnic background....though he did have a hilarious combover. Perhaps that will offend someone on the board!

I enjoyed hearing two sets by Randy Weston at Birdland in 2007. He's very articulate and it is a shame he is not recording regularly these days (though he is very interested in doing so). BTW, his new autobiography African Rhythms (in collaboration with veteran jazz journalist Willard Jenkins) is due out this fall from Duke University Press.

I'm definitely not in favor of the packaging of this series. I do not care for open top cardboard sleeves as I think that the discs will get scuffed. That said, all of them have good liner notes. The Cole only had a couple of alternate takes that were new, otherwise, I already owned all of the music within it.

A little different twist. One of the artists who appeared on a veteran producer's last label, told me that it was odd that he didn't put much marketing effort behind them, other than sending out review and radio copies. After his death, it was discovered that he had sold over 100% of the profits from the operation to investors, causing the label to fold immediately. It was surmised that he just wanted to record people he enjoyed near the end of his life. I don't feel comfortable publicizing the name of the artist or label, for obvious reasons--no written proof.

Brubeck told me about a live date recorded in India (probably for Columbia), though it ended up being unreleasable because of a series of brownouts during the concert. The Great Concerts is a compilation from several live LPs, with only one track otherwise unissued. I think Wilshire-Abel is one of those shows recorded by Fantasy on the sly without Brubeck's knowledge. Jazz Impresssions of Antartica remains unissued, frozen in time.

As unheard review copies pile up (I'm planning to make a photo soon) and purchases also add to my 36+ year old collection, I'm still interested in acquiring additional music, though I'm still trying to find suitable shelving for the overflow. I'm sure by the time I put another 3000 CDs on new shelves, my wife will say it is time for a new house. I still have interest in bluegrass, classical and blues, though I rarely buy rock anymore, as few artists interest me these days.

Anthony Barnett recently sent out a letter to his customers that the bootlegging and copying of his releases may curtail his investment in future AB Fable CDs. He puts a lot of expense in acquiring, restoring and researching each of his CDs, so this would be a great disappointment for fans of jazz violin.

That's the late actor Billy Barty holding the harp. He appeared in Foul Play and was a regular with Spike Jones in the 1950s. I would love to see the clip of him playing a midget Liberace on a toy piano.

Even Phil Woods, who has been ripped off a few times by bootleggers, said that when you "spot a new Charlie Parker, you just have to buy it."

I'm no saint, I've acquired things on various questionable labels over the years, though I've never nominated any of them for awards. I used to get serviced with Moon CDs through Allegro for review and I wrote about a few of them, noting many of their shortcomings.

Not exactly...Moon in particular issued stuff that had never been available outside of "collector's circles". Argue the ethics of that all you want, but it's a far cry from essentially pirating a preexisting release, which is what Impro Jazz. Too be frank, Moon's two volumes of Sonny in Denmark should have been considered for some kind of award, that's how important they were as historical issues. I know there's ethics involved, but hell, this is the music business after all, you can rip people off illegally or legally, what the hell... I wasn't aware Impro-Jazz was reissuing available product, I figured they were just dubbing old broadcasts that had not otherwise seen the light of day. I doubt that Moon or Westwind ever paid anything to the artists, songwriters or publishing companies. In my mind, these labels are no better than Impro-Jazz. At least some of the folks who put out music circulating among collectors try to do the right thing and pay royalties. Heck, one of the Westwind Bill Evans sets is obviously a reissue of an old Yellow Note bootleg LP set, you can even hear the groove noise from the source material.

I'd never heard of this particular Basie bootleg DVD, though I know of Impro Jazz and its shady origins. It would be like nominating a Moon or Westwind CD. I'm not sure that Impro Jazz was listed in the ballot nomination summary, or I think that I would have spotted it. One thing we did put an end to was the eligibility of condensed boxed sets, in other words, smaller versions of music already issued in more complete form, like the Billie Holiday Columbia stuff. As for the nominating process, no one will ever be completely satisfied with the results, no matter how the results are tabulated (like giving voters the opportunity to make multiple votes for 1 artist instead of nominating 5). I rarely like the summarized writer rankings by category in jazz magazines. Too many seem to vote on the reputations of artists' earlier work, even though they may not have released any recordings or toured actively during the past year. To be clear, the JJA Awards program knew in advance that this was a bootleg? I wonder, what are the judging criteria? Only those who nominated it were possibly aware of it being a bootleg.

As someone who lobbied to get DVDs back into the JJA Awards program, I am very unhappy to learn that a bootleg DVD was nominated. This issue has not happened before (at least during the years I have served on the ballot committee) and I'm sure it will be discussed at length during the creation of next year's nomination ballot. Jazz Icons literally sets the standard for jazz DVDs in my book, no company has gone to such expense to create top notch videos from the best available sources, with detailed liner notes and lots of rare photographs. One other thing: there was not even a category for Jazz DVDs the year that the Jazz Icons Live in '62 DVD was issued. It was dropped a few years earlier because very few members were serviced with DVDs, but only returned to the ballot this year. Please note that I am speaking for myself and not claiming to represent JJA.

I invited a veteran jazz artist a few months ago to join FB, though he declined. Guess who turned up on it this week? I guess the chance to network is worth some of the hassles.

I think one of the mistakes is using one's regular email address on FB. I used my journalist email address and quickly realized my error, substituting a different one, though I should have come up with one for nothing but FB. It's not a good idea to list your birthplace or birth date. When I get friend requests from women who are not in jazz and totally unknown to me (particularly if they are single), I'm pretty suspicious and usually decline befriending them. One thing I'm tired of is the repeated requests to "Become a Fan of..." If I don't have 20+ recordings by the artist, or have never seen him or her perform, or don't know them personally, I'm unlikely to bother. Don't get me started on the gifts or the time-wasting games on FB, I have no interest at all.

...when you talk about adding more shelving for your growing jazz CD collection (after overflowing custom wall shelving 21 feet by 8 feet plus four 1500 CD shelf units) by purchasing more shelving, your spouse replies, "I don't have to live here." (She still does, a good thing!)

I just reviewed the advance of Jasmine for AAJNY, though it won't appear until June. It is a very relaxed, enjoyable CD.

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When I bought a Mac, I accidentally ordered an Airport Express Base Station then forgot about out since the pieces that I ordered arrived one at a time. As a result, I bought a second one, only to uncover the still sealed one a few months later. If any Mac users out there need one, I'm all ears on offers, including part cash and part CD trade. Obviously it will have to be less than whatever Apple is selling them for now. PM me.

There's nothing like folks who make their first post to a bulletin board a blatant advertisement for their businesses. ZZZZZ.

I enjoyed this recording and find Dan Tepfer to be a promising young pianist. We heard him accompany Lee at Birdland during our last trip to NYC, right around the time the CD was released.