Ken Dryden

There are so many poor rock drummers it's too long a list to make. "Drum machines are the Cheez Whiz of musical instruments." Ken Dryden

It lives up to expectations. The audio on the London session is a notch below the other dates, but that is due to the condition of the source material. Waller fans should snap up this excellent release!

I reviewed that book for The Saturday Review — it was riddled with inexcusable factual mistakes, spelling mistakes, etc. 'Talking Jazz' and 'Black Talk' are two different books. Your review was of his thesis based piece - a very tuff read. The book 'TJ' was a compilation of interviews that have since appeared in full on NPR etc. errors about errors about error seems redundant. Ben has taught me lots as have you, tho. Actually, Talking Jazz was first an NPR radio series first, I think it was called Sidran on Record, though I believe the reviews were edited somewhat to allow for music excerpts and to fit the 59 minute time frame. Since the book has been issued, I believe there is a CD boxed set of the unedited interviews for sale at a hefty price.

I reviewed an Orrin Keepnews book back when I first started writing for the newspaper here and careless editing by the book editor left a review that made no sense. Other howlers: the misidentification of Denny Zeitlin as Lew Tabackin, plus Jaco Pastorius and Tabackin being listed as unknown in the photo published in the Wayne Shorter bio a few years ago. If the author had bothered to check with real jazz journalists, they would have had no problem identifying them, as many of them likely owned a copy of the 2 LP set Jazz at the Opera House, which featured the very same backstage photo she used. The bio of Grant Green that appeared around 2000 was dreadful: full of mistakes, incorrect dates, with an obvious lack of jazz knowledge on the part of the author and an amateurish, fawning discography/critique by a young fan.

I reviewed that book for The Saturday Review — it was riddled with inexcusable factual mistakes, spelling mistakes, etc. I've never read either edition all the way through, though I have copies of both. I'm not surprised.

The hardback edition of Ben Sidran's Talking Jazz consistently refers to pianist "Denny Zeitland" thoughout his feature. I presume someone else transcribed this interview and Sidran never reviewed it, or else some bozo changed it after he had. Note: This error was fixed for the paperback edition.

I purchased the Nathan Davis CD from a board member earlier this year, it turned out to be autographed as well. A nice session.

Now board members will be hoping for a similar ridiculously low price on the Evans Verve boxed set...dream on!

Even if he finds a buyer, ebay could step in and disallow the sale, since they have been requiring that all sellers include Paypal as an option for payment. I think he/she would do better selling them individually, but that is the seller's call.

Holy jeez ! I wonder why the seller felt the need to add "no CDRs?"

We listened to some of it yesterday at my radio station. It was terrible, his voice is shot.

It's hard to imagine a jazz artist behaving so badly. Guess he's burned his bridges at Perugia...

No one ever said being in the record business was easy.

PM sent on: Shelley Manne & His Men - At the Black Hawk, Vol. 3 (OJC 1991) - $5 Don Preston Trio - Transformation (Cryptogramophone, 2001) - $5

I thought that would be an incentive for someone to hurry up and buy it, so you didn't have to pay any fees to a website to sell it. But you are very generous to sell it for such a price, as many sellers are on this bulletin board.

I don't recall that much of it being reissued since 1999. The cardboard sleeves are a pain and the book tends to come apart if you try to read it much, but I would consider it essential for Ellington fans. I'm surprised that Chuck Nessa doesn't already own one of the 10,000 existing copies.

I was just about to buy Oscar Peterson: Debut: The Clef Mercury Duo Recordings 1949-1951 and the Ella Fitzgerald: Twelve Nights in Hollywood boxed sets, when both of them, plus Billie Holiday's Master Takes of the Commodore and Decca Recordings, showed up on my porch yesterday, courtesy of Regina Joskow-Duncan, the wonderful publicist at Verve. An earlier email indicated that no promos were going out on these limited edition sets, but she made a few exceptions for a few lucky souls.

I'd be surprised if it lasted long at that price, as used copies routinely sell for a lot more than $290. I don't think it remained in print for long.

At work I have the Gary Larson cartoon cover for Herb Ellis/Red Mitchell: Doggin' Around as a framed poster. Plus a few autographed photos, including Oscar Peterson, Milt Hinton, Clark Terry & James Williams, Dave Brubeck, Gene Harris, Eliane Elias, Ken Peplowski, Marian McPartland and a few others. No jazz stuff hanging at home, not even in my basement.

What's odd is that the song order on all issues of Benny Bailey's Big Brass seems to be incorrect, though since there are several originals, I'm not sure which song belongs to each title, aside from the standard on the date. Not exactly a mistake that made it to fruition, but when I was assigned liner notes for a best of collection (from a larger boxed set for the label), I mentioned that they included a song on the advance CD that didn't feature the leader soloing at all, an odd choice. They deleted it and took my suggestion for a replacement. I also found it odd that they omitted one of his best known compositions, which they did and took my suggestion of deleting "Canadian Sunset." I guess I could have gotten assistant producer credit, even if it meant no extra pay...

You might want to look for Cal Tjader: Both Sides of the Coin, a 2 CD set which includes the complete version of The Shining Sea. It might be a better deal. I've seen several copies of The Shining Sea listed at Amazon and Half.com. Perhaps you are only looking for a trade...

I officially ran out of shelf room today for heard CDs. I have hundreds I haven't gotten to yet, in boxes, drawers, stacked on the floor. I can't seem to get my photos to load. Oh, well...

One person's bad taste is another's satire. Whatever Jim wants is fine, he's paying for the board, so his rules rule.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes...It was a fun day, though there was no live jazz to enjoy (except on CDs and LPs).

In my collection: Randy Weston The Spirits of Our Ancestors Antilles 314511896 Randy Weston & Melba Liston Volcano Blues Antilles 314519269 Randy Weston The Splendid Master Gnawa Musicians Of Morocco Antilles 314521587 Randy Weston How High the Moon Biograph 147 Randy Weston Berkshire Blues Black Lion 760205 David Murray & Randy Weston The Healers Black Saint 120118 Randy Weston & Vishnu Wood Perspective Denon 8554 Randy Weston Nuit Africaine Enja 2086 Randy Weston Carnival Freedom 41004 Randy Weston Blues To Africa Freedom 41014 Randy Weston African Cookbook Koch 8517 Randy Weston Solo, Duo & Trio Milestone 47085 Randy Weston Mosaic Select Mosaic Select 4 Randy Weston Trio/Cecil Payne Jazz A La Bohemia OJC 1747 Randy Weston Trio Get Happy OJC 1870 Randy Weston Trio + Cecil Payne With These Hands... OJC 1883 Randy Weston African Nite Owl 14732 Randy Weston & His African Rhythm Trio Zep Tepi Random Chance 27 Randy Weston Spirit! The Power of Music Sunnyside 3015 Randy Weston Portraits Of Duke Ellington Verve 841312 Randy Weston Portraits Of Thelonious Monk Verve 841313 Randy Weston Self Portraits Verve 841314 Randy Weston Sextet Monterey '66 Verve 314519698 Randy Weston Marrakech In The Cool Of The Evening Verve 314521588 Randy Weston Tanjah Verve 314527778 Randy Weston Saga Verve 314529237 Randy Weston Earth Birth Verve 314537088 Randy Weston Khepera Verve 314557821