Ken Dryden

I didn't buy Lord's new CD Rom last year and doubt that I will buy any more of them. As for paying $100 per year for the right to access his database---YGBFK!

I liked The Who to a certain extent and bought most of their albums, though their output was uneven. Who's Next stands up better than Tommy, while I liked John Entwhistle's sardonic humor, especially in "My Wife." I saw the band live twice, once in 1974 in Baton Rouge (easily the loudest concert I've ever sat through, along with a disappointing effort around Atlanta circa 1987-89. Their latest effort didn't leave much of an impression, then again, not much in the way of new rock releases do.

I have purchased several of the previous editions of Lord's CD-Rom Jazz Discography, so I understand Christiern's comments. With so much data, it is a challenging task to proofread everything, so errors will inevitably creep in. Record labels and artists often don't take the time or trouble to correctly spell the names of musicians or song titles, while they sometimes get them wrong or even omit them entirely (like the notorious hidden tracks). Labels often omit one or more instruments played by someone doubling on two or more. There are also multiple versions of some song titles listed (for example, "On Green Dolphin Street" and "Green Dolphin Street," or "Oh! Lady Be Good" and "Lady Be Good") that can end up being compiled separately. Then composers often use the same title for different pieces, so before you can say there are so many versions of a particular work, you have to be sure they all are by the same composer (tough to do unless you own all of the LPs and CDs given). That said, I haven't seen any similar product that attempts to be as thorough as Lord's reference work. It was particularly helpful to me when I used to produce a radio program, as it was far more complete than any on-line reference source for jazz.

A review that first appeared at allaboutjazz.com on April 1, 2006: Monk Meets the Beatles Thelonious Monk | Sole Mountain Jazz (2006) By Ken Dryden For years it was rumored that Thelonious Monk was asked to do an album of Beatles tunes, but now we finally have proof that it was actually made. In the summer of 1971, the pianist was approached by an English businessman to make a record of Beatles tunes as a surprise birthday gift for his wife. Monk was hesitant to record adaptations of rock music, but was finally persuaded by the considerable fee offered to him, with the stipulation that only a single copy was to be pressed. Monk played approximately twenty songs at home over a two-week period, then selected twelve he felt he could adapt. During a day off while in Great Britain as a part of the Giants of Jazz tour, he completed the recording in a single session. Over thirty years after the recording was made, the Monk estate was asked about the possibility of commercially releasing this long-lost album. The master tapes, still in the hands of the session engineer, were found to be in excellent shape. After some lengthy negotiations, it was agreed that a limited edition of 5000 would be sold, though it would be issued by a European label. Unlike many warmed-over jazz treatments of rock songs recorded during the 1960s, Thelonious Monk obviously took his rehearsals of these unfamiliar songs seriously. Monk’s choice of “Birthday” is an appropriate opener, played as a brisk stride arrangement with a dissonant countermelody. The pianist has a bit of fun with “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” by initially starting off with an angular chorus of Mary Lou Williams’ “In the Land of Oo-Blah-Dee.” One of the most unlikely choices would seem to be “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” but Monk interprets it as a slow ballad, incorporating some humorous tremolos and revealing its hidden possibilities. “Yesterday” has long since become a jazz standard, though Monk’s version is both bittersweet and hilarious, partly because of his closing glissando cascading down the keyboard. The CD concludes with a whimsical take of “When I’m Sixty-Four,” followed by a single chorus of Monk’s theme song, “Epistrophy.” Track listing: Birthday; In My Life; Norwegian Wood; Octopus’s Garden; Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da; Yesterday; I Should Have Known Better; I Want to Hold Your Hand; And I Love Her; Penny Lane; Things We Said Today; When I’m Sixty Four/Epistrophy. Personnel: Thelonious Monk: piano.

Michael Cuscuna is running a business. There is no conspiracy to keep music out of print. If he thinks their is sufficient interest to produce a boxed set, the music can be reasonably obtained through licensing, plus he is likely to make a decent profit, he will set the gears in motion. Frankly, I can't imagine a huge demand for a Les McCann set. And while I enjoy the Three Sounds okay, I like Gene Harris' later work for Concord better (minus the CDs with that awful singer).

53. For rock, I'd rather listen to Zappa. Although I consider the Beatles good songwriters, I don't care if I never hear "Hey, Jude," "Let It Be," "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" or other songs that grew tiresome in a hurry to me.

Did you see the buyer's premium of 20% added on top? Even if I saw something I wanted, I'd search elsewhere.

Gee, have I missed out on some fun. I have extensive collections of both Gene Clark and Gram Parsons, though I am not much into the rating game for rock artists. I either enjoy them or I don't and shop accordingly. Watch a few folks blow a gasket: I'm over 50 and own NO Beatles' albums Let the fun begin!

If you're talking about the bottom side of the discs being green, I'd be concerned. Contact them and don't hesitate to contact your credit card company if they give you the runaround.

I have mixed feelings about reading Ratliff's Coltrane book after reading the comments. I do take exception to the number of mistakes that have crept into most jazz books these days. Don't authors have enough pride in their work to ask a fellow writer who knows the subject fairly well to look over the galleys? I do feel that when you start counting mistakes, the book needs more work and at times, lacks credibility. Doug Ramsey's Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond is one of the few that was closely checked prior to publication.

Even if you own the Mosaic box, there's still one jazz track that was omitted (probably hidden on a different tape reel). There's an alternate take of one song on the 18 track version of After Midnight, which has been issued with 12, 10, 15 and 17 tracks in earlier editions on LP and CD.

I concur. The CD sounds fine. It's available on eMusic as well, with bonus tracks. I thought the recording quality wasn't that great. I had the LP and eventually got the CD, which is when I realized how poor the sound was. I was told that Desmond actually blocked the release of this concert during his lifetime. "Jesus Christ Superstar" is easily one of the lamest tunes that Desmond ever recorded.

I enjoy Parsons' work, including The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo, though I think his contributions are a good deal overblown. As far as Prince and Springsteen, you can have them, I don't find anything appealing there and don't care to hear any more of their work. If you really want to get worked up, I don't own a single album by the Beatles or the Stones. They just don't appeal to my ears. My choice, not a sermon to anyone. Give me Zappa instead, though he wrote his share of dud songs. Gene Clark was often a good composer and decent singer, but he couldn't beat the bottle. His "Hula Bula Man," which was aired on the BBC Rock hour featuring separate sets by Clark, Hillman and McGuinn, plus a three song reunion, has to be one of his worst songs ever, along with "Home Run King," (from a solo album, possibly Firebyrd?) with the dumb line "You're either just the newspaper boy/Or you're either Babe Ruth."

Buy the whole box, they're all great. It makes me wish American networks and stations spent more time documenting and preserving jazz on video (remember the moron who tossed early kinescopes of Steve Allen's Tonight Show with so many great performances lost forever).

I have surprisingly few regrets of the many LPs and CDs that I've disposed of over the years. But I wish I had held onto vocalist Nancy King's CDs for Justice. I didn't care for her voice at the time, yet I really enjoyed hearing her with Fred Hersch and also saw her in person at the Jazz Standard last January during IAJE.

Mary Osborne also appears on Marian McPartland's oop Halcyon LP Now's the Time. I think that she also took part with McPartland in the first Kansas City Women's Jazz Festival around 1978. A portion was aired on NPR's Jazz Alive!, which I taped.

I have some of the earlier versions of Tom Lord's Jazz Discography on CD-Rom, including: 4.4 (retails for $149, including shipping from Lord) 5.0 (retails for $199, including shipping from Lord) I'm open to reasonable offers or even part cash, part CD trades. Please PM me if interested.

Don't overlook Kenny Werner's two solo piano CDs for Steeplechase (which introduced his music to me), along with the out of print Maybeck solo set (Concord).

I remember a number of the Xanadu LPs that I obtained directly from Don Schlitten were very noisy, substandard pressings. Give me CDs any day over noisy or warped LPs.

I got rid of my Led Zeppelin LPs when I finished my undergraduate degree in 1976 and have had no interest in hearing Robert Plant's vocals since then. This ranks with the pairing of Frank Sinatra with Kenny G or the recent Dean Martin with modern artists as one of the oddest, least interesting collaborations I can imagine, though I guess Plant and Krauss were in the studio at the same time...

You can sometimes flatten LPs under sufficient weight to fix edge warps, but I don't know of a way to fix scratches. Fred Cohen at Jazz Record Mart told me about a seller who lost a number of mint jazz LPs from the 1950s because his wife learned of his adultery and took it out by using a razor blade on his favorite records. Ouch!

Too bad her appearance on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz was never issued on CD. It's a killer!

The Verve/Phillips Dizzy Gillespie Small Group Sessions, which sat unopened until a recent assignment...

I recall reading in a biography that Dolphy's parents gave his flute to John Coltrane. Was there also something posted about a proposed Dolphy museum (to be located in their former family home) published somewhere?

I don't know, but did you notice that it was obviously a studio recording? Remember how unique the Five Spot piano sounded on other live records?