Ken Dryden

You'd be surprised how many musicians fell for my 4/1/2005 CD reviews: Michael Bolton Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook + Yanni: A Tribute to Art Tatum Somedays people just aren't looking for gags...though I thought Cyrus Chestnut was trying to pull my leg when he said he had recorded a bunch of tunes associated with Elvis Presley for his upcoming CD.

Nellie Lutcher made a guest appearance on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz in the late 1980s. She still had plenty of chops and there was a charm to the senior citizen singing her hit "Hurry on Down."

I pretty much had most of this music and bought it anyway. Great music! No label is as thorough as Mosaic and I hate cube sets, long boxes or the infernal cardboard sleeves on a spine where the disc drop in without protection. Long live the big box!

I bought four CD storage units from bellacor.com for around $203 each by a manufacturer called Leslie Dane (including shipping) that each hold 1500 CDs (more if you cheat and use the top shelf, which I do for boxed sets and Jazz DVDs). They are only made of pressboard, but they work well and were easy to assemble. Rather than put them against the wall (I already have one entire wall with floor to ceiling custom built shelves (about 21 feet by 8 feet), I put them back to back in the middle of the floor. I'll probably run out of shelf space this summer unless i pull more of my non-jazz stuff.

Maybe it's like a bridal registry where you can get loved ones and friends to pick something that you really need and don't already own!

I didn't feel rich, but I knew they would be impossible to get once OOP, so I took the plunge and bought all three at once, while they were in print. I saw all three sets available at Jazz Record Center for $2400 a few years ago, but occasionally they have sold for bargain prices on ebay. I remember seeing Vol. 3 sell for just $200 + shipping, a steal!

They don't even have a place for Art Pepper. You call this a jazz section?

I can't blame Yoshi's for wanting to feature music recorded there on a compilation CD. But it seems like brand new recordings, vs. collecting previously released tracks, would have been the way to go. Then the CD wouldn't have had such limited scope.

The station I work form began broadcasting in HD format last year. You won't notice the difference unless you can compare a signal on a regular radio then hear a HD radio air the same thing. Even spoken word sounds better. One oddity of the setup: because our station uses a dedicated DSL phone line to get the signal to the transmitter, there is a seven second delay of the HD broadcast, so I can walk from the studio to the outer office and feel like I'm briefly going back in time.

I have all of the following, though I once owned titles that have since been reissued in Mosaic collections, so I sold those: Billy Bauer - PLECTRIST INTRODUCING JIMMY CLEVELAND AND HIS ALL STARS Dizzy Gillespie - PERCEPTIONS (great J.J. Johnson here) Illinois Jacquet - THE KID AND THE BRUTE (w/ Ben Webster) Hank Jones - URBANITY Meade Lux Lewis - CAT HOUSE PIANO Paul Quinichette - THE VICE PRES Jack Teagarden - THINK WELL OF ME CLARK TERRY THIS IS TAL FARLOW Sonny Stitt - ONLY THE BLUES Harry Edison - THE SWINGER/MR. SWING (2 CD set)(Jimmy Forrest is basically co-leader) Lee Konitz - MOTION (3 CD version - as opposed to the replication of the original LP only for the more recent edition) JOHNNY SMITH Lawrence Brown - SLIDE TROMBONE Art Blakey - BLAKEY (w/a bonus date led by Joe Gordon) Ray Brown - BASS HIT! Roy Eldridge - SWINGIN' ON THE TOWN The Jones Brothers - KEEPIN' UP WITH THE JONESES (originally on MGM) Walt Dickerson - IMPRESSIONS ON A PATCH OF BLUE (ditto) Buddy DeFranco/Oscar Peterson - THE GEORGE GERSHWIN SONGBOOK Modern Jazz Society - A CONCERT OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC (John Lewis, Getz, Lucky Thompson, and others) HERB ELLIS MEETS JIMMY GIUFFRE (some nice Art Pepper on this one too) George Russell Sextet - AT THE FIVE SPOT (which isn't live, but a studio recording!) Wynton Kelly - IT'S ALL RIGHT! Stan Getz and the Clarke-Boland Big Band - CHANGE OF SCENES Louie Bellson - SKIN DEEP Lalo Schifrin - DISSECTION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF MUSIC FROM THE PAST AS PERFORMED BY THE INMATES...(and it just keeps on going, you have to see the title to believe it, this is not a joke!) Ed Thigpen - OUT OF THE STORM (w/Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Kenny Burrell) Various - ELITE EDITION COLLECTORS' DISC

I have all five volumes of the original Twilight Zone series, though I haven't watched all of them yet. It even includes shows that were not syndicated for later rebroadcast. I'm still debating whether to acquire the Homicide: Life on the Streets series. The later seasons were marred by inconsistent writing and the addition of a few less than interesting characters.

I also bought this LP back in the 1970s and didn't own it for long. Evans sounded bored and wasn't improvising in his distinctive style, while most of the songs themselves were pretty forgettable.

Lots of jazz artists recorded inappropriate pop songs: Bud Shank played the music of the Lovin' Spoonful (on a long oop LP appropriately titled A Spoonful of Jazz) Carmen McRae did Alice Cooper's "Only Women Bleed" (so should have the producer or person who suggested this turkey to Carmen)

I just received both of Art Pepper's CDs issued by Widow's Taste and what I've heard so far is exceptional.

I find it sad that anyone would be so dismissive of Ella Fitzgerald's obvious contributions to jazz. She was revered by the musicians who worked with her and most critics. Yes, she kept performing when she was obviously past her prime, she sometimes chose inappropriate songs (Marvin Gaye's monotonous "What's Goin' On" on her Carnegie Hall concert of the 1970s and the insipid "Wives and Lovers" to name two) and the Grammy for her final release should have gone to Carmen McRae for Carmen Sings Monk. But at least Starbuck's is featuring Ella rather than all of the thin-voiced singer/songwriters who have been promoted as jazz artists in recent years by major labels. I am more concerned about those who are promoting the remixes of Nina Simone and Billie Holiday, as if this music has to be dumbed down for consumption by youth.

The sound on the Harkit recordings I was sent was pretty noisy, with lots of microphone bumping and such. The interviews heard on some of the discs were rather amateurish in nature. Congrats to Sonny for beating the crooks.

Carla was a good friend, we met back in 1990 at the JazzTimes Convention in New Orleans and we kept in touch. Our last time to hang out together was during a quick trip to New York City last fall, she was always a delightful person to spend time chatting with over lunch. I finally tracked down her long out of print debut LP, Andruline, a few years ago and always looked forward to reviewing her latest release. She will be missed.

I was saddened to learn that jazz vocalist Carla White died yesterday in New York City after a long battle with cancer. Carla was a talented singer who recorded eight albums under her name. Her debut recording for Stash, Andruline, was jointly led with Manny Duran; her last release was A Voice in the Night. Her frequent musical collaborators included Peter Madsen, Dean Johnson, Matt Wilson and a good friend, Lew Tabackin, who would often make a guest appearance on a few numbers. A memorial service is scheduled for St. Peter's Church (Lexington at 53rd St.) in Manhattan on June 8th at 5 pm.

Elling wasn't bad as a part of Dave Brubeck's Cannery Row Suite, premiered at last year's Monterey Festival. I've just never warmed to his voice, though I think his choice of material and the presence of Rob Mounsey are serious drawbacks on his first Concord CD.

Lack of research doesn't seem to keep some writers from get publishing contracts for new books... Examples include the recent Wayne Shorter and Grant Green bios, which were full of errors, faulty judgements and often sloppy research.

Murphy still had that ridiculous toupe on his dome when he sang at IAJE (2006?) with Kurt Elling, Jon Hendricks and Kevin Mahogany.

I have both these DVDs and have enjoyed them. Has there been a discussion of the upcoming Mingus Sextet 2 CD set at Cornell 1964, to be issued by Blue Note in July? I already have an advance and it is a good performance, even if it seems to be in mono.

I didn't request a copy of Elling's new CD, as I recognized it for what it was. I had forgotten about the Michael Franks song, he is always one for writing forgettable songs. "When the cookie jar is empty (Barf!)..."

Gee, Kurt Elling is no longer on Blue Note... Instead, he has signed with Concord and recorded such lame songs as The Guess Who's "Undun" and also utilized boring smooth keyboardist/arranger Rob Mounsey (of "I Like the Orange Thing" fame) on his latest CD. Yawn...

I highly recommend Harold Danko's Prestigious, an excellent tribute to Eric Dolphy. Of course, I've enjoyed all of Danko's releases for the label that I've acquired.