Ken Dryden

Among the record show vinyl acquisitions I gave a spin to recently was Gary Wofsey's Kef's Pool, with special guest Phil Woods. But not even Woods' best effort helped the treatment of the mediocre song "Close to the Edge" (by the forgettable rock group Yes).

Elmer's Glue to clean a record? That sounds like an April Fool's joke....which gives me an idea. We once had a station staffer clean records, only instead of using the VPI vacuum machine, he poured tape head cleaner onto them. Needless to say, we tossed every one of them.

Could there have been a worse choice to contribute lyrics and a vocal to "Blood Count" than Elvis Costello? Oh well, Duke often had a preference for odd male vocalists.

I have a fair quantity of Charlie Parker, including all of the Verve, Savoy, Dial things plus the airchecks issued by Columbia and some of the ones issued on various other labels. I'll admit that I go blank as to the name of a tune I should recognize from time to time, too. Then again, I've heard musicians who can't remember what tunes they've played by the end of a set and seen more than a few record labels and writers who can't identify songs correctly. We all are less than perfect on occasion.

I'd love to figure a way to archive this video, thanks for sharing the link.

Do you mean the original British version of The Ladykillers or the awful recent version with Tom Hanks? If you haven't seen the original with Alec Guiness, Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom, you owe it to yourself to view it.

With declining numbers of public radio stations offering NPR's classical programming, what are they supposed to do, flush additional money away? NPR has dropped lots of programs in the past, including Afro-Pop Worldwide, Heat with John Hockenberry and various jazz programs (Jazz Alive!, American Jazz Radio Festival, Wynton Marsalis Making the Music--though some of these may have lost funding to keep running). Performance Today will be moving to another network, while if there is so much demand for additional syndicated classical programs, I'm sure that some organization can raise the funds to produce it. NPR, like individual public radio stations, can hardly stand still or run up deficits and remain in existence. Why have local stations dropped classical music programming? The aging (50+) of the audience, lack of financial support, lack of underwriting support, etc., are all likely factors. We finally dropped the Metropolitan Opera (again) and our station's audience doubled within the first six weeks, not to mention opening times to sell underwriting and pitch during membership drives. Most stations don't have huge endowments (we don't have one at all) so they live from year to year. This is another case of whining about something without bothering to investigate the factors that brought about the decision.

To top it off, this is a used copy. Not to mention the dolt lists Jim Hall elsewhere on the page as part of the CD. Duh....

As a former retailer myself, I find it extremely dishonest for any business to charge one's credit card unless they have the merchandise in stock and ready to ship at the time of the transaction, especially Amazon or half.com sellers, who are supposed to ship promptly after confirmation. This would be different if it involved a special order of merchandise not normally carried (to protect a retailer against getting stuck with merchandise if a customer suddenly had a change of mind). It's like the old ruse many chain retail stores use of offering a great price on a popular item at or below cost, yet have so little inventory that they run out long before the sale is over, or the bogus huge discounts off a ridiculously high "regular" price. I worked for Gordon Jewelry, which had 50% off gold chains for every day of my tenure with them as a manager (which lasted over 4 years).

I think this is the same organization/person that sells through half.com. I've had some orders filled and some that never arrived that I had to complain about. But they would confirm orders whether or not they had the merchandise, which is very dishonest. How can one confirm an order that is supposed to ship within two business days if it isn't already on hand? I had a friend that never received his only order through half.com and he never got credit either, which embarassed me, since I had directed him to this seller.

I've owned a few of these LPs and CDs, but the label was often sloppy about proper listing of song titles and composers, an indication that this was basically, a bootleg operation paying royalties to no one.

I saw the band in 1974 and again during the reunion tour (1988 or 1989) and I wasn't really impressed with the Moon-less version. I can't imagine that they're up to snuff today.

I find it funny that folks complain about new release and reissue lists failing to be comprehensive or current, but it is one helluva lot of work to keep up with everything. Unless someone's paying you, it would be hard to do for very long. Kudos to Jazzmatazz for doing it as long as he did.

I was well aware of Natalie Cole's career outside of jazz prior to my post. I am unimpressed with her work as a jazz vocalist, period.

Natalie Cole was a jazz artist? News to me...then I guess Michael Bolton, George Winston, Yanni and others must be, too... Natalie, it's time to quit riding on your late father's reputation.

I remember going to meet a man named Harv Taratoot for job interview. I was staring straight ahead and was surprised when he opened the door and was easily a foot shorter than me, causing me to quickly awkwardly redirect my gaze forward. I made it through another round of interviews with him, but didn't get the job.

I've enjoyed the late Red Mitchell's recordings, particularly the duo meetings with Herb Ellis and Joe Pass. I love the story from Bill Crow's Jazz Anecdotes, where Red asked how he got hired for a gig with Marian McPartland. He was told she requested, "Hire a bass player who sounds like Red Mitchell." Anyone ever heard the LP with Red, Whitey and Blue Mitchell, Get Those Elephants Out'a Here? A rarity from the 1950s that I managed to acquire awhile back.

Actually, I think I have all (or most) of the Davis material on a bootleg LP that also included some rare Art Tatum broadcasts (which have since appeared on the Live series issued by Storyville).

Other than rules regarding formatting and word count, I've paid little attention to AAJ's writing guidelines. Other publications, especially the glossy but empty Jazziz and the sometimes sloppy JazzTimes could stand some serious editing, though I've never subscribed to the former and dumped the latter several years ago.

I've been an AAJ contributor since 2000, though I only sporadically write CD reviews. I devote more time to my column (which has been neglected somewhat) and occasional performance reviews (tricky, since I have to go out of town usually to hear quality jazz).

One of the things I own with featuring Tjader is a live concert excerpt from the 1977 St. Francis Jazz Festival, aired on NPR's Jazz Alive! I'm not sure of any of the personnel, though Poncho Sanchez has to be present. Dave Brubeck described Tjader as a war hero who served in the Pacific theater. He said that the vibraphonist ignored his physician about touring overseas, evidently he had a heart condition needing treatment.

As much as I've bashed jocks over the years, the three Duke University lacrosse students should have never been presented in a team photo for the supposed rape victim. Any jury that convicts these three is voting on emotion instead of the law; the district attorney deserves to be removed from office for going ahead with this very shaky case. If traditional photo arrays with men (none in uniform) from a variety of backgrounds had been utilized, the still-shaky case probably would not have brought so many brickbats bup the D.A.'s office.

A band is booked to play a party hosted by a mobster. One of his henchmen approaches the leader and says "De Boss wants Come Rain or Come Shine. If I were you, I'd play both."

Credited to Russell Malone: Did you hear about the new Kenny G CD, Kenny G Plays Monk? Among the cuts are "'Round Noon" and "Straight, No Changes."

Obviously, no dealer can possibly do anything other than visually inspect the covers and vinyl. But I would be hesitant to list LPs with visible scratches on ebay.