Ken Dryden

I remember hearing Bill Milkowski bragging that he had gotten JazzTimes contributors fired on two different occasions for demonstrating an obvious lack of depth in their knowledge of jazz (One comment was something like, "Gee, Wayne Shorter is great, has he done anything else?"). Yet some of the pop critics they've hired masquerading as jazz critics repeatedly demonstrated a rather shallow jazz background. That's why I dropped my subscription a few years back, after taking it for 13 years.

Pseudo-jazz...

Looks like they were able to either locate the missing original masters that Blue Note failed to find for the American CD, restoring the solos of Red Mitchell and Carl Perkins. By the way, Hall told me that the US CD listed two takes of "Things Ain't What They Used to Be," but the track labeled as alternate take was, in fact, the unedited master, while the other was the edited version.

Don't take any critic seriously until you have evaluated his or her work over a range of reviews. 'nuf said...

Martha doesn't know jazz, there are too many awful tracks in that collection. She would have been better off picking true greats, along with chestnuts like Eric Doney's treatment of Bill Evans' "My Bells" on his CD Christmas in a Small Town. Chris Botti, Steve Tyrell, Eartha Kitt?

Aside from Pure Desmond, I've never been particularly fond of Paul Desmond's albums for CTI.

I bought 30 for myself, 2 for a nephew for Christmas gifts, plus one duplicate in error (The Poll Winners). The rest I already owned or didn't want.

It's sad that nothing but poorly stocked, high-priced chain music stores are all that is available in a lot of markets. Trying to merchandise jazz via home office bozo buyers means that there'll be little of interest for most jazz fans, reinforcing the attitude that "jazz doesn't sell." Eventually the download kings will not be happy when their ipods, hard drives and burned CDRs start malfunctioning, not to mention when they discover how lousy the audio is in comparison to a manufactured CD.

I'll add my two cents that The Ellington Suites is an excellent album. Having purchased both the original LP when it was issued and acquiring the CD as well, I think any Ellington fan ought to buy it. My Concord Sale order showed up Saturday while I was in New Orleans.

Order 5599, confirmed 7/12, no shipping notice or CDs so far. I'm off to New Orleans tomorrow, so no chance to follow up for awhile.

Hot, humid, with rain that never lasts long enough, so I'm heading to New Orleans next week.

Remo Palmier's self-titled LP for Concord hasn't been reissued on CD and is doubtful to appear unless the current label owners license it to someone else.

Trying to incorporate Marxist b.s. into a review of a jazz CD is a waste of the reader's time. I remember buying Watson's book on Frank Zappa, Negative Didatics of Poodle Play, but it wasn't long before I put it down for good.

My order # was 5599, with the email sent to me 7-12. No package yet...

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the artificially high retail prices maintained by labels for their CDs.

After reading such drivel, it would be hard to imagine anyone taking his opinion seriously.

Reminds me of my retail days, where the store advertised items nearly at cost and some cheapskate would ask "Is there a quantity discount?" Whether or not free shipping happens, I think most of us can afford to pay for shipping when the price is $2.98 per CD. But if you got a confirmation showing free shipping, they would be hard pressed to defend charging more if you complained to your credit card issuer.

I leave them in the boxes with the CD. One friend flattens the boxes and pitches them upon receipt. Guess his heirs will be disappointed when they get lower auction proceeds...

List is updated

My father was a bit of a record collector, though primarily classical. He tended to prefer the better soloists, conductors and orchestras, so I didn't find him buying the low grade budget LPs. He was into jazz a little, but never to the degree I was. While I never got him interested in Eric Dolphy, he had the famous Edgard Varese Complete Works Vol. 1, the record that inspired a teenaged Frank Zappa. When someone mentioned John Denver, it reminds me of those idiotic "porn rock" hearings in the Senate. Al Gore started off by telling Frank Zappa he was a big fan of his work, then told John Denver the same thing prior to his testimony (a stretch of credibility or an unusually wide taste in music--nah, I still don't believe that!). Then Dee Snyder of Twister Sister came out to testify and promptly said, "Well, Senator Gore, I suppose you're going to tell me that you're a big fan of mine!"

I'm surprised no one made an offer on the table...

How many members of this thread have gone broke saving money at the Fantasy blowout sale?

Anything listed in that Fantasy sale is almost certainly being dropped.

Somehow I would think that Michel Petrucciani would make a difficult boxed set for Mosaic, as the fusion stuff with Adam Holzman doesn't fit in with the remaining sessions he did for Blue Note. That said, I own most of his Blue Note and Owl CDs, along with all of the Dreyfus Jazz titles. He was a fun interview subject as well.