Ken Dryden

Nothing like botching the legacy of the labels a conglomerate acquired. Carl E. Jefferson must be spinning in his grave with some of the pure crap issued in the past decade or so on the Concord label that he founded. Some musicians who recorded for him had their share of choice words to say about Jefferson, but he recorded musicians whom he enjoyed often and made more than a few of the younger players he recorded extensively widely known.

The only Duke Ellington that I don't need are those crappy audience recording bootlegs put out on various forgettable small labels on LPs, some of which have reappeared on those worthless Squatty Roo bootleg CDRs, which look like they were made and printed in someone's basement. The only Ellington song that I don't want hear any new versions of is Tony Watkins singing the forgettable "One More Time For The People." No wonder that Cootie Williams stormed off stage when that song was called.

I once ran across an All Music review that I had written which had evidently been translated into Portuguese and then back to English, although the English translation did not resemble my original contribution. It was funny, in a way.

The series of unissued concerts on SteepleChase have been great discoveries.

“How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris?” “Who knows? It’s never been tried.”

A lot of people who don’t know how sick they are don’t want to seek medical care, thinking it is something that will pass.

My late father in law had diabetes and didn’t know it, then had a heart attack and didn’t know it. He developed a blood clot that caused him great pain in a leg and he never came out of a coma after surgery. This happened in the 1990s so it doesn’t surprise me that anyone would be unaware of a major medical issue back in 1964.

I would have thought that the bump on Eric Dolphy's forehead was either a cyst or fatty tumor, though I am not a doctor. He had it removed (likely with a syringe, as the late photos of him don't seem to show a scar from an incision) before his 1964 tour with Mingus. I read that Dolphy consumed honey, a food to avoid as a diabetic due to its high glucose content and rapid absorption into the bloodstream. It is more likely that he was unaware of his diabetes, but remember that even diagnosed diabetics were not informed as how to control their blood sugar levels with proper diet and exercise back then, as the research and patient education was not at the level that it is today. Even into the 1970s diabetics could have wild swings in their glucose levels, with the results including blindness, heart attack, stroke, loss of limbs due to poor circulation and gangrene from overlooked, untreated foot injuries. One of my uncles who had diabetes lost a leg because he broke a toe and couldn't feel the pain due to his foot neuropathy, he eventually developed gangrene and required an amputation. It might be a bit much to blame the German doctors for being racist. If a patient arrives unconscious and they are unaware that he is a diabetic, they may have well thought that he had possibly overdosed. I imagine European doctors dealt with their share of overdosed American jazz musicians, both whites and blacks. Medical studies have shown African-Americans have a higher genetic propensity for diabetes, regardless of their weight. I remember an African-American around my age who looked very lean and was a chef and he was distraught when he was diagnosed as diabetic, I saw his obituary a few years later. Diabetes does not prey just on grossly overweight people, it can hit people of all shapes, sizes and races.

LOL!

Willie Mays was a one of a kind. I had a baseball magazine that had a cover article stating. "Mantle Better Than Mays," which obviously wasn't true long before Mantle retired after the 1968 season. While Mantle reached greater heights in individual years, including a Triple Crown, plus taking part in many more World Series, his injuries to both legs, careless attitude toward proper rehab and penchant for striking out make it clear Mays had the superior career. I remember that PSA from childhood well, "...Those are blasting caps, now remember now, don't touch them!" I don't even have to play the video clip, it is so ingrained in my mind. I still have this card, along with the 1964, 1965, 19767 and 1969 Topps cards.

I just have the one we discussed earlier in another thread: Evidently there are four more tracks sourced from his piano rolls on this CD:

This in depth look at the various weapons, documents and other tools developed by the OSS for use by their agents and also local underground saboteurs is fascinating.

Mein Deutsch ist schwach! I finished my final German class in 1973…

I believe that the Sounds of Synanon album was properly licensed for the Japanese CD reissue. The Stones Jazz never appealed to me, as the material, for the most part, wasn’t that interesting in a jazz setting, no matter how much effort Joe Pass and arranger Bob Florence put into it.

The funniest Bobby Watson story is about the song "Ms. B.C." His wife Pamela composed it and he brought it to the band without her name on it, because he was afraid that Art wouldn't play it if he knew it was written by a female. Art liked the song and they continued to play it, with Art thinking that Bobby wrote it. He finally confessed to Art that it was Pamela's song before a gig that she would be attending. Art introduced it as Pamela's song, telling the crowd that, "She writes all of Bobby's songs."

My wife has threatened to have a yard sale selling stuff for 50 cents each. Her loss... At least I am making headway on selling off some things of little interest to me, I probably have 1500 or more unheard jazz CDs received as promos that I thought that I would get around to hearing but haven't. It is embarrassing to see how old some of them are, but it hasn't been possible to listen to music in the order acquired for decades.

Bobby Watson told me in an interview that he was trying to stay a little longer with Blakey when learned of a gig that he wasn’t told about and that’s how he learned that Blakey had kicked him out of the nest to encourage him to go out on his own.

Sounds like Curt Gowdy… During one broadcast he shared, “It’s a perfect day for a ball game, not a breath of air.” This joke has nothing to do with baseball, sorry if the two posts are nerged. ”I never dust, it might be someone I know.” Phyllis Diller

That's one of the reasons I have taken time to enter my collection into Discogs, to get a feel for the relative prices items are fetching, not the crazy auction asks. I still get a kick out of Discogs sellers asking $15-$20 or more for a release which has been widely available and sold for far less.

Could the saxophonist on the left be Patience Higgins? Ken Peplowski recorded on a Madonna album, though she wasn't present when he made his contributions. He laughed at her wretched vocals.

I am a bit surprised that the Stuff Smith Mosaic set doesn't sell for more. Mosaic had to quit offering it before their lease was up due to some contract issue. I guess he is too much of a fringe artist for jazz collectors today. Of all the high priced Mosaic Vinyl, the only one I bought was the Miles Davis Plugged Nickel when it was initially issued. I don't think the Columbia/Legacy box was out at the time. It is hard to justify paying premium prices for vinyl sets when I have the music on easier to use CDs. Maybe the next new thread idea: At what age do you plan to stop acquiring music and start selling it, if you don't have any heirs who would want it?

What puzzles me is how many people upload complete CDs that are still in print to websites like archive.org. I don’t know if we will see a massive FBI investigation of those individuals or not, but it is not worth the risk or the time to me.

The Nat King Cole definitely has an inflated price compared to its Discogs sale history. Mosaic was authorized to press 10,000 copies. The Mosaic boxed set market is like other collectables, many of them are thinly traded so if you want to sell them quickly, as when liquidating an estate, you might not even get what they have sold for on average. That said, the Maynard Ferguson has been selling for $400 to $500 and more for some time. I get the idea that Mosaic didn't come close to selling their allotment before their license deal expired. Years ago I was in Jazz Record Center in NYC and Fred Cohen had all three volumes of the Commodore Recordings priced as a set for $2400. Since then I've seen both the Cole and a single volume of the Commodore set sell for under $200 on ebay. Anytime I have anything to auction, I feel that I need to set a floor price to protect my investment. I bought a long out of print Japan-only Clark Terry LP for $1.99 plus shipping from Japan, there were no other bids. It easily should have fetched $20 or more.

I've always considered this cover low budget by a third rate artist. Both men look like post-nuclear mutants and are shown playing guitar left handed.

The founder of the label died of a sudden heart attack and the label was soon after sold to Mack Avenue Music Group. It became one of those many legacy labels that will see no more new releases. I think that most of the piano CDs are still in print, though I am not too sure about the vocal CDs.