Ken Dryden

You can't overlook this gem, the only film ever scored by Denny Zeitlin:

Just arrived today.

With calls that bad, this ump either needs to be retired. Too bad his union insulates him from the firing he deserves.

I'll take the quality of Duke Ellington over the volume of the Dead anytime. I saw them in concert in 1974 and it was an endurance test. Tuneups that lasted overly long between songs, distorted vocals, overloud bass and a miserable experience.

Here are some Four Queens set lists for Emily Remler May ?, 1984: Moanin' How Insensitive You Don't Know What Love Is Hot House > What Is This Thing Called Love? Out Of Nowhere Tenor Madness Emily Remler - Electric Guitar Cocho Arbe - Grand Piano Carson Smith - Double Bass Tom Montgomery - Drums Larry Coryell & Emily Remler November 11, 1985: The Firebird* Alone Together Satin Doll Bolero* Snowfall Larry Coryell-acoustic & electric guitar (solo*) Emily Remler-electric guitar September 19, 1988: Yesterdays (Kern-Hammerstein) Polka Dots and Moonbeams (Van Heusen-Burke) All Blues (Miles Davis) Manha de Carneval (Luiz Bonfa) D Natural Blues (Wes Montgomery) Emily Remler - guitar Carson Smith - bass John Pesci - drums

There are at least two that I have, one is her leading a trio, the other is a duet with Larry Coryell. I got so tired of hearing host Alan Grant that I frequently edited out his often tedious remarks. I think I dubbed the trio from a satellite feed.

To give you an idea Zev has a collection of raw tapes from the Penthouse in Seattle. Can you imagine how time consuming it must be to go through a treasure trove like that? Of course, he is narrowing it down to artists that he thinks will have sufficient interest. Just think about all of the NPR series (Jazz Alive!, The American Radio Jazz Festival, Jazzset,plus various short-lived live jazz series like the one recorded in St. Louis) plus jazz festivals that were broadcast, APR's Four Queens Jazz Night From Las Vegas, etc., and there is a mountain of recordings to explore. Evidently European broadcast networks are more organized in storing these vintage recordings, considering how many have been issued from Swiss Radio, WDR, Radio France, etc. What about the BBC jazz archives, does anyone know a contact there? I shared most of one of two live broadcasts by Dick Hyman with the pianist and he would love to get the full set and release them. I'm glad that I dubbed hundreds of satellite feeds while working at an NPR station as much as possible, though there were always feeds that I missed or somebody forgot to record them.

Tatum must have been frustrated dealing with noisy club audiences. Too bad he didn't live to do the international solo tour in concert halls that Norman Gran had scheduled for him. European audiences would have gone nuts over him. I get a kick out of his remarks after playing "Kerry Dance," a signature sign off piece, to "Go home."

As I recall, Ed Berger had access to Duvivier’s appointment books to confirm record dates and gigs, though in a quick look I didn’t find the relevant citation. It has been more than a few years since I read it.

Crouch was always a crashing bore who wasn’t worth my time. I remember when he bulldozed his way into a Jazz Journalist Association Awards Show (he was not a member and once threw a punch at its president), where he spoke for a few minutes then played a very forgettable drum solo. Francis Davis had a few humorous remarks about it when he took the stage, but guest host Al Lewis (Grandpa Munster) stole the show when he commented, “I remember 52nd Street in the 1940s and Big Sid Catlett, now there was a real drummer!” The audience howled at this Crouch insult.

I always have the nightmare that a sealed out of print boxed set that I have owned for a long time will have a defective or missing disc.

Agreed,

It is funny to pay for a vintage LP with some tracks released at the wrong speed. Owning it is for bragging rights, not playing.

I haven't purchased many RSD vinyl releases but they haven't blown me away. I made the mistake of buying the RSD Sonny Clark LP set from a Discogs seller a few years ago then failed to listen to it promptly. When I tore open the outer wrap, I discovered a chip on the edge of one LP, close to but not in the playing surface. Since I had waited so long, there was no way to exchange it or get a refund, even though it was obviously damaged prior to being shipped from the factory, as there was no loose chip nor was there damage to the sleeve. The pressings haven't always been quiet which is troubling given the higher price of RSD vinyl. Give me a CD any day...

After running across an old obituary for one of my Tulane history professors, I recalled a joke he shared in class. Years earlier, he had a young co-ed, Miss Minor, in a class, where he shared a joke about Paul Revere's famous ride. Dr. Esthus said, "You are aware of Paul Revere's famous ride. He rode up to the first house and shouted the alarm. A light appeared as a woman came to the window. 'Is your husband at home?' 'Yes!' 'Tell him the British are coming.' He went to the next home and a woman appeared and he asked, 'Is your husband at home?' 'Yes!' 'Tell him the British are coming.' He rode to the next home and a woman appeared and he asked, 'Is your husband at home?' 'No.' 'Whoa!'" At that point, the co-ed, Miss Minor, wanted to share her knowledge that Revere was arrested by the British before completing his ride and she shouted out, "Dr. Esthus, do you know that he didn't go all the way?" It always got a roar, even if some of his other jokes were lame and one of his monotone lectures actually put a good friend to sleep for a few minutes next to me in the front row. I still remember the 1950s sportcoats and narrow short ties he wore, like he could have been a walk on in a 1950s sitcom.

Carl was a couple of years older than me and was writing for the Miami Herald while I was still an undergraduate. Somewhere in my files I have one of his old columns, with a title something like, "A Girl, A T shirt, A Pitcher of Water and That's Entertainment?" He already had a knack for writing funny prose back in the mid-1970s. I also have the wirephoto of our local Representative J. Herbert Burke, obviously three sheets to the wind, being lead off from the nude bar parking lot. He went down to defeat that fall, no doubt in part from the publicity of his arrest.He claimed that he overheard a drug deal being discussed in another bar and was following up to get more information for the police. I still remember that photo being on his occasional newsletters that were always captioned "not printed at government expense."

I buy mostly historical books and biographies new, although there are a couple of novelists that I include, one of them a guy who grew up five doors away from me, Carl Hiaasen (Striptease, made into a movie starring Demi Moore and Burt Reynolds). I love Hiaasen’s gift for the absurd and parodies of real life people, including the pervert congressman in Striptease, inspired by the arrest of J. Herbert Burke outside of a Broward County nude bar in the mid-1970s for causing a disturbance and drunkenness, plus the thinly disguised lampoon of Geraldo Rivera as Reynaldo Phlegm in Skin Tight.

I don't buy as many books as I used to but still buy them. One of the things I found in a recent trip to a local bookstore was the first volume of the Benny Carter discography published by Scarecrow Press. I forget the price but it was a steal.

George Duvivier’s final session listed in the excellent bio/discography published by Scarecrow Press was a duo with pianist James Williams. I asked him about it and he said that his own playing wasn’t up to his standards, though Duvivier was great. I have no idea if the unissued tape is in the James Williams archives left to William Paterson University, they never responded to my query. In Ed Berger's Bassically Speaking, an oral history and discography of George Duvivier, there is no listing of a recording by the bassist with either Michel Hausser or Martial Solal, though he did make a recording in Paris in May 1956 with Bill Coleman and another with Sacha Distel.

I remember reviewing the album with Moraz and trashing it.

Pass.

When Pinder left, his replacement, Patrick Moraz, hastened the band’s decline with his mediocre contributions.

That is correct. He discussed working with Jordi in the Zoom interview I did a few weeks ago. I just got the new Downbeat and I felt the article about Zev Feldman was edited down for space too much, it deserved more.

I like the 1969 set better than the 1972. George Duke is a great musician, but he's on electric piano for the whole show, which gets old. Fender Rhodes has never been one of my favorite instruments, too often an artist's touch is compromised with the mushy sound. Isn't Ruth Price the owner of The Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles?