Ken Dryden

Bill Evans never claimed to have written “Nardis,” though he recorded it with Cannonball Adderley and made it a staple of his repertoire. It seems to have started being credited as the pianist’s composition on bootleg LPs of the seventies, sometimes as well on later legitimate releases. I’ve caught a number of liner note errors by Mark Gardner over the years, the worst being confusing John Coltrane’s “Locomotion” with being written by Thelonious Monk, who wrote an unrelated piece called “Locomotive.” I previously read Lewis Porter’s account of labels assigning Miles credit for works he didn’t write and it depends who is doing the research at the label for a release. Even Resonance has messed up on a few song titles and composer credits, as we have seen. Clark Terry was credited with writing “Wham” on one release and he confirmed to me that it was not his work.

I had the exact same problem with the first copy I received, both of the last two tracks were unplayable. But the second one worked perfectly. The matrix / runout looks identical for both copies, so maybe some of them were damaged in the packing process.

I have never streamed music through mine, only DVDs, CDs and LPs.

This receiver has always been plugged into a surge protector and we haven't had any major surges according to our Ting monitor, which runs 24/7.

I I edited the original post and didn't see a reply at the time. The unit is in use, not at a particularly high volume, then it suddenly cuts off. I was trying to see if it was in sleep mode, but not sure if it was or not. I did turn off the ECO mode.

I have been experiencing sudden power loss from my Denon receiver, the model number on the remote is AVR-S760H. Any ideas as to what might cause it? Research on line hasn't provided any help. It is well ventilated in a cool room and vacuumed for dust. All the plugs have been checked.

I am sure that few artists worry about their billing at any festival if the money's good. But there's that story about how Mel Torme was given top billing over Duke Ellington in an extended booking at a club, even though it was in Torme's contract. Duke's band played without him until the singer caved and asked that the billing be changed.

I haven't found any versions under "Charlotte Russe," but there are some: Johnny Hodges April 7, 1959 Mosaic MD7-200 Duke Ellington Trio March 2, 1961 Piano in the Foreground Columbia 87042-2 Duke Ellington January 23, 1967 (DVD) Image DVD 9551 W. E. Timmer's excellent discography Ellingtonia (Fourth Edition) was of great help. He lists another one or two, but they evidently hadn't been released anywhere when his work was published.

For speaking to some of them, I got the idea that many of them had weekday careers and traveled on the weekends. The guy who hosted the Atlanta Jazz Party had a mix of styles, but nothing later than swing. He booked Howard Alden one year and he was complaining about his lines like a moldy fig. Usually there were rotating mixes of bands with the stipulation that no song be repeated all weekend long. Ernie Carson was the exception for a few years and he grew old in a hurry, though that was my introduction to Cynthia Sayer, who played drums with him and was occasionally featured on banjo. The party always ended with a jam on "Just A Closer Walk With Thee." He had a few of the acts recorded and gathered musicians at times to record in the studio. I was invited to two of them and enjoyed it immensely, though seeing Kenny Davern go into an extended stream of obscenities about something we couldn't figure out was a bit odd. He was never invited back to join Bob Wilber again.

I was one of those who actually got into Eric Dolphy before John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and a few others. Thanks to Frank Zappa for his "Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue," which peaked my interest in checking him out. I think Last Date and Outward Bound were my first two LPs. It's like the CD stacks on the floor or middle shelves, by the time I have shifted all the new acquisitions that I've heard in alphabetical order, they seem to pile up. By the time I get to Bob Zurke, the stacks approach 300-400 typically. I may have to hire a part time library assistant to help with filing.

There used to be a number of Trad Jazz Parties and often many of the same retirees. The problem is that most of the hosts and attendees have either died or are no longer able to travel. I attended the Choo Choo Festival for several years courtesy of its founder, but hearing several different bands playing “Shake That Thing” in a single day got a bit tiresome.

Can’t say I was very impressed with it either.

Not referring to Spalding, but burying jazz masters active for decades below the first three you mentioned is a joke.

Far too many of them seem little known or outside of jazz. Put the true jazz stars at the top of the billing, not the nobodys.

I remember seeing Eliane Elias perform a set at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead around 1991 and she was very attractive without overdoing it. If I could figure a way to find and load the photo, I'd share it. As fo Connie Han, I'll likely pass.

A good sign of the composer gene is when fellow artists record a musician’s compositions on a regular basis.

He will be missed.

After several self-released titles in his teens, he was signed by Novus and issued four CDs, then vanished from recordings until a few years ago. I wonder what ever happened to Derrick Shezbie? Another young player who vanished after a few CDs was pianist Sergio Salvatore.

The reason I brought up Christopher Hollyday is that as he recorded, he focused more and more on his originals with each new CD. He seemed to run out of gas by his fourth Novus CD. I emceed a show he did around 1989 when his pianist was a young Brad Mehldau and every number was uptempo, there was no attempt to pace the set. I’ve got his recent CDs and he has matured as a player and composer. Of course, both Gerry Mulligan and Bob Brookmeyer were accomplished composers and arrangers writing for bands in their youth, but it was not like they were thrust into leading a band for a major label or a subsidiary in their late teens.

Florida Man Friday is always a great read about dumb criminals in the Sunshine State. https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2025/04/04/florida-man-brings-knife-to-gunfight-n4938600 Although I am not sure if I still have the clipping, there were a couple of them that came out when I was in high school or college. One was titled "Fido Holds Key to Nude Scene," where a couple got naked and kinky in handcuffs, only they were locked through a bookshelf. One of them dropped the key and their dog came up and swallowed it. Somehow they managed to call police, who freed the couple. The officer wouldn't identify their names, but quoted the husband as saying that he "felt like kicking the hell out of the dog." The other was a story about a Fort Lauderdale police officer who came across a couple engaged in nocturnal game of Hide the Salami in a parked car. It turned out that the man was a local judge. I always imagined the officer when he recognized who it was thought of Pigmeat Markham's famous song, which was used in Laugh-In skits featuring Sammy Davis, Jr.

I remember how so many of the young stars hyped by major labels in the late 1980s & early 1990s simply seemed to vanish after a few CDs: Christopher Hollyday, in particular. We're spoiled by those who produced a lot of memorable originals in their early years in the 1950s and 1960s. But musicians who are produced by jazz education rather than getting experience playing with a veteran leader who will let them know when their writing and playing needs work have a tougher time of it if they haven't paid their dues and honed their craft. I still remember the phone call our PD got about the awful Amani A.W. Murray debut CD from the late Duke Dubois at GRP. It was something like, "I'm not pushing this one. The kid came in and blew one take after another, Clark Terry and Roland Hanna started getting mad and we ended up having to splice it all together. I told him, 'If you're going to make it in this business, you're going to have to practice!'" Murray vanished after that embarrassing release.

She ceased operations with her label Widow's Taste, though it is possible that she is involved in getting additional tapes issued by other labels like Omnivore.

I am puzzled by so young musicians who emphasize their originals on a CD or live set when they clearly haven’t developed into clearly gifted composers with something to say. Even veteran bandleaders who are/were prolific composers have tended to include standards and established jazz works in their concerts. It is a challenge for many musicians to play eight to ten originals which hold one’s interest. Of course, there will be exceptions.

I saw Dweezil Zappa last night, his band was tight and they had a sense of the absurd. Especially the new guy, who insisted that they play "Punky's Whips." Even funnier was a cover of Lionel Richie's "Hello," with a duck call in place of the vocal.