Ken Dryden

70-80 CDs of Duke Ellington seems so long ago, but not nearly enough at my house. A quick count shows 167 CD releases on my shelves (including 2 & 3 CD sets in jewel boxes), plus 8 boxed sets of various size ranging up to the Complete RCA box. That doesn't include the numerous LPs.

I missed this post from years ago. I remember a show around that time at Variety, but it was a duo with George Cables. They opened and closed with Cables' "Lullaby" and I was amazed at how soft Frank Morgan's sound was during this concert. I will have to see if I can find my ticket stub, but I am pretty sure that we are talking about the same show. I was told a Frank Morgan story that bugged me. After he supposedly kicked his habit and he was on Methadone, Frank Morgan was supposedly no longer using drugs. Someone I knew gave a ride to the airport after a gig, was directed by Morgan to a certain address, where the driver witnessed him score and shoot up. The worst unexplained bitching I ever experienced was during a recording session by Bob Wilber and Kenny Davern, produced by the host of the Atlanta Jazz Party, Phil Carroll. In the middle of the date, Davern started cussing up a storm as the rest of the musicians sat or stood quietly until he finally calmed down. Phil never said a word, but he never again invited Kenny Davern to play his jazz party, though Bob Wilber made several more appearances.

I just finished this book, though I felt like a few topics were either truncated in the editing or that Gerry Mulligan shared what he wanted to and moved on. I do think that Ken Poston did a great job with the editing and letting Mulligan speak for himself.

I just got through with assembling an index for Con Chapman's excellent upcoming book Kansas City Jazz: A Little Evil Will Do You Good. I believe that it is due out in March. Like his terrific Johnny Hodges biography, Kansas City Jazz is very well researched and flows well. Many lesser known names are discussed, in addition to Bennie Moten, Lester Young, Count Basie, Mary Lou Williams, Pete Johnson, Joe Turner, etc. I won an e-reader in a drawing about 10 or so years ago. I downloaded one book preview, then bought the book itself. I've never used it since and I'm not sure where the charging cord is for it. It would be great if I had a lot of reading to do on planes, but I still have lots of room for book storage for now, as HutchFan can verify.

EPB, our public utility, cut off the power unexpectedly ay 7:39 am with the outside temperature being 8 degrees. TVA, its supplier, evidently ordered rolling blackouts. At 8:10 am, they sent a text that they were doing controlled power outages for 10-15 minutes. Fortunately, we added a whole house generator in 2020, a few months after the Easter tornados hit our area and we lost power for two days (which wasn't bad at all, considering many people were out of power for 10-14 days). So the utility loss was for 30 seconds at most. It is now 9:15 and we are still getting power from our generator. So much for 10-15 minutes of an outage. Too bad if you don't own a generator and have a loved one hooked up to medical equipment...

As expected, the Braves lost Dansby Swanson, who got a huge 7 year contract with the Cubs (over $22 million a year plus a no trade clause). You have to wonder if they had made him a decent long term offer before the 2022 season that they might have kept him. I hope they don't turn to a weak-hitting defensive shortstop for 2023. A $5 million + per year better offer than the Braves. Cheapskates...

I have a Grant Green Mosaic box with X in place of the number. They were missing a booklet for their last copy and I was offered their reference copy.

Jansen’s ability to hold base runners is nonexistent. That contributed to many of his blown saves with the Braves.

This one most of you may have missed. I was lucky to get serviced by Pacific St. This is one of the first Christmas CDs that we usually play and I love Eric Doney's inclusion of Bill Evans' "My Bells." I will be working on a Christmas show this week, so thanks for reviving this thread and suggesting favorites.

I wish they could find a Dick Hyman concert that I partially acquired a few years ago. Two shows were dedicated to it but I only have most of the first broadcast. I shared it with Dick and he was very happy with it and wanted to get it from the source, but no luck so far.

I have long thought of Reservoir as a highly quality label. Dr. Feldman will be missed.

As Frank Zappa told me in a 1989 interview, “It wasn’t really a great band, but we had a lot of laughs.”

A lawyer stupid enough to take such a frivolous case deserves to get sanctioned for wasting the court’s time and the defendant’s money. A late newspaper editor told me about a clown who filed weekly frivolous lawsuits against the paper, which required the attorney to appear. Since the plaintiff filed as an indigent, he had no expenses, though the suits were always dismissed immediately. Judges need to be allowed to sentence repeat frivolous plaintiffs to 10 days in the workhouse after pulling such a stunt too often. Another cure for obviously frivolous suits is to assess expenses of a few thousand dollars to be paid jointly by the plaintiff and their attorney.

My pet peeves when shopping on line for music: Not allowing searches by record label. Adding irrelevant titles when searching for jazz, including pop singers, New Age and other stuff of no interest. Only listing 25-30 titles per page without giving the option to load more. Fixing these flaws would likely increase time spent on a website and sales.

I seem to remember when he was with the Braves he faced newbie Dodger ace Fernando Valenzuela. Not only did he beat him, but he got a hit, too. I am not holding my breath about the Braves re-signing Dansby Swanson. He should have fired his agent after this clown single-handedly blew Freddie Freeman’s return, which caused Freeman to fire him. But it is also possible that the Braves are playing cheapskate, as they should have signed him to a long term deal before now. Never underestimate the ability of ownership to alienate their fan base.

I just went to Eastwind Import and he is indeed closing his business. Remaining stock is now 75% off.

I think public submissions are accepted.

Welcome to the Organissimo board, Rob! You can discover all kinds of great music discussed by fellow members, no matter how long you've been listening. It's always fun to learn about a great recording that you missed and then track it down for your collection.

Howard Alden has been known to play a little bop, I guess some of his technique worked into a solo and pissed off the presenter. The Atlanta Jazz Party is no more and its founder is deceased.

I've done an interview or two with Howard Alden and he is a lot of fun. I caught him leading a trio in Bryant Park in NYC a decade or so ago, with guest Lew Tabackin on a few songs. He also played the Atlanta Jazz Party one year, though the founder didn't care for him, as he disliked any style after swing. His loss...

Howard Alden didn’t just play guitar for Sean Penn’s character but he taught him enough guitar that made it look like Penn was actually playing. Howard told me that Penn was still interested in guitar and was in touch about further lessons with him after shooting wrapped.

I first discovered Howard Alden with the release of the Alden-Barrett Quintet: Swing Street on Concord Jazz. It was an instant favorite and I've pursued Alden's many recordings evey since. He's a talented guitarist and banjo player with a strong discography. He wasn't active for a few years due to health issues, but he seems to be well now. In addition to the Concord Jazz CDs previously mentioned, all of his collaborations with Ken Peplowski, the late 7 string guitarist George Van Eps (who inspired him to get a custom built 7 strong for himself), Warren Vaché and others are well worth acquiring. Here is a link to a broadcast focused on his recordings that I aired in October 2022: https://archive.org/details/timeless-jazz-10-16-22-howard-alden Here are a few CDs of interest not already mentioned in this thread:

That book was a scream, I remember reading it when it was published.

I met HutchFan several years ago through this board when I mentioned doing a recent phone interview with David Liebman and possibly making a trip to Nashville to see the Dave Liebman Group live. He let me know that the band was appearing on an adjacent night just outside the Atlanta perimeter and that sounded like a less stressful trip. We met at the show any enjoyed it., most of the concert appears on the second disc of the Live Whaling City Sounds CD. We’ve hung out, gone to concerts and had a blast over the years. A great jazz guy and a true friend, his family has also been gracious for occasional overnight stays, as driving back from Atlanta after a concert late at night is much harder for me at my age.