Ken Dryden

In his autobiography, John Fogerty mentioned that he always made sure that all outtakes and unissued tracks were destroyed after an album was finalized. There is little doubt that the unsavory Saul Zaentz would have issued everything that he could find after the breakup of CCR.

Gerry Mulligan felt the same way, even about the Mosaic box which restored Dick Bock’s edits to his Pacific Jazz recordings. Artists now know that if you don’t want alternates, false starts and breakdowns issued, have them destroyed once an album has been completed and released. Though sometimes the master take selection seems a bit arbitrary and a case can be made that another take is just as good, if not superior to a master take.

I can't remember the last time I played a Joshua Redman CD, while it's been awhile for Brad Mehldau as well. Neither of them have made a major impression on me as composers, though I think that Mehldau is the more creative of the two as an improviser and arranger. My only chance to hear Brad Mehldau in person was when he was touring in Christopher Hollday's quartet circa the late 1980s.

Bill Evans claimed credit for writing "Blue In Green," as indicated in Orrin Keepnews' liner notes about his Riverside recording of it. Of course, Evans had already left Miles by the time Kind of Blue was recorded, but he came back to take part in the sessions. He probably wasn't interested in touring with Miles at that point.

I don’t know how quickly is typically restored in Glorida these days after a storm, but if you can afford it, a wired in generator gives one peace of mind. We bought one after the 2020 Easter tornado that hit our community. Some people we knew were without power for 10-12 days.

The Braves had an unusual situation in tonight’s win over the Nationals. They appealed three calls at first and all were overturned in their favor. The replays clearly showed the ump was wrong on each of them, but that is never a guarantee with the erratic judgement of those reviewing the plays in New York.

My best wishes to all for safety from the storm. I have two cousins living in Tampa, one of whom lives on a manmade island in Tampa Bay. I rode out Hurricane Donna in Coral Gables in 1960 and Cleo west of Ft. Lauderdale a few years later. It was exciting as a kid, though boredom set in awhile after the power went out. The only damage I remember from Cleo was a leaky window that ruined some American Heritage jigsaw puzzles I had on my bedroom floor and a tile coming loose from the roof. But Andrew really devastated some other relatives living in Dade County when it hit. People need to take evacuation notices seriously if they are in danger from storm surges near the coast or flooding.

Sue Mingus was not the typical “jazz widow” but an activist who fought to get her husband’s music performed, recorded, reissued and respected. She will be missed.

I love the stories of her walking past cashiers with unauthorized records of her husband’s music.

Joe Locke and David Hazeltine recorded at lest two excellent CDs for harp Nine. Locke recorded a duo CD with Kenny Barron for SteepleChase as well. I nearly forgot Kenny Barton’s excellent small group with Stefan Harris, which I saw live during visit to NYC.

If you aren’t humming at least one song after seeing a Broadway musical, there probably isn’t a potential standard in it. A lot of new musicals just haven’t featured music that interests jazz musicians. Film music is even less promising then Broadway musicals these days. Of course much of the music is too poppish and lacks a memorable melody. John Williams is one of a kind, but even his music doesn’t draw attention from jazz artists. Not that I would want to hear a cd of jazz arrangements of music from Star Wars.

Maybe more of Kaper’s music needs to explored. I remember a third Kaper song, “Theme From ‘Arrest And Trial’” being recorded by Jimmy Rowles, but that was a tv theme for a short-lived legal drama in the early 1969s.

I would add: Chick Corea & Gary Burton (numerous recordings) Gary Burton & Makoto Ozone (several recordings)

I hope the Braves realized their mistake with not re-signing Freddie Freeman early and get Dansby Swanson’s contract renewed with a big raise. Matt Olson’s power and fielding is fine but the nearly .100 difference in batting average between him and Freeman is troublesome. Of course, it was Freeman’s bonehead agents that made a demand that he did’t approve to cause the Braves to trade for Olson. A safe bet is that Ozuna, Jansen, Duvall and Morton won’t be given new contracts.

It’s a challenge keeping box sets in several different CNN places due to their variation in size. Fortunately I have different shelving options with room to expand for now.

I saw the Dead in concert in 1974 and it sounded like most of the band and the soundboard operator were stoned. Twenty minutes to tune up before the first song, vocals and guitars were distorted, keyboards couldn’t be heard, plus overly long tuneups between numbers. I enjoyed Jerry Garcia’s meetings with David Grisman but have never been a Dead head. As the seventies progressed I bought a lot more jazz and much less rock, as emerging artists like the vastly overrated Bruce Springsteen had no appeal to me.

I’ve had it since it was released thoughI had forgotten what was on it.

I’ve never heard the Gene Roddenberry lyric, he must have threatened Courage with using another composer for the show’s theme. I always though composers had the power to reject would-be lyrics. I contacted Dave Brubeck when one of his songs that already had an excellent lyric by his wife Iola had a mediocre lyric by a singer in its place on a new CD. It turns out that Brubeck’s attorney had approved ut without checking with him. Brubeck sent me a note about it and that he instructed his attorney to rejecy any new lyrics for his songs that already had some by Iola. Ellington seemed to be consistent with introducing retitled tunes with an added lyric and crediting them that way, even when played as instrumentals.

I wonder how much effort some labels and artists put into researching who actually wrote the music and lyrics to the songs recorded for a release. Whenever I've had an opportunity to write liner notes, I check all the information provided to me. But who holds the responsibity to do that for a new release and when there are errors, does that mean that the correct writers, their estates or current owners of the publishing rights don't get paid? I've lost track of how many times I have added "incorrectly attributed" to credits on Discogs, while adding the missing writers as "uncredited." The second question is when an instrumental has a lyric added after it is initially published, does the lyricist have to be credited, especially if it's an instrumental and the music has not been altered to fit the lyric? Marian McPartland generously retitled her piece "Afterglow" when Peggy Lee wrote a lyric for it, renaming it "In The Days Of Our Love." She continued to announce it with its new title even when playing it in a purely instrumental setting. But it would seem logical that many composers would not want to share royalties with a later lyricist for instrumental recordings.

Among some of his outstanding Pablo albums, in my opinion, are: Two of the Few (duo with Milt Jackson) The Oscar Peterson Jam (live concert featuring Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry & Eddie Lockjaw Davis) Oscar Peterson Et Joe Pass À La Salle Pleyel (solo sets by both artists, plus several terrific duets) Oscar Peterson & Clark Terry Oscar Peterson & Dizzy Gillespie In Russia (solo, duo & trio sets) The Silent Partner (an underrated soundtrack that evidently hasn't been reissued on CD) The Trio Frankly, I find myself listening to a lot more of Peterson's trio with Joe and Niels than the earlier one with Herb & Ray. I feel like the trio formed in the 1970s pushed each other even harder to play at the top of their game. There are a number of current musicians championed by a lot of writers whose music has no appeal to me at all, but I feel no need to start a thread questioning whether or not they are overrated. Buy and listen to what you enjoy and if your opinion is different than the next jazz fan, who cares?

Glad you enjoyed giving these tracks a hearing.

Oscar Peterson roared when I told him Niels Pedersen’s unusual response to a question about a singer new to me who appeared on his then-new CD. How did you discover her? It was a funny thing. I was sitting on the toilet and I heard her on the radio in my daughter’s bedroom.

I had a cover feature assignment on Previn for The New York City Jazz Record to promote his gig at the Blue Note. I was told at length by his manager of the topics to avoid and that I could have ten minutes, mind you, for a cover story. He finally agreed to a Saturday morning, well past my normal deadline for submitting copy. This necessitated a special trip to my station, a 36 mile round trip and I was already tense. The interview quickly went downhill as he acted like someone who didn’t want to talk at all. Afterward, I knew that I didn’t have enough quotes, so I emailed Christian McBride, who was playing with him, a handful of questions, which he answered promptly in a friendly manner. Then Previn’s rep called me to scream at me, “How dare you contact one of MY ARTISTS without going through me?” I would have responded what she could do with herself but realized it would have put the editor on the spot to create a new feature to replace it. In almost 35 years of interviewing jazz artists, this is the only time that I had to deal with complete jerks like Previn and his representative. The funny thing is that the article ran and Previn missed the gig due to illness… On the other hand, great artists like Oscar Peterson, Clark Terry, Joe Pass, Gerry Mulligan, Jaki Byard, Dave Brubeck, Marian McPartland and so many others were a joy to interview, often making me feel like I was an old friend as we laughed about funny stories that we shared. None of them acted like egomaniacs or put me off so long without committing to talk.

I think musicians who played with Oscar Peterson would be more likely to praise his playing vs. condemning it. I do find myself gravitating more to the Pablo recordings over anything else.