Ken Dryden

My mail issues have include: a padded envelope with a Discogs order returned to me torn open and empty after two plus months, ridiculous delays with orders placed or packages sent of up to 8+ weeks, a carrier who leaves packages on the edge of our steps exposed to direct sunlight and rain (an issue if we are gone for a few hours) and an inability to track missing packages state of origin from the tracking number, so I have no way to guess who sent the stolen package. Today I received a box of CDs that obviously had sat in the rain, possibly in a puddle at the bottom of the bin on an uncovered loading dock. When the carrier rang the bell she handed it to me and it was still damp and coming apart. Included was a cd I had returned because of water damage, this one was far worse.

I have uploaded the Four Queens Jazz Night From Las Vegas broadcast of Horace Tapscott to archive. org. I made a typo in the link and I am trying to fix it.

Eric Gregg was easily one of the worst umpires, particularly during the Braves-Marlins playoff game. Practically every outside pitch was called a strike, no matter how far off the plate it was. A no win situation for Braves batters. Fortunately he was not rehired after an umpire strike.

I remember when Newvelle screwed up an order and sent me LPs for a customer in Europe. In the mean time, my correct order shipped from New England went to California before eventually arriving in Tennesssee. It is almost like workers are tossing boxes in random bins.

R.I.P. to a valuable and underrated musician.

Mine were noticeable black clumps, they had to go.

Thanks for your replies. I have had some humidity issues in the room at times but the jug was kept under my desk and the blinds have been shut. I decided on my own to refrigerate the mixture, it’s a good thing we have a second kitchen in the basement, as there is no way I would be allowed to keep it in the main level refrigerator.

I've had a VPI machine since the early 1990s. I had a strange problem recently. I bought the VPI concentrate and followed the instructions, adding it to a brand new jug of distilled water. Over a period of time, mildew developed in the jug and I had to triple filter it to remove it all. I never had that problem with the original gallon of cleaning fluid, even though I had the same one for years. Has anyone else experienced this issue?

A huge pet peeve is when graphic designers use tiny fonts that blend in with the background colors. There is one prominent graphic designer who is active today and regularly commits that mistake. Another is art director who flip photographs so the musicians are looking in the direction to get the effect they want. It's ridiculous to see musicians who play bass or guitar suddenly playing left handed, Lionel Hampton with his name mirror-imaged on the front of his vibraphone, with a special award of dishonor for the person responsible for the notorious left-handed trumpet photo of the Columbia Masterpieces reissue of Miles Davis: Kind of Blue. Also deserving of being banned from the industry: Whoever designed the terrible rusted metal container for The Complete Bill Evans on Verve, along with the obvious non-CD collector who came up with the ceramic base to hold the CDs for The Complete Columbia Recordings of Charlie Christian. Both should be banned for life from designing future boxed sets.

Sadly, I had pitch all of my National Lampoons when I got married, though i kept the Encylopedia of Humor for the Ted Kennedy VW ad. That special issue was soaked by firefighters when we had an apartment fire on Super Bowl Sunday, 1985. Fortunately, the fire headed away from the living room, where my LPs were stored.

That scan sure looks familiar...I had better check my shelf!

My mail issues have include: a padded envelope with a Discogs order returned to me torn open and empty after two plus months, ridiculous delays with orders placed or packages sent of up to 8+ weeks, a carrier who leaves packages on the edge of our steps exposed to direct sunlight and rain (an issue if we are gone for a few hours) and an inability to track missing packages state of origin from the tracking number, so I have no way to guess who sent the stolen package.

I may have mentioned this previously, but tracked media mail is a crapshoot, it depends on whether the carrier pays any attention. I came home one day to a mailbox full of padded envelopes with promo CDs. But the last one was a book, not addressed to me, to anyone on our street, or even anyone in our subdivision. But it's a safe bet that the USPS marked it delivered. I stuck it back in my mailbox with the flag up and hope the carrier was more successful on his/her second try. We must have had a subsititute carrier yesterday. The mail truck was about two doors away from us when I left to meet a friend for lunch. As I left the subdivision, my video doorbell camera sounded, twice. It took me some time to make a U-turn on the twisting two lane road outside our subdivision, but I felt the need to return, as I had a package stolen out of my mailbox in March when I was gone for several hours in mid-afternoon. When I got home, there was nothing on the porch nor in the mailbox. A neighbor two doors down got the neighbors' mail (in between us), my immediate neighbor got ours. When I caught the carrier on the way back up the street, I asked him about the package, he apologized and said as soon as he put it down, he realized that it wasn't for our address. I hope the rest of his day was more organized...

Packages that come from New York to our home outside Chattanooga frequently go to Atlanta then out of the way to Nashville before heading back East. It seems like they throw packages in random bins just for fun.

It must be great to have your father's voice to hear, I wish I had taken the time to interview my father at my radio station about his life as an engineer and entrepreneur. I enjoyed Inner Spirit immensely, it was a huge improvement over the widely reissued bootleg versions, I used to own the dreadful West Wind version, which sounded like it was copied directly from the original Yellow Note 2 LP bootleg. I only heard Bill Evans once, with this trio in Atlanta, in November 1979. Once again, I didn't get to hear the encore, since the engineer ran out of tape. I didn't get to hear the encore in Atlanta, as my very sleepy fiancee had to get back to college so we had to leave. But she's enjoyed telling my jazz friends over the years that she actually got to hear him in concert. Unfortunately, this version of "Nardis" was a bit too abstract for her to enjoy in the car...

Funny!

I see about 3 to 4 groups per day whom I'd be interested in seeing, if I were to attend. I can't say I'm all that impressed with most of the vocal offerings, especially Jazzmeia Horn. It looks like McBride is targetting a younger demographic, as all of us older folks are less likely to sit in the hot sun for hours. It makes sense for the festival to survive in the long term. It would be nice to see someone like Veronica Swift included. I heard Giveton Gelin sitting in with the Bobby Watson New Horizons Quartet at Smoke during one of my 2019 trips to NYC. I expect to hear more from this trumpeter.

Thay, that's dethpicable...

If you haven't seen it, check it out, a great Looney Tune!

JSngry: John Clayton is a master and was in 2007. Still, it was a shitty the way the festival chose to dismiss Bud Shank as being too old. I can't say Norah Jones ever had any appeal for me, though she was a lot better when she appeared with Marian McPartland on Piano Jazz. Part of the issue for me is the originals Jones sang just weren't very interesting. I know, aimed at a younger audience... I know Phil Woods has a lot of detractors on this board, but I've enjoyed his work for decades and even got to see him perform live a few times. Oddly enough, the only time I saw him with his quintet, Bill Goodwin was MIA, replaced by none other than Pete Sims! Bill told me years later when I was introduced to him at the Deer Head Inn that he had a better paying gig that night! sgcim: Thanks for your kind words. I'm not sure what the "truth" is. Listening to jazz is more like being a wine connoisseur, some vintages match with one's pallette, others don't. But occasionally one can find a vineyard that produces consistent high quality over the years. That was Phil Woods for me, in my view.

I never did research who replaced Bud Shank, I can't imagine whoever they chose was an improvement. Sadly, I missed my one opportunity to see Bud perform. He was leading a group with Bill Mays at IAJE in Long Beach, but my wife was with me and it was around dinner time, so I missed it. I know better than to delay food when she's hungry. But at least I got a phone interview with Bud Shank.

A curious music fan once asked the seasoned veteran saxophone player why he chose to make his career playing jazz. The old pro lit up another cigarette. "I don't like crowds," he replied.

I was running through old emails tonight when I stumbled across this mass mailing by Phil Woods, dated 9/2/2004: Hello Jazz lovers, wherever you are! I continue to be a fly on the windshield of the jazz industry. (HA!) I presume you know that Bud Shank was fired from his post as founder and guiding light of the Bud Shank Workshop in Port Townsend, WA. He has been the 'man' there for 25 plus years, assembling one of the best teaching ensembles ever! But now they want a younger man with young ideas! Outsourcing the wrong guy folks! It only takes forever to learn this music thing and even longer to come to terms with this jazz thing. And they want a younger guy. Any damn fool can play when they are 20, or 30, or 40, 50, 60. But try cutting the mustard when you are in your late 70's! Now anyone that can do that has acquired knowledge that no younger person can ever hope to learn. The jazz existence, or any existence is not about getting somewhere it is all about the voyage. No one can ever master life, only experience it and contribute something to making the world a better place to be an artist. ARTIST is the key word. If you want to be a practical musician, great. Get some gigs and have a good life. But if you want to be a jazz musician, the requirements are more stringent. An awareness of world culture is a good place to start! Learn something about food and wine, learn a language, read a book, paint a painting, see an O'Neill play, stare at a sunset. Write a Rondo for heaven's sake - be somebody. And no matter how long you do it you will barely touch the surface of this passion called life, the jazz life! You have to be a warrior - Bud Shank is a warrior! A tough one who has survived. What he has to teach is incalculable to measure. And they want a younger guy. How about Norah Jones to teach jazz singing? Yeah! Right! Bud and I have been doing many gigs together, Toronto festival, North Sea and others. We broached Concord records to try and secure a one shot record deal for Yoshi's in November. They said that instrumental music doesn't sell anymore! Imagine! A company founded on instrumental music, great music, decides that it doesn't sell anymore. I am mad as hell and will continue to rant and rave about these things until my last breath. Culture in America is going to hell in a hand basket. (I love that saw - don't know what it means but love it still.) Keep the song alive. Until next time stay well. And thank you for being a part of my thing! Phil Woods

How is as it? It’s still in my unheard backlog.