Ken Dryden

One of the things that drives me crazy is when two artists record together often as co-leaders, but top billing is alternated from one to the next. I tend to want all of them in one place, so I pick my favorite and file them all together under that artist. If I keep up my collecting ways, I may end up as one of those old men who leaves an estate that includes a few thousand factory sealed CDs and LPs that I never got around to hearing…

One of the things that puzzles me is that another local post office with an even higher volume of mail and walk in customers rarely has more than 1 or 2 staff manning the windows. Their building was damaged in the 2020 tornadoes, yet the USPS didn't expand the building (n empty building next door could have been acquired and demolished) or move this location to a larger property that could better accomodate its mail and customer volume. Maybe the local congressman is unaware of the issue.

Recently I purchased over $500 of LPs + CDs from a vendor whom I've dealt with for years. As fate would have it, informed delivery let me know that the packages were due to arrive on a day when I would be away for hours, meaning that they would sit in the hot sun on our porch and possibly be stolen. When informed delivery wouldn't allow me the option to have them held at the local post office, I visited it yesterday and they told me to have my mail held for two days. I was shocked when they were listed as out for delivery this morning on informed delivery, so I took a quick trip to the post office to see if they were held. The clerk was very helpful and spent 10-15 minutes tracking them down. It turns out that "out for delivery" is an automatic default in their system. But it wasn't our regular route driver, but a sub, who was unaware that there was a hold order on all of our mail. Both packages were located and given to me before he left to begin his day. Consider adding insurance to any package that is valued over $50, though you must decide whether you want to absorb the cost or pass it on. Even if you use media mail, insurance seems to speed up the delivery time to no more than 5-7 days, unlike regular media mail, which can bounce around for weeks before reaching its destination. My record is 42 days to travel two states from me. A third option for sellers would be to require a signature for large orders, so they aren't left in poor weather conditions for hours. While the failed hold order was a disappointment, I have strong praise for the staff at our local post office. They actually had three clerks at the window both times I visited and the lady who helped me treated me like I was a valuable customer. So here's a cheer for the USPS working hard to solve an issue.

If I can find someone to help me pitch correct it. I learned the problem when I exchanged some PJ shows with the late George Ziskind, he recognized the source tape ran slightly slow. Others ran slightly too long to be the correct speed, no NPR jazz broadcast show (aside live broadcasts) runs more than 59 minutes, including all credits.

Harkit is a shady bootlegger that uses audience recordings and doesn’t pay royalties. Sonny Rollins took charge and began selling downloads of their releases of his music.

Here are additional titles that I omitted: Zoot Sims et Henri Renaud: Jazz in Paris - Gitanes 440 013 037-2 Zoot Sims/ Phil Woods/Bill Crow/Mel Lewis/Willie Dennis Jazz Misison to Moscow Warner (J)/Colpix 29201 Count Basie/Zoot Sims Basie & Zoot OJC 822 Al Cohn & Zoot Sims Motoring Along Gazell 1010 Al Cohn Quintet w/Zoot Sims Al And Zoot GRP 827 Al Cohn & Zoot Sims In London Harkit 8567 Al Cohn & Zoot Sims Live at the Left Bank Label M 495716 Al Cohn & Zoot Sims Body And Soul Muse 5356 Al Cohn & Zoot Sims From A To Z RCA 47790 Al Cohn-Zoot Sims Quintet You 'n Me Verve 314 589 318-2 Jutta Hipp With Zoot Sims Blue Note RVG 3 93178 Red Mitchell/Bob Brookmeyer/Zoot Sims Happy Minors Solid/Bethlehem (J) 6072 Art Pepper/Zoot Sims Art 'N' Zoot Pablo 2310 957 Annie Ross & Zoot Sims A Gasser! Pacific Jazz 7 46854 Bobby Sherwood & His Orchestra 1942/45 Live Broadcasts With Zoot Sims Soundcraft 5013 LPs: Clark Terry/Harry Edison/Kai Winding/Urbie Green/Zoot Sims/Budd Johnson/Flip Phillips/Dick Hyman/James Moody: Colorado Jazz Party BASF 25099 Clark Terry/Zoot Sims/Coleman Hawkins/Al Grey/Ruby Braff/Bud Freeman & others: That Newport Jazz Columbia 2179 Rune Gustafsson/Zoot Sims The Sweetest Sounds Pablo Today 2313106 Bobby Hackett with Zoot Sims Strike Up The Band Flying Dutchman 829 Joe Newman/Zoot Sims Locking Horns Roulette 52009 Zoot Sims Zoot Sims' Party Choice 1006 Zoot Sims Plays 4 Altos MCA/Impulse! 29069 Zoot Sims Passion Flower Pablo 2312120 Clark Terry/Zoot Sims Mother______ Mother________ -A Jazz Symphony Pablo 2121115 Of course, these only include recordings where Zoot Sims is billed on the cover, there are numerous other recordings I own with him as a sideman.

I am holding my breath about a huge record order arriving intact tomorrow. The package came from New York to Knoxville, then Nashville before heading to greater Chattanooga. There is no logic to the USPS as they frequently send mail in the wrong direction, at least they didn’t send it to California first. A huge overhaul is needed.

No and I have it on cassette, but I think it is one I recorded at my station after some idiot messed with the variable speed knob. I haven’t digitized it as yet for that reason. Joanne Grauer was new to me when I heard that show.

Collect all of Zoot's collaborations with Al Cohn. Here's a list of the CDs I have with him as the primary artist: Zoot Sims Down Home Bethlehem 20 40072 Zoot Sims The Rare Dawn Sessions Biograph 131 Zoot Sims/Bob Brookmeyer Tonite's Music Today Black Lion 760907 Zoot Sims/Bob Brookmeyer Morning Fun Black Lion 760914 Zoot Sims Recado Bossa Nova Ubatuqui/Blue Moon 308 Zoot Sims The Complete 1944-1954 Small Group Sessions Vol. 3 1952-53 Blue Moon 1040 Zoot Sims/Al Cohn/Phil Woods Jazz Alive/A Night At The Half Note Blue Note 4 94105 Zoot Sims Getting Sentimental Candid 71006 Zoot Sims Quartet That Old Feeling Chess 807 Zoot Sims Goes To Jazzville With Dawn/Bluemoon 103 Zoot Sims In a Mellowtone Live at EJ's 103.604 Zoot Sims/Al Cohn Either Way Evidence 22007 Zoot Sims Plays Altos, Tenor and Baritone Fresh Sound 434 Zoot Sims Plays Tenor & 4 Altos Fresh Sound 447 Zoot Sims/Al Cohn Zoot Case Gazell 1021 Zoot Sims/Scott Hamilton It Had to Be You Gemini 101 Zoot Sims Zoot Suite HighNote 7170 Zoot Sims Lost Tapes Baden-Baden - June 23, 1958 Jazzhaus 101710 Sims & Cohn/Shavers & Green Jass 5 Zoot Sims Compatability Jump 12-36 Zoot Sims Only A Rose Koch 6916 Sims, Zoot In Paris Disques Vogue 68207 Sims, Zoot Somebody Loves Me LRC 8514 Zoot Sims Live in Japan 1977 Vol. 1 Marshmallow Export 125 Zoot Sims Live in Japan 1977 Vol. 2 Marshmallow Export 134 Zoot Sims Live in Yamagata Vol. 1 Marshmallow Export 143 Zoot Sims Live in Yamagata Vol. 2 Marshmallow Export 150 Zoot Sims & Kenny Drew Trio In Copenhagen Mobile Fidelity 694 Zoot Sims Quartet Zoot at Ease Mobile Fidelity 842 Zoot Sims Live at the Half Note Naked City 11 Zoot Sims Love For Sale Nagel-Heyer 102 Zoot Sims Quintet Zoot! OJC 228 Zoot Sims Quartets OJC 242 Zoot Sims And the Gershwin Brothers OJC 444 Zoots Sims/Harry Sweets Edison Just Friends OJC 499 Zoot Sims & Joe Pass Blues For Two OJC 635 Zoot Sims/Jimmy Rowles If I'm Lucky OJC 683 Zoot Sims Suddenly It's Spring OJC 742 Zoot Sims Plays Johnny Mandel Quietly There OJC 787 Zoot Sims Hawthorne Nights OJC 830 Zoot Sims The Swinger OJC 855 Zoot Sims Four The Innocent Years OJC 860 Zoot Sims Soprano Sax OJC 902 Zoot Sims I Wish I Were Twins OJC 976 Zoot Sims/Al Cohn/Tony Scott East Coast Sounds OJC 1012 Zoot Sims/Jimmy Rowles Warm Tenor Pablo 2310 831 Zoot Sims For Lady Day Pablo 2310 942 Zoot Sims On The Korner Pablo 2310 953 Zoot Sims/Eddie Lockjaw Davis The Tenor Giants Featuring Oscar Peterson Pablo 2310969$ Zoot Sims + the Joe Castro Trio Live at Falcon Lair Pablo 2310977 Zoot Sims Lover Man - On the West Coast 1954 Sinatra Society of Japan 1067 Zoot Sims/Bucky Pizzarelli Elegaic Storyville 8238 Zoot Sims Live In Philly 32 Jazz 32056 Zoot Sims & Kenny Drew Trio Flower Walts Venus 79036 Other than the Naked City CD, a crappy bootleg, most of the rest are worth acquiring.

Sadly, it wasn't. I recorded the broadcast from either the satellite download or the NPR reel sent to my station, so the show is in my vast Piano Jazz collection. I even provided a few of the shows for Paul de Barros, McPartland's biographer, in addition to some other broadcasts and out of print LPs/CDs he didn't have.

I enjoyed Gerry Mulligan’s appearance, he left his sax behind and played piano. Several shows were my introduction to artists, especially Dorothy Donegan and Nellie Lutcher.

That seems to be the case. Fantasy made the same mistake with other compilations CDs, just to save a few bucks in royalties and avoid two CD sets. One of the biggest disasters is the Jaki Byard Prestige compilation Solo/With Strings!, which intermingles tracks from the two separate LPs, ruining the listening experience, plus dropping "Hello, Young Lovers" from the Solo LP.

I have really enjoyed Marcus Printup's SteepleChase recordings in recent years. Aside from working as a sideman, Stephen Scott seems to have vanished from recording as a leader since the late 1990s. It's a mystery to me, as I enjoyed his recordings. The tendency of both Wynton and Delfeayo to write overly long suites with narration make my eyes glaze over. Narration can work sometimes in shorter pieces, but heavy doses of it makes me toss the release into the "listen to later" or "discard" piles.

I think that I've written a jazz magazine a letter twice. I took JazzTimes to task for assigning a review of Will Calhoun's Live at the Blue Note (Half Note) to someone who couldn't tell the difference between Herbie Hancock's "Dolphin Dance" (what the last track was mislabeled) and McCoy Tyner's "Passion Dance" (what the last track actually was). I was shocked when it was published verbatim. Bill Milkowski bragged about getting some JT writers with a similar shallow knowedge of the music ternminated. The other letter was a recent email to Downbeat about their choice of highlight reviews, but I doubt it will be published.

Hope all of you have a Happy Easter as well.

Your assessment is on the money. I’ve never been all that enamored with Redman or Garrett, particularly as composers. I have a lot of their early recordings and rarely play them.

He left a valuable legacy. Wouldn’t Johnny Mandel also be in that group?

I did the same. It was great being able to buy back catalog CDs at $5 each, including shipping, though I didn’t fill all of my wish list prior to Concord’s purchase of Fantasy.

I am pretty sure it was after I got started in jazz radio and journalism. Rob Gibson, later of Lincoln Center, comped our tickets. Two pieces that stand out in my memory were Pine’s version of “Giant Steps,” where he soloed on tenor first, than soprano, along with “Zaire.”

I want to say 1988 or 1989, but I can’t say with certainty.

Of course, it may be useless chatter. After my mother passed away in 2014, I found a tape reel with my father's handwriting that told his brother "This is our wedding." I had it professionally dubbed to digital, as I didn't want to risk ruining a 60 year old tape. On the other side of the tape, it was just a recording of people talking. The guy who dubbed it said people did a lot of recording of that sort of thing back in that era, the conversations meant nothing to me and I doubt that they were from the reception or anything special.

If that Courtney Pine concert you mentioned was in the Buckhead section of Atlanta, just off Peachtree, I was there, too. Cyrus Chestnut, Charnette & Cody Moffett made up Courtney Pine’s rhythm section. He died far too young.

I have never had a problem when I was on a jury about telling who was lying or which attorney was omitting evidence, sometimes which didn’t exist. My first case as a juror was a civil suit after a car wreck. The defense attorney implied that the plaintiff was speeding on a rainy night and contributed to the accident caused by the defendant, who turned left from the wrong lane in front of him. I didn’t buy it, as there was not a shred of evidence to back his claim, but the rest of the jury did and wanted to reduce the damages awarded by 40%. Because the plaintiff did such a poor job documenting injuries (he and his girlfriend refused emergency room treatment) and how much income they lost, the damages were a few hundred dollars each. I agreed to compromise at a 20% reduction simply because I didn’t think it was worth a hung jury. After the trial, I asked the defense attorney if the defendant was elderly and if the plaintiffs turned down a much bigger settlement and got a big yes to both. Some people think their case is a jackpot, only to learn that juries aren’t always generous with damage awards.

That will be a future edition to my collection as well...