Ken Dryden

One noticeable problem we have had since we moved. Informed delivery says to expect mail that day and it doesn’t show up at all. I imagine that they are one or more carriers short that day and we are a low priority neighborhood in their system.

Finally someone noticed four hands...

None of those artists is featured on “Naima.” Track 11 isn’t Gil Evans.

Try for more air, not Stan Kenton. Not Charlie Mariano.

No Mancini or Nelson.

Given the volume of packages that the USPS has, I can't imagine that they do more than spot check media mail shipments, focusing on packages that look suspicious. It is stated somewhere that they reserve the right to open media mail shipments. If they are opening and inspecting padded envelopes, maybe that explains the empty one I received last year after it bounced around various locations before returning to me empty. Unless you like gambling, I do recommend insuring packages that have more value than you are willing to lose. Stateside Distributors sent a media mail package to me a few months ago and the box was soaked. Oddly enough, the only CD that was damaged was a Red Rodney SteepleChase CD that I had previously returned due to some dealer resealing a CD that had gotten wet. This CD wasn't the same one, as it obviously had factory sealing, it wasn't rewrapped. A package I returned to the same Distributor last year (in Myrtle Beach, SC) took 42 days to get there from Chattanooga.

I guess that Marty Martin didn't have enough immunity built up from previous poisonous snake bites. Bill Haast, who ran the Miami Serpentarium for decades, was bitten over a hundred times and his blood was used as antivenum for snakebite victims. He managed to live to be 100. Somewhere in my boxes of stuff I have a photo of Haast distracting a King Cobra for a paying audience as he moved into grab it from its blind side and milk it for venom. It was an interesting tourist attraction, though the concrete walls seemed too low to me at the time and encouraged sitting on them, not a good idea in case you fell into a snake pit or the crocodile pen. Sure enough, a few years later, a father and son were sitting on the wall throwing stuff at a crocodile, then the son fell it and was killed almost immediately. https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-xpm-2011-jun-21-la-me-bill-haast-20110621-story.html

I just opened the jewel box and the cd is missing…

Correct on all counts. It’s one of Art Farmer’s lesser known albums and a favorite of mine.

No Poles are playing with Art Farmer. Correct leader, composer and song.

Here is a collection of gems parodying bad musicians and vocalist, done by Paul Weston and his wife Jo Stafford.

You're getting closer, but it isn't a Jimmy Heath composition.

Track 11 isn’t Gerald Wilson. Track isn’t “Gnid” nor is it a Tadd Dameron composition.

Correct. I had never heard of this composition until David Grisman & Denny Zeitlin recorded it on their duo album. I think it was written late in Django's life.

You're know you're fat when you sit on the beach and the kids get next to you for the shade. (Dedicated to Chris Christie, the beached whale).

I used to own the LP set but sold it after finding the the 4 CD set for something like $4 to $5. The ep tracks were included in the Clifford Brown EmArcy box, weren't they?

Wikipedia editors are about as reliable as Facebook factcheckers.

I didn’t find the quote in any of the sections discussing drummers.

What a scream!

Could the quote be from Music Is My Mistress?

Sam Woodyard was the other drummer on the session.

Track 6 was correctly identified but I don’t know what happened to my response. Track 2 is from the Tom Varner CD cited. I though it provided a fun twist.

Sounds like fun. A lot of people may not realize how wide ranging Ken Peplowski’s interests are.

I agree with you Allen.

I know the feeling, at times I have downloaded blindfold tests and if I didn't care for the first few tracks, or if it started to stray outside of jazz entirely, I usually abandoned it without posting comment. We all have different tastes and in any case, not everything is going to be a five star track or it might make identification too easy. Track 5 is correctly identified. I meant to load a different track from the album, but there was a glitch on my part. The renumbering plays havoc with things at times trying to save them before sending the files to Them. Track 10 is indeed from the CD you mentioned: David Friesen with Clark Terry & Bud Shank: “I Hear A Rhapsody,” by George Fragos, Dick Gasparre & Jack Baker from …Three to Get Ready ITM Pacific 970084 David Friesen: Hemage bass, Clark Terry: trumpet, Bud Shank: alto saxophone The Hemage bass isn't everyone's cup of tea. I happen to like it, though I prefer double bass. I particularly enjoy Friesen's work with Denny Zeitlin, a collaboration that the bassist initiated. Track 12 is not from a Farmer / Golson reunion album. Track 14 is obviously not Stephane Grappelli, who is always instantly recognizable in any setting. One time I heard his distinctive violin in the closing music to a Burt Reynolds film. Sure enough, the credits roled and there was his name. Of course, your song title identification is correct. Grappelli is well represented in my library and I even caught him in concert once in circa 1981-2. Ernie Henry with Wynton Kelly. I figured that this track would be solved quickly, after JSngry started a thread on the alto saxophonist just after I submitted this BFT. I am surprised that there have been no attempts to identify some of the other performances.