Ken Dryden

I don't remember if I bought this set via mail order or lucked out and found it at Peaches. Very few record stores I patronized carried much in the way of European jazz releases back in the mid to late 1970s.

Not sure which jokes you attribute to these women.

I bought this 2 LP set reissue back in the late 1970s. It has been reissued by Take 5, though I suspect that may be a bootleg label. Hopefully MPS will reissue it on CD, as my LP has a scratch from a needle drop.

Squatty Roo is a piece of shit bootlegger recycling a lot of old audience recordings. I made the mistake of buying 2 or 3 of the LPs years ago, issued in cheaply produced jackets by The Old Masters, two of which had some of the last live recordings of Johnny Hodges with Duke Ellington (Duke Ellington Opens The Cave). The graphics and paper quality of Squatty Roo CDs look like the cheapskate owner printed them on his home printer. Don’t waste your money.

Out February 25, 2022 :

The problem with political jokes is that all too often, they get elected.

Judge: Have you been up before me? Prisoner: I don’t know, what time do you get up? Woman to her husband’s psychiatrist: My husband thinks he’s a refrigerator. Doctor: You shouldn’t worry, that seems harmless. Woman: But he sleeps with his mouth open and the little light keeps me awake.

I bought those MPS Ponty LPs when they were still in print in the early 1970s. I’ve enjoyed him in concert several times over several decades and he is a fun interview guest.

I've got the Brownie box and it gives no clue. It doesn't seem like the Dinah Washington stand alone album clarifies the issue, though I don't own that version.

Track 2 is from this recording: tenor sax feature: Alone Together (Arthur Schwartz/Howard Dietz) Harold Land trumpet feature: Summertime (George & Ira Gershwin/DuBose Heyward) the high note theatrics indicate its Maynard Ferguson, not Clifford Borwn or Clark Terry Vocal feature: Come Rain Or Come Shine (Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer) Dinah Washington Max Roach: drums The rest of the rhythm section is unclear, as two pianists and bassists took part. Richie Powell or Junior Mance - piano Keter Betts or George Morrow - bass Sorry, I had to listen to track 2 first...

There probably aren’t as many funny stories as Crow’s book, but the stories tend to be more detailed, as I recall. Gene Lees wrote a lot of lyrics for Roger Kellaway’s compositions, but the pianist told me that once Lees started writing books he never got another lyric.

I like all of Gene Lees’ books, though I thought he gave short shrift in his Oscar Peterson bio to the pianist’s trio recordings with Joe Pass and Niels Pedersen. I need to track down the phone interview that I did with him, though it is probably on a 10” reel, not a cassette. There probably aren’t as many funny stories as Crow’s book, but the stories tend to be more detailed, as I recall.

Artist to female model: Shall I paint you in the nude? Model: No, I insist that you wear your smock.

Found today for $1.95:

The big problem was that record stores wanted neat "one size fits all" categories for LPs and CDs. That's why you'd have to look for all of the Benny Goodman in the big band section, the Nat King Cole in the easy listening section, etc. Even in today's used stores, that happens a lot, so I have to remember to check easy listening for jazz vocal LPs/CDs. Blues/R&B and mixes of Blues & Jazz didn't fit easily into their filing systems. I miss the days when knowledgeable record store employees would make suggestions about other artists to check out if they saw me looking intently through the jazz section. That's how I met then-UGA student Rob Gibson at the Atlanta Peaches in 1978, who would go on to a career with Jazz at Lincoln Center for a time.

A writer who deserves his obscurity…what a pathetic review.

I'll take August if still available.

Theme From M*A*S*H by Johnny Mandel. Yeah, I know that the movie was first, but it was in the 1970s, too.

My cousin’s husband is a train enthusiast and he bought a duplex a few miles from their Tampa home to use the back half for his train set. It was very elaborate when we saw it a decade or more ago and he has since expanded the back apartment so he could expand his layout. I sent him a CDR that I compiled with all sorts of train-themed songs and arrangements. Several Duke Ellington tracks, Meade Lux Lewis, Villa-Lobos and even ELP, among others.

I occasionally get the question about digitizing my collection and explain that I don’t want to take the time and the hard drive or cloud space.

The New York Times can be easily bypassed.

True story: I used to go to Weight Watchers, but I quit a short time before they closed that location. It was replaced by the Gastric Bypass Institute and French doors were added. Warden to prisoner in the electric chair: "Do you have any last requests?" Prisoner: "Yeah, hold my hand." _______ A prisoner is being led from a fort for a couple of miles in a driving rainstorm over rocky ground with fallen timber. The prisoner is complaining to one of the soldiers, "You are terrible brutes marching me so far through this forest in this weather just to shoot me." The soldier replies, "What are you complaining about? We have to march back in these conditions."

I think I acquired the set and it remains on my shelf unheard, these sessions are far from my favorite Coltrane.

I am a little tired of the Oscar Peterson bashing. I’m glad that I was able to hear him perform in person twice (the first time was a solo set, my first exposure to his music) and he was a delightful interview guest when I chatted with him in 2002. I know the many jazz greats who worked with him appreciated the drive he brought to an all star concert or record date. He is well represented in my collection.