Ken Dryden

I interviewed Chico Hamilton twice for Hot House, he was an engaging guest. Ironically, he was one of the first jazz masters that I met at the NEA Jazz Masters reception held in January 2006 at IAJE. If i can find a way to load the photo I took of him with Jack DeJohnette, Jimmy Heath and Louis Hayes, I'll upload it. Most of the photos I took casually rather than trying to get anyone to pose, this one was printed with my article about it in Coda.

I pretty much figured that out when I received it. Glad to see artists who enjoy hamming it up.

Morticians’ mottos: All men are cremated equal. We’re the last ones to let you down.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a well-known jazz fan with a sizeable colleciton, presuming he replaced the one he lost in a home fire.

Local county jury duty sucks here, they pay only if you are put on a panel and mileage reimbursement was only one way. Criminal cases are a special pain, as there is always one person who seems to think a case will be clear as a Perry Mason episode. The one case that still bothers me that I was empaneled on a jury for was an attempted first degree murder case. It looked pretty rock solid against the defendant, but the wiley defense attorney suckered the young prosecutor into requesting a mistrial after he ventured into a line of questioning that was evidenlty prohibited before the start of the trial. The judge reluctantly granted it, then the defendant couldn't be retried due to double jeopardy. The victim's life, health and finances were ruined by the perpertrator's actions. I wonder how attorneys who pull this kind of crap sleep at night. Federal jury duty is better, every time you have to show up, you get paid $40 plus $10 for parking. Since cases are frequently settled or postponed, the summons letter received midweek is often invalid by Friday at noon. I did a four month stretch and only had to show up twice, once to get questioned and sworn in, the other time was for an immigration fraud case, I was part of the group that was eventually dismissed. Both times I barely missed any work, so I returned to work the same morning and pocketed the money, since as a a salaried employee, I had put in far too many unpaid extra hours over the years.

I asked for the initial Mosaic catalog when they first launched, but I remember waiting awhile a year or so to order anything, though I did snap up some of the earliest issues before they went out of print. Some of the ones I bypassed like the Johnny Hodges LP only set and the Maynard Ferguson i ended up buying years later for much higher prices. I was fortunate to get an occasional comped review copy or to buy the sets at special promo prices, so I have a fairly broad collection.

I enjoyed it, though I wasn't a fan of the electric piano on one track. Found at McKay's for just $3.95. I also found these CDs for $2.95 each in the same trip where I acquired the Sonny Fortune mentioned earlier. Both have great sound, though Billie Holiday's set is interrupted twice by flyovers from the nearby air force base.

Just acquired this CD today:

A history professor told that joke for years. One female student didn’t get the joke but knew that Paul Revere was detained by the British before the night was over and she shouted out, “Dr. Esthus, did you know he didn’t go all the way?” That anecdote got a good laugh every time he shared it.

You heard as a student about Paul Revere's ride... He rode his horse to the first house and a woman appeared at the window. He shouted, "Is your husband at home?" She replied, "Yes." "Tell him the British are coming!" This happened at several more houses, until one woman answered, "No." Revere said, "Whoa!"

I always thought that this was a campy CD cover....

The issue with my buying a collection at this point in my life is that there would likely be little of interest in it to justify the asking price or bid. I've also had very limited success trying to sell LPs unless they are in top condition or somewhat rare in and in demand. That said, I sold a Concord LP of The Ray Brown Trio Featuring Gene Harris - Soular Energy for $40 on Discogs a few months ago. It shocked me how much the average price was for it on Discogs at the time I listed it.

I have actually been offered two different LP collections, one by someone's daughter and another by someone's widow. I only took what I needed, figuring there might be someone else interested in the remaining LPs. If I had taken the whole collections, the remainder would have been donated to Goodwill or dumped. Condition was varied, I get the idea that some of the LPs had been purchased used and others exposed to less than ideal conditions. But I learned never to turn down an opportunity to look at such collections, in addition to expected Dixieland and big band music, one of them had a Stuff Smith LP on 20th Century Fox.

I'll never forget his recommendation of the off-Broadway musical "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." We caught a matinee of it and we ended up with inexpensive front row tickets that we bought the day of the show. It was a scream and definitely not politically correct, full of stereotypes that were caricatured to the max.

I haven’t heard a Houston Person CD on HighNote that I wouldn’t recommend.

One thing to watch is humidity in the room where you store Mosaic booklets. I had my mine with my other music in an air conditioned basement in our first house yet mildew appeared on the booklets. In our second house I added both a dehumidifier and had a Mitsubishi air/heat unit installed, running both to control the humidity. It looks like I may have to do that once more in our current home, as the library is over the garage.

I seem to remember some jazz versions of Sindeim’s “Not While I’m Around,” from Sweeny Todd.

I am willing to set up a May or June 2022 BFT.

He has done little to encourage an end to the lockout, not to mention his poor handling of the all star game, moving it without doing basic research.

Fire the commissioner, this clown has proven he isn’t a leader.

“Do you smoke after sex?” “I don’t know, I never looked.” A real oldie… A get well card to a union official in the hospital: “The Amalgamated Skyhook Fitters, Local 32, wish you a speedy recovery, by a vote of 232 to 231.”

I was sent this CD when it was released, I agree with David Adler's review.

I don’t think he was related to them. Didn’t he come from Europe to live here in the late 1950s or so?