Ken Dryden

I've been wearing hearing aids for a few years. though more consistently since switching from the ones requiring battery changes every two weeks, whether you used them much or not. My use bluetooth to connect to my iphone, which is a great convenience. If you'r on Medicare, your plan may cover part of the cost, though most insurance for working folks usually don't cover hearing aids for adults, just kids.

I used to have the Bluebird Fats Waller twofers and I thought that they made it to volume 4 plus a twofer of piano solos, but I don’t own them any more.

I just reviewed this CD for The New York City Jazz Record, it was published in the January issue. Great music, several works were recorded for the first time.

LOL!

Wanda Landowska was the first harpsichord player that I heard, my dad had one or more of her LPs. I got this one from his collection:

I have my track selected, let me know when to submit it.

I am finally getting around to listening to this, what a backlog!

I loved his recordings and his excellent autobiography. Somewhere I have his appearance on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz. I missed an opportunity to see him in our city with Dwike Mitchell, which I have long regretted.

I am happy to see Red Records active again, I missed this release when it was first issued.

Jaki Byard plays both piano and organ on "Music To Watch Girls Go By." Folks of my generation an older remember this song being used for a Pepsi commercial, though obviously not Byard's version!

FSU players who entered the transfer portal or declared early for the draft were wimps. I still think that UGA would have beaten them, but now we will never know what FSU would have done with a fuller squad. The transfer portal start needs to be moved to the day after the championship game and it should be limited to one use per player.

Voclaist Judy Niemack told me that Jay Clayton was in hospice care for cancer a few weeks ago. Judy also sent me a CD collaboration that she did with Jay Clayton, which was issued near the end of the year: It was likely one of Jay Clayton's last recordings.

I I own both the Billy Taylor and Ken Peplowski releases. Ken told me sold his record collection some time back.

Love his albums One Foot in the Gutter and Two Feet in the Gutter, along with his Gerry Mulligan records.

Good lucking cats, our first, Mingus, lived to be 18.

I was surprised when I brought up Richard Bock's editing of tapes with Gerry Mulligan in a 1995 interview. I recall that Mulligan was not in favor of restoring the edited portions, as Mosaic did for the boxed set of the early quartet recordings for the label. The mess that Bock made with Jim Hall's LP, particularly adding Larry Bunker's overdubbed drums for a later reissue, was a travesty, along with his discarding of the master tapes of Chico Hamilton's The Ellington Suite with Eric Dolphy, who was inspired on that session.

Lively discussion. Ellis acted from the beginning like he was forced to do the interview and it just never got off the ground. Previn was a jerk, he only wanted to give ten minutes, not enough time for the word count I needed. His publicist interrupted my dinner with an angry call about contacting his bassist for the gig, which she called “her artist,” like I violated rules by emailing him without going through her. If it hadn’t been well past the deadline for a cover story, I would have told her and Previn where they could go. The funny thing is the cover feature was completed and published, then Previn got sick and missed the gig.

One of my favorites was my second Clark Terry interview, which began at 1 am due to his having company stay later on a weeknight. But he made it worth it when I asked him how he premiered his routine of alternating between trumpet and flugelhorn during a solo, something that wasn’t included in his autobiography. I never know when a question will strike gold but even with a veteran interviewed many times over the decades, it does happen. I will have to admit that both Herb Ellis and Andre Previn were miserable experiences. I erased Ellis’ tape without playing it. Previn’s demands were ridiculous and he postponed scheduling it so long that the magazine couldn’t substitute another cover feature. But everyone else has been a joy and it helps when they are well represented in my collection. I know in advance that jazz books don’t generally make a lot of money, but that’s okay. It’s not like I am expecting a university press to publish it.

Good advice, usually I only interview artists of interest to me who are well represented in my collection, though there have been exceptions, especially for Hot House features. David Liebman posted a longer edit of my interview that initially was published in The New York City Jazz Record on his website, I was happy to send it to him. http://davidliebman.com/home/interviews/new-york-city-jazz-record-ken-dryden-2016/

It is a valid point, I am not thinking of including lesser known regional musicians or those primarily known as sidemen, unless the pleyer is an NEA Jazz Master. Here are few, though the recordings aren't all in one place to jog my memory: Toshiko Akiyoshi, Howard Alden, Geri Allen, Kenny Barron, Ruby Braff, Bob Brookmeyer, Dave Brubeck, Gary Burton, Eliane Elias, Art Farmer, Maynard Ferguson, Don Friedman, Milt Hinton, Hal Galper, Terry Gibbs, Benny Golson, Jim Hall, Chico Hamilton, Gene Harris, Jimmy Heath, Fred Hersch, Dick Hyman, Marc Johnson, Steve Kuhn, David Liebman, Susannah McCorkle, Gerry Mulligan, Marian McPartland, Joe Pass, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, Ken Peplowski, Michel Petrucciani, Sonny Rollins, Bud Shank, George Shearing, Lew Tabackin, Clark Terry, Bobby Watson, Phil Woods and Denny Zeitlin. This isn't by any means a complete list, I've even run across a few whom I had forgotten that I had interviewed. Publications are generally more specific with the artists they want to feature, but I had complete freedom for my radio show. Any feedback is welcome,

After several decades of doing interviews for radio, printed media and websites, I am considering transcribing some of my interviews for a book. The challenge is which artists to choose, as some were more talkative than others and I don't want to include only artists who have been so frequently interviewed that there may not be much new to share about them. I have them scattered on CDRs, cassettes, digital files, webcam videos and even a few that are stuck on old ten inch tape reels that I may have a hard time getting around to getting dubbed. Some are as short as twenty minutes or so, while there are others that are over an hour and a few musiicians whom I interviewed on several occasions. I am not sure how many different artists I've interviewed, as my list on etreedb is not accessible at the moment. There are some great moments, like NIels Pedersen explaining how he became aware of a singer that he used on a recent CD and Clark Terry's priceless description of how he premiered his routine of soloing while alternating between trumpet and flugelhorn. Any thoughts shared are welcome. One thing I've learned from reading other jazz books, I've got to get knowledgeable proofreaders, as typos and factual errors drive me crazy.