Ken Dryden

On Sunday, September 19, I will host a celebration of Chico Hamilton's recordings as a leader. It will range from 1953 to the last decade of his life. I interviewed Chico by phone twice in his later years for Hot House articles. Oddly enough, he was one of the first musicians I met at the only NEA Jazz Masters reception to which I was invited. I spent a lot of time walking the room and for the most part, taking casual photos of the musicians, rather than trying to get them to pose. Streaming at wutc.org fro,m 3 to 5 EDT on Sunday, September 19.

I will stick with my physical product. I still have plenty of space for now, though I may start thinning out some stuff within a few years if things get too crowded. I don't know that I want to have any more shelves built in this upstairs room, though an engineer assured me the beams would hold the estimated weight of the shelves I had built, the prefabs units that hold 9000+ more CDs, plus the furniture. I found Spotify rather annoying when I was trying to make recommendations for someone who used it.

I have it but it has been awhile since I've heard it.

When I first started collecting, I would buy Schwann catalogs occasionally and marvel at the many interesting looking LPs that weren't available in New Orleans. Then Peaches opened in an old A&P in Ft. Lauderdale and I suddenly found lots of LPs that I had only seen in small type in Schwann. I paid attention to the little diamond next to an LP in Schwann, as that meant that the item was being deleted by the label, so that often made it a priority to find. It was also a fun weekend trip to journey to Atlanta from Athens to visit the Peaches on Peachtree. As I ended up working in Atlanta after finishing my graduate degree in 1977, I continued to shop there until the chain folded in the 1980s, even meeting a young Rob Gibson (who would later be involved with Lincoln Center), home on summer break from his studies at UGA. Sadly the days of well-stocked record stores are a thing of the past in most cities.

I didn't start acquiring jazz LPs until I was at Tulane, but I did a lot of reading of liner notes and explored the record store just off campus, which had a pretty good selection of in print jazz, lots of Prestige, Columbia, Blue Note, etc. I frequently experimented by buying albums by sidemen featured on records I bought, though I got into Eric Dolphy before John Coltrane and Charles Mingus, likely caused by my fascination with Zappa's "Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue." When I was in grad school at Georgia, a used LP store opened that had a lot of promos dumped by radio stations or journalists and I snapped up a number of the Milestone and Prestige twofers that way. I avoided the post-Alfred Lion Blue Note material which didn't interest me, along with most of the watered down stuff that made up CTI, with a few exceptions. I developed a strong distaste for the Fender Rhodes, which sounded wimpy compared to a grand piano, so I was in little danger of buying any Bob James. When I started broadcasting in 1987 and writing in 1988, I snapped up lots of CDs at special media prices to fill holes in my collection. Once I grew to like an artist, I tended to search out nearly everything he or she recorded, I probably have one of the more extensive collections of Jaki Byard. I've long tended to avoid greatest hits or anthologies (though I ended up writing liner notes for more than a few), preferring to buy music in its original setting, though I do seek out reissues and boxed sets with bonus tracks. Maybe I will find time to listen to it all...

I still have most of my baseball cards, though my Post and Jell-o cards are long gone. I am thinking of selling them.

I saw that game as well, Clemson’s running game was DOA but they kept it close with a stingy defense.

Not a robocall but I found a purported FBI business card on my apartment door a few months before getting married in 1980. The name on it had been scratched out and another name written in. I thought it was a prank, then I checked the Atlanta phone book and it matched. I called for the agent but he was off that Sunday. He called and explained that a fugitive had been spotted in a vehicle registered to my address. He asked if I knew him or knew who lived there before me, which I didn’t.

From the description of the venue in Laurie’s notes it sounds a lot like Center Stage in Atlanta.

My wife’s message is long gone, but the dub I made is around somewhere.

To my knowledge he never recorded a vocal on record, though I have an answering machine recording of Dave Brubeck singing a message to us. My wife's greeting was a sung message and Brubeck sang his reply. He was on the road and had forgotten the phone number of a lady who worked with him in editing his choral music, she was also a friend of ours.

Agreed, like the century old Swedish folk tune that Stan Getz was credited with composing.

I did a phone interview with Herb Ellis in the late 1980s. I don't know why he was so difficult, but after I hung up, I rewound and erased the tape without bothering to listen to it. Of course, the worst artist I ever had to deal with was Andre Previn. He delayed scheduling the interview until well past my normal press deadline and I ended up having to make a special trip downtown on a Saturday morning to do the phone interview. This was for a cover feature, yet he only wanted to allow 10-15 minutes. There were numerous restrictions about topics (I wasn't interested in talking about any of his ex-wives, while his film work wasn't really relevant to the article, since its focus was on jazz). He was impatient and I would have told my editor to scrap the assignment if I hadn't thought he would have had extreme difficulty assigning another artist at such a late date. Previn ended up getting sick and missing his gig at the Blue Note, which the feature was promoting.

Gene Bertoncini was very nice the times I have heard him in person and during phone interviews. Joe Pass was very friendly during a phone interview but he could be very impatient with soundboard operators. He lambasted a guy during a solo concert I attended when feedback happened mid-song. while another who did audio for a Las Vegas gig said he was very difficult to with.

Another huge pet peeve, releases listing "traditional" in place of songwriter credits, even when it is well established who wrote the piece. It shouldn't matter if the songwriters or lyricists are long dead, give them credit, even if expired copyrights mean no royalties are due. Irving Berlin actually outlived some of his copyrights.

I forget which country group had a founding member sue her former partners because she said she had an agreement about future royalties. That would seem odd if she was no longer contributing as a performer or songwriter of CDs made after she left. I never remember hearing how it was resolved. A bigger question, with all of the sloppy mistakes about composer credits on recordings, do the labels actually pay royalties to the correct songwriter or his/her estate? I've lost track of the number of times I've seen Bill Evans credited for Nardis or Quiet Now, though most of them are European releases that either claim expired copyrights or just don't bother with such trivial stuff...

Mary Lou Williams sang a vocal of her song "Rosa Mae" on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, which was issued on CD:

George Shearing sings "Send in the Clowns" on this solo piano album, probably my introduction to that song: Shearing also sang Willard Robison's "Guess I'll Go Back Home This Summer" to open a medley during the 1982 Carnegie Hall concert that he did with Mel Tormé and Gerry Mulligan that provided the source material for the Concord Jazz CD The Classic Concert Live (why they added live makes absolutely no sense). Unfortunately, the Robison medley, a Sam Jones song ("One For Amos") and all three Mulligan big band instrumentals were omitted from the Concord CD.

Phil Woods sang on a few albums: He sang a song or two on this Philology CD: HIs tribute to Johnny Hodges: Oscar Peterson did at least two LPs with vocals: Benny Carter sings on his "All That Jazz" on this CD set: Most people won't care for Stefano Bollani's vocal or choice of song ("Bobby Brown"): Good luck finding this vocal album..

I loved the music, but trying to figure out the discography lined up with the tracks, whether for airplay or review, was extremely difficult. I am also trying to see if I can get rid of some of the other transcription issues of these sessions without disposing of unique tracks.

They dropped the ball in the booklet layout as it is hard to match credits with tracks.

VSOP, Acrobat and a number of UK labels (particularly historical recordings, broadcasts) seem to have switched to CDRs. If you mean the Progressive label CDs issued by Jazzology, I haven't seen any CDRs, other than advance promos, so far.

One of the funniest moments was when the Braves were playing the Phillies and third basemen Mike Schmidt drifted into foul ground a little behind the bag to catch the ball, with his back to home plate. The Braves runner on third tagged and made a break for home plate and beat the surprised Schmidt's throw. It may have been the highlight of Eddie Miller's rather undistinguished career. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/milleed04.shtml Terry Forster didn't even come to bat 100 times in his 16 year big league career, but he could put the bat on the ball. I remember seeing him come to the plate twice in a Braves game and he got a hit both times, one of which was a double. Usually relievers embarass themselves when batting, though a few starting pitchers could hit. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/forstte01.shtml

I forget the brand I that I bought earlier this year, but they are branded with the insurance company's name, TruHearing. This set is rechargeable, so that's less of a pain than battery operated hearing aids, which last two weeks max, no matter how little they are used. I wear them most days, except in noisy restaurants, where nearly everything seems amplified and don't dare sit near the kitchen...

I emceed an outdoor Sun Ra concert where Michael Ray came forward to play trumpet and do the vocal chant to "The Stargazer." He suddenly put down his trumpet and began doing cartwheels on the stage. Unfortunately, it had been raining earlier in the day and he landed awkwardly after the second or third cartwheel, tearing loose his kneecap and screaming in pain. The band kept playing except for a pair of members who put down their horns to carry him backstage. I heard that he played the very next night, though his leg was immobilized.