Ken Dryden

An earlier order from Dusty Groove took around a month to get to me and it sat in Chicago's miserable processing hub for most of that time. A Discogs order took 32 days to get to Tennessee from Oklahoma, with it parked in Dallas for most of the time. Incompetence at its worst...

optatio: Hope you enjoyed the program.

For the 1201 Music download The Search, the info they gave me was it was recorded in New York City circa 1971 and possibly intended for release as Freedom FLP 41063, but likely unissued. No rhythm section was identified.

I wrote blurbs for a few years for 1201 Music downloads and they were often lacking information. In one case I told them that the years they listed were wrong and I was told to not mention it in my blurb.

My November 22nd Timeless Jazz broadcast (3-5 pm ET at WUTC.org) will survey various Count Basie sidemen as leaders. The playlist can be found at this link: <iframe src="http://composer.nprstations.org/widgets/v2/playlist/index.html?ucs=52efef04e1c88f2f9b77741b&prog_id=5c54a2a4656c033d7244ecf3&dateFilter=2020-11-22&timeFilter=15%3A00" width="100%" height="500" frameborder="0" seamless></iframe> I will add a downloadable podcast at archive.org by November 23 and share it in this thread.

David, I hope you enjoy it. It was fun putting this show together and trying to get a wide range of sidemen, while focusing away from Ellington's compositions.

I don't doubt that any of these musicians who have recorded mainly contemporary or smooth jazz can play, it's just I don't have any interest in what I have heard them do so far. Fourplay stuff is unlistenable to me and I am generally not a fan of electric piano. I know that early Bob James ranged into avant-garde and that he accompanied Sarah Vaughan. As for Sandborn, I just don't like his sound and his Warner Bros. stuff bores the hell out of me. Grover Washington, Jr. was impressive when he stepped away from smooth jazz, whether playing straight ahead or classical music.

A survey of recordings by Duke Ellington sidemen, before, during or after their time with the bandleader. Ellington is not present on any of these sessions, nor are his compositions, though other sidemen are present on some of them. This broadcast is downloadable here: https://archive.org/details/timeless-jazz-11-15-2020-duke-ellingtons-sidemen Playlist link: <iframe src="http://composer.nprstations.org/widgets/v2/playlist/index.html?ucs=52efef04e1c88f2f9b77741b&prog_id=5c54a2a4656c033d7244ecf3&dateFilter=2020-11-15&timeFilter=15%3A00" width="100%" height="500" frameborder="0" seamless></iframe>

Nothing that David Sanborn has done has impressed me and I found it idiotic for a nameless liner note writer for the Legends of Jazz boxed set (DVDs/CDs) who said that Sanborn is "considered one of the greatest saxophonists," considering that he shared the program with Phil Woods, whose sound, versatility and discography considerably dwarfs Sanborn's accomplishments. As for Bob James, his output is of little interest to me. I have a couple of Pat Metheny recordings, but I would be hard-pressed to name any of his compositions that stick in my mind. I own two of the titles on that JazzTimes list. Did these readers ever listen to much besides fusion? I've never opened my 2010 CD copy of Red Clay. Jarrett's album is okay, but I can't imagine sitting through that album in one hearing.

Excellent work on the Art Farmer discography. The Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild series never included concert dates, though I found some of them online as posted by the producer. When I asked about one show that was undated, he seemed surprised that the data was available on line and it suddenly vanished.

The answer is...

Arrived today:

I guess this pseudonym was news to Roger Kellaway when this CD was released. If that wasn't bad enough, three of the five songs are misidentified. It is a safe bet that no one (the artist, the songwriters or the publishers) saw one cent in royalties from this third rate reissue.

I can do February. I hated missing doing one in June, but the income from the book indexing took priority...

The first time Bill Evans recorded “Blue In Green” as a leader on Riverside, he insisted that he composed the song and Orrin Keepnews added a co-writer credit. As far as I know, Miles never took any legal action to challenge it. Could it be that “St. James Infirmary” was of unknown origin and Irving Mills was just first to publish it, using the name Joe Primrose? I have no idea.

It's not really a big issue here. Masks are still required in businesses until November 22 here and music stores have vanished except for a large used book/music chain that occasionally has new releases. I am hesitant to travel to Atlanta, Knoxville and Nashville at this point, since I don't know the risks for those cities.

Jim, I hope you have a lot of fun doing your show. I missed doing a regular show and it's been lots of fun producing mine once more after a sixteen year gap.

That is great. Havens was always a class act.

One of my best friends from Tulane spent 30 years at San Quentin, as a staff psychiatrist. I don’t know if there was still a jazz band there during his tenure, which began around 1982-3.

If he is still living, he turns 90 this year.

Bob Havens was a regular at the Atlanta Jazz Party for many years, as he was a favorite of the host, Phil Carroll. I believe that he at least a studio session or so on the afternoon/evening after the Party that ended up being issued by Jazzology or GHB. He was a very soft spoken, humble individual, but he could swing. I'm glad that I had so many opportunities to hear him on stage.

I produced a show with a similar theme not long after Stan Getz/Kenny Barron People Time was first released. It is amazing how strong some performances are by artists with a terminal illness, such as Charlie Rouse's final CD Epistrophy, issued by Landmark.

I just finished Phil Woods' autobiograhy Life In E-Flat. There are a lot of great stories that he shared in interviews and his Phil In The Gap column for the Al Cohn Memorial Newsletter, plus additional material about his personal life that isn't as widely known. Woods discusses his own shortcomings with candor, while Ted Panken, who edited the book, wrote an excellent introduction and Brian Lynch shared his thoughts about working and talking witht he late jazz master.

Gene Harris told me that he wasn't too happy with the stuff he recorded in the early 1970s, which is why he retired to Idaho before Ray Brown eventually lured him back.