Ken Dryden

It arrived today, but it is the Chicago USPS to blame for the slowness, not Dusty Groove. Next time I'll splurge for UPS.

I've done business with Dusty Groove off and on over the years, but Chicago and/or the USPS must have mucked things up. My order shipped June 10 and it didn't make it out of the Chicago area until arriving in Nashville 20 days later. Maybe it was lost in a back corner of a distribution center... Maybe it is too dangerous to venture out in a mail truck in Chicago these days.

It is posted as available to download on this website, though I don't know that it is worth the risk, it looks like it could be a fishing expedition for your data... https://avaxhome.unblocker.xyz/music/duke_ellington_jazz_violin_session_MDD008_2016_flac.html I checked out the French website but it is frustrating because when you convert a page to English then go to the page to join and click on English, it reverts back to the list of recordings in French. I guess they aren't wanting U.S. members...

Not long after Scarecrow Press published the George Duvivier oral history/discography Bassically Speaking in 1993, I asked James Williams about his unissued duo session with the bassist, which was evidently one of Duvivier's final recordings. Williams told me that his own playing didn't measure up and that the music would not be released. I understand that William Paterson University inherited Williams' music archives after his death in 2004 and an inquiry to see if these recordings was included in the collection was never answered. I also learned from a Concord Jazz publicist that Harold Mabern recorded a solo concert at Maybeck Recital Hall, but the music was rejected for release. I never brought it up with Mabern as I figured it might be a touchy subject, it is hard to imagine him having an off day.

Bill Mays recorded an entire CD of summer themes: https://www.discogs.com/Bill-Mays-Trio-Summer-Sketches/release/10425157

Evidently liner note writer Mark Gardner doesn't bother with checking the composer credits on a number of SteepleChase CDs for which he has written liner notes. "Old Folks," composed by Willard Robison, is only credited to the lyricist, Dedette Lee Hill, though her name is misspelled on several CDs where this song appears, either as Dedate Hill or Dedate Lee Hill: SteepleChase Jam Session Vol. 1, Vol. 9, Vol. 14 I'm trying to remember the SteepleChase CD where John Coltrane's "Locomotion" is credited to Thelonious Monk, another with liner notes by the hapless Mark Gardner. One of the biggest howlers was the Paris All-Stars Tribute to Charlie Parker on A&M, which misidentified the opening track as Dizzy Gillespie's "Birks' Works," nearly every reviewer knew that it was Charlie Parker's "Steeplechase."

If you used a credit card through PayPal, that gives you two more methods to get a refund. I haven’t gotten anything from Japan ebay but they seemed to grossly underestimate the shipping time back then.

In our part of Tennessee, most restaurants require staff to wear masks and gloves. Some are using disposable paper menus, others are immediately disinfecting them after use. Nearly all are using real flatware and plates. Most restaurants are spacing out the seating,, cutting capacity by half. I did see a Mexican restaurant packed to capacity on Cinco de Mayo. Containers for sweeteners, salt & pepper shakers and bottles have been removed from the tables, for the most part. Aside from one day when I stayed home, I've either gotten food to go or eaten in a restaurant daily since this shutdown.

Scott followed up with an email today, I got a shipping confirmation from him and later from the warehouse, I am supposed to get in on Thursday. It will likely jump ahead of much of the backlog of new music I have awaiting a first hearing.

Now Doug Ramsey has shared that Mosaic says its new Paul Desmond set is SOLD OUT. https://www.artsjournal.com/rifftides/2020/05/paul-desmond-his-canadians-the-complete-set-at-last.html That must be a record for them, this will be a definite case of "If you snooze, you lose!"

Turns out I was billed May 3, not April 30. Still wondering where it is...

I am very disappointed in the warehouse serving Mosaic's customers. Charged 4/30, no shipping notice yet... I ordered it the day it was announced. I also paid for UPS...

Charged on 4/30, no box yet and no shipping notice... Sigh...

I once received a book along with a bunch of other CDs in padded envelopes that wasn't addressed to me. It also wasn't addressed to anyone on our street or in our subdivision. But it had a delivery confirmation sticker, so the incompetent carrier could confirm that he delivered it, somewhere. I stuck it back in our box and hope it made it to its intended destination...

I remember introducing Christopher Hollyday at a local concert circa 1988 or 1989. He was a great technician, but he burned out the audience playing too much uptempo stuff, he didn't grasp how to pace a set. The pianist was a fellow teenager, Brad Mehldau. He made a bigger impession on me that night. I've heard both of Hollyday's recent comeback recordings and he merits hearing.

In my phone interview with Frank Zappa in 1989, I remember that he described the group with Flo & Eddie as "not really a great band, but we had a lot of laughs." In any case, I'll have to pick up this set.

I have a feeling that Bud Shank was forced into recording some of those turkeys shared by JSngry. I briefly owned A Spoonful Of Jazz and those rotten arrangements helped me promptly return the LP. It reminds me of Joe Pass' The Stones Jazz, not one of his best albums.

Right now I am watching the webcast of Dan Tepfer playing Bach's Goldberg Variations / Variations in hia home live. It is hosted by the American Pianists Association on Facebook and they will archive it.

I just saw my email and then ordered it immediately. Essential listening and reading!

I have a copy, but it is in my unheard stack. My desk is a mess...

I remember when we flew to St. Louis with friends to hear George Shearing and Neil Swainson at Just Jazz. When I brought out my copy of 49th Parallel for him to autograph, he quipped, "Oh, so you're the one who bought it..." Glad to hear of the reissue.

My big problem with the USPS is the way some locations are run. No matter how many people are standing in line, no one ever seems to get called from the back to help reduce the backlog. I've learned to avoid certain locations for that reason.

I used to trade broadcast recordings with George Ziskind, I think that I met him through drummer Mat Marucci.

I had the pleasure of seeing Lee Konitz live just once, leading a group with Paul Motian and Dan Tepfer at Birdland years ago. I love his music and have collected it extensively (114 CDs under his name, plus the ones he shares co-leadership with others), but never did interview him, a missed opportunity.