Christiern

Love all those cassettes--thanks for the link, DC. Here's a design the missed, I bought these in Tokyo in 1984: As you can see, I stocked up on them...

Hope it all works out for the best--these things sometimes do, sez I, based on experience. Sent you a PM.

A speedy recovery is ordered, Phil. Kindly comply!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXANDER!

The old editors were replaced by rather clueless young ones and they decided to phase jazz out. Steve was a nice guy who became pop music editor, but his area was definitely not jazz. The new regime felt that music was secondary to the equipment required to play it. Actually, street (i.e. non-subscriptions) sales of the magazine always dropped when a person was on the cover, and it didn't matter how big a star that was. A piece of insignificant equipment outsold Streisand, Miles, Elvis, anyone. Stereo Review quickly became a home theatre-oriented magazine with only token music reviews. I haven't looked at it in many years, so I have no idea what these people are doing now, but they quickly drained off the publication's human qualities, which--imo, lent it a certain charm. So, to really answer your question, Jim, Steve Simels was not really interested in writing about jazz, he was just going with the flow to preserve his job.

Of course, Wynton's cassettes were reusable, his CDs were not. I mean, who needs another coaster of pocket mirror? A cassette of, say, the unlistenable Blood in the Fields, could be upgraded to the real thing--like The Liberia Suite or Black, Brown and Beige.

A friend in Stockholm sent me a great and totally unexpected Christmas gift, two volumes of a work on the history of slavery (in Swedish), a subject in which I have been immersed for the past 3 years. Gives me an opportunity to brush up on my Swedish, too. It's good to have such thoughtful friends.

Just read his bio on that website. Carniegie Hall and the Prestigue label are new to me Seriously, I will contact him directly to find out what happened to his Columbia album.

A member ought to be allowed to use his/her own portrait as an avatar without such personal critique--right, Weizy?

The 70% claim set up a red flag. I get the impression that this is a project based on ignorance. If there really is that percentage of "lost" or unissued gospel recordings, Darden must be talking about private tapes made by members of choirs or congregations--there are miles of those, I'm sure. I hope Darden responds to HBJ's request.

But these recordings are over 50 years old and it will soon be 50th anniversary of Billie's death. I think Tarabulski is being overly cautious or they simply don't want to go through the hassle that clearing this kind of material might generate. The AP guy is obviously clueless when it comes to the music and this kind of a situation.

I think I have mentioned this here before (a long time ago), but you may have the answer, SS. In October, 1970, I took over John Hammond's office for several weeks while he was vacationing in the Far East. He left me a note to tell George Braith that Columbia could not issue his new. George was obviously (and understandably) surprised and upset when I gave him the bad news--it turned out to be an album he had worked on for about a year, one on which he played all the instruments. I went to Clive Davis and suggested that it was unfair to have artists put so much work into recordings that would collect dust in the company's vault. It seemed to me that John could have made that determination at a much earlier stage and I suggested to Clive that George (and other artists) be allowed to purchase unissued (unwanted) masters at actual session/studio cost. I still think this kind of arrangement ought to be law. Clive said it sounded fair and that he would think about it, but I never heard nor looked for a follow-up. My questions are: Was this album ever released? Was George given an opportunity to purchase and take his masters elsewhere?

Is that the point at which it became Return to Whatever? As a group, they certainly lost me somewhere along the line.

Well, they don't call it "snail mail" for nothing.

I hope everyone here had a memorable Christmas this year. I had Christmas dinner at a friend's house. She had a great tree with ornaments collected through the years, and she has a view of New York that my camera could not resist (here's where one wishes one had a better camera): The tree The 42nd St. canyon The New Yorker Hotel and after dark Now let's see some of your holiday photos... I know you took some!

Thanks... All I saw was tail lights!

I must be missing something.

In my many years writing for Stereo Review, the Schwann catalog was indispensable. The magazine always made sure that reviewers has the latest issue.

Who is Liza? Good one, MG!

Y-A-W-N

It is the dawn of Christmas Eve 2007, and this is what I woke up to...

I will not give any details other than to say that I base my remark about Pomus upon a very ugly encounter I witnessed up close and personal. Don't ask, I won't tell.

Huh?

and Doc Pomus was not. Just thought I'd add to your aside.

Frankly, they could return to oblivion, for all I care.