Christiern

Apropos thread nazis, All About Jazz has one who calls himself Jkelman (or something like that), If you don't agree with his politics (and, for all I know, other views), he will go after you. I have not checked in there for a long time and I won't until I hear that he has been banished.

My lava lamp service contract ran out, what should I do? Sorry for the aside, back to the tales of Hoffman.

Wow! You haven't lived until your palate has been treated to Ripple, smoothed by the release of its flavor and complexities. The bouquet is out of this world! Now, if they would only come up with a Manishewitz de-sugarizer!

Never took a liking to Thunderbird, but a week-old Ripple was just what right for a Sunday Spamburger feast with friends.

Thanks for posting that--I was just getting ready to throw out two cases of vintage Ripple.

And let us not forget Cook labs' binaural recordings, which used parallel grooves and a two-headed tone arm. As I recall, Cook placed the two microphones on the sides of a dummy head to give the channels the same separation that our ears give us. I also recall that it worked rather well.

After Riverside went belly up and Orrin started his own label, he shared offices with Audio-Fidelity--if memory serves me right. I also vaguely recall that Herman Gimbel--who worked at and helped to fund Riverside--became involved in Audio-Fidelity. Anyway, the label was definitely not as short-lived as suggested earlier in this thread.

When I came to Riverside, in 1960, all sessions were recorded in stereo and issued in that format as well as in mono. As most of you probably know, Riverside also issued several ping-pong-type albums that demonstrated the stereo effect, most notably the Sounds of Sebring discs. Bill Grauer wanted to record a stereo bullfight in Yankee Stadium and he actually had lawyers looking for a loophole that would make it possible. They did not find one.

Chiaroscuro was founded by Hank O'Neal, a great guy and truly dedicated jazz enthusiast who was a good friend of millionaire Sherman Fairchild, a man who invented an important bomb sight during WWII and later manufactured audio equipment. Fairchild owned an extraordinary town house on Manhattan's East Side. It had a Japanese garden as its core and pretty ladies seemed to pop up on every floor. The basement had a very comfortable living room area with two white, interlocked grand pianos on whose keys some of the most famous jazz fingers had danced--Sherman Fairchild also loved jazz. In front of a sofa, there was a long coffee table whose top could be pushed aside to reveal a control panel. Hit the right buttons, and a wall curtain parted to reveal a control room window and, as I recall, microphones could also be made to emerge from the floor. This was a fully equipped recording studio with an atmosphere like no other. Hank engineered many fine recordings there: Teddy Wilson, Earl Hines, people like that. I don't know what became of these recordings but--like the ones made by CIA man/jazz lover Squirrel Ashcroft--they were not made for marketing, and may well have remained unissued. BTW, Hank also worked for the CIA at one time.

Good to hear that Franz not only remains among the living but also still performs! It seems like so long ago that I produced an album under his leadership for my Chicago: The Living Legends Riverside series. Wish I could be there in other than spirit on November 4th. Please give Franz my very best.

That Hampton tour also brought this incredible all-star band to Copenhagen. I organized an all-night jam session on November 11, 1953 and most of the band--including Hamp--came to it following the Hamptons' 17th anniversary party at the Hotel Richmond. What a band that was! I'm glad that I recorded a good part of the evening's performances and I know I probably posted this label in the past, but bear with me... ...and here's a cake for both Brownies...

That is exactly what I had in mind (albeit somewhat distorted by time, as it were). Thanks for giving me clarity.

...and PATRICK, too, of course!

Even Ratliff should be embarrassed by that review. There are people who seem to spend every waking hour writing a "review" for Amazon, and it is often painfully obvious that they have neither read the book nor developed a grasp of the subject matter.

That's the weird vibrato I recall. Theramin is a good comparison, Larry. I, too, recognize, but cannot identify, the host.

Were you ever able to hear that alleged influence? Are you sure it wasn't Coltrane's much hyped "spirituality" that influenced them?

Thanks, Durium, for all that information. Christiern (Chris Albertson)

So Ratliff dismissed the "black rage" scenario and bought into the "sper spirituality" story. I sense that he and Mishra belong to the same hang-it-on-a-peg mindset.

Thanks. The catalogue number is the same, 5014, but :backsides are different: Theirs: Mine:

I checked his site and could not find any mention of this release (much less an image). It is not listed in his Durium discography and a search for the catalog number yields nothing. Can you suggest a path to what you saw?

The late Henry Pleasants found an embarrassing mistake in the first edition of my Bessie Smith biography. I gave the route followed by the funeral cortége when Bessie was buried. I found it in a contemporary newspaper and I should have checked it. Had I done so, I might not have lived to finish the book: it led straight into the Schuylkill River. I corrected that mistake in the revised edition. With so many mistakes, it would appear that Ratliff has to rewrite his Trane tome--but let's hope he moves on to something else.

Just unearthed in a catch-all drawer this single-face, 4-inch 78rpm, made of cardboard (á la Hit Of The Week). Though it is probably hard to find on today's market, and it's message may not be so unusual, you gotta love the title:

Allen's recollections re the importance of Coltrane to the rockers are the same as mine. I interviewed numerous rock groups and individuals in the late Sixties and throughout the Seventies. They occasionally brought up Miles, but not Coltrane, and I should add that they knew I came from the jazz rather than the pop media. I agree, this Trane-made-me-do-it thing is revisionism based, I guess, upon wishful thinking (or does that apply to all revisionism?).

Haven't heard Ruth Olay's voice in about 40 years, but I recall it being an unusual one. I also seem to recallan Olay album on which all the songs had something to do with coffee. Do I remember correctly?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BROWNIE! and thank you for the many interesting posts--your's are a "must read" at the Big O