Christiern

Until I saw this thread (and slightly derailed it), I had never heard of buffing CDs. Very interesting.

Yes, Hot P, that's what I'm talking about--even w. color, he shows his "let them eat cake" attitude towards the customer. A lot of great music, but terrible cover, liner notes, and--for too long--audio. However, it all went the right way, eventually.

And while all that was brewing, as it were, King Leopold was fleecing the Congo so that his country might one day buy that brewery. Oh, sorry--just thought a reality check might be in order here. Sometimes we lose perspective, you know.

They can all go, as far as I'm concerned. Perhaps if someone told them that microphones long ago killed the need for shouting. I hate those screamers--Chris Matthews, too, although he is a wannabe newsman rather than a sports guy.

TTK: "The guys known as Quincy Jones" -- Good to see you back, Phil K.

I never heard of "re-surfacing CDs. I do recall waiting the good part of an afternoon in Bill Russell's little N. O. record shop while he ever so meticulously de-bumped some of his red vinyl AM LPs--wouldn't let me leave without the de-bump! BTW, he used a small file and worked under an enormous lens. Discs played fine--still do.

I agree re Benny Green's notes--never understood why he used him so much. The photo of Oscar and Basie is okay, but look at the text--it veritably screams "budget" As I recall, glossy covers were not at all uncommon.

A slight aside, although decidedly Pablo related. Granz was charging more for his Pablos than others were for their albums. I thought the cover were pretty pedestrian (apart from the lack of color) and I pointed it out in an otherwise positive review. This letter was Norman's response. Reading it 31 years later, I admit that he did make some valid points, but I still think he should made the price more reasonable--especially since the packaging was so cheap looking. Blue note had good photos, Pablo did not--look at that awful Bahiana cover he gave Dizzy, and the lettering looks like it was made with a Scripto kit. BTW, Granz was equally cheap when it came to the audio quality of his early LPs. Anyway, I thought the letter was worth keeping.

A commercial birthday greeting!

Are we supposed to be impressed by your role as a necrological insider? Perhaps it's time to grow up, Valerie. Perhaps we should just either mourn or ignore the loss of another talented contributor to the music we love.

This from Doug Ramsey's site.

No details yet, but he apparently left us earlier today.

MG: "Moran and Mack were wonderful!" Which brings to mind the pioneering work of Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll. BTW, the former called the film, Check and Doublecheck "about one of the worst movies ever made." They were in it (in blackface as "Amos and Andy") along with Duke Ellington.

But, Allen, the Lomaxes are dead and gone!

You have inspired me, Allen. I am working on "Nordics in Nirvana"--you know, swinging Swedes, dangling Danes, funky Finns....

Different strokes, I guess.

Jim, it would make sense if you followed the thread and took a more logical detour, but you have, again, posted for the sake of posting--is adding to you total really that important to you? Getting back to the subject at hand--the history of comedy albums--perhaps MG should have made that recordings, because there were comedy recordings made in the very early days of the technology. I think MG had in mind stand-up (i.e. "live") comedy and that, of course wasn't happening too much (if, at all) in the 78 rpm era. Which should it be, MG?

I found the BBC to be remarkably open in the mid-Sixties when I had an office there. One night in early 1966, having just come in from New York, I turned on the TV and caught the tail end of a dramatization of Somerset Maugham's life. It was a scene in which the actor portraying him was chasing a young man around the swimming pool and it was clearly a sexual thing. There was also a scene in which Maugham's male secretary (or someone portraying him) said something like "and the silly old queen didn't even leave me a farthing." Working with shows like "Round the Horne", I already knew that Auntie BBC wasn't as prudish as, say, American broadcasters, but I was truly amazed to see Maugham--a revered author, who had recently died--treated with such irreverence. The following day, I had lunch with Sir Hugh Greene, the big boss, and I mentioned what I had seen and asked him how such disrespect could be allowed. He said that, very simply, it was a true representation, and , therefore, acceptable. I still find that amazing.

Who wrote the disappointing notes?

Ditto on "Topsy." By what criteria do recordings make this list? If trade publication "Jazz charts" are the yardstick, we are looking more at advertising bottom lines than music-generated popularity.

Sorry, I had it all wrong. The British satirical magazine that I associated with those songs was not called "Spy"--it was Private Eye. Does that ring a bell among our friends across the sea?

...and a future filled with jazz and joy!

The "dark side" is the side you can't see--or, in this case, hear. This might help...