duaneiac

Dame Diana Rigg has passed away at age 82. A statement from her agent Simon Beresford said: “It is with tremendous sadness that we announce that Dame Diana Rigg died peacefully early this morning. “She was at home with her family who have asked for privacy at this difficult time. Dame Diana was an icon of theatre, film, and television. “She was the recipient of Bafta, Emmy, Tony and Evening Standard awards for her work on stage and screen. He added: “Dame Diana was a much loved and admired member of her profession, a force of nature who loved her work and her fellow actors. She will be greatly missed.” https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/dame-diana-rigg-dies-aged-82-133335450.html

The lineup has been announced for this year’s “virtual” Monterey Jazz Festival. The three-day music event runs 5-7 p.m. Sept. 25-27 on the festival’s YouTube site,, and features a mix of archival footage and new performances. Friday, September 25, 2020 Herbie Hancock Dianne Reeves Roy Hargrove & RH Factor Terri Lyne Carrington – Mosaic Project Christian McBride & Inside Straight Jamie Cullum 2020 Monterey Jazz Festival Artist-in-Residence, Christian Sands 2020 Next Generation Jazz Orchestra Directed by Gerald Clayton Saturday, September 26, 2020 Diana Krall Tribute to Dave Brubeck – Cannery Row Suite featuring Kurt Elling & Roberta Gambarini Kenny Barron Trio Regina Carter Our Native Daughters-Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, Allison Russell Clint Eastwood in Conversation, hosted by Tim Jackson Berklee Institute of Jazz & Gender Justice Quintet -Founder & Director-Terri Lyne Carrington 2020 Next Generation Women in Jazz Combo Directed by Katie Thiroux 2020 Next Generation Jazz Orchestra Directed by Gerald Clayton Sunday, September 27, 2020 Tribute to Quincy Jones, “The A&M Years”, featuring Hubert Laws and Valerie Simpson Sonny Rollins Tribute featuring Jimmy Heath, Joe Lovano, Branford Marsalis and Joshua Redman Anat Cohen Tentet 2012 MJF on Tour with Musical Director Christian McBride and Dee Dee Bridgewater on vocals 2018 MJF On Tour with Musical Director Christian Sands and Cécile McLorin Salvant on vocals Gerald Clayton Quartet Angela Davis in conversation with Terri Lyne Carrington 2020 Next Generation Jazz Orchestra Directed by Gerald Clayton More information here.

Disc 2 of 5

Perhaps it should be noted that Ernie Broglio, the star Cards pitcher traded to the Cubs for Brock (in what is now considered one of the most lopsided deals in baseball history) passed away here in San Jose last year. “You live with it,” Broglio said in 2016. “You go along with it. I mean, here you are 50-some years later after the trade and we’re talking. And I’m thinking, ‘What trade is going to be remembered for 50-something years? “I told Lou Brock, ‘I better go before you, because you’re in the Hall of Fame and well-remembered.’ I’m only remembered for the trade.”

Growing up as a Cardinals fan in the 1970's, Lou Brock was one of the few reasons to cheer on some pretty unmemorable teams. https://sports.yahoo.com/st-louis-cardinals-hall-of-famer-lou-brock-dies-232302830.html

This album cover always reminds me of Grandfather Clock --

You won't be disappointed! Listening to it led to listening to this classic album next:

If you are a Johnny Lytle fan, or a jazz vibraphone fan, you need to find this long OOP Muse CD. This music is just as tasty as the front cover photo suggests and features some of Johnny Lytle's finest playing, and that is saying a lot. Johnny Lytle and Houston Person were an excellent match. I would have loved to have heard a duo album by them. There is a wonderful version of "September Song", but the highest highlights here are the 3 original songs by Mr. Lytle: the title track, "Adoration" and the achingly beautiful and melancholy sweet soul ballad, "Should I Love You?". That last song is marvelous. Had it come along 30 years earlier, I'm sure Mr. Lytle would have had another hit on his hands. It's a tune musicians of any instrument should check out when looking for new material to play. I'd love to hear an organ trio version of it.

Jule Styne, Not exactly a name one thinks of in the company of GAS creators such as Gershwin, Porter, Kern or Berlin, but the man had quite the career. He was something of a piano prodigy and had performed with the Chicago, St. Louis and Detroit Symphonies by the time he was ten years old. He was 21 when his first hit song came in 1926 with "Sunday" -- yeah, that "Sunday" which became something of a jazz standard. And I suppose to complete the weekend, he later wrote "Saturday Night (Is The Lonelieset Night of The Week)". He went on to write a number of songs for movies (such as "I Don't Want To Walk Without You", "I Fall In Love Too Easily", "Time After Time" and "Three Coins In The Fountain") and a series of hit Broadway shows (including Bells Are Ringing, Gypsy and Funny Girl). The man's work speaks for itself, but he still hasn't seemed to get the "songbook" treatment from very many singers the way Gershwin, Porter, Kern, etc. do, which make this Maxine Sullivan album (one of her last) most welcome. The one song on this collection which always knocks me out is one I'd never heard of before. Sometimes, it's not just a matter of pairing the right material with the right singer. Matching the right material to the right singer at the right time can make all the difference in a song. Had this song been available for Ms. Sullivan to sing during her first round of musical stardom back in the 1930's, it would have seemed like yet another song about the end of a romance or love affair. Sung by a woman of maturity, it suggests a far deeper loss. Beautiful trumpet solo by Glenn Zottola. Lyrics by Carolyn Leigh.

The Pluto TV streaming service now has a 24 hour-a-day Johnny Carson channel showing old Tonight Show episodes. I'm not the first to say if, but I sure miss Johnny Carson. It's good to be reminded of how good he was and just how bad the monologue jokes often were (and Billy Carter and Dan Quayle jokes have not gotten better with age), but watching him bomb was half the fun. The episodes have been edited to remove the musical performances., unfortunately. I saw episodes with B. B. King and Glen Campbell and each time, after the musician was introduced by Johnny, they just cut to when the performer walks over to the desk after their now deleted song, so that sucks. They fared better than Thelma Houston did; she was mentioned by Johnny as being among the guests on one episode and then she was edited out altogether. Still there are some very funny moments especially when he has favorite guests like Buddy Hackett, Charles Grodin, Rodney Dangerfield and Don Rickles.

I wish more of the tracks on these albums had this level of energy -- Whew! Miss Peggy Lee and the usual gang of Capitol studio guys tear through this song in just 1:45 and kick all kinds of butt on the way! And how much ya wanna bet that was no more than the second take, at most, for those guys?

This CD is kinda the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup of jazz -- two great sounds that sound great together! It's a shame that these great musicians never got together in the studio to record a formal album together. In his liner notes, Irving Townsend has a beautiful and accurate description of Paul Desmond's playing on "Greensleeves" -- "each note cotton wrapped". That put a on my face.

And it all comes down to this . . . Event 16: The Marathon A thrilling event which brings to an end an exciting season This race was a bit of a roller coaster ride for me as a Crazy Cat's Eyes fan. If you watch it and see Red Eye's crazy antics, you'll know why. At this point, I think not only should Red Eye loose his position as team captain, I'm not even sure he should be a member of next year's team. He's simply underperformed too often this season. I hear good things about Pink Eye and hope she might be considered for a spot on next year's team (although I fear she faces some discriminatory hurdles just because of her name). Still, a decent season for CCE, finishing with 4 medals -- 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze. That is something to build upon next year as CCE HOSTS THE 2021 MARBLE LEAGUE!

Event 15: Collision If you enjoy the drama and fast-paced action of a 3 AM pub brawl, then this is the event for you! Survival is the name of the game here and after this event there will be only three teams left with a shot at winning all the, um . . . well, you know, in Marble League 2020. As for the Crazy Cat's Eyes, as announcer Greg Woods says, "they are the best-placed team that cannot win" the Marble League (or as I heard him say, "they are the best"). Only one more event to go . . .

Y'know another advantage of CDs over digital files? While listening to this disc, I opened up the liner notes booklet only to find the ticket stub from the first time I saw the Gene Harris Quartet -- Feb. 17, 1996 at Ohlone College. So in addition to enjoying the fun music on this CD, I also got to re-enjoy a few memories of that concert.

Event 14: Team Aquathlon This team event is part track race, part swim meet. As far as my team goes, well, cats plus water -- you do the math. But the O'Rangers vs. Oceanics match-up in this event was certainly a highlight of the season.

It just seems like a squandering of their resources. Yes, the bulk of their sales will come from Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, etc. on the blues side Still, somewhere around 1996 or so, some ambitious corporate marketing VP should have pondered, "Hey! EMI/Capitol/Blue Note is making money by reissuing their Kenny Burrell and Lou Donaldson albums on CD. Fantasy/Prestige is making money by reissuing their Jack McDuff, Shirley Scott and Sonny Stitt albums on CD. We own the rights to albums by all of those people and more. Why don't we get a slice of that market?" They already owned the material, and there was already a proven market for such material. All they had to do was the bare minimum of mastering and packaging and putting it out there. Maybe a James Moody CD reissue won't sell as much as an Etta James CD reissue year after year (back when CDs sold), but it will sell and it will make the rights holder a little bit of money. What's the downside of that? That there are so many different versions and repackagings of the Ahmad Jamal material on various EU labels should prove that there is and was a large enough market waiting for this music to come out on CD.

So it looks like every one who spent time at Argo/Cadet will have a "black hole" in their careers when it comes to their CD discography. That's a shame, but it is also still puzzling. Even if as bresna suggests there was a problem with a lack of original masters, it was not uncommon for record labels to reissue a CD from the best available vinyl source. Why would a major record label sleep on reissuing classic albums by so many legendary musicians? Other labels were reissuing their old Jack McDuff, Lou Donaldson, James Moody and Kenny Burrell albums on CD and finding a market for them. Why couldn't the owners of Argo/Cadet even be bothered to try? Yes, I was thinking I have seen several Muse LPs in used record stores that have never made it to CD. I just could not think of a specific artist who has been particularly poorly served when it came to CD reissues.

So I've been listening to a lot of vintage Ahmad Jamal music the past couple of days (as Maxwell Smart used to say, "and loving it!"). Unfortunately I've had to do so via one of those 8 albums on 4 CDs grey market sets that we are not supposed to discuss here. The question is, what were my other options? That these albums have not been made commercially available on CD via a legitimate domestic reissue is not only frustrating it is also almost criminally negligent on the part of the copyright holder to intentionally withhold from the American public access in some form or another to these items and performances of significant musical, artistic and cultural value. I guess these albums were included in the Mosaic set, but if like me, one could not afford that set when it was available, is that just the end of the story as far as the rights holder was concerned? (I don't even know which conglomerate owns the Chess/Cadet/Argo catalog now.) They didn't want anybody else's money? I mean, At The Pershing, Volume Two is simply a terrific album and should be just as readily available as Everybody Digs Bill Evans or Money Jungle. But how if the rights owner has no interest in reissuing it or any of these other great albums? That I am nearly 60 years old and it's the first time I'm hearing At The Pershing, Volume Two in its entirety is very, very wrong. All of these Ahmad Jamal Argo albums should have been just as eagerly reissued on CD as Oscar Peterson's Verve albums were. Verve & Pablo (and their subsequent owners) made a vast array of OP's original albums -- good, bad or indifferent (and yes, I can hear you OP deniers saying, "how can you tell the difference?") -- available on CD. Ahmad Jamal's music deserves that same degree of attention and respect. I would gladly welcome a legitimate, well-done, remastered CD version of each of these albums. Instead I end up buying this beautiful music from some shoddy public domain EU label. It seems like the era of CD reissue programs at the major labels has pretty much ended, so it is unlikely we will see a legitimate domestic CD reissue of these not insignificant albums. I certainly wish some of these could be reissued on CD while Mr. Jamal is still around to pass along his thoughts & recollections about the recordings. So I guess I have a couple of questions. 1) Why were Ahmad Jamal, Ramsey Lewis and Ray Bryant so woefully represented on CD by whoever owned Chess/Cadet/Argo back in the 1990's - early 2000's? 2) What other artists can you think of who have had significant portions of their recorded works not get reissued officially on CD? A minor example: I don't think either of Junior Mance's two Capitol LPs were domestically reissued on CD. Not essential stuff, but they would be fun to have. A broader example would be those many 2 LP sets that came out in the late 1970's and 1980's of The Complete RCA Bluebird Recordings of . . . I think there was a big multi-disc Complete RCA Bluebird boxed set for Glenn Miller issued on CD, but the label never pursued anything approaching a complete reissue program for such musicians as Bunny Berigan, Charlie Barnet or Benny Goodman.

Or we could just vote for polar icing!