patricia

Hey Jim! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! You look even better now that you're finally achieved some wisdom and maturity.

The two-record set, Leonard Feather's Encyclopedia of Jazz in the '70's. Side A Lonnie LIston Smith and the Cosmic Echos - Voodoo Woman Shelly Manne - Night and Day Horace Tapscott - The Dark Tree Side B Gato Barbieri - Tupac Amaru John Dankworth - Long John Cleo Laine - Music Toshiko Akiyoshi / Lew Tabackin Big Band - Since Perry/Yet Another Tear Side C David Amram - Waltz from "After The Fall" Nina Simone - Ain't Got No/ I Got Life Bob Thiele - I Saw Pinetop Spit Blood Groove Holmes - Green Dolphin Street Side D Buddy Rich - Space Shuttle Jazz Piano Quartet - Maiden Voyage Oliver Nelson - Dumpy Mama Blue Mitchell - Collaborations Duke Ellington - Don't You Know I Care

Yes, Wetmore plays violin on the track "Backstreet". The rest of the personel on that track are Pat Petracco on guitar, Bud Pearson on alto sax, Pepper Adams on baritone sax, Tommy Ball on trumpet, Everett Evans on bass and Paul Drummond on drums. Reading the booklet, Dick [or Richard if you like] Wetmore also played trumpet, baritone horn and bass, played an amplified violin on this date. The booklet included is GOLD!!!

Then, my mistake. About half the reference material I have has no "e", but what do I know?? However, NOTHING will dampen my joy and enthusiasm for the album.

YUP. WETMORE I typed the names exactly as they appear on the front of the album. Did you notice that I typed Philly JOE Jones, with and "e" on Jo??

I found it yesterday at my usual source. The most expensive record there is probably around thirty dollars and I've only seen one. Jazz In Transition set me back EIGHT DOLLARS with the booklet. Funny thing. The booklet looks as if it were used as a coaster at some point. There's a coffee ring on the back. Not a big deal to me. It just shows that the record was loved and listened to. Still..................

Jazz in Transition - TRANSITIONS label. Donald Byrd - Art Blakey - Horace Silver - Doug Watkins - Joe Gordon - Dave Coleman - Dick Wetmore - Herb Pomeroy - Paul Chambers - Philly Joe [sic] Jones - John Coltrane - Pepper Adams - Curtis Fuller - Jay Migliori - Tommy Ball - Sun Ra - Cecil Taylor. Cover totally ratched. First layer of the back of the cover is gone , exposing the cardboard. BUT, on reading about the label, I discovered that the back of all the covers are always blank. The booklet which came with the track list and notes on the personel and detailed writeups about all the artists and the particular track, as well as photographs IS there. Amazingly, the record itself has not one scratch on it. The sound on the record is astounding!! WOW!!!!

"1928" - Gene Austin, Paul Whiteman, Fred Waring, Helen Morgan, Irving Aaronson and his Commanders, George Olsen, The Revellers, George Wolfe Kahn, Duke Ellington, Jesse Crawford, Helen Kane, Vaughn De Leath, Leo Reisman, Whispering Jack Smith, Ireme Bordoni and Johnny Hamp. Great album. Nice trip down Memory Lane. Pristine. Love it!!

"Show Biz - from Vaude to Video. This album is difficult to describe. The cover notes, in part, read: From Caruso to Pinza, Smith and Dale to Milton Berle, Nora Bayes to Dinah Shore, Vaudeville to Movies to TV to 3D. Fifty grand and glorious years of Show Business seen through the eyes, ears and slanguage of its bible, VARIETY. This has performances by Gene Austin, Ben Bernie, Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor, Maurice Chevalier, George M. Cohan, Bing Crosby, Tommy Dorsey, Morton Downey, Jimmy Durante, Eddie Fisher, George Gershwin, Benny Goodman, Hildegarde, Helen Kane, Harry Laurder, Beatrice Lillie, Glenn Miller, Helen Morgan, Will Rogers, Kate Smith, Aophie Tucker, Rudy Vallee, Paul Whiteman etc., etc., This is an interesting album.

To get me in the right "up" mood to go, I'd like to hear "Dixieland - Chicago Style, my favourite Jazztone album, which featured Pee Wee Russell [my man], along with Max Kaminsky, Miff Mole, Joe Sullivan, Jack Lashery and with the fabulous George Wettling on drums. As I make my final exit, looking fabulous, "Soft" by Bill Doggett will be spinning on the turntable and, if I plan this properly, "Harlem Nocturne" will be the last thing I hear as I hurl over the ABYSS. But, I don't intend to die anytime soon.

Yes, Paul Haggis, a transplanted Canadian, wrote the screenplay for "Million Dollar Baby", as well as the first ten episodes of "Due South" which was, IMO, amazingly well-written.

I thought the same thing, David Cronenberg's very bold "Crash". Although Paul Haggis is indeed another Canadian, this is HIS film and has nothing to do with the earlier film, although they do have the same title. Paul Haggis first came to my attention with his creation of the extremely skillful and witty writing for the series, "Due South", shown both here in Canada and in the U.S. Every single character, no matter how small, was finely drawn and perfectly realized. His writing of the screenplay for Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" was for some the first that some had ever heard of Haggis, but his talent has been evident for twenty years. This is Haggis' directorial debut and it is amazingly good. Check out the review in last week's "The New Yorker" for a great synopsis of the plot and players, as well as a very positive piece.

It's unusual to find 45RPM records, used, which are still playable. It seems as though they were not as treasured as LPs, but I found 5 in pristine condition the other day. The EP [four tracks] titled, "Glenn Miller #3" is playing now. The tracks are: Side 1 Elmer's Tune Moonlight Cocktail Side 2 Johnson Rag Missouri Waltz I was really surprised to find one of these, especially still in it's original cover, no scratches and it even included a little triangular "centre". Of course I have the four tracks featured on several of my LPs, but I couldn't resist. The others were: Manhatton Transfer -1.- Boy From New York City- 2.- Confirmation Roy Parker Jr. - 1.- Ghostbusters - 2.- Ghostbusters [instrumental] Prince and the Revolution -1.-When Doves Cry 2.- 17 Days [don't like this] Mr. Mister - 1.-Broken Wings 2.- Uniform of Youth

I always get a tiny shiver that I'm committing some sort of felony when I buy those "Unlawful For Sale - For Promotion Only" LPs. Most of the ones I have are compilations of tracks from the fifties. When you consider that I wait for the light to change, even at 2AM, it's quite funny.

Benny Goodman - The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert. This Is Tommy Dorsey - Big Band Music - 2 record set recorded between 1933 and 1944. The set features Frank Sinatra, Bunny Berigan, Ziggy Elman, Charles Spivak and Buddy Rich and it is electrifying. Love Is A Gentle Thing - Harry Belefonte Belefonte Sings The Blues - Very interesting variation of Harry Belefonte's amazing talent. I had never heard him sing blues before and I am impressed.

I suppose the question is really how this reluctance to get married spun out of control. Most women [and men] who suddenly, just before the wedding, decide that they don't want to get married just tell the other person, tears are shed.............over. On with their lives. This woman seems to have lacked the intestinal fortitude to tell her fiance that she really didn't want to marry him. This was further complicated by the HUGE spectacular wedding that the families and friends were all invited to attend. The expense must have been gigantic. SIX HUNDRED GUESTS!! Many brides have gone through with a wedding like that, just because they are unwilling to admit that all the trouble everyone has gone to is for a wedding she really doesn't want. Where it spun out of control seems to be that she hatched an unbelievable web of lies, instead of being an honest person, who is allowed to make a mistake. Sure, she would have been embarrassed at cancelling this huge extravaganza, but nobody ever died from embarrassment. But, in her defence, I must say that had she gone through with the wedding, she wouldn't have been the first bride standing at the alter who wondered what the hell she was doing there. It's going to take YEARS for her to live this fiasco down. What a gutless idiot.

There was an article in the local paper about an apparent resurgence of interest in vinyl which mentioned the local sources. However, the interest seems to be more in obtaining the original records issued by groups only from the sixties on, like the Beatles and the Stones etc. The idea that people like us would be anxious to find old jazz prior to the sixties was totally ignored. Most of my most treasured jazz records are those which were recorded in the thirties, forties and fifties. I've found that the best sources for old, original jazz, with the exception of one vintage record outlet, are garage sales and second-hand stores. So, back to square one.

Brothers In Arms - Dire Straits Rumours - Fleetwood Mac Alive! - Chuck Mangione Children of Sanchez - Chuck Mangione

Greatest Hits - Dr Hook [i think that this group is still around.] They were very big in the '70s. Includes "On The Cover Of the Rollin' Stone". Ray Sawyer is the lead singer and wears an eyepatch and a nifty hat with a feather. A little aside. Check the record's label when you are shopping for old vinyl. This was in the cover for an earlier collection, "Pleasure and Pain". Poppa John Gordy's Ragtime Piano - Poppa John Gordy Down Yonder - Del Wood [more ragtime piano] Chameleon - Maynard Ferguson

I haven't owned a car since I was in my early twenties. It started when I simply couldn't afford to maintain a car. Luckily, I've always lived in cities with excellent transportation systems. If I am within two miles of wherever I'm going, I walk, unless the weather is really rough. When I was raising my children, they learned to use public transportation. Now, however, they both drive and gently tease me about not driving. They seem not to mind the expense of owning a car and that's fine. I must say that over the years I have been teased from time to time about not driving a car. Oddly, I keep renewing my driver's license, but have rarely had to drive anywhere. The exception is the slight annoyance of always being the designated driver, since I don't drink more than a single glass of wine when I whoop it up. I don't mind doing that, since it doesn't involve my buying a car.

My favourite LP's acquired in the last few years are, by far, my Pee Wee Russells and my Big Bands, both from the thirties and forties and more recent ones. Interestingly, some Big Bands have reassembled over the years, with new, younger personel, my particular favourite being alumni of Woody Herman's various "herds". My favourite Herman is the 40th Anniversary set recorded at Carnegie Hall in 1976. Beautiful!!

I suppose I should have posted this on the "Great Finds" thread, but I have been listening to it, so.......... The find is "Hear Them Again" and it is a collection of fifty years of music, stretching from the early forties, mostly vocals, but the bands are the unheralded "extra". Now, although the collection also includes country, it's mostly vocalists backed by great big bands and wonderful orchestras. The collection is ten pristine records, boxed, with the two original booklets, un-dogeared. TEN DOLLARS!! I am listening, as I type, to "The Unforgettable Blues" record now, which includes "Blues in the Night" by Dinah Shore, "I Cover The Waterfront" by Shaw, "Stormy Weather" by Eckstine, "Solitude" by Ellington, "St Louis Blues" by Lena Horne and "Limehouse Blues" by Gould. The rest of the collection is eclectic, but it includes Armstrong, Pearl Bailey, Jack Teagarden, Billie Holiday, Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Sinatra, movin' up to Belefonte, Eddie Fisher and all the singers and bands from the fifties. I've also been listening to three albums by Maynard Ferguson, "M.F. Horn Two", "Live At Jimmy's - M.F. 4+5" and "Chameleon" and love them. That is not to mention a couple of new-to-me Jazztones, "Wild Bill Davison" and "Pee Wee Erwin". As my apartment gets dangerously close to being condemned by the Health Department and my laundry continues to rise like bread dough, I, of course, listen to music.

MERRY MERRY!!!!!

Right now, it's late evening and to relax, I'm spinning Earl Grant's very nice collection, "It's So Good". I must mention particularly his take on "Beyond The Sea". His is the only one that I don't compare to Bobby Darin's. Gorgeous. The rest of the album is just as good. Nice orchestra with organ band. Grant's voice just pours over you, like a warm bath. Yes indeed. Nice tenor sax, great drummer and...................no personel list. Pity.

I think that a wedge of lime with just about any white fish is much more interesting than the expected lemon. I discovered lime chicken by accident, having no lemons, but luckily a couple of limes in the refridgerator. No, it didn't taste like lemon chicken. It tasted much better. Keep on using lemons for lemonade, but give limes a chance. Live a little!!!