Teasing the Korean

Excellent show, thank you for sharing! Terry Gross had Frishberg on Fresh Air several times over the years. This past week, she did a retrospective that is worth hearing. https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/2021/11/23/1058016375/fresh-air-for-nov-23-2021-remembering-schoolhouse-rock-creator-dave-frishberg?showDate=2021-11-23

That is cool!

The Mastersounds recorded "Misty," but it went unreleased (I think) until it showed up on an exotica album with overdubbed exotic percussion.

Robert Farnon - Main Street Happy Thanksgiving! Wilfred Burns - Melody in Moccasins

Robert Farnon - Portrait of a Flirt

This is the time of year when TTK blasts Happy Housewife music. It is good motivational cleaning, cooking, shopping, and baking music! Check out "Hollywood Holiday." You're welcome!

You are thinking about the right Gordon Jenkins, but the wrong Ray Charles.

I love this: One time we were riding an elevator together and the elevator operator said to Mitropoulos, “Maestro, I’m a songwriter!” Instead of saying, “I’m not interested, just be quiet and take me to my floor,” Mitropoulos said, “Oh, really? What kind of songs do you write? Do you like Cole Porter? Do you have any songs with you? You do? Then stop the elevator!” And the maestro looked through the guy’s song sheet, saying, “This is interesting. This chord here, I think it’s a C-sharp minor—you left the sharp out … and I like this harmony here… ” Mitropoulos gave the elevator man a whole crash-course Juilliard Ph.D. in music theory—and in a nice way. He always went out of his way for anybody and everybody. https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/12/19/nows-the-time-an-interview-with-david-amram/

The KPM All-Stars - Live at Jazz Cafe, London, April 2000

I don't know for sure. Lots of those guys used a contractor, but the contractor knew who and what the leader was seeking. My Dad sang with Gordon Jenkins for a long time, and he was also Gordon's contractor.

The arrangements on that album are credited to Lew Davies, whose name is on a lot of Command records. I don't know if Ray Charles had a hand in them or not. A lot of those group leaders back then had a pool of singers/players that they used, usually an A and B list, and whoever was available that day showed up for the session. My Mom did a lot of Ray Charles sessions roughly between 1959 and 1964, but other stuff too. There was a joke among New York singers and musicians at that time: If someone said they were doing a Ray Charles session, the response was, "the blind one or the deaf one?" The bass voice you are referring to may be Chuck Magruder, but I don't know for certain. I think he had been one of the Pied Pipers IIRC.

My Mom was a session singer, and she is on this version. Trombone by Urbie Green.

Duran Duran Bob DuNann Bob Denver

ABC Paramount LPs in general from the earlier years of the label are hard to find. The stereo albums tend to be very shrill. the mono albums sound better, but even those can be shrill. I found two Candido albums on ABC from that period. One is much better than the other one. I think I kept the good one and unloaded the dog. EDIT: The one I kept is Latin Fire. I also have some Kenyon Hopkins LPs on ABC Paramount. I would peg the Chewster as one who would dig Kenyon Hopkins. Am I correct?

Well, technical facility allows you to better express yourself musically, so I would say exercises can have indirect musical value.

Am a big fan of the Frishberg/Dorough/Blossom rat pack. I guess they are reunited now. RIP.

My Dad had a bunch of those Applause cassettes that he bought for very cheap just so he could play them in the car. I remember riding with him in that giant boat of an Oldsmobile, blasting "Society Red."

I knew a professional musician - a sax player - who had a successful music career through a combination of jazz gigs, wedding gigs, orchestra pits, pick-up bands, sessions, etc. At one point, he decided that most of the music he was playing was making him miserable. So he chucked it all and switched careers. He put down his axe for a long time. Eventually, he picked it up again and reconnected with the music he enjoyed playing. I asked him about his practice regimen, and he said that he never did technical exercises, and that he exclusively played music. He claimed that playing tunes and improvising provided him with the technique, and that he had no use for scales and arpeggios. I think that is an interesting approach, and if it works for you, great, but I don't think that would ever work for me. My recent playing can attest to this.

Yes, but these would have been 7.5 ips mono dubs, correct? Good enough to release, but not up to studio master tape quality.

Has anyone ever confirmed that these unreleased Coltrane masters still existed just prior to the Universal fire? I ask because MCA was pretty ruthless about trashing tapes that they acquired from other labels. I know that in the 70s, when they acquired Decca, ABC, and others, they trashed multi-tracks, session reels, and mono album masters, and retained only stereo album masters.

Thanks for sharing, and glad to know that I am not alone! If you were going to set aside an hour a day for focused and intentional practice, where do you think you would begin? I ask because while my ear is still very strong - I was born with a very good ear - my technique has faltered. My instinct is that I should initially devote the whole hour to slow, deliberate technical exercises, and then begin to dial back the technical exercises once I'm feeling more comfortable.

Trying to imagine his CTI albums and maybe even his disco album.

Given how careless MCA was with its masters, I would not be surprised if some of these Coltrane unreleased sessions were lost even before the fire. EDIT: I said ABC, but I meant MCA.

Glad to hear he did a good job on Password Plus. We have watched him on Match Game over the years, and his performances do not rise to the heights that you describe. Funny, the female contestants always chose him for the head-to-head match, I guess because spending a few minutes with Jack Jones is better than winning the bread.

Yeah, I have a few of those that I blocked from my memory...