Dan Gould

So now we have September filled, may I have January 2018?

It's the state of the game in 2017, and I try to adjust my expectations accordingly. Just looking at the number of posts on discussion threads your test is probably in, as Costanza might say, "the meaty part of the curve, not showing off, not falling behind."

I know its quick since the last one but if no one has September, my list runneth over with future BFT tunes. Might even manage a "no artist repeats" test.

Man I love the version of "Can't Buy Me Love". Not enough stars to award.

Of course. How could I have forgotten those two CDs? Oh well the vinyl is nice and now I have all 8 tracks.

I said this only slightly in jest but holy fuck, it went back to Miami.

Thanks Paul, I actually saw that listing on AMG but the cover didn't match the CD reissue series "style" and I figured it was an LP reissue not CD with additional tracks. Looking thru my binders I don't see it so, goodie for me, it seems new!

Stumbled across this LP, recorded 1957 with Hank Jones, Kenny Burrell, Earle Warren, Vic Dickenson. Already bought it - very cheap and in excellent shape, too - but I am wondering if anyone is aware if these tracks were issued on that Vanguard reissue series which was so confusing and haphazard with a few tracks from different releases combined into single CDs. I'm hoping this is all new to me but not really sure, and AMG and discogs didn't help much. As always, thanks in advance!

My Mom has told a story how Adam West, at the height of his Batman fame, hit on her in a Chicago hotel. I guess now that he's gone I should ask her to tell that story again.

Well hope springs eternal: A little over two weeks and the package arrived back in Tampa this morning. Will it make it to Plant City or head on down to Miami again? Stay tuned ...

It's beyond ridiculous. It went in four hours from Tampa to Miami, then a slow boat to China, I mean Flushing. I want to see if it gets on a plane again to get to Tampa now. Funny how it went arrived Flushing - departed Flushing in a minute's time. I guess someone looked at it and said "whoops!" and got it moving in hopefully the right direction. The shipper is a record dealer in France, and get this, prior to this tracking update, he refused any refund until the French PO acts on his claim. Uh, sorry buddy but you got my money its not dependent on what your Post Office does. That part aggravated me almost as much as the PO has.

My God, it exists. Miami to Flushing NY in two weeks. There aren't enough of these in the universe to express my feelings right now. Wonder if it will come down to Tampa again, and then head on back to Miami for another loop-de-loop.

The rules are not new. Y'all have just gotten away with breaking them with impunity for a long time. I'd recommend to the mods that political cartoons are political speech and as such should also be disallowed. Just because it doesn't really lead to political discussion doesn't make it any less political.

I got the rest of the new Black & Blue releases that way.

Fans of Sweets Edison, and/or fans of the Black & Blue "Midnight Slows" releases need to be aware of this new release out a short time ago. Seems that in 1978 Sweets went into the studio with Bill Doggett on organ, Milt Hinton and Oliver Jackson for an ill-fated session of romantic standards. The Midnight Slows series was losing steam and this session was shelved until now. An unfortunate decision as it is easily the best of these dates, IMO. Sweets sounds fabulous, start to finish. If you like Sweets, pounce!

Jim Snidero?

What about Eddie's assertion it was pretty much a junkie band? Was Wayne a user at this time? Higgins communicated with me after the interview and was wavering on whether he wanted that part used - which put me in the awkward position of being unwilling to give a subject post-facto rights to clear the material. I was going to have to tell him that he had to tell me at the time what was 'off the record'. Eventually he relented anyway but it left me wondering, was he concerned about Wayne taking exception to the implication that it was a junkie band, if that wasn't true about him personally?

Despite his last name, I guess he didn't win any Ladies Home Journal awards.

Sorry should have copied and pasted the start of that section of questioning. Q: What was the reception you got when Lee Morgan, Clifford Jordan, Blakey, and Art Davis joined you in the Vee Jay studio? (1960.) Did they know who you were at that point? A: Yeah, they did. At that point I'd been at the London House for 3-1/2 years (spring ‘57 to Oct. ‘60) and so my name had gotten around a little bit. So they had an idea as to who I was. And that was a nice record date, too. I think. Probably my reputation in the world of jazz has been more enhanced by those two dates that I did with Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter, than any other recordings I've made, cause they got quite a lot of play and people knew about them. Q: And you say that afterwards, Art Blakey offered you the piano chair A: With the Messengers, yeah he did.

When I interviewed Eddie Higgins the biggest "scoop" of that afternoon spent in his company was that Blakey offered him a job and his reason not to take it was ... interesting. A: Well, I didn't turn him down right on the spot, I just said let me think about it and I'll call you tomorrow. And I went home and told my wife. She said, What do you think? And I said, Well I've been giving it some thought and there is one huge plus and a lot of negatives. I said the huge plus was obvious. Getting the piano job with the Jazz Messengers will immediately put me on the map in the world of jazz and I'll be traveling all over between the States and Japan and Europe and working in the top jazz clubs and making recordings for this band and all that stuff and that's a huge plus, no question about it. Now we come to the negatives (laughs). First of all I've got a great job here in Chicago at the London House and my kids were very little at that point, they were about six and four years old. And the idea of being on the road all the time and not seeing my children grow up is a negative. Number two, this is pretty much an all-junkie band and I'm not only not a junkie, I don't even drink or smoke or (laughs) or smoke pot or anything at all, I'm about as straight as you can get and still be a jazz musician. And I would be out of the loop as far as the social life of the band plus the fact that I'd be the only white guy in the band, and at that particular time in jazz history there was a very strong Crow Jim feeling that if you're white you couldn't play. And obviously they knew I could play or I wouldn't be on these record dates or asked to join the band but still there'd be a, a definite racial bridge to cross there working with the Jazz Messengers and playing in probably mostly black clubs for mostly black audiences and so forth. And third, I heard by the grapevine that when payday came the first guy that got the money was the connection for the heroin and not just Blakey but the rest of the band, too, and if there's any money left over then they pay the hotel bill and, and if there's anything left over from that then maybe the guys will get a few bucks. And, I had a family, and I had overhead, I had rent to pay, and insurance payments, and you know, I had enough to make every month and I was doing OK, I wasn't making a million bucks at the London House but at least I had a steady job and I was getting paid every week. And that would put me in a very kind of a fancy financial situation. If I was living on the road and being away from my family I'd, I'd have no idea how much money I'd be sending home or even if I'd be sending home anything (laughs)! And so it just seemed to me the negatives outweighed the one big positive. So I called him up the next day and I said, I'm very honored to to join the Messengers and I'll never forget it, and all my friends will probably think I'm crazy but I'm going to say no.' And he said, You're kidding. I said, No, I mean it. And I said, I can go into the reasons if you want but I don't think they'd accomplish anything except to make you upset so, I'll just say no'. And he said, You'll be sorry.

Had my eye on that after Horace Parlan died and pulled the trigger with a discogs seller this past weekend. Now that I know Paul likes it I am sure I will too ...