Dan Gould

I contacted Gene Harris' widow, Janie and she shared with me a photo of the group. When I created a CDR case, I added the caption. I've also uploaded a pic of the other side.

Guess you missed this the first time around, but I'm happy to tell the story again as I'm sure there are others who weren't here when I first posted about it. In 2005 I found on eBay an acetate 78 with handwritten label, a Four Sounds demo recording. I nearly crapped my pants but luckily, either no one else understood its significance or no one else cared. I won it for a quarter. The first saxophonist was brought into the group by Andy Simpkins and he gave the band its name. Recollections vary about why Lonnie "The Sound" Walker was fired. While Gene Harris told his wife that Walker kept a gun in his saxophone case and wasn't afraid to wave it around if a club owner wasn't forthcoming with the cash, Bill Dowdy told me that Lonnie was a limited R&B player and the group wanted to play more modern jazz so they showed him the door. Ironic that they adopted his nickname for the group name, fired him, and then achieved success while Lonnie Walker was forgotten - and no one knew what he sounded like until I found this priceless artifact. Here are the two sides of the demo recording: http://www.divshare.com/download/10984566-5b4 http://www.divshare.com/download/10984578-6d0

There is a difference between getting the chance to play and actually deserving the opportunity. A big part of Cabrera getting the chance to start was predicated on the realization that Damon couldn't play CF anymore, and even then, Cabrera was optioned to the minor leagues in 2008 because his numbers were so bad and the team felt he needed a wake up call. He lost his starting position to Brett Gardner last spring, only to take it back due to the fact that Gardner couldn't hack it (and still can't). Since his promotion to the majors, the debate in Yankee Land has been whether Cabrera is a major league starter or a career fourth outfielder. And everybody I know recognized him as a fourth outfielder and were thrilled when the Yankees got Granderson and ecstatic when they got Vasquez for Cabrera.

On the one hand you couldn't script it any better but on the other, let's be honest, that home run swing isn't nearly as pretty as Junior's. OK, he's mighty impressive, and in fact, while I didn't post my predictions, I think the Braves have a great shot at the wild card and possibly the division if everything falls into place ... until I saw Melky Cabrera leading off. What the fuck is the matter with Bobby Cox? He doesn't have a single solitary option for leadoff better than Melky and his .330 career OBP? The man is a lifetime 4th outfielder, but he's leading off for the Braves. Pathetic.

You in the general business of making predictions based on one game? Beckett had no command on the fastball and no feel for his curve or his change. You expect him to get hammered, and he was. That doesn't mean he's falling apart. His ERA+ last year was one of the best of his career, and he set a personal high in innings pitched. And I don't think the Red Sox are terribly worried because they've just signed him to a four year / 64 million dollar extension. No word on whether there is injury protection language but I like that they stuck to a four year deal - the deals that were considered his "comps" were Lackey and Burnett getting 5/82 million give or take and obviously the Red Sox did not want to go five years beyond this, his last year of the current contract. So right there, four years minimizes their exposure a bit. And he didn't require some big per-year premium to forgo a fifth year. 4/64 is 17 million a year; Burnett and Lackey are about 16.5.

Thanks for expressing interest, Mark - I wasn't going to do it since no one bothered to respond. So this is for you: http://www.divshare.com/download/10974853-cd2

Looks like our incessant and intrepid traveler is somewhere to the east of the U.S. and just a bit premature in offering birthday wishes to Allen. But oh hell I'll join in early too - Happy Birthday, Allen!

If I understand correctly, the weather is unseasonably warm in Boston this weekend. Hopefully, this will have CC closer to mid-season form. Actually, the very real concern ought to be how Sabathia performed out of the chute in 2008, the first time he went deep into the post-season. He mostly sucked, basically. ERs in his first four starts: 5, 4, 9, 9 which put his season ERA over 13. After that he had a six inning shut out and eight innings of 1 run ball. His first start in May he gave up 4 ERs and his ERA was still well in excess of 7. With the Red Sox and Rays looking pretty tough, can the Yankees survive another shitty April by their one true ace? If it happens, it might make the difference between the division and the wild card, or the wild card and missing the playoffs - though I suspect that flat out missing the playoffs would take a bad few months, or some substantial injuries.

FWIW, Beckett looked about as good as I've ever seen him in the latter half of spring training. The one thing that concerns me is that the Yankees made a big adjustment last year against him - it looked like everybody went to the plate with the plan of hacking at the first fastball they saw, and it really worked. Finally Varitek's love affair with the fastball on the first pitch bit them on the ass. I hope they are ready to make their own adjustment. On the plus side, he has had awesome command of his change up last month. I'd consider working backward from there.

Pretty sure he was retired when I spoke to him five years ago.

Not to mention any understanding why Wins and Losses don't define a pitcher's performance, but that's sort of the baseball equivalent of an Advanced Placement class, and we ought not to expect CA teachers to excel at Advanced Placement Baseball.

It's alright, Chewy, it never occurred to me that only one member of the group might get interviewed, and not the guy I wanted to hear, and with my LP sale, in effect I just traded for this, didn't have a "cash" outlay. And anyway, I have Bill Dowdy's address and phone number, I will send him the recording and a cleaned up transfer.

Without delving into the box scores, I have no idea the significance of having best spring record would be (there's a Globe writer harping about it too). For road games, between the number of starters brought along and how long the starters play, about 1/4 of the playing time might be filled with major league regulars. IMHO, a great spring record is more indicative of an organization that has great talent, top-to-bottom, because the scrubs get an awful lot of game time, and not necessarily against major leaguers. Which is exactly what we knew going into 2010, as the Rays were regarded as one of the top three teams in the best division in the majors, and also as the team with the best collection of prospects. Soriano should be very helpful. But they need better results from DH, a CF who cashes in on his abundant skills, and I think their top two starters both had significant drop-offs from their pennant-winning season.

Well color me disappointed but not grossly perturbed. Its not Don Cherry the jazz artist on side B. No Blue Note spot at the start - what was described as an "old time radio spot" is just their standard open - sfx of a whistle, a car engine, a "cabby" asking "where to" and a request to "take me to the Blue Note studios on 61st St." Guess it wouldn't be Manhattan Melodies if they said "take me to Rudy Van Gelder's in Englewood Cliffs". No Gene Harris or Andy Simpkins, just Bill Dowdy and their business manager for a slightly longer than 2 minute interview segment. There are two tracks from the Bottom's Up LP - I Could Write a Book and Nothing Ever Changes My Love For You, and one Air Force recruitment ad in the middle. So, its neat but not really special (to me - I do plan to send the LP and a CDR to Bill Dowdy, who might get a kick out of hearing his younger self from 50 years ago, and I'll send a transfer to Janie Harris if she wants one). Since we can link media files, would Jim or the Mods object to me linking the interview segment? Obviously I don't want to share the whole thing which has two tunes owned by EMI. But is there any harm to sharing the interview segment from a forgotten Air Force recruiting show?

I'm not 100% sure but I think I saw Bunch backing Scott Hamilton in 1992 or '93 in NYC, a place on the east side, maybe in the 30s or 20s. I do know Bunch appeared on at least a few of Hamilton's early Concord recordings, I plan to dig them out as I think those are the only Bunch recordings I have. The Times has an obit up fast this time.

Its been pointed out too many times: The Yankees, and only the Yankees, have the ability to sign the best available pitcher (7 years/161 million), second best available pitcher (5 years/82.5 million) and best available everyday player (8 years/180 million). 422.5 million dollars committed to three players. More than two full years of a grossly bloated Yankee payroll, to three people. There are more than a few other teams that could compete for any one of those players. No high revenue team could even contemplate signing two of the three. And that's not even considering the fact that only a year earlier, they also signed the largest contract of all time - when they had literally no competition for the player. The Yankees signed all three players - and won 103 games and took the World Series. And Davey, Cott's Contracts tells us that the Yankee's 2009 payroll was but 7.5 million less than 2008. http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2005/01/new-york-yankees_111398168678860040.html God help us all if they realize that Brett Gardner is a AAAA player and Randy Wynn is no great shakes and they really should have just paid Damon. God only knows where the payroll would go in 2011.

Worked great the season before last; if they didn't have 442 million dollars to spend on three players, it would have worked out last year too.

Don't need the computer to tell me that all three East teams will be better than the number two Central team and almost certainly better than the number one Central team (or at minimum, the top two East teams will have more wins than the Central champion). Your smart play would be to put TBTMCB in third place (due to injuries or general decrepitude of the critical but aged members) but it seems as though the Central division would have to be a lot better than it looks to produce a wild card.

Ah, but what if I have found peaceful contentment in all things baseball (and board) related? Hate to disappoint but I don't plan on any cursing, creative or otherwise. Feel free to set an over/under of about 9 PM Sunday night, or the first gopher ball Beckett gives up, but that's my approach to the nation's pastime, as far as the board is concerned. And anyway, its Tazawa's pending Tommy John surgery that is most disconcerting injury to date. I think they want Bonser in the bullpen (and I know they can't send him to Pawtucket to be a starter without passing him through waivers) so aside from Wakefield/Dice-K, there's only Bowden at AAA to get the call if anyone gets hurt or there's a need for a spot starter. On the other hand, if the reason Tazawa was at about 86-87 is a bad elbow, maybe there's hope he can reach the majors with a fastball that can reach 90. Matthew - what makes you think that second best team in the AL Central will have enough wins to beat out number two in the East? I know the argument that the East will beat up on each other, but its the same way in the Central - no team will dominate, just a mix of wins/losses befitting a division of mediocrity. So if the East teams beat up on the rest of the league, more or less, how do you come out with the central second place team having the wins? I'd really like to know what your assumed win totals are. Eric's link to the various projections almost all agree that the east teams are 90+ wins and the central teams are mid-80s. It just makes no sense to think that a Central division team can come out with the wild card.

Ah - completely forgot there were Pacific Jazz reissues without the "West Coast Classic" imprint.

I thought it was in the West Coast Classics series.

Funny, that's a favorite bass of mine.

Glad to hear the prognosis is so encouraging. Add in the healing effects of good jazz and you should be good to go before you know it.

I was going to say, I used dish detergent and a toothbrush to clean up the Four Sounds 78 acetate demo.

That's sacred music in my house. Dad used to be VP and General Sales Manager of Taft-Hanna Barbera Program Sales.