Don Brown

Willie Smith, alto saxophone and clarinet Willie "The Lion" Smith, piano Willie "Big Eye" Smith, drums

Over the past two days I've watched all twelve episodes of Boardwalk Empire - Season Two. I found it stunning. Both the actors and the writing left the majority of television series in the dust.

I find it difficult to believe that there are people in the U.S. willing to wait so long to see their doctor. I live in Canada where we have what many people in the States refer to as "socialized medicine" and I've never had to wait any longer than 20 minutes. If I had to wait longer than that I'd probably resort to what Chuck Nessa suggested and pee on the floor. Medicare works folks. Just ask anyone who posts here from outside of the the United States.

Three sightings I remember occurred in New York in 1965. Walking up 7th Avenue one evening my wife and I looked into an almost empty diner and spotted Paul Gonsalves sitting at a table with his very beautiful wife and their two children. It was a nice domestic scene. Earlier that day while grabbing a hamburger for lunch, I was idly watching passersby through the front window of the lunch counter and saw Frank Foster and some other musicians walking down the street. Then, on the same trip, while browsing through records in Sam Goody's, I saw Russell Procope at the cash buying a copy of Louis' Hello Dolly.

Both albums are excellent, Larry. I bought them when they first came out on Storyville. Karl-Emil Knudsen was responsible for their release.

Just wondering Chuck, does the name Nessa mean something like so many family names?

Art School Confidential was based on comics written and drawn by Daniel Clowes who also wrote the screenplay for Terry Zwigoff's film. Earlier, the two men collaborated on Ghost World, which is also based on Clowes's comics. If you enjoyed Art School Confidential you should certainly check out Ghost World.

Jazztrain is correct. I have a copy of that French issue.

Yes, Chuck's right about Such Sweet Thunder. It really needs correcting. The last time it came out on CD in the U.S. Phil Schaap screwed up and used an alternate take of "Up and Down, Up and Down". His error cost us the original wonderful ending with Clark Terry's muted trumpet voicing Shakespeare's immortal line, "What fools these mortals be". Now, even the European bootleggers use Schaap's incorrect version when they rip off this album.

Happy birthday, Lon. The music will keep you young. Trust me, my friend, I know it works.

I had three Sun Ra LPs that didn't have writing on them but they sure had a "personal" touch. In the late 1960s, when the intergalactic bandleader was playing the first of two engagements at the Horseshoe Tavern, a country and western bar here in Toronto, the guys in his Arkestra were selling LPs of the band's live recordings. One of the baritone players (not Pat Patrick) was hand-coloring the artwork on the LP jackets before the music began. I remember there were three different albums. When I said I'd take one of each, he told me, "OK, but you'll have to wait until I finish coloring them". Talk about unique - every album sold was slightly different from every other. Rather like the hand silk-screened Albert Ayler ESP album - Spiritual Unity.

I have two daughters, now in their 40s, who loved much of the jazz I played in the house when they were very young. The older one still idolizes Ivie Anderson and Billie Holiday and is a stone Lester Young fan. The younger one also likes Billie but her favourite instrumentalists are Ben Webster and Dexter Gordon. Harry Edison's Verve album, Sweets, which features Ben, is always near her CD player. I think she got into Dexter later, probably through the 'Round Midnight film. She found him charming. When they were around six and eight, both girls claimed to violently dislike Albert Ayler but every time I put on Ayler's first ESP LP, Spiritual Unity, they'd both be up dancing as soon as Ghosts began playing.

Can't help wondering whether or not impossible's three-year old son enjoyed Roscoe's music. In all likelihood he did. I love the way youngsters can be so open to sounds they've not heard before.

Wardell and Dolores Gray Bud and Eleanor Powell

Pee Wee Russell Tiny Parham Big Sid Catlett Big Miller Sir Charles Thompson Sir Roland Hanna Slide Hampton Tricky Lofton Speed Webb Dollar Brand aka Abdullah Ibrahim Red Allen Red Richards Red Kelly Alton 'Slim' Moore Big Chief Russell Moore and then, of course, there's Bullmoose Jackson who had great jazzmen like Tadd Dameron, Clifford Brown, Benny Golson and Philly Joe Jones in his band in the the mid 1950s

Jelly Roll Morton Baby Dodds Robert Nighthawk Cripple Clarence Lofton Blind Lemon Jefferson Mutt Carey Lockjaw Davis Maurice Kalaparusha McIntyre Little Willie Smith Baby Lawrence Sweets Edison Lucky Thompson Lucky Millinder Fats Waller Fats Domino Snake Hips Tucker Sweet Mama Stringbean Eric Dolphy

Shafi Hadi Lonesome Dragon Yusef Lateef Pharoah Sanders Little Brother Montgomery Sweet Emma Barrett Philly Joe Jones Willie 'The Lion' Smith Meade Lux Lewis Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson

Zoot Sims Lightnin' Hopkins Muddy Waters Howlin' Wolf Toots Mondello Mousey Alexander Tricky Sam Nanton Bunny Berigan

Irving Fazola, who'd had his name legally changed from Irving Prestopnick Buddy Featherstonhaugh (pronounced in England as Fanshaw) Slam Stewart Bam Brown Ziggy Elman Alcide 'Slow Drag' Pavageau Tadd Dameron Budd Johnson Sun Ra T-Bone Walker Ornette Coleman Arnett Cobb

Disc 7 from the Coleman Hawkins Mosaic box. Just listened to what's always been my very favorite Coleman Hawkins recording, The Man I Love, originally on Signature. I had this one on a 12 inch 78 pressing that I played until it turned gray.

I've just realized I'm mixing up the Symphony Hall concert with the earlier Town Hall concert. So perhaps the French RCA of the Town Hall concert does contain all the missing titles. But no matter, the Symphony Hall concert was a great one as well so I'm really looking forward to this complete edition. The thought of more Big Sid Catlett has my mouth watering.

It will be great to get the truly complete version of this great concert. I have the French RCA Jazz Tribune set which has quite a few additional titles but now we know that even that issue did not contain everything that was recorded that evening.

It seems people with African ancestry "do the dozens" wherever they were born. My wife is from Trinidad and it's always amusing to watch and listen whenever her brothers and cousins and other Trinidadians end up together in the same room. The good-natured insults that get exchanged are often much funnier than some of the stuff we pay money to hear. The Trinis don't use the term "dozens" though. They call this type of verbal sparring "fati",which I would guess comes from fatigue. The manner in which they wear each other down can certainly be fatiguing. The custom strikes me as being a really healthy outlet and, if anything, seems to cement relationships between the participants.

I received my copy of this set this afternoon and flipping through the booklet to look at the pictures I noticed pictures being repeated. Turns out my copy of the booklet is missing pages 7 to 12 and 37 to 42. In their place I got duplicates of pages 19 to 24 and 25 to 30. Anyone else have this problem?

Tadd Dameron's A Study in Dameronia, originally a ten-inch Prestige LP. However, the four long pieces by Dameron nearly always get reissued under Clifford Brown's name. This was one of Brown's earliest record dates, and he's simply marvelous on it, but people tend to overlook the fact that it was Dameron's date, Dameron's music and arrangements, and one of Dameron's finest recording sessions. Sadly, Tadd Dameron pretty much gets overlooked these days. The man who "brought beauty to bebop" deserves much better.