Bill Nelson

Tiny Bradshaw Tiny Grimes Tiny Parham

Thirty years later, I'm gald I'm bald! ("At least you have your health.")

Yosemite Sam goes to a gun shop and gets fingerprinted along with a criminal background check -- and is denied service..

Damn Jim, you coulda played me for a sucker by laying bets on who sang the original of 'Betcha By Golly, Wow'. Ain't nobody gonna guess 'Connie Stevens'. And listen to those French horns 'ska-weee' each time the melody and verse lands on "wow". Still, I must say Miss Connie is no match for Russell Thompkins, Jr.'s lilting, graceful falsetto. For that matter, nobody was.

Exactly. For myself, it's a guilty pleasure just to gauge the 'differential' imposed by changing market conditions, record label expectations, and desired target audience. Also, when it comes to playing CDs in my car, grooving to lighter-grade albums suits the horizontal plane of the road ahead because they're less demanding (vertical). Among my auto-faves are 'Black Byrd', Idris M's 'Power of Soul', and most anything by the Crusaders.

NP: Farlow disc 6 is playing clean and clear (from U.S. Mosaic # 529).

With pleasure, I can confirm the 'SLB' soundtrack is "as anti-Hollywood as it can get". It's quality jazz all the way, dispensing with the obligatory 'love theme' vocal (usually on side 1, track 1 or 2). With George Coleman credited on alto sax, I can 'get' the similarity to Charles McPherson when there's strong bebop blowing. (Charles Davis is credited on tenor.) You may still be able to find this album cheaply. While visiting Charleston in tourist mode with my wife (serious record hunting eliminated), I was permitted entry into a 'fine quality' used book store. "Well looky here," I said upon noticing they also carried about 500 LPs on the side. The jazz bins were a bust, with mostly Pete Fountain and Earl Grant, which shifted my digging to 'Soundtracks'. There it was -- a sealed mono copy of 'Sweet Love Bitter' (cut-out with a jacket corner hole punch) -- with a $5 tag. Record Search Tip: in some antique consignment and used book venues without a resident wiseguy/record shark, the tendency is to price LPs 'high enough' in lieu of an eBay search. Also, there may still be a reliance on price guides by Jerry Osborne and Goldmine from years back "just so we don't make a mistake" -- a legacy bargain if they're pricing Blue Note albums. Example: in the last 'official' price guide for movie and TV soundtracks (Jerry Osborne, 1997), the top values for 'Sweet Love Bitter;' are $10-12 in mono and $12-15 in stereo. "At my store, I go with this here price guide." "Hey pops, no problem!"

Mandy's Maxim for Young Achievers: "My life has been one long descent into respectability."

This one's so cloying, I'll bastardize it as: 'Do You Smell What I Smell?'

Wild Bill Davison Wild Man Fischer Wild Magnolias

Along with his blindfold, perhaps Noj's handcuffs are too tight and his gag is keeping him quiet. (Who knew the rules of the game would be so strict?)

The first single I bought was 'Just Like Me'. Ya gotta love Paul Revere's greezy keyboard. Played that 45 until the grooves turned white. As a neo-garage punk band, the image of PR & The Raider's colonial outfits made them acceptable to Middle America and got them a TV variety show on ABC. Have to thank Terry Melcher and their handlers for that.

Florence Henderson Phlorescent Leech Cloris Leachman

Same here. I'm stumped and don't know where to go. Could this be an early symptom of Topic Thread Exhaustion ? How about 'Album Covers of Interesting Infections'.

On too many occasions I'll buy a ticket for a club performance directly from their sidewalk ticket window and pay with cash. After 30 minutes to park ($2) and walking to the window, the minion inside informs me "there'll be a $5 per ticket convenience charge". WTF? Hey, I'm the one being inconvenienced, not you, squirt!

For a former 'teen star' who hit it big for five or six years until drifting downward, Astrud looks fa-aab-ulous at 48. There are moments her pitch teeters ever so slightly but she never leaves the rails. Glad to see her 'on form'. .

For those of us who don't already own the movie, please give us a clue re: Jimmy's cameo one-line. Clue #1 - is it one syllable ("Damn!") or two (Shee-it!"). Clue #2 - is the effect of this 'word' enough to ensure Chet Kincaid goes to hell or, at least, can look forward to the trip?

By upgrading Burton's RCA albums with Japanese CDs, y'all will bypass the warp and wobble of RCA's Dynaflex pressings -- the thinnest vinyl of the 20th century. If the Dynagroove process of the mid-1960's wasn't bad enough, RCA's Dynaflex pressings easily surpassed it as the worst patent adopted by a major U.S. record company. The hardly-deep grooves produced a discernible low 'rumble' during quiet passages on all of Burton's RCA output.

The cub reporter has leaked some of the notes from his interview: "Putting my questions to Mr. Nessa was like addressing an elaborately wired security system. "The man is an enigma -- answering my queries with a parable or posing a riddle.

Call me jaded or world weary -- but this 800+ album prospect overwhelms me with inertia.

While I was Music Director at my college radio station (WRIU-FM) in the 70's, we received a flood of promo LPs from ABC/Impulse and Arista produced by Steve Backer*. Most of these albums were cutting-edge, free jazz that were all the more amazing coming from a major label. "Whoever this Backer guy is, he's got insight and chutzpah." I'd say 95% of them got added to our station's jazz library. By shipping to so many college stations, Steve Backer helped open-up the minds of an emerging generation. * with creds to Ed Michel for his fine jazz productions at ABC/Impulse

Yes, the 'Sunday, Monday,Always' on my Rhino U.S. 'Handmade' is in stereo thru 2:42 when the strings pause briefly... then there's a shift/splice to a mono track for the remaining 45 seconds. This song is so lame, the ending doesn't bother me (if it ever did).

As Dave so aptly put it just prior to his announcement: "You know, people always ask me, "Hey Dave, when you gonna call it quits?" And my usual reply goes, "When it stops being fun -- I'll keep doing it another ten years." Thanks Dave, for making us suffer nine 'un-fun' years of your boorish and rude self -- plus one more.

Erratum to my above post: the version of 'East Side, West Side' I said "appears on Side 2 of the 'Sound of Feeling'" is a different track, 'The Sidewalks of New York'. 'Sidewalks' should've been included on 'Jazzhattan Suite' (Verve V6-8731) but was instead added to fill the above 'Sound of Feeling', Verve V6-8743. Also of interest: Vinyl copies of 'Jazzhattan Suite' had a small, oval yellow sticker applied to the front jacket: "Music Conducted by Joe Newman", which makes one wonder who insisted.

Let me add Phil Moore's 'New York Sweet' (Mercury SR-60783) from 1962 to the above jazzy interpretations of Gotham. Back to TTK's query about Oliver Nelson's 'Jazzhattan Suite' -- yes, five of six tracks were included in Verve's 'Jazz Masters #48 'Oliver Nelson' CD: 'A Typical Day in New York', 'Penthouse Dawn', 'One For Duke', and 'Complex City'. ('East Side, West Side' gets a 6:28 version versus the 4:10 on vinyl.) It also appears on Side 2 of 'The Sound of Feeling' (Verve V6-8743) with a running time of 5:45, so pick your take.