Bill Nelson

Would like to buy Modern Jazz Society but must first ask: still Paypal only? No cash or money orders?

As The Turbanator, I seem to have killed this clambake. Anyplace I Hang My Fez is Home. It's My Fez and I'll Cry If I Want To. I don't want to spoil the turban, so I'll go.

Just be glad your theater seat wasn't directly behind Lonnie's 'T'. Personally, I prefer a fez -- it's sporty, portable, and can get you into Shriner's events. Also, unlike the turban, the fez has crept its way into the Great American Songbook: 'I've Grown Accustomed To Your Fez' 'The Surrey With the Fez On Top' 'There Is No Greater Fez' 'The Shadow of Your Fez' 'Let's Fez the Music and Dance'

Let's face it -- there's a slew of record industry holdovers from previous decades who are still Grammy voters. A recording engineer and Grammy-voter recently admitted to me,"I don't know 90% of the nominees on the ballots."

Here's a track Van DePitte wrote and arranged. It only appears on the 'Let's Get It On' Deluxe Edition. It's much closer to one of his charts for 'What's Going On' but Mr. Gordy calls the shots. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iymz8f0yoFM

Seven years after the Summer of Love and you're in for a treat. Check the vocal chorus outro during the last 30 seconds. An homage to Bill Holman and Bones Howe?

If Miami signs Pujols and he gets injured again, maybe his contract will be 'retractable' like the roof.

Birthday tidings from your neighbor 60 miles to the east. When your new Afro-Klezmer CD is finished, please tour and play Athens!

I can hear Andy saying to St. Peter,"Did you ever wonder why...", and then reeling off a spiel of ponderables.

'OK, Billy' is just that ... OK. It's a TV studio band performing workmanlike charts. Nothing blazing here. When it came in as a promo, I found one or two passable tracks to spin on my FM jazz show.

In the words of 'Dandy' Don Meredith,"Turn out the lights, the party's over." Over for Detroit.

"I am not a number, I am a free man." And besides, they don't allow no honking sax in The Village.

One of the great CTI releases. 'Great Gorge' is a track best known by beat-heads. The buzz is justified, given the 11:43 of smoldering rhythm by Clarke and DeJohnette. Caveat: the Pete Turner photo montage is my nominee for CTI's most 'WTF' album cover.

Well spotted -- they airbrushed his cigarette along with his pussy.

For starters, I'd begin with the publicist. By passing along such a shoddy imprint, this publicist hardly repped the client.

Freddie Mercury Melina Mercouri Del McCoury

In my foraging of the last two years, Verve Elites have been hard to find. Collector/dealers in the know ask $30-50. Among the unaware, Verve Elites rank with the worst CD digi-paks ever made. "Got five dollars? Buddy, it's yours. Could hardly get the disc out of the tight pocket."

They say your crib has become Carl's Diggins New House of Jazz and Blues. Me and the fellas are headed over to celebrate and get some slabs. HBD!

One of my favorite pickers. Eugene Chadbourne? One night in '83 he played his eletric garden rake for the seven of us in Athens' 40 Watt Club.

Dept. of Uncertainty and Scowling on this German E-Z Miracle Thang track from 'Snowflakes': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DLRcwUQBLM track by Martin Bottcher, 'Fiesta in Belo Horizonte':

Yes, I'm still waiting on TTK's 'go ahead' and mailing address. It was around '97 that the first E-Z 'German economic miracle' CDs appeared at the Dusty Bards. 'Snowflakes' was the best-of MPS and there were several others on Germany's Motor Music label. The sound and production values are lush and uniformally excellent. Now they're all OOP and getting pricey.

Mine plays normally -- no pressing hiss or lite crackles. Spaces between tracks are silent. There's a 2-inch high 'D.J.' stamped in blue on the back cover. The vinyl was pressed at Sterling. If I'd sent away for my Steve Hoffman decoder ring, I'd know what the initials on the trail-out grooves signify. Given the brief run of Ampex Records from 1970-71 and its takeover by Albert Grossman and Bearsville*, the control of Ampex master tapes and warehouse product became shakey. *esp. Todd Rundgren's 'Runt' which got widely counterfeited

Gotta ask what led you at 2 am. to a curbside barrel which you stuck your arm in and pulled out soiled nappys in the expectation of finding vinyl underneath. Were you tipped off or led by an invisible hand? Your story ranks in the pantheon of record hunting.

I'll be able to assist you, as I understand the need for your MPS vocal fix. First, let me Tease the Korean by asking: was the 'Snowflakes' disc somehow lost during the bacchanalia of your previous 'fondue fling'?

Miff Mole -- garden pest or skin disease?