Kevin Bresnahan

I've sent an e-mail to Joe Harley, who is my only contact there these days. Hopefully he can do something but it's very very unlikely since they are advertising its availability already. I'm sure it's way past the point where they could add these two tracks. For the past several years, I've tried e-mailing Blue Note's corporate offices many times using Email addresses Michael Cuscuna gave me but no one seems to be reading those E-mails or, if they are, they are simply deleting them... or they have a directive, "If that asshole Bresnahan E-mails, be sure to delete it". It really makes me miss when Cuscuna & Tom Evered were running the reissue program. They were extremely accessible and rarely ignored a valid question. Michael also acknowledged his mistakes and almost always fixed them.

Michael Cuscuna & I talked about these two tracks before the 2-CD set came out. He said that they weren't in the Mosaic box due to an oversight on his part. He believed that they should have been included. When the second release came out without them, I got the feeling that someone goofed when they pulled the master tapes for Ron McMaster and simply duplicated the songs on the Mosaic but Michael never flat-out said that. He never named names when there was a mistake like this, unless it was his fault. The thing about these two tracks was that while they made were for a 45 rpm release, they were cut the first day in RVG's new recording studio and not with any other tunes. That sort of "orphaned" them from the rest of the 45 rpm sessions.

The new reissue is the same as the double CD. Just a different cover. The track order is the same for disc 1, shuffled a bit for disc 2: CD1 1. A Light Reprieve 2. Buzzard Lope 3. Blue Monday 4. Zonky 5. Later For The Rock 6. Sweet And Lovely 7. Dear John 8. Blue Friday 9. Everything Happens To Me [Short Version] 10. Mardi Gras 11. What A Difference A Day Makes 12. For All We Know 13. Ill Wind CD2 1. If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight) 2. I've Got The World On A String 3. Me 'N Mabe 4. Everything Happens To Me [Long Version] 5. How Long Has This Been Going On 6. With A Song In My Heart 7. Imagination 8. What Is There To Say? 9. There Is No Greater Love 10. All Of Me 11. Intermezzo 12. But Not For Me 13. All The Way

I've been waiting for this compilation to be released again so that Blue Note could finally rectify the missing last two tracks from these sessions ("Cry Me A River" & "Uptght"), which have only been released on a rare Japanese CD titled, "From Hackensack to Englewood Cliffs". Michael Cuscuna once told me that they missed those two tracks when he did the Mosaic box in 1987 and again when they re-did it for the Connoisseur 2CD release in 2005 but that he would try to get them out in the future. Looks like they missed them again. To be honest, I think the 2005 2-CD Connoisseur set was supposed to have these two tracks but someone screwed up during the mastering process and no one pulled that master.

It's very good. I picked it up the minute I saw Ammons' name on it. I got the 1993 Vee Jay CD with bonus tracks.

Blue Note released several LPs from that concert (Bobby Hutcherson, Bobbi Humphrey, Marlena Shaw & Ronnie Foster), so they more than made up for any recording costs. The fact that Byrd's performance was the only one not released at the time speaks to the label listening to the artists even back then. It's not like them keeping it in the can was good for Byrd's wallet. Here's what Michael Cuscuna said to me about this when someone on the Steve Hoffman forums questioned why he didn't release it himself: MC: Reality check: This was the only Montreux performance from that Blue Note night on July 5, 1973 to remain unissued in all territories. I asked Donald why and he said that like other live recordings he tried in the States, the results never reached the level of production and perfection that the original studio tracks did. He said it wasn’t successful and did not want it out. In those days, getting studio time to mix down multi track tapes – especially on speculation – was rarely approved. Fast forward to Don Was’s era as Blue Note president. From his vantage point, there isn’t much unreleased, but he liked to find whatever he can. The Byrd Montreux tape was a revelation – not as slick or perfect as a Mizell Bros. production, but cookin’ in a great groove nonetheless. So Don released it and we’re all happy about that. Why this is some indictment of me and the assumption is that this album would have sold hundreds of thousands more copies than anything else at that time are fictions that I can’t grasp.

The "Just Coolin'" release is the one that really bugs me too. This session was widely distributed through back channels for years & years... decades even. I don't think I knew of any Blakey fan who didn't have it. I even had someone send Michael Cuscuna his "mastering" take on an CD sequence but Michael wouldn't budge that it was not worthy of being released. Michael often talked to the artists about sessions like this and for all we know, Blakey himself might not have wanted that session released. I know that Donald Byrd specifically did not want those Montreux recordings released, but we see what artists' desires mean to today's Blue Note reissue team.

I like a lot of the stuff Zev has gotten issued. What I don't like about some of the things I've heard about him is that he (or those who know him) calls himself the "Jazz Detective", implying that he discovers these sessions that no one else found and puts them out. This is not always the case. Just because something has only been circulating via bootleg tapes doesn't mean that it was "lost" before he heard it.

Pringles is odd but Boulder Canyon is just weird.

I have a live date recorded in Cortland from around this time and it smokes. The drummer of the session has been telling me for years that he's going to release it officially but it's beginning to look like that isn't happening.

Yeah, but "more people", in this case, is likely going to be the flippers/hoarders. Many of these new Muse LPs will never be opened and will sell from collector to collector in that condition. I'm betting that a lot of these will not be bought for the music.

I stopped buying new expensive vinyl a few years ago. I just can't hear the benefit to them any more. It's gotten to the point where if I have it on CD, and I have a lot of CDs, I usually skip the vinyl version. And to be honest, I've had a lot of problems with these newer LPs. Warps, underfill, cuts too hot for my setup, warbling piano, etc.

I don't think I've heard any of Richard Davis' Muse LPs. I keep meaning to, but never go the extra step of acquiring any. Are they worth shelling out the money? I doubt I'd like "As One" very much.

Supposedly Carmell Jones was heckled before (during?) the show and his playing was adversely affected. Michael Cuscuna gave the masters to Horace so there is a chance that they're out there somewhere. If someone knows Horace's son Gregory, maybe he has them... although I did read somewhere that Gregory may have also passed.